Saturday, November 18, 2017

"Justice League" Review

The film's bookending theme is hope, so it's appropriate that it restored my hope for the DC Cinematic Universe. (Yes, I know it’s officially called the “Extended Universe.” I’m not calling it that.) It’s not quite a breath of fresh air, like Wonder Woman, but it’s an engaging and exciting movie with no major flaws to drag it down.


I can’t discuss my feelings about Justice League without recapping my feelings about the DC films I didn’t like.

I mostly liked Man of Steel, but I could never get excited about it because its flaws were flaws that really bothered me. (Visually, it suffered from muted colors and an abuse of slow motion during emotional scenes. Narratively, it was hampered by some logic flaws... and everything about Jonathan Kent.) I loved the opening sequence of Batman v Superman, and I think that Ben Affleck is the best on-screen Batman ever, but the film quickly descends into a jumbled and numbing slog. (I also can’t stand Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. At all.) I thought that Suicide Squad was mostly a mess, slightly redeemed by a few good characters – including the first good portrayal of Amanda Waller, by Viola Davis – but just as harmed by bad ones. (I approached Jared Leto’s Joker with an open mind, but I couldn’t get onboard.) Finally, as I said above, Wonder Woman was a breath of fresh air, even if it had some flaws.

With Justice League, all of DC’s good casting decisions are in the spotlight, along with some new ones, and that really helps. The actors playing Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were already great in their roles. Among the new faces, I thought I would like Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and sure enough, I did. (For the record, I’ve been a fan since before Game of Thrones, when Momoa joined the cast of Stargate Atlantis.) However, I wasn’t sure how to feel about Ezra Miller. He has a hard job to do in owning a character that already belongs – for this generation of fans – to Grant Gustin on the Flash TV show. This version of Barry Allen is young, impulsive, and insecure. Rather than Barry Allen, he feels more like Bart Allen (another speedster, one who’s actually known as “Impulse”). For me, though, the real standout was Ray Fisher as Cyborg. I already knew the character, but not very well, so this was a new introduction for me. Fisher brings gravity – and some elements of danger – to the role, but he also gets to show some emotional range. I’m really looking forward to seeing him as a fully-developed hero.

For most of the film, I was invested in the interactions between these characters, and that’s an important proof of concept for a DC universe that’s jumping into its big team-up movie without introducing all of the players first. This film shows that I can see these characters together and actually care about them and what they’re doing. The only weak areas are some bits of humor – mostly with the Flash, but even with Batman – that feel a little forced. I wonder if that was the influence of Joss Whedon (who took over the post-production of the film after the director, Zack Snyder, suffered a personal loss), or the influence of a movie studio listening to complaints that Batman v Superman wasn’t “fun like those Marvel movies.” Either way, it’s not always a good idea for the people making movies to listen to what audiences think they want. When people complained that Batman v Superman wasn’t “fun,” the remedy wasn’t to add more jokes; it was to build a better story with engaging characters. The good news is, they mostly hit that mark this time.

(Next on my DC wishlist: a climactic battle sequence that doesn’t remind me of a video game.)

Monday, January 16, 2017

Stop Typing "Amen" for Facebook Scammers

Earlier today, I saw the following post in my Facebook feed:


Notice that the photo has almost 17,000 shares. A closer look at the page, "Stories That Touch," reveals that they have recently re-branded. Here's their original profile picture, side-by-side with their new one:


And here's their original cover photo, side-by-side with their new one:


Obviously, this page has reinvented itself. If you look at their "Photos" section, you can see the exact moment when they changed from being a page devoted to generic workout videos (and female butts in yoga pants) to shamelessly exploiting sick people.


Remember the image at the beginning of this post? If you take a moment to right-click on the image (in Google Chrome) and "Search Google for image," you quickly learn that the picture has been stolen from a Facebook page called "Abigail's Joy."


Of course, you don't need to, because the scam page weirdly decided to include a photo credit:


Notice that the original post on "Abigail's Joy" doesn't ask for likes, amens, or shares.


This should be an obvious example of "like farming," where a Facebook page tricks people into commenting, clicking "Like," or sharing. Their goal is to make the page popular enough that it can be used to market a product, promote a scam, or steal credit card information. (Sometimes these "like farmed" pages are even sold in an online black market.)

Yet, people fall for it. Why? I have to place some blame on the very concept of prayer. Our culture accepts and respects the superstition of prayer as a meaningful act, even though it doesn't affect the real world in a verifiable way. (Any claimed effects of prayer are easily explained by confirmation bias and placebo effects.) If we indulge the superstition of prayer, we indulge the kind of magical thinking that allows people to believe that typing "amen" will make a difference in the world.

If you want to help sick people without indulging superstition, donate to a secular relief organization like "Doctors Without Borders" or a humanist charity like "Foundation Beyond Belief."

I've reported the page "Stories That Touch" to Facebook as a scam, and I encourage you to do the same. You can do it easily by visiting the page and clicking "More."


You can learn more about "like farming" here:

You can learn why prayer doesn't work here:

You can donate to Doctors Without Borders here:

You can donate to the Foundation Beyond Belief here;