#great mix of comedy and just overall great movie stuff

[sugared-bones]

Taken longer than what I wanted, but guess who’s finally watching Across the Spiderverse

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: December 2024

I'm not one to rank stuff at the end of the year cause I'm easily swayed by recency bias. Anyway here's how I spent this final month of the year two thousand and twenty-four.

……….FILM……….

Josie and the Pussycats (2001) Some of my favourite art is both joyful and scathing. It's such a fine line to walk and a miracle when it works. Having never seen this before, it took me about three scenes saturated with product placements to realize that Josie and the Pussycats walks that line perfectly. Instant top film for me.

The Holiday (2006) This is a movie that I enjoy every time I watch it, but for different reasons. Sometimes I love how unique it was to cast Jack Black in this role, and sometimes I feel like he sticks out like a sore thumb. This time what really stood out was FedEx's sponsorship.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970) There's something really zen about defeating the villain by outliving them. No better way to succeed than by continuing to live your best life.

Akira (1988) Got to see this in the theatre for the first time and it was such a wildly different experience. The surround sound was cranked, the imagery filled my entire field of vision, and the audience was dialed in. It was incredible.

Die Hard (1988) I know it's cliché but this is a holiday staple. Every year I think about why the scene of Sergeant Al shooting Karl sits wrong. I know it completes his arch and maybe saving John and Holly redeems him, but is it necessary? It's the ONE scene that keeps this from being a perfect movie in my books. Anyway I love it.

Midsommar (2019) Still isn't the movie for me. I know horror, by default, tends to be mean-spirited, but I still don't get why the London couple was murdered. They seemed pretty chill and nice and had a natural response to the cliff-jumping. Glad Dani found a family though!

……….TELEVISION……….

Skeleton Crew (Episode 1.01 to 1.04) Slow to check this out simply because the recent Star Wars shows haven't really inspired much hope. Happy to be proven wrong as the show, so far, is a delight! My only fear is that it'll all tie into some legacy character in the last episode. Please I just want a show that exists in this world but does its own thing.

Columbo (Episode 2.01 to 2.05) Consistently fun and I always appreciate how the crimes allow a little more of Columbo's character/personality to be revealed (the London episode's final particularly stands out).

Arcane (Episode 2.04 to 2.09) Continuously stunning but ultimately not where I thought it was heading. Season one spent so much time on the class disparity but that's mostly ignored in the second season in favour of a big battle that ultimately wasn't impacted by the majority of the main characters.

Dan Da Dan (Episode 1.10 to 1.12) I didn't realize the season ended at 12 episodes (and at such a strange point, narratively) but I'm really enjoying this world and its weird cast of characters. Again: if you check it out and find the alien probing scene of the first episode to be too much, know that I felt the same way and feel like the series hasn't hit that same low point in the remaining 11 episodes.

A Nonsense Christmas With Sabrina Carpenter Of the current era's popstars, I know the least about Carpenter and her music. The writing was sharper than I was expecting but the audience insert shots reminded me more of a modern comedy special than a classic variety show. Just give me some low wide shots of the audience watching the show, otherwise I assume the B roll is staged. Merry Christmas!

The Chair (Episode 1.01 to 1.06) A great lil series of television. Loved the setting and characters, but admit I found the ending to be a mixed bag (some threads were tied up in a really smart way while others seemed to be totally forgotten) but overall satisfying. It looks at these complex issues complexly and I respect that.

……….YOUTUBE……….

Why every restaurant has the same desserts by Vox I love dessert but this explains why I almost never order it when I'm out for dinner. VIDEO

Josie and the Pussycats is the Greatest Film Ever Made | Essay on Film | Amber Flannery Field by Amber Flannery Field Essays A concise expression of why Josie and the Pussycats is so great. VIDEO

……….READING……….

