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- Officially Rotten: Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ – So Bad Even Positive Reviews are Crummy
- Medical Educational Comic Features the Best Kind of Diversity
- Rapper / Actor Ice Cube Says “Oh Hell No” to Hollywood’s Vaccine Coercion
- Watch: Disney Releases Trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett’
- Comicbook Workers Union: Could Image Become What it Was Created to Oppose?
- Geek Guns Part 25: Gun Safety and the Movies
- Regarding MCU Phase 5: Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts & Nova Films
| Officially Rotten: Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ – So Bad Even Positive Reviews are Crummy Posted: 02 Nov 2021 06:45 AM PDT
Tell us you don’t get Jack Kirby without telling us you don’t get Jack Kirby.
To say that Marvel’s forthcoming Eternals has received unfavorable reviews, would be an understatement. And once you consider all of the elements involved, as a movie with all the hallmarks to be the darling of the “wokest” of critics, even the relatively positive reviews indicate that this film is a complete disaster.
Eternals, which opens in the US this Friday, is the centerpiece of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe refers to as “Phase IV.” The formal premiere of “Phase IV” was Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which is already a box office letdown (only $422 million globally), but Eternals was supposed to be the “big one”, the one with lots of “big” stars, and this $200 million+ production clocks in at 156 minutes, so you know that “it matters.”
Phase IV also apparently marks the beginning of Marvel’s next “woke” age. If you’ve been ignoring entertainment media this week, you may have missed that Eternals boasts a very diverse cast of characters; ethnic minorities, women, and even an LGBT character, and it’s directed by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, an Asian woman. It’s different! It’s inclusive! And once you factor this ticked boxed with the fact that this is a Disney film, you have just the kind of movie that those left-wing critical elites are usually very thirsty to publicly swoon about.
Except, they ain’t exactly swooning over this dud.
Over at the dubious Rotten Tomatoes, Eternals sits at a rotten 59 percent rating. But even the latest Marvel movie’s "positive" reviews seem lackluster.
There’s this from Rolling Stone:
The Hot Gods of 'Eternals' Will Bore You to Death With Their Feelings Yet even when the Eternals fight amongst themselves, they're boring about it. Eternals is so busy showing off what it can do, where it can go, that it bypasses and overlooks what it really has to offer.
And this from the San Francisco Chronicle:
With 'Eternals,' Marvel is scraping the bottom of the barrel […]there's a gay Eternal (Brian Tyree Henry); a deaf Eternal (played by deaf actress Lauren Ridloff); and three Asian Eternals played by Kumail Nanjiani, Don Lee and Gemma Chan. And the inclusion is welcome, which makes "Eternals" a virtuous production. But that's not the same as a good movie.
There are dozens more examples. But what makes this feint praise so stunning is that so many movies and television shows today can usually garner undeserved critical acclaim based only on their woke bonafides or if they supply the approved political message. And furthermore, Disney generally always gets a pass in particular because everyone wants to be liked by the House of Mouse.
That’s never been an affliction we’ve suffered from at Bleeding Fool. But the Disney shills are still out there shamefully defending the film with the last shred of what’s left of their dignity.
Suffice to say, this ain’t good for Disney, and after trashing the Muppets, and destroying the Star Wars brand, their next most valuable asset is also bout to lose its luster as well. And this cancer isn’t just affecting Disney and Marvel. Fatal woke-ness has been consuming many other once popular brands, Wonder Woman, Ghostbusters, Terminator, Men in Black, Birds of Prey, Charlie's Angels and so on, all killed by woke.
What’s next? How about Indiana Jones? Buy physical media, and enjoy the classics, my friend. The post Officially Rotten: Marvel's 'Eternals' – So Bad Even Positive Reviews are Crummy appeared first on Bleeding Fool.  |
| Medical Educational Comic Features the Best Kind of Diversity Posted: 02 Nov 2021 06:15 AM PDT
The Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Foundation has a scientific article about a subject that, as they acknowledge, can be embarrassing to discuss in polite society:
Sounds like an impressive idea. And this educational comic, unlike a lot of the politicized stuff coming out of the mainstream now, is aimed at what constitutes real diversity in audiences:
See, this is the real meaning of diversity – different nationalities and languages, along with countries where this can be marketed. Most publishers today specializing in superhero fare are only interested in skin color and LGBT ideology (and the only religion they consider valid is Islam), not ethnicity/nationality, and they don’t even respect any foreign nation’s most positive cultural aspects. The path the doctor who conceived these medical graphic novels is taking a much better route by developing a medical story that can be translated for other countries’ populations to understand.
