Legacy Cemented

     How many of us have goals? *Looks around room...sees everyone's hands raised* How many of us have full knowledge and comprehension of the reasons for our goals and have actually said them out loud? *Looks around room...sees significantly fewer hands raised* This is the primary question addressed in the hard hitting 8th installment of the Rocky Franchise "Creed 2."

     These are the questions Stallone and Co. have given us to think about with this nostalgic masterpiece that shows Michael B. Jordan even more ripped than last time but also shouldering more responsibility away from the ring this time around. With splendid acting, renewed rivalries, side and thought provoking storylines outside of our protagonist, awe inspiring nostalgia, and a journey for redemption, the film leaves you with a deep sense of satisfaction and desire to do better for yourself in every aspect. Let's rewind momentarily.

     Three years ago, we had the pleasure of being introduced to the most dynamic character of the Rocky Franchise to date in the form of Adonis Creed (No easy feat for a franchise that dates back to 1976). Last time we saw "Donnie," he was a mere eight seconds away from defeating "Pretty Ricky" Conlan to claim the heavyweight championship as a severe underdog similar to Rocky's near takedown of his late father Apollo Creed in the first chapter. Fast forward three years later, and Donnie has more heavily perfected his craft to the tune of actually being the heavyweight champion with a KO of current champion Danny "Stuntman" Wheeler. With this most recent victory, Donnie truly has nowhere to go but down.

     While Donnie's achievements are admirable (Heavyweight champion and gorgeous girlfriend, Bianca has just accepted his less than stellar and rather wobbly marriage proposal), he still holds some insecurities which are exploited by new challenger "Viktor Drago" (very well portrayed by Florian Munteanu who doesn't actually deliver a line until one hour and twelve minutes into the film). Viktor, even more vicious and mean than he actually appears, just so happens to be the son of "Ivan Drago" the ultimate villain from 1985's "Rocky IV" and responsible party for Apollo's death. Driven by a desire to prove himself to the rest of the world and a small amount of revenge, Donnie accepts the challenge against the advice of Rocky and several others.

     It is at this moment we can see the crossroads both characters are left to face. Foolish pride versus good sense. Ego versus humility. Blind faith versus evident choice. Within the conversation, Rocky asks him very seriously "Why do you want to do this?" Donnie angrily replies "They killed my Pops, and they are talking shit...I can't let that slide!!" Seeing through the facade, Rocky asks him for the real reason to which Donnie cannot completely put together. Seeing his lack of reasoning on top of the fact that Donnie has everything to lose unlike his challenger, this drives Rocky's decision to vote against Donnie accepting the challenge. This brings us back to the original concept of wondering how many of us have full knowledge and comprehension behind our goals.

    Despite our admiration for the lead character, we are hit with an overdose of reality when he is destroyed in the matchup with Drago to the point of hospitalization. The only saving grace is that Drago delivered an illegal hit (A vicious blow that results in a concussion and possible brain damage) while Donnie was on one knee after taking another staggering blow from his opponent. With Drago having "unofficially" won the fight, he is celebrated by his country for having taken down the "Cocky American," similar to his father's accomplishment 33 years ago. However, there is a different edge in this celebration. Viktor finds himself disgusted to be surrounded by the same people who turned their backs on his father after losing to Rocky on Soviet soil. He truly cannot stomach the matter when his mother walks into the room (with another man) knowing that she left him and his dad years ago after Ivan suffered that loss and "embarrassed the country." While he calls for his father to understand his frustration, Ivan justifies their behavior by saying, "I lost! You will not!"

     This situation not only provides a small amount of empathy for two people who are originally painted as villains in the film but forces us to confront the harsh realities of sports. We are forced to tackle the concept of unconditional love or lack thereof in some cases. Realities of what lies deeper regarding whether you win or lose. Realities of how this is about so much more than sports. This is illustrated even further once we see in the second fight Viktor's mom walk out of the arena upon realizing her son is about to lose and "shame the country." Despite his villain like nature, we can't help but to empathize with him in that moment. His only saving grace is when his father in unsuspecting nature actually throws in the towel to stop the fight.

     It is in this moment we finally have some answers. Viktor is fighting out of anger, hurt...deep-seated pain. He is indeed as Rocky said earlier in the film "Raised in hate...he's dangerous." Upon seeing a closeup view of where he comes from, we get a much better understanding of where his pain and motivation come from. After the victory over Drago, Donnie visits his father's grave. He gives a few choice words but ultimately speaks about being able to be at peace. He always wanted to prove he could live up to the hype. He wanted to prove to everyone else and not just himself. Being able to finally say these words out loud give him a level of peace and security he couldn't find within his accomplishments.

    Ultimately, just like in the last film, we are taught valuable lessons with this film. We are taught to conquer our demons. Call them out by name. Own whatever it is you're afraid of, and why you're afraid of it. Face it head on. Then and only then can you begin to grow. Your soul can finally be cleansed. Once that cleansing takes place, your legacy, just like Donnie's, can finally be cemented.

 

   
 

   

Wakanda Forever!

      How many superheroes are Kings of entire nations? How many have the ability to strike fear into opponents' hearts just from their name alone? How many of them can do this without a weapons belt, the ability to fly, or shoot something out of their hands or eyes? How many of them have all these attributes and come from African ancestry? Let all of that marinate for a few moments....Moments taken.

       In February 2018, Marvel graciously displayed T'Challa better known as "Black Panther" on the big screen in a long awaited but well worth it cinematic debut. With brilliant CGI graphics, well executed African representation, splendid acting, and a storyline designed to entertain while also provoking critical thinking, the film leaves you wanting more. Let's start with the great nation of Wakanda.

