An Alternate Reality: I saw Carnival Row 2...

It took forever and a day for Amazon Prime/Travis Beacham/Rene Echevarria's Carnival Row: Season 2 to surface, and for one such as myself (an unapologetic, workin' bloke), longer than usual to view it. There's been a lot discussed on the sequel's content and its Tolkien-esque, steampunked/Industrial Age Burgue, so I see no need to rehash the whole of it, except to say that Carnival Row 2 (like its predecessor) is at times a parallel-history, Sherlock Holmes, turn-of-a-different-century adventure, with murders having occurred among its faeries and the like (i.e., its various, mythology-sprung population). Orlando Bloom's Rycroft Philostate, a human-fae cop, investigates such, with shades of bigotry rising, as he partakes in an amorous relationship with Cara Delevigne's Vignette Stonemoss, a comely, winged lass who ultimately joins a resistance (overthrow-the-status-quo) Black Raven group. 

But to me, Carnival Row's crusty core is more a variant of Alien Nation, Planet of the Apes, Bright, District 9, Lord of the Rings, and well, I'm sure you get the drift. In this respect, it insinuates matters that we see around us today, though set in a Twilight Zone-ish mode to make us twist our brains and say, "Hey, oh, I get it."  

The series' most fascinating aspect (and a huge, Season 2 component) is its be-wary-of-socialism/communism motif. David Gyasi's Agreus, a responsible sort of Pan, and his impassioned, human lady, Tamzin Merchant's Imogen Spurnrose, go on the lam because of their "brash" relationship and to find a haven that turns out to be anything but that. It is, in truth, a Fidel Castro (cloaked-for-propaganda) ruse, run by the reputed "freedom fighter", Joanne Whalley's glib, broken-horned Leonora. Miss Spurnrose's brother, Andrew Gower's Erza also finds himself in the conflicting mess of promise and threat, and the results are nothing short of heartbreaking, though for the more astute, likely to incite righteous rage, as any set of lies would and should. 

Other characters and their assigned performers give considerable quality to the marginal problems, even if the entrenched subplots get too bloody garrulous for their own good. Nevertheless, credit must go to the following for lending flavor to the intrigue: Ariyon Bakare's Daris Sykes; Chole Pirrie's Dahlia; Karla Crome's Tourmaline Larou; Arty Froushan's Jonah Breakspear; Caroline Ford's Sophia Longerbane; Indira Varma's Piety Spearheart; Simon McBurney's Runyon Millworthy; Jay Ali's Kaine; Scott Reid's Puck; and others of bourgeois/peasantry, fight-for-the-cause (or better still, against-it) pledges and perspectives. 

Carnival Row (both seasons linked) is pretty damn violent, as well (in particular in the beheading and messy-autopsy departments, and the shifty, EC-brewed Sparas comprise a whole other repugnant deal). As led by Bloom's "Philo", the series spews a profane, tough-guy/yank-the-innards-out slant, which will rub some of today's militant pacifists (ha ha) the wrong way, but those who don't dig pistol-packin' grit, factory-sweatin' grime and courageous, sacrificial death (with shameless carnage of the Tom Savini/Steve Johnson/Herschell Gordon Lewis ilk) should seek their entertainment elsewhere. Carnival Row, even if faerie-drenched, ain't no sissified affair, and thanks to Beacham, Echevarria and co-producer Bloom, its ambiance seems proud of that fact. 

Amazon doesn't intend to extend this series, though I could see fans urging movie follow-ups. Even if it languishes a few years (even decades, by chance), my hunch is that its thought-provoking foundation will spawn a comeback some day. Though Carnival Row may be too superfluous in characterization and ideology to please the current, polarized masses, it offers the seeds for revisited rumination and even greater, fantasy fermentation. (In other words, it holds a loyal enough audience, and that ensures reinspection farther down the sentimental, alternate-reality row.) 

An Alternate Reality: I saw Reminiscence...

Reminscence is a new dystopian movie, written and directed by Lisa (Westworld) Joy, starring superstar-for-good-reason Hugh (Wolverine) Jackman. It paints a soggy future (during the time of a nondescript war), where a Miami private eye uses (as a profitable sideline) an opiate-technology that lets folks relive parts of their past (mainly brighter days in light of the darker ones that have come to be). In actuality, Reminiscence is a somber variant of Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, which borrows from Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days, Douglas Trumbell's Brainstorm and the "memory" prose of Philip K. Dick to noir-esque, alternate-reality effect. 

For people to tap into the coveted past, Jackman's Nick Bannister straps his clients into his memory machinery (a brow brace and a quasi-isolation tank) and along the investigative trail, meets Mae, played by Rebecca Ferguson (Jackman's Greatest Showman costar). Mae's  long-legged allure and classic-movie mystique make Bannister fall in love with her, but alas, Mae vanishes one day without a trace, and Bannister's obsession with the knockout inspires him to comb their stockpiled memories to find her. (This goes against the advice of Bannister's caring assistant, Watts {Thandiwe Newton}, as Mae's path points to a criminal mastermind, Saint Joe {Daniel Wu} and a strong-arming fixer, Cyrus Booth {Cliff Curtis}, who are tied to estranged elitists.) 