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie (Complete) Perfect holiday read though I didn't realize it was a collection of short stories. Some were more fun to read than others, but that's on me as I have trouble keeping characters straight if they aren't given much more than a name and description.

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock (Complete) These old pulp fantasy novels are always an interesting read. The characters are little more than names and descriptions, and the plots feel familiar (probably because of how influential they were on what came after) but what I enjoy most Moorcock's breakneck pace. Some of the books from this era are one concept stretched out beyond its limits, but this is full of concepts that could fill out an entire book yet get a couple of chapters before moving onto the next cool thing.

Hawkeye by Matt Fraction, David Aja, and many more (Complete) I frequently choose to reread this around the holidays. Even before the loosely-adapted show stuck with the Christmas timing, it's just felt like a winter read. Can't recommend this enough for really highlighting what comics can be.

Reckless by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Complete) The art is great but after reading a couple of Brubaker books, I now realize I do not like his writing style. I wish Brubaker would let some of the storytelling happen through the visuals but that's not his approach and honestly I think I'd prefer reading his work if it was strictly a novella or full length book.

……….AUDIO……….

Brat by Charli XCX (2024) Hey have you heard of this album? Pretty good.

……….GAMING……….

Spot it! (Blue Orange Games) I won't be swayed on the fact that this is one of the best party games. Good for most ages and player count, easy to drop in and out of the game, and (most importantly) very quick to explain and easy to grasp the premise. Every card has 8 symbols on it. Every card matches with every other card via 1 symbol. The matching symbol is different on each card. There are different games to play based on this fact but most tend to involve finding the matching symbols first to get rid of your cards. It's frantic and fun and rounds take just a few minutes. Super fun.

And that's it. See you in 2025!

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Best Movies of 2023

This was NOT a great year for blockbusters, huh? This was probably Disney's worst in years, multiple flops including what was meant to be their centennial anniversary film. It looked remarkably by the numbers, but think of the conglomerate's losses... Anyway, this to me was a pretty great year for films. Like 2022, I'm amazed at the variety we got that says more about the shifting tides of people's interest in movies. It was the most times I've been to the theater. We got a big worker's strike over the summer, especially large push back against degenerates trying to push AI to do more than just shitposting. And it was enough for me to know Adam Sandler, Godzilla, and Hayao Miyazaki could get the better of Disney. With this said, let this be a first for Good Stuff and count down my favorites of this year.

12. Renfield

My suspicions were on the money and I'm glad I gave this a shot in the theaters. Cage was the best Dracula I could've asked for in what you might say was an Adult Swim-esque dark comedy. It definitely has that style of gruesomeness and humor given Robert Kirkman and the Writer/Director behind Moral Orel made this. Unfortunately, Ben Schwartz stuck out like a sore thumb even if he fulfills his purpose in this, reminding me of Christopher Mintz-Plasse in KickAss; I feel he or Jason Schwartzman would've been better suited. Plus it can feel all over the place, an identity crisis that you can't even grasp after it finishes. Then again, I just had fun watching and would gladly rewatch for Cage and Hoult who are the highlights of this.

11. Migration

Call it blasphemous, but I enjoyed this more than the Mario movie. It's essentially Rio mixed with National Lampoon's Vacation, with a lovable cast, solid animation, and an eazy breezy road trip story. I've always looked to Illumination for simple enjoyable romps and I got what I expected here. Gave me Amphibia vibes in a way, replace frogs with birds. Everything surrounding the villain is my only real issue, he was an obvious and very nothing bad guy, but it's overall better paced than Super Mario Bros where it felt like you watched an eternity in 3 minutes. Still don't get the air of folk looking down on this for just being serviceable when it's honestly become my favorite Illumination movie next to the first Despicable Me.

