Raya and The Last Dragon // Review #10

So this past weekend I finally got around to watching Raya and the Last Dragon with my brother. And, naturally, I had some thoughts.

Raya and the Last Dragon was a March premiere access release movie on Disney+ that was made available to stream the same day that it came out in theaters. If you have a Disney+ membership and are able to swing the hefty $30 premiere access fee, you can watch this film currently on the platform without having to leave the comfort of your own home or go to the movie theater. If you are currently not able to swing the (expensive) premiere access fee, then you can still go to the theater and see the film, or you can simply wait until June 4th when the movie is available on Disney+ without the premiere access surcharge.

I finally took the time to watch this movie this past weekend because not only did the movie look interesting and unique in comparison with other big Disney films, but because I wanted to know what the plot of the movie was. Try as I might, but I could not discern what the story of the movie was just from watching the trailers for the film. So naturally, I was curious. Going into this movie I knew that the visuals would be stunning and the animation would be immaculate, but I was cautiously optimistic about the story quality of the film. On more than one occasion I have left a Disney movie thinking that the story left a lot to be desired (I'm looking at you, Frozen.).

However, after watching this movie, I have to say that I did not have that problem with this film. I would even caution to say that the film is good. Dare I say, pretty good in fact. 

Perfect? Far from it. But definitely watchable, and possibly even re-watchable.

The following categories are the areas where I think the film excels, and where I think the film could use a few improvements.

Category 1: World-Building- B-

One of the first things that you will notice about Raya and the Last Dragon's universe is how dragon centric the entire world is.

Each village in this movie is named after a different part of the dragon's body (as represented on the map below), which when combined make a unified dragon, known as Kumandra. The five villages are Fang, Heart, Talon, Spine, and Tail. Raya, our main character throughout the movie, is from Heart, which is the sole proprietor of the only Dragon Stone in existence. 

Map of Kumandra

The first 15 minutes of this movie are dedicated to explaining this universe and how everything works in great detail to catch the viewers up to speed. This is presented by flashing back to Raya's past in order to give us her perspective on the five villages, and what makes each of them different. Once we are all caught up on the different tribes and what they are like aesthetically, the movie flashes forward to the present day, where Raya is travelling to all of the different regions in order to complete her quest. While I appreciate that I was never really lost on the whole world building aspect of the movie, I do almost wish that there was more time dedicated to each tribe's culture and how each region is different from one another, aside from aesthetically.

For example, early on in the movie it is mentioned by a character from Fang that rice isn't readily available for them like it is in Heart, where Raya is from. This is never fully explained or even mentioned again, but it is a worldbuilding detail that kind of got dropped out of nowhere.

I feel like this movie would have done better as an extended series or even an anthology series (like Infinity Train *cough, cough*) in which we explore the different regions of Kumandra and get to fully dive deep into the history and lore of each region. Experiencing the locations through Raya's perspective is nice, but it can feel limiting when the character is on a time-sensitive mission.

The setting mixed with the additional lore of the dragons and their relationship to the world were interesting and overall pretty easy to follow (after all, this is a movie for kids, mostly), but somehow it all left a little to be desired. Important things that should have been explained (SPOILER AHEAD) like why all of the other dragons turned to stone and then didn't awaken until the end of the movie, just aren't, or are completely overlooked altogether.

Overall, the world building was fine, but it could have used a little more time to breathe in this hour and 57 minute-long movie.

Category 2: Plot- B

Throughout this film, I was strangely reminded of the universe of Moana and the universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender. This could just be because they share certain elements like the boat adventure and the shapeshifting aspect of the main supernatural character from Moana, and the actual plot of Avatar: The Last Airbender. (See the Honest Trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon, which made this comparison before I did).

(LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD)

Without getting into too many spoilers for the film, just suffice it to say that the Dragon Stone that resides in the Heart village is one of the central conflict pieces in the movie, and all of the other villages in Kumandra want it. Early on in the movie the Dragon Stone is split into several pieces that are then taken to the different regions of Kumandra, kept by each village's chief. From that alone, you can probably piece together what has to be done in order to unite the Dragon Stone once more.

As I mentioned previously, this movie would have likely been better suited to be made into an animated epic along the lines of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I would definitely watch a spinoff show about the thieving baby, Noi, as she grows up in the Talon community. I just think that Raya's plot was perhaps a little too complex for a movie of this length, and a little derivative of other works that felt similar.

Category 3: Themes- C-

This is one of the aspects of the movie that fell short for me. The main theme of the movie is about forgiveness and trust, and how those are the things that will unite people and make the world a better place.

While I agree with these themes in principle, in practice, I feel like the movie did a bad job of making those themes realistic and believable in the film.

(MORE LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD)

Raya and Naamari as children, getting along.

One of the main conflicts in the movie is between Raya and Naamari, a girl Raya met when they were children. Without spoiling too much, I will just say that Naamari betrayed Raya when they were younger, leading to consequences that essentially caused the end of the world, and the loss of Raya's father for several years.

In this circumstance, if I knew a girl who betrayed me so badly that it brought about the end of the world and the loss of my only parent, I don't think you could convince me to be the bigger person and not murder her.

However, because this is a Disney movie, and because Naamari seems like a conflicted villain who didn't mean to cause the end of the world and the loss of Raya's father, we are meant to sympathize with her and want Raya to forgive her and be friends with her by the end of the movie.

I DID NOT.

The entire time that Naamari was onscreen, I was livid. If I had been in Raya's position in any point in the film, I truly believe I would have stabbed Naamari, and the movie would have been over. Some things just aren't forgiveable, and I think the film wants us to look over the fact this person caused the end of days just because they "didn't mean to." 