         Not only is it the most technologically advanced nation in the world due to its mining of rare metal, Vibranium, Wakanda has never been colonized. Some might say what's the big deal behind their lack of colonization? The big deal lies in the rejection of underlying white supremacy ideologies. The rejection of the idea that a nation can only be successful if Europeans visit and "enlighten" the "ignorant" with their beliefs of how a nation should work. While several scenes from the film illustrate this notion, the strongest one is perhaps when CIA member, Everett Ross, is taken to Wakanda after being shot. T'Challa's younger sister, Shuri nurses him back to health in effortless fashion within a day's time much to the surprise of Ross. He is so shocked, he does not comprehend how he could have been shot in the spine the day before and fully healed now.

        While Wakanda's advancement is beyond admirable, there is a drawback to it. Their refusal to share their technological advancement with the rest of the world hits a sore spot with exiled Wakandan, Erik Killmonger. "There are a lot of people in the world whose lives are a lot harder...where was Wakanda?" Killmonger speaks after defeating T'Challa in ritual combat and taking over the throne. While Killmonger makes a good point about sharing this technology with the world (a view shared by W'kabi, T'Challa's confidant) for its overall betterment, his motives are terribly misguided. He is more driven by revenge for his father's death at the hands of his Uncle (T'Challa's late father) than he is by helping his people. His ego even causes him to burn all of the remaining heart shaped herbs in order to prevent a new king from eventually taking the throne.

        Within these scenarios, there are very interesting real life parallels. For the first one, we could potentially look at Wakanda as Ancient Egypt. No outsider can understand the development of Wakanda's technology just as no outsiders can figure what type of technology allowed the Egyptians to build the pyramids. Another parallel could be America's refusal to share all of its resources with all the citizens of the country. In one of the richest nations in the world, it's practically impossible to believe that not enough money/resources exist to clean up all of the ghettos and spread the wealth, but I digress.

        One last thing we are left to wonder after seeing the film is the what if question. What if there was or is a real Wakanda? What if there is a nation in the world so far advanced than all the others? What would it look like? How could they help the rest of us? Would they be willing to help the rest of us? Why should they? I guess only time will tell.

     Ultimately through its star studded cast (Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, and numerous others), empowering Black Pride messages and symbolism, and desire for world betterment, Black Panther leaves us with lessons of humility, forgiveness, and the notion that white acceptance/approval is not, never has been, and never will be needed to validate Black Greatness.

Closing Time

          25 years...a quarter century...a milestone birthday and the same amount of time the Jurassic Park franchise has been in existence. Sadly, the most recent installment, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom serves as a perfect example as to why it's time to close the curtain on this historic science fiction series. For a brief moment, we'll ignore the fact that there are only so many ways to remix the storyline of angry, recreated reptiles chasing after the humans who had no business undoing nature's business in the first place and focus on why Fallen Kingdom disappoints us in so many ways.

         In round five, we pick up after the destruction of Jurassic World, the failed Sea World imitation using dinosaurs instead of whales and big fish. By this point, the reptiles find themselves on Isla Nubar next to a volcano on the verge of eruption and the ultimate destruction of the dinosaurs. Our female heroine Claire Dearing is so insistent upon saving the dinosaurs from nature's rectifying of mankind's error 25 years ago. So much that she enlists the help of hero Owen Grady from the last installment. He reluctantly agrees after seeing old footage of himself training one of his Velociraptors.

          Contrarily, many other people are content to allow the volcano to destroy the dinosaurs and allow civilization to get back to normal. We are left with the conflict of whether or not dinosaurs, a long extinct species that as evidenced in the previous four films should have remained extinct, are now deserving of the same domestication and loving care afforded to dogs and cats. Simply put, NO, they are not. They are animals who once upon a time had their turn. Nature came in and said their time is up. Hence that ginormous asteroid that took all of them out and left nothing but their bones for us to find. Fictionally, it's also evidenced by the fact that in films one through four, numerous human characters were killed and/or eaten by these ginormous lizards.

         No matter, in the midst of their rescue mission, Claire and Owen discover the rescue mission of the dinosaurs has been nothing more than a false display of heroism by animal traffickers intent on auctioning off the reptiles and using some to fight future wars. While this is certainly not wise either, it also could have been avoided if they had allowed nature to do its job and put the dinosaurs back where they were meant to be.

         While the film falls short in most aspects, it does a great job of shining a light on human greed, and how limitless it can be. In the scene where a few of the billionaires are auctioning off the captured dinosaurs, we witness numerous heartless souls willing to shell out millions to have these prehistoric creatures under their rule. In some ways, all those million and billionaires in that room being willing to kick out that kind of bread for these creatures mimics America's willingness to spend endless dollars trying to "fix" other countries while drastically underserved and underprivileged communities run rampant in the fifty states.

          Ultimately, the traffickers attempt to create another "super" dinosaur like they did in Jurassic World that can be controlled and used to fight wars. In unsurprising fashion this backfires on the creators, and they are killed by their own creation who in turn is killed thanks to maneuvering tactics by Claire and Owen...surprise surprise, that part of the ending was nothing like the previous film. The final blow showcasing how embarrassingly hard the producers and director are trying is in the discovery that the young girl serving as the granddaughter is actually a genetic creation just like the dinosaurs. In essence, this shows that NOTHING has been learned by the humans, and why they should not be disrupting nature in that fashion. Aside from murder, there are no mistakes when it comes to any living creature, including humans passing into the next world.

         Overall, Fallen Kingdom just tried way too hard to make a good film. When you've got to try that hard to make something great, that's a sure fire sign that it's closing time.