Redwolf's Journal (continued)

 Kind of what it says on the tin. I quite like the ideas behind it, blending song and fame in as elements of fending off invasion from a demon world. There's a good energy to the movie and characters. The music is solid - I say this as someone who appreciates K-Pop beat, but is a long way from a connoisseur. The overall story works pretty well, touching on (if only lightly) themes of friendship, acceptance, fandom, and redemption. The demonic tiger and magpie duo are cute and fun as hell for all their fairly brief appearances.  My only criticisms are generally about missed potential - things that weren't bad, but left me feeling like they could have been much better. Overall, the movie felt rushed, with an intro that has visuals but is still telling more than showing and an ending that wraps everything up neatly only if you don't think much about implications. The animation and cartoony vibe sort of go with that, making the movie feel like "just a kids' show" ...

I haven't watched an MCU movie in a while. I missed... let's see... Quantumania, Eternals, Marvels, and Falcon & Winter Soldier at least. I suppose I've just been a bit burned out on them or something. But, I decided to catch Thunderbolts*.  I worked pretty well. I wasn't taken out of it. I don't find anything that bothers me about it. I liked some of the characters and the interplay. But there wasn't anything that quite pushed it over to great either. The group had a sort of Guardians of the Galaxy vibe with anti-heroes coming together to support one another in a quasi-family. But they also kind of copied the "losers" speech from the original GotG movie, which feels a little cheap. The team being made up of a bunch of people who "shoot and punch things" is a little lackluster for a superhero movie. They're not terribly super or heroic. We have three peak-human supersoldiers, a hyper-trained assassin (and Yelena carries the movie and ...

 Overall, it's a good movie. There's action, drama, comedy, and heart. The tone works for Deadpool. Perhaps my highest little bit of praise to offer is that there really wasn't anything that took me out of the journey along the way. Now, it's not perfect. It suffers from being a multiversal movie in the same way others do. It's pretty tightly focused on Deadpool, so we can buy into his stakes to a decent degree and he's not out to change his past. The tons of other characters from other timelines (and there are tons of cameos), however, all become low-stakes characters. Even this is handled probably as well as it can be, but it's what I might call a weakness. Still, it's fun. There are many characters who may be unexpected if one hasn't been spoiled - several caught me by surprise. It's a fitting capstone for Deadpool movies, if it is such, and doesn't necessarily weave into the main MCU (but does acknowledge it).

Top Gun: Maverick is a solid, feel-good-ish movie. I feel there are few too many parallels to the original. The scenario is pretty vague ("the enemy" has advanced aircraft, but is never identified) and contrived (precise trench run requirements). The romantic story thread is ultimately unnecessary, if not overly drawn out and it does contribute some to the Maverick-Rooster relationship. It could also probably stand a little bit of condensing in general and it is extremely predictable as things move along. Those are my gripes, but it's still quite enjoyable. Maverick's older and a newer generation of pilots is at hand. Instead of dealing with issues regarding his father, he's dealing with issues in relating to Goose's son, Rooster. You've got similar ego-driven pilots, so Maverick has to show them up, then make them work together. Things have to occur to make Rooster push past his problems. The confrontational asshole has to be one until he helps out. Once ...

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was an entertaining watch. I don't think it'll be one of the more memorable MCU movies for me in the long run, but it wasn't bad by any means. I have a handful of thoughts that are neither serious positives or negatives: - It is more reliant than most MCU movies on what-has-come-before. In this case, not just the first Doctor Strange movie or the Avengers movies, but also WandaVision . If you haven't seen that series, I imagine a lot less understanding and interest in a main motivator of the story. - Strange has a pretty good foil in the story who is rather blatant about being such, but lacks the self-awareness to see the differences (naturally). - I liked the "go on red" bit even if it was a little direct. And the Illuminati appearances were pretty good as well. - I can understand what is meant by articles saying the movie sets up a possible Secret Wars arc, but such things are talking about the 2015 Secret Wars...

