The Month in Movies For November 2021

Russell Michaels

Russell is inside his own mind, a comfortable yet silly place. He is also on Twitter.

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9 Responses

  1. Oscar Gordon says:

    Agree on Army of Thieves, and I hope we get to see more of that character.

    I’m holding out on Eternals until it hits Disney+.

    Good to hear about Ghostbusters. I’m looking forward to it.Report

  2. Pinky says:

    I haven’t seen The Eternals. It looks like it could only work if it operated on as grand a scale as Watchmen. I know a lot of people don’t like that movie, but everyone agrees on the quality of the source material. That said, I don’t agree with this prevailing belief that you can only introduce one character per movie. Even modern superhero movies introduce a hero and a villain. A great script like The Incredibles introduces five heroes and a villain.. And of course, outside of the superhero genre you expect at least half a dozen fleshed-out characters with their own arcs.

    I consider Scream 2 to be better than the original. The script just did more with the concept. I have to admit I respect the first one on multiple rewatches more than I did my first time through. Speaking of my crush on Neve Campbell, I just recently saw a movie I’d never heard of from 2000 called Panic. Completely misnamed movie, but a worthwhile indie character study with a perfect cast.Report

  3. North says:

    I must confess that I found Eternals quite interminable. They tried to do too much with too many characters. I did find the twist moderately interesting. I think the grade is about right and that’s coming from a big fan of the MCU.Report

    • Pinky in reply to North says:

      The Pitch Meeting guy on YouTube kept saying that it should have been a series, but even if you had to go the movie route, you could have made it a two- or three-parter. Marvel’s reputation might not be quite as high as it was a few years ago, but people would have been willing to accept that. Of course that would have meant more money and more risk, but it’s not like the MCU is a fly-by-night operation.Report

      • North in reply to Pinky says:

        I see the logic of it. I can’t see Marvel going for it. Too risky on all new characters and what is basically a virtually new phase. The problem with flying high is there’s plenty of room to fall.Report

        • Pinky in reply to North says:

          Yeah, on the one hand, it’s a huge risk to put out 2-3 movies without a guaranteed payoff. On the other, the company has done a great job with even lesser-known characters. I mean, more people know who Groot is than the name of the Secretary-General of the UN. And I think that even a single weak release right now may have been a big momentum loss for the MCU.Report

          • North in reply to Pinky says:

            I agree and it is a big risk. I went into GotG anticipating a flop and it ended up being my favorite MCU picture. That being said it was still a single picture with a roster of 4-5 main characters and Eternals easily is three times that size. I just don’t think they have the confidence in the core Eternals story concept to be willing to hang 3 movies on it.

            A lot of the inside baseball vibe I pick up on the MCU is that Eternals was, partially, a victim of Disney re-acquiring a lot of Marvels old properties. During earlier phases when the planning for what we’re seeing currently was going on they had no prospect of getting their hands on Spider Man or mutants or the Fantastic Four and so they were kind of trying to cultivate alternative properties to serve the same purpose. Now suddenly they have the crown jewels back and there’s a lot less motivation to try and make Eternals work. Also.. Eternals is really… weird. I get the audiences are willing to give Marvel a lot more slack now days but the whole “Celestials build the galaxies to make more Celestials and we’re just the yeasts they’re using to do it” story line is really.. uh.. ambitious which is a nice way of saying it’s out there as all heck.Report

            • Pinky in reply to North says:

              I haven’t followed the MCU closely, but I’ve read enough science fiction that it seems to have followed a fairly standard trajectory: weird science to magic to aliens to time travel to multiverses to things bigger than that. And then you have to stop because Fox Mulder can’t possibly fight Cthulhu. What you called “ambitious” might be the point you really have to stop at.Report

  4. Slade the Leveller says:

    Thoroughly enjoyed both Red Notice and The Harder They Fall. I didn’t find the plot twist too egregious at the end of the latter film, but it probably wasn’t necessary. The prologue and epilogue could have been dropped with no effect on the overall story.

    I did make it to the show to see The French Dispatch. Wes Anderson comes through again. I think working with the same actors film after film really allows him to play with characters and story in a way that most directors don’t get to.Report