Year 13, Day 104 - 4/14/21 - Movie #3,808
BEFORE: OK, a couple programming notes, I was fooling around with possible post-Mother's Day paths, and I think I found the chain that will take me from there (May 9) to something appropriate for Memorial Day. It's not perfect, nothing really is, but all year I've managed to keep my chain going by breaking it up into little sections, just getting to the next holiday, instead of keeping an eye on the big picture, which is impossible. I've also developed a pattern of programming too many films, then when I need to drop some films, working them in to the next chain I plan - it's worked so far in 2021, so I'm going to keep doing it. I've got too many films scheduled for April, so I'm dropping one documentary and one film with Oprah Winfrey and they're being rescheduled...
...for July, believe it or not. Because even though I don't have a clear path yet between Memorial Day and July 4 (wait, I think Father's Day is in between those two somewhere...) I already know what film I want to watch on July 4, and from that film it's just a couple obvious steps to some more documentaries, many of which are music-based - so it looks like I'm planning another big Summer Concert Rock Doc chain, and those films being let go from April's line-up could be a perfect lead out from that, and then I can already see how they could connect to "Hellboy" and "Black Widow", FINALLY. Now if I can just program June with some Father's Day films, graduation and maybe even some Gay Pride films, I'll be all set until mid-July, and that's usually just a hop, skip and a jump to back-to-school films, then Shock-toberFest.
Now, about that loose theme for the week - and I swear, this was not my intent when I programmed, it's quite accidental. Something about seeing "Soul" in yesterday's title, and the world "Power" in this one, it struck me that those are two of the Infinity Stones from the "Avengers" films, and the Marvel comics before that. If I stretch my imagination a little, I think I can incorporate all six stones into this week's films - "21 Bridges" was about finding two cop-killers within the confined SPACE of Manhattan, while "I'm Not Here" was all about an old man getting bogged down with all the memories in his MIND. Then "Palm Springs" was all about a TIME-loop, then came "SOUL" and now "Project POWER". That's 5 of the stones, and it just leaves the REALITY stone, and I think tomorrow's film is somewhat appropriate. (OK, I'll admit that SPACE tie-in was really lame, but I realized this connection too late, and I don't think J.K. Simmons has made too many films related to outer space.)
There's little point in tracking my "31 Days of Oscar" progress if my stats get too low, but if I can get through the letter "L" I'm thinking I may have more luck with the movies beginning with "M", so here's the TCM schedule for tomorrow, April 15, essentially the halfway point:
THE PLOT: When a pill that gives its users unpredictable superpowers for five minutes hits the streets of New Orleans, a teenage dealer and a local cop must team with an ex-solider to take down the group responsible for its creation.
AFTER: This is another one of those superhero films that falls into the "other" category, meaning that it's not based on a Marvel or a DC comic, it's from somewhere outside The Big Two - and it seems to have snuck out there onto Netflix during a lull in the market, since both Marvel and DC movies have been on pause, except for "Wonder Woman 1984", which was really disappointing. I'm hoping for better things from "Black Widow" in July, and they're finally running "The New Mutants" on HBO, and of course I'm going to record that, but I may not be able to watch it until October, because of the linking. (I could have linked from "Emma" to "The New Mutants", but that would have created thematic whiplash.)
So, until "Black Widow" in July, assuming it gets released this time, I have to make do with films like "The Old Guard" and this one. I'm happy that superhero movies are back, don't get me wrong, but like everything else, it's going to take a while to get back up to normal-ish. It's going to feel weird that first time you go on vacation again, or go out to dinner with a friend, or attend a rock concert, but we're going to get back there, it's just going to take time. We're easing back into movie theaters, and I'm easing back into superhero movies. Thank God for all the other films I've watched to stay busy, like most of Ingmar Bergman's filmography.
There's the start of a really great idea here, like what if superpowers came in a pill, would you take that pill? (We actually have superpowers being dispensed by syringe right now, the power is called "resistance to coronavirus", and nearly everyone I know is getting a shot this week. You should too, if you haven't already - or don't you want superpowers? And if so, WHY NOT? Whatever possible reaction you may have - injection site pain, headache, flu-like symptoms for a day, even a blood clot, that's BETTER THAN COVID-19!). Now, the vaccine is proven safe, let me be clear here, but that's NOT the case for the "superpowers pill". Under this scenario, you twist the pill, swallow it, and then, well, who knows? You may get a great super-power, or you may get a power that your body can't handle, like there's a chance you might explode.
(Bear in mind, this was because the superpower pill hadn't really been tested, distributing it out on the street like a drug WAS part of the test. The CoronaVirus vaccines have been FULLY tested, they're safe, you are NOT going to explode if you get one, you won't get COVID, you won't get autism, and there's no microchip or tracking device being injected. All you get is protection from COVID-19, so why all the vaccine hesitancy? I don't get it, except that some people are being misinformed. Oddly, it's some of the same people who claimed that Trump deserves credit for the vaccine's existence, and those people are also hardcore Trumpers, but then why don't they want to get vaccinated themselves, like their "hero" Trump? It makes no sense...)
