SILVER AGE LOVE CHILD

Although I like David Corenswet’s Superman, I’ve been different to the rest of James Gunn‘s DC universe. The Peacemaker show doesn’t appeal to me. And the script for the Supergirl movie had too many plot holes. I forgot all about the Lanterns TV show until I saw an article that said the first episode ends with a twist. Since I still have HBO Max, I decided to give it a try.

I wrote the following while I watched. So there are plenty of spoilers. The actor who plays Jon Stewart is good. Kyle Chandler might’ve been good, but for some reason, they decided to depict him as an asshole.

So these are Freeform comments, largely edited. So proceed with caution.

S1E1

* The 1996 uniform is ugly.

* The father in the opening scene is psychotic.

* Did the father know his son would be recruited in advance?

* 2016 - Hal’s hostility and swearing is unnecessary.

* So far, his hostility is worse than Ryan Reynolds snarkiness.

* What if John didn’t put the ring on in time?

* Lots of excuses why they won’t wear the uniform.

* Lots of swearing to show it’s edgy.

* I thought the analysis of the deaths at the football field was interesting.

* I didn’t follow Jon Stewart in the comics; and the cartoons, I think he was for a military and had a gruff attitude. Not as mellow as in the show.

* The article mentioned a twist ending. I’m guessing that Hal dies.

* You think for a minute the sheriff would believe a space cop? Her insistence to ignore him doesn’t make sense.

* Maybe hell knows he’s gonna die, so maybe that’s why he has such a bad attitude.

* The courtroom thing was needlessly harsh for a bar fight?

* It’s 2016, right? Assuming the Superman movie took place in 2025, does that mean John Stewart dies so that guy Gardner becomes a Lantern?

* How convenient - the sheriff is married to the lawyer, whose father is a millionaire.

* How convenient - the one-night stand is the millionaire’s wife.

* The sheriff’s refusal to consider the guy might be an alien irrational. She says what she says because that’s how the script is written, not because it’s based on her character.

* The interrogation of the hillbilly alien was interesting.

* “It sounds like you want to die” - I predicted it 30 minutes ago.

* Flash forward to 2026 - the Lantern is Dead, long live the new Lantern.

A Variety article mentions the casting of several actors in the X-Men reboot.

Christopher Abbott as caught my eye. He looked fairly young. Wikipedia says he’s 40 years old

Inde Navarrette as Rogue. She was terrific in Obsession - a very dark role. She has the potential to become a major star. So getting locked into the MCU is disappointing.

Maya Boyd as Storm. I’m not familiar with her. Her Wikipedia page says this is her first film.

Adam Driver as Magneto. I’ve never been able to get over his Kyle Ren (a bratty teenager). I avoid anything he’s involved with.

Sadie Sink as Jean Grey. She was very good in Stranger Things. She doesn’t need the MCU to further her career.

I was thinking about the movie The Odyssey - but specifically about the character Athena. Then my mind went down a very long and securitize rabbit hole. And this post is the result.

IN THE MYTHS

In Greek myths, Athena was often referred to as gray-eyed Athena. In Homer’s story, she appears in disguise to several people, including Ulysses’s son Telemachus. When she appeared to him, she pretended to be an old man or someone who encourages him to find out information about his father. His name was Mentor, and he literally was a mentor to the son. Maybe that’s where the word comes from.

EXPRESS OF GUILT?

Although the actress Zendaya played Athena in the new movie, she only appeared to Odysseus. By the end of the movie, it could be interpreted that she was just his imagination. We saw in flashback the night Troy was destroyed. In Athena’s temple, Greek soldiers killed a priestess played by Zendaya while Odysseus watched in horror.

So since he was the only one who was on screen with Zendaya, as Athena, it would be easy to interpret that she was a manifestation of his guilt.

TOM HOLLAND CAME ACTOSS AS DUMB

Meanwhile, Tom Holland, at least four times, told some that they had gray eyes like Athena. And of course, the people in the original story who were in fact, Athena, were in disguise. But unless you knew that, you had no idea why Holland kept saying that to people.

Since director Nolan was trying to be vague about whether Zendaya was actually Athena, he decided to have Tom Holland referenced the gray eyes. I guess like an in-joke or an Easter egg for people aware of the original story.

If Athena was just Odysseus’s guilt, that’s an interesting idea. But having Tom Holland constantly telling people that they had gray eyes like Athena just made his character look even more dumb. (That’s the truth, someone needs to say it out loud.).

WIDE EYED?

Somewhere I read that gray-eyed Athena was just one translation. Another is “wide-eyed Athena”. The website where I found this was making the point that Athena’s symbol is an owl. Of course, owls are wide-eyed.

SPACE 1999?

I was watching an episode of “Space 1999”. Both Barber Bain and Martin Landau have blue eyes. Then I remembered another historical fact. In ancient texts like Homer’s stories, he never uses the word “blue”. Whenever he refers to the sea, he describes it as “dark wine sea”. If we hear wine today, we think of red or burgundy.

BLUE - THE LAST COLOR NAMED?

I’ve also read that in many societies, the word to describe “blue” is one of the last colors to get a name. Various other sources explain that before a culture created a word for blue, they usually used the term that could be anything from green to black.

THE HEBREW WORD FOR BLUE? 

One source said that the Hebrews referred to “blue” in the Bible. (Google says the Hebrews wrote the Old Testament between 1200Bc And 100ad). Does any one know the Hebrew word for “blue”?

OLD GERMANIC?

Another source said that the word blue as we use it in English, evolved from old Germanic. Per Wiki, that would date the word as much as 2000 years ago.

BLUE OR GREY?

So as I was watching the Space 1999 episode, I thought Barbara Bain and Martin Landau’s blue eyes. I could imagine a person from an ancient culture would their eyes gray. Often blue eyes vary in shade anyway.

The End of the End of Oak Street

Oak Street finally has an RT score - 83%. But I’ve decided to skip Oak Street for now (and cancel my ticket).

According to the Internet review sites, we were under a review embargo until today, the 12th. Usually for blockbusters, the reviews are released much earlier to create excitement. If the studio thinks the movie is crap, they leave the embargo to the very last minute, so that bad reviews don’t discourage people.

Although Oak Street has an 83% score, a few of the negative reviews cast doubt for me. Several of them reference Steven Spielberg and Amblin. That brings to mind JJ Abrams’ movie “Super 8” from 2011. That felt like a carbon copy of a Spielberg movie. Oak Street is produced by JJ Abrams, so ultimately that’s why I’m giving up on the movie.

LA TIMES

How great if this type of four-quadrant filmmaking didn’t have to cosplay as a begotten relic

Mashable:

If you're looking for carefree summer fun, look elsewhere. The End of Oak Street is not fun. It's bleak, brutal, and ultimately infuriating

MovieFone

Can we please stop with the ‘80s nostalgia – and more specifically, the Amblin nostalgia?

UPI

Could have been a fun Jurassic alternative. Instead, it is so beholden to the films of Spielberg that it sabotages its own originality.

A website called Screen Rex

A lot of waiting around for the good parts

Flickering Myth

Captain America

Wonder Woman #13 - "Reunion" (2024)