Ty Watches "Thor: Love and Thunder"

For date night this week my wife and I watched "Thor: Love and Thunder". We both wanted to see the movie. We liked "Ragnarok" a lot, and with the whole crew back we figured this one would be great too. While not great, I thought this movie was okay. It could have been better, but there are little critiques I have here and there.

What made "Ragnarok" so great was the way they used comedy and seriousness all within the superhero world. "Love and Thunder" was almost too goofy. They leaned way too far into the humor aspect. I like a good comedy, but with the whole superhero thing, you have to juggle those two things. We are talking about a world in which superheroes and villains exist. There are bound to be some serious things going on. There was another break in the whole vibe of the movie every time Christian Bale was on screen. He played the villain. He was Gorr the God Butcher, and he did a pretty good job. But whenever he was on screen he was overacting. He was too serious. Even when he was trying to be funny/menacing at the same time it came off as too serious. It was creepy. He was creepy. And I assume that is what they wanted in this role. But whenever Bale wasn't on screen, or when they just focused on Thor, it was joke after joke. There was too much. Even when they tried to make him more serious it was done in a light tone. And I appreciate Chris Hemsworth and his acting ability and the fact that he can be funny. But in this movie it was just too much.

The movie also moved kind of slowly. It was definitely slower than most MCU movies, especially after the more recent MCU movies. It kind of took awhile for it to get to the point. And it felt like it took awhile. Scenes went on for a little too long. It was too much at times. The stuff with Russell Crowe was a bit over the top. So was some of the Christian Bale stuff as well. They meandered a bit longer than they did in "Ragnarok". They went away from what made "Ragnarok" so great.

Even with these critiques, this movie still worked. It was more fun than some of the other MCU stuff. I liked that there wasn't all this backstory. I appreciated that there weren't a ton of new superheroes or villains I needed to learn about. I liked that they kept the cameos to an extreme minimum. I appreciated that scenes with all the gods featured gods from Greek mythology. These are gods we all know or have heard of before. Hemsworth was solid. Tessa Thompson rules. She is such a badass. Taika Waititi does great as Korg. Natalie Portman's return was great and much deserved. Bale was chewing the scenery, but he was still fun and creepy. I liked the look of New Asgaard. The music, even with it being Guns N Roses, was fitting.

All in all, "Love and Thunder" was uneven. There were parts I liked and parts I didn't like so much. I'm glad I watched it at home and not at the theater. I had fun but it felt slow. I do not get the mass criticism from some MCU fans, but they are an unreasonable bunch. "Love and Thunder" is a fine movie. Watch it at home if you have Disney +. That is the best way to consume the movie.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Late Than Never on the Movie "Annihilation"

With all the streaming options available now I have been catching up on a ton of movies that I have wanted to watch, and now have the time. I will be writing about two of them the next two days, and I want to do the good one today.

So, I recently watched the movie "Annihilation" and boy oh boy did I love this movie. I remember seeing the preview awhile back, probably over a year ago, and thinking that it looked pretty good. I then saw that it was directed by the same guy that did "Ex Machina", and that pretty much sealed the deal for me. I also heard some people talk about it, mainly RD, and they all seemed to find something to enjoy about the movie. I had a free afternoon on Tuesday and I decided that it was the perfect time to check it out. I was blown away.

The simple synopsis of the movie is that a group of women, some soldiers, some with wild pasts, decide to enter this weird, alternate universe called "The Shimmer" to see what is going on. Natalie Portman is the main character, and her husband, played by Oscar Issac, went to "The Shimmer", and came back a totally different person. Portman plays a biologist, and she wants to know what happened to her husband. She wanted to find out why he was so different. To find out what happened. She joined a group headed by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and it included Gina Rodriguez and Tessa Thompson. They enter this "Shimmer", and things are not what they seem. There is wild vegetation. The animals are weird hybrids. The days seem short but are actually months long. Compasses don't work. Timing is all odd. It is nuts.

I loved every second of it. I like weird sci fi movies that stay with you days and days after watching it. I have not stopped thinking about this movie since I finished it. I texted RD immediately to tell him how much I loved it. I told my wife all about it. I did the same with my parents. And when they asked me what was so good, or why I liked it so much, I have a plethora of answers.

