Ancestral Echoes and Marvelous Moments
The Marvels, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Marvel's Echo
Movie Review: The Marvels
So…it’s a flop. It bombed.
Truth is, it was goofy, it was awesome. It was not the best Marvel movie (I still hold that that is Captain America: Winter Soldier). But it wasn’t the worst either, and it was perfectly enjoyable.
Our Kamala Khan was spot on. So was our Monica Rambeau. (Who never did end up getting called Photon).
The cat herding scene has the second best example of delightfully inappropriate music in the entire MCU after the Jotunheim fight to Immigrant Song. I won’t say more, but there was a cat herding scene.
And Disney seems to be having fun just making random characters into princesses…just saying. I am surprised I have yet to see a cosplay of that dress.
Can I have a Flerkitten now? I’m keeping this short because I know some people I know haven’t seen it and need to. But. Flerkittens…
Episode Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1.5 “A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers”
The kids are on the run from the cops, still don’t know who robbed Zeus, and are “rescued” by Ares.
Who is exactly the kind of asshole you would expect, tells them they’re bound to fail…but I actually think this counts as encouragement from Ares. He keeps Glover hostage in a diner (with cheeseburgers) while sending Percy and Annabeth to steal his shield back from Hephaestus.
Apparently, he’s been having an affair with Aphrodite again and left his shield at her place. Hephaestus’ place is a twisted amusement park…beautifully done (they saved money by having the kids do a dark ride ;)). And he tests Annabeth by imprisoning Percy.
Hephaestus actually seems the nicest god so far. Doesn’t surprise me.
Ares puts them in the back of a truck going to Vegas. Yeah. This is how Ares helps people. It stinks. Literally.’
Episode Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1.6 “We Take A Zebra To Vegas”
The truck turns out to stink because it’s full of illegally trafficked animals. Grover lets them all go.
Then they have to find Hermes. Who is gambling in a casino in Vegas, because of course he is. A casino which is piping lotus flower into the air to make everyone stay there and keep gambling.
I’ve been to Vegas. This tracks. Grover eats nacho chips after being assured they aren’t lotus flower. (They probably have lotus flower in them). He becomes convinced Pan is somewhere in the casino and they have to drag him back out.
This also tracks.
Because of the casino they miss the summer solstice. War is about to begin, and Percy is released from his quest…but refuses to give up. He’s going to save the world (and his mom). We hope!
Episode Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1.7 “We Find Out the Truth, Sort Of”
They do a beautiful job with the Underworld. Personally, I don’t envision Cerberus as a Rottweiler, but it was certainly menacing.
(Well, until somebody pets him into submission. Always pet Cerberus. It’s a requirement).
Annabeth becomes trapped in Asphodel by a regret (I’m sure this will come out later) and has to bail, but Grover and Percy make it to Hades.
Except Ares had the master bolt all along and tricked Percy into taking it there. Hades doesn’t want it, until he realizes Cronos is escaping.
He wants his helm, which was stolen by whoever stole the bolt. Percy agrees to get it back in exchange for his mom, who’s currently a statue in Hades’ throne room. (This is actually most likely protective custody as if she eats anything in the Underworld she has to stay there forever, so putting her in stasis makes sense).
And Percy finally meets his dad.
I like Hades better now. He’s nice, but manipulative. And he DID save mom’s life, even if he did then use her as currency.
And I want to pet Cerberus.
Episode Review: Quantum Leap 2.11 “The Outsider”
Ben ends up a TV producer (which he does reasonably competently, of course). In a small town where the biggest story the journalist has covered in a while is a giant pumpkin.
Which turns out to be a bigger story than they thought. There’s a herbicide that causes cancer and…in traditional Evil Corporation style the company making it doesn’t care. It’s cheaper to settle with sick people than take it off the market.
Ben tries to save Hannah’s husband…again. He’s clearly fated to die.
And in the present, Ian gets caught…and a deal is made with Gideon Frayce to keep the chip, but Tom says somebody has to take the fall.
It can’t be Ian because only they can bring Ben home (likely true out of the available people). Tom tells Magic to fire Jen instead.
Magic, instead, takes the fall, taking the blame and resigning. I hope he doesn’t stay gone, I really do. And who the heck is going to run the team? Ian’s too busy, Jen doesn’t seem forceful enough. Addison? Tom as interim administrator foisted on them for the awkwards.
Addison and Tom are officially history…at least for now.