 Been a while, but it seems less "necessary" to put thoughts here in general. Still, I have a few I want to collect today on recent movie watching... Cloud Atlas I caught Cloud Atlas on Netflix, knowing it was a big release at the time. Having seen it... well... it hit me about as I would have expected, I think. I see a certain artistry in it. I appreciate many elements of the movie and performances. At the same time, though, it strikes me as pretentious. It's long, but could have delivered the same point about interconnectivity of people even if it dropped a couple of the story arcs. It doesn't feel like there is a lot of payoff for the build up in most cases. Overall, it's something I'm kind of glad to have seen, but have no intention to spent time rewatching at any point. Spider-Man: No Way Home Relatively spoiler free remarks: I enjoyed it. The movie has several things going against it in my book: Heavy reliance/use of previous story elements Inclusion of ...

I mean, Spider-Man! (Far From Home) Homecoming is one of the (maybe even the only) MCU movies I haven't watched. I felt a bit over-saturated by previous Spider-Man stuff. Buuuut, coming off Endgame, it seemed like a good thing to get back into. And I'm not disappointed. Granted, I was hoping to see a little bit more of the fallout from the disappearance and reappearance of half the population, but there's some of that here. Along with action and the weight of dealing with expectations conflicting with simpler, youthful wants. I think I like how Mysterio was handled in general. There are some things that bother me about his setup, but not seriously enough to take me out of things. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and find it easy to recommend. There's a mid-scenes credit that drops a bomb of sorts that'll radically upend the status quo for Spider-Man's next appearance, whenever that is. The post-credits scene is slightly more cute than serious, but does cast an i...

I may add to this as I think of things, but it's nice to have someplace to dump thoughts, anyway. . . . . . . . . . . . For as much as Endgame messes with time travel , I think it does it pretty well and sensibly. That's not to say perfectly. Bruce's explanation, as well as the Ancient One's visual, sort of make clear they're going with the alternate/split timelines approach to avoid the butterfly effect. THEN they add the moral complexity of acknowledging these alternate timelines are valid as well, and shouldn't be screwed just for the benefit of their "prime timeline" (ie. the one we're following). That's why the make a deliberate effort to get the stones back to when they came from. That means there's a Loki that's alive, but he's in an alternate timeline. It also means that present-Thor screwed a parallel Thor by yoinking Mjolnir from that timeline (well, Cap could have returned that, though still kind of a dick ...

The "no spoilers" part is challenging. I find it hard to wrap my mind around how the movie would be to someone who hasn't followed the MCU. Confusing, but action-filled? For me, however, as someone who has followed almost all the movies (I think I've missed... one or two), it is some three hours of incredibly awesome payoff. I don't know how I expected it to go. There'd been mention of the Quantum Realm and importance of Captain Marvel. After Infinity War, you know there has to be more use of the Infinity Stones and a battle to "fix" things. Other than that... I wasn't really sure. What I really did not expect so much emphasis on so many characters and their personal stories. The movie juggles it all incredibly well considering how much there is. Even without the qualifier, it's damn good. There were several moments where I saw some small-scale "surprise" coming, but that didn't detract for me. It's just a crazy fun ride.

Solid movie with good action. We've got a few enemies for the protagonists, including one that's safe to consider scum and one that's fairly sympathetic. There's a sense of fun throughout. The first end credits scene answers possible questions of where the movie fits in with the larger MCU. The second is... redundant in that sense and I guess potentially cute, but no big wow factor there. I suppose my only issue with the movie is how it plays so fast and loose with physics. Mass and momentum seem to be retained through size changes only when convenient. Shrunken objects seem beholden to toon/toy physics more than anything, able to be tossed around without consequence. But y'know, none of that bothered me -during- the movie enough to break suspension of disbelief, and that makes it all excusable.

