The Eternals: A Wee Bit Slow

********* There be spoilers here. You have been warned. ************

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The Eternals has a lot to set up. It is the movie that introduces the next level or Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It also introduces a boatload of characters. There are ten Earth Eternals to start. Ready? Too Bad. They are Thena, weapons warrior (Angelina Jolie); Ikarus, all-powerful (Richard Madden); Sersi, matter shifter (Gemma Chan); Ajak, leader and healer (Salma Hayek); Gilgamesh, physical fighter and strongest (Don Lee); Druig, mind control (Barry Keoghan); Kingo, projectiles (Kumail Nanjiani); Sprite, trickster (Lia McHugh); Makkari, speedster (Lauren Ridloff); and Phastos, engineer and weapons specialist (Brian Tyree Henry). Now you know.

In addition to these 10, there are the Celestials and Sersi’s boyfriend Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) who is destined to become the Black Knight. There is the comic relief and Kingo's human sidekick, Karun (Harish Patel). There are also two characters Pip the Troll (Patton Oswald) and Eros of Titan or Starfox (Harry Styles) who is Thanos younger brother introduced in the mid-credits, and the voice of the new Blade (Mahershala Ali) in the final after-credits scene There, now you know and have a handy reference guide.

I hate lists, but it had to be done.

I don't know much about the Eternals in the comics. I do know, from my brief research on the web, is that three of the male characters from the comics have been gender-swapped, the comics were created by Jack Kirby who along with Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Thor, the Hulk, and Ironman. He then moved over to DC and while most of his creations there were largely unsuccessful, one of the villains he created became a mainstay of DC, Darkseid. There is actually little known about the Kingo character except in the comics he is a master swordsman. Now you know what I know of the comics.

On to the Plot…

The Celestials, god-like beings that created and continue to create worlds and civilizations, have sent the Eternals to a number of worlds to battle the evil enemies of life, the Deviants. Having defeated these creatures, the Eternals continue to live on the planet to protect it from further attacks of the Deviants. Other than that, Eternals are forbidden to interfere in all other conflicts which is a handy way to explain why they didn’t interfere when Thanos wiped out half the universe. Earth’s Eternals have been here for thousands of years. Even though they can die in battle or of unnatural causes, they are still called Eternals probably since Sorta Eternals just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

On modern-day Earth, the Deviants have returned and one of them kills the Eternals’ leader Ajak. The Eternals must reunite to fight these new Deviants. Ajak has chosen Sersi as her successor by sending the orb that allows her to communicate with her Celestial, Arishem. What Ajak has kept a secret is that Earth is the home to one of the Celestial seeds which will eventually, once Earth reaches enough thinking humans to power it, emerge as a new Celestial. This will, of course, destroy the Earth and kill everyone. So, the Eternals, because they love the uniqueness of Earth, decide they must stop this emergence of a new Celestial, while they continue to fight the Deviants. There are some other twists, turns, and deaths along the way. It also marks the appearance of two special superheroes. One is a member of the LGBQ+ community, and the other has a physical handicap.

And now the review…

The problem with the movie is pacing. While the movie has some great action sequences and some really funny gags like Karun’s ever-smaller cameras and the hint that twinkies have been stored on the ship for perhaps centuries, it tends to plod. It just doesn’t have the bounce that most Marvel films have.

I am pretty willing to forgive the movie an excuse for the slower pace. They do have a great deal for the audience to understand. Unlike the first phase of the Marvel movies, they could take their time to build individuals of the Avengers. The Eternals are not individual superheroes. All exist as a single group so the approach to this introduction to phase 2 had to deal with having all these characters at once. This makes it very difficult for the audience to connect to individual characters like they had with Ironman or Thor. Audience members though may still find connections with characters whose tender protection of others like Gilgamesh or Phastos, or they may enjoy the humor of Kingo and his alter ego Bollywood lifestyle. Still, the movie needs better pacing to hold the audience’s attention.

