An orange in an apple orchard
Check out “Salt” on Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/title/70118402?s=i&trkid=13752289
While a pretty good thriller that pretty much is what it sounds like, and perhaps in need of a little plot armor, I’ve got to admit two things:
Check out “Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll” on Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/title/81208936?s=i&trkid=14170286
Rather thrilled to find the #VioletEvergarden movie released, and made its way to Netflix.
While the series is principally Violet’s story, the film is a more heartwarming tale focused on the side story of the two sisters that she meets. Which I think is a rather lovely thing. The side story takes place at a time after Violet has developed as a character, and shows a world that has like her, begun to recover from the war. So it makes more sense for a movie like this than one focused on Violet’s story; the main series rewards us with a character that can create such an aside, and not have to devote extra to her development. Well, providing you actually watched the beautiful series 😉
Violet Evergarden is one of a handful of anime characters that will likely stick with me a long time. A character introduced to us as constantly on fire, and not yet able to realize that her arms were perhaps the smallest thing she lost to the war.
Because of how the main series tells Violet’s story, I can appreciate the depth of the backdrop even more. You’ll notice how rapidly the city has evolved, and how common place postal service has become. It’s quite nicely executed behind the story, IMHO.
Going with a dinner double feature of Olympus Has Fallen, and Angel Has Fallen was an interesting pair.
I remember watching the first film in the series on cable shortly after it came out, and finding it a nice action movie if a tad brutal. Give or take that a bunch of office workers who have barely played Halo or CoD, would probably make better cannon fodder for guarding the front door. But that was kind of the point I suppose.
Angel Has Fallen is a rather more varied film. Starting off with a return to its more Call of Duty generation like approach before descending into The Fugitive, and than back into straight up action. Somehow though, I find the best parts are about Mike and his dad.
‘Cuz if his dad had to be a crazy old man, at least he’s a rather handy, crazy old man. And the ending after the credits may have made me laugh quite a bit.
Watching The Last Stand (2013), I can definitely say was worth while.
Of particularly great scenes, include: Schwarzenegger’s various interactions with the diner folks, Luis the Tommygun Guizmán, a surprise Vickers gun courtesy of the town nut, and what the Sheriff probably thought was just a little old lady before the thugs showed up. Not to mention the Camaro at the end.
As an action movie it was entertaining. Can you really ask for more than that? Currently it’s available for streaming on Amazon Prime, and on Hulu.
Watching Terminator: Dark Fate, I found it a rather nice retake on Terminator.
While Gensys was pretty entertaining, and the alternate version of Sarah and “Pops” was pretty damned fun for me: Dark Fate is a little more terminator, less popcorn. The beginning is a tad rough, but quickly leads to what we’d expect.
It’s hard to decide what I like best about Carl’s reintroduction though. That he ends up a drapery expert, or the Texas comment about his armory. The bit between Sarah and Carl, is really a positive aside to the whole cyborg / guardian battle. It’s far more a win than a distraction.
Legion’s future also seems more plausible to me, with the more stab happy Rev-7s, and the Rev-9 being far more plausible than the T-1000. And that it probably wasn’t SkyNet that created it, lol.
One of the problems I’ve long found with the SkyNet timeline, is the lack of sense it’s usually made. If we presume that SkyNet was so screwed by the time the T-800/Model 101 and T-1000 were sent back, it becomes even more plausible that SkyNet would play the most obvious card: once you’ve invented time displacement, go back and provide yourself with the necessary files to not be so screwed, develop a head start, and send back oodles of terminators. Because if we accept the linear influences, that becomes the logical course of action: not just sending two minions back in time and hoping at least one would be successful.
Actually, that let’s send back oodles of terminators is one of the things I like about The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Because why send one, when you have time on your side? Likewise, I think Legion makes a better follow up than Rise of the Machines and Gensys did, in the sense that if you buy into their model of time travel, and that Judgement Day would be inevitable despite taking out Cyberdyne, why would it always have to take the same form of SkyNet? Same shit, different timeline.
Check out “Iron Sky: The Coming Race” on Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/title/81132624?s=i&trkid=14170286
Said what the hell, why not? And was not disappointed. Much like when I watched the original Iron Sky.
Because if moon nazis weren’t enough, let’s throw in aliens, and Hitler riding a T-Rex, motherfickers! The bit with the holy grail and the Steve Jobs cult, and that lucky red shit, oh it was entertaining, lol.
Somehow, I agree with Sasha’s notion that the transport ship was made by Americans, therefore there must be weapons somewhere; and the iPhone / Nokia 3310 jokes. There’s many little nuggets of greatness, not to mention first fighting dinosaurs, and the hilarity with the world leaders.
Watching Doom: Annihilation on Netflix, I think it doesn’t suck. You won’t rush to theaters for such a film but it beats the last attempt at a DooM movie, hands down. Or should we say, the people at least cared and that tends to make a video game movie that doesn’t suck.
In my experience, video game movies tend to be either pretty good, or pretty awful, and make no one happy. The only exception that really come to mind is the first Mortal Kombat film.
Doom: Annihilation at least does a decent job of presenting a band of doomed space marines, stuck on Phobos, and being attacked by zombies. Also other things. Like the ’16 video game, it tries to put enough narrative around the concept to make it function. Not a deep, far reaching story; because that doesn’t work for Doom. This film on the other hand, ain’t a bad try. I especially loved the many nods to the game, and related Id titles; not to mention bits like the possession warning on the doors.
I’d actually like to see another shot, that takes on Doom II’s notion of the Earth being overrun. It may also be sad that the only reasons why I remember the name of Mars’ moons all related to video games, lol.
Marvel just told us how it decided which heroes to kill in ‘Avengers: Endgame’
Nobody becomes a superhero because they’re really well adjusted; they do it because they’re screwed up on some level. [By the end of Endgame] everybody is kind of fixed, or dead.
And that pretty much sums it up. Also, I think the Thor in the normal-person suit worked really well, IMHO.
Watching Christmas Vacation for the first time in some years, I think the real problem is less that Griswold’s luck is like a suburban dad version of Ashley Williams, and has more to do with his foolishness. But there in lays the rub.
In a way, Clark Griswold kind of represents the foolishness in us all, parodied to National Lampoon levels. He’s pretty much hopeless, and nothing he tries to do for his family goes according to plan, but they love him just the same. Somehow.
Most people can probably identify with how that works out, and be glad that most of us space out our foolishness enough not to have a reserved spot on the other side of the nut house, or encounter SWAT teams that often in our happy endings. Oddly, the characters work really well, lol.
Watching The Outer Limits – s02e9 – Trial by Fire, I find myself wondering somewhat just what kinds of civilizations we could find out there amongst the stars.
Based on our own civilizations throughout history, I rather think there’s three ways that works out.
In a perfect world, we would probably have a first contact out of Star Trek. But I don’t really have that high a hope for humanity, so I expect our early associations to look more like Avatar or Enemy Mine.
In a way though, I worry that a more likely scenario given how difficult truly foreign beings are, and how fucked up we are, things would turn out more like the Earth-Minbari war in B5. Which could be summarized as a hot head meets cultural differences kicks off the near extimerination of the human race. Except I don’t think the Battle of the Line would turn out so fortuitous, so much as like an ID4 assault ship firing its primary weapon.