T Tries to Convince C to Keep Watching "Watchmen"

C is a stubborn cuss. Some have even described him as a curmudgeon, but he has told those people to shut their yaps and get the hell off his lawn. The stubbornness often extends to the entertainment world, where his demands for quality do not always coincide with what he is given. Part of that is because, as a fiction writer, he feels that too many people who write both novels and screenplays are lazy, overpaid hacks while he works harder than he probably should to strive for his best. He concedes that he does not always succeed but the effort is put forth.

C is also a huge Alan Moore fan, especially when it comes to "Watchmen" the graphic novel. He isn't a Moore fanatic, however, as evidenced by his brusk dismissal of the John Constantine character as a mostly dull, lazily rendered character who only becomes interesting when he's interacting with other DC Comics characters. 

"Watchmen," however, holds a special place in C's heart. It is, in his words, a masterpiece of style, plot, characterization, and understated yet dynamic art. It is also flawed and he agrees with Grant Morrison that there was a better ending Moore should have considered.

C felt the Zack Snyder film was a faithful adaptation that actually improved upon the ending, but it was still a movie made by someone who understood what he read before doing his own thing with it. This brings us to the HBO "Watchmen" series and T's attempt to talk C into not giving up on it after a rather negative reaction to the first episode:

(Beware! There be spoilers here because T can't keep his yap shut!)

C; I'm watching watchmen and I have no idea what the fuck is going on.

T: Just wait. It gets good.

C: I have faith in the series creator

T: I was a little confused at first, then it got good

C:  I couldn't place the time setting at first

T: Yeah I know then they start giving you clues

C: Tell me if I'm right. Rorschach's journal started a movement!

T: Oh yeah. They twisted it.

C: Fuckers stole my idea!

T: 

C: Honestly I'm giving this show one more episode. It probably doesn't help that I don't particularly care for Regina King (An understatement. he thinks she has the range of a drowning puppy)

T: I wasn't wild about her either, but once it gets into the plot

C: (After the first episode has ended) Color me disappointed.

T: It starts slow, but it gets good.

C: this is the first Damon Lindelof show where I wasn't riveted from the first few minutes. I don't think this is his element. Nice to see Lou Gossett though.

T: Man, there is a hidden story you won't believe. Trust me its worth watching

C: Yeah the Gossett is starting to spill portions of it. So if Dr Manhattan is on Mars, isn't this happening before Rorschach and Nite Owl confronted Veidt? But there was a newspaper headline saying Veidt was dead.

T: Thats whats gonna blow your mind when you find out the truth

C: I doubt it will outdo Doomsday Clock

T: The show is nominated for multiple Emmys

C: That's meaningless.  I wipe my ass with Emmys. (He does, too! It's nothing you ever want to bear witness to either!)

T:  Just give it time.

C: I'm giving it another episode. I'm not getting stuck in another Stranger Things trap. (For more on C's views on "Stranger Things, click here and here)

T: They explain Viedt and everything. And when you find out about Dr. Manhattan and what's on Mars. 

C: Honestly I'm not really being made to care.The show is kind of annoying. I don't even like the premise.

T: It's got a mean twist.

C: Meh. Twists are so early 2000s. Just tell a fucking story...now I've lost whatever flow I had.

T: Well Hooded Justice was a Black man in White face under the hood (Young Lou Gossett Jr), he's Regina Kings grandfather and they were reunited by Dr. Manhattan also Viedt was imprisoned escapes to keep his evil clone genius daughter from trying to take Dr. Manhattan's power for herself and Dr. Manhattan is actually Regina Kings husband in hiding

C:

C: The fuck? Why did you just tell me all that? I might as well just return it (to the library) now! I mean that all sounds like really shitty and stupid writing but at least let me experience it on my own.

T: Trust me the rest is worth looking for.

C: I'm taking it back

T: SMH

C: Oh shake THIS, Mr. Judgment! It is boring and annoying.

And clearly written by people who didn't understand the comic.

