Sunday, February 23, 2025

"Next issue: The Avengers Reborn?"

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.)

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Disney 2025: "That's no moon."

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 

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Disney 2025: "You insult my honour!"


"And believe me, I have very little honour to insult."

Hondo Ohnaka, Smugglers Run

 - Sid