Spider-man: Far From Home (Spoilers)

So while I was a little peeved with all the spoiler talk after Stranger Things aired this past week, I was calmed down by the fact that people got their crap together and didn't spoil anything for Far From Home, even though it took me more than the allotted weekend to see it. Again, I'm kind of pissed about Stranger Things, but I'm less pissed because I was pleasantly surprised by the end of Far From Home.

And I'm just gonna skip to the best spoiler of the movie hands down: J.K. Simmons is J. Jonah Jameson in the MCU!

There are a lot of spoilers I can and will talk about with this movie, but this made me literally cheer in the theater. 

Casting Simmons again as Jameson was always talked about but there was nothing really pointing towards it ever happening. There's something odd about having any actor reprise a role as a character but in a different cannon. But J.K. Simmons plays the role so well that it's just perfect and I know I'm not the only one who loved that addition.

I'll talk more about the ending in a second but more importantly I need to talk about Mysterio.

On one hand, it's pretty obvious that Mysterio was the bad guy in this film. I think it was clever in their marketing because if it had just been Mysterio coming in and saying he was a new superhero, people would have been able to call BS right away. But he brings up the multiverse, and this is right after Into The Spider-verse which also talked about the multiverse so even though I knew that Mysterio was a villain, even I was questioning, is he bad in this film or are they setting up the multiverse in the MCU?

And then if you don't know who Mysterio is, you can perhaps fall into the idea that perhaps he is good and perhaps be surprised halfway through when its revealed he's not, or be amazed by the multiverse approach.

But regardless on whether or not you called it, I still think Quentin Beck's reveal and backstory is really interesting because it calls back to Civil War and the augmented reality that apparently Quentin Beck created.

And I really liked that element of it. There are a couple of exposition dumps in this movie that actually really work and you understand why Quenten Beck is the way he is, along with the other disgruntled employees from Stark Industries who serve as the bad guys in this film.

It is fascinating how both villains from the MCU Spider-man films have been disgruntled Stark employees. While Gyllenhall is the main bad guy, it's really interesting that Mysterio is more of a group project with Beck at the head like a psycho director. I like this because it makes the characters more relatable because they're working class guys who get screwed over by the cavalier Playboy Billionaire Genius that was Tony Stark.

The problem with this is that we're getting to the point where the movies are starting to really promote the idea that power is corrupting, except if its in the hands of the right people. It's kind of an elitist message if you think about it too much. Sure Quenten Beck is an unhinged lunatic (which Jake Gyllenhall surprising plays brilliantly more and more), but it's been a theme in Avengers films that I kind of hope Marvel explores more in upcoming films instead of just always saying the Avengers are right.

Screen Junkies did a really good video on the potential rift that could happen between the X-men and the Avengers when Marvel decides to finally integrate the X-men into the MCU. The link is available here. It alludes to the fact that almost all the MCU films have centered on the idea of limiting the amount of power that is out there, except for the power the Avengers have because it's in the hands of the right people. While the X-men are more of a symbol of non-violent (or violent) protest to the status quo, the very status quo the Avengers would probably be defending.

While I'm not sure if they're actually going to address those themes, especially when the X-men come in. I think this movie has the potential to revisit some of the questions of past movies, namely the use of Avengers technology, especially now that Tony Stark is dead. Quentin Beck's followers, former Stark employees have a pretty valid point when they get pissed that a kid gets access to insane weapons technology like Edith (Tony's sunglasses) and they don't.

It feels weird for me to want them to revisit ideas brought up in Iron Man 2 (an objectively horrible movie), but it could be an interesting return for Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell) to make that moral dilemma more accessible in a post Endgame world. What happens to Tony Stark's tech and weapons? Do they go to a 16 year old kid? Forget Quenten Beck, I'm sure there are a ton of people, probably in the government, not okay with that kind of monarchic nepotism.

But going back to Mysterio, I think he's probably gonna go down as one of more unique and intriguing villains, and I really hope the end credit scene where a doctored video, putting the blame of the final attack on London on Spider-man, indicates that Mysterio is still alive, because they really did him well.

It's revealed that Mysterio has been using augmented reality and computer generated effects to give off the impression that he is this new superhero, all in the goal to dupe Peter into giving him access to Edith, but also to give the power back to the every man and make himself the new Iron Man.

The really interesting part is that even if you know Mysterio's background, seeing his tricks and use of drones in reality is really really fun. The first few battles show him fighting as if he is an actual superhero. But then when its revealed, its like they pull the curtain aside and you see the behind the scenes effects and its just him in a mocap suit. It's brilliant.

But furthermore, the "dream" sequence where he augments Peter' reality is just the most quintessential Mysterio scene that it's going to be pretty hard for anything (especially a Scarecrow scene from Batman scene) to top it. It's taking a villain that uses his wits and illusions to fight Spider-man and that's not seen very often. Almost any other Marvel superhero might be smart but can back it up with some fist-y cuffs. But Mysterio isn't like that. He'd lose in a fight one on one. So he uses his illusions to fight Spider-man and its done brilliantly.

This all culminates in the mid credit scene. MJ knows that Peter is Spider-man, which I thought was an okay choice for this world and they're doing some cute swinging.

When suddenly there's a doctored clip that implicates Spider-man as the perpetrator of the drone attack in London and Mysterio reveals Peter's identity.

And of course you have the J. Jonah Jameson cameo, but there's a bittersweet part about this reveal.

