Movies and Recommendations
1) Taking your enjoyment however small, forcing you to take care of yourself and being prepared if you don't, plus couple goals and the kind of welcome we all wish we got.
2) Finally got to see The Eternals. I liked it, but I can see why it might not have done the usual box office, even outside of a pandemic. The critic reviews on this were very all over the map with some criticizing the very things that others praised. Some people were expecting a lot out of it because Chloe Zhao directed and co-wrote the screenplay. And I do think it had a different focus, much more character oriented, though it also had a big job there because it was introducing 12 new characters and a separate set up as opposed to building on stuff Marvel had done before. (It does actually tie into other Marvel events, but just in references). So there was only so much that could be done in a movie runtime. Some characters like Makkari weren't explored at all and while the humor that Kingo and Karun brought to the story was badly needed, it hid the fact that we didn't learn much about them either.
But I did like the central dilemma about questioning what should be done and why. Quite frankly though, I'm very tired of stories always concluding how special humans are and thus that they should be saved from (fill in the blank). It smacks of the U.S.'s feeling of exceptionalism and I think humanity has proved over time that it ain't all that.
I thought that the story was very contemporary with issues such as our own self-destruction and finding that one solution is as likely to create its own problems as solve others (namely the reason Deviants later needed their own exterminators).
I thought that the final battle scene was less tedious than in most cases and Ikaris' exit was rather unexpected. (I'd been wondering where he was supposed to have "disappeared" to all those years. I guess he was hanging out on the dark side of the moon.)
Speaking of unexpected, Mike and I were both perplexed by why the appearance of Eros in the credits scene was so familiar. We both separately thought it might be Derek Hough. Until now I never realized he and Harry Styles looked at all alike. I'm also curious to see how the reveal about Dane will play out.
I wonder if we're really getting a second Eternals story given that the performance of this one was considered a disappointment. But I suppose it depends on the storyline and who is in the film.
Also, consider me pretty surprised about where all the activity is on AO3 with Eternals fanfic. I would not have guessed that Druig is the big draw, although it is rather interesting that most of the content is het.
Also, side note, given that LEGO Star Wars shorts keep popping up on Disney+ I am rather perplexed as to why this isn't true of the Avengers ones as well. I wouldn't have known about the new Loki one but for someone's gifset.
3) Watched the Matrix Resurrection and liked it. I definitely thought it was the best installment since the first one. Of course, to some degree this is because this movie reworked the first film, not unlike what happened with The Force Awakens, although it did it in a very meta way. I could see that whole discussion in the writers' room happening among producers and writers on the film.
Clearly one of the things they decided was that they weren't keen on the incel movement using The Matrix for their own purposes. I thought the empowerment of Trinity and the final scene with her was heavy handed. The earlier bit, where Neo talks about how she had always believed in him and how he must now put his faith in her was much better. I also liked their discussion in the coffee shop where she talks about having a family not because she was sure she wanted one but simply that it was such a societal expectation. So that was a good callback when she attacks the architect for having used children to imprison her.
One thing I found rather puzzling was that I'd seen an appearance by Jonathan Groff on Colbert where he talked about how he had to work with a personal trainer just to prepare himself for later learning the movie's fight scenes. Yet he only had one scene where he did extensive fighting. Similarly, he mentioned walking into the training room where Carrie Ann Moss and Keanu Reeves were training and being really impressed, but her fight scene was brief and not easily seen given the crush of bodies.
By comparison Keanu had three main fight scenes -- the rest of his time was spent creating force fields to push away people, bullets, cars, rocket launchers, etc. There were certainly plenty of fight scenes in the film, but the elaborate displays that were featured in Matrix 2 were largely absent here, even though through CGI you'd think they'd be easier than ever to do and there were plenty of people to spread them around to.
I did like some references in the film to present day developments -- things like how the movie's original story was taken and trivialized as a piece of pop culture, and the whole use of the Architect's character as a psychoanalyst. Also, I was amused by the idea of Neo and Trinity being power generators given this recent story about bodies as a geothermal power source.
So overall I didn't feel disappointed but I don't think anything's going to match the power of the original film. I do wonder if there's going to be a new Matrix trilogy though.
4) Speaking of movies, forecasting the future isn't easy but at least one movie apparently got a lot of things right, even if the date was a bit too early for the worst effects.
5) This past month has been list making time and I have already watched a number of shows listed by Henry Jenkins as his favorites last year. I was most intrigued by Bosch, particularly as I plan to get an Amazon subscription sometime in the next few months. Anyone recommend it?
