Dreaming of Alien Sands

SOOOOOOO, it seems I haven't been active here for more than FOUR YEARS?! How the frell did that happen? is there even anyone left on here that I know? I kinda fell completely out of fandom, haven't even seen much Doctor Who in a while (only watched the regeneration and wasn't impressed). I've been mostly lurking on Reddit and have read a ton of Marvel comics and fanfic ... which is also why I'm back, Endgame gave me feelings (I even managed to cough some sort of incoherent garbage onto digital paper. Yeah, I've been writing again, I'm as surprised as you are). Now I gotta go and join the online fandom again . Any idea where it went? I kind of miss it. I kind of miss you all!

Yeah, I only come here to rant nowadays, sorry for that. Real life is so busy! Anyway, how have you all been? I'm kind of completely out of the fandom loop.

Anyway, Avengers! It might have been a bad idea to watch this after a 6-hour drive home after a night of partying, but I will be damned if I have to watch this dubbed. We made it (barely) in time for the only screening of the original version around here. The last time we did this for Guardians of the Galaxy when we came home from a short trip to Bruges, it's becoming a little Marvel tradition.

[Spoiler (click to open)]
Anyway, it felt a little... tiring. I read Whedon was completely stressed out by the end, and while I don't think it shows in the end product, you kind of get the impression it is/was a huge project that he wanted to polish as much as he could. For me, it lacks the easy flow of the first movie, hence the exhausting vibe. It was very well polished plot-wise and tried to have something for every character, but while I adored (almost) all character developments, it was still too short/had too many personal stories with not enough time. A lot of it felt... cut, lacking a better word. Some plots simply lacked depth.

While we had a good time and some laughs, I have some issues that made it less enjoyable than I had hoped. Off the top of my hat:

- Ultron did nothing for me. For a robot, his face was too well animated (you see the parts of his mouth that might make it move and then the entire face moves as if it was skin) and while his madness was PERFECT in his first scenes, the amount of comic relief he got later made me think of a huge, non-fluffy Ted. Plus, he lacked the world-spanning menace that the promos (and the comics) made him. Monster of the week instead of End Boss. Meh. Plus, they made his Oedipus complex or whatever he has with Stark completely unbelievable - I got the impression Bruce/Tony didn't do very much to make said AI work, as it was already there. How can an AI then hate the guy that tells him "Do Peace" so much when it chooses to interpret that differently after a second of being awake anyway? Makes no sense to me, especially when Witch AND Cap seem to agree his personality is that of Stark's. And then on top of that Cap believes a woman who has never truly met him about how Stark ticks (not cool, Cap, not cool). I tell you, lots of scenes cut.

- Loved the Science Bros in action. But why does Banner wear a lab coat (in a computer lab) while Stark doesn't? Both makes no sense!

- Natasha chooses to talk about the Red Room, which is awesome, but then tries to convince Bruce that she sees herself as a monster with the fact that she can't have children? Wtf? I'm pretty sure that was not the intended message.

- I don't get Stark in this, which is a true shame. I understand why he creates Ultron and I love it when RDJ does those teary puppy eyes, but for a guy who fought tooth and nail to shut down his weapon manufacturing he's strangely unimpressed about Ultron. Not even a little remorse? Doubt about the new android? No? He felt strangely aloft in many of his scenes as if nothing could really faze him, maybe because he had to deliver all those witty comments. Meh.

- Thanos is starting to annoy me. He's supposed to be this big bad guy, but all he ever really does is sit around. This does not work over the course of so many Marvel movies anymore.

- Needs less Audi product placement. Seriously, it's so weird to see everyone drive Audi as if it was the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe I'm so sore about it because I usually get tailgated by Audis. They're usually assholes.

Anyway, the good parts!

- Stan Lee's "Excelsior". There was applause. ^^

- Those scenes that were straight out of a comic book. Oh yeah.

- The 3D was better than I expected, I had prepared for sore eyes as I usually have a problem with 3D and motion blur, but it was very well done and didn't feel out of place.

- Nerd discussions about Thor's hammer and Tony/Thor talking about their awesome girlfriends who are far too busy for them <3

- Lol, Quicksilver is a walking, talking Adidas-wearing cliche of an Eastern European. I loved it. And for the love of God, thank you for casting a real German for Strucker. Accurate accent was accurate! A shame he was evil, though, Kretschmann is usually quite yummy. I hear they'll disfigure Daniel Brühl next.

