Spontaneous Musings

1. Ah...Dune. The new Dune movie trailer looks...awesome. [Note - Dune is my favorite science fiction novel - and the only one I became obsessed with as a teen. I read A LOT of science fiction as a teenager and well into my 20s and 30s. I still read it - I love science fiction. I first read it way back in the early 1980s as a teenager - I think I was 14 or 15 at the time. And it was just a year or so before the David Lynch film version was released - and it was not a great movie - it wasn't bad, but it didn't live up to the book - it felt a bit like a fever dream, but then everything by David Lynch kind of does. This looks better cast than that version and a bit closer to the book.)



I tried to read the other Dune books, I think I made it through the second one and the later one by Herbert's son, House Atriedes, but I only remember the first one clearly - possibly because I read it twice. I'd checked it out from my school library and devoured it, and then re-read it. Then asked for it for Christmas.

Oh and Stephen Colbert interviews the cast and filmmakers

2. I finished watching The Order - which was a lot better than I expected. Season 2 is much better than Season 1, and does wrap up both season arcs rather well, while setting up a new season. Also it ends the star-crossed, yet rather tepid, relationship between Jack and Alyssa in an surprising and interesting way. I was surprised by it.

Jack looks a bit like a young Tom Cruise - and they even reference that. Also there are guest-starring cameos by 1990s televisions show hearthrobes Jason Priestly, Ian Zeirling, along with James Marsters - all playing old villains, and none really aged well. Marsters maybe, but without the Spike makeup - it's hard to see the appeal. Oh, and Matt Frewer, who plays Jake's grandfather.

The young cast is actually pretty good and the writing better than expected, and compelling. I binge watched it in two weekends. Has some nice themes, and some decent satire - also plays with ethics in some interesting ways.
Jack keeps having issues with favorite ethics professors, who keep getting killed. The romance and family relationships, surprisingly enough is low-key, there's more emphasis on friendship.

3. I could not find Teen Wolf - it's not on Hulu or Netflix, but it might be on Amazon Prime. So I might check out Amazon Prime.

Instead I decided to watch the end of S2 of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina - the last two episodes were actually pretty good. This is proving to be a pattern with Sabrina. Sabrina also emphasizes feminism, and has a heavy anti-misogyny theme. But unlike The Handmaid's Tale and others, it's much lighter and kind of satiric. It's hard to take Sabrina that seriously nor are you supposed to. And Sabrina herself is a bit of an anti-hero.

It feels a bit like a feminist satire on Judaeic/Christian mythology, and religion. But an unevenly written one.

I do like most of the characters though - unfortunately, I prefer everyone to the lead. Sabrina, herself, can be kind of annoying at times. This happens a lot with television series with a lead, often I'll prefer the supporting characters - who weirdly get more developed as time wears on than the actual lead does.

This also happened with The Order, everyone but the lead, got massive character arcs and development. Jack kind of just is Jack, watching it all happen.

Anyhow, I'm moving onto S3, I think. Unless I get distracted by Teen Wolf.

As an aside? I tried The Derry Girls - which the critics adore, more than once. And I can't get past the first fifteen minutes of the first episode. It's not happening. I don't appear to have the same sense of humor that 98% of the critics do. I did not like Fleabag either - I tried and couldn't get past the third episode - the lead character annoyed me. I may however go back to We Who Walk in the Shadows - the Staten Island Vampire Comedy that I can never remember the title of. It's hit or miss, but when it hits - it really hits - and I am laughing my head off. (Most situational comedies are hit or miss with me - though.)

I also got bored of The Legend of Korra - I'm halfway through S3, and for some reason it's not compelling me in the same way Airbender did. I don't know why - could be a mood thing.

And I tried The Magicians again - not happening. I can't stand the lead character, Quentin. Maybe I should just hang in there - since word has it - they kill him off eventually. I wonder if this series works better if you loved or can remember Chronicles of Narnia? Because I'm struggling with the concept - had the same issues with the book.

I need escapist, fantasy stuff right now. Things with lusty teens, spouting fangs, doing magic, and with a sense of humor.

1. Instead of going to the Highline Park in Manhattan as previously planned, I chose to Take a 6.1 mile hike in Prospect Park -- which is an extremely large park in the middle of Brooklyn and about twenty-five minutes from my apartment. ( Read more... )

2. Finished House of X # 3 -- which is quite good and leaves us on a bit of cliff-hanger. Also the writers provide the readers with an alphabet for the new Mutant language (Kraokan).( Read more... )

3. Speaking of Marvel...apparently they've plotted out their movie and television releases into 2026. Kevin Fiege ripe off his success with producing the MCU up to and including Endgame -- gets to oversee all the other properties.

( Read more... )

4. Television critic tries to compare Dark Crystal and Carnival Row to Game of Thrones and finds them lacking.

Sigh. I wish people wouldn't do this and would just judge things on their own merits. I think one of the inherent flaws in human nature is this incessant desire to compare things or have things compete against each other.( Read more... )

1. It's another beautiful day that I'm strongly considering just laying low during, since I have to negotiate a change order tomorrow.

Watched "Avengers: Endgame" last night -- and it like the other films, weirdly improves upon re-watching. ( Read more... )

Anyhow, that aside, the bonus materials are interesting -- it has about five hours worth. There's a thirty minute tribute to Stan Lee, featuring all his cameos across the films and footage of him taping each one. And then twenty-thirty minute in depth bits on the casting and creation of each of the major Avengers Characters -- from Iron Man to Black Widow.

Making my way through it...they manage to explain and quite well a few of the controversial decisions they made. Thor's journey, Captain America's (only controversial if you are a) a Bucky/Steve romantic shipper (which honestly is shipping vague and open to interpretation subtext and against text and you gotta know you won't get what you want), b) nit-picky about the time travel bit, and Black Widow.

