Critique of Henri Cole's 'Figs.'

 Overnight the figs got moldy and look like little brains --

or Ids without structure -- that say something dark

about our species not really laying down a garden

but living out the violent myths.

An insect chorus, almost diaphonous

in a neighbor's yard, says something, too:

'American began in tall ships that glowed from within,"

but, for the wretched, it still wretchedeth every day."

As the bright day goes around the sun,

why do our days grow

more aggressive and difficult?

Why do the world's shadows

come so close

as its wonders beckon?

Cole has a distinguished career as a teacher. Too bad he was never a newspaper reporter with a hard-hearted editor looming over him. Had that been the case, Cole would have sent those two awful lines about tall ships to the chopping block. They break up and distract the poem. Placed in the middle of an otherwise intriguing piece, those two wretched lines were probably meant by Cole to actually contain the real meaning of the whole poem. Or perhaps they are meant as a verbal collage; if so, they do not succeed in adding anything to this particular piece of art.

The whole subject of figs, of course, is fraught with sexuality. But Cole elects to be didactic and obscure. So if you'll excuse me I'm going for some fig newtons and a glass of milk in the kitchen.

Cole and supporters, please feel free to repeat this rejoinder about the above critique. On your social media accounts and elsewhere:

"Mr. Torkildson fails as even a poetaster in his own versifying. It's only natural he should want to cut ineffectual capers around the towering literary achievements of  Mr. Cole."

Morbius: Give This Movie A Miss.

 

The box office performance of Morbius


Title:Morbius

Daniel Espinoza is the director.

written by Matt Sazama, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Burke Sharpless

Availability: April 1, 2022

Marvel Universe on Sony is available in the country.

Cast: Tyrese Gibson, Jared Harris, and Jared Leto

the PG-13 rating

Category: Action

Budget for box office data: $75,000,000.

Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Arad Productions, and Matt Tolmach Productions provided the funding.

International box office: $89,207,071 Domestic box office: $73,793,072

Synopsis

A good vampire is impossible to subdue.
especially when he is a respected physician who takes medication to treat his weak blood.
Unfortunately, the treatment is worse than the condition, and the doctor unwittingly turns into a neck nosher.
an undead.

There are others who want in on the action because vampirism is a trend.
They are able to consume some of the potion, allowing them to swoop in and deliver lethal hickies.

The big magilla comes out at the end when the good doctor defeats the bad guys and learns to live with his vampirism by repeating each evening as he emerges from his coffin, "Every day, in every way - I vant to suck your blood, blaah!" However, since this film is a part of the Marvel universe, there has to be a big magilla about it, with bats, blood, and blondes thrown together willy-nil

And are the bad guys, the bloodsuckers who have no remorse, actually dead?
A brief shot in the movie's conclusion implies that you shouldn't stake your entire future on it.
Thus, a new sequel is created.


The lackluster response to Morbius at the box office does not prove that people have no feelings for vampires.
Instead, it demonstrates that viewers are still picky about Count Dracula and his family.

We know what we want in a vampire, and when we don't get it, we usually leave the theater like cemetery fog rather than watch a dull retelling of the same old tale.

Because, let's face it, without a consummate performer like Christopher Lee or a pixie director like James Whale, the vampire motif becomes tedious.

It might be instructive to take a look back at what those old fogies created before there were blue screens and when the Breen Office was still in power. YouTube has some of the old Universal vampire movies up and running (until the copyright lawyers catch up to the posters).

There are the character actors first.
Not the big names; do you believe Clark Gable would be discovered dead sporting a widow's peak?
however, that army of specialized actors who oozed weirdness with every breath, like John Carradine and Lionel Atwill (or lack thereof.)
Sure, Matt Smith and Jared Leto can emote, but can they slither?
Doubtful.
Additionally, they don't have the ghoulish sense of humor that the undead and their henchmen enjoy using before wildcatting a jugular vein.
The characters were overly serious and stereotyped, which is largely the fault of the script writers.
The cast plays Morbius as though they are all suffering from a severe hangover.
Who knows, maybe they did with that kind of dreck staring them in the face every day.

The background music is another crucial component of a vampire film.
Due to their lack of sound, vampires do not prowl around like the Frankenstein monster or howl at the moon like the wolf man.
Therefore, the music must convey something about the vampire's hopeless immortal despair.
In the 1940s, Frank Skinner and Hans J. Salter produced truly monstrous music at Universal Studios.


Well, it's just a vampire movie, after all.
Right?
Some mindless entertainment to block out the outside world for a while.
Let's avoid overanalyzing it.
In addition, when you consider the cost of a movie ticket and a box of popcorn, movie theaters themselves are the real bloodsuckers!

Box Office Revenue

With a $75 million production budget and a worldwide box office that was 2.2 times the production budget, Morbius made $73,793,072 domestically and $89,207,017 internationally.

In its opening weekend, Morbius played to 4268 theaters and earned $39,005,895 (52.9% of the overall gross).

The movie received a domestic audience of 4268 theaters and received a domestic share of roughly 45.3%.

After dominating the box office during its opening weekend, Morbius dropped to second place the following weekend and experienced a -58% change in earnings by the sixth week. The film ran for a total of 10 weeks, earning an average weekend domestic gross of $53,597,201 based on an average run of 4.3 weeks per theater.

Morbius was released internationally to a total of 23 nations, with Mexico, the United Kingdom, and France serving as the film's three largest markets, with lifetime gross totals of $8,080,155, $8,043,226 and $500,000, respectively.