10. Killers of the Flower Moon

Sad to say this is the weakest Scorsese movie for me, mainly because it felt like we're following the wrong main character. Lily Gladstone is incredible in this, among the other great performers, but she felt sidelined in favor of DeCaprio and De Niro's perspectives. It's like if in 1995's Casino, we just follow Ginger throughout the moment Sam introduces her. I liked the turmoil Leo's character goes through, but it paled in comparison to Mollie who was more affected by his and Hale's actions. That does not mean it's all bad. This can be a beautiful, dynamic, and ruthless movie that just made me feel bad for watching it; running with the words "harsh reality" throughout the 3 and a half hour runtime.

9. Good Burger 2

I watched Good Burger 1 & 2 this Thanksgiving weekend, and just had a blast. These are the kind of movies that are charmingly stupid but not insultingly so. Kel Mitchell's Ed is emblematic of how much dumb fun this duology is where he's actively comical but not smoothbrained to ruin your time. This I say is like Home Alone 2 where it is just beat for beat the 1st movie with minor developments but that doesn't really matter when it's just as well put together. It never feels like Kenan nor Kel missed a beat and the drama not overstaying its welcome. It is just "Good Burger Again" without it feeling like diminishing returns compared to other rehashing sequels.

8. Leo

Can you believe this got better publicity than Disney's Wish? Even YMS could appreciate this movie, that's how you know Sandler has his recognizable game when you least expect it. But Leo is a surprisingly good comedy that has actually sincere moments. Being Happy Madison's 2nd ever animation, it's like Adam waited to refine the production as opposed to putting a cash grab together like one would expect. It's not all good, especially trying to be a musical, but seeing it once you'd be impressed how much good it does with the risks it takes.

7. Nimona

Like Migration, everything surrounding the villain is the one big issue I have with this, especially when it comes to affecting the film's message. At the same time, she pales in comparison to the dynamic pairing of Ballister Blackheart and the titular shapeshifter. Nimona is my favorite character of 2023, her energy and confidence matched by the struggle she bears existing alone and the facade made to band-aid it. Her and Ballister's journey alone made me glad this got out of development hell, being Blue Sky's final production posthumous. To me it wasn't about being a take that to Disney, it was about the fact a movie like Nimona got to exist as great as it did. Hoping Stevenson is satisfied with their adaptation, because it definitely earned its flowers.

6. Emesis Blue

Offhand, it openly sucks that Letterboxd refuses to let this stay on the site to log, but it can't be overstated how much of a marvel this was. Repurposing not just the characters, but the lore and mechanics of Team Fortress 2 into a feature length horror thriller. The animation's top notch where it can have godly framing that was on par with the known legends of horror film making. SFM animations can be beautiful on their own, shitpost or otherwise, but Emesis Blue goes a step beyond by having a compelling story fitting for the universe on top of, again, every frame being a painting.

5. Shin Kamen Rider

I've never really saw any Tokusatsu shows. Not that I hate the genre, just could never get into it while recognizing the glorious looking chaos found in clips. Knowing Hideaki Anno directed was what got me into seeing this film and it opened my mind quite a bit. This was the legacy film that definitely had Anno's touch in both the action and drama. While the climax can notably drag, you never feel left out of what was essentially the original Kamen Rider's origin story. It doesn't have the complex VFX of stuff like Marvel, but the costumes and fight scenes makes me wish we got more of this in America beyond Power Rangers.

4. TMNT Mutant Mayhem

Advertising before release really didn't make this appear like a promising film. If there's anything I learned from this year though, appearances can be deceiving. Like Nimona was for her movie, the creative choices for this made it the TMNT movie I never knew I wanted. To me this felt akin to the Lego Batman movie where it's not only a good love letter of the franchise for more than its fanservice, but this spin on the characters is able to have a new sincere view of them without overhauling everything about the TMNT. That and it has the greatest needle drops I've had in a long while like how do insert He-Man Fabulous Secret Powers and expect me to hate this?