Sometimes intentions don't matter if real harm is caused. This is why involuntary manslaughter is a crime and not just a "whoopsie-doopsie."

 Naamari leading the Fang Tribe

(I would have actually killed Naamari, no joke.)

I also think that the movie wanted us to sympathize with Naamari in a way that didn't quite work, because the entire time the movie paints this whole feud between them as a two-sided thing, when it's very clearly one-sided. Naamari is to blame for most of what happens in the movie, but Raya shares the burden of the plot by "being too trusting." In reality, the entirety of the conflict can be hung squarely on Naamari's shoulders, and frankly, the movie didn't redeem her in enough time at the end for me to care about the moral that was learned about trust or whatever.

I think this comment from GingerBean on YouTube left under Saberspark's video on Raya and the Last Dragon summarizes my feelings on this theme perfectly: 

Category 4: Animation- A

It's almost boring for me to compliment the quality of animation that is in this Disney movie, because of course they've got it down at this point. Every animated Disney movie that's come out since the Disney Renaissance has been beautifully animated.

However, I will say that this movie made history as the first Disney film to be made at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down Disney Animation Studios for some time. Even with that hurdle, the animators made a movie that looks utterly amazing. It was almost like this movie was completed under normal circumstances and the world wasn't burning around them.

Even with all of that, though, I will say that I was impressed with the way that the fight scenes were animated in this movie, specifically the fight scenes between Raya and Naamari. The animators made Raya skilled in Southeast Asian fighting styles like Muay Thai and Arnis, and they were intense and captivating to see on the screen. I especially liked the unique details that they put into the fighting scenes, like Raya's dragon sword that she inherited from her father.

Obviously the animation was flawless and I have no complaints about this aspect of the movie.

Category 5: Diversity- C+

Raya and the Last Dragon's universe is based on the cultures of Southeast Asian communities from Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Myanmar, which is definitely a region that is underrepresented in media, especially Western media.

I really do applaud Disney for trying to represent these communities in their latest animated film, and while I am not a member of any of these communities, I can understand how someone from those communities would be disappointed by this movie's representation of them.

I'm not qualified to speak on how accurate the representation in this film is to Southeast Asian culture, but I can definitely say that it is a little weird that nearly all of the voice cast for this movie is East Asian, and not from the community that they're attempting to represent.

Aside from Raya, played by Vietnamese- American Kelly Marie Tran, every other character in this movie is played by someone who is not of Southeast Asian decent. I can understand how this can be frustrating and disappointing to those who do not see themselves or their culture represented authentically on-screen. There was an attempt, but the entire casting department could have been a little more careful about their choices.

If the movie really wanted to be diverse, I would recommend including more LGBTQ+ people in the film.

Simply put, Raya should have been gay.

If you watched the relationship between Raya and Naamari, you would understand. 

Raya and Naamari's relationship felt queer coded from the beginning of the movie. It’s in everything from their interactions, to their haircuts, to the fact that when Naamari was hunting Raya at the beginning of the film my brother literally said, "[Naamari's] only interacted with this girl once, why is she so obsessed with [Raya]?"

Throughout the movie Raya and Naamari have big Korra and Asami energy from The Legend of Korra- where the romantic/sexual tension is always just under the surface of their interactions but never overt enough for a general audience to catch on (Although I definitely picked up on it.).

If Disney really wanted to be as diverse and inclusive as it claims to be, Raya should have been gay, and she should have ended up with Naamari in the end. (It would have thrown off the story a little bit, but it really would have made more sense for Naamari to be following Raya around in the first act if she secretly had a crush on her.)

If you've seen this movie and don't agree with what I'm talking about, try watching it again, but imagining Naamari as a boy. If Naamari had been a boy, it would be obvious that they had sexual chemistry. Nothing else would have changed, but I feel like more people would see the relationship as inherently romantic because it was heterosexual, which is what we normally associate with romance.

Either way, my pitch to improve this movie overall is to make Raya gay and to make Naamari more sympathetic and less likely to shift the blame for things that are clearly her fault. 

Category 6: Kid-Friendliness- C+

As with all of the Disney movies that I've done reviews for, I have to give Disney credit for making a movie that is perfectly suitable for children. Although I will say that this movie somehow feels more intense than either Big Hero 6 or Frozen, if only for the fact that the stakes of this film feel somehow more grounded in reality.

The divisiveness of the tribes and the fact that no one feels safe trusting anyone else feels like a real-world problem that is a little more pressing than an "eternal winter" or "a giant wormhole swallowing the city." The climactic ending of this movie is a direct result of infighting between different tribes of the same nation, which is honestly prescient considering the current global and national crises that we’re in right now.

One of the more chilling scenes in this movie (for me, anyway, after all, this movie is for children), was when we meet Tong in the Spine village. (SPOILER AHEAD) We quickly find out that he was the only survivor of his village because everyone else he knew was turned to stone. Somehow this chilled me because it made the conflict of the movie feel real. The Druun had wiped out everyone but him, and he was lonely.

This film is appropriate for children because while kids are smart enough to grasp the (admittedly very obvious) themes of unity and peace that the film was going for, there are also colorful dragons with magical powers in the movie to take the edge off. A movie about a bunch of warring factions without the dragon magic, though, would be better suited for a YA dystopian novel than a Disney movie. (Although admittedly, I'd probably read that book).