I liked The Eternals well enough. While it does not have the strength of other Marvel films, it does set up the next phase which will probably include a more “space” oriented theme. Even the credit scenes add direct connections to the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise with the appearance of characters like Pip the Troll and Starfox both of whom have been known to hang in the Guardians’ universe in the comics as well as the introduction of the Black Knight and Blade who are also being added to the MCU in Phase 2. The next three scheduled Marvel films should be solid enough since they are all relying on established characters like Doctor Strange, Antman, and Guardians, as well as Spiderman. Hopefully, Eternals II if there is one, will be able to fix the problems now that the audience is set up for it. 

Hey! It's Bond...James Bond

 Okay, I have not blogged in quite some time, but a few... very few... okay, one has asked for the occasional blog and my occasional opinion of various things esp. movies, and tv. So, I will do a modicum of blogs, and the first in quite a while, as requested by a few... very few...okay one,  is No Time to Die the latest addition to the James Bond, 007 franchise. 

***What follows will have a few spoilers or maybe several spoilers. You have been warned.***

The plot of No Time to Die is a typical Bond movie plot. An evil madman Lyutsifer Safin, played by Rami Malek, has stolen what was supposed to be the perfect assassin nanobot virus. The virus was created by the short-sighted off-the-books orders of M (Ralph Fiennes). Bond is brought back from his retirement by CIA buddy Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) to recapture the scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik). On his quest to stop the now corrupted nanobot virus, Bond fights Safin's henchman Primo "Cyclops" (Dali Benssalah) aided by the lovely and deadly Paloma (Ana de Armas) and his replacement 007 Nomi (Lashana Lynch). Bond must do all this while protecting the love of his life Madeline (Léa Seydoux) and her daughter, Mathilda.

  No Time to Die is Daniel Craig's last outing as Ian Fleming's James Bond, 007. I for one will be sad to see him go. Description-wise, Craig is actually pretty far from Ian Fleming's original description of the British super spy. According to Wikipedia, Flemming described Bond: "slim build; a 3 in (76 mm) long, thin vertical scar on his right cheek; blue-grey eyes; a "cruel" mouth; short, black hair, a comma of which rests on his forehead. Bond frequently dressed as Fleming would've in such as short sleeve shirts and suit coats. Bond was a hard drinker and seemed "cold" and cruel. These traits were, however, traits that Craig incorporated into his Bond. So despite his physical difference from Bond, his character's behavior seems to be accurate. We also know that Fleming was influenced by the actors who played Bond. After Sean Connery became Bond, Flemming introduced a Scottish father for Bond in Doctor No, which was the first novel written after Connery's introduction. I must also admit that I would be hard-pressed to choose whether Connery or Craig was my favorite portrayal of the spy. 

So we come to the last time Daniel Craig will play Bond, No Time to Die. I wish I could say that this was the best of the Craig Bonds, but it isn't. It's still a Bond movie with all the usual tropes of every Bond film. Pretty and deadly women, a strange and mysterious villain, Q's wondrous gadgets, Bond's cars, shaken martinis not stirred, a henchman with a unique feature (this time it's a bionic eye), a traitorous member within his own ranks, and the chases.

While there was no shortage of chases in the movie, the best one comes at the beginning of the movie with Bond taking a wild motorcycle ride and ending with Bond's Gatling-stile guns shooting from his car. Later chase scenes really weren't as creative as the opening and tended to use the same stunt over and over. The chases were still exciting though, just not steadily more creative. 

The premise too was not particularly new. Bond has retired, again. Bond has fallen in love, again. Bond believes he has been betrayed by his new love. Bond is forced back into the life he left behind, again. Most of Bond's former colleagues thought he was dead, again. The twist to all this is that Bond's new love had not betrayed him and still loved him, so after 5 years, Bond must face his greatest foe, a mysterious villain who in one fell swoop arranges the complete destruction of the evil nemesis Spectre, even killing the locked away leader, Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). 