3. Godzilla Minus One

I call this a great year for films because it marks the first time I got to see a Toho produced Godzilla, with subtitles, in an real movie theater. Needless to say, it felt like I got to enjoy the 1954 film again anew. Not a remake mind you, but the parallels were uncanny and this spins here work just as well, if not more here than with the original in a couple places. Both are still strong movies nonetheless. Minus One is a refurbish that dishes out what people always wanted and uniquely giving a little more while never sacrificing why the OG is that timeless. With it getting more than a limited release, I'm glad this got to be more than a niche celebration of the kaijuu king.

2. Oppenheimer

This film's been meme'd to heaven, hell you could say it got meme'd to success thanks to its dual release with Barbie, but it didn't undermine getting hooked to watching this anyways. This really has become my favorite Nolan film, a compelling biopic that doesn't exactly herald its titular lead in the best light thanks to the paradoxical storytelling. Oppenheimer gives us the largest ensemble I know, and delivers in the most breathtaking moments I never knew I could get. Cillian killed it among the many who made the three hours of people sitting and talking in rooms actually tense and intriguing to thread. Plus it gave us the beauty of Josh Peck being the guy to detonate the test bomb like cherry on top of this cinematic cake.

1. The Holdovers

I remember watching Alexander Payne's Sideways with Paul Giamatti as a high schooler but couldn't appreciate it until rewatching this year. It's one of the best mid-life crisis comedies you could see, still fresh in its easy going presentation and music. The same can be said for this film, made to feel like it came from the late 70s or 80s with the old opening logos that I didn't think you could do in these times. Out the gate, this was the holiday story I was shocked would be as relatable as it was, with the trio of Giamatti, Randolph, and Sessa each having their story that resonated with me strongly. With the right amount of time, Payne offers an remarkably cozy, down to earth movie where from reserved to outgoing, it did a lot for me emotionally. Like Netflix's Klaus, I kinda want this to be a traditional rewatch for the holiday seasons. One that everyone should try at least once, especially if they feel the disillusionment of the season where this might lift their spirits one way or another.

If there's anything to learn from this year, it's that the meta has definitely shifted. Even when the many on my list didn't make billions like the Avatar films, the variety and risks made spoke more than the big dogs like Disney and WB putting out unprofitable blockbusters that ranged from very by the numbers to you don't need to see The Flash to know how god awful it just was. More people are & should branch out beyond the major mainstream names. Not that the big dogs aren't ever gonna make great films in the coming years, but we should appreciate more than the big budget features you can tell are playing it safe. Time can be patient for great cinema, sleeper hits or not, so take advantage while you're young.

[pissfizz]

Okay so last night I watched the first half of tales of the tmnt and so before I continue, this is my kind of mid way review I suppose.

Currently, my opinions are pretty mixed. First things first, the art and animation and visuals are AMAZING. I love the art direction, and I love the gross grungy look of the people and the world. New York is also depicted so real and lively and unique, which is a great contrast from say, 2012’s devoid and empty nyc and rise’s more stylized version, and I really enjoy it. It really seems like people that know and love the city are working on it. Additionally, whoever storyboarded for this show deserves their props for it because WOW, the shot compositions are amazing, the creative angles, the cinematography, it’s so artistic and engaging and amazing. I love the animation, but in all honesty it’s pretty minimal, par for the course for a 2d animated show follow up for a cgi animated movie. But their creative use of composition, cinematography, and so on kind of hide that and it’s so great. I could sing praises for the visual aspects of this show all day, I adore it so much.