I've seen a couple storylines in the Marvel comics like this, I think the X-Men comics did a storyline at one point where ordinary people were taking a drug that gave them mutant-like superpowers for a short time - ah, yes, the drug was called MGH, or Mutant Growth Hormone, and this might have been the same drug that the X-Man Beast used to change his form to having long blue hair all over his body. Years later, the Young Avenger called Patriot, who had claimed to have received his superpowers due to a blood transfusion from his grandfather (Isaiah Bradley), but really, he was using MGH and was forced to quit the team. The Disney+ show "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" recently featured the Isaiah Bradley character, he was experimented on when the U.S. was developing the Super-Soldier serum for Captain America, so of course there's a Steve Rogers connection to this concept, too. Captain America initially got his super-powers from a drug, after all, and Marvel tried to downplay this fact for a while in the 1990's by removing the drug from Steve Rogers system, but that turned out to be a terrible idea, much like the band KISS removing their make-up, so they had to put it back.
Here in "Project Power", in addition to those unreliable results, the effect of the drug only lasts for five minutes. So the problem, story-wise, is that the action sequences with super-powered people are far too short - but hey, keeping them limited maybe saved some money on the special effects budget. Anyway, there are some cool effects here, but they ended up being too few and too far-between, there's a lot of down time between the fight scenes, unfortunately. You'd think we might learn to appreciate them more because of this, only it really doesn't work out that way.
And about those powers - it's also unfortunate that comic books have been around for so long, nearly every possible superpower has been seen already, in one or more heroes. Flight? Seen it. Super strength? Ditto. Invisibility? Ho hum. The strength and stickiness of a spider? More original, but even Spider-Man's been around for almost 60 years at this point. And the fact that you can usually find a Marvel and DC character with the same exact powers should tell you something. Aquaman = Namor, Flash = Quicksilver, Zatanna = Scarlet Witch, Catwoman = Black Cat, and so on. Once in a while you encounter a character like Vision or Mister Miracle and you think, "Oh, he's unique, there's no other character like him..." but it doesn't happen very often. So here in "Project Power", the superpowers demonstrated included being covered in flame (Human Torch), having control over cold (Iceman) and then getting very big and strong (Umm, Hulk, plus so many others...). There's also a guy who can grow claws (like Wolverine), only this guy's claws come out of his arms, not his wrists.
There's a thousand possible superpowers out there, it's really the writer's job (in comics as well as movies) to think of something NEW and fresh, but here, if you're a comic-book fan, it's mostly the same old stuff. That's a missed opportunity, if ever there was one. Show me something I haven't seen before, come on, I dare you. I bet there are a bunch of Marvel and DC editors who say this to writers on an almost-daily basis. I mean, you can't go TOO far off the reservation, or the fans won't know how to deal, but come on, surprise me at least. The coolest power seen here isn't exactly invisibility (which is old hat) but something more like a chameleon's power, being able to blend in with any background. That's cool - Spider-Man has an enemy called the Chameleon, but even he can't do THIS, he just wears false faces and impersonates people.
And so an ambitious New Orleans police officer, a young drug dealer who's been supplying him with "Power" and a man searching for his kidnapped daughter find themselves teaming up to take down the drug manufacturers/dealers who also kidnapped that daughter, because she's connected to the source of the drug, or something. She may be the only real superhero in this world, but that's all just a bit unclear. I feel essentially the same as I did after watching "The Old Guard", this is a great START to a story, but it feels rather unfinished. Will there be a sequel to this? I suppose that depends on how well this film did on Netflix, but I think there's more potential here, just get these heroes back together, maybe add a few new ones, get them a new supply of the drug and a new villain to take down, and I'll probably be there.
Also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (last seen in "The Lookout"), Dominique Fishback (last seen in "The Hate U Give"), Colson "Machine Gun Kelly" Baker (last seen in "The King of Staten Island"), Rodrigo Santoro (last seen in "The Last Stand"), Amy Landecker (last seen in "A Serious Man"), Allen Maldonado (last seen in "Straight Outta Compton"), Kyanna Simone Simpson (last seen in "Fist Fight"), Andrene Ward-Hammond (last seen in "Instant Family"), Courtney B. Vance (last seen in "Cookie's Fortune"), Casey Neistat, Jim Klock (last seen in "The Stanford Prison Experiment"), Luke Hawx (last seen in "Logan"), Janet Rose Nguyen, Rose Bianco (last seen in "Capone"), CG Lewis (ditto), Tait Fletcher (also last seen in "The Last Stand"), Yoshi Sudarso (last seen in "Easy A"), Jane Chika Oranika, Jazzy De Lisser, Cory DeMeyers, Azhar Khan, C.J. LeBlanc (last seen in "Just Mercy"), Joseph Poliquin, Terrell Batiste, Jeanine Stander,
RATING: 6 out of 10 metal briefcases
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