The story's execution tugs at the heartstrings with all the lost-love pangs one might expect (and Ramin Djawadi's pulsating score propels its pathos, along with that old, Richard Rogers standby, "Where and When"), all contained within a beguiling and sprawling adventure. But this adventure isn't Homer's Odyssey, but rather a much more intimate voyage in line with Richard Matheson's Somewhere in Time, Nicholas Meyer's Time After Time and Rod Serling's Twilight Zone tale, "the Long Morrow". In this regard, Bannister's intent is as significant as if he were searching for a mountainous treasure in some far-away land, and his lady fair proves as difficult to grasp, since the path to regain her spirals into addiction. 

One could argue that Bannister's quest essays the ups and downs of nostalgia: its sweetness and woe. It explores why one would wish to reattach to a person, place or time, when improving the status quo (improving the moment at hand) would be more feasible and immediate. But then those who'd look to the present and/or future for an antidote to their emptiness aren't as prone to understand love. (The past, after all, is much easier to romanticize, no matter the flaws attached.) 

 

This philosophical, if not psychological, perspective gives Reminiscence its draw, but alas, the story is marred by an unneeded, climate-change motif. Its allegorical, water-has-risen garnishing may look nice and shimmering, but its controversial, we-told-ya-so redundancy taints the story's pathos, which should (could) have stood on its own.  

Despite this unfortunate chink, Reminiscence is a haunting experiment that challenges both body and soul: a human-condition, science-fiction product that works in direct defiance to the noisy splash that populates most high-profile, speculative filmmaking today. For those who like their escapism somber and deep, Reminiscence is without question one to seek. 

An Alternate Reality: Marvel & Disney+ Ask What If?

What If...? is a new, animated Marvel Studios/Disney + series, based on the comic-book series of the same name. The show kicks off with "Captain Carter", Agent Peggy Carter, who became the First Avenger instead of Steve Rogers on some far-out, WWII parallel plane.  (So that then means Captain Britain came first, since Carter is British. Wow!) 

The nine-episode, anthology program will cover other Marvel variants, as well, including the Black Panther and Star-Lord (as one?); Yondu; Drax; Iron Man; Vision; Spider-man; the Hulk; Thor; Loki; Doctor Strange; Ant-Man (#1 & #2); the Wasp; Black Widow; Nick Fury; the Red Skull; Bucky Barnes; Thanos; the Collector; and the narrating Watcher (with others presently kept more-or-less concealed for the sake of Twilight Zone-ish surprise). A number of the characters will even be voiced by the actors who played them in the Avengers movies. For example, Hayley Atwell supplies Captain Carter's voice. 

Marvel (along with DC) is playing up the alternate-universe angle to the live-action extreme. It's no surprise, then, that the gimmick would spill over into super-superior animation, even if Marvel has been slack in recent years with the medium. (DC has been kicking butt with it, of course.) All the same, What If...?'s success could hit high, leading to more feature-length, animated, Marvel/Disney+  movies.

The first What If...? installment can be viewed now, with another episode set for next week. Sure, one has to pay to view, but when the concept is this revolutionary, what's a few dollars more to get in on the speculative fun? 

An Alternate Reality: Fox's X-Men Cracked the Multiverse First

There's much talk of the alternate-reality/multiverse approach to both Marvel and DC mythologies: how their cinematic universes will open for a broad range of superhero crossovers. The intrigue is justified, but the idea isn't trailblazing or unusual among imagi-franchises. 

Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Star Trek, Terminator, Planet of the Apes, Alien Nation, Fringe, Sliders, Cloverfield and (in perhaps a more subtle manner) Toho's kaiju have paved thought-provoking, parallel paths. However (unless one considers such small-screen endeavors as Gerard Christopher's Superboy or Lois and Clark), the forerunner on the live-action superhero-franchise front is Twentieth Century Fox's X-Men. 

The actual catalyst came with Days of Future Past, named after a comic-book saga, which in turn was named after a legendary concept album by the Moody Blues. 

In X-Men's Days, time travel invades, with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine leading the charge. The '70s morph as a result, with an assassination attempt on President Nixon and bad girl, Mystique turning good in the end.

 

Nothing was the same after those events, though the altered history presented doesn't erase what came before or what may exist along an infinite number of celestial trails. The setup also allowed its actors to exchange roles and backgrounds within Days' ensuing sequels/prequels: a gimmick that both Warner Brothers and Disney now employ without shame. 

Considering X-Men's track record, our diligent mutants have left the door wide open for amazing offshoots and outcomes. For example, a few years prior, audiences were treated to a rugged realm where Logan grew old in a character study that, though connected to previous chapters, embodied its own world, while still begging for a down-the-line link to intersecting pockets.

Logan gave us something so brash and idealized, in fact, that rumor now claims that Jackman's world-weary mutant may cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Some say that Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier might manifest, too. We've also heard about Ryan Reynolds' intended insertion as Stan the Man's cameo replacement. And then there's this whole double-Quicksilver thing which--ah, shoot, for the sake of squashing a major spoiler, I must go mum. (Watch WandaVision Episode #5 for that significant scoop.) 