As for the characters, I like them so far. I already knew I loved their characterizations from mutant mayhem, and so I’m glad to see that the expansion on them only made me love it more. They have such strong and great personalities, and I especially love this raph and donnie. I also really like how they’re doing Mikey, he’s not a bumbling incompetent dumbass like some past iterations, and he seems really quite mature and level headed and is a GREAT fighter, probably the best out of all four of them based off the episodes I’ve seen. Leo feels a lot more classic, a great return to his original character archetype (no drag on rise Leo though, he’s one of my favorite turtles of all the iterations combined) and I like his anxious and awkward demeanor paired with his slight overconfidence. Honestly for Donnie I have no notes, I love this version of him, I love that while he’s still the tech guy, he’s not quite as OP as with it as in past iterations. He’s just a kid that likes electronics and understands them. That’s another thing, I really love the stress on the fact they’re kind of just normal kids who also just so happen to be ninjas and mutant turtles. This is by far the most teenage we’ve ever seen them, and it’s definitely aided by the young voice actors, who honestly are killing it. They aren’t perfect, but they’re kids, and they’re doing better than I expected. But when it comes to other side characters some of them are really hit or miss on the quality… April is great though, I love this April, 10/10. Overall, the dialogue itself is a little spotty, which makes for some awkward deliveries no matter the skill of the voice actor. I’m not a fan of how the turtles just openly state their sad insecure feelings out loud so frequently, it feels unnatural and since it’s the beginning of the show, like there’s no build up. We immediately jump into four separate fights, we don’t get to see how they bounce off one another, so hearing Leo say “I’m nothing without my brothers” doesn’t feel right because we haven’t seen that really. I mean, there’s the movie, but I feel the show should be able to stand on its own merits without the movie holding it up so much. It’s just awkward dialogue and a LOT of telling instead of showing for some stuff, and the things like saying their thought processes out loud don’t really work for me. The jokes are hit or miss, I laughed a lot, but some of them fell flat, pretty typical for comedies, not every joke can be a winner 100% of the time. The pop culture references are very frequent and very heavy handed, but for the most part, they aren’t overly egregious. I appreciate that they aren’t just doing modern day tiktok type references that would date the show too much and include older movies and things, but overall I wish they’d pull back a little bit on them. Oh and while we are still technically on dialogue, I’ve got mixed opinions on splinter. I’m aware that they probably couldn’t get Jackie Chan back for the show, so they cut corners by making him speak “vermin” instead, which I thought was funny at first, but now I’m wishing they just cast a new voice actor. Splinter is supposed to be a mentor, and this vermin bit will totally hinder that. Even rise splinter which was supposed to tear away from the wise mentor role a bit still fit it in the end, so I’m hoping they figure out a way to get around it.

Onto the next thing now, earlier I mentioned they do a lot of tell rather than show, and I wanted to discuss that. I’m totally 100% aware this is a kids show, but I can’t tell if they are targeting a younger audience than usual or if they just have zero faith in kids mental capacities. I’d usually say tmnt targets kids maybe 10-12 as the PRIME audience, but is suitable for far younger and far older. Tales of the tmnt feels skewed younger, which is an interesting choice that I’m not sure I like, but honestly I wouldn’t care if they trusted that kids can tell what is happening in a scene without constant dialogue explaining things. Because they CAN and it’s a little egregious that they think they can’t. Continuing on though, the story writing as a whole is also a little spotty for me. I like the idea of a human targeting mutants as a villain, especially when tied into the messages of the movie, but I cannot stress how much I HATE that everything I have watched has all been a comic book Leo has written because they apparently don’t actually do much beyond go to school. It takes me out of the show entirely, makes it so hard to get invested because none of the stakes are real, it’s honestly such an awful choice. Why can’t things like this be actually happening? Yeah I get wanting a realistic teen angle but you can still have that while doing the fantastical tmnt stuff. It’s a show about mutant turtles, it doesn’t have to be realistic! I’m really hoping that they get rid of the comic book angle because it gives a whole “this isn’t canon btw!” Vibe to the show and makes it feel like a waste of time. Which leads to my next point, the pacing is kind of ass. The pilot was not a very good pilot, didn’t establish anything at all. And I get it, there’s the movie, but I feel like the show should be able to stand on its own in terms of structure, it shouldn’t feel like I’m missing something when I start the show even though I have seen the movie. Additionally, that first episodes writing was all over the place, it was really unclear what was happening at first and it was jumping around a lot. And while it is cool to get to see each turtle trying to fight and do something on their own, I really despise that halfway through a 12 episode show, we haven’t made any progress on the plot at all, we are stuck on the same incident for WAY too long. This same effect could have been achieved by isolating each turtle and having them attacked by a mechazoid, on different occasions. Dedicating this many episodes of your run time to just one incident of frankly such a small scale was not a smart decision, I shouldn’t feel like I’m six episodes in and still just on the pilot. It’s obvious they’re shooting for more seasons, but in a day and age where that’s far from guaranteed (I mean look at your predecessor) you shouldn’t waste so much of your runtime dedicated to the events of a single hour or so timeframe from different perspectives. I liked seeing each fight, the events of each, but as I said before, there’s ways they could’ve achieved the same effect they had here while still making progress and moving the plot forward. I’m hoping this improves as the show goes on and yeah.