Overall, Raya and the Last Dragon was a good time. I cried at the end of the movie, which is always a good sign of a feel-good film to watch with your family (and it's also a pretty good indicator that I'm a sucker for an emotional Disney film). I would give this movie a B-, but mostly because I think it could have used just one more draft in the writer's room to really drive home the overarching conflict between Raya and Naamari. Perhaps I would have given this movie an A if there was a gay romance between the two like so many people on Twitter have already speculated about.

Namari and Raya fanart credit to: 

Mamá Croqueta

@ArrietartOp

   

Infinity Train // Review #9

 

So I finally got around to watching Infinity Train, a show that I've been meaning to check out for a while. To be honest, I had completely forgotten I had been meaning to watch this show until I logged into Twitter and saw that everyone I knew was talking about it for some reason.

I think it's because the fourth and last season of the show just premiered on April 15th. Ever since then, the internet has been all abuzz because of the conclusion to this mysterious show. In light of all of the hype, I recently watched the whole show on HBO Max, and... I have some thoughts, to say the least.

Infinity Train originally aired on Cartoon Network back in 2019 before it was canceled by Cartoon Network after its second season and picked up by HBO Max  in mid-2020. The show was created by Owen Dennis, one of the guys behind Regular Show, which also aired on Cartoon Network before being moved to streaming on HBO Max last year. Keeping that in mind, it honestly makes so much sense that the two shows have the same creator, because despite the subject matter being wildly different, the two shows have a very similar vibe. They're both slightly offbeat and out of the box in a creative way- with funny scripting that make the characters feel real. I wasn't exactly a fan of Regular Show, but I was familiar enough with it to support its weirder ideas. Infinity Train is definitely its spiritual successor, and as such, it's a lot of fun to watch.  

And so, as someone who hasn't consistently watched Cartoon Network since they stopped airing the original Powerpuff Girls (sue me, I'm old), I was interested to see what all of the hype was about regarding this new show. And so I binged all four seasons in the span of two days.

Now, for the uninitiated like me, I'll just say that this show is... a lot, to say the least. The show itself is very creative and weird, and yet still very much grounded in some very serious topics like divorce and humanity and finding yourself.

When I first went into this show, I honestly had no idea what to expect. This is mostly because the entire first season of the show is setting up the mystery of the show's premise: what is the infinity train, and why is it the way that it is? After that initial season of discovery, the rest of the show goes DEEP into developing its respective characters and making you care for them in a way that will leave you laughing and heartbroken all at the same time. It was honestly an emotional rollercoaster, which wasn't what I signed up for when I agreed to watch a show about a magic train.

Nonetheless, the whole series was a success for me. Overall, I would say that some seasons worked better than others, but they all managed to stick the landing at the end of their 10-episode run. Since Infinity Train is an anthology series, each season is a self-contained story about an individual set of characters, which made it really interesting to see where they were going to go with it. You don't necessarily need to watch all of the seasons in order like I did on order to enjoy the show, but it definitely helps to have context about the previous seasons when watching them, just to be sure that you fully understand what's happening.

In order to conduct my review, I will do as follows: I'm going to give a brief synopsis of each season, explaining generally why I think they worked, and why I think they didn't. I will also list each season's best and worst episodes in order to explain my thinking on the subject. 

LIGHT SPOILERS FOR ALL FOUR SEASONS OF INFINITY TRAIN: 

Season 1: Tulip- A

Tulip, joined by One-One the robot, and Atticus, the King of Corgis

The first season of Infinity Train follows the main character, Tulip, as she is dealing with her parent's recent divorce very poorly. She wants to go to video game design camp, but due to circumstances out of her control (and due to her parent's poor planning), she is unable to go. After running away to get to her video game camp herself, she finds the Infinity Train and hops on.

When she wakes up on the train, Tulip finds that she is in a mysterious train in the middle of a pocket dimension, and each car on the train leads to mysterious lands. She also realizes that she has a number stamped on her hand, which can go up or down. However, she doesn't know what the number signifies, or how to get off the train.

 Tulip's Number Going Down

Tulip's season of the show is very important, because not only is it an introduction into what the train is about and how it works, but it also sets up the premise for the remaining seasons of the show. A human passenger is joined by a companion who is a part of the train car, and they are there to assist them with getting their number down- which (SPOILER) is how they get off the train. The train is both literally and figuratively a person's path to self-improvement. Once the passenger's number reaches 0, that means that the passenger has resolved their issues in the real world- either with themselves or with those around them, and they can go home.

The best episode in this season is probably Episode 5, "The Cat's Car," because not only was this where we begin to build some of the lore of the train, but we discover more about Tulip and how her parents' divorce affected her. It's so amazingly animated and such a clear and honest way to look at how Tulip was feeling that it made the whole season better for me to watch. I had already been invested by this point, but this sucked me in even more.

Each episode of this show is only 11 minutes long, but honestly don't let that deceive you into thinking that the show doesn't go deep into what's bothering these people.

That being said, the worst episode of this season was probably the one directly before "The Cat's Car," "The Crystal Car." This episode wasn't bad so much as it was... unnecessary. I liked this episode if only for its use of "Word Up" by Cameo, but otherwise, this episode didn't really reveal much about the train, or tell us anything new or interesting about Tulip. I thought it was a decent episode, but if you're willing to skip episodes of content, this one definitely seems more like a filler episode.

I will say, though, that this season was definitely a good way to set up an anthology show, with all of the endless possibilities in each car, and all of the unique, fun characters that were in them along the way. I didn't even mention the recurring cast of characters such as Amelia, the "evil" train conductor, One-One, who is very reminiscent of Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (if he was cheery every once and a while), and The Cat, Samantha, who are very present in this season, and the follow up seasons in this anthology.