*yawn* Dog sitting is okay. Having a cuddly pup (not that she's really a puppy anymore) around has a certain appeal, though I fret perhaps overly much about not understanding what is wanted at any given time. I could do without the seemingly-random barking at something at near 3 am and I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed, but it made for an interesting change of pace. And I got in some entertainments over the weekend. It's hard to avoid spoilers in some cases, but I try... Solo: A Star Wars Story was not a movie that I wanted or felt any need for. I kind of wrote it off early, though trailers got me thinking "this might be an okay action/heist movie in the Star Wars setting." That turns out to be a good summary in my book. It's fine. There's some good action and decent characters. Nothing truly transcends to greatness, but it's an enjoyable-enough ride of a movie. From my perspective, a lot of the worst bits of Star Wars stem from trying to "f...

So dense. I'm repeating myself, but that's what I keep coming back to. There are a lot of character, there is a lot going on, and there is very little wasted time. It's less stunning to me than the first Avengers movie was, but I'm still impressed that it works. I feel like the characters were well-represented. Certainly, some are bigger factors in the movie than others, but I didn't find myself feeling favorites of mine were being short-changed. In a movie of such magnitude, that's no mean feat. So, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I keep asking myself, however, if I consider it "good." I acknowledge a difference in those two metrics. One of my usual criteria for quality of a book/movie is how it stands on its own, even if it's part of a series. Here, I find myself utterly incapable of making a judgment in that regard. I can't wrap my head around picturing what this movie would look like to someone who knows nothing of the MCU. I think a lot of im...

I've been in a pretty critical mood lately, I think. That said, I'd be hard pressed to find things to nitpick about in Black Panther . About the worst thing I can think to say about it is that it lacked some element that really resonated or sang to me that would make it great in my book. Which means it's very solidly good. The ultimate villain could perhaps use a little more on-screen development, but still managed to be believable and sympathetic. The hero is likeable. The supporting cast is pretty great all around. There's some social commentary running through it all that didn't feel like I was bludgeoned over the head with it. The early part includes some very James Bond-ish scenes before getting into more sci-fi/superhero stuff toward the end. The final battle feels a little small-scale, but I could blame that on the relatively tight timeframe as much as anything. Slight Spoiler : I was a little disappointed the Soul Stone didn't make an appearance, tho...

So, Saturday I watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I will get into spoilers here, but I'll see if I can push those below the Blogspot cut, at least. In general, I enjoyed the movie. I understand, and agree with the existence of, some criticisms I've heard. None of those seriously dragged down the experience for me, though. There were some good characters. There were some awesome scenes. There was some unnecessary fluff. The movie felt very full. But it was all pretty good and felt Star Warsy enough for me. And with that, let's get into some details... Whereas The Force Awakens felt like almost a remake of A New Hope, this movie has callbacks to The Empire Strikes Back. In my perception, they don't feel as direct, but I can't deny the parallels. The opening and ending scenes are clearly evocative of the battle on Hoth. Rey's time with Luke could equate to the training on Dagobah. But at least there's no new Death Star/Starkiller Base. I like Rose. She...

You got your Guardians of the Galaxy in my Thor. Your got your Thor in my Guardians of the Galaxy. Hmmm... This works! It definitely feels like Guardians (and perhaps Deadpool to some extent) opened the superhero movie genre up to more comedic influences. The Thor movies thus far have been pretty straight and standard hero stuff. This one had a much more fun and funny bent to it. There are still stakes (Ragnarok) and such, but Thor is more self-depreciating than he used to be and everything around him flows in a more amusing way unshackled from Earth. It works so very well. So we get a larger-than-life superhero movie with cameos, conflicts, bright colors and awesome characters. It's got lots of action and lots of things to laugh at. It's fuuuun. I feel like if I'm going to see Justice League (which I'm undecided on), it's going to be partly to compare and contrast... but I don't think JL can measure up.