I sure hope that many members of the Fox team do, indeed, show in the grand, mix-and-match Marvel Cinematic Universe plan. The alternate-reality scope of X-Men is too prolific not to nibble on, in particular with Disney now holding the anything-goes, rebooting reins. If made part of the  unfurling, zigzagging realities, X-Men holds the transforming tonic to be uplifting, sorrowful, thrilling and above all, surprising at the same and varying times: ideal flavoring for any MCU stew.  

Let's hope the House of the Mouse doesn't fumble the opportunist ball. The X-Men should rub elbows with such big-screen counterparts as the Avengers, Spidey and the Fantastic Four; and more than on specialized occasion, but on a hardy, indefinite basis. Fingers crossed that this tried-and-true band of uncanny irregulars ascends again into the coveted X-light. 

An Alternate Reality: The Man Without Fear Visits MCU's Spider-verse

The latest buzz on the in-production, live-action Spider-verse, i.e. Tom Holland/John Watt's Spider-man 3, is that Charlie Cox joined the cast as Daredevil (from the eponymous, cancelled Netflix series) and in pretty much the same breath, he's finished filming.  

One must presume then that his participation has been relegated to a cameo (maybe merely in Matt Murdock guise), and perhaps that's the case with most other heavyweights involved: Toby Mcguire, Andrew Garfield, Alfred Molina and Jamie Foxx. (Say, has anyone thought of pulling Nicholas Hammond into the brew? Come, now! He's much too historic to overlook.)

In any event, I was hoping for maybe something more substantial than cameos with Spider-verse's guest stars, but hey, I suppose whatever's concocted for the next, Tom Holland effort, it'll still add some real, web-swinging razzmatazz to the prosperous franchise. 

Also, this progressing multiverse trend won't just cover Spider-man, but Doctor Strange and for DC, a whole other mixing-and-matching of legends in the upcoming Flashpoint adaptation, to include Batman in the guise of Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton. The overlapping of realities is surely the next big thing. (While we're stirring the pot, why not have Affleck's Batman meet Affleck's Daredevil? Okay, just kiddin'...I think.) 

That headlining names are being dropped only guarantees interest, inspiring fans to flock to the colliding productions, if not in theaters (since so many are now restricted or closed due to dictatorial, pandemic constraints), but on subscription channels, as with Wonder Woman 1984 and the upcoming Godzilla vs Kong. 

I also like the idea that, at least on Marvel's front, Netflick's incarnations aren't being tossed to the wayside, as Cox's Man Without Fear suggests. As such, word has it that Luke Cage/Power Man will soon enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe line-up, though will it be in the Netflix mode, or something spankin' new? Cage's persona will be more comic-based, or publicity now claims, so who knows what the result will be and who'll play him? (I daresay, it would seem foolish at this point to purge Mike Colter from the role, unless it's his choice to evade the character.) 

Again, enticers are the ticket here (no matter the casting or length of the iconic appearances), with the Cox/Daredevil announcement being only the latest. This makes the anticipation of Spider-verse/Spidey 3, or any of the upcoming, universe-blurring adaptations, a massive, driving force: without question, genius-fueled on all fired cylinders. 

An Alternate Reality: Deadpool Enters Disney's MCU

Fans have wondered when (and if ever) Deadpool 3 (or a related X-Force movie) might surface. Some have presumed the proposed sequel would wallow in pre-production hell, in the measly manner Alien and Planet of the Apes sequels/prequels have gone through Disney. However, at long last, Deadpool 3 has been confirmed a go, and hold onto your seats, it's gonna be part of Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe, no less. (I wonder if Deadpool 2's trampling of Solo had any influence on this decision. I mean, why not water where the monetary flowers bloom, right?)

This confirmation sprinkles more credibility onto the notion that Old Logan/Wolverine will be featured in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, even if it's still up in the air whether Hugh Jackman will reprise his role. 

Nevertheless, if Ryan Reynolds is to star in and oversee Deadpool 3, one can only infer that negotiations have already commenced to secure Jackman in full, mutant mode. This could also lead to a reunion between the X-Men champions at some point, since Deadpool and Wolverine did spar in the latter's first, eponymous film, albeit with a far different angle than most had desired or anticipated. 

Another thing to consider is that Logan hit theaters R-rated, and of course, the Deadpool movies boast the same designation (except for that wraparound edition of Part 2 that was made to appease the timid). Will the razor-sharp, Fox approach to superheroes seep into Disney's bracketing? According to reports and promises, Deadpool 3 will be as rude and crude as its predecessors. If so, perhaps the same will go for any new X-Men additives, no matter the character variants or circumstances.

It was only a matter of time before the X-Men met the Avengers on the big screen. With parallel-universe confrontations creeping into both Marvel and DC live-action productions, the Deadpool/X-Men visitations seem not only logical, but shrewd.

But let's sure as hell hope the new brew doesn't ultimately go "woke" in the way of Star Wars. There's a tremendous opportunity here to achieve greatness if the mixing and matching bounces right. We sure don't need any dewdrop agenda to castrate it.