The Cat, Samantha (who is morally ambiguous at best)

Overall, by the end of Tulip's story, I was confused but intrigued as to how they were going to follow up this story in the next season.

Cut to- 

Season 2: MT/ Lake- A+

MT, Alan Dracula, and Jesse

This season started off somewhere where I didn't really expect it to- it started off with a minor character from season 1- Mirror Tulip (MT), who was released from the Mirror Realm in the season 1 episode, "The Chrome Car." This entire season is about her following up with what she planned to do in the first season, become her own person, and discover who she was without having to reflect someone else.

I really like this season, and I think it's the best season of the whole show. I think it's much darker than the first season in terms of themes, but in the best way, because it made me laugh and cry and feel about the characters more than I did in season 1. Season 1 was lighthearted until it neared the end and revealed the truth of the train, but this one starts off a little more intense, as MT is running from those attempting to capture and kill her for daring to be different, until she is joined by her friend Jesse and their magical pet deer, Alan Dracula.

Now, after I saw this season, I saw some people on Twitter say that MT was queer-coded as trans, and while I'm not saying that I don't see it, I am saying that this wasn't what I got when I initially watched the show. I read this season as more of a take on humanity, and what we value as "human." While I can see how that can be interpreted as wanting to come out as trans, I don't necessarily think that's what the creators were going for (although I very well could be wrong, IDK). 

In my mind, MT just wanted to be recognized as a person who could feel and think and believe in things herself, which honestly put me more in the mind of something like Blade Runner (or the book it was based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). It was a little trippy and meta to consider that this person who doesn't look like a human being is only trying to stake her claim to what the rest of humanity has to offer. I was definitely thinking more along the lines of that game: Detroit: Become Human while I was watching this season.

I really loved the last five episodes of this season. "The Lucky Cat Car," "The Mall Car," "The Wasteland," "The Tape Car," and "The Number Car," are all perfect episodes to me, because they run the gambit of emotional depth and have some deep philosophical questions in them that left me literally in tears at some points. I think this season had the best episodes, and honestly some of the best dialogue. I especially appreciated the interactions that MT had with Jesse and the Reflection Police in these episodes specifically.

MT and Jesse being separated in Episode 7, "The Mall Car"

The worst episode in this season is probably the "Family Tree Car" but only because I eventually got sick of Jesse and MT fighting all the time without getting anywhere. As I mentioned before, each episode is only 11 minutes, but sometimes if nothing is happening for too long, the episodes can feel like they're dragging. Even still, this episode is fine, as by the end of it, both Jesse and MT form a truce that they're going to work together to get Jesse off the train so she can be left alone with the deer. 

Jesse petting Alan Dracula

Season 3: Grace and Simon- B

Grace, Hazel, Simon and Tuba

My goodness. This season was a DOOSY.

Following the same format as the previous season, this season follows characters that were already introduced by way of the other characters, Grace and Simon.

Grace and Simon are the leaders of a group of kids on the train known as the Apex. They don't care about breaking the train's rules or killing the magical creatures, because they're not people- they're nothing, according to them. In fact, the whole point of the Apex is to achieve the highest number on the train. Soon Grace and Simon are separated from their pack, but on their way back to the rest of their group, they run into a little girl named Hazel who is being protected by a magical talking gorilla named Tuba. Soon after they learn Hazel's secret, things go awry.  

Even though I may not have ranked this season as high as the first or second season, I definitely think that it's worth checking out. Without too many spoilers, I'll just say that this season definitely follows the philosophical ideas of the second season and runs them into the ground. (Not in a bad way, just in a way that might make you go, "OH MY GOD.") Out of all of the seasons of this show, I would say that this season was the darkest, and it's the most insane season because of it.

(SPOILERS AHEAD) I'm not going to lie to you- Hazel made me bawl my eyes out. At the beginning of episode 9 when Grace was crying after Hazel left with Amelia, I was ugly crying exactly like her. When Hazel was singing Tuba's song at her funeral, I was literally sobbing just like Grace. I mean, how can you not? Listen to the song, OMG:

"No need to worry baby" sung by Hazel at Tuba's funeral

By the end of this season, I liked Grace's arc, especially when compared to Simon's opposite arc. It has a real Zuko and Azula energy to it. Speaking of Zuko and Azula, I have to say that it was nice to see Grace be humanized after her horrible actions in season 2 and the beginning of season 3, however, when we see Simon after he left Grace for dead, it seems like he went incredibly evil entirely too quickly. I wish they had taken more time to flesh out him going fully over the deep end on his own. Because of this, I will say that Infinity Train's villain arcs are not nearly as effective as the villain arcs on Avatar: The Last Airbender, but they are very reminiscent of it.

The best episodes of this season are probably the darkest, which would be, "The Color Clock Car,"" The Campfire Car," "The Origami Car" and "The New Apex." All of these episodes are surprisingly heavy to watch, but in a good way that reveals something about each of the characters. I honestly respect the hell out of this season for having the balls to do something this intense in a cartoon aimed at children.

The worst episodes of this season are probably "The Musical Car" and the "Le Chat Chalet Car." Both of them are fine episodes on their own, but compared to the other episodes in this season they stood out as weaker than the rest to me. I liked elements of them fine- like how it was clear that Simon and Grace did care about one another, and they would've protected one another despite everything because they had a relationship. It was clear from these episodes that Grace and Simon loved each other, which is why the ending of this season hits a little harder than normal.

