The Big Picture (2010)

Marvel Studios' "WANDAVISION" is a hit on Disney Plus with audiences and critics alike, unexpectedly becoming the best-reviewed MCU production according to Rotten Tomatoes calculation in its first week of release thanks in no small part to its unsettling, quasi-surreal storytelling device and aesthetic conceit that had some critics drawing comparisons - but some others pushing back - to the work of the great surrealist filmmaker David Lynch; best known for genre-bending, often disturbing features like "BLUE VELVET" and the cult-classic TV series "TWIN PEAKS." And wouldn't you know it? Mr. Lynch also just got done celebrating his 75th birthday this week! So let's take this (slightly belated - it's been a big week...) opportunity to wish Big Dave a happy one and take a quick primer both on the filmography of one of modern cinema's true visionaries and also answer whether or not there's REALLY any comparing his bizarre output to a silly superhero sitcom about a witch and a robot.

The Big Picture's host has a Big Mood about Big Monsters reacting to the trailer for "GODZILLA VS KONG" and the (still) questionable potential of actually being able to watch this and the rest of Warner Bros' 2021 slate the right way - on the big screen, as it becomes safe again - now that AT&T has forced the studio to fall on its sword to prop up HBO/MAX. To lighten the mood, we also take a look back at how an American giant-gorilla and a Japanese atomic-dinosaur being hypothetical monster movie heavyweight rivals became a "thing" in the first place.

A short BIG PICTURE on some small odds and ends in prep for (hopefully!) a week with some surprises in store - including some classic game commercials, "MORTAL KOMBAT" musings and talk of Denzel Washington's latest but certainly not greatest.

With the (possibly?) game-changing and (definitely!) surprising reveal at the end of the 5th episode of the hit Disney+ streaming series "WandaVision, longtime Marvel movie fans are more convinced than ever that they're seeing the beginning of reality-reshaping shenanigans that could set the stage for bigger, more bizarre MCU stories to come (which is really saying something after "WandaVision") but also the long-expected continuity-shifts that could bring the heroes and villains of the X-Men series into the picture. Why does that matter? Why wouldn't it have been possible before? Why would is it possible now and why would it be indicated by a guest spot on a mind-bending sitcom-satire? As it turns out, that's a story that takes... a bit of time to explain. And the attempt to do so begins HERE.

PREVIOUSLY: In the wake of a (possibly?) game-changing and (definitely!) surprising reveal at the end of the 5th episode of the hit Disney+ streaming series "WandaVision, we looked at why longtime Marvel movie fans were now more convinced than ever that they're seeing the beginning of reality-reshaping shenanigans that could bring the heroes and villains of the X-Men series into the Marvel Cinematic Universe - and looked back on the complicated history of why that's considered such a big deal, so difficult to make happen in the first place and why this (of all things) is thought to suggest it. Now, in PART II: A breakdown of which forces (ALLEGEDLY!) aligned behind the scenes at early-2000s Marvel Inc. to turn a pair of secondary X-Men/Avengers characters into the unlikely center of a complex corporate custody battle, the stubborn machinations that made it all even worse and the absurd "Plan B" that turned two Marvel Publishing franchises into incomprehensible mush for almost a decade and almost scuttled the MCU in total just as it was taking off.

With apologies for the delay (Note to self: Let's NOT try to guess at the movie-target storyline of new television and old comic books at the same time just because they're nominally related - SIGNIFICANTLY more work than it looks like upfront!) let's tie a bow off on this VERY lengthy and examination of how one of "WandaVision's" most attention-getting plot twists wasn't just a big moment for longtime fans but also a major turning of the page (one way or another) in a decade-plus of absurdly convoluted behind-the-scenes media-industry melodrama that may (finally?) be sorting itself out in real time. As with PART II, this whole "story" is scattershot by nature, so there's another (shorter this time) recap in play upfront AND I've segregated the "WandaVision story speculation" with actualy Episode 7 'Big Spoiler' business (and Episode 8/9 "Big Guesses") to the very end after all the "weird comics history" stuff so no one avoid that needs to feel totally left out. As such the BULK of the episode's main section is laying out the aftermath of what happened after the "Inhumans become the new X-Men so the MCU doesn't need Mutants" (alleged) retool fell apart at Marvel Publishing and took a bunch of the old corporate structure with it; along with what that does/doesn't look like going forward and some "Bigger Picture" (ahem) commentary on what this says about where we put our focus on these kinds of stories. Also there's a BUNCH of "random weird trivia suggested by "WandaVision" speculation" in there that kept getting pushed ahead by having to make this longer, too, so... have fun with that!