Kevin Fiege said, after this movie came out, that the MCU will take Spider-man's story to a place its never really gone on film and I can see that. Dead or Not (hopefully not dead) Beck has essentially screwed over Peter and changed the course of any Spider-man movie we'll see from this universe ever again.

On one hand, I'm very cool with this. We complain constantly how everything is remade or rebooted and we don't get original content anymore, well this is a totally new take on Spider-man. While his identity has been revealed in the past, there's never been a live action film that centers on an exposed Spider-man. I thought they were gonna leave it at Mysterio implicating Spider-man as the cause for the drone attack, giving him that label as a menace to New York and the world. But they go a step further and reveal his identity.

Spider-man has been a menace before, but not Peter Parker. And that's the bitter sweet element of that J. Jonah Jameson cameo.

We will never see the traditional Spider-man story lines of Peter working at the Daily Bugle. Jameson has always said that Spider-man is a menace, now he's gonna call Peter Parker a menace and wouldn't hire him in a million years. That's why I think the cameo is just that. We're probably not gonna see Jameson have a huge part in a movie because A) J.K. Simmons is far more popular than that role, but B) that dynamic of Peter hiding his identity while taking pictures of Spider-man is impossible now.

It's a strange balance of wanting original ideas, but wanting to see the classic comic moments on the big screen and Marvel is taking Spider-man in quite a different direction.

This was an issue with Homecoming.

These movies don't feel like they're chronicling the adventures of your friendly neighborhood Spider-man, they're the adventures of Spider-man The Avenger, Iron Man's protegee. And while that's not all bad, it loses that lovable every man feeling I got when I was playing the PS4 game. Tom Holland's Peter Parker is never going to have the opportunity to have that work life balance we saw in previous iterations of the character because he's now Tony Stark level famous (or infamous). And Peter's secret identity always set him apart.

Is it 100% gone? No. But here's a good example. At the beginning of the film, Aunt May is running a fundraiser for a homeless shelter she works at. This is clearly a reference to FEAST, a homeless shelter that Aunt May worked at in the comics and in the PS4 game. In a clever integration of the events of Endgame, Aunt May says that her work with the shelter is mainly due to the fact that when she fell prey to the snap and then returned 5 years later, her house had since been purchased by someone else, a fate that happened to a lot of people.

On one hand, this is a pretty clever integration of the world that this character is now apart of and explains the effect that Thano's snap had on the MCU world as we know it. Let me be clear, I liked this addition.

But on the other hand, this and other elements of Spider-man are so dependent on the events of the MCU that it doesn't really allow us to see these people as anything more than an attachment rather than their own character. Spider-man's identity is revealed, not based on his own choices, not because of a villain that is directly connected to him, but because Peter Parker is now the one cleaning up the darker parts of Tony Stark's legacy.

Is it all bad? No. I still really like Tom Holland's portrayal of the character because he's really damn charming and while he's super attractive, it's clear he doesn't know it. I talked about Peter's fallibility and how he's a kid dealing with immense responsibility. The action is still pretty quintessential Spider-man and he still feels different enough. There's still individual Spider-man elements in there.

But I think Spider-man losing his secret identity, even though secret identities really haven't been a thing in the MCU, is a pretty big deviation from the character. It's not about a kid who got bit by a spider and has to learn that with great power comes great responsibility, its about Tony Stark's protegee. There is literally a scene where Happy (side note: is dating Aunt May and I kind of dug it) looks over at Peter and we're supposed to infer that he's seeing a younger version of his best friend Tony.

A part of me just wished that we could have gotten a little bit more traditional New York, friendly neighborhood Spider-man, rather than the adventures of Young Tony Stark.

And I think this leads kind of well into the next important topic, and that's the future of Spider-man in the MCU.

I've heard a couple of things about Sony saying they need Far From Home to reach a certain box office number or they're taking back the rights or something. I try to avoid the business news like that because it cheapens the way the story is driven.

But Sony is in a weird place right now.

They had an absolute hit with Into the Spider-Verse. The dumpster fire that was Venom actually made them money. The need for Spider-man to attach himself to the MCU is gone and while I'm not totally clear on the contracts, I have to imagine Sony is considering if they need Daddy Marvel to bail them out anymore.

Before this movie, I didn't want Spider-man to leave the MCU because I just trust Marvel more. And I still do, but with Into the Spider-verse being a hit and Spider-man's identity being compromised in this universe, maybe it is time for that multiverse switch.

I'm still in the camp that I want to see where they go as this was a big cliff hanger. But if Sony ends up taking Spider-man back (probably rebooting him again because why wouldn't we have a 4th Spider-man 2 in 10 years) and doing something closer to the PS4 game, I actually wouldn't be super sad.

This is all very premature because I'm pretty sure there's a third movie planned set in the MCU and the discussion could be very different 2 or 3 years from now. But the idea of Sony taking back Spider-man oddly became more appealing after that mid credit scene and I think it has the potential to be a pretty big misstep for Marvel.

But what do I know?

Oh last thing: Nick Fury and Maria Hill were Skrulls in this movie... It didn't mean anything because they allude to the fact that Nick Fury is still very much alive and just hanging out on vacation in space. I guess it helps the fact that Nick Fury is kind of a moron in this film but overall, it was just a thing they added to give fan service. Not gonna lie, I might end up really being disappointed with how they use the Skrulls. But we'll see.

But was there any spoiler information I didn't talk about? What did you think? Is there a future for Spider-man in the MCU? Was the mid credit scene the worst or best thing that has ever happened to Spider-man? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie reviews and news coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!

