BOOK: Archenemies (2018)

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Archenemies Year: 2018 Author: Marissa Meyer Length: 877 minutes / 14.62 hours There's a trope in comic books about how supervillains' schemes sometimes make sense. Maybe they want to solve some systemic problem with society, but the way they go about it is all wrong. There's often a leap of logic between "let's solve global warming" and "I want to build an ice ray to freeze the entire planet." Because this trope falls apart in the cartoony logic that graces the pages of comic books, it's refreshing to see some truly fantastic moral ambiguity between villains and heroes (all with quite unique powers and abilities) in Marissa Meyer's Archenemies. While there were a few moments of illogical villains in Renegades, this sequel really delves into these characters who think they're doing the right thing—from both sides. I love how there are heroes who take their "we are justice" ideology too far, while there are also villains out there trying to improve the broken society that...
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MOVIE: Cruella (2021)

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Cruella Year: 2021 Rating: PG-13 Length: 134 minutes / 2.23 hours It seems the latest trend in the last few years is to take well-known villains and make them relatable through tragic backstories. While Maleficent (2014) seems to have started this string of villain-centric movies, Cruella (2021) does an adequate job of showing this villain's transformation while also making you want to root for her. However, the problem with idolizing someone like Cruella De Vil (Emma Stone) is that her eventual crime against the 101 Dalmatians (1961) is the desire to kill every single one of them in the name of fashion. While the plot pulls elements from Oliver Twist and All About Eve (1950), there are enough twists at the end of this film that make it worth the watch. Even if one of these moments had me laughing at how ridiculous it was, it all paid off because of Emma Stone's excellent acting throughout. Of course, it also helped that the flamboyant fashion...
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BOOK: Fairest (2015)

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Fairest: Levana’s Story Year: 2015 Author: Marissa Meyer Length: 392 minutes / 6.53 hours I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere in the last decade or so, the idea of “redeemable villains” took off. So many stories had antagonists that had their heinous acts justified by some past trauma that somehow made them more human and understandable. While I appreciate flawed characters and the bad decisions that eventually led them down the dark and evil path, I don’t think it’s always necessary to make villains redeemable. That is unless it’s done well. Fairest does it well. Right from the first pages of Fairest, the reader understands that Levana was the runt of the family. The amount of teasing and hypocrisy that formed this young girl into the evil queen she would eventually become is understandable. However, the real brilliance of this story comes in when Levana tries to solve her problems the only way she knows how: by manipulation. It’s not entirely her fault,...
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MOVIE: Venom (2018)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Venom Year: 2018 Rating: PG-13 Length: 112 minutes / 1.87 hours If I haven’t said it before in my review of Spider-man: Homecoming (2017), I’ll repeat it here: I grew up watching the 1990s animated Spider-man series, which makes the Spider-man franchise one of my favorite. Consequently, most of my knowledge of the franchise comes from the show. In my mind, the symbiote storyline that introduced Venom was one of the best in the series, and I was disappointed when Spider-man 3 (2007) woefully miscast Eddie Brock with Topher Grace. Flash forward a decade later, and the big screen is taking another crack at the Venom storyline in a standalone film…but without Spider-man. As a long-time fan, I appreciated the mostly faithful origin story in Venom (2018), with a few minor and vital details still retained to make it close to what actually happened. This time around, Tom Hardy was a much better choice for the titular role, even if his mumbling accent was a little distracting at times. While the physique was a match,...
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