Of course this is only just my midway through thoughts, I’ll probably post my final ones when I finish the show. I like it and am excited to continue, but some writing choices are a little iffy.

[dailycharacteroption]

Okayo Corsair (Swashbuckler Archetype)

Have you ever sat down and watched martial arts movies? Not just the ones that get big advertisements in the west, but even a cursory deep dive into them? That shit get zany as heck, maybe not Bollywood levels, but still pretty wacky stuff, and it’s awesome.

We’re talking things like a young inventor coming home to his village to bring the wonders of progress but realizing how estranged he’s become to his own culture and how ruthless his new big-city ‘friends’ are, as well as comedy stories about an apartment complex where everyone is a secret martial artist, including the crabby landlady. There’s so much mixing and matching of genres and setpieces and some truly stellar fight choreography.

I bring all this up because today’s subject smacks a little bit of such things, given we’re talking about swashbuckling pirates from a nation in Tian Xia that pick up on some of the martial arts of the continent and even emulate some of their mystic arts.

Now, there’s a decent amount of evidence here and there that the ki used by monks and ninjas and the grit/panache used by gunslingers and swashbucklers are different applications of the same force, and nowhere is that more expressed than in these corsairs, in an archetype that is, stripped of setting context, a hybridization of swashbuckler and monk.

In-context, the style arose among pirates of the Dragon Empires, and has since spread as far as that Mecca of piracy in the Inner Sea Region known as the Shackles.

The result is a swashbuckler, whom may or may not actually sail at your discretion, that has some neat monk tricks in their arsenal, so let’s have a look!

Unsurprisingly, these swashbucklers demonstrate incredible finesse when wielding monk weapons, and their charisma can serve for those combat feats with wisdom requirements in addition to those that require intellect.

They can also use their panache for some very monk-like deeds, starting with the ability to use ki to enhance their attack speed, movement speed, or reaction speed.

They also gain other staples like using walls to slow their fall, using panache to leap high, and even do a short-range teleport, though that last one is a bit costly.

Finally, they also train to be able to utilize fighter and monk techniques with their combat training.

This archetype trades out some of your deeds and alters your key abilities so they work with monk feats and the like, but overall you’re still going to be playing them the way you would any swashbuckler, though you don’t get to do things like purposefully miss to get a feint next turn and the like. As such, I would highly suggest looking up the feats that require monk levels as a prerequisite and see how you can blend the two.

It is interesting to see more acknowledgement of the connection between ki, grit, and panache, but this also begs the question about how characters in the setting react to it. How to monasteries and martial arts academies feel about some pirates stealing their styles and better yet, manifesting expressions of ki without any formal training or discipline. I’d imagine that a decent percentage aren’t too happy about it, could be very useful for conflict between characters and in the story itself.