Spider-man: Far From Home

I think the conversation around this movie is going to be kind of interesting. Civil War and Spider-man: Homecoming were really good introductions to Spider-man joining the MCU universe and I think the thing that they're capitalizing on is a new phenomena that Spider-man is now apart of a larger MCU universe and that opens up a lot of stories you can go with that.

But on the other hand, Far From Home kind of cements the fact that Spider-man, as he stands right now, isn't your friendly neighborhood Spider-man. He's your friend Avenger. While I don't think it ruins the movie, I just think there's a pretty interesting cultural conversation on the direction of the Spider-man franchise moving forward, especially after this film.

Side note: The plot of this movie is pretty contingent on the audience having seen Avengers: Endgame. I figure everyone has seen  Endgame at this point who cares, but in case you haven't, some stuff might get spoiled, but its stuff that was in the trailers so I can't be the only one who is spoiling this.

Far From Home is a really great post Endgame story as it follows Peter Park (played again by Tom Holland) as he returns home after the Snap (or the Blip?) and he's getting back into the swing of high school, while also dealing with the loss of his mentor Tony Stark.

Peter is feeling overwhelmed by the experience he just had as well as people wondering if he's taking over as the new Iron Man in this post Avengers world where Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow (and Vision but who really cares) are gone. So he is looking forward to his class vacation to Europe where he believes he can get close to MJ (played by Zendaya) who he has developed feelings for.

The movie starts off as another high school "coming of age" story where Peter wants to focus on his friends and his high school experience. And right at the point where it's about to get boring, superhero duties come to get him as Nick Fury (played again by Samuel L. Jackson) disrupts Peter's vacation to tell him that there is a new threat that they need his help fighting.

This threat takes the form of giant monsters called Elementals that fight with the power of the elements. And Nick Fury and Spider-man are informed of their threat from a new superhero claiming to be from another dimension by the name of Quentin Beck or Mysterio (played by Jake Gyllenhal).

I think that's a good summary of things because I want to keep the spoilers out of it. I think the marketing for this movie was pretty well done because if you're a Spider-man fan, you might question the nature of Mysterio in this movie. And even if you think you know where this movie is going, there are still twists and turns that makes it pretty damn enjoyable. And if you aren't as familiar, I'll challenge you to go in without doing any research because the movie is just fun and Spider-man and Mysterio's relationship is pretty damn fun overall.

I think everyone did a pretty good job in this film that it was just a fun, unique Spider-man adventure.

Tom Holland returns as Spider-man and I want to caveat this next section by saying, I really like Tom Holland as Peter Parker.

He's smart, he's nerdy, and he's every bit lovable that he was in the previous movies he's been in. My one beef with him is that Tom Holland is falling into the same trap that Andrew Garfield was in in that Peter Parker is just too hot. Seriously, there are far too many scenes where you can see that Tom Holland has worked out immensely for this role, he's got this hair that is amazing, and he is just charming. So much that it's kind of hard to believe that this is the nerdy Peter Parker we know from the comics. I know that they kind of addressed this in Homecoming, how he's in a really smart school and there's a new definition of bullying and nerdism in 2019, but it's still kind of weird.

I'll talk a little bit more in the spoilers review but the truth is, his appearance doesn't take away from the fact that he's still a really great Spider-man. I care about this kid and while he's not the straight up nerd we've come to expect from other Spider-man properties, he's relatable. I'm 27 years old and I identify with this kid as a very fallible superhero balancing life and this life. And that's the big Spider-man theme that they absolutely nailed in this movie, that tug and pull leading to Spider-man being a pretty every man hero.

Jake Gyllenhall is another great standout in the movie. Him and Tom Holland have some great moments in the film and the whole concept of Mysterio is really, REALLY well done in this movie.

I liked how the movie played with the potential multiverse elements of this film and what people's reactions are in the real world to a new superhero like Mysterio. This movie really felt like a post-Endgame film because, like the scene from the trailers, you start to feel the impact that movie had on the structure of the Avengers. Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow (pretty key members of the original team we know and love) are gone. Hulk was never an Avenger that came to save the day like Spider-man. Thor's off world a lot of the time, Captain Marvel is off world, Dr. Strange doesn't have that save the world feeling to him. And then as you think about it more, you wonder who else is left? For as many heroes that show up at the end of Endgame, how many are the type that Nick Fury could call upon to solve an issue like Spider-man can? Who is he gonna call? Ant-man?

I thought that was a really interesting concept and it brought a lot to this movie.

The high school environment is pretty fun for the majority of the movie. It brings a lot of the comedy in the film. I do feel like the comedy was really heavy handed in this film and fell back to some of the same Marvel conventions of inserting comedic moments in what should be serious moments, which is always a negative for me.

But I really like Peter's classmates again and they do bring some fun drama for Peter to navigate around, especially including some funny applications of his Spider-man powers in the middle of it without letting anybody see.

I liked Zendaya as a variant of Mary Jane in this movie more than Homecoming. I mentioned in my Spoilers review of Homecoming that my issue with MJ was more on the fact that character-wise, this isn't Mary Jane. My issue was not that Mary Jane was played by a black actor, but that Marvel didn't really own the fact that they're doing something different with the character. MJ is a totally different tenor of a character than Mary Jane was in the comics and Homecoming had this bad Easter Egg way of implementing that change. Far From Home approaches the character better. They more own the fact that this is a new take on the Mary Jane character and they're doing something different and I applaud Marvel for taking that ownership more because I thought MJ was better in this film. Now I think they could do more, and she's still an inconsequential part of Peter Parker's character, but there's inklings that they're getting on a better track, especially near the end. Again, not great, but better. Also, I find Zendaya charming, and I think they give her more to do in this film.