Overall, I would say that this season was solid, but I felt like it could have been a little better. For one thing they could have explained what happened to Grace once she learned her lesson in the end. The result is alluded to, but never shown, which I found to be a little disappointing.

Nevertheless, that leads us onto the fourth and final season of Infinity Train:

Season 4: Men-Gi and Ryan- C+

Men-Gi and Ryan

When I saw the first episode of this season, I was... disappointed, to say the least. I thought we were going to get a follow-up of Hazel from the previous season, just like what happened with MT in season 2 and Grace from season 3. I think one of the main reasons why I didn't like season four nearly as much as I liked the previous seasons was that it felt so loosely connected to the original cast of characters who had left or were going to leave the train. It felt like the show was making me start all over again with brand new characters, which didn't exactly click for me. 

I was hoping that we would see what was going on with Amelia and Hazel from season 3. I would've been interested to see if raising Hazel would have brought Amelia's number down significantly, as she had the highest number on the train. I was even hoping for perhaps some more backstory regarding Tuba, or even how Amelia's number got to be so astronomically high. In the end of that season, I think it would have been cute to have Hazel grow up and take over the train with One-One (if it's even possible for her to grow up, all things considered).

Instead, what we got was the story of Men-Gi and Ryan, two boys from British Columbia, Canada, who want to be rock stars. They both came onto the train with the same number. This is strange, because that doesn't happen, (or so they say at the beginning of the season) but it's never exactly explained why they have the same number. Their lives are displayed as parallel in the beginning of the season in episode 1, but the show doesn't exactly dive deeper into why they are so alike, yet so different.

One of the worst episodes of this season was episode 2, "The Iceberg Car," because the episode not only revolves around these two guys bickering (which grew tiresome very fast), but an unlikeable bell character named Kez explaining the rules of the train to them- which we, the audience already knew. As someone who had binged the previous seasons of this show before this one, I was annoyed that they were rehashing this information and starting all over. It felt like I was wasting my time re-learning all of this information with the main characters.

In the showrunner's defense, I'm assuming that they did this purposefully in order to remind people of the stakes of the train since this was the final season, and it was premiering so long after the third season, which ended nearly eight months ago. However, I found this annoying, nonetheless.

To be honest, it took me at least five episodes to get into this season, as I wasn't truly invested until "The Astro-Queue Car," in which Men-Gi and Ryan are stuck trying to figure out how to get into a space themed club, only to discover that both of their ideas were bad, and that they should be kinder and more patient with one another. I really liked this one, because for me it was one of the first instances of actual forward momentum in the season. From there, things really seem to kick off, and the season gets better. 

Overall, I liked this season fine, but it pales in comparison to the other seasons, for multiple reasons. (Also it bugs me that we never revisit Amelia and One-One in this season after the first episode. Amelia pops in periodically to help- I think- but it's never quite clear what she's doing exactly, and we do not see either her or the real conductor in person past episode one. Also, we never see Hazel again, which kind of bugs me, no lie.)

I will say that one of the best things about this season is the ending song that they perform: "Train to Nowhere," which is honestly a pretty good sendoff for this season and the show as a whole.

Men-Gi and Ryan singing "Train to Nowhere" in the show's finale

Overall, I'm sad to see Infinity Train go, since it's been confirmed that this fourth season was it's last season. HBO Max didn't want to pick up a fifth season of the show, even though the show's creators had more planned, including a season starring Amelia and Hazel further down the line (which I was hoping would be season 4, but I digress) and a movie explaining Amelia's backstory (which is also something I wanted).

My final opinion on the matter is that Infinity Train was a good show, and somehow it feels bittersweet that it didn't get to last more than four seasons. I knew it couldn't go on for infinity as its name suggested, but I am happy with the four seasons that we ended up with. I would highly recommend you checkout this show on HBO Max if you have it. I would give this show a solid B+ for how creative, edgy, and fun it is to watch.

Thanks for reading! Stay safe everyone!

Wonder Woman 1984 // Review #8

(*Sigh...* Okay. So it's come to this.)

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but in my defense, I really didn't want to come. 

Here's the thing about Wonder Woman 1984: I saw it on Christmas Day with my family last year, on the night that it premiered on HBO Max.

And, in a word, this movie was... underwhelming. 

In fact, if I had to pick a series of words to describe this movie overall, I would say that this film was "Long, messy, and emotionally exhausting."

(SPOILERS AHEAD for Wonder Woman 1984.)

Back when I started this blog in 2017, I had a review planned for the original 2017 Wonder Woman movie, starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine in the roles they eventually reprised in the sequel. Before I inevitably scrapped that blog post, I wrote about how I admired that Wonder Woman was a badass, who was fully capable and cool without being unlikeable. The 2017 Wonder Woman movie was not perfect by any means, but I liked it, because it was fun and lighthearted while also showing that Wonder Woman was a force to be reckoned with.

It wasn't quite on the level of some of their competitor's IP, like Iron Man, or even Captain America, but it was definitely a good watch. I thought it was good that Wonder Woman was the first big-budget female superhero movie, and it was released to general acclaim. It was a big deal at the time, and it made me optimistic that we would get to see other female superhero movies in the future, like a Captain Marvel, or (eventually) a Black Widow movie.

Wonder Woman made waves when it came out, and it was a good time to watch, flaws and all. I really liked it. But probably more importantly, when I watched it, I didn't feel every minute of its two-and-a-half-hour run-time, like I did with the sequel.