Originally published here. The post Medical Educational Comic Features the Best Kind of Diversity appeared first on Bleeding Fool.  |
| Rapper / Actor Ice Cube Says “Oh Hell No” to Hollywood’s Vaccine Coercion Posted: 01 Nov 2021 04:15 PM PDT
Ice Cube, a rapper and actor, has backed out of a $9 million film project after refusing to receive the Covid-19 vaccination. According to people acquainted with the situation who talked to The Hollywood Reporter, Ice Cube has quit the sarcastically named ‘Oh Hell No’ Sony comedy. Sony's Oh Hell No is the second project that Ice Cube has left in recent months. The rapper turned actor was to have co-starred in boxing movie Flint Strong, but is reportedly no longer involved. It's unclear what circumstances prompted that departure.
The rapper/actor, who has also appeared in films such as ‘Friday’ and songs such as ‘It Was a Good Day,’ was due to co-star in Oh Hell No with comedian Jack Black. The project was scheduled to begin in December in Hawaii. The rapper-turned-actor has proven that he is not been afraid to defy left-wing Hollywood consensus in order to pursue his own convictions. During last year’s presidential campaign, Ice Cube supported former President Donald Trump by collaborating with his campaign on an economic and educational strategy for black Americans.
Expectedly, left wingers in the media pounced on Ice Cube for “betraying” them.
Cube, whose actual name is O’Shea Jackson, previously joined a slew of other celebrities in encouraging mask usage during the coronavirus outbreak, even gifting thousands of face masks to a college in Oklahoma. He also sold t-shirts advocating masks and donating donations for healthcare professionals. The artist’s perspective on vaccinations, on the other hand, is a little more hazy. He tweeted in June 2020 that physicians should “stop lying” about Covid-19.
Cube has refused to comment on his rumored split from the Oh Hell No production. Those in Hollywood who have spoken out against vaccination requirements or refused to be vaccinated themselves have largely been conservative artists. Rob Schneider, a comedian and actor, has repeatedly spoken out against regulations on Twitter.
Currently there is still no industry-wide vaccination requirement for film or television productions in Hollywood, with individual producers regularly setting their own vaccine policies for their shoots. As a result, the vaccination issue has reportedly pitted co-stars and co-workers against one other, creating many delays on increasingly pricey productions.
Other celebrities who have declined or voiced uncertainty about the vaccination include Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actor Letitia Wright, who sparked a media frenzy when she aired her reservations about the vaccine on social media. Other celebrities who have publicly expressed reservations about the vaccine or vaccine mandates include rapper Nicki Minaj, and rock icon Eric Clapton. The post Rapper / Actor Ice Cube Says "Oh Hell No" to Hollywood's Vaccine Coercion appeared first on Bleeding Fool.  |
| Watch: Disney Releases Trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett’ Posted: 01 Nov 2021 02:55 PM PDT
Disney+ has released the first official trailer for one of its most anticipated Star Wars series, The Book of Boba Fett. Revealed in a surprise post-credits scene trailing the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian last December, the new series Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett premieres this December .
 Disney’s synopsis for the series is as follows:
The Book of Boba Fett, a thrilling Star Wars adventure, finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the Galaxy's underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate.
The Book of Boba Fett stars Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand and is being (mostly) directed by Robert Rodriguez. The series premieres Dec. 29 on Disney+. The post Watch: Disney Releases Trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett’ appeared first on Bleeding Fool.  |
| Comicbook Workers Union: Could Image Become What it Was Created to Oppose? Posted: 01 Nov 2021 01:15 PM PDT
What exactly is the workforce at Image Comics thinking? A tiny cadre of long-term employees of the indie comics publisher announced today the formation of a union calling themselves ‘Comic Book Workers United’. Along with their announcement, they released a document outlining their plans. The document is signed by Ryan Brewer, Leanna Caunter, Marla Eizik, Drew Fitzgerald, Melissa Gifford, Chloe Ramos, Tricia Ramos, Jon Schlaffman and Erika Schnatz. These appear to be editorial staff, rather than writers, artists, or creators.
While this appears to be office staff, organizing a union of freelancers for collective bargaining may fall under anti-trust laws, which are intended to combat price fixing. As has already been reported elsewhere, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1946 explicitly excluded “any individual having the status of an independent contractor” from unionizing to the section that already excluded domestic and agricultural workers from being able to exercise that right. A Freelancers Union exists, but doesn’t engage in collective bargaining deliberations with employers, but does help with healthcare and other provisions that a freelancer may be unable to get themselves. Almost all the creator owned comics published at Image are done so by freelancers, not the people who are forming the union.
Most savvy creators set up their own LLCs, and if they started talk with each other about things like minimum prices for work, that might be considered collusion and could potentially open them up to federal prosecution. And it’s worth noting that much bigger names in the past, like Neal Adams, Barry Windsor Smith, Dick Giordano, Frank Miller, Steve Gerber, Steven Grant and others explored the possibility of unionizing back in the seventies and eighties but it never got any traction.