The problems with this movie I have are not just it's lack of originality. After 27 Bond movies, the tropes and formula are pretty well established. When I go to a Bond movie, I know exactly what I will get. My problem is two fold with No Time To Die. 

My first is the Rami Malek villain, Safin. Safin is a very creepy bad guy. Bond villains are almost always driven by two things, greed and/or world domination. Safin is driven by revenge, except the revenge doesn't really make sense beyond a certain point. His entire family was killed by Spectre. By stealing the assassin, Safin uses the technology to kill all of Spectre. This makes does make sense. What doesn't and isn't really explained in the movie is Safin's obsession with with Madeline, who was the daughter of the Spectre agent that killed his family and Safin's deciding to use his technology by corrupting it to wipe out entire groups of people and their families that had nothing to do with the death of his family. The deaths if he succeeds would result in the deaths of millions. There is no motivation for this other than Safin is a psychopath who views the deaths as making him a god and a hero. He then almost escapes only to release Madeline and her daughter Mathilda to return and try to kill Bond who he seems to admire. If that makes sense to you, I'm glad you figured it out. I didn't get it.

My second - and here comes major spoilers - is the death of Bond.  It was bad enough to kill off the first M and then Felix. My concern actually has to do more with the rumors floating around the franchise than the death of an icon that should have NEVER BEEN PERMITED! Bond is Bond. The reason people keep coming to see the movies is James Bond 007 and his adventures. The death is moving and well done a, but it is so very wrong. There is the rumor that the series will be rebooted by making 007 in the next movie a woman and so, Bond had to die as did a number of other staples of the franchise like Felix. I am not saying that a woman cannot play a super spy. I am saying that 007 and James Bond are one and the same thing and killing off an icon so the movies can get a new paint job is wrong. I hope the rumor on this is wrong, but if it does prove to be true, I would be surprised if the franchise would survive such an event. I live in hope that the death of Daniel Craig's Bond is to make room and reboot for a new James Bond.

Did I like the move? Yes. Does it have problems? High points of the movie include Bond having a daughter and a love that isn't killed off. Honestly, I am surprised there aren't a bunch more little Bonds roaming the world. Bond's CIA partner Paloma is an incredibly fun character that I would like to have seen more of her.   I don't think No Time to Die will go down as the best of the Bond movies, but Craig most likely will go down as one of the great Bonds. 

Choose Your Battles

Warner Animation announced that new iterations of Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam would no longer carry guns on the reboot of Looney Toons on HBO Max. This effectively adds the cartoons to the culture war.

My first thought is that this is political correctness gone awry.

And then I saw the outrage on social media. Really? Elmer Fudd's right to bear arms? With all that is going on from coronavirus to BLM to voter suppression to unemployment to...
And this is what you're outraged about?

1. Cartoons are not real.
2. Cartoons do not have Constitutional rights because cartoons are not REAL!
3. See # 1 and #2 and repeat until you understand because CARTOONS ARE NOT REAL.

Choose your battles carefully.

Adding the But...

If you start a sentence to defend someone with, "I know he's a liar but...", you are defending a liar.

If you start a sentence to defend your vote with, "I know he's a bad man but...", you are defending a bad man. 

If you start a sentence to defend a flag with, "You can unfriend me if you want, but...", you are defending something that you know is wrong.

If you start a sentence to defend a point of view with, "I am not a racist, but...", you are at the least about to defend racism or at most a racist.

If a politician starts a sentence with, "I've known him/her to be a good friend, but...", he/she is about to trash his/her "good friend."

Using "but" may make you feel safer in a terrible belief, "but" it does not alter the fact that it is still a terrible belief. You are defending, attacking, protecting something that is clearly indefensible. 

There is simply no buts about it.

No Names Needed

I will just leave this here. 