View poll: Kudos Footer-338
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
2) Finally got to see The Eternals. I liked it, but I can see why it might not have done the usual box office, even outside of a pandemic. The critic reviews on this were very all over the map with some criticizing the very things that others praised. Some people were expecting a lot out of it because Chloe Zhao directed and co-wrote the screenplay. And I do think it had a different focus, much more character oriented, though it also had a big job there because it was introducing 12 new characters and a separate set up as opposed to building on stuff Marvel had done before. (It does actually tie into other Marvel events, but just in references). So there was only so much that could be done in a movie runtime. Some characters like Makkari weren't explored at all and while the humor that Kingo and Karun brought to the story was badly needed, it hid the fact that we didn't learn much about them either.
But I did like the central dilemma about questioning what should be done and why. Quite frankly though, I'm very tired of stories always concluding how special humans are and thus that they should be saved from (fill in the blank). It smacks of the U.S.'s feeling of exceptionalism and I think humanity has proved over time that it ain't all that.
I thought that the story was very contemporary with issues such as our own self-destruction and finding that one solution is as likely to create its own problems as solve others (namely the reason Deviants later needed their own exterminators).
I thought that the final battle scene was less tedious than in most cases and Ikaris' exit was rather unexpected. (I'd been wondering where he was supposed to have "disappeared" to all those years. I guess he was hanging out on the dark side of the moon.)
Speaking of unexpected, Mike and I were both perplexed by why the appearance of Eros in the credits scene was so familiar. We both separately thought it might be Derek Hough. Until now I never realized he and Harry Styles looked at all alike. I'm also curious to see how the reveal about Dane will play out.
I wonder if we're really getting a second Eternals story given that the performance of this one was considered a disappointment. But I suppose it depends on the storyline and who is in the film.
Also, consider me pretty surprised about where all the activity is on AO3 with Eternals fanfic. I would not have guessed that Druig is the big draw, although it is rather interesting that most of the content is het.
Also, side note, given that LEGO Star Wars shorts keep popping up on Disney+ I am rather perplexed as to why this isn't true of the Avengers ones as well. I wouldn't have known about the new Loki one but for someone's gifset.
3) Watched the Matrix Resurrection and liked it. I definitely thought it was the best installment since the first one. Of course, to some degree this is because this movie reworked the first film, not unlike what happened with The Force Awakens, although it did it in a very meta way. I could see that whole discussion in the writers' room happening among producers and writers on the film.
Clearly one of the things they decided was that they weren't keen on the incel movement using The Matrix for their own purposes. I thought the empowerment of Trinity and the final scene with her was heavy handed. The earlier bit, where Neo talks about how she had always believed in him and how he must now put his faith in her was much better. I also liked their discussion in the coffee shop where she talks about having a family not because she was sure she wanted one but simply that it was such a societal expectation. So that was a good callback when she attacks the architect for having used children to imprison her.
One thing I found rather puzzling was that I'd seen an appearance by Jonathan Groff on Colbert where he talked about how he had to work with a personal trainer just to prepare himself for later learning the movie's fight scenes. Yet he only had one scene where he did extensive fighting. Similarly, he mentioned walking into the training room where Carrie Ann Moss and Keanu Reeves were training and being really impressed, but her fight scene was brief and not easily seen given the crush of bodies.
By comparison Keanu had three main fight scenes -- the rest of his time was spent creating force fields to push away people, bullets, cars, rocket launchers, etc. There were certainly plenty of fight scenes in the film, but the elaborate displays that were featured in Matrix 2 were largely absent here, even though through CGI you'd think they'd be easier than ever to do and there were plenty of people to spread them around to.
I did like some references in the film to present day developments -- things like how the movie's original story was taken and trivialized as a piece of pop culture, and the whole use of the Architect's character as a psychoanalyst. Also, I was amused by the idea of Neo and Trinity being power generators given this recent story about bodies as a geothermal power source.
So overall I didn't feel disappointed but I don't think anything's going to match the power of the original film. I do wonder if there's going to be a new Matrix trilogy though.
4) Speaking of movies, forecasting the future isn't easy but at least one movie apparently got a lot of things right, even if the date was a bit too early for the worst effects.
5) This past month has been list making time and I have already watched a number of shows listed by Henry Jenkins as his favorites last year. I was most intrigued by Bosch, particularly as I plan to get an Amazon subscription sometime in the next few months. Anyone recommend it?
View poll: Kudos Footer-338
Comments at Dreamwidth
.