To still consider myself a decent, reasonable guy I do this: sometimes I revisit my decision to dismiss a product and resolve to experience it in its entirety - even though there is always only a slight chance the results will justify the effort. OK, I have to confess - so much time has become available for these non-essential pursuits since my office closed a year ago that "looking deeper" helps me to retain my sanity - though barely.
Anyway, yesterday I've decided to heed the recommendations from my FB friends - Ryan Smith (enthusiastic) and Craig Finn (more cautious) - as well as appreciative blubbering of Anton Dolin, a (the?) Russian film critic who thinks WandaVision is so much above the usual Marvel fare it's unmissable.
Well, all nine episodes in one sitting... Refusing myself the relief of stopping to watch the last episode (and so - the whole show) well before the boredom of the final 5-6 minutes long credits begins. Submerging myself in helpless idiocy of WandaVision finale.
Seeing two duos floating high in the sky exchanging gobs of shining deadly protoplasm - and the most stupid tropes in superhero genre. Thinking of the LOST series' obvious failure to deliver the meaningful resolution of misleadingly promising plot lines. Seeing the glaring similarity.
The biggest surprise for me was to realize that that the most condemned and criticized first 2-3 episodes of the show were its only ticket to cinematic greatness. The first third of WandaVision was distributed among film critics, and the guys' from many important publications verdict was that the idea of using vintage sitcoms' very discernible (and now endearingly ridiculous) style for the narrative about a couple of superhero fugitives is a smash. The black and white images from the first episode absolutely dominate the series promotional publications. The problem is the idea's execution. It's less than funny, not engaging enough, audience is not sure at all the series should be watched beyond the first heavily stylized episodes.
So evidently the producers' decision was to finish this lame experimentation and from the 4th episode on start to entertain the public in a more conventional way.
And it's really sad. Seeing authors that are fully aware of what can - and need to - be done and unable to pull it off.
Episodes 5-9 are superhero routine with only tiny hints of what this product could be. When someone criticizes the actors' performance...well, the script is so poorly written lets thank the actors they don't look even more pathetic going through these prescribed motions. I can almost see the extras sitting in a cafeteria after filming one of the most idiotic scenes of the series, "Pleeeeese let me live my life, pleeeese", mumbling "What a..." - and chewing the well-earned snacks.
Given the over-abundance of time to waste I can't regret watching this - these three hours wouldn't have been spent more meaningfully anyway - but...my impressions can be condensed in a phrase "It's shit".
As a Russian I can't help cringing at the depiction of some generic Eastern Europeans (Wanda's family) as subhumans that try to upgrade themselves by speaking broken English and watching 50s American sitcoms in a cargo cult frenzy - but still found to be dispensable and murdered in an air raid. And these imported sitcoms are so dear to her that well into her adult life Wanda bases the fabric of her separate paradise on them, so ingrained in mind of a simple Sobakian girl.
Well, my initial feeling about WandaVision was correct but still it's something to take my mind off the fact that the second year of strangeness has began - so ...I don't regret.
https://sashha.livejournal.com/1549289.html
