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https://blackgirlnerds.com/review-the-deliciously-chaotic-harley-quinn-left-us-wanting-more-and-were-finally-getting-it-in-2022-sometime/

Warning: Spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2 of Harley Quinn. 

DC’s Harley Quinn animated series is a boundary-pushing, wildly hilarious showcase of Batman’s best (and worst) villains. Writer-creators Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey pay homage to the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, while incorporating more recent incarnations of various cast-off characters. Boasting a stellar voice cast, Harley Quinn gives the DCU a funhouse feel that’s anything but boring. 

Premiering in 2019, Season 1 begins with Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) landing in Arkham Asylum after the Joker (Alan Tudyk) uses her to distract Batman (Diedrich Bader) while he escapes their latest crimes. Always believing in her man, she expects him to come and break her out. A year goes by and she’s still there, but Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), with the help of the Riddler (Jim Rash), breaks them all out of Arkham. It takes Ivy a frustratingly long time to get Harley to leave Joker for good, but when she does, it’s the beginning of a brand-new, bat-wielding Harley Quinn. 

The rest of the season follows Harley as she establishes her own crew — Clayface (Tudyk), Dr. Psycho (Tony Hale), and King Shark (Ron Funches) — and tries to get into the Legion of Doom headed by Lex Luthor (Giancarlo Esposito). Unofficial members of HQ crew include their landlord Sy Borgman (Jason Alexander) and Ivy’s “roommate” Frank the Plant (J. B. Smoove). Ivy also begins dating Kite Man (Matt Oberg) — in secret, given his extreme confidence and bro-ness. 

One of the best parts of the series is the use of Batman’s Rogues gallery. The series features familiar characters like Bane (James Adomian) and Scarecrow (Rahul Kohli), as well as the more obscure villains like Doctor Trap (Tudyk) and Queen of Fables (Wanda Sykes). Some appear as the villain-of-the-week, while others become semi-regular characters. 

And you’d think it wouldn’t matter that much, but just hearing the villains dropping f-bombs makes the characters infinitely more entertaining. In a panel for DC FanDome, Alan Tudyk said, “Cussing as the Joker seems natural. The Joker would have foul language.” 

It wouldn’t be Gotham City without the Caped Crusader, though he’s more of a supporting player in the series. His best scenes are with a despondent Commissioner James Gordon (Christopher Meloni), who’s just trying to be a damn good cop. A very young, bratty Robin (Jacob Tremblay) makes a few appearances as well, including an episode where he tells everyone that he’s Harley’s arch nemesis. 

Since appearing in 2016’s Suicide Squad (and the much better subsequent films Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad), I’ve been a diehard Margot Robbie fan. I can’t imagine anyone else in the role, so I stupidly put off watching the Harley Quinn series when it first came out. Well, joke’s on me because Kaley Cuoco is fantastic. 

All of the voice actors are incredibly hilarious, especially Funches’ instantly lovable King Shark. In addition to playing the Joker, Alan Tudyk also lends his voice to Calendar Man, Condiment King, and the failed actor Clayface. That character alone comes with many other characters of his making, like a co-ed named Stephanie. 

In Season 2, Harley is on a mission to take down the Injustice League, formed by Bane, Two-Face (Andy Daly), Penguin (Wayne Knight), and Mr. Freeze (Alfred Molina). The season also introduces new faces/voices including the sultry and aloof Catwoman (Sanaa Lathan) and the excitable Batgirl (Briana Cuoco). 

The central story of the second season is the growing romance between Harley and Ivy, slowly transitioning from friendship into something more. They have one hell of a turbulent relationship, but it doesn’t have anything to do with being queer. It’s refreshing that a queer love story exists without a tumultuous “coming out” plotline. Honestly, these women have had enough trauma from their parents and exes. They don’t need to play into tropes. 

Season 2 ends with Ivy finally admitting that Kite Man wasn’t the right person for her. She may love him, but Harley is her number one. Kite Man is definitely one of my favorite characters. It’s sad to see him heartbroken, but it was bound to happen. Seeing Harley and Ivy declaring their love for each other and riding off into the Gotham sunset is what we all want, right?  

The short preview from the DC FanDome 2021 event promises the two going on quite the adventure as a new couple on the run. Though it’s only a sizzle reel, I was still satisfied seeing Harley and King Shark again. Keeping with the show’s meta nature, Harley complains about the slow animation process and announces that the third season will air “sometime in 2022.”

