Marvel Studios found its Groove by the Beginning of Phase Three in 2016

A still from Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018), directed by Peyton Reed

I think that it's time for me to again share some of the things that I enjoyed lately. First of all, I decided some months ago to remove a photograph of myself as my profile image on my blog. I did this not because I think that the photo is bad, though I could have taken a better photo of myself. I did this to keep my anonymity. The thing is that after I posted the photo of myself on my blog, I began to notice people looking at me for an unusually long time when I'm outside, as if they recognize me. This is something that hadn't happened to me before. This didn't happen often, but this did make me notice that something is not right. I have no idea how popular my videos channel and my blog are, but it seems that they're considerably more popular than I initially thought. Since there's no independent media in the West, it's not surprising that people are now focusing on internet bloggers, who seem to be the only ones who are providing some truth and discrediting the official propaganda. Consequently, for about a decade already, bloggers in the West have been intimidated, blocked, or persuaded to follow the official propaganda line in exchange for money or safety from intimidation and persecution. In the current Western society, the opinions that I sometimes express are frowned upon, to say the least, by most people because most people are obedient and brainwashed. I haven't been everywhere in the world, but I think that people in the West may be the most obedient, uninformed, and uncritical people in the world. I'm not a politician, but even my very small blog and channel attract attention. Initially, I didn't think that this is a problem, but then I decided that it would be foolish of me to allow myself to come under possible attack. After all, I'm not like Alex Jones, which means that I'm not rich, that I'm not a Freemason and a propagandist for the American establishment, and that I can't hire lawyers and bodyguards. I'm not doing something that is officially illegal, and I make my posts on a Russian website, but I'd still rather not have people stare at me. Therefore, for the time being, a photo of me won't be available on my blog. By the way, I can demonstrate how indoctrinated people in the West are by taking my younger sister as an example. Several years ago, the Western media (primarily the British media) organized yet another anti-Russian and anti-Putin campaign around the issue of gay rights in Russia. The Western media, as usual, completely misrepresented what went on in Russia and put out deceitful reports in order to demonize Vladimir Putin. Not surprisingly, my sister, like so many other people in the West, believed what the Western media reported, without criticism. If the Western media had reported that Putin personally tortures gays in a secret dungeon beneath the Kremlin, my sister would have believed that too. And so, back then, she looked at me as if there's something wrong with me when I raised a slight objection while she was repeating what the Western media reported. Obviously, my sister isn't the only one who thinks like this. Most people in the West uncritically believe what they're told by the media, and very few people question or criticize the propaganda.

When it comes to the books that I've been listening to, I can recommend Harold Lamb's well-written books. The ones that I purchased are titled 'Iron Men and Saints', 'The Flame of Islam', 'Tamerlane', 'Genghis Khan: The Emperor of All Men', 'Alexander of Macedon: The Journey to World's End', 'Charlemagne: The Legend and the Man', 'Hannibal: One Man Against Rome', and 'Suleiman the Magnificent'. These old American history books are a pleasure to listen to, especially when they're narrated by Charlton Griffin. I bought several books by the well-known UFOlogist John Keel. The first book of his that I listened to is titled 'The Mothman Prophecies'. I was hooked when I listened to that book, and, afterwards, I immediately purchased 'Our Haunted Planet', 'Jadoo', and 'Operation Trojan Horse'. Keel, of course, wrote a number of other books too, but I haven't yet finished listening to the ones that I've listed. Keep in mind, though, that I'm listening to them not because I believe everything that Keel wrote. I'm listening to them out of curiosity and because they're interesting. While we're on this subject, I can also recommend Ivan T. Sanderson's book 'Abominable Snowmen: Legend Comes to Life'. By the way, it seems to me that Jim Marrs borrowed a lot of information from John Keel's books when he wrote the book 'Our Occulted History: Do the Global Elite Conceal Ancient Aliens?'. I don't really hate Marrs, and I think that some of his books are interesting to read, but I must acknowledge that Marrs belonged to the "lunatic radical right" of the American establishment. Therefore, it's not surprising that he tried as much as he could to lie about communism and the Soviet Union in his books. Well, as an establishment writer and journalist, Marrs deceived people about other things too. He engaged in sensationalism in order to win over readers. I mean, who's really supposed to believe his claims about aliens? Naturally, I don't agree with the propaganda that comes from the "lunatic radical right" because it's anti-democratic and pro-oligarchical. For example, Alex Jones, who's one of the deceivers and propagandists of the "lunatic radical right", always yells about "1776" and "the republic". Yet he never yells about democracy or about the rights of the working class, and he has no problems with American imperialism in Latin America or Israeli aggression in the Middle East. I guess that it's not hard to figure out what the interests of his masters are like. So, the propaganda of the "lunatic radical right" is primarily aimed at the dissatisfied and angry members of the American lower middle class. These are the people that the "lunatic radical right" wants to win over when, for example, they propagandize about how a horde of virile, mighty Muslim men from the Middle East is invading Europe, threatening Western culture and values, and knocking over the pathetic, powerless Western men while taking their jobs, women, and welfare. The lower middle class also seems to be the class that produces the most fascists and reactionaries in a time of economic crisis. Wasn't Adolf Hitler from the German lower middle class?