To put it simply, Wonder Woman 1984 is a bad movie. It's definitely not the worst thing to come out of 2020, but it certainly did not help the already perilous state of affairs going on both in the movie industry, and the world at large. 

Allow me to get into the nitty gritty of why this movie was so bad. Behold:

Category 1: Body Swap Horror- F (for "Fully unnecessary")

Perhaps you have already seen all of the reviews hailing this movie for its lack of feminist vision and it's incomprehensible body swapping plot in regards to the male lead. Well, it's all true. I can confirm that this movie not only lacks a feminist vision by turning Wonder Woman into a lame sad sack that can't get over her boyfriend that she knew for like 3 days 70 years ago, but it also has a troubling body swapping plot that seems completely inconsequential to the plot as a whole.

For the sake of transparency, I will just say right now that Steve Trevor, played by Chris Pine, does come back in Wonder Woman 1984 to reprise his role in the sequel, despite dying at the end of the first Wonder Woman movie that came out in 2017. The only real question I had while watching the movie was, "How?" 

Well, let me tell you, it is a doosey.

Diana brings him back using some plot mumbo-jumbo (that I'll get into later), and it's weird. Like... you won't see this plot element coming unless you've already seen the movie or seen another review of the film (mostly because it's an irrelevant story beat that adds nothing but confusion to an already confused plot).

Needless to say, Steve Trevor comes back in another man's body, and is technically possessing this man the entire time that he is palling around with Diana. But it's okay, because they explain it away in the movie, right?

(*Silence*)

RIGHT?

Well, kinda. But also, not really.  They kind of treat it as a minor inconvenience that's not that big a deal, instead of a major plot hole, which it is. 

Now, an element that I hadn't considered in this whole conundrum was the aspect of consent in this movie. People on the internet have been objecting the use of this poor stranger's body for sexual acts that he wasn't aware of, but I wasn't thinking about that the first time that I saw this movie. If I'm being honest, that didn't even cross my mind at first.

To understand where my head was at when I was watching this movie with my family the first time, you have to know that I was re-watching the classic mid 2010's Lifetime show, Drop Dead Diva. It's a legal episodic drama about a skinny blonde model named Deb who dies and gets put into the body of the recently deceased plus-sized lawyer, Jane Bingum. (It's essentially if Freaky Friday and Legally Blonde had a baby, and I would highly recommend it if you haven't watched it yet).

   Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva (2009-2014)

Perhaps I wasn't as upset about consent as I should have been upon my first viewing of Wonder Woman 1984 (although I was admittedly very shocked), because on Drop Dead Diva similar things happen. The recently deceased model, Deb, is in the body of Jane Bingum, while Jane remains up in Heaven. This makes Jane's body now Deb's body, with which to do whatever she pleases. She even has guardian angels on Earth to make sure that she uses her second chance as Jane to live her life to the fullest. This means that Deb often has relationships with other men in Jane's body. However, because the real Jane is already dead, she is no longer the owner of that body, and so Deb is mostly allowed to get away with her relationship issues.

In Wonder Woman 1984, I was expecting a Drop Dead Diva-like switch , in which the person who's body Steve Trevor was inhabiting was that of the recently deceased. This would mean that that man would no longer be in need of his body anymore, leaving it available to Steve.

BUT NO. THAT'S NOT THE CASE.

IT BECOMES IMMEDIATELY DIFFERENT once you realize at the end of the movie that the person whose body Steve stole is a living breathing person still, who was just transported into the ether because of reasons??

So yes, Diana essentially sexually assaulted some guy because she wanted to sleep with her dead boyfriend. 

Overall, 0/10. I would not recommend this body swapping plot device. Watch Drop Dead Diva instead. It's much more satisfying and much less morally gray.

Category 2: Secret Identity-ing- F (0/10)

This one might just be a nit-pick, but I thought the whole point of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman was that they had secret identities and so no one knew who the fuck they were. But in this movie, I suppose her secret identity isn't that much of a secret, because no one bats an eye when Diana shows up dressed as Wonder Woman in Egypt halfway through the movie and Steve Trevor openly calls her by her government name in battle.

What I don't get is if everyone in the world knows that Wonder Woman is Diana Prince, then why would she even bother with the secret identity in the first place? It's not like anyone would have had a hard time putting together that Diana Prince was Wonder Woman. I MEAN, THEY LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME.

Maybe I'm just upset because I grew up watching Hannah Montana and Cinderella-inspired movies where the quirky white girl puts on a wig or a mask to cover up her identity, but I was a little annoyed that it was so easy to put together that Diana Prince was Wonder Woman. I was even more disappointed when they didn't even attempt to change Diana's hair style or cover her face with glasses like the original Wonder Woman, played by Lynda Carter.

Lynda Carter as Diana Prince in the 1975 show Wonder Woman.

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman in the 1975 show Wonder Woman.

The images above look like two completely different people, even though they were both played by Lynda Carter. Carter's Diana Prince looks mousy and shy (albeit there is a stereotype surrounding the idea that people who wear glasses are more shy and less outgoing, based in a history of mocking nerds in general), while her Wonder Woman looks powerful and heroic in the face of danger. It is easy to believe that people would not believe that Diana Prince would be Wonder Woman, based on how she presents herself as her alter ego.

But when you look at Gadot's Diana Prince and Wonder Woman, it's a little harder for me to believe that people won't immediately clock this-

Gal Gadot as Diana Prince in Wonder Woman 1984.

- as being virtually the same as this:

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman 1984.

"Oh no! You mean to tell me that this strong confident woman with great hair is the same strong confident woman with great hair who also fights bad guys in her red and blue armor? Unbelievable!"

