Black Panther – 9
Atticus Finch is dead.
The days of great book adaptations set forth as high budget, high brow
movies have officially ended. The source
material of the day is comic books. Marvel
is here, and we’re going to have to deal with it. It makes some sense. The stories are unbounded by reality, the
colors are bright, and the stories are plentiful. It’s ripe for Hollywood’s favorite tool – the
sequel.
Most of the Marvel universe has spawned blockbusters. Well-funded, well-conceived, and well executed. My favorite type of movie? No, I’d rather see a Martin Scorsese
original, and see how he was going to use “Sympathy for the Devil” again. Black Panther is the latest, and you’re
talking Jaws/Star Wars/Titanic world-wide momentum here. It is already the 10th
highest grossing movie of all time. Is it up to the hype?
Mostly, yes. The
screen oozes with the charisma of the stars – Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan,
Lupita Nyong’o (wow she grew up fast) and Angela Bassett to name a few. The story, of the hidden kingdom Wakanda in
Africa with an advanced technology – a bullet to the spine can be healed in 24
hours – based on the strongest element vibranium, is original and
spectacular. The king of the country is
decided in a challenge ritual fight, they have spies all over the world, and
they’re sitting on their technology, not trusting the world enough to share. Oh, and the New King is about to be
challenged.
Of course, the fight scenes are overlong and too fast and
blurry to really see, and there’s an air battle that’s so lifted out of Star
Wars, that you expect Hans Solo to sweep in and save the day. But, with the brilliant Ryan Coogler at the
helm as director, there are so many original, really cool concepts, that I’m going
to do the unheard of – look forward to the sequel.
Eric Clapton: Life in
12 Bars – 9
Eric Clapton is one of those musicians who has provided the soundtrack
for my life. He’s not been a constant
presence, but a sporadic one, with classics interspersed throughout the years –
songs that I love, like Layla, Sunshine of Your Love, Can’t Find My Way Home,
and many more.
I thought I knew a little about him, but oh, was I
wrong. This Showtime documentary covers
the life and hard times of Eric Clapton.
He thinks his youth is going along swimmingly until he realizes his
mother isn’t his mother, slap, it’s his grandmother and the shy young introvert
withdraws more than he already has.
Fortunately, his withdrawal is deep into the Blues music coming mostly
from America. It’s a theme repeated over
and over as his life goes on – the music saves him, but never cleanly.
Eric’s female, drug, and alcohol indulgences are everything
you would expect of a rock star, and it surprises him and us that he didn’t go
the way of Hendrix and all the early departing rockers. But the music is still there, and amazingly,
so is he. He plows on through and keeps
on entertaining.
Thankfully.