Image was founded in 1992 by Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino, and back then Image Comics marked a major shift in the comic book industry by focusing primarily on creator-owned work. In the years since then, it’s gone on to become the third-largest comic book publisher in the United States, behind Marvel and DC. Founder Jim Valentino at least seems pro union, according this Facebook post from over the summer, but rest assured he would never agree to be held to account by the list of demands this union has proposed.
The Comic Book Workers United publicly issued the following goals, demands, and requests, and are asking for people to sign a statement of support, whether as an individual, firm or group.
There seems to be a lot of discussion about value propositions, pay scales, reparations, and diversity, but it’s difficult to see how any of this is sustainable in such an already weakened industry struggling with supply chain issues, and boasting transparently thin margins, that currently silences conservative viewpoints. There doesn’t appear to be any concern about actual merit or entertaining the consumers. And when they finally get to number seven above, this amorphous language looks like pure extortion on the part of activists that wish to decide what constitutes “abuse”, “racism”, “xenophobia”, “transphobia”, etc. Who are the arbiters of such accusations? Could this lead to any sort of tyrannical oversight, or at the very least, abuse? Wouldn’t neutral civility be a better approach? This sounds a lot like rule by hegemony.
Kneon at Clownfish TV had this to say:
Perhaps a union could be helpful to the industry, but this kind of flawed mission statement from replaceable staffers is not going to be the key that turns that lock. Will diverse opinions, such as anyone who doesn’t want to join the union, be allowed to stay at the company? Will this ever result in work stoppages or delays in books getting out? What happens when they suddenly think Erik Larsen’s kiddie porn images in Savage Dragon are ‘problematic‘. Will they be able to remove him from the company he founded unless he makes reparations?
Some of the challenges to starting a union in the current comics industry
When you get right down to it, the biggest strength creators have regarding the way they are treated by a publisher is the consumers’ perception of them and their work and their desire for the work from those creators. Does this union think they are going to tell Todd McFarlane what he can and cannot do with his Spawn products? Or cancel a book by Erik Larsen if he includes his signature problematic themes in Savage Dragon? Didn’t these guys leave Marvel Comics for the very creative freedom and ability to capitalize on their popularity and merit that this sort of union could threaten?
More transparency, better structure, and better pay? Of course we support that, but it should always be according to merit and market. It should also be noted that Image Comics has not officially responded to this announcement. The post Comicbook Workers Union: Could Image Become What it Was Created to Oppose? appeared first on Bleeding Fool.  |
| Geek Guns Part 25: Gun Safety and the Movies Posted: 01 Nov 2021 12:00 PM PDT
Whether one looks at comic books, fiction or film, firearms play a huge part in geek culture. In fact, there's an entire web site dedicated to document who carried what. Geek Guns takes a look at some of these weapons – focusing on their real-world performance rather than in-universe function. If there's something you want to know more about, be sure to mention it in the comments.
With Alec Baldwin’s on-set shooting in the news, now seems like a good time to talk about gun safety and how Hollywood both follows and flaunts those rules.
Prop Guns vs Real GunsThere’s a common belief that all “prop guns” are somehow inert or deactivated. This is false. Lots of active weapons are used as movie props simply because it’s cheaper to do it that way and Hollywood is all about money.
This is particularly true of firearms that are cycled manually. These require the operator to rack a slide, turn a bolt or cock a hammer to make it ready to fire. As I’ve noted earlier in this series, one of the big reasons zombies are traditionally fought with revolvers and pump shotguns is that one can use blank rounds (low-powered cartridges without bullets) in them without effecting their function. Semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons may need modifications in order to function properly with blanks because these don’t generate the energy necessary to cycle them. For example, the US military has to use special adapters for M-16s and the various machine guns to cycle when using blank ammunition during training.
I should add that many productions create rubber or plastic replicas that are used for non-shooting scenes. These are lighter, safer and they prevent possible damage to the firing weapon.
In fact, if the gun doesn’t need to fire, inert replicas are a popular option that are also much cheaper than the real thing. If you dig into deep into the Geek Guns archives and do some follow up research at imfdb.com, you’ll find plenty of examples.
Gun Salesmen for Gun ControlOne of the many hypocrisies of Hollywood is the way they not only glamorize gun use, but have effectively elevated the use of them to an entire genre: the shoot ’em up. The John Wick franchise is basically a series of shootouts stitched together with minimal plots. In fact, with its elaborate choreography, it closely resembles a Fred Astaire musical from the 1930s.
Guns have always featured in films, but old school Hollywood typically didn’t spend much time showing the weapons. Blade Runner’s approach was typical – so much so that Deckard’s weapon doesn’t even have a specific name.