YUP! One more "WandaVision" episode - didn't plan for that (in fact, planned against it) but things got in the way and you work with what you've got and in the midst of typing up some fill-ins for hammering the "MutantVision" trilogy into a single upload sans-recaps because folks requested that we basically ended up with a whole other episode worth of content and waste not want not - though since last week some busy-ness around the house kept a full upload from happening altogether we're gonna try to make this week a twofer plus some Reviews and Classics AND still get that combo-episode up - but after that, I think we'll move on from the Maximoff Family for awhile unless Marvel decides we don't get to (or if a proper "series review" feels like enough of a separate thing people want?) This is more of an overview of the aftermath, as the popular-culture processes the finale of the series that (maybe?) got to end up as the Western World's last MASSIVE pandemic-lockdown era collective experience - the meta-on-meta Season Finale to a year of binge-watching and mandatory safe-space nostalgia TV filling the void of blockbuster entertainment. So of course it almost HAD to be a project about blockbuster movie characters LITERALLY locking themselves up in a psychokinetic Snuggie of small-screen comfort viewing and forcing themselves to confront the realization that the world around them is suffocating as a result. A decidedly bonkers mash-up of Marvel action, existential drama, media satire, sitcom archaeology, Karen-on-Karen witchcraft violence and some genuine introspection on behalf of the Marvel/Disney on the subject of what it means to be the top-reseller of bygone American Dreams that so easily become nightmares when unattained.

Marvel Studios' "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" looks ready to do for audience expectations of politically-charged content and connections to dark real-world American history on Disney-Plus what "WANDAVISION" did for metafiction... but why is so much of the feedback loop (and so much of the "coverage?") STILL skipping right over the most compelling material in favor of Mystery Boxes and "X-MEN" egg-hunts?

THE BIG PICTURE offers an overview of the kaiju genre's undisputed First Lady and still one of the most unique and often underappreciated fixtures in the giant monster canon: "MOTHRA," the movie monster that breaks every rule of what the genre is supposed to be.

THE BIG PICTURE looks ahead at the penultimate episodes of "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER," specifically speculation about a "surprise Marvel character" making their debut. PLUS! Special potential-spoiler free section upfront for those keeping 100% unspoiled featuring the truly bizarre origin of "The Power Broker!"

THE BIG PICTURE looks back at one of the dumbest (yet most fascinating and, in retrospect, prophetic) internet movie-rumor phenomenons of the early-2000s; along with a (SPOILER-FREE) quick reaction to whether or not we "called it" on the penultimate "FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER" big reveals.

The Big Picture addresses some recent schedule matters, talks the near-term future plans for the channel and hits on some recent news items.

The Big Picture looks at the state of a world trying to be a world again, and how we balance the need to see "normal" again with the new understanding of how different "normal" has been defined for so many of us. Also, some "PURGE" and "RICK & MORTY" jokes.

Well, okay then! After several years of almost kinda hoping they'd just drip-feed this one in gradually so we wouldn't actually have to try and make sense of this all at once... let's FINALLY try and explain the who, what and why (are we supposed to care, exactly?) about "THE ETERNALS!" Find out what happened when Jack Kirby went back to Marvel for a second round but just couldn't let "The New Gods" go, how Marvel couldn't figure out what to do with them and what some are calling the most confounding movie trailer of the year might actually be trying to tell us.

PART II of what *MIGHT* be the most convoluted "Comics Are Weird!" episode we've ever undertaken (and, regrettably, the most delay-plagued of recent; which was externally affected but still no excuse); as we continue our attempt to untangle exactly what the HELL Jack Kirby's "ETERNALS" was ever supposed to be and - having explained, for the most part, what he was going for in the first place in PART I - now find ourselves tracking what Marvel made of the bizarre mythos he left them when the series ended unfinished and he'd once more moved on. What DID follow? Adventures with THE MIGHTY THOR, deeply-confounding integrations with THE AVENGERS, a key role in the still-controversial crossover that ended THE ULTRAVERSE (and created a 7th Infinity Stone!) a reboot from Neil Gaiman(!), an absurdly dark "ending" (that didn't take) multiple even darker origins for *The Planet Earth*, "Caveman Avengers," plant-baby messiahs and retconned origins for Thanos, Apocalypse, The Kree, Skrulls, several versions of Kang and some X-MEN stuff we barely even have time to touch on... and I'm STILL going to follow this up with a look ahead at WHY they might have decided this needed to be a movie and what it might mean for the future of this entire enterprise!

In this (now...) THIRD of what started as an attempt to explain both the preposterously complex internal (re: "canonical") and external (re: "publishing business") history of Marvel's "THE ETERNALS," its coming feature film and morphed via time and necessity into a four-part arc of both that and a round of speculation into the future of Marvel Cinematic Universe filmmaking potentially following it inspired by the initial question "Why 'THE ETERNALS' in the first place?" Which, here, necessitates a brief digression into the business of the American film industry, Disney/Marvel-Studios in particular, why the "Marvel Movies" are how they are (and why it keeps working for them) in order to plot out a realistic understanding of what might actually be done with all these things now that they've been brought out of the box. Enjoy!

