Month: May 2017

Tale of Two Trailers

Two trailers for two media properties I’m interested in were released recently: The Dark Tower movie and The Defenders.

Watch The Dark Tower trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwfqXTebIY

Watch The Defenders trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h3m7B4v6Zc

I have mixed feelings about both.  Let’s start with The Dark Tower.

Now, I’ve read all the original books at least once.  Stephen King wrote another book after he “ended” the series that is an interquel that I haven’t read.

I honestly don’t pay a lot of attention to movie set pictures or read speculation about the story of things I’m interested in.  I like to see one trailer and then see the thing.  So, I’ve seen Idris Elba in costume, I don’t know how many months ago, and that’s all.  I’m also aware that the movie is technically a sequel to the books but I wasn’t prepared for how far the story would bend from the books.  It looks like a combination of the first and third books but a couple of major characters are missing.

I would have liked to see a seven or six movie series since the fourth book is largely a flashback to Roland’s youth.  But I can see how hard it would have been to make such a series profitable.  After giving myself a little time to let the implications of this movie as a continuation of the books sink in, I feel more at ease with the apparent story choices that have been made.  Ka is a wheel, after all.  We won’t know for sure how it pans out until the movie is released on August 4.

Now The Defenders.  First some positives.  Yay to Misty Knight returning!  Yay to the return of Matt’s scarf mask!  Yay to Jessica’s snark!  Yay to Luke Cage’s reaction to Danny!  Yay to Iron Fist getting a haircut!  Yay to seeing these superheroes all together!

Now my concerns.  Mostly, I’m not happy about The Hand being the apparent big bad that they all have to band together to defeat.  I was talking to my roommate the other day about how I didn’t really like that Iron Fist was fighting The Hand in his series.  The Hand was introduced as Daredevil’s villain so I feel like it should be dealt with in his series.  I get that The Hand is a city-wide threat and it makes sense for them to all fight it but that could have happened in the Daredevil show via a series of guest appearances. The Defenders, I feel, should be about them facing something none of them have encountered before with Claire being the one to bring them together.

Also, I’m feeling like Daredevil season three is going to spin out of The Defenders which means it won’t make sense to watch season two and three back to back in the future.  This is just like in mega crossover comic events where the last page of a comic tells you to read a completely different comic to continue the story.  TV shows, like the CSIs or Buffy and Angel, occasionally have done this but only with one episode.  To have an entire season of the story from one show in another show is unheard of.

But, like with The Dark Tower, all we have is a two-minute trailer so we won’t really know the story until the show comes out on August 18.

 

Body Renewal

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I gazed into the suspension tube. A familiar young woman floated within. She looked like the sister my sister had never accepted me as.

“We followed your requests for a true clone only altering the hormonal balance after puberty had started. If you don’t mind me asking why not get a full conversion?” the body renewal attendant asked.

“This how I want my body to be,” I told the young woman.

“That’s fully within your rights but most” she paused as she stumbled unto the next word, “women of your type prefer full conversions.”

“Trans women you mean?”

“Yes.”

“I’m a bit older than most women or girls who go through this. I’m getting too old. The cost for my medications and treatments and therapies are going up every year. The insurance company decided it has become cheaper for to pay for a body renewal than to keep maintaining my body. I would never have chosen this for myself.”

“Why not? It’s a second chance at life. With a x-chromosome duplication you could have had children, a family-”

“A normal life?” I interrupted her.

“I didn’t mean … ”

“No, you didn’t but it’s an indication of the society we live in. Even after all these years we are still outsiders. That’s why I gave in and accepted this but on my terms. When I was a teenager this technology was science fiction. Now anyone with enough money or the right insurance coverage can get a new body. Eighty years of scientific advancement and they have never stopped hating us.”

“Surely it’s gotten better?”

“Tiny steps. Society advances and regresses like waves on the beach.” I gazed once more at the young woman floating in the chamber. “Maybe in my next life I’ll see some real change.”