T: Shame; you don't know what you are missing

C: You are way too accepting of mediocrity my friend

T: You have to watch it to make that statement. LOL

C: I did. 1.25 episodes LOL

Last time I had this conversation, I was guilted by someone into finishing season one of Stranger Things. T: Not enough.

C: That's what she said! She was wrong. So, so wrong.

T: Stranger Things is Millenial garbage. (Send your hate emails to T at hesaidit@gmail.com)

C:

Brian Fontana agrees with me!
T: Well, I'm not the person that recommended Stranger Things to you.

C: No but you have recommended some real turds in your time.

T: We both have LOL

C: I rarely recommend things. I just say whether or not I liked something. I'm used to hating what others love and vice versa I don't even think the show is well made..It looks cheap. But even if your insentivity spoilers aren't the only mysteries, what you told me sounds so goddam dumb. An evil clone daughter did these assholes even know what Alan Moore was doing???

T: It gets good around the 4th show

C: ...

Avengers: Endgame. What the Hell is Wrong with the Fans?

On this post, C flies solo, so don't blame T for it's content!

I was planning to write a rather extensive review of  “Avengers: Endgame” that dealt with the film’s numerous faults and my dismay at not having enjoyed it even remotely as much as its brilliant predecessor. I had my bullet points ready and was prepared to be the lone voice in the wilderness of adoring sycophants daring to say the emperor had holes in his underwear (with apologies to Bud Bundy).

Yep, that was the plan. But two things happened that changed all that:

First, amidst the enormous groundswell of initial praise, I started noticing quite the opposite. Obviously there are always people poised to hate a popular thing, but even when discounting those types, there was still a rather vocal minority pointing out the film’s many shortcomings. And they had well thought out reasons!

Some of these people absolutely hated the movie. I didn’t. There were some good moments just not enough of them to justify the film’s three-hour runtime. I found the film uneven, as if it had been shot using an outline rather than a completed, polished script. Some of the character beats were poorly chosen and rendered and the entire plot felt lazy and phoned-in. I feel let down and it has diminished my interest in the MCU to the point where I doubt I will allow myself to become invested in an ongoing story arc again.

Still, like-minded people weren’t enough to change my plans. That’s where the second thing comes in.

Anybody who expressed dislike or even disappointment with the movie was immediately attacked by those who loved it like white blood cells to a virus. It’s easy to dismiss them as paid Disney trolls but let’s be honest: That’s total horseshit. Disney has no need for such things because real people are beyond willing to devote their time and energy to defending them whenever someone has the nerve to not heap praise. This is especially true regarding the MCU which, at this point, can do no wrong to its cadre of unquestioning devotees.

They are fanatics. The Marvel movies are their god and they will keyboard warrior like mad to prevent any perceived blasphemy against him. So, like any fanatics worth their glassy-eyed stare, they label those of us who don’t agree with names designed to make us look like either terrible people or those who have yet to accept the good news. There’s also another facet to their fanaticism that most people might not recognize...they speak their own language. Words that don’t mean what they think they mean are used to continue their bizarre, pointless agenda.

Much like how Evangelical Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses use “worldly” as an insult when its true meaning is complimentary, the MCU cult uses phrases such as “DC fanboy” as if it means anything more than someone who considers DC Comics their favorite comics publisher. The same thing was done to the word “liberal” in the 1980s, a tactic that proved so successful, liberals started calling themselves “progressives” instead.

In the right (or wrong, depending upon your point of view) hands, re-engineering language can be a powerful tool for controlling how people view things.

We have entered a time when even disagreement over a movie can turn ugly. Since I expected something like this to happen, I decided to sit back and observe. Whenever I saw someone on an “Endgame” related Facebook post make any sort of non--fawning comment about the movie,  I clicked on it to read the reactions. True to form, the majority were antagonistic, hostile, dismissive and, in some cases, demeaning. Two weeks after the initial giddiness had worn off, however, I started noticing a small but steady wave of people daring to share negative opinions. Some of them were obvious trolls, of course, and some were far less kind to the movie than I’ve been, but the response was the same no matter what.