The (significantly!) longer and more complicated than anticipated "Attempting To Explain 'THE ETERNALS' Ahead Of That Movie" feature now finally closes-out with the lengthiest and (perhaps inevitably?) least ETERNALS-heay part of itself; mostly because the longer it took to produce the longer it had to get: A summation of the first three parts, applying all of the other "Where did this come from and why?" overview material to the various known component-parts of the other upcoming Marvel Studios movies and series for a set of a projections about where that all might... "go," at some point. Not so much "What do I want to see"/"think we'll see"/etc; rather "Based on what happened so far and what's happening right now; here's what stands the best chance of happening next" (or, yes, "aka Bob adapts his research notes into a whole other episode again," I guess ????‍♀️)

An episode about the 1996 film "SPACE JAM," as is discourse mandated by the timing of the release of its sequel; "SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY" in this the year of 2021. Let it be done.

Kevin Smith and Netflix handed in 6 episodes worth of Gen-X action figure fanservice AND somehow made a good cartoon out of it... and The Internet STILL found a way to get mad about it.

So I guess there was a new trailer for something?

And here we go! Now that Marvel's "SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS" is a certified blockbuster and folks have had a chance to check it out; here's a dive into ten SPOILER-HEAVY observations, questions and "huh"-moments from the official brand-new start of Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 4 ????

Schlocktober 2021 Begins (a day or two later than I wanted - sorry!) with a special PLUS-SIZE episode about a special plus-size snake courtesy of Joseph Lai, Betty Chan and "The Ed Wood of Asia": Hong Kong madman Godrey Ho! What do a young girl and her pet snake, a super-science box that embiggens anything you put inside, an extremely vague top-secret government program, Southeast Asia's most ambitious expat-American(?) regional crimeboss and Ted Fast: The Special Agent who ALWAYS works alone have to do with one another? ...it's not exactly clear, but it ALMOST adds up to one of the giant monster genre's most tonally-inconsistent entries ever produced - right down to one of the most jarring "Where is this coming from!?" mood-shift finales your ever likely to accidentally stumble upon in something with "Gigantic Serpent" in its title.

Schlocktober 2021 continues with an episode featuring a film series I've been angling to get into the run for years and now found the time and context for - the strange saga of "THE APE-WOMAN," aka "The Universal Monster" you've probably never heard of. When one of the slimiest Mad Doctors in the Universal Horrors canon (John "Sure, I've Got Time!" Carradine) surgically swaps human and ape glands - and some brain matter for good measure - just to see if he can, he transforms a wild female circus gorilla into Paula Dupree, "The Ape-Woman" (Acquanetta); who looks like an "Exotic" (uh-oh...) bombshell but can exercise psychic control over other jungle creatures. This makes her an instant celebrity at the local circus - until her crush on a human lion-tamer unleashes her "wild side" with star-crossed tragedy results that gave the series two sequels - and maybe the most problematic monster-morph in movie history (don't believe me? Watch the show!)

Before it was the name for one of the dumbest political memes of 2021 (which is saying something, sadly!) "CYBER NINJA" was the name (in American video stores, at least) of the uniquely offbeat 'Edo-Punk' sci-fi/action movie that helped Japanese TV design and directing icon Keita Amemiya breakout as a big screen name. Journey back to a simpler time when something this strange could simply "show up" unannounced and blow the minds of unsuspecting rental customers with just a catchy cover and the word "NINJA!" in the title.

Sadly, the final episode of "SCHLOCKTOBER 2021" will not make it's Halloween deadline in order to provide the best possible quality final product. In light of this, please enjoy a selection of clips from features that were considered for the series this year but did not QUITE make the cut - always next year, though, and stay tuned for more

Was our Halloween programming supposed to stretch into November? It was not. Do we plan to make a habit out of it? We do not. Are we going to make our awkward scheduling worth your while by giving you the first of TWO full-length episodes covering two of the strangest scifi/horror/action/fantasy features of late-1980s Hong Kong had to offer in Lam Ngai Kai's infamous live-action adaptations of the "SPIRIT WARRIOR" manga/anime franchise? ...YES! The director behind "THE STORY OF RICKY" and "THE SEVENTH CURSE" throws Doctor Strange, Ghostbusters, Lethal Weapon and a snapshot of vintage late-80s Hong Kong excess into a blender and dumps the results all over someone's rough idea of a live-action manga rework about mismatched Buddhist exorcists trying to keep The Devil's precocious daughter from unleashing Hell on Earth - while everyone from cannibal witches to possessed dinosaur puppets to Gordon Liu have other ideas.

Was our Halloween programming supposed to stretch into November? It was not. Do we plan to make a habit out of it? We do not. Are we going to (continue!) making our awkward scheduling worth your while by giving you the second of TWO full-length episodes covering two of the strangest scifi/horror/action/fantasy features of late-1980s Hong Kong had to offer in Lam Ngai Kai's infamous live-action adaptations of the "SPIRIT WARRIOR" manga/anime franchise? ...YES!

Marvel's "ETERNALS" was supposed to be the MCU feature that won over the cinephile set while risking turning off general audiences. Instead, the exact opposite happened - the box-office was as strong as ever and Marvel fans stayed onboard but this time critics said "nope." Did everyone fail to read the room, or does everyone have a skewed vision of what "film critic" means in the 21st Century? We're back to brack this down.