First off, the story is really good, and fairly easy to follow. The imagery is some of the coolest and most unique stuff I have ever seen in a movie. The monster, the hybrid animals, are cool and scary and wild and memorable. The acting is top notch. The direction is cool. The colors are as colorful as "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2". And I dig this director. I was blown away at everything in this movie. When you see some vegetation that looks like people, I was blown away. When the crazy stuff starts to happen, I'm trying my best to not spoil anything because this movie needs to be seen by everyone, I was stunned and shocked and pleased in all the right ways. The alien in this movie was one of the coolest things I have seen in quite some time. Everything that happened in "The Shimmer" was totally cool and fresh and like nothing I have ever seen before. Natalie Portman is so good in this movie, and when she has a solid script, she really knocks it out of the park. Also, I want to shout out Gina Rodriguez. I have only ever seen her do comedic stuff, but in this movie she is rough and gruff and I was on board. Also, shout out to the people who let women be the guiding force, the strong people in this movie. That doesn't happen enough, and when it does, it works.

I really think "Annihilation" is going to be fondly remembered as a very solid movie. This is another step in a good direction for director Alex Garland. To follow up "Ex Machina" with this, I am stoked for the future. "Annihilation" is a great movie that I highly recommend. Also, go into it knowing as little as possible like I did. The movie will blow you away.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Cloves and Fedoras: Go See the Intriguing Film "Sorry to Bother You"

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture.  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known.

This past Saturday I had the great pleasure of seeing one of the wildest, weirdest, crazy, scatter brained, satirical and best movie that I have watched in a long, long time. I took my dad to see "Sorry to Bother You", and boy did this movie not disappoint.

I had very high expectations for this movie. From the moment that I heard Boots Riley of The Coup, a band that I am a big time fan of, I even nominated them for greatest American band, had written and directed a movie, I was interested. I didn't need to know what it was about, or who was even in it, I was just totally stoked that a visionary, and political activist like Boots Riley was getting a chance to make a movie. That being said, when I heard who was cast in the movie, that made me want to see it even more. As you all know, I am a big time fan of the show "Atlanta", and when I saw that Lakeith Stanfield was starring in the movie, I was pumped. It  also didn't hurt when I saw names like Tessa Thompson, Terry Crews, Steven Yeun, Jermaine Fowler and Danny Glover in the cast. Then the trailers started to some out. The trailers put all of the craziness and absurdity and wonderfulness that was this movie into the world. The trailers also made me realize who people like David Cross and Patton Oswalt were in this movie. I got advanced tickets and saw it the day after it was released nationwide. As I said, I saw it with my father, and a fairly crowded theater during a Saturday matinee. That made me happy from the start. The theater was not sold out by any means, but to see it about 1/2 full for an independent movie that was described as a "comedy, sci fi thriller", well, that is awesome. Maybe that means that more unique and cool movies will get a chance to be made. I am fatigued by sequels, remakes and super hero movies. It was nice to see something totally original. And, after only 3 previews, which I definitely appreciated, the movie started.

Now, I am not going to spoil anything, so I am going to continue very carefully with how I describe this wonderful movie. Stanfield plays Cassius Green. Green is broke. He lives in his Uncle's garage, Terry Crews played his uncle, and he is engaged to a performance artist that is also a sign twirler on the road. Green's fiancé is played by Tessa Thompson, and she shines in this movie. Her name is Detroit. She wears some of the wildest and coolest clothes that I have ever seen. She is an activist and she is just a beam of light whenever she is on screen. She makes all of her earrings in the movie, and they make it a point to say that, and to point them out. I loved that about this movie. Her wardrobe is also so hip and forward thinking, I would not be shocked if I saw people starting to dress like Detroit in real life. Anyway, Green needs a job because he is 4 months behind on his rent, and his uncle is about to lose the house. He gets a job at a telemarketing company, Regal View, and it is a struggle at first. Some of the scenes where he is making his first calls, where he literally drops into the home of the people he is calling, are so cool and unlike anything that I have seen. It was awesome. Green is struggling, and he is not making any money. The co worker sitting next to him, played by Danny Glover, gives him some advice. He tells him he needs to use his "white voice". He says that this will calm the people he is talking to, and they will be more willing to speak with him. I found this part of the movie very intriguing. I, and I assume many other people, just hang up on telemarketers. But, I wonder if the people that actually field these calls take them because of how the person sounds. It is a very great take on race relations, and only someone like Boots Riley could have pulled this off.