Tee Franklin’s 6-issue comic series Harley Quinn: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour picks up right at the end of the Season 2 finale. It follows the newly coupled Harls and Ives as they take an impromptu honeymoon, partially to celebrate their relationship. Also, because Gordo is determined to catch them after his master plan to arrest all of Ivy’s wedding guests failed. 

Franklin maintains the uniquely endearing and raunchy tone set by the animated series, making Harley’s world even more inclusive. Artist Max Sarin keeps with the show’s style and expands Ivy’s and Harley’s wardrobe with some killer outfits I’m dying to see in the third season. The comic bridges the gap between seasons, debuting in August and recently concluding with the January 4 final issue. Hopefully, this means that “sometime in 2022” is very soon. 

Harley Quinn is one of the best things in the DC Universe right now. The perfectly cast voice actors continue to amaze and entertain, bringing their own personalities to fan favorites. It shows just how ridiculous super villainy can be while exploring more serious topics like trauma, abuse, and identity. It’s got comedy, heart, and beautifully animated violence. Whatever Season 3 has in store, it’s sure to be a riot. 

The first two seasons of Harley Quinn are available to stream on HBO Max. 

https://blacknerdproblems.com/the-matrix-resurrections-review/

Not Gon Lie, Y’all Had Me in the First Half

The opening act was disorientating, but it was also its only service. It’s downhill after that but not smoothly you know, like skiing? Nah, nah, nah. The Matrix Resurrections goes full Homer jumping the Springfield Gorge. 

There were some really dope meta-within-meta plot points at the beginning of the movie. It was as if it took itself seriously. As the movie goes further into a Penrose staircase of self-reference, it starts to lose track of any gravitas the original trilogy built up. As an audience member, you get the feeling that Lana Wachowski didn’t have a great time making the original films and is taking it out on Warner Bros. The problem: fans of the franchise get caught in the crossfire.

Whatcha Say, Whatcha Say, Whatcha Say, What?

The writing in Resurrections was not inspired, at all. With so much plot, exposition was packed into the explain-y dialogue that there are moments where characters are literally impossible to hear. A lot of those were given to Jessica Henwick’s character Bugs (yes, as in ‘Bunny’, another coded dig at Warner Bros and reference to the ‘white rabbit’ from the first Matrix. She even says, “what’s up Doc?” early in the movie). You can boil quite a few parts of this movie down to, “Wait, what did they just say?”

Acting performances were decent throughout the movie, especially Jonathan Groff as Agent Smith. Keanu and Carrie-Anne pick up where they left off with Neo and Trinity with little effort. Henwick’s rebellious Bugs is tolerable but not as dynamic as she could be as the main character. Yahya Abdul-Mateen’s Morpheus/Smith was strange. I’m sure he did his best with the awkward role and the direction given, but it never truly landed or paid true homage to either character. The only other stand-out is Neil Patrick Harris’ turn as “The Analyst.” He hams it up, as the script demands, and it’s cool and funny until it isn’t.

Sense…9?

A very touching nod to supporters of The Wachowski’s work, a large part of the main cast of Sense 8 play roles in The Matrix Resurrections. On one end, it is beautiful to see these actors again and to see their solidarity with Lana Wachowski. On the other hand, it took me right out of the movie to see them all. The movie didn’t go many places, so it was a little distracting to always see one of them onscreen. That might be because I adored Sense 8 though. On the other side of that, huge shout to casting Thelma Hopkins aka Aunt Rachel from Family Matters. Didn’t see that coming, and it was pretty cool.

Your Weakness is Not Your Technique

Yeah, it is. The fight choreography in Resurrections is so painfully weak and unintentional it hurts. Yuen Woo-Ping took months to teach each of the lead actors a particular martial arts discipline for the original trilogy, and it showed. None of that kind of artistic integrity shows up in any of the fight scenes. Typically, that wouldn’t matter, but this is The Matrix – the fights are as pivotal to the story as the dialogue. This was not it. Especially when your franchise is known for the clean fight work that is technically sound and easily seen. Resurrections had fight scenes that were so convoluted (on the bullet train in particular) with slowed shutter speed and close-ups just shy of a Jason Bourne movie. It was very Train to Busan but with none of the satisfaction. We’re not even going to discuss that random battle royale in the abandoned building with The Merovingian’s goons. Yikes.