Overall, I'm annoyed that they undid a lot of the good work that was used to establish Wonder Woman's alter ego in the previous movies (which canonically take place after this) like Batman v. Superman and the Justice League. In those movies no one knows that Diana Prince is Wonder Woman because Wonder Woman hasn't been seen in like 100 years, and so a vague resemblance from someone from the early 1920s isn't really that interesting. In this movie, however, I guess everyone knows that Diana Prince is Wonder Woman, because she does literally nothing to hide it as she galivants around town saving people. 

Overall, F for effort.

Category 3: Plot- D

Okay, now let's get into the messiness of the film and why I found it so incomprehensible.

First of all, nothing in this movie is explained until it happens.

Steve Trevor is back? Well, kind of, but not in his own body.

Why?

"Because fuck you, that's why."

If Steve's not in his own body then how come the wishing stone also took Diana's superpowers away? Wouldn't Steve being in another person's body be enough of a bad deal for Diana's wish?

(*high pitched whining*)"Wouldn't Steve being in another person's body be enough of a bad deal for Diana's wish?" (*scoffs*) "Oh boo-hoo. That's what you sound like. Literally cry more, whiner."

Why is Max Lord dying because of the wishing stone?

"Oh, I don't know, why don't you shove your thumb up your ass?"  

Stuff just kind of like... happens in this movie. The worst part is that you have to be paying attention to everything, or you'll just miss important, seemingly random things happening.

I'll admit that sometimes it was easier to just turn my brain off while I was watching it, but even when I wasn't thinking about it, the plot was hard to follow. It was much easier to just wait for the movie to be over than to ask any questions regarding the multiple inconsistencies between this movie and the original Wonder Woman (2017), or even the Justice League movie that came out later that year.

I should probably back up a bit and actually explain the plot of Wonder Woman 1984 instead of just itemizing my gripes with this movie as a whole. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I'm sorry to have spoiled so much of it for you already (but it's not like I didn't warn you). 

The plot of Wonder Woman 1984 is that of a low-grade Disney Channel original movie- or, even worse- the even lower grade 2009 movie, Shorts, by Robert Rodriguez. 

Poster for the 2009 Robert Rodriguez movie, Shorts.

Actually, the plot of Shorts is surprisingly similar to that of Wonder Woman 1984, in that they both contain magical wishing rocks, they're both incredibly nonsensical, and they're both very bad movies.

While Shorts was a significantly worse movie in my opinion, I must say that I definitely did not expect that the plot device of a magical wishing stone would be the central part of the sequel to Wonder Woman (2017).

Wonder Woman 1984 starts with Diana moping about her long dead boyfriend, Steve, after she stopped a bunch of robbers from stealing a mystical item from an 80s mall. It turns out that this mystical item is a wishing stone, known as the Dreamstone, and Diana wishes to bring Steve back, without knowing that it will cost her her superpowers to do so (and cause a dumb body swapping dilemma for no reason). As it turns out, a fraudster billionaire oil magnate named Maxwell Lord (played by Pedro Pascal) was also looking for the Dreamstone to turn his luck around in the business world. Then the plot ensues from there. 

Fun, right?

Fun, wrong.

This movie was not fun. It was stupid and poorly constructed conceptually. I didn't even mention Kristen Wiig's character in the movie, or the fact that this movie did not have to be set in the 1980s at all.

However, I can't be too hard on the plot. The plot would have worked if the writers had actually bothered to make it make sense.

Categories 4 & 5: The Writing & Pacing- D

My first editing note for this film would be that the opening scene with the Amazonian women on Themyscira could and should be cut out of the final version of the movie. Not only does it add very little in terms of theme and overall excitement, but it adds a solid seven or eight minutes to the runtime that would have been better served either explaining the nonsensical plot of the movie, or cut out of the film entirely.

In fact, there are two main opening scenes in this movie- the scene on Themyscira, and the scene immediately following that in which Diana is an adult, fighting crime in the 80s. I know that the director, Patty Jenkins, had to fight for both of these opening scenes to stay in the film, as she thought they were integral to showing Diana's character growth and displaying the theme of the movie early on, but the moral that the Themyscira opening introduces is forgettable at best and ham-fisted at worst.

First of all, the theme of this movie should not have had anything to do with cheating, because it comes across as childish in the beginning and stupid and naïve at the end. When Diana is telling everyone on earth to renounce their wish because wishing is "cheating?" That's a swing and a miss for me, personally. 

I think that the whole wishing plot line could work if the theme was a lot more impactful to Diana's love story with Steve, instead of a hollow callback to the beginning of the movie when young Diana cheated at the Amazon Olympics.

The moral of the story should have been about letting go. Diana had to learn to let go of her long- lost love, Steve Trevor, in favor of someone new (so she could stop pining after Chris Pine. Get it? Pining after Pine? Come on, if you didn't at least chuckle at that, you have no sense of humor). If the moral was about letting go, then Pedro Pascal's villain would learn to let go of his greed and be satisfied with the life that he's living with his son instead of aspiring to be a wealthy mogul. Barbara would have to learn to be happy being herself, because she let go of wanting to be someone else, and so on.

This is a better moral because in the end of the movie when everyone is renouncing their wish, everyone would realize that no one was really going to be happy with the things that they wished for, because they weren't really what they needed to be happy. They were already capable of being happy with the people and things around them. This is sweeter and more heartfelt than the actual ending of the movie- which rang hollow. 

ANYWAY- the moral of the story was only one of the main writing flaws with this movie.