The reason is clear: firearms add danger and therefore dramatic tension. Sergio Leone’s quick draw scenes are masterpieces of tension, especially his immortal three-way standoff in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Hollywood’s muted response to Baldwin’s shooting is because they fear increased safety requirements will increase production costs. The truth is that for all the gunplay that goes in, accidents are remarkably rare. The death of Brandon Lee during the filming of The Crow still stirs interest precisely because it was so surprising.
Safety First, AlwaysPredictably, Baldwin’s defenders in Hollywood want to lay the blame squarely on the armorer, who was responsible for all firearms on the set. This is appropriate but overlooks that inescapable fact that had Baldwin himself followed the simple rules of gun safety, Halyna Hutchins would still be alive.
The great thing about these rules is that they are effective collectively but also individually. In fact, you have to break all of them in order for something bad to happen. From news accounts, Baldwin broke at least two and likely three. Let’s go through them.
Always assume a firearm is loaded: Yes, this is the responsibility of the armorer, but if Baldwin had done this the whole situation would have been averted. It is amazing how many people who fancy themselves smart don’t understand this. With experienced shooters this becomes compulsive behavior, which it should. The corollary of this is that if a firearm is supposed to unloaded, check it yourself. Never trust anyone else’s work for it – look with your own eyes. Some weapons make this easy (like a revolver with the cylinder swung out), but it always has to happen.
Always point the firearm in a safe direction (aka muzzle awareness): Baldwin clearly broke this rule and I will note that while people often seem to be pointing guns at each other in movies, that’s not actually required in most cases. Reenactors in particular aim to miss but still create awesome spectacles. In an action sequence, the audience rarely has time to check the sight alignment – particularly left to right, which is impossible to gauge from most camera angles. Baldwin was pointing the weapon directly at other people.
Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot: While it is theoretically possible that a mechanical defect caused Baldwin’s weapon to discharge on its own, it seems highly unlikely. My understanding is that he was using a single-action revolver which has to be manually cocked in order to fire. That being said, I recently had someone hand me a double-action revolver but told me it was single action only – proving why this rule is important.
People sometimes list a fourth rule about knowing your target and what’s behind it, but this isn’t applicable in this situation since nothing was supposed to come out of the weapon in question. The only reason I bring up this rule is to point out that even blatantly violating won’t result in harm unless all the other rules are broken.
Willful Ignorance Kills PeopleOver many years of discussing firearms, I’ve noticed a lot of otherwise educated people who remain stubbornly – even proudly – ignorant of anything about them.
I was once at a news conference where a state legislator had a variety of firearms seized by law enforcement laid out before her as examples of what she wanted ban. To the horror of everyone in the room (including the police offer standing next to her), she picked up a MAC-10 derivative and proceeded to wave it around as spoke, heedless of where she was pointing it. The officer politely but firmly took it away from her. (Don’t bother looking this up online – she was a Democrat so none of the reporters present mentioned it in their coverage.)
One need not be an experienced shooter to follow these rules. Kids learn them. Casual shooters learn them. They’re not difficult and they save lives.
Baldwin and his defenders will say that actors have to trust the armorer, but this ignores his duty to check her work. Inert ammunition is always marked in some way, either in color or by having a hole drilled in the casing. This is precisely to prevent accidents like this from happening. If Baldwin took a few minutes away from Twitter to study up on a critical part of his job, he wouldn’t be in such difficulty and a talented woman would still be alive
The post Geek Guns Part 25: Gun Safety and the Movies appeared first on Bleeding Fool.  |
| Regarding MCU Phase 5: Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts & Nova Films Posted: 01 Nov 2021 08:25 AM PDT
Marvel Studios has hinted at a Nova movie for some time, but new reports are saying that production on a movie featuring the last surviving member of Xandar will start production in 2023. The report from Geeks Worldwide also claims that other projects starting in 2023 include the Fantastic Four, a sequel to Shang-Chi, a Disney+ series saring Okoye (Danai Gurira) and a film adaptation of the Thunderbolts. Now the site isn't that well known so take all of this with a big grain of salt.
We’ll probably hear more and more about the next phase with their upcoming Eternals currently hovering around the “Rotten” ranks at RottenTomotoes.com. No one wants to talk about failure.
Nova is a character that James Gunn had wanted to work into Guardians a few times and Kevin Feige has talked about him as well and with Thanos' destruction of Xandar, it is set up for the story to happen. The Fantastic Four has already been on the schedule and there had been talk of a spin-off series coming out of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. And while there has been no specific talk about Thunderbolts, it's hard to ignore the introduction of Countessa Valentina De Fontaine (Julia Louise Dryfus) and her collecting character like U.S. Agent and the new Black Widow.
And it's pretty safe to say a sequel to Shang-Chi has to be in the works after the film’s mediocre run at the box office… so take this report as rumor for now, but none of it is surprising or seems like a stretch. The post Regarding MCU Phase 5: Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts & Nova Films appeared first on Bleeding Fool.  |
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