Every Beginning Has an End

Empty character cameos and a weak story truly take away from the deeply philosophical, scrappy, and clever world the Wachowski’s designed to begin with. Like, how do you shortchange The Merovingian? How do you boil that character down to just complaining about social media? Somehow, this movie makes the gigantic world of The Matrix feel small and crowded. Super real talk, The Matrix Resurrections left me with the feeling that the Wachowski’s might’ve never really known how their work had spoken to the downtrodden and ostracized. The Matrix Resurrections comes across as an angry letter from an artist to a corporate giant, but not in a good way. A cinematic middle finger to their parent company that offends diehard fans yet entertains newcomers and (hopefully) piques interest in the previous movies.

P.S.: It Felt Like Dying

If you don’t know what impact The Matrix had on the refinement of my political views, peep here. Even if you didn’t know me from a femme in a red dress, you can read the disappointment in my spirit. This movie had all the tools it needed to be great. The lost potential here is staggering. In real life, where what the first Matrix posited as the scariest outcome for humanity is our actual day-to-day life; this movie couldn’t recall that idea. What could have been the most powerful place for a critical analysis of corporate media tactics, Resurrections makes fun of but then exemplifies. The movie becomes the exact same fluff the original movie forced you to question.

So much of what is wrong with this movie comes down to the beginning of the credits. The familiar electric guitar riffs swell with the political angst of the late-90s. Rising to a shrill but needed release into Rage Against The Machines’ classic song, the aptly titled, “Wake Up.” Only for a band other than RATM to hit that opening, “Come on!!!” lyric!?!?! Are you serious? Did y’all really do that? No shade to the band that performed the song, Brass Against. But you will never know the pain I felt in that moment unless you were there: Madison Square Garden in 2001 when Knicks legend Patrick Ewing missed an open layup on a fast break to give the San Antonio Spurs a championship.

The Matrix Resurrections really felt like a visual monologue of an ‘old head’ scoffing at the new technologies of the next generation. There are moments, few and far between, that remind audiences of The Matrix that was. However, everything in Resurrections falls short of any of the passion and drive of the message synonymous with the arc of the first trilogy. It really just falls short.

You can watch The Matrix Resurrections at home on HBOMax or brave movie theaters nationwide.

Cover Image via Vox.com

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https://blackgirlnerds.com/octavia-e-butlers-novel-kindred-picked-up-as-an-eight-episode-series-by-f-x/

Today it was announced that the cable network F/X, has picked up the series Kindred based on the novel of the same name by prolific sci-fi writer Octavia E. Butler.

According to Variety, the show was picked up as a pilot in March 2021, the eight-episode sci-fi show centers on Dana (newcomer Mallori Johnson), a young Black woman and aspiring writer who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own. But, before she can get settled into her new home, she finds herself being violently pulled back and forth in time to a nineteenth-century plantation with which she and her family are surprisingly and intimately linked. An interracial romance threads through her past and present, and the clock is ticking as she struggles to confront the secrets she never knew ran through her blood, in this genre-breaking exploration of the ties that bind.

The series stars: Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, Gayle Rankin, Austin Smith, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy and David Alexander Kaplan.

Kindred is not the only novel of Butler’s with a planned adaptation to TV. Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Filmworks and MACRO will develop a TV adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s 1987 classic sci-fi novel Dawn for Amazon TV. Victoria Mahoney, who recently worked as a second unit director on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, has been set as creator and will adapt and direct the pilot.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/review-belle-will-transport-u-to-another-reality/

Beyond the limitations of daily life, which in many cases carries trauma, insecurities, conflicts, and worries with it, Belle introduces another realm where seemingly anything is possible. However, starting over isn’t always as blissful as it seems.

Award-winning director Mamoru Hosada is known for the successful films Wolf Children, The Boy and The Beast, and more at Studio Chizu. The Japanese name for Belle (Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime) translates to The Dragon and Freckled Princess and is based on the 1756 fairytale, Beauty and the Beast. 

While there’s certainly a lot of heart to this film, it’s not quite like the classic “tale as old as time” that some fans know well. Whether you’ve read the traditional fairytale by French writer Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont or watched the Disney Beauty and the Beast, this film adds its own technological and social-media flair that makes for something never before seen. 

There are so many genres going on in Belle’s plot, which creates a huge risk that the story will feel cluttered and overpacked. The 2-hour film takes on the ambitious task of filling several plot holes without leaving any loose ends, which for the most part works.  