I finally decided to see about getting a substantive response to why these clearly insecure fanatics are responding this way. To do that, I decided to choose a thread where the initial comment was resoundingly negative.

I agreed with some of the original commenter’s points but not all of them. Again, I did not hate the movie. I found it underwhelming with a lackluster second act (my normal criticism of problematic movies is the third act) and a victim of lazy, phoned-in writing but there were moments that were very enjoyable. Just not enough of them considering the near perfection of its predecessor.

It didn’t take long for the guy to be labelled a troll; jokes were hurled at him implying he’d been molested as a child (some obscene metaphor online jerks use to indicate your dissenting opinion comes from striking back at the world because you were tampered with) and a “Butthurt DC fanboy,” which is apparently the worst thing one can be in the eyes of a MCU Zombie. The original commenter seemed to find this all rather amusing while I decided to use it as a way to see if I could get a better idea of their so-called thought-processes.

I wrote, “I found the movie disappointing and lackluster. Am I a butthurt DC fanboy, too?”

The response, “You either are or you’re not,” came straight from the fanatic’s songbook. In fact, it’s a paraphrase of a response I received when I asked a religious fanatic if I was going to Hell for not being a believer.

I repeated the question. To my pleasant surprise, the second response was measured and thoughtful. He informed me his comments were really about the people who slammed the movie with words such as “sucks” and “garbage etc. I thanked him for the reply and the adult way he did it. One other person was not so mature and I had to remind him I’m not his “bro.”

It occured to me that the guy with whom I’d mostly interacted was probably caught up in a moment of fanatical fervor. He also likely realized how like the original commenter was coming across when I did not react with hostility. Sometimes it is possible to make a fanatic think.

Now if we could just do something about that toxic “Star Wars” fanbase.

...AND THEN THESE MFs SHOWED UP....

...and everything went to hell.

To be fair, this blog has been in the works for at least five years. With all the chatter and cross-chatter and unbearable horseshit occurring in the world of genre film, how could we not add a bit of our own? One thing we can guarantee you we won't be adding, however, is hatefulness just for its own hipster-infested sake. That's not what we're about.

Sure, there will be hostile reviews from time-to-time but they won't be presented in some insular, basement-dwelling fashion for no other reason than to troll web pages and sites that have the nerve to provide a discussion format. So, this is probably a good place to introduce ourselves, first individuals and then as a duo:

Christopher Nadeau is a published author of two novels and over three dozen short stories as well as many articles on subjects ranging from museums to politics to film news and reviews and even local events. He has been a comic book fan all of his life and saw the original "Star Wars" during its original release when he was young enough to be brainwashed for life. His writing was once compared to Ray Bradybury's by English horror author Ramsey Campbell and he has studied science fiction writing with Professor James Gunn and Frederik Pohl. He is also highly critical of himself, which means he's just as critical of hacks and filmmakers, writers and artists who take the easy way out. To know him is to love him but since you won't ever really know him, you'll probably hate him. He's fine with that as long as you don't try to get him to watch the second and third "Matrix" movies.

T.E. Johnson is a lifelong comics fan as well as a union man who has embarrassed many a corporate weasel in his time. He understands that it's okay to like two competing franchises, sometimes equally, and has little patience for trolling fanboys/girls who want to start keyboard wars over ridiculous nonsense. His background in Labor Relations has afforded him a unique perspective on the human mind and how group-think influences people. He uses this knowledge to try and make people who aren't used to using logic think logically. He lives in America so his efforts have borne little fruit. Now he's here, on a blog with his childhood friend with whom he has discussed the types of movies they will be reviewing for longer than either of them would care to admit.

Now that you know us intimately, we're ready to get this bad boy rolling. Check back in the next day or more for our first film review. We chose to start with "Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse" because it's animated, it's playing now, and the title is dumb enough to necessitate a great movie. Or is it?

Return to this page soon to find out!