Another thing that bothered me about this movie was that it seemed to lack narrative focus. This had a very negative effect on the overall pacing of the movie. 

I think this is because sometimes when new characters are introduced into an established universe, they tend to dominate a lot of the movie's run-time while nothing interesting is happening with the main character of the film. (The most egregious example of this I can think of is Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in which Angelina Jolie was paid tens of millions of dollars, only to have less screen time than the villain of the movie, played by Michelle Pfeiffer.)

This happens in Wonder Woman 1984 immediately after Steve is brought back to life (albeit in another man's body, because let's not forget that). The pace of the film immediately came to a grinding halt as Diana seemed to forget everything else that she was concerned about in this movie. She didn't even really question the situation- she was more than content to accept the circumstances that surrounded her boyfriend's reappearance (much like I suspect the screenwriters expected the viewers to).

In this down time, the movie shifts focus from Diana and Steve to Barbara Minerva (played by Kristen Wiig) and Maxwell Lord, in order to get the plot moving. However, instead of moving the plot along, it seems to pull focus away from the people who we actually came to see in this movie. 

If you ask me, I think less focus in this movie should have been put on Barbara. I understand what they were trying to do with her character, as she eventually becomes another villain for Wonder Woman to fight. However, sometimes the story just felt messy with these additional Barbara/ Cheetah story beats. 

For example, I was perfectly able to summarize the story of this movie without mentioning Barbara's character once. Honestly the movie would be more organized if her element of the plot wasn't even a factor. Perhaps it would be more interesting if the origin story of Cheetah was not explained and had nothing to do with the character being jealous of Diana. Apparently, the writers took their creative liberties with Cheetah from the comic books, because the original Barbara Minerva version of Cheetah from 1987 was... a lot, to say the least (You can read about it here.). I think it is possible to include Barbara Minerva in this movie without having the film feel overly crowded or distracted, but the angle that they chose to go with Kristen Wiig's interpretation of the character relied really heavily on tropes that we've seen before, instead of simply telling a good superhero-supervillain story.  

Speaking of supervillains, Maxwell Lord's motivation is confusing, as he attempts to impress his son (who is very clearly a different ethnicity than he is, albeit he is very cute) with how rich and powerful he is, while also not caring if the world burns down in the process. It would make sense if this conflict was ever resolved in a satisfying way, but his character arc is more of a pitiful squiggle. It starts off in a strong arc like shape, but then meanders and peters out until you're just left wondering at the end of the movie, "Did no one come to arrest this man for all of the shit he just pulled?"

Speaking of the shit that Maxwell Lord pulled, he brilliantly wishes to become the Dreamstone in order to grant people's wishes and take what he would like in return, as a part of the stone's "monkey's paw" agreement. This is never explained in a satisfying way. The only point in the story in which the "monkey's paw" element of the story is explained comes after bad things have already happened, like (SPOILER) Diana losing her powers, or Kristen Wiig's Barbara becoming a horrible person (although I'm definitely not going to argue that her kicking the crap out of a rapist makes her a horrible person). They explain this element of the story once, and then they never look back. If you can't keep up, you're going to end up getting left behind.

Overall, the movie feels unbalanced, disorganized, and bloated. With some major writing overhauls, this movie could have been good, I think, but unfortunately this was what we were left with. Had they restructured Wonder Woman 1984 a little bit better, maybe I wouldn't have had a headache by the time it was over.

Category 6: Action- C-

I was not impressed by a single action scene in this movie.

The opening mall scene was so poorly CG'd and hammy that it was comical (which I think was intentional, but I somehow found it incredibly unlikeable and inconsistent tonally, especially when you compare it to the earlier scene that showed a young Diana on Themyscira).

I was nonplussed because after the opening scenes there wasn't another action scene in this movie until about an hour in, in which Diana and Steve take out the tanks in Egypt. By that point, I was a little too hung up on the messy plot to follow the action, which was also a little drawn out and uninteresting visually in my opinion.

The problem is there's a little too much romantic drama in this superhero movie for me, and frankly not enough exciting action. Wonder Woman is in a total of about four fights in this two-and-a-half-hour movie, and none of them were particularly impressive. It's not like in the first Wonder Woman movie, where she walked out in the middle of No-Man's Land, single handedly deflecting bullets and enemy fire.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Overall, I was mostly uninterested in the action scenes in this movie, along with this movie as a whole. 

"It's gonna be a no from me, dawg."

Now, don't get me wrong. I didn't hate this movie. I just... didn't get it? 

When the movie ended, I wasn't sure how to feel other than relieved that it was over so I could finally take a nap. This movie left me feeling emotionally drained, with a headache that made me want to lie down with a cup of tea. 

Overall, I would give this movie a D. I feel like I would watch it again for the campy, corny villain of Pedro Pascal's Max Lord, and I do enjoy looking at Chris Pine (just because- well, he's Chris Pine). However, this movie is just not very good. It's poorly written, poorly acted, and there were definitely at least three scenes throughout the movie where I could easily clock Gal Gadot's bad wig. It was, overall, very upsetting.

The fact that this movie was meant to signal the death of cinema and the end of 2020 at the same time confuses me. It was neither good enough nor profitable enough for movie studios to consider this movie to be anything but a loss, and frankly, I believe that streaming on HBO Max is exactly where this movie belongs. With or without a global pandemic, I think I would have been very upset to have spent $15 to see this bad movie in a crowded theater.

As for the end of 2020, I suppose it's appropriate that the worst year in modern history didn't end with a bang but instead with a whimper, cinema-wise.