There's a deleted scenes reel -- the decisions on that were right on the mark. Those scenes needed to be deleted. A gag reel. A making of the series -- how they selected the writers and directors, sort of the congratulatory bit.

And now...we have the film commentary section, where we go through the film with the directors/writers, and they explain all their decisions they made as they go through the film shot by shot.

Basically for the price of $19.99 - I get the movie, and about six hours of the rest. Which is a deal. Considering I spent $21 to see the original. Downside? The commentary for some reason will throw me out every fifteen minutes.

Commentary:
( transcript of highlights from the writer/director commentary )


2. On the walk yesterday with Wales, she informed me that she was off social media - as in Twitter, Facebook, Instagram...due to the law firm she had worked for. Law firms when they defend or prosecute a law suite -- will demand a data dump from all the social media resources out there. Or access to them.

I told her this was why I tend to put stuff on DW, and am very careful on Facebook and Twitter.

She said that DW was not listed in the social media request list or access list. They didn't request stuff from it nor did they know it existed.
( Read more... )

1. I'm avoiding reviews of The Dark Phoenix in the same manner I avoided reviews of Avengers: Endgame. I plan on seeing it regardless. I saw X-Men: Apocalypse and liked it better than the critics did. Was it great, no. It's a loose adaptation of superhero comics..I have low expectations. The only good X-men films to date is "X-men: Days of Future Past" and "Logan". Everything else... is ...well better than most of the DC films, and definitely better than any Marvel flick prior to Iron Man.

So, low expectations. But will see anyhow. I saw X-men: Last Stand in the movie theater, as long as it is better than X-men Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine, we'll be fine. Those are the worst two films of the franchise, although to be fair you'd have to go a long way to beat out the Fantastic Four films which were atrocious. If there was a superhero franchise that needed to be successfully rebooted? It's the Fantastic Four.

I also am leery of it -- since it went from a three movie trilogy to one movie, and was re-shot after Disney was about to re-acquire the rights.

2. Was discussing Trek with a co-worker who is a serious fan. So serious that he is spending $20 a month to get it on CBS All Access. He said it's good, one of the better Treks. We discussed all the Treks. Neither of us are cult Trekkies -- in that we don't write fanfic, wear the costumes or go to the cons. But we've seen most of the episodes and series. At the end of the day, he told me in true Spock fashion to live long and prosper.

3. Truly Funny Review of the GodZilla Movie -- they gave it an F+ but said it was a fun bad movie. (Which to be honest is true of all Godzilla films, sort of the point of the films actually.)

I love how they mention that all the monsters are radioactive...see, if you know anything about Japanese Cinema, and if you grew up watching these films then gradually moved over to Japanese Anime, and have a knack for picking up patterns in things -- you'd realize all of this is how the Japanese internalized and handled surviving not one but two atomic bombs.

Did I mention that I grew up watching Godzilla movies on the Saturday Creature Feature Maintainee and on the Afternoon Afterschool Movie?( Read more... )

4. Finished watching the second episode of Songland which I liked better than the first, but this may be because I prefer the music of W.il.iam and the Black Eyed Peas to John Legend. (I'm not a huge fan of the belted pop song. It's rare that I like it -- why? It sounds cheesy.)

Although in this case much like Legend's they picked the song that I would not have picked. The song I loved this week and stopped to listen to was..
( Boxes by Josh Logan )

5. Picked up more comics...and read one of them.

Uncanny X-men #19 (2018) -- where we finally get to see Emma Frost's reaction to Scott Summers being alive and back, her Scott, not the boy from the past.
Unfortunately the art is crappy in this issue. Come back Salvadore Larroca or please get Adam Kubert of While Porticia or someone?

This is the problem with comics...the artists change constantly. The writer tends to stay constant, but the artists jump in and out. I remember when Joss Whedon took on the X-men, he insisted that he keep the same writer throughout his run. Mainly because that was his complaint as a reader -- he loved Grant Morrison's run until the art got wonky and they kept changing the artists. This can be jarring.

I don't know why they shift artists in and out but keep the same writer throughout.
Sometimes a writer/artist will form a bond and stick throughout. Such as Lee and Kirby, and Claremount and Kirby, and Claremount and Lee. But often that's not the case.

Ugh.

Also, another shout out about the book? We get a reprint of Stan Lee's soap box from 1968, where he does a lengthy speech about bigotry and racism, and how important it is to route that out. That we can't overlook it or tolerate it. That we shouldn't judge people on race or religion, but as individuals. It's a lovely speech, but he's not quite there yet on gender. Sigh. But still, close.

It's why I fell in love with the X-men and Marvel verse -- because the writers were progressive and very anti-racism and pro-human rights. A lot of great political commentary can be found in superhero comic books. Stan Lee was a progressive writer and fought racism with his pen. Maybe not always well, but he tried.

The story? It's interesting. ( Read more... )

Also picked up the latest issue of the Buffy comics and I think they changed artists on me. Why? The artist was good. The writer and plotter -- needed help. Don't change artists...bad comic book producers. Bad.

And I fear the writer/producers of this thing are shameful Bangle shippers and about to give me the adventures of Buffy/Angel against the world. No. No. Boom!Comics is making me miss the Dark Horse version.

So why'd I pick it up? Curiosity? And a desire to see if I'm right? Also...I wanted to see how Xander turns out as a vampire. Plus it's cheap.

I swiped this Movie Meme from selenak. Actually saw it last night and got stumped by the first question and thought about it off and on today, and yep, still stumped. Frigging movie meme is harder than it looks.

( movie meme, which is harder than it looks )