I finished listening to 'Pericles and Athens' by Andrew Burn a while ago, and I can definitely recommend this history book about Classical Athens. I'm still listening to 'The Persian Wars' by Herodotus and 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' by Edward Gibbon. I began listening to 'Das Kapital' by Karl Marx only recently. This book, which is one of the must-read texts of the 19th century, is in two volumes, and it's narrated by Derek Le Page. Other educational books that I've purchased in the last several months include 'Lost Enlightenment' by S. Frederick Starr, 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' by Thomas S. Kuhn, 'Tesla: Man Out of Time' by Margaret Cheney, 'The Age of Living Machines' by Susan Hockfield, 'Darwin Devolves' by Michael J. Behe, 'The Pursuit of Power' by William H. McNeill, 'On the Origin of Species' by Charles Darwin, 'Skeleton Keys' by Brian Switek, 'The Demon-Haunted World' by Carl Sagan, 'Chariots of the Gods' by Erich von Daniken, 'Parallel Worlds' by Michio Kaku, 'Comet' by Carl Sagan, 'Science in the Soul' by Richard Dawkins, and 'Physics of the Future' by Michio Kaku. This is a list of the books that I have on my Audible account. But more important for me are the books that I purchased in stores, that I downloaded in PDF format, or that I purchased on Google Books because they're not available in audio form. They include 'The Story of the Heavens' by Robert Stawell Ball, 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation' by Robert Chambers, 'Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats' by G. William Domhoff, 'Riddles of Science' by Arthur Thomson, 'Mars' by Percival Lowell, 'The Mystery of Numbers' by Annemarie Schimmel, 'Who Rules America?' by G. William Domhoff, 'Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution' by Thorstein Veblen, 'The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries' by Al-Biruni, 'Atlantis: The Antediluvian World' by Ignatius L. Donnelly, 'The Mind and its Place in Nature' by C. D. Broad, 'The Ascent of Man' by Jacob Bronowski, and 'Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933 - 1944' by Franz Neumann. The one book that I finished reading so far is 'Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy' by Will Bunch. I difinitely recommend reading this book because it's not very thick, it's easy to read, and it contains a lot of good information about Ronald Reagan and American history of the last several decades. The book was written by an establishment journalist, and I don't agree with everything in it, but it's worth getting anyway. By the way, when it comes to groundbreaking science books, the CIA's Wikipedia features an article that includes a list of some of the books that were released in the West and in Russia. Most of these books can easily be acquired on the internet in PDF format because they're in the public domain. Here is the link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquarian_science_books