A while back there was a discussion on TV about how social sites have added to our own narcissism, which is not the same as the personality disorder listed below. But it is true, to a degree, that social sites and their anonymity offers many the opportunity to believe their expertise is actually more than it is. There are also many folks who post divisive memes and statements that they would never do in person. I know a few folks who seemingly have completely different personalities online than they do in the real world. So while you may have one or two of these symptoms, you probably don't qualify as a full-blown narcissist. Sadly, if you do, you probably won't realize it.

I will let you draw your own conclusions if this reminds you of anyone. I remind you, I have listed no names of any specific person. 

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From the Mayo Clinic (you can also find these same or similarly stated symptoms listed on any number of web sites.) 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662

Like

https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9741.php

"Narcissistic personality disorder is indicated by five or more of the following symptoms:

• Exaggerates own importance
• Is preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, beauty, intelligence or ideal romance
• Believes he or she is special and can only be understood by other special people or institutions
• Requires constant attention and admiration from others
• Has unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment
• Takes advantage of others to reach his or her own goals
• Disregards the feelings of others, lacks empathy
• Is often envious of others or believes other people are envious of him or her
• Shows arrogant behaviors and attitudes

At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:

• Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special treatment
• Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted
• React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior
• Have difficulty regulating emotions and behavior
• Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change
• Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection
• Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability, and humiliation

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I am not a doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, or mental health counselor...and yet...I get the feeling I've seen all of these symptoms and behaviors in someone...if I could just remember who...

Remaining Sane During an Insane Time

How to Not Lose Your Sanity while being at home and spending your time online and remaining safe. These are in no particular order. I am also not an expert but I’ve been at home for several years and the days still fly by.

1. Turn off the news if it’s on all day. How do you stay informed?

a. Choose a single morning show on a major network such as NBC, CBS, of ABC. Watch that show.

b. Watch your local news in the evening and then if you want, national news on a major network.
Having the news esp. MSNBC, or Fox on all day every day, will drive you crazy and turn you into a fringe lunatic. Turn it off. This is actually a good idea even if you're not stuck at home, except I would also add, turn off Talk Radio too.

 If you watch a lot of TV – and I do – watch Amazon Prime, DVR program, Netflix, HBO, Stars. For older TV Programs like Red Skelton, Matlock, Murder She Wrote and Diagnosis Murder I also watch Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, COZI, LAFF, Comet, FETV, TUBI. What can I say? I love older TV shows. I also try and discover shows. Lately, I’ve become fascinated by the dubbed foreign language shows on Netflix like The Protector (Turkey), Ragnarök (Norway), Diablero (Mexico), Kingdom (South Korea), Luna Nera (Italy), and Better Than Us (Russia). These are just the tip of the iceberg.

Remember all those DVD’s you bought. Watch those.

What I am saying, is on TV leave the news especially the pundits behind and discover something new or something old.

2. Try to go outside every day if weather and health permits, even for just a little bit.
3. Read a book or write a journal or blog or have a project to do.

4. Go on Facebook and entertain your friends.

a. While you’re on Facebook, do me a favor. Unfollow every, single political - be they left or right - news site and every single organization that has a political agenda. I’ve unfollowed a bunch of them that I started out with. When they put up an agenda, and I don’t care if they are the NRA or Green Peace, they do not have your best interests at heart. This recommendation also includes MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, The Daily Wire, Mother Jones, The Western Journal, One America just to mention a few. If you really must follow a news site, follow REUTERS, the AP, BBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal and New York Times. On the last two though, just don’t follow their opinion pages. If you want a little on-line opinion in your life, subscribe to The Flip Side which publishes both Left and Right Opinions on a topic every day and sends them to your inbox. Besides, they have a great little feature called “the Bright Side” which will lighten your day. As soon as I dumped the agenda-driven sites, I felt better.

b. Too many people are unduly influenced because they get their information from one source. This makes you uninformed. Even if it sounds good, it does not make it true.

c. When you are on Facebook or Twitter or YouTube and you see something that interests you, look it up. Social sites are a horrible place to get information, and you have the entire sum of human knowledge at your fingertips. By the way, when you search use neutral terms. And don’t tell me you haven’t the time. You are stuck at home!

d. If you become so engrained by one group, I guarantee folks are wondering things like, “What happened to so and so?” and “They used to be smarter.”

