Okay, I did it. I wasn't going to, but I did. I took my daughter to see a movie about a comic book I had never heard of until the powers that be said "Hey, we're making a movie about 'Suicide Squad.'" I scratched my head and said "Harley Quin was in a comic book other than 'Batman' and her own? Okay, I'm game."
When I saw the first trailer, I was concerned. Very, very concerned. Why? I watch comic book superhero movies all the time. Well, my daughter happens to like Harley Quinn. My beautiful, well-developed, cosplaying fifteen year old. Why should this concern me? Margot Robbie, the fab actress that plays Harley, well, her ass cheeks were hanging out half of the movie. The only time they weren't? When she was in prison. Yeah... we can tell this was geared towards guys. Can we get Will Smith's ass out on the screen? No. But let's have the chick in four inch stilettos with sparkly hot pants and tight white t-shirt... I'm sure my friends that aren't parents won't understand. My friends that are parents to boys ... kind of get it. Just remember, when you sexualize a character for the sake of a movie, young girls see it. They think 'Oh. So, I have to look like that and act like that for guys to pay attention to me.' Wrong answer. Even if it's "just a character" remember, that's someone's daughter, someone's sister, portraying that character on screen. Guys, how would you feel if that was your daughter or your sister dressed like that? I'm trying to teach my daughter that modesty counts and how you dress and act is how people judge you (and yes folks, it is exactly that way in life; if you've never experienced it, congrats), but first impressions do matter. If you walk through life like Harley Quinn looks in that movie ... Yikes! So, my daughter liked the movie. The movie was okay. Mind you, never having read the comic I can't have the same beef that fans have. It was better than I expected (Rotten Tomatoes did give it a 27%) but not as good as it could have been. (Thank you Marvel for raising my expectations of comic book movies. You do know how to get it done.) I didn't like Jared Leto's Joker. I did like seeing Batman. Superman's death was addressed, briefly, so DC hit some of the story lines they have going right now. Kudos there. They even introduced Ezra Miller as The Flash and a Bonus scene during the end credits (Marvel-style) introduces Justice League with Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller (how she survives this leads me to believe she is meta human herself, not just a bad ass bitch). But the bonus scene is not handled nearly as well as it could have been. As a writer and a fledgling screenwriter, who is a comic book geek herself, I would have written a few spots a bit differently in the film. If I had been Warner Brothers I would have found a different director or I would have given the "Suicide Squad" library to David Ayer and said, "Research." The movie opened 5 August and has just covered budget according to the numbers offered up on IMDBpro. It should have busted the budget opening weekend. This could be a sign for WB. Change something or your stuff is going to keep tanking. (Apparently, I'm not the only one that thinks so. Read this open letter to WB CEO Kevin Tsujihara.) I hold out my hope that they have not completely jacked up Wonder Woman. The story line with Rick Flag and June Moone/The Enchantress was okay. It could have been stronger. The movie could have run longer to work that out. They concentrated on the introduction of the characters in the "Squad", which was fine but went on way too long. I probably would have handled it differently. Joker wasn't as big a part of the movie as the previews suggested and maybe under this title is the only place he was this in love with Harley but I don't remember Joker being that broken up over much of anything. We could have kept Joker to a minimum. Some of his scenes weren't essential to the story. Then, we were intro'd to two characters. One we had kind of been intro'd to already but I was wondering why he was there at all. He wasn't as big of a player in the story and his lines and part could have been absorbed by someone else. The other character you knew was going to get killed. Why? There was no big intro, no backstory. He was clumsily thrown in, like he was an afterthought. Red flag. If I were you, I'd skip the cost of the ticket and the concessions and wait for it to hit RedBox.
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So, this thing happened this past weekend called “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” No, I’ll try not to spoil it for you but I will tell you there has been an uproar over the publication of the SCRIPT. Yes, read that. I said script not book. Folks pre-ordered the book and thought they were getting an actual book. Yikes. No. That’s not what happened at all. It was clearly stated that the release would be a script. I can’t understand how people don’t know the difference.
Here’s my two cents on actually reading the item in question, but I will tell you up front, I have a theatre background and reading plays is not out of the ordinary for me. Now, moving on… The book/script has about 301 pages, that’s including the “act breaks” and excluding the beginning “intro” pages as well as the ending cast list and acknowledgements. So if you take out the extra blank pages, it’s shorter than a HP novel. If you can, like I did, picture Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Bonnie Wright in their roles, but older then you’ll do just fine reading this addition to the collection. But if you’re the kind of person that needs all the description and action filled in for you then… don’t bother. If you want to know more, read on. The play begins nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts and we find ourselves seeing Albus off to Hogwarts for the first time and meeting Scorpius Malfoy. (Let me point out now that J.K. Rowling did not write the whole story but she did contribute. Jack Thorne wrote the play.) Then, we skip to years 2, 3, (with brief pauses in each) and land on 4 where the play takes place, all in the span of a few pages. It’s enough to give any stage manager, even a rock star, a headache, but we make it. Albus doesn’t like school, being Harry Potter’s son will do that, apparently. This story does not focus on Harry Potter. It focuses on Albus. It focuses on the dynamic between father and son, both Harry’s relationship with Albus and Draco’s relationship with Scorpius. Albus feels the need to prove himself worthy of being the great Harry Potter’s son and gets into trouble doing it. He usually has Scorpius in tow, who also feels enormous pressure being Draco Malfoy’s son. More due to the rumors that Scorpius is not Draco’s but Voldemort’s. (That would be impossible without the help of a time-turner and we all know those were destroyed in the Battle of the Ministry in book 5!) I won’t tell you anymore. You’ll have to read it for yourself. In my opinion, it’s a quick read and a good addition to the world, however I think it would have been fuller and richer had it been a novel. I was not disappointed. After all, I did spend my time in line to get it. |
AuthorCollege graduate, Army vet, single mom, Husky mom, Movie lover, writer Archives
August 2022
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