While researching at a local library, the party stumbles upon an account from a dashing and spiritually-empowered pirate captain that stumbled upon a strange island, where they found ruins tied to some lost civilization of insectile people. However, they also found it rife with a monstrous fungus that reanimated the giant insects of the island as spore zombies. Recognizing the danger, they quickly fled, and destroyed anything which might have harbored the spores. However, with the right protection, perhaps another group could learn more of this lost civilization?

Where other peoples boast great power, humanity often has to make do with innovation and creativity. Such is the case with the sailors and pirates of the Singing Sea. Many cultures of aquatic peoples jockey for control of those waters, and many see those sailing on the surface as useful sources of supplies or thralls. However, humanity adapts, and many such sailors learn Sea Dragon’s Blade, a style of martial arts adapted from the dragon style founded inland to include weapons and the daring acrobatics of ship combat.

Scuttlebutt in the port town taverns says that there is a new pirate crew running the nearby waters. Very little is known about the captain of this vessel, but they say he leaps and runs as if striding on air and wields a curious weapon resembling a heavy spherical weight on the end of a rope. If nothing else, they seem to be quite competent as a sailor as well as a combatant.

[jasbaklonbri]

My issues with the Avatar Live action show. (Spoilers)

before I get on with this… rant I guess, I want to stress that I do not “Hate” this adaptation, I actually think it’s pretty…. decent. Mixed in terms of being an adaptation but as its own thing i do think it actually is good. If a newcomer gets introduced to the franchise through this show, I’d mostly be okay with that (though would still stress to watch the original, especially hinting about the rest of the story if they’re really invested) before I go into my biggest problems I should quickly list its positives.

The characters, for the most part, are done well, they meet the core criteria of what made the original characters so beloved. The acting, for the most part, is good, overall the cast does a really good job at their respective roles. Costumes are amazing, sets, while not exactly 1:1, are still overall awesome. soundtrack is really REALLY good, stellar work all round. The action is not only great, it’s BRUTAL AS FUCK, it does not shy away from the themes of war and death and I love that 😈 some of the expanded editions to the lore are really interesting, big shoutout especially to the inclusion that zuko’s crew is also the battalion he defends in the war room, that was actually brilliant 👌 on top of that, references and inclusions of stuff from expanded material I mostly really liked, from the comics, to legend of Korra to even the kyoshi novels. As for the writing and story…. I can accept no adaptation is perfect and there will be changes, I think it follows the moments of the show decently and that the writing is… adequate. overall rating for me is a decent… 6/10… almost was a 7 but… no.

okay now for the stuff that sucked!

The Characters that weren’t good:

Aang is not bad in this, character wise and acting is overall good, Gordon Cormier does a good job, he looks and sounds the part. My issues are how the character is written. Ill get into more about his biggest issues later on as it mostly has to do with writing and a few particular scenes, but for now I’ll harp on how repetitive and annoying his dialogue can be sometimes, way too many times has the character had the same “guilt scene” which hits the exact same beats: he sees devastation, he says “this is my fault”, he’s reassured it’s not. Again and again.

sokka is awful in this. And to be honest it’s not really the writings fault, Ian Ousleys portrayal does not do it for me, his line delivery is too monotone-ish, his emotional delivery is lacking, he has the same blank facial expression throughout the show. He has a decent one liner here and there, but the comedy and character is MILES away from the over expressive, hilarious and badass original.

zukos actor is decent just enough, and honestly it’s a little unfair to compare Dallas Liu to Dante Bascos performance, but admittedly I felt he was comparatively more underwhelming at times. Though if anything I was more annoyed at the look of his Scar. Don’t get me wrong, its leagues more noticeable than it was in the god awful movie adaptation… but it’s still not great. Remember how grotesque his scar is in the animated show, even at a distance, his skin is shrivelled, he can hardly open his eye, even his ear is half burnt off, they could of gone all out in showcasing his disfigurement, the greatest source of his self shame and most brutal showcase of his fathers cruelty and abuse… but no it’s just a dark red patch around his eye, it’s not even ugly to look at. Disappointing.