The movie is centered around seventeen-year-old high school student Suzu Naito (Kaho Nakamura) who lives in Kochi, a rural district in Japan. Suzu is offered a new path in life on “U,” a popular virtual world that offers users a chance to live as a new person.

Each U member is given an avatar based on their biometric information and hidden talents. In the real world, Suzu has gone through a great deal of loss and feels invisible at school, but on U, she’s a beautiful girl named Belle, meaning beautiful, with freckles and a mesmerizing singing voice.  

However, the world of U reveals that while some people can forge new identities, it takes a lot more to change who they are and the lives they lead both on and off-screen. When a mysterious figure named the Dragon crashes one of Belle’s concerts, Suzu must unravel a dark force that prevails beyond her new virtual life. 

The anime film does well in several ways, with an intriguing plot, complex characters, impressive animation, and enjoyable music. There may be a few predictable moments or convenient twists, but it’s altogether a must-see movie for anime fans.

The Plot

The plot is engaging from the beginning, as it immerses people into something similar to a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) but also engages with anyone who adores something a bit more on the theatrical side. 

There’s generally themes that reach across genres offering action, slice-of-life, drama, comedy, romance, anime teen romance especially, and more. Quite simply, the movie doesn’t settle for a specific genre and is allowed to be whatever it wants to become, similarly to the possibilities of the virtual world it introduces. 

Some parts are a bit rougher than others, as worlds collide and the classic fairy tale meets Hosada’s unique writing and world-building style. The satisfying thing about it is that it doesn’t need to completely make sense to be gratifying. The point isn’t for people to understand all of the rules and logistics of how U works and interrogate it as a flawed system, similar to anime series like .hack//SIGN and Sword Art Online have previously done. 

The film meets Hosada’s standard formula without being bland. There’s tragedy, a lot of beast stuff, and satisfactory twists and turns. 

Complex Characters 

Belle introduces a lot of characters, a significant amount of backstory and chemistry to unpack as it balances both Suzu and Belle’s relationships, sometimes blurring the lines between the two. There’s a recurring question: Who is Belle? However, the answer is much more difficult to answer than even Suzu realizes.

She’s a teenager exploring her own identity, coming of age, relationships, school, and more while balancing an online persona who has her own set of obstacles, which means there are characters interacting with both of her identities. 

There’s Suzu’s best friend Hiroka Betsuyaku who just so happens to be a computer genius, her childhood friend who’s also her crush, Shinobu Hisatake the popular girl she envies, Ruka Watabe and her goofy athlete classmate Shinjiro Chikami, some motherly choir ladies, and her father, whom she barely speaks to after a tragedy. Then, there are the relationships forged as Belle, particularly when it comes to the Dragon. 

So, to say the least, there is a lot to juggle. Yet Hosada makes sure everyone is accounted for. While some things are left open-ended, the characters are constantly developing as their stories broaden instead of going stale or static. There’s a payoff that may seem completely predictable at first; some of it is, but the film ultimately has some unconventional conclusions. 

Impressive Animation 

While the animation isn’t the best out there, it’s pretty aesthetically pleasing, especially when it comes to the world of U. For those looking for a colorful MMO-like world with various avatars, comment bubbles, chat boxes and other video game meets social media and anime vibes, it’s going to be a pleasant ride. While anime movies in different realms and worlds aren’t unique, there’s something fresh and new about this one that’s truly eye-catching. It may be because Studio Chizu recruited Disney animation and character designers Jin Kim and Michael Camacho to create U and Belle.

Enjoyable Music

One thing this film doesn’t sell anyone short of is music. Suzu’s relationship with music makes Belle’s voice all the more powerful. Music is at the heart of the film, but it isn’t the Disney singing that many people think of when they imagine the Belle. The singing style is similar to J-Pop and matches the futuristic virtual world.

Like most other musicals, the songs move the story forward and build intimacy between characters. They embrace the vulnerability of being who they are at their core without hiding or changing. In Belle, music isn’t just for the sake of music; it’s used to represent Suzu’s own personal transformation and growth. 

Verdict

While Hosada sticks pretty close to his usual formula, this film still manages to be unique, engaging, and heartfelt. There are some parts of the plot that could have been stronger, but it reflects an overall depth and development that fosters entertaining characters, animation, music and multiple genres that have the potential to engage anime fans. 

Belle will arrive in theaters nationwide on January 14.