5. Clear the clutter online and in your house.

6. Exercise at least three times a week. Yes, I do. I actually do an elliptical trainer for at least 45 minutes 6 days a week.

7. Eat healthily. Your body is as important as your mind.

8. Take a nap.

9. Get something that challenges your mind. I do puzzles and am addicted to a coloring app on my phone.

10. Don’t do quizzes on Facebook. Since I stopped doing them, the number of spoofs to my accounts have virtually disappeared. Even the most innocuous quiz is a way for someone to find out things about you that may lead them to your passwords and other valuable information. Also never click on a link in an email or Facebook if you do not know for sure that it is from who it says it is. Invest in a separate virus program and firewall and keep it updated.

11. Enjoy a good snack. Sugar is not a good snack.

12. Stop and ask, “Does this make me happy?” If it doesn’t, stop doing it. I know that sounds like a statement of the obvious, but if something is making you mad be it a news site or a tv show, then you probably don’t need that in your life. I’m not saying you need to roam around wearing rose-colored lenses. I am saying doing that to yourself regularly will make you miserable.

Time will fly by and you don’t need to share your every thought and meal with everyone.



“It is best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

I'm Not Asking These Questions, But I Have Answers

This is tinfoil hat stuff and is clearly politically motivated by far-right conspiracy theories. Below is the equivalent of a stupid meme that is created on Facebook by cut, paste, and reposts. It makes it no less stupid.

I don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or vote for unicorns, if you're not asking these questions you should be....

1.     Why can you go to Walmart but not Kohl's?

Walmart sells essentials such as food and medicine. Kohl’s does not.

2.     Why the Dollar store and not a mom-and-pop shop?

As near as I can find out, Dollar Store and similar stores sell essentials. Any mom and pop that also sell items considered essential are also allowed to remain open if they meet proper procedures for disinfecting and protecting people.

3.     Why can't you have elective surgery, but you can have an abortion which is elective?

Abortion is time-sensitive and also not necessarily elective. In fact, several major medical associations have asked that abortion be made essential.

4.     Why should you stay inside but yet heat and sunlight kill the virus?

This is a myth. The virus can live on surfaces for up to 72 hours and in the air for up tt two or three hours. It does degrade faster in sunlight and heat.

5.     Why can't kids (who are not at risk) play on an outdoor playground, where sun kills this virus?

Kids are at risk, do carry the virus and some have had been hospitalized with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease. Also, see the above.

6.     Why don't people know that these are "recommendations" not laws because they have not gone through due process?

The Supreme court has, in fact, ruled that during national emergencies local and Federal agencies have much broader powers to protect the citizens.

7.     Why is it okay for government officials to get a haircut, but not common citizens?

This question is simply ridiculous.

8.     Why the fear, when this virus has a less than 1% death rate?

The current death rate in the US is 5.8 percent and higher world-wide. All other math percentages are speculative.

9.     Why have coroners questioned death certificates listed as CV-19?

What is the source for this question? In fact, one death that was ruled heart-failure has since been rechecked after the deceased’s wife tested positive. The death certificate was altered so that Covid 19 was a contributing factor. It also indicates that Covid was in the US early than originally thought. The only question that has arisen is whether it is a contributing factor.

10.  Why are areas like Chicago and NY gearing up for mass vaccination?

Everyone is hoping for this and a few places are starting to run trials. Preparation is important. Again, this is clearly a divisive and politically motivated question.

11.  What makes one person essential and another not?

It all goes back to essential service. People who work for essential services are currently essential. Those who don’t aren’t.

12.  Doesn't shelter at home; mean there is a whole population of people, not staying home so we can?

Honestly, this question is nonsense and deserves no thought or response.

