Stuck With You [Review: The WONDERfools Episodes 2 and 3]

Some highlights from episodes 2 and 3 of Korean superhero drama The WONDERfools - minor spoilers only. Three characters have now developed superpowers - teleportation, super-strength and STICKING TO THINGS! but they don't understand how their powers work so can't control them. As a result:

• The teleporter appeared for a few moments on the set of a TV historical drama, so now believes they are a time traveller.
• The super-strength character now has some interesting holes in their walls.
• The character who's superpower is STICKING TO THINGS! finds their arm is stuck to their fridge door, so they have to stand in front of the fridge and persuade their family that this is for completely normal reasons.

So far this series has been an absolute treat, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes superhero dramas and needs to break their addiction to the MCU (yes, Geek Twins, I'm looking at you).

The rebellious and chaotic Eun Chae-ni, played by Park Eun-bin, remains the star of the show, but the whole cast is strong, and the arguments between the characters appear to be getting bigger and more melodramatic. I believe the sticking superpower may be unique, and I'm looking forward to see how this power might be used for the good of humanity later in the series.

Meanwhile a series of flashbacks reveal that one character spent their childhood in a 50s style concrete laboratory being subjected to experiments by a sinister scientist. This is a widely used trope, seen in films and dramas from Firestarter to Stranger Things. Here it's just one part of the greater mystery of Haesong City.

As with many non-Western productions there are constant switches between melodramatics, slapstick or farce, and more serious and nuanced drama - there doesn't seem to be a requirement to stick to one tone. This, combined with the complex maze of secrets and twists that are slowly unravelling, makes The WONDERfools difficult to predict. I'm still holding back on the urge to binge the entire series so I can savour it for as long as possible, but I doubt I can hold out for much longer.

If I Had A Thanos [Review: Avengers Endgame]

Score: 3 out of 5 stars

All movies reviewed on the Sci-Fi Gene blog are given a score of 3 out of 5 stars

SPOILER WARNING

This review may contain spoiler warnings

2018's Avengers: Infinity War ended with the destruction of half of all life in the Universe, including half of the Avengers cast. I wasn't hugely surprised to find, and this isn't really much of a spoiler, that Avengers: Endgame turns out to be about an attempt by the remaining Avengers to bring the band back together and do something about it.

I was more surprised by the downbeat, bluesy tone of much of the movie. I would expect to see more personal depth and character building in the individual superhero stories, and there's plenty of this in Ant Man and The Wasp, and Captain Marvel - it's hard to get the same depth in an ensemble movie, but Endgame does better than most. The movie opens a few years after Infinity War, in a world reacting to the shock of that Thanos moment through memorials and support groups. Meanwhile the scattered Avengers have each reacted in different ways, and there's a reality to the transformed Thor, Hawkeye and Hulk that makes a lot of sense - possibly having fewer other characters overshadowing them means these characters can be more central. There's also a lot of gentle humour to be found.

However Avengers: Endgame is still not exactly an arthouse dogme experiment - I'm gutted that Lars Von Trier turned down the invitation to direct. There are plenty of CGI set-piece battles, and these are quite lovely but also confusing if you try to follow them. Why is Captain Marvel more powerful than Thanos one moment, and at his mercy the next? I gave up and just enjoyed the fireworks. The same applies to the main plot, the Avengers' plan to address the absence of half the Universe. Giving the writers credit, they have deliberately taken a certain kind of sci-fi plot and tried very hard to give it an original twist by disallowing the obvious routes. The end result serves the movie well but really doesn't stand up to logical analysis - luckily as a Doctor Who fan I have become immune to plot holes through repeated exposure so this did not spoil Endgame for me in the slightest.

Overall Endgame is a satisfying movie and a satisfying end to both the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy movie cycles. I am sure the great Stan Lee would approve of this movie's marvellous review score of three stars out of five.

Can You Read My Mind

More musings on Superheroes by David Schwartz…

Long ago, during a school visit to a top secret Government mathematics facility, I was bitten by a radioactive abacus: I quickly discovered I had gained an uncanny ability to count things. I was tempted initially to use my superhuman skills for personal gain, and very nearly became an investment banker. Instead under the cover of my alter-ego “The Plus One” I have employed my unique talent in the fight against crime for many years, and can even claim to have saved the Earth on five occasions. Or was it four?

Even with my phenomenal counting abilities I seem to lose track of the number of times the Superman concept has been “reinvented.” The novel Superpowers is just one of so many examples: films such as Unbreakable, Mystery Men, Push, Next, Jumper, Kick-Ass, Super, The Incredibles, and TV series such as Heroes or Misfits have already been there. Superheroes falling out of favour with the public, turning against the humans or against each other, with and without costumes, alter-egos and actual powers, with corporate sponsors, and with insanely powerful or eccentric powers – haven’t we all at some time fantasised about being able to hurl forks with deadly accuracy, or to make fish explode?

It doesn’t require any supersenses, though, to see that most of these “reinventions” are nothing of the sort. The Hulk never wore spandex! Batman never had any powers! Superman makes fish explode all the time! (allegedly) One theme that never seems to go away is the supervillain, and the cliché that the hero and villain complement each other.

