Is Maleficent going to make me seethe with anger? Many people I know have thought it was great, but I'm very devoted to the idea of Maleficent being capriciously evil because she CAN be, not out of revenge. So, should I brace myself to go see it just for the pretty?

Jilli, I just saw it, and I think Connie's comment above covers my opinion. But it is VERY pretty.

A few more things:

1. Someone needed to tell the screenwriter it wasn't a good idea to give ALL the character beats and ALL the agency to one character.

2. The raven is cool.

3. Not a movie for people who want Prince Philip and/or the Fairy Trio to have good, meaty roles.

4. If there isn't a wave of dubcon femslash coming on the Disney kink meme, I will drop dead from shock.

5. There were at least two scenes towards the end where they could have put an Asian woman in among the soldier extras and apparently nobody thought of it. I am SO DISAPPOINT.

I enjoyed the movie. I didn't expect the Fairy Trio to have a meaty role but I hated how they were handled. Minor adjustments could have made me love them.

The rest - very pretty.

I guess I'll catch a matinee, but put a third viewing of Only Lovers Left Alive as higher priority, then.

Speaking tangentially of Only Lovers Left Alive - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab posted a teaser for the upcoming line of scents, which means I can FINALLY start talking about them. Blood Popsicle is possibly my all-time favorite scent from them, and that is saying a lot.

What do you even make Blood Popsicle smell like? Diabetic blood?

(I still hate all you scent wearers--you need to be vetted by me, dammit, or stay out of elevators and queues with me in them. My family now doesn't bring toiletries when they come visit, pretty much, but the last time my father was here he used after-shave without thinking and I had to open the windows and leave the house. Maybe I should get some stocked, for all the men in my life.)

Structural issues with Man of Steel. This is clearly an example of how people think in detail about movies in ways I do not, but I have little to disagree with in his estimation of this movie.

I do think he's missing Dark Knight points (Was Batman supposed to leave Bane in place? Restructure city government in his ideal fashion so these things never happen again?). Maybe I've always thought of Bats as a bit of a psycho fratboy, but he himself doesn't say he's the best thing for Gotham, just the best thing Gotham's got, most of the time--hence the gap between the last two movies (plus a dose of self pity--definite self pity there).

You know who has a great look for Wonder Woman that I don't remember having seen mentioned before? Alicia Coppola. She is old(er than me), but she consistently plays hardass characters (just saw her in Suits going up against Harvey, and she's intimidating on NCIS) although I don't remember seeing her do much action.

But I'd totally model Wondie's face off hers, and hair to a degree, and since I'm still working out what "olive skin" really means in this world of variable monitors, it seems she seems...regional?

Also I love her, back from soap opera days. The people I fall for then I really fall for (Jensen, call me!).

You know who has a great look for Wonder Woman that I don't remember having seen mentioned before? Alicia Coppola.

Oh, man, I love her! She was awesome in Jericho, and I just really like the look of her face, and of course the freckles.

Although I'd call her classic black Irish, rather than olive-skinned: you don't get freckles like that with olive skin, IMO.

Freckles are trivial to erase--I will come out as saying that most European distinctions don't bother me much if the general looks can be matched with trivial and standard makeup, especially when Amazons were of multiple races, and Wondie's skin was painted the same colour as all the other white people.

As far as I can tell she's Italian. I don't know how olive they're supposed to be.

Info on freckles as relates to skin tone: Freckles.

Also, a map of the world by skin tone: Skin tone.

You'll note that the line between very light skin and the next tone up (which isn't even considered "olive" toned) bifurcates Italy, not quite in half. Northern Italy tends towards much fairer hair, due to the migration of Germanic and Celtic tribes from the times of the Roman Republic on.

Not quite comparable, I lived in Spain for three years and I saw a huge variation in skin tone and hair color from Nordic blonde to darker tones that most folks would have characterized as classic Mediterranean olive skin (often attributed negatively as belonging to "gitanos" or gypsies.) The majority seemed to fall somewhere in between. The ideal, from what I could tell, was relatively pale skin with straight, dark hair. Eye color didn't seem to factor in much. The person I can think of with the most "classic" Spanish looks is Penelope Cruz.