Page 8 - MidWeek - Feb 3, 2021

8 MIDWEEK FEBRUARY 3, 2021
Rotten
All Eyes On ‘WandaVision’
BY CHRIS MCKINNEY
PAPAYAS
When I was a kid, like a lot of oth- er little boys, I went through a comic book phase. My comic of choice was X-Men. That world had continuity. All the heroes and villains were simply powerful, mutated versions of us who the world discriminated against. The Avengers, on the other hand, struck me as unbeliev- able, even at that young age. A Norse god, a WWII hero, and a science experiment gone wrong, among others, team up to fight enemies from outer space? Ridiculous, right?
Flash-forward to now, and the highest-grossing movie of
all-time is Avengers: Endgame. And I would argue, deservedly so. What can I say? I’m in awe of how the Marvel Universe has miraculously pulled to- gether this hodgepodge of he- roes into something cohesive through the course of 22 films. It’s not my favorite movie, or series of movies, but as far as degree of difficulty goes, I can’t think of anything I’ve ever seen that must’ ve been harder to pull off. And Disney is not done with the story.
droid who can fly and phase through solid matter — and traps them in some sort of 1960s sitcom alternate reality. Yes, I just said that. Yes, I re- alize it sounds ridiculous. The audacity of entertainment today has no bounds. It’s astonishing. Take everything old and cliché and unapologetically blend it together in an interesting way. It’s sampling. It’s mashup. It’s hip-hop. The series borrows from Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. It’s the first time I’ve heard a laugh track in years.
Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany and Teyonah Parris star in WandaVision. PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP
sodes, but the obvious plot questions are: Who trapped Wanda and Vision here in idyllic suburbia? Is Vision re- ally alive? Why can’t they re- member their pasts? Does this world exist in Wanda’s mind, the result of past traumas? Has
and mysterious. I won’t say whether I like the series yet because that will depend on the execution of how the above questions are answered in the remaining six episodes. I will say that Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are clearly tal- ented actors, both comedically and dramatically, and creator Jac Schaeffer seems to have a very clear vision of what she wanted to make.
Last month, WandaVision premiered on Disney+. The series takes two Avengers — Wanda Maximoff, a powerful telekinetic, and Vision, an an-
she closed herself off to the real world because of the pain it has inflicted on her?
For me, WandaVision has done enough in the first three episodes to keep me watching. So far, it has certainly rekin- dled the comic book kid in me.
WandaVision also has shades of The Truman Show and Pleasantville. I’ve only watched the first three epi-
These questions will be answered, I’ m sure. By the 20-minute mark in episode three, the laugh track is gone, and the tone becomes somber
chrismckinney808@gmail.com
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