The last thing I want to talk about is something that I think we sometimes take for granted with films like this, and that's the action.

It's a given that Marvel movies are going to have good action, it's kind of a staple of Superhero movies now. But something I think I really appreciated about this movie was the unique and creative ways they utilized Spider-man particular powers.

I had a lot of moments in this film where I was just smiling because of the action and visuals used that reminded me of the comics/other Spider-man properties.

A great example is the Spider-man game on the PS4. The really fun thing about that game is that the combos and actions make you feel like these are unique powers in contrast to someone who is super strong. I think a great thing about this movie (and I don't remember if they did it in Homecoming) was just feeling the weight of the action. Spider-man sets himself apart because he's a high school kid with not much of a clue of what he's doing who is given incredible powers, but incredible responsibility. The action is set up in a way where he knows what he's doing, but you feel the tension still and he's just mortal enough to have a sense of dread. On top of the fact that I was feeling personally connected to the struggle Peter faces in this movie, I really enjoyed the implementation of Spider-man in this sequel.

It's a little bit weird that this is the 3rd Spider-man 2 we've had in close to twenty years. I have only seen this one once, but right now I place it as the middle Spider-man 2. Not as good as the Raimi sequel, but still better than Amazing Spider-man 2.

I feel like the full impact of this movie can't be explained without going into spoilers so this is kind of a two parter with the rest to be explained in the spoiler review.

But for those who haven't seen it yet. Far From Home is a fun film. I think they did a good job and took some risks with this one. Some of them worked, some of them didn't, and some of them still need to develop as the new MCU/Sony deal continues (question mark?). If you're a fan of the MCU, this will be another one you'll want to check out for sure. If you're a hardcore Spider-man fan, there will definitely be things in this movie that you'll like, but there might be some things that might throw you off a little bit. It's definitely a different take on Spider-man and I'm interested to see if they stick the landing of this alternate take.

But those are my thoughts on Spider-man: Far From Home. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!

MacGruber

Off the bat, I should note. I don't know why they made this a movie. I traditionally hate movies that take characters or jokes from SNL sketches. They're sketches, they're supposed to really only be 5 or so minutes and then they should be done. To expand it into a 90 minute movie is ridiculous. But everyone said I should check this one out so I thought I'd take it off the list.

 MacGruber is based off a sketch from SNL starring Will Forte as the titular MacGruber. Obviously a spoof of MacGyer, MacGruber is a combat weary government agent who saves America with the power of making "life saving inventions out of house hold materials".

At the start of the movie, MacGruber is in retirement after the sudden murder of his wife (played by Maya Rudolph). A generic Army Colonel (played by Powers Booth) sends him on a mission to expose an Arms dealer for his evil plot against America, and retrieve the nuclear warhead they stole before its used against the United States. MacGruber initially refuses but decides its the best way to get revenge as this arms dealer named Dieter Von Cunth (played masterfully by Val Kilmer) murdered MacGruber's wife.

MacGruber needs to assemble a team that includes a green new Lieutenant played by Ryan Phillipe and a blonde by the name of Vicky (played by Kristen Wiig) to stop Cunth and save the world.

If you can't tell already, the movie leans pretty heavily into stereotypical action movie tropes... like really heavily.

I can see how people might just write this movie off as bad. On face value, it's just a super generic comedy action film. But the genericness of the movie is kind of why it's brilliant. The movie leans so heavily into the ridiculousness and stakes that it's poking fun at the very tropes its using. On top of that, Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, EVERYONE is taking is soooooooooooooo seriously to the point of intense parody. If you understand that MacGruber is making fun of every since formula from every single action movie ever made, it's pretty damn funny.

I think the best way to describe this movie is that it is a live-action Team America World Police. The heroes are so masculine, the action is always at 100%, and the dead pan seriousness makes it even funnier.

And this is really well performed by Will Forte... for the most part.

Like the rest of the movie, Will Forte recognizes how serious he's supposed to take the movie to make us laugh. He comes off as this super legendary bad ass, but the reality is that MacGruber is just bad at his job in all aspects. He literally fails his way to success the entire movie and it's funny a lot of the time... but not all the time.

I think his strongest moments are when he holds that parody-level seriousness with the character. It's at these moments that he says really funny things and its perpetually met with almost the same levels of seriousness by everyone (minus Ryan Phillipe who is the only somewhat accessible relatable person in the movie. I'm not saying he's good, but he's just not as exciting and is more of a vehicle for the audience to reach the levels of absurdity Forte and Wiig are bringing).

The movie loses some steam when Forte breaks that paper thin facade results into a man baby for like no reason. He brings his voice up to a high pitch baby voice and while it made me chuck sometimes, it was never as good as when they were doing really deep parody.

Kristin Wiig plays the most stereotypical female leading character in this movie. I get what they're doing with her, I get that she can't be too interesting because that's not what females in action movies are, or at least what they were in the 80's.

That being said, she's not very funny in this movie.

 It's funny to think that this movie came out a year before Bridesmaids and just missed the line of movies where Wiig's comedic talents, I think were finally unlocked. She's also a really great straight actress on an unrelated note. But when she's just playing a straight up blank slate like she is in this movie, no matter if its for the sake of parody, she's not funny. Wiig in my opinion is the best when she's playing a relatively straight character to dramatic role, or she's playing a straight up caricature, and here, she's written as a boring female lead in an action movie. She's a lot better than this movie gives her credit for. I've noticed that Wiig has been miscast before (See Masterminds), and in MacGruber, she's neither given the opportunity to really act or be funny. So she's just meh.