Episode Review: Percy Jackson & the Olympians 1.8 “The Prophecy Comes True”
The first half of the episode is as dramatic a conclusion as one could hope for. Hades gets his helm back and Percy goes to return the Master Bolt to Zeus. Zeus accepts it but says the war is still on…and when Percy yells at him (not a smart move) poor Percy gets smited.
Fortunately, Poseidon comes in and surrenders to save Percy’s life, proving he’s not such a bad dad after all. Right.
Unfortunately, the second half of the episode is a slow, extended epilogue that determinedly ties off threads while opening things nicely up for the second season. It’s just a little bit too slow for me, making the pacing feel off. It’s been renewed, so there will be more…apparently with a lot of sailing. Oh, and there’s a post credits scene, so people know.
Satisfying, but would have been better with better pacing. Onward!
Episode Review: Echo 1.1 Chafa
Quiet, beautiful, violent. In some cases they turned the sound off altogether, a literary device which helped you remember the protagonist is, in fact, deaf. There were also entire conversations in sign language (nicely subtitled for those of us who don’t speak ASL).
There’s a war coming and Echo (Maya Lopez) is part of it. She also “hasn’t changed in 20 years,” which is the first real hint of the paranormal. (Chafa, by the way, is apparently the first Choctaw woman and Maya’s ancestor in Marvel canon. Apparently they did use a real Choctaw legend, that of the “Mother Mound” the Choctaw believe they came from). I don’t know enough about the Choctaw to know, but I hear it’s being done well.
Echo was used as a weapon by Fisk (echoes of colonialism here), who’s now in hospital. Is Echo going to take over from him? Or will this fascinating figure forge her own path? I’m assuming the latter.
Some very interesting cinematography in this one.
Episode Review: Echo 1.2 Lowak
I think this show wants to educate us on Choctaw myth. It starts with a lacrosse game (a game which was stolen by the Brits and turned into fun for high class girls. In its original form, ishtaboli, it was far more serious…in fact, it was used to resolve disputes without actual fighting. The winner of the tournament gets the disputed land.
Lowak is another of Maya’s ancestors. She is, for some reason, the only woman playing lacrosse. Maybe just because she’s really good at it.
All of this is the best way to show Maya’s powers…channeling “echoes” of her ancestors…on screen. There’s an extended train sequence in which she sneaks explosives into Kingpin’s armory, blowing it up. She damages her prosthetic leg pretty badly and has to get it fixed.
She talks about power. She’s…focused on power. This can’t be good.
You need to pay a lot of visual attention in this show, as scenes suddenly go to sign language with captions. I like it, though.
Not holding my interest as well as some, but good enough to see it through.
Episode Review Echo 1.3 Tuklo
They have fun presenting the Tuklo flashback…as a silent western. She’s a sharpshooter, so there are a lot of guns this episode. Echo’s troubles have followed her home to Tamaha, involving everyone she cares about.
One thing I do like about this show is that they don’t have her fight “like a woman.” There’s nothing feminine or delicate about any of the combat in this series. This episode is all about collateral damage and protecting the people you love.
Oh, and there’s a fight in the roller skate rink, because there has to be. And Kingpin is alive…this is going to get real at this point. I am now curious how Echo is going to handle this.
After all, she shot him in the face.
Episode Review Echo 1.4 Taloa
This episode is really a deep dive into the truly twisted relationship between Fisk and Maya. Turns out he practically raised her…
…and never bothered to learn ASL. What kind of monster raises a deaf kid and never bothers to learn to sign? At first I thought this was the writers, but no, it was their way of indicating that she was never anything other than a weapon to him.
There’s no ancestor flashback this time (Taloa turns out to be her mom), just a flashback to Fisk beating up an ableist vendor for her.
Which was a nice thing to do, but led to something really shitty. We’re reminded that Fisk is the villain many, may times.
Episode Review Echo 1.5 “Maya”
So, this episode has all kinds of elements I loved. First of all, Maya’s dead mother shows her the superhero costume, Choctaw style, that her grandmother sewed for her. It’s one of the most beautiful costumes in the history of live action superheroes.
And it lets her mind whammy Fisk…which will apparently show up in the new Daredevil series. The end scene implies Fisk now has bigger ambitions.
But what exactly did she do to him?
The symbolism with the woodpecker that she injures and her family forces her to heal and release is 100% on point.
I do find myself recommending this, although it’s not award quality television.
The pow wow scenes were gorgeous. It looks like they filmed at an actual pow wow, which would certainly be the easiest way.
(And Fisk’s face when he realizes he’s arrived during a major festival and everything is crowded).
Beautiful television, very visual. Again, not award quality to me, but enjoyable and definitely if you’re an MCU completist, pick it up ;).