Movie Malaise

Well, I was finally able to sleep through the night despite the summer heat. Pride month is almost over, and next weekend is July 4th. At work, my office will celebrate on July 2nd. I don't feel that happy about this 250th anniversary, and I'm short of money until my next paycheck. The short-term disability money while I was on leave was much less than my normal paycheck. Plus I had to reapply to make them cover the final couple of weeks. Anyway, because I was afraid I had cancer, I had previously signed up to get the "critical illness" coverage, and that benefit is just now kicking in. I should just be happy I have it in case I get any else later.

I saw Supergirl yesterday hoping it would be a fun romp like Superman in 2025, but I was disappointed. I had hoped that Gunn was finally allowing bright colors back into DC movies, but no, it's all dark browns and greys, desaturated and subdued. Kara doesn't even wear the Supergirl costume until late in the movie. I know, it's thematic, to show that she's depressed and traumatized, not feeling like a hero. But even if she's going to wear that brown coat and dark shirt most of the movie, at least let me see the colors of those clothes! Let me see vibrant, saturated colors with full sun! Look at the previous Superman movie that had bright colors everywhere despite dark plots; some fights even took place in daylight. It was fun! Or look at the recent Sheep Detectives, which was bright and cheery despite being a murder mystery; they did have a few gloomy scenes when necessary for night time; it was also for dark themes of grief, animal abuse, disillusionment, etc, but the rest of the time we could enjoy full saturation and daylight in the quaint Denbrook village. Please stop with this idea that dark themes require 100% grunge! I hate this movie and TV trend.

Besides the lack of color, I was kind of meh on the villain Krem. Apparently he and the Brigands have a lot more backstory in the comics, but I don't care about that. He was uninteresting, and the space pirates were similarly just okay. Lobo was slightly better and funny at moments, but still kind of a generic bounty hunter. I did like Ruthie though, with her quest for vengeance. I also enjoyed learning Kara's backstory on Argo City. The writers have altered her age so that she's younger than Kal-el, her cousin. Normally she's older than him, but the years stuck in space resulted in her aging less. I guess the movie didn't want to get technical in explanations, so they just made her younger, born on Argo City. It did confirm that Superman's parents wanted him to be a conqueror on Earth, but other Kryptonians don't agree with that. Maybe Kara's parents also hoped that if she went to Earth too, she could temper Kal-el into being less evil in ruling over Earth. I think that's why she decided to go along with the scheme. Maybe she was disappointed when she reached Earth, got into the Fortress of Solitude, and realized Clark was not evil at all, so there was no need for her to fix and/or fight him. But during the course of the movie Kara decides there is a purpose to her surviving her parents and doing good in the world.

Overall, an average superhero movie. But at least it was not a horror film, or yet another retread of Toy Story. Fucking Disney, stop going to that well! I wanted the remake of Robin Hood with foxes, and you canceled that.