Superpowers is therefore exceptional in that much of the story is about the absence of supervillainy. The All-Stars make a real but underwhelming impact on local crime statistics. They both assist and annoy the police, and the public become irritated and litiginous but fall short of baying for blood. Without a supervillain or doomsday plot they lose their way and lose their hero status – their powers also have their own limitations and divide the team more often than uniting it.

It turns out that the plot is smarter than this. There’s a twist coming – it was foreshadowed in the first line of every chapter but it still took me by surprise. Perhaps superheroes exist in our minds because supervillains do indeed exist in real life.

Absolute Power [Review: Superpowers]

Five college flatmates suddenly develop a range of superpowers and form a costumed vigilante group. Yes! David Schwartz’ novel Superpowers is yet another attempt to reinvent the superhero mythos – more on that story later. The plot of this novel has a superficial similarity to the film Chronicle and does cover some of the same ground, however the climax - and perhaps the point - is very different.

As the title suggests, the novel is all about the powers themselves. All five superstudents go through similar superpower angst: Mary Beth, gifted with superstrength, breaks everything she touches – her toothbrushes are doomed, as are the ribs of any potential boyfriends. The self-styled All-Stars learn to control their powers, up to a point, but they are isolated and lonely, and their situation divides the group more often than it unites it. Also, having a power will only take you so far – you can read someone’s mind but you might still not be able to influence them. In the end they are hopelessly unprepared for the crisis that is coming.

The cast are pleasingly diverse. That’s SOP for novelists now, ever since Ben Elton daringly wrote his novel Gridlock which features a traffic warden hero. The ethnic diversity is also a pointer to another aspect of the book. The term “superpowers” has another meaning, and the issues faced by the All-Stars can be read as a metaphor for conflicts played out every week on the international stage. The Earth’s most powerful countries routinely have to decide how and when to use their economic or military strength, and whether to intervene in the affairs of other countries – and in the resulting pressure, mistakes can be made.

The Ex-Factor [Review: My Super Ex-Girlfriend]

Superheroes really do get a raw deal. G-Girl here (Uma Thurman) has been written as one of those misogenistic fantasy characters, the neurotic-obsessive-clingy woman, but half-way through the film I found myself rooting for her rather than her boyfriend Matt (Luke Wilson) the supposed hero/victim of the piece, who is only interested in bragging to his best friend about his sexual exploits. The extremely funny scene in the restaurant where G-Girl knows that, if she leaves her table to save the world from a meteorite threat, this will leave Matt free to flirt with his co-worker Hannah (Anna Faris) pretty much sums it up - and she has a point, why can't they just leave it to the military for once?

I would have to say this is not a film that stands out as any kind of classic, although it's original and quite funny. It's always good to see superheroes using their powers for something more inventive than just the common good of all mankind: for example the third act, when G-Girl finally gets round to taking imaginative revenge on Matt for dumping her, is a lot of fun. Actually I think she is relatively restrained given how badly she's been treated.

Heart And Soul Superhero

Science fiction themes have led to some inspired music videos recently, including Gabriella Cilmi's silly but stylish "On A Mission" and two works of genius featuring those Black Eyed Peas - "Rock Your Body" and "Meet Me Halfway."

Here's my current favourite music video, "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart." by Alicia Keys. I've got a soft spot for anyone who knows how to use a piano, and this is a gorgeous song. I also think the video is very well made and has a strong story. The superhero theme was apparently inspired by Hancock but there are also references to The Matrix and X-Men - and Alicia rides a Tron cycle!


Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart (Official Music Video) - Watch more top selected videos about: Alicia_Keys

How did this film beat the censors? [Review: Kick-Ass]

When Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction was submitted for censorship, the censors thought long and hard about their decisions. We've come a long way from the bad old days when a flash of ankle would be too much for anyone to handle. Eventually they changed only one scene, zooming in on a needle so you don't see the tip enter the skin. Drug use is OK. Violence is fine. Glorifying them is where they drew the line, and the change they made was the minimum required. Censorship's now a subtle and intelligent business and I have a lot of respect for it.

At first viewing Kick-Ass appears to have walked straight through the censor's office leaving a bloody trail across the cutting-floor. Scene after scene of children dishing out vigilante justice. 11-year-old Hit Girl shooting up a coridoor of bad guys Matrix-style, accompanied by quips, jokes, good humour and a kick-ass soundtrack. Taking these scenes individually you might think they were glorifying violence in a big way, and I was shocked that so much of this remained uncut.

Putting the same scenes back in context is a little different. What sticks out about this film is not the glorified violence but the pain. There's a whole lot of pain in this film. Excruciating pain. And this is not a 3D film, it's filmed in Pain-O-Vision - watch and you'll feel as if you're getting a baton to the knees, or your teeth knocked out. I practically limped home and I can still taste the blood from my lungs. Almost every battle Kick-Ass enters leads to him getting a solid beating, whether he ultimately wins or loses, and even Hit Girl has her moment of doubt, when for a few seconds she's no longer an invincible heroine but an 11-year old cowering behind a cabinet.

This level of pain has two effects on the film: firstly, it converts it from a violent film to an ultra-violent film, but secondly it changes the message. Far from glorifying vigilantism, this film says: go ahead, but don't come running to me when you get hurt.