Megamind: Oh you're a villain, all right. Just not a super one.
Tighten: Yeah? What's the difference?
Megamind: PRESENTATION!
Megamind
And now, we present Marvel Comics Sidewinder in his original costume, and MCU Sidewinder in his uniform from Brave New World.
With the quote from Megamind in mind, I think it's more than obvious that only one of these people qualifies as a super villain.
- Sid
We share the same world, don't we? This world you would die to save.
Samuel Sterns, Captain America: Brave New World
Today Karli and I saw the new MCU Captain America film, Brave New World on the big IMAX screen at Silver City.
It's not bad.
Which is interesting, because there certainly seems to be a public perception that it is at least somewhat bad, as per its 49% Critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the 79% Audience score suggests that the people who have seen the movie enjoyed it.
Personally, I found it to be a perfectly acceptable piece of Sunday afternoon entertainment. The performances are good - Anthony Mackie in particular does well in presenting the challenges of taking on the iconic mantle of Captain America - the action scenes are well choreographed, there are some tense dramatic moments, and I was amused to see Liv Tyler make an unexpected and long-overdue return to the MCU,
Was it perfect? Of course not. There were certainly things I'd change about the film: I would have enjoyed more of a focus on the political thriller aspects of the story, Timothy Blake Nelson's Leader* is massively underutilized as a villain, and I did struggle a bit with Harrison Ford as the new General/President Ross, but overall I found it to be suitably watchable.
However, I probably bring a different perspective to the MCU experience, based on decades of comic book reading. Some reviewers complain that the film panders to fans with too many Easter eggs, but that description of the movie's multiple references ignores the fundamental nature of the Marvel Comics Universe.
Ultimately, the MCU is a single ongoing storyline**, in the same way that the original Marvel Comics continuity is. Nothing happens in a vacuum: the Chitauri invasion of New York in The Avengers leads to the events of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thanos' Blip isn't a stand-alone event that simply came and went over the course of two Avengers movies, it's a historical event that's still being processed in people's minds, with consequences that are continue to echo across the MCU.
Similarly, regardless of its relative success as a movie, the events of Eternals are a part of the MCU timeline, with the discovery of adamantium deposits in the gigantic corpse of Tiamut the alien Celestial creating the potential for a global power struggle for control of this new resource.
Tiamut, Isaiah Bradley, Sidewinder, Red Hulk, Betty Ross, even the Leader - these aren't Easter eggs, they're building blocks from the massive edifice that is the Marvel Comics continuity.
As such, Brave New World's narrative pulls together multiples strings to create a plot that's deeply embedded in the MCU's timeline, a plot which also plants the seeds of future developments in the Marvel universe - and that may be the film's biggest flaw. In many ways it's a transitional film, a bridge to the next chapter in the story by foreshadowing the rebirth of the Avengers.
Ultimately, it may be most accurate to think of Brave New World as being literally a comic book movie: a mid-run issue with some good action, useful character development, and a couple of crucial plot points, but really, the big climax will be in Issue 12.
- Sid
* In fact, I'm not certain he's ever referred to by that name, although there's one moment later in the film where I would have sworn that he said he was the hero. Since I'm reluctant to invest in another showing, now I have to wait until the film's Disney Plus streaming debut to confirm that line. The good news - at least for the purposes of checking dialogue, if not the movie's success - is that if it doesn't perform well at the box office, it will be streaming sooner rather than later.
** For the full breakdown on Marvel Comics and its status as the world's longest continuous story, recommended reading is Douglas Wolks' epic All of the Marvels (I talk a bit about All of the Marvels elsewhere.)
Forgive me, for I have sinned: I nicked a set of the 3D glasses from Disneyland's Star Tours ride. To be honest, I don't feel excessive guilt, I suspect that Disney has them produced by the millions and as such can spare a set or two, but I also suspect that they don't encourage people to view them as free souvenirs.
- Sid
P.S. Okay, fine, I pocketed a set from the Webslingers ride too - because red frames!
Update: I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed to discover that people are selling these glasses for $40 CAD on eBay. My innocent desire for a remembrance of Disneyland happiness is one thing, but fencing them online seems calculated and criminal.
"For those of us who remember the carefree time it recreates, Main Street will bring back happy memories. For younger visitors, it is an adventure in turning back the calendar to the days of their grandfather's youth."
Walt Disney
Around the rocket in four directions spread the little town, green and motionless in the Martian spring. There were white houses and red brick ones, and tall elm trees blowing in the wind, and tall maples and horse chestnuts. And church steeples with golden bells silent in them.
Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
Disneyland's Main Street and its idealized Americana always disturbs me a little bit. When Walt Disney was originally designing the park in the early 1950s, he was inspired by his childhood home near Marceline in Missouri, as well as Disney set designer and artist Harper Goff's Colorado hometown of Fort Collins.
However, 70 years after the park's opening in 1955, Main Street's anachronistic turn of the millennium facade doesn't necessarily evoke a carefree time in the same way.
Part of my disquiet is because it reminds me of April 2000: THE THIRD EXPEDITION*, one of the stories in Ray Bradbury's magnum opus, The Martian Chronicles. The Third Expedition to Mars successfully lands on the Red Planet, only to discover that the nearby community is a perfect evocation of early 20th Century America, an impossible dream composed of wind-up phonographs, ice-cold lemonade, porch swings, fresh-mown grass and white picket fences, inhabited by the crew's beloved long lost relatives and childhood friends. Astonished and overjoyed, the crew abandons their ship to celebrate with their families and friends.
Later, lying in bed in the room he shares with his brother in his parent's house, the ship's captain begins to suspect that something is horribly, horribly wrong:
And here we all are tonight, in various houses, in various beds, with no weapons to protect us, and the rocket lies in the moonlight, empty. And wouldn’t it be horrible and terrifying to discover that all of this was part of some great clever plan by the Martians to divide and conquer us, and kill us? Sometime during the night, perhaps, my brother here on this bed will change form, melt, shift, and become another thing, a terrible thing, a Martian. It would be very simple for him just to turn over in bed and put a knife into my heart. And in all those other houses down the street, a dozen other brothers or fathers suddenly melting away and taking knives and doing things to the unsuspecting, sleeping men of Earth ...
His hands were shaking under the covers. His body was cold. Suddenly it was not a theory. Suddenly he was very afraid.
And when the captain finally tries to act on his suspicions and flee? He never makes it to the door...
- Sid
* Titled Mars is Heaven in its original standalone Planet Stories magazine publication in 1948.
As I've discussed previously, Galaxy's Edge is my favourite part of Disneyland, but sadly, I have some mild concerns regarding Black Spire's longevity. Outside of its immersive environment, Galaxy's Edge has only two ride options: Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance. Rise has certainly remained a popular ride since its Disneyland debut in January of 2020, with wait times frequently reaching 90 to 120 minutes. However, during our 2025 visit, wait times for Smugglers Run rarely rose above five minutes, and I've heard rumours that the local Disney community in Anaheim is a bit done with the ride.
However, I think that there's an opportunity for Smugglers Run to undergo a revival that would be both economically practical by preserving as much of the current infrastructure as possible, but newly exciting for visitors at the same time.
I realize that Galaxy's Edge is set in a very specific time period between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, but what if Disney shifted Smugglers Run back in time to the timeline of A New Hope, when we're first introduced to the Falcon? Instead of doing a cargo raid for the Resistance, you take flight from Mos Eisley after a confrontation with Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett. You evade pursuit by an Imperial Star Destroyer, only to discover that the gigantic sphere in front of you is not a moon...
Briefly pulled aboard the Death Star by tractor beams, you manage to successfully break their hold, escape the hangar, and hyperspace to Yavin 4. Once there, you leave the Falcon, receive a dramatic and emotional briefing from Princess Leia, then board a battered X-wing fighter and head back into space.
There's an acrobatic dogfight with TIE fighters, you fly your ship into the Death Star's equatorial trench, follow Obi-Wan Kenobi's guidance to launch missiles that destroy the battlestation's reactor, and make a triumphant flight back to the rebel base - the end.
The good news is that the existing infrastructure from Smugglers Run remains intact: new animatronics of Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett replace Hondo Ohnaka at the beginning of the ride, and an updated simulation has to be created for the Falcon, but really, that's it for the existing front end. Then, all you need is a conveniently located exit into the newly constructed Rebel base on Yavin 4, which contains a large hangar full of X-Wings, and a flight simulator motion-platform program, none of which would be a challenge for current state-of-the art - and voilà, Smugglers Run is now The Battle of Yavin 4. They would need to figure out some kind of safe and simple gangway system for quick access and egress for the X-Wings, but that's a minor issue.
After formulating the above plan, it occurs to me that the climactic events of The Force Awakens aren't all that different from A New Hope, and it's a lot closer to the existing Galaxy's Edge timeline - it would be just as easy (or hard) to recreate the destruction of Starkiller Base instead of the battle of Yavin-4. Well, who cares, say I. If you ask me, the Death Star battle is iconic, and, no offense to Oscar Isaac, but I'd much rather be Luke Skywalker than Poe Dameron.