Bumi, while acted and portrayed really well by Utkarsh Ambudkar, is written very badly. His motivations have completely changed from the original, and no it is no where near as good, unlike in the show were he “toys” with Aang to teach him lessons about the journey ahead of him, offering wisdom and compassion to his old friend, keeping his identity a secret allowing Aang to realise who he is, making an emotional reunion when he realises another piece of his lost past is still alive: here Aang finds out immediately it’s him, and Bumi instead is pissed and petty that Aang left to the point HE TRIES TO KILL HIM, completely disregarding the point of the message and character from the original show. Oh and not to mention the ending scene with him, but again I’ll get to that scene later.

finally, biggest problem I’ll harp on the characters themselves is the diminishing, lack of focus and editing of the three protagonists flaws. Aangs childish immaturity, kataras inexperience, Sokkas rudeness and distrust. There are reasons why the show took these out or didn’t focus on them, but in my opinion this was a huge mistake to do. Character flaws are integral to character growth, throughout the original show we see the characters learn and grow with and out of said flaws to become more rounded and stronger characters, Aangs journey to embrace his destiny and responsibilities, Kataras growing wisdom and strength, Sokka accepting his wrongdoings becoming more open minded and accepting. Diminishing these ultimately take away a lot from these characters and it does them and the fans a huge disservice to outright ignore them at times.

Aang and Kataras bond is there… but it’s Seriously lacking!

I’m a Kataang shipper. Before I go into detail with this I think it’s important to point out a certain bias I might have with this, but regardless of any opinions about the original shows romantic themes, I’d still argue that Aang and Kataras relationship is one of the core and integral bonds of the original show (the others being Katara and Sokka, Zuko and Iroh, Aang and Zuko and Zuko and Azula (book 2 onwards) so getting this right is in my opinion important to any adaptation. Overall their relationship is fine in this iteration, but MAN it’s just not as good.

Imagine my utmost disappointment When in this version: Katara is not the first person Aang sees when he wakes up! Now I know that seems like a petty thing to harp on but really think back to the original show, how beautifully written their friendship was, how they constantly support and empathise with each other, how Aang is a source of Kataras hope, how Katara is an emotional rock for Aang when coming to terms with his loss and grief. All of it starts with the foundation of their first meeting in that first episode. After a hundred years of sleep, Katara accidentally discovers Aang (with Sokka) and rushes to save him, the first person Aang sees as he opens his eyes is her, he immediately, and essentially asks her out. Katara introduces him to her village, she’s enamoured by his playful attitude and abilities, there are hints of a blooming crush between them (mostly from Aang) they promise to explore the world together, they go penguin sledding, until finally, when Katara realises and breaks the truth about Aangs 100 year absence and slow realisation that everything and everyone he knew is likely gone, Katara tries to reassure him mentioning there may be a bright side: Aang responds with “I did get to meet you”. all of that build up and setup of the friendship (and budding romance) of our two leads is masterfully established in one, 23 minute long episode. Really think about that. It takes the original show 1 episode to set the core points of the two lead’s relationship in what takes this show AN ENTIRE SERIES TO PROPERLY ESTABLISH! Not only is all of that practically absent in this iteration, but plenty of scenes and moments are either missing or lessened, Such as when Katara calms Aang out of the Avatar state, or how they begin to train and learn their waterbending together (more on THAT later), cave of two lovers is now given to Katara and Sokka?? (really missed the point of that episode) or how about the mutual understanding of each others grief through their own grief, oh yeah that’s another thing, in this version Katara, nor Sokka for that matter, ever mention to Aang that their mother is dead?! Not once. I don’t even think he ever knows, or maybe he finds out off screen? Big thing to not mention guys??

Now there are plenty of scenes in the show that do help build up their friendship here, but by missing core scenes, especially those from the first episodes, it just makes it harder for the show to establish that bond towards an audience, and again