In an earlier post, I wrote about how only two films that were released in theaters during the summer pleased me. They're Toy Story 4 and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Well, Avengers: Endgame played in theaters during the summer too, but I don't consider it to be a very good film. There were also several other summer movies that I kind of like. So, when it comes to new Hollywood films, it wasn't a good summer or a bad summer. It was an average summer. I mean, one can't expect an excellent new film to be released every week. Who would have the time to go to a theater every week? This isn't realistic. Well, anyway, after the summer movie season came to an end, Hollywood quickly released several enjoyable films that make the summer movie season pale in comparison to this autumn movie season. I haven't seen every film that has been released in the autumn yet, but I can say that Terminator: Dark Fate, Zombieland: Double Tap, Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil, and Abominable are worth seeing. Most are so good that they can be seen more than once. I'd also like to see 21 Bridges, Charlie's Angels, Frozen 2, and Jojo Rabbit. Joker is a film that I think isn't worth seeing more than once. It's not a bad film. For a modern film, it's good, but the filmmaking leaves a lot to be desired. I mean, it's no Apocalypse Now (1979). That's for sure. There are a few moments of brilliance in Joker, but, for the most part, it's a rather dull film, and I'm not judging it based on its message or content. The performance by Joaquin Phoenix is good, but not extraordinary. The cinematography doesn't look very good. Most of the scenes in the film aren't interesting. And the direction, though certainly better than average for modern times, isn't very good either. What did surprise me is how much I enjoyed seeing It Chapter Two and Doctor Sleep. I don't think that these films are very good, but they're better than I expected them to be. In It Chapter Two, the director, Andy Muschietti, showed more of his artistic side, as he did in his fine horror film Mama (2013). It Chapter Two is more atmospheric, better shot, and features better acting than It (2017). And it doesn't rely as much on silly jump scares. All of this added together made it a more enjoyable film for an adult like me. But the film still suffers from the fact that, like It, it was made to appeal to as large an audience of modern moviegoers as possible. Doctor Sleep is another well shot and atmospheric film that was directed by Mike Flanagan, who directed the fine horror film Oculus (2013). As a film, Doctor Sleep is kind of enjoyable. The novel by Stephen King is, in my opinion, bloated and rather dull. Still, the film isn't much better because there's nothing about it that stands out. The acting is fine, but not great. The story is fine, but not very interesting. The cinematography is good, but not in any way truly appealing. The music isn't memorable. Some of the scenes are good, but most of the scenes are just passable. By the way, one of the horror films that I really enjoyed seeing lately is Candyman: Farewell To The Flesh (1995). It's better than I expected it to be. The first film, Candyman (1992), is, in my opinion, fantastic when it comes to its artistry. It's easily one of the best horror films of the 1990s. When I was thinking about it, I thought that it must be the best of the 1990s, but then I remembered that Scream (1996) was released in the 1990s too. Scream is overall a slightly better film than Candyman. With Candyman: Farewell To The Flesh, the filmmakers at least attempted to make a good film, and in some ways they succeeded. It's obviously inferior to Candyman, but the acting, the cinematography, and the direction still make it worth seeing. And, finally, I'm almost done with my Marvel Cinematic Universe marathon, which I began in May of this year, when I watched Iron Man (2008) again. From then on, I've been watching every MCU film in order, and I'm still not quite finished. Of course, it hasn't been an obsession with me because I haven't been watching the films one after the other all in one sitting. I've seen many other films in this time period too. In this way, I've now seen every MCU film at least twice, and I don't consider this to be a bad thing because MCU films are good. There still hasn't been a single bad MCU film. Quite impressive. The years 2018 and 2019 are particularly memorable in the history of the MCU because Marvel released four fantastic films one after the other. They're Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man And The Wasp, and Captain Marvel. When I watched these films again on home video I noticed how well made they are. The acting is good. The stories are interesting. The music is fitting. The entertainment factor is high. The special effects are excellent. Need I say more? I can say that by the time Phase Three began in the MCU, Marvel truly found its groove.