13.  Why are they dividing us?

Who is they? Gotta love the mythical “they.” If the poster really doesn’t care “if you’re a democrat or a republican” ask what is clearly a political question.

14.  How do people not know that we are a Republic, not a democracy?

What does this question have to do with anything? For the record we are a constitutional republic where some decisions are made through representatives and others by democratic vote.

15.  Where has the flu gone?

Texas. Dumb question.

16.  Why do the homeless consistently demonstrate the lowest infection rates?

Another myth. In some homeless shelters over half the staff and half the residents tested positive.

17.  Why are they telling us to mask up after 2 months of lockdown?

Protection. Good lord, do some simple research.

18.  Why is the CDC saying kids need to be masked when they return to school or attend church, when they know cloth masks restrict oxygen?

See above.

19.  What is this oppression and loss of liberty doing to the mental health of our kids...to us?

I cannot answer the stupidity involved in this question.

20.  Why have most other death rates dropped since the virus?

Source? At a guess, it’s probably because the majority of us get it and have not been out doing things that are stupid, and we are driving less.

21.  Why did world leaders meet in China in October 2019?

Tin-foil hats are in the closet on the left.

22.  Why are the common people being controlled by the government and no one is controlling the government?

Didn’t the poster just announce we are a republic?

23.  Why are hospitals paid more for Covid 19 deaths?

This is true. Congress added 20 percent in the Medicare Care Act for covid diagnosis. There is no evidence, however, that hospitals are purposely misdiagnosing to pad the bill.

24.  Why are some doctors speaking out and then getting silenced?

The only doctors I’ve seen are generally not qualified to speak on the subject and are not basing their observations on anything but anecdotes and not scientific studies. Some have been publicly condemned by their own organizations for their statements.

25.  Why did Obama give the Wuhan lab $334 million dollars?

The original statement was actually 3.7 million, but in any case, the simple truth is Obama didn’t. What did happen was a grant was given by the National Institute of Health, a government organization, to an organization working with Wuhan Institute of Virology to study coronaviruses which also includes SARS in bats and the risk of potential transfer to humans. A grant that was renewed by the NIH again during the Trump administration. NIH has been giving out these grants since 2002

26.  What does a computer geek have to do with a pandemic and why does he want 7 billion coronavirus vaccines?

I think the poster is referring to The Institute for Health Metrics which develops models to track the virus. There is some debate, but they have identified other issues in the past using unusual metrics to track medical problems. The requested money to develop their modeling computer programs to track the spread, something that every epidemiologist says needs to be done. To date, they have not received any more funding. I don't think anyone asked for 7 billion vaccines since there isn't a Covid-19 vaccine that exists. 

27.  Why ID 2020, Agenda 21 and 2030?

Rated a false claim by Snopes. Again, do some research.

28.  Why did the CDC have a job posting for pandemic relief workers in November 2019?

I don’t know, maybe they needed people, after all, Trump fired the entire pandemic team.

29.  Why did Dr. Fauci say in 2017 that the Trump administration would be faced with a " SUPRISE PANDEMIC " and then runs the pandemic team?

He was warning that we were not prepared. He runs the team because that has been his job. He has worked as a director in the health organization in the government since 1984 when he led the work on the AIDS epidemic.

30.  Why are they infringing on Christians religious freedoms?

Again, who are they? No one is infringing on freedom, what is being done is preventing large congregations of people from spreading the disease. A number of hotspots have been directly tied to church services in several states.

31.  Why can 500 people shop at Menards or Home Depot, but we are not allowed to go into a church building?

Again, it’s called social distancing or has the poster not seen the spacing and entrance control at essential service stores. Social distancing would be near impossible to do in a church building. Church services are simply being held in new ways. Belief is not in a building if you think it is, well, you get the idea of how shallow you sound.

I have, by the way, verified each of my answers. It took me less than 30 minutes to find the answers and a little more time to type them. So if you want the sources, you can Google them since if you’re posting this stuff, you aren’t verifying anything anyway.