New Mutants - could've been good, wasnt

New Mutants could have been excellent.  The core characters (SunSpot, Magic, Wolfsbane, Moonstar, and Cannonball) are great, the comic was great, and the concept of teenager heroes dealing with teen life AND super powers seems loaded with story-telling opportunities.  Unfortunately, the production seems to run away from those opportunities and is afraid to dig in.

The film fell into the pothole of needing to 'control everything' so much that not only did the lead villain put everyone inside immobilizing force fields, but the entire story was squeezed into a 'psych ward / rehab' style facility instead of being allowed to move around naturally.

There were surprises, but the writing in general was lacking.  These comic heroes have depth, but none of it was explored in the movie.  From Cannonball & Sunspot not knowing how to use their powers being downplayed, to Moonstar's lack of knowledge about her powers being magnified to overlay the entire film, there was a lack of critical decision making to fully flesh out characters.  A burn scar is not background unless you dig into the story of it.  

Also, the characters were not treated fairly or well -- couldn't Magic have left whenever she wanted?  Why didn't Sunspot use his powers more effectively/often?   Who was the doctor watching them?  Who is Essex corp?

Instead of exploring subplots in the story, the film feeds tidbits and then hides from all of them.  It was like a series of constant misfires.

Last critique -- altho I have more gripes - is that the entire film was supposed to be a horror film, and yet it shies away from delivering any real horror.  Cutting away from each scary scene, not using any real horror film technique, and the scariest creatures (Magic's fears) are never explained, easily dispatched, and essentially blind scary-faced fodder. Moonstar's power is interesting, but when you go 100% CG, no one has any emotional investment in what they see.  So it was one of those, "Oh, this is the big reveal.  Meh." moments.

So it could have been so much more.  The actors were ready to deliver, but the writers and the director didn't seem to be able to provide a quality movie for the actors to work with.

#Bernie2020 #PresidentSanders - my 2020 pro-Bernie rant

I've been typing these hashtags for so long now.

Was hoping we'd see Trump jailed for being a traitor, violating his oath to uphold the Constitution, misuse of power, bribery, violating emoluments clause, being unfit for office - lying, racism, sexism, and asking foreign countries to intervene in elections.
What other people might've done hidden behind doors, Trump is so ballsy (or is it stupid?) to do in front of the world.  He worships dictators, constantly calls out to racist cabals and people with guns to "get ready", and he continually proves himself to be lacking required character of anyone except a villain.
Trump is a supervillain unlike anyone we've seen in the modern era.  He's got the potential of Hitler, Stalin, and similar.  Hopefully he fails miserably because he was spoiled & never got a work ethic.

On to Bernie.

This is my 2nd time to be able to vote for a candidate the represents me and my world views.  I want tax money to help everyone.  I want medical coverage for all, like other (so called) '1st world' countries.  I want free college.  I want to end the student debt oppression.  I want to see equality in the financial world.
Most importantly, I do really believe that the 1% are disrupting the proper functioning of the global economies.  The 1% are like bloodclots, or chi that pools up and goes sour.  Having super-rich doesn't make any aspect of society better.
But sharing opportunities and wealth could change our society so radically that we could improve all aspects in 100 years.  If we had 100 Einsteins who were empowered by the society, what would that be like?  But instead, we have tons of people with potential who live their lives under attack by a ton of factors -- poverty, race, social oppression, sexism -- so not only do we miss out on their potential, but we miss out on even just their stunted potential.  It's a crime against our potential.

And also the environment.
We must start to cherish our world as a global value, regardless of culture or religion or profits lost.  Humanity (and the other Earthlings) can no longer afford to allow short sighted industry to destroy essential parts of the Earth to extract profits.  Industry needs to change, so that profits are beneficial to the planet at all stages of creation (and distribution).

We live on a planet that could sustain life as we know it for billions of years.  But the actions of humanity are undercutting our sustained existence, so severely that we may be creating our own extinction within the next 100 years.  What sane person can advocate for this type of disruption of human existence?

There are better ways for humanity to evolve than destroying ourselves & imagining what comes next (we won't be around to see).

Bernie is that path for USA.  Bernie fills me with joy and excitement, makes me happy for the potential in humanity.  Yes, I'll take (almost) anyone but Trump, but I'd rather take the most exciting leader I've ever seen take the steering wheel and pull us back from the abyss.