Val Kilmer's in this movie and it's hilarious.

I think the reason this cameo goes so under appreciated is because the movie flopped at the box office and it hasn't really been appreciated that much. If this movie came out today, I'm not only better it would be a lot more popular, this cameo would be Keaun Reeves levels of pop culture appreciation.

But I even challenge that notion because the truth is, the movie is okay.

I get why this movie has kind of gotten a cult classic status, but like most cult classics, I don't really see it. This movie is definitely better than you'd think it would be. And one thing I can really applaud it for was that it breached out more than just the single joke the sketch originally pulled. This movie could have easily been 90 minutes of the same MacGruber sketch from SNL over and over again, which even in the SNL episodes where it would show up periodically throughout the episode, it got pretty old. But instead it decided to be an over the top, live action Team America World Police film. And there were parts that got some pretty legitimate laughs from me.

But the truth is, I'm not gonna remember this movie probably by tomorrow. This movie does not need a sequel because all of these actors are doing much better things. It's a fun little 90 minute romp with some pretty good laughs, leave it be.

But those are my thoughts on MacGruber. What do you think? Do you think it's better than most people think it is? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!

Stranger Things (Season 2)

I'm pretty sure the same thing happened with this season that happened with season 1. Whenever I watch a season of Stranger Things, I get super invested and there is an initial point where I am just in awe of the season. But the real greatness, and analysis of the show doesn't really happen for a couple of days. The problem with that is that, especially for a TV series, my memory goes away pretty quickly and eventually my thoughts get stale and I don't feel right giving a half assed review.

This was my second viewing of Season 2 and this time, I had a lot more time to sit, digest, understand what worked and what didn't work in this season in comparison with the first.

I need to write this relatively quickly as I am running very close to having the next season spoiled for me on Twitter, but especially after re-watching the second season, I realize this is a season that deserves to be talked about.

So I really loved how the second season started off because it catches you up on everyone pretty succinctly. A theme of the second season is how do people move on or cope with a traumatic experience like the characters experienced a year ago when the show starts.

Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will are back to being nerdy friends. Will is trying to integrate back into how things were before the events of Season 1 but is struggling with coping as well as being under the overprotective eye of his mother who doesn't want anything like the previous year to happen to her son ever again.

Will also gets a chance to be a little more of a character. In the first season he was lost in the Upside Down and now he actually gets a chance to show off a personality and struggles, even though he's still being haunted.

Something I found really interesting in this season was how Joyce and Hopper have an uneasy relationship with Hawkins lab, the same group that caused all the problems in the first season, to help Will transition back to normal. Paul Reiser plays a scientist who is the new head of Hawkins lab who replaced Matthew Modine. He promises that the bad people who ran the lab are all gone, but there is still mistrust in the group.

Hopper has secretly brought Eleven into his care after she escapes from the upside down. She keeps her hidden so she can be kept safe from Hawkins lab and keep their friends safe from the government.

I'll talk about the relationships more individually, but I'll note at the top that the relationship between Hopper and Eleven is something that I remember not really expecting to love as much as I did. On one hand, its really sweet considering that Hopper lost his daughter and he now gets the opportunity to have that father role for Elle. But Hopper is a pretty fallible guy and Eleven is a curious young girl. There are moments that were kind of off putting between the two of them because of the really great clash of motivations and what they hold sacred. Hopper wants to keep the peace and keep Elle safe but Elle wants to go out and live a normal life. While neither of them are evil or bad, they act out on those motivations in almost uncomfortable moments and its really well done.

And then there's the return of the love triangle between Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve.

So I'll give the Duffer Brothers some credit. On one hand, they build up a somewhat formulaic love triangle where you kind of want Nancy to end up with Jonathan by the end of the first season. While at the same time, you give a really compelling redemption arc to Steve and make him one of the most likable characters in the second. It's weird because convention would say Nancy and Jonathan should be together but this entire season you feel like Steve is just a more likable guy overall.

Regardless, the Nancy and Jonathan plot line is probably the weakest of all the plot lines because it really struggles to reach the gravity of the other plot lines and makes two characters that were kind of complex in the first season, a little more simple and not as interesting.

And I'll talk about Steve later.

Like the first season, the majority of the season is broke up into different pairings of characters. They periodically intersect but eventually they all come together in the end for the conclusion.

And here lies the first problem with Season 2, it's kind of really scattered.

In season 1, characters were lumped into units with central characters taking the lead. A good example of this is the kid group. Mike was very much a central "main" character supported by Dustin and Lucas. And this group stayed as a unit for the entire season. Even when Lucas got fed up with the group, he didn't really stray too long to go do his own adventures, they barely cut to him until the others try to bring him back into the group. But in this season, they really try to amp up the roles of characters who previously were supporting characters. Because of this, this season seems more fractured because its exploring new characters or expanding on previously supporting characters like Dustin, Lucas, Steve, and the new characters.

You also have odd pair ups throughout the season because instead of characters sticking with one group, they kind of float in their own individual strand of the story. That's how you end up with a friendship like Steve and Dustin that nobody would have thought of in the first season.

I think in that situation it works. Another good situation where it works is pairing Hopper with Paul Reiser's character and developing that unexpected relationship between Hopper and Hawkins lab. My complaint is more when it undercuts traditional pairings like Nancy and Jonathan that just feel like it slows down the plot, or significantly decreases screen time for previously important characters like Mike.