So, watching the  Angry Joe review of The Dark Tower movie , I'm stricken by his use of the terms "dull" and "boring" (repeatedly). Though he hadn't read the book, his overall reaction to the movie was actually a lot like mine to the book - which I found to be atmospheric, but unrewarding and not interesting enough to draw me into the series. So, between that and what I've read elsewhere about the movie, I'll probably give that a full pass. Playing through the most recent Guild Wars 2 story, I was asked to do it with someone. So it's been slower. And I've been shoved off to the side in some of the scenes as a spectator - the game lets party members take credit for those segments, it seems, but only the primary character who starts the instance is actually in the center of it, swearing into a secretive sect and facing its trials. Normally, this sort of thing would make me feel left out. And it might on some level. But I also find it unusua...

I am, perhaps thankfully, missing out on a lot of the baggage that's been associated with this movie. I don't pin hopes for gender equality on it, since that be a given regardless. I never really followed the character and comics, picking up general info tangentially. I have memories of watching the old TV show, but no real opinion or connection to it. If there's anything that might cause me to prejudge the movie, it's how the last handful of DC-based movies simply haven't appealed to me. Everything I've heard second-hand (which is a fair bit) makes me feel DC missed the mark with those. Wonder Woman is good. Some of the CGI is a little "meh," but not so bad. The movie feels a little long to me, but I can't think of much I would choose to cut. I've heard it said that the WW1 setting makes it harder to connect for a modern audience, but I didn't feel much of that. Really, it works. There are some solid action pieces. I wouldn't give ...

I watched a review of Alien: Covenant and... that's probably all I'm going to watch of it. It sounds like the worst aspects of Prometheus combined with an attempt to build out the back story of the monsters in a way that makes little sense, removes much mystique, and does it all in a way that doesn't mesh well with what existed before.  On the other hand, I watched a playthrough of Alien: Isolation, which takes liberties with the time between the first two Alien movies, but does it in a way that's more respectful and captures a more appropriate atmosphere. But I don't mind having not played it myself. A little more intense an experience at times than I tend to prefer.  I finished playing Prey over the weekend, and have a few thoughts to add. As previously stated, I like the gameplay, though the story itself isn't terribly interesting through the bulk of the game. It owes a lot in structure and atmosphere to System Shock 2, I would say. I feel like there'...

Ergo Proxy looked like an atmospheric noir cyberpunk anime series. I suppose it sort of is. The best word for it that comes to mind, though, is phantasmagoric (ie. dreamlike - thank you, old word-a-day calendar). Visually, it's dark. Dark enough that there were a measurable percentage of scenes difficult to make out - not a particularly good thing. Characters are... okay, with some good and bad traits. The story is... scattered. Whole episodes of the 23-episode series are spent in internal reflection, dream states, or the out-of-nowhere quiz show. It's disjointed for no particular benefit. I suppose the creators were going for deeply psychological, but I can't help but feel the actual plot could have been presented more tightly and been a more thrilling and captivating 13 episodes, if that. Even then, the series feels like more style over substance. Snowpiercer was on TV over the weekend, and I hadn't seen it, but mentions have popped up a lot on sites I frequent si...

Ah, the holidays. They play out one of two ways for me these days: 1) Lots of scrambling, stress, and little sleep throwing things together to go visit parents over the hill for Christmas. This ends up being a pleasant enough diversion from the norm, but usually isn't very restful. 2) Boring time by myself because parents are away, with little feeling of celebration of Christmas itself. This time around was the latter, and stretched through New Years. I got some extra days off, so there was plenty of time to rest, but that also means plenty of time to struggle for entertainment. Over that period, I went through several things... The Games... Titanfall 2: I put this on my Christmas list with a little reservation, considering it's one of those first-person shooters where multiplayer is a large facet that I wouldn't really touch. As a single-player campaign, it's still pretty good. Perhaps not worth full price for the length of it, but the game plays well and the ...