Confused by the Cinematic X-Men Universe? You’re Not Alone!

Posted on June 5, 2016 at 8:00 am

Matt Singer has words of comfort. His article is titled No, It’s Not Just You, the ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Timeline Makes No Sense. To be fair, part of the appeal of comics is that they track characters through complex stories in even more complex settings written and illustrated over decades by many different people. And even with categories like “imaginary stories” with no precedential value, comics have always had inconsistencies and mis-chronologies.

But the “X-Men” movie series, even within its own universe, has not really worried much about logic or consistency, and Matt Singer does a great job of laying it all out. For example, it’s 1983, and Magneto, who was a child during WWII, is in his 30’s. Unless his mutant powers include perpetual youth, that does not make sense. Same for Moira MacTaggert, and she isn’t even a mutant. And this is my favorite.

Speaking of Mystique: Wasn’t she kind of a villain in the last movie? She was trying to kill Boliver Trask. Now she’s leading the X-Men into battle? Does that even have any precedent in X-Men comics?

Jennifer Lawrence is really popular, guys. Like hugely popular. They’ve gotta keep her involved somehow.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Do Babies Learn to Swipe Before They Learn to Talk?

Posted on June 2, 2016 at 3:14 pm

Personal cloud storage company MiMedia has released the results of a survey of parents.

76% of parents admit to running out of storage on their phones from taking too many photos/videos of their kids
71% think Moms take more photos of their kids than Dads
Nearly 3 out of 5 parents (58%) say their child (age 0-3) was able to operate a touchscreen digital device by swiping before they learned to speak
57% think Moms share too many baby photos on social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
Almost half (47%) of parents say their child (age 0-3) likes taking selfies
47% of parents share at least 1 photo/video on average of their child (age 0-3) per day, whereas 34% don’t share any
1 out of 3 parents (34% ) takes 1 video on average of their child (age 0-3) per day, whereas 13% of parents take 5+ videos on average of their child (age 0-3) per day
28% take 2 photos on average of their child (age 0-3) per day
Almost 1 out of 3 parents (28%) admits to taking substantially more photos of their first born than other children
22% of parents take 5+ photos on average of their child (age 0-3) per day
13% of parents take 5+ videos on average of their child (age 0-3) per day

Parents should be careful to make sure they are spending more time interacting with their children than taking pictures and videos of them — and that children learn about how to behave with people before they learn about how to interact with machines.

The BBC’s Tribute to American Films

Posted on May 28, 2016 at 3:30 pm

The BBC has assembled a thrilling tribute to the films they consider America’s best.

Jen Chaney on Jeanie Bueller

Posted on May 28, 2016 at 9:26 am

Jen Chaney has a delightful tribute to Ferris Bueller’s under-appreciated sister, Jeannie, played by future “Dirty Dancing” star Jennifer Grey, on Uproxx, titled, appropriately, “Save Jeannie.”

And yet the phrase uses — “Then the problem is you” — feels both wrong and unfair. Because the problem is not just Jeanie. It’s also an entire community who wants to “save Ferris” when he isn’t even in peril and doesn’t notice that Jeanie — and other marginalized kids like her — need attention too. Maybe Hughes wasn’t trying to slyly satirize a society that always gives white guys the advantages and the benefit of the doubt, but man, it really is hard to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 30 years later and not see it that way.

Shane Black on Mismatched Teams

Posted on May 22, 2016 at 1:23 pm

I often say that the single most popular theme in movies is two characters who don’t like each other at first but develop a grudging respect and often a deep affection. Sometimes it’s even a romance, as in “Pride and Prejudice” and most romantic comedies. Writer/director Shane Black, whose films “Lethal Weapon,” “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” and “The Nice Guys” are exceptionally entertaining examples, told Screen Crush what intrigues him about mismatched teams.

The mismatch, the two guys who have to use each other as a sounding board and figure out how to get up in the morning when the questions they ask themselves don’t resonate anymore. It’s the notion that I think you sometimes need someone else to believe in you for you, before you have the courage to actually believe in yourself. There’s a real thread of that in a lot of what I do. When you get two great actors to play off each other what you get is good comedy, number one, because they have someone to talk to. But you also get a very heartfelt sense of friendship that hopefully, by the end of the movie when they part, you think, “Wow, these guys have been through an experience together, which had as much to do with friendship as it did kicking ass.”

I’m less drawn to movies where the pairings are buddies like in The Expendables, tossing each other guns, and more when it’s just people who sort of don’t want the other guy in their life, and have to reluctantly admit somebody or some other influence.