All together though, giving individual characters isn't bad, I just don't think the format is as forgiving to a huge cast like this one has. Compare Stranger Things with another show that had an even bigger cast, Lost. Lost went week by week for 20+ episodes. This allowed for a big cast because if Locke, Claire, or another one of your favorite characters didn't get featured very strongly in one episode, you knew they would get an episode that focused on them in a week or so. Stranger Things is 8 episodes that makes the season feel like a very long movie narrative-wise. Episodes don't feel episodic, they feel like a piece of a mini-series, continuing an ever progressing narrative. So when the cast expands and everyone gets a motivation, love interest, or whatever, the episodes lost a little bit of focus because they're jumping from one character plot to another as opposed to Season one where it would go from the boys and Eleven, to the adults (Joyce and Hopper), to the teenagers (Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve).

The pairings are a little hard to define because, again, they shift. But essentially, you have the core kid team of Mike, Dustin, Lucas, sort of Will, and a new character, a girl named Max who is new to town and has her own issues.

Lucas and Dustin find themselves fawning after Max in their own way. I really enjoyed these characters as well as the addition of Max, but I think Lucas and Max end up closer to the boring side of Nancy and Jonathan because their individual story lines aren't as exciting and then they tag along with more interesting ones.

Dustin becomes more interesting because he finds a little demogorgen spawn and falls for it. I think this is a good example of how Gatan Matarazzo is going to do well after he's done with this show (as long as he stays away from reality punk shows that make him seem like a tool), but this was a portion of the show that, while I didn't outright hate it, it was kind of weird seeing Dustin avoid any kind of rational thought because he liked this little hell spawn creature.

While Dustin has always been a comic relief, he's also pretty smart. So when a new creature that is obviously from the Upside Down, and Will says its from the Upside Down, Dustin decides to keep it and be far too cavalier about it.

One difference, as mentioned before, is that Mike kind of takes a back seat in this season. Dustin and Lucas get a lot more screen time with trying to court Max or finding baby demogorgens that Mike is actually kind of a downer in this season because he's just moping over Elle being gone.

The weird thing is, I don't think I can really name one Mike did in this season that made him 100% necessary to the plot. There were honestly scenes that I forgot Mike was in the room and upon the second viewing, I realized that that's just a crazy shift from the first season where Finn Wolfhard was one of the break outs.

I am willing to guess that Finn Wolfhard had a busy schedule (filming IT included) and probably worked out a way to have a reduced role but still be an important part of the show. I noticed it the first time around, but this time I realized that Mike doesn't do much besides mope around waiting for Elle and be support for Will. And to be fair, I like those moments, especially in the last two episodes. Mike seems like he's the only friend that can really connect with will. But there are so much better moments between Will and Joyce or Jonathan that everything Mike does feels like its just doubling a role that's already been taken. The last two episodes is where he really shines and reminded me that Finn Wolfhard is a really good actor, but those two episodes do come with the caveat that it is weird that Mike suddenly starts to matter after quite a few episodes where he had about 6 lines of dialogue in total.

I've already talked quite a bit about how these two had the least to do in this season. On the surface, it's interesting because Nancy feels guilty about Barb as she never got the real justice that Will Beyers sort of did at the end of the first season. This is paired with the love triangle that kind of gets thrown aside for a quest to reveal the truth where they're paired up with an eccentric conspiracy theorist played by Brett Gelman. I don't think it's bad, its just not as interesting as hopper investigating the effect of the upside down is having on the world, or Will dealing with a smoke monster.

Once again, I really have to hand it to David Harbour because he plays just an amazing character in Jim Hopper. While he has a lot of influences from characters from 80's films, he's able to make his own fallible and complex, but also lovable character just come to life on screen. You don't always agree with his decisions or his methods, but at the end of the day you love the crap out of him and he brings a lot of the action.

Aside from a heart wrenching relationship with Eleven, which I will touch on more when I talk about her plot lines, Hopper takes the plot into the investigative realm where he's searching for clues as to the mysterious and ominous stuff going on around town. Again, the relationship between him and Hawkins lab is really interesting and intriguing.

While I'm on that, the supernatural/science fiction elements of the show are again still really on point. I think the show was in a weird place because there's an inherent urge to up the ante. The first season was so succinct in the fact that there was one monster, a world we knew very little about, against characters the show took its time to make us really care about. This time around they needed to keep that same feeling but make the threat greater while allowing room to grow. They needed to explore the world without getting too technical or dispelling it. This is a very tough line. I think the show did a good job as it was taking on a big challenge, but any of the issues come from the fact that they were following up a pretty stellar first season.

Joyce gets the opportunity to be more fleshed out in this season because in the first she was always on the verge of losing her mind because her son was missing. In this season, she's still over protective, but she's a normal-ish character. She's got a new boyfriend named Bob (played by Sean Astin) who is one of the best characters in the season. She has a really nice working relationship with Hopper that I really liked (and am worried they're going to ruin in the third season). But the most important thread is that she's still worried about Will. She's trying to help him deal with that they initially think is just PTSD from what he experienced the previous year. And I didn't remember this until the second viewing, but holy crap does Winona Ryder just bring her A+ Acting game, especially in the last two episodes.

Side Note: Bob man... who doesn't just love Bob. The show is trying to give a little bit of a wink towards his role in Goonies because this show is soaked in 80's nostalgia, but I will always see Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee and this show just makes me love him more.

