Monday Media Musings - 6/27/22

[owlmoose]

The Prom: The official touring stage production, not the Ryan Murphy movie based upon it. Having seen the musical on stage, I don't think I need to watch the movie -- it's a cute show with some fun and memorable moments, but it's not one that's particularly going to stick with me, and its messages get pretty muddled. I did love the actor who played Emma, though -- they did a wonderful job of making Emma into a real person, in all her awkwardness and sincerity. (The actor, Kaden Kearney, is trans nonbinary; I think this may be the first Playbill I've ever seen with pronouns included in almost every entry in the cast list.) I also really liked Emma's relationship with the principal, Mr. Hawkins, who is much of an ally to her than the Broadway actors who parachute in (although they get better by the end, and Emma's relationship with Barry grows to a place of genuine support). Probably the aspect I was most impressed by was the dancing -- excellent choreography, well-performed.

A Familiar Problem: Sprinkle's Incredible Journey: Speaking of things that are cute, I enjoyed this one in a much more straightforward way. This was a special episode of Critical Role, a new one-shot game GM'd by Marisha using a one-page system she co-created. I had assumed that Laura would be playing Sprinkle, but it totally makes sense that it was Travis, since I'm pretty sure he was the first to start making asides from Sprinkle's point of view during Campaign 2. I love that Laura played Nugget instead! She obviously had a ton of fun, and the voice she came up with was great. This isn't an earthshaking story, but it was totally adorable, having an actual owl on set was pretty awesome, and Speak with Inanimate Objects is my new favorite spell.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: There were some things I really liked here, most of them having to do with Wong and America Chavez, but two overarching things really bugged me. 1. The fever-pitched pace. The story started in what felt like the middle of the epic final battle ,and then never really let up. It's like an entire movie was a typical third act. I actually thought the most successful part of the movie was the ending, when Undead!Strange encouraged America to finally claim her power, and she used it to show Wanda what the endgame of her plan truly was. But... 2. Wasn't Wanda learning that she couldn't destroy other people's lives in service of healing her personal pain the whole point of WandaVision? I get that she was at least partly in thrall to the Darkhold (which makes me wonder how much that was true for Agatha in WV), but it still feels like they undid all her character development from 12 episodes of television in just a few minutes. I wish there had been something more to it than that. Like I said, the resolution was effective; I just wish they'd found another way to get there.