- Sid
Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland and Tomorrowland are all conceptual umbrellas for a wide range of source material, which prevents them from being too specific in their overall look. For example, Adventureland hosts attractions based on Indiana Jones and Tarzan, along with the Jungle Cruise, none of which have any connection outside of their shared location, and as such it has to be somewhat generic in its style.
The attention to detail is impressive and effective. Set decorators for the first Star Wars movie referred to the props used for layering and detailing of the film's sets as greebly dressing, and Black Spire Outpost beautifully maintains and extends that original design philosophy throughout the venue.
Even the bathrooms have a rough and ready outpost vibe.
To add to the illusion, Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance both cleverly extend Black Spire's reality with storylines that logically transport guests away from the outpost's location on Batuu for adventures in space, and then returning them to the surface as part of each ride's continuity.**
I have no idea what lies behind the various facades in Black Spire - logic says that there would be real-world storage spaces, dressing rooms for cast members, coffee rooms and lockers, meeting rooms and so on, but in my hopeful imagination all the backstage spaces maintain the Star Wars look and feel from the exteriors. How great would it be to work in an office space that looked like it belonged to Han Solo?
- Sid
* The building in the above photo is a nod to the colony's Disneyland home - the two circles and the beaklike canopy are an abstracted portrait of Donald Duck.
** The strange thing about Radiator Springs is that you walk through the town to get to Radiator Springs Racers, which then duplicates many of the town's landmarks within the ride itself.
"And believe me, I have very little honour to insult."
Hondo Ohnaka, Smugglers Run
- Sid
A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
“He was written in the script as a big, whale-like creature. A massive behemoth – it was called The Behemoth. And in designing the movie – we were done shooting, but we obviously never shot the behemoth cause we were gonna do him later – I just basically was like… we were early enough in the design that was able to shift more to a mystical being. So that’s where we started going Lovecraftian. So I was like alright, [we’re] making Cthulhu here.”
Director William Eubank, Underwater
Whenever I travel, I generally load a few movies onto my iPad, just in case the inflight options leave something to be desired. For this year's trip to Disneyland, one of my entertainment choices was Underwater, the 2020 science fiction horror film starring Kristen Stewart, and I ended up watching it on our flight to Anaheim today.
At the time of its original release, Underwater failed to perform at the box office, with an international gross of $41 million against a budget of about $65 million. Personally, I rather liked the film, in spite of its poor reception - it might not break any new ground in terms of moviemaking, but I appreciated its abruptly disastrous opening scene, the underwater sequences are well shot and surprisingly claustrophobic, it has good art direction, and its little repertoire cast does strong work with a bare-bones plot.
Kristen Stewart brings a lot to the table in terms of acting ability in her portrayal of mournfully defiant mechanical engineer Norah Price - at first I felt that she was slumming a little bit in doing a monster/horror genre film like this, but I can't deny that she doesn't hold back in her performance.
But, all other comments aside, I was completely unaware that Underwater was a Cthulhu Mythos film - the gigantic humanoid monster that dominates the climax of the film is never explicitly identified as H. P. Lovecraft's Great Cthulhu, but in context, it's obvious that it's based on the Great Old One who lies dreaming in R'lyeh. (Thereby making the smaller creatures the Deep Ones from the Mythos.)
However, it's really more of a cameo than a starring role. As far as I know, Lovecraft's short fiction is now in the public domain* - let's stop wasting our time doing horror versions of Winnie the Pooh, isn't it time that someone does the definitive Mythos film that we've all been waiting for?
- Sid
* I have the impression that there's some grey area here legally speaking - Lovecraft's work may be public domain, but there have been enough comics, games, and tributes referencing Cthulhu that there may be some challenges regarding explicit use of the name.
Today I asked the Adobe generative AI for a female longshore worker in coveralls, and to my intense amusement it obligingly created the following image:
Why was I amused? Well, there is always more than one solution to a problem. Presumably at this point, many many MANY users have complained to the AI about hands coming out strangely or with too many fingers. The AI's response? "Damn it, I give up - I'm just going to put her hands in her pockets. I hope you're happy now!"
- Sid
P.S. My wife's response was interestingly different:
"Oh that's awesome! But also scary! It's hiding the thing it knows we know to use to identify it."
https://topatoco.com/collections/oglaf/products/og-craft
In case you missed it earlier, XL, please.
- Sid
(Actually, given that Chris is a fan of both, I honestly don't know which way the coin would fall on this one.)