Another Side Note:

This guy does nothing for the plot. He is literally only in this show to make fun of mullets, foreshadow how horny Season 3 is going to be, and be an asshole. I was amazed by how they brought his character in for the sole purpose of just being a straight up chaotic evil heel for almost no reason whatsover. I don't remember if we thought it was a misdirect, or if it was just meant to be a personal dilemma for Max, Steve, and the boys to overcome, but it's amazing how cruel this guy is just for the sake of being evil. He's not some big bad guy, he barely contributes to the plot, he's just an asshole.

So I want to talk about Will.

I am split on Noah Schnapp and his overall impact on this season. On one hand, I have to give him credit for expanding on a very small role from the first season to actually create a character, not just one we knew the old characters loved, but one that had real feelings and insecurities. So well done. But they also needed to create him in a way where it's almost like 'here we go again' as the upside down forces work through Will in the show in a slightly disturbing but interesting way.

I would say at the beginning, Will is a lot more interesting because he's coping and trying to get back to a normal life. At a certain point though, he becomes pretty one note because the shadow monster is inside him. It doesn't allow him to be a real character and that's where we rely more on the fact that established characters love Will and so should we. I think Noah Schnapp did a really good job, I just think they could have built up that possession just a tad more so when there's a twist, its a little more devious.

Relating to Will is the obvious 80's influence this show pulls from. It's still very much there. However, Season 2 finds itself in a difficult but familiar position of being the sequel and the influences relate to this. In the first season, they derived their main plot lines with homages to ET, Jaws, Goonies, and Stand By Me.

This time around, they take influences from much darker films like Aliens, The Exorcist, and Gremlins.

Let me be very clear up front, I by no means am calling Goonies better than Aliens or the Exorcist (or even Gremlins, I don't like Goonies). I'm also not saying Season 1 wasn't scary at moments. I am more saying that Season 2 delved into the edgier, less mainstream 80's films that, like a lot of sequels, feel darker. Some of that really works for this season, it just feels a lot darker. An example of this effect is how I imagine my parents would react to both seasons. My parents were more likely to watch a movie like ET or Close Encounters of the Third Kind before they would watch The Exorcist or Gremlins. Season 1 was already kind of dark, pulling from Night on Elm Street and Poltergeist, I just feel like it upped the ante that works for me, but maybe not some more mainstream audiences that were on board for the first season.

But finally, I want to talk about Elle.


Oh boy does Millie Bobbie Brown have a bright future.

So Elle has quite a bit going on in this season. She escapes from the Upside Down and goes to live with Hopper. I've talked about their relationship and how it's a father-daughter relationship with two people who don't know how to do functional relationships very well. It's great.

But Elle also has her own story of wanting to back to her friends but also figure out who she is. This ultimately culminates in her finding her mother, discovering what exactly happened with that situation, and then having an strange diversion episode where Elle goes off and meets another person like her who has powers. I remember when this season came out, people were not a fan of episode 7.

Before I talk about that episode though, I should mention that they did a clever little writing maneuver with Elle, especially since she only becomes more powerful in this season. One problem the Duffer Brothers faced by having a character like Elle is what do you do with a character who has OP level abilities and can solve a lot of problems by just mind powering it away. The same thing happened with Peter Petrelli after the first season of Heroes when he gained the ability to just take people's powers when he was around them. You can get away with ignorance and them not knowing about the problem for a little bit but Season 2 did what a lot of shows do and sent Elle on her own little side quest so she can't mind power the problem away until the end for a great climax. I like the way this season ends, but I did have a couple of moments where i thought, this problem could have easily gone away quite a bit ago if Elle was around to use her powers.

So about Episode 7.

I do understand some of the gripes about this episode, mainly due to where its placed in the season. Because you're probably binging the show, you saw all the build up to a bunch of demogorgens coming to tear Hawkins lab a new one and suddenly, boom, we're getting that story disrupted by a 40 minute episode of The Lost Boys meets Chronicle and yeah, it's a little weird. Its such a strange shift in tone, color, and story momentum that it feels weird.

However, I really like this episode.

Not only does it point towards more avenues where this show could go, it does some really good character building with Elle and her half sister Kali (or Eight). Early on, there is a really solid relationship that is built between these two's shared past and while it is an odd change of pace, it is pretty interesting if you take it out of the context its in.

It also shows off Mille Bobbie Browns acting talent as Elle starts making that transition from a starring mute science experiment, to an actually realized character. She has to reconcile her powers and the fact that she hasn't been able to have a normal life. She starts having real conversations and not just screaming. She gets some great acting moments and at the end of the day this episode worked for me.

I think one thing they could have done was get her to Chicago earlier and integrate some scenes with her there before hand instead of just dedicating a whole episode to that but I honestly

- About Episode 7: Early on, there is a solid relationship that is built between Elle and Kali (or Eight). I do agree that if you're watching the season the way it was meant to be watched, binging it, you may feel a little miffed if you're getting into the main story and suddenly that flow gets disrupted for a 40 minute episode of The Lost Boys meets Chronicle. Kali and her band of misfits are also really bad criminals. This episode does give Millie Bobbie Brown some really great acting moments. This season she really makes the transition from the wide eyed almost mute science experiment, to an actually realized character. She has to reconcile her powers and the fact that she hasn't been able to have that normal life she wants. She starts having real conversations and she's not just screaming, she's got some really great acting moments for her. I actually really like Episode 7 at the end of the day.

It also pointed towards the possibility that Matthew Modine's character would return and after a couple of viewings of both Season 1 and 2, I'm actually all for that.