- So much Hawkeye love for that "I have a bow and arrow, none of this makes sense". I hope his family is safe (I'm looking at you, Ultimates). We were hoping for an after-credits scene where Spidey pushes Scarlet Witch out of the way to be the first out that door to become an Avenger ^^

- Hulk vs. Iron Man. Oh yeah.

- That lonely Edward Snowden tech guy from Captain America 2 now flies the Helicarrier. Fuck yeah.

- I think Stark severely misinterpreted that Cap has no "dark side" though. If Scarlet Witch showed everyone their worst fear/memory/vision of the future, for me that means that Cap has reached a point where he realizes that he (now) doesn't see himself as a man who can have a simple life back in the 40ies with a woman and two kids. Either because he's moved on or because he knows too much about what is to come by now. I mean, that scene felt really nightmarish if you ask me... that, or Agent Carter seriously needs a timey-wimey episode real soon.

- I dig Paul Bettany even when he's purple and wears a cape <3

- They acknowledged all the shippers somehow. Heh. Plus, the amount of indecent stuff they managed to sneak in despite the rating was quite cool

Two questions remain:

1. Why did they mention Laputa by Studio Gihibli in the credits? And
2. Did they really drink Warsteiner on their party??


That turned out longer than I intended... sorry.

It seems I cannot watch TV shows normally, I can only binge-watch shows. In this case, I simply wanted to get a glimpse what it was about and 24 hours later I'm up to date. *yawns*

Anyway, Agent Carter had me at ( Collapse )

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TL;DR: Dune bawls about Marvel comics. If my Comic Book Shop Guy knew this he would smile even wider at me, I might've made his day when I had a debate about the new Sandman comics... In other news, this will not help getting the BF to read said comics, he hates it when I try to badger him into reading something.

ABOUT EFFING TIME! For some reason Marvel thought it was a good idea to do the Europe release of Guardians an entire month later than the US premiere - THIS IS WHY I HAVE DOWNLOAD TRUST ISSUES. Really. We stayed strong, wanted to see it on the big screen - and waited. We were spoilered, of course we were. Fuck you, Marvel, a month?!

Anyway, it was nice to see the cinema bursting with people who were willing to watch the original (non-dubbed) version for once - we usually feel like hipsters when we go there and are the only Germans apparently fluent enough in English to see movies in the original.

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I think every pun has been made, there were headlines using the word Blitzkrieg, countless memes were made (seriously, I missed a goal because I was still talking about the last one). A handy table if you're American have no idea how fucked-up 7 goals are.

Anyway, what I take away from that game is that a) the players were almost apologetic about winning (everything after goal 4 would've been gloating), b) I was thinking "Okay now DON'T RUIN IT" until the 5:0 - and  that c), in true German fashion, the first question the reporters asked the fans in Brazil was "Are you satisfied with how that went?"

Because, yeah. Even when we've won, we're nagging, have been ever since the team entered Brazil. Germans.

For the record, I'm still not sure we'll make it. But then I didn't think we'd come this far.

Uhm, yay Germany?
I kind of made my peace with the by now obligatory, very localized outbreaks of patriotism ('patriotism' being guys in soccer gear, waiting for their friends who are usually vomiting/pissing into some bushes and yelling "Schlaaaaand" whenever they aren't). Yeah, I'll be glad once it's over, I like my country patriotism-free, thank you, but at least the team made it this far, so yay? Nobody was really expecting that, to be honest.
Anyway, I think I might need a soccer jersey, because I like the Brasilian ones and apparently they have a player called Hulk. So, you know, this is kinda relevant to my interests.



Alas, I think I'll need to wait until that semifinal is over, those 'patriots' don't always take jerseys of other teams well ... will be an interesting game against Brasil at least, I guess.

OMFG, if I could crawl into these Iron Man issues and use them like a blanket, I would. It's so deliciously angsty, and in a good way, not in the way the Civil War hurt. Just finished the Stark: Disassembled storyline and as I said before, I am so late to the party that it's not even funny anymore, but I'll just keep posting here because frankly, the BF is starting to be annoyed by my ramblings and has gone and found the perfect solution: He simply says

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This post was brought to you by a Fear of Mondays that lead to Dune reading comics till 3 am and resulted  in her being completely dead in the morning... I know nobody really reads these, but I have feeeels I need to get out somehow before the BF decides to put fingers in his ears and sing loudly while I rant.

So yeah, my unhealthy obsession wit Iron Man comics continues, I have now completed the 90ies and am now firmly on my way to the Civil War. Again. I have no idea if I can read that again, IT STILL MAKES ME SO SAAAD.

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tl;dr: Dune cannot stop gushing over a fictional guy.