This review will contain spoilers. I literally do not know how to review this movie without “spoilers” because it is so about the references. I mean, it pulls in Spiderman villains and such which we haven’t seen in the MCU to date. My short review (without spoilers) is this: It’s a fun movie for Marvel fans, but I wouldn’t send a non-Marvel fan to watch it. This isn’t like Black Panther or Iron Man (1) or Shang Chi where I could say “just go see it anyway, it’s so much fun.” You need background. Now, as a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – this was soooo much fun. More in-depth I have seen a bunch of people saying how much they love this movie and it’s one of their favorites in the MCU. Nope. Not at all. I wouldn’t put it in the top 5, maybe even the top 10. Honestly (controversial take here) I don’t think it will
Movie & Film
Review: Raya and The Last Dragon
I mentioned I watched this movie, but it wasn’t really the focus of that post. So here are my thoughts on the movie. So I was distracted trying to pinpoint aspects of various cultures, and there really are some interesting references to various cultures. I, personally, really like it. I never thought about mismashing viking culture, monogolian culture, and japanese-northern cultures together (they did!). It works really well surprisingly. The world is pretty amazing really. I think it’s one of the best parts of the whole thing. It was really unique. I feel like it was a brave decision to produce the movie with such an interesting and challenging world to build up. The plot is not complicated (it is a kid’s movie), so I can’t think of anything that surprised me. I would say it probably follows the very typical beats of “high-low-high-low-done.” Without doing an in-depth dissection, that’s how it felt. I don’t want to give spoilers, but
Life: Anxiety in 2020
I can finally give a concrete example of anxiety manifesting in 2020. For the past two days or so I am bothered. I am turning it over and over and over in my mind. I get upset and grumble and gripe about it to myself. I literally start arguing with myself over it. No, I am not upset with my husband or even politics. I am worrying on a Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode. I haven’t seen it in a year or more, but it’s on my mind. For the STDS9 fans, it’s the episode when Kiko O’Brien is possessed by the bajoran Fire Demon. She has been on the planet seeing the “fire caves” which is a tourist destination and is possessed by this evil (in the bajoran religion) non-corporeal entity (a spirit). The show begins when she comes home and Miles O’Brien, her husband, is waiting for her with her favorite exotic chocolates as an apology for
Review: Mulan pricing
I can’t review Disney’s live action Mulan because I haven’t seen it yet. But I have had several conversations with people and seen a good bit of commentary on the “they are charging $30 on TOP of the Disney+ sub to watch it” debate. I even know of people who are pirating it (or at least say they are) because of the “principle” of paying on top of a subscription to watch the movie. I am against piracy. If there is a legal means of attaining the property, even if you think it’s ridiculous and unreasonable… no. Just no. The word is piracy – and that is a bad thing people. Always. The only time I have “pirated” media was when I could not find it legally (this was also like 10 years ago, the internet has evolved a little since then). Literally, I tried to reach out to the publisher listed on an old CD (out of business). I
Review: Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker
I finally went and saw this one. I didn’t want to fight opening-weekend-rush but I also wanted to avoid spoilers (I mostly did). So my Balance was waiting a week and going at 9:30 on Friday morning. Firstly, there’s a rumor Disney fired (or is about to fire) the head of Lucas Arts (the Star Wars division). GOOOD. I don’t know if this person just doesn’t understand multi-movie franchises (you’d think they could just go talk to some Marvel people about it…) or if they just don’t understand plot. Or character development. Or you know…. storytelling. That is my non-spoiler review of The Rise of Skywalker. You have been safely warned that the rest of this review is probably going to have spoilers. Because I am going to approach this a little differently than a normal review. And I might “spoil” something from this latest movie in the process. The plot between Kylo Ren and Rey make me wonder (like
Review: Alita Battle Angel
I know I’m a little late to this – it’s been out for more than 3 days so if you were looking for a review I missed the “important” window for reviews. But to hell with that, I watched the movie and I have opinions and you were crazy enough to come read what I want to say. I enjoy anime for one big reason – they are far more likely to have interesting plot lines that the “weekly reset” shows like The Simpson or Family Guy. I like plot damnit. Alita has plot – and about the level I expected of a manga turned anime turned 2-hr movie. In other words, they try to cram a LOT of plot into a LITTLE time scale. Which leads to my personal biggest beef with the film: the time scale. I couldn’t tell you if (most) of this movie was over the course of a few days or few months. It’s rare
Review: Aquaman
Let me begin by saying, this review WILL have spoilers. The non-spoiler review is that this a fun movie. If you like the Fast and Furious franchise, I think it’s safe to say you will enjoy this (James Wan, also directed F&F7). I didn’t know this going in, but when my husband told me afterwards, I could feel the similarities. It’s a fun rompy-action movie with great special effects. Ok, so everything after this might be spoilery. Fair warning. Let me begin with the good. The action scenes are GOOD. Not always great, some of them might have gone one a fraction too long for me, but it was VERY GOOD. They were well choreographed and well shot (no shaky cam or other shitty camera tricks). The characters styles fit their personality (I always hate when the “well training tiny dude takes on gianormous dude hand-to-hand”). The colors were spectacular. It felt like a comic book. Nolan’s Batman was good, but I am
Anime: Subbed or Dubbed
Ah, the ageless debate of subtitles vs dubbing over with native voice actors. I have an opinion (shocker!). I am going to focus on anime because I haven’t seen many/if any dubbed Bollywood or the like. And I’m ignoring bad kung fu dubs. Some of them are better for the cheesy words-don’t-match-mouth-moving (the soccer one comes to mind) and again, my depth isn’t so great. Anime however, that I feel I have some “authority.” I’ve seen more than 2. My short opinion is that subtitles tend to be better, but dubbed versions are damn convenient. My best example of this definitely shows in Jubei-chan: The Ninja Girl. There is a single line in one episode where the dubbed version (when I first watch this is what I had available). She said putting on the eye-patch that transforms her into an awesome warrior was like “a bad headache.” My brother was around and had seen the subbed version and said, “Oh no, you
Review: Trigun
I took vacation and re-watched Trigun for the bazillionth time. It’s less than 10 hrs once you skip intros and credits on the episodes (26 episodes which run ~20m each). But this time, as with many things in my life I’ve been seeing things through a lens colored by the current world. Even trying to avoid the news while off work (staying out of touch!), it filtered in from a hundred small sources. So I watched Vash the Stampede struggle in his world and grieved. If you’ve never seen this late-90’s anime, you should. This is one of the series I’ve recommended as a good introduction to anime. It is funny and dark and fun all intermixed. It is long enough to help someone figure out if they can stand a longer-than-2-hour story arc but not the 10,000 episodes of something like Inyuasha. It seems like just a light-hearted twist and then it interweaves these little hints of something “bigger” going
Review: Pride & Prejudice
I love this book. I have it in at least 3 different forms and always have it loaded on my table and/or phone. It’s one of the rare books I keep around to pick up and put down regularly. It isn’t a great love story. Damn, I get mad about the women in the book and their manipulation and the toxic society they lived in that led to those machinations. But it it is one my favorites nonetheless. I love Jane, the sister who loves everyone and lives in her own idealized version of the world. I love Charlotte, the ultimate pragmatist. I even love Lydia, the sister who you love and dread. And of course I love Elizabeth. The woman who doesn’t want to compromise her ideals for pragmatism. She wants love; even at the cost of fortune. She isn’t willing to give into her society that says material wealth is the only option for her. I would love
Dream by Day 