So what are my expectations for Season? Well at this point, I have watched at least one episode of the new season and I like where its going so far. I'll leave any real thoughts on the season for my next review but the intriguing part about Season 3 is that Season 2 really wrapped up pretty clean all things considered. They of course allude to the fact that the Upside Down is still there and that of course alludes to more adventures to be had, but there's no clear antagonist. There's no clear direction its going and it could go anywhere.

I think one take away is that if the new season is anything like its predecessors, no matter how flawed Season 2 can be at times, I am a little more privy to Netflix's strategy in the next few years.

There has to be some recognition that there are a lot more streaming services coming out and the big Mouse in the room is Disney+, taking all the Marvel, Disney, Star Wars, etc movies off Netflix and putting them on their own streaming service. Netflix has always had competition but Disney+ and the past year have been the first time that I've heard more people express that they might end up cancelling Netflix in the future.

Netflix clearly can't live on Stranger Things alone, but I do think it lays the ground work for the kind of content Netflix needs to be creating in order to stay relevant. They not only need to create good content, but it has to be marketable and catch fire the way this show did.

I think Netflix had a pretty good thing going a few years back where they were focusing on original science fiction and horror stories. Obviously that can't be the only thing, but I think Netflix needs to expand this more as well as figure out what they're gonna do when The Office and Friends leave the streaming service, but that's a different conversation.

I find this intriguing because while I've gotten bored with Netflix, they still remain a pretty reliable source for some really good and unique science fiction stories. Stranger Things is a great example, but The Haunting of Hill House blew my mind. Russian Doll and Black Mirror expanded the imagination and even Umbrella Academy had me curious for what's next.

I'm just saying, I've always seen Netflix as pretty reliable and I think other people feel the same. I don't want that to go away.

But overall, where does Season 2 of Stranger Things rank? Do you prefer the edgier 80's movie references in this season over the first season? Comment and discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for Reading!

Super Mario Odessey

This is going to be a hard review. Not only do I rarely do video game reviews, but Mario games have never really been known for their story and this game is really no different. However, I feel like I do have to praise this game because it is actually a work of art. I've played a lot of Mario games but some how, Nintendo has just been able to absolutely crush it on the Switch, along with a lot of other games that I may or may not end up doing review for when I get around to finishing them (looking at you Breath of the Wild).

I imagine this might be a pretty short review but there are a good amount of things I can say about this game, especially considering that I have beaten the main story but am continuing to play it.

The story is a pretty standard Mario story. Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach (again) This time he has the plan to marry her which is actually pretty comical considering that has been a joke in modern discussions on Mario, but they actually actualize on that and kind of poke fun at themselves.

At the beginning of the game, Mario is defeated by Bowser and finds himself stranded in a strange world populated by ghost-like creatures in what is called The Cap Kingdom. Mario is accompanied by a ghost-cap-like creature named Cappy who agrees to help Mario since Bowser has also captured his sister Tiara. Cappy takes the form of Mario's iconic hat and gives him the ability to "capture"/ essentially possess a vast variety of creatures and entities.

The rest of the game follows the typical Mario format of platforming puzzles with the addition of capturing creatures to gather moons. The moons in this game power a balloon ship that carries Mario and Cappy from Kingdom to Kingdom called The Odyssey.

And honestly, that's really all you need to know about the story. Bowser has some rabbits that try to get in Mario's Way, but the whole game is Mario going from kingdom to kingdom, gathering moons, chasing Bowser as he gathers decorations, food, and other things for their wedding.

Platforms and puzzles are what really drives the game and oh boy is this game amazing when it comes to the imagination and creativity of these puzzles and game play.

Seriously, puzzle platforms aren't my go to game. I like them and I've always really enjoyed Mario games, but I'm not crazy about them all the time. Mario Odyssey is a game that not only makes me love puzzles and platformers more, but it makes me love the Mario franchise more than I already did.

This was another thing that was really good about Mario Odyssey, it took up a wide swath of game genres and homages to previous Mario games of the past.

The game almost feels like an anniversary special because it jumps from world to world, format and style to format and style. There are so many call backs and it felt like Nintendo was almost putting everything on the table. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo said tomorrow that they were done with Mario games because I don't see anything topping this one, that's how unique but familiar the game feels.

But while there are a lot of call backs and trails down memory lane with Mario Odyssey, the game also takes some odd turns with the world jumping that there are a lot of parts that almost don't feel like a Mario game at all.

Mario running around in a metropolis with taller, more realistic looking humans walking around, giving the player the opportunity to capture a dinosaur in a caveman like kingdom, it all feels very out of place but for some reason it works really, really well.

It's really hard to point out a lot of criticism of this game because its just really well made. Like I said, I finished the game a couple days ago and I'm still playing it because even once the story is finished there are still a bunch of power moons that are left to be collected, worlds to discover, and game still left to play.

The game just kind of exists in its own little Mario Universe. The true to form baseline story of a plumber rescuing a princess is really just the vehicle to get you from world to world. It serves more as intriguing flavoring to a really creative puzzle adventure game.

But so much care and thought was put into this game that it's hard not to gush on it. It's not exactly deep but it's a Mario game.

If you have a Nintendo Switch, or you're thinking you want one, this game is a must have. It's an easy game to just get lost in and kind of sit back in awe at how much detail and care was put into the game.

It's not particularly hard, but it's challenging in the way brain teasers or puzzles are. If you figure it out on your own, you get a sense of accomplishment that is really satisfying.

Have you played Mario Odyssey? What do you think? Can you think of much wrong with it? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for movies, TV shows, or video games you think I should check out and review. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!