Green, now using his "white voice", which is voiced by David Cross, begins to crush it at work. He is selling whatever Regal View sells, it isn't very clear, and he is selling a ton. Amidst all this, Steven Yeun, playing a character named Squeeze, and Jermaine Fowler, Cassius' best friend, are starting to unionize so they can make living wages. This movie takes place in an alternate universe, and telemarketers in this world make far less than telemarketers do now. Cassius is part of their fight at first, but then he gets promoted to "power caller". This is where the real money is made. This is where Cassius can make enough money to help his uncle keep his house, buy an apartment for himself and Detroit, and furnish it with nice things. He is happy about this, at first. He then realizes what he is selling as a "power caller".

There is a company in this movie called Worry Free. They give people a job, a free place to live and free food, all they have to do is sign a lifetime contract, and work for them forever. It is essentially slave labor. Cassius comes to realize that, as a "power caller", he is only furthering and helping this awful corporation continue to thrive. But, since he is making money, he continues to go to work.

This begins to strain his relationship with Detroit and his friends. He is a scab. He may not realize it, but he is going against everything he believes in. He continues to cross the picket lines because he has finally found something that he is good at doing. He has struggled all his life, but telemarketing, with his "white voice", and selling things to random people on the phone, he is good at this. Needless to say, he and Detroit split. Fowler and Yeun want nothing to do with him. One day, while crossing the picket line, he gets struck in the head by a soda can. With all this happening, he continues to go to work, and to make Worry Free a ton of money.

Due to his success, Green gets invited to a big party with one of the owners or CEO or something of Worry Free, Steve Lift. Lift is played by Armie Hammer, and while I do not think he is a great actor, he is amazing in this movie. He is evil, a womanizer, a pig, a bully, a drug addict and just an all around bad guy. It is only when Cassius meets Hammer does he start to question what he is really doing. Hammer bullies him into free style rapping at a party. He essentially traps him in his home, and threatens his life when Cassius finds out some major news about what he is doing to help Worry Free continue to progress their laborers, who, lets just say, may not be all human. When Cassius learns of all of this, he decides now that he needs to fight back.

From here on out, if I were to say much more, I would spoil some major things in the movie. With that being said, you need to stay through the credits to get the full extent of what I am trying to get across without spoiling anything.

"Sorry to Bother You" is one of the most ambitious movies that I have ever witnessed. Boots Riley had a vision, and I feel like he decided he was going to put as much of it into this movie as possible, and that makes me so happy. He took all the chances. I mean, in this movie, the number one TV show in America is called, "I Just Got the Shit Kicked Out of Me". When they showed that, I was reminded of another one of my favorite, off the wall movies, "Idiocracy". But where the shows are similar, that is the only thing. "Sorry to Bother You" is much deeper, and way more in depth than "Idiocracy", and I adore "Idiocracy".

"Sorry to Bother You" is, quite possibly, the most original movie, with common themes, that has ever been made. The movie touches on class, selling out and race, but in such a unique and cool and visionary way. You must see this movie. You also must know, going into it, that it is weird and different, and there are crazy cuts and some of the wildest stuff you can think of times ten in this movie. But, it is all worth it. This movie more than surpassed my expectations. I saw it on Saturday, and I am still trying to figure everything out. The movie is open ended and lets you kind of decide what you think is right and wrong, and I love it even more because of that.

"Sorry to Bother You" is an amazing achievement, and I cannot wait to see what Boots Riley does next. What a gem.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has had a bunch of crappy jobs that forced him to bother people. Never again will you see Ty knocking on your door asking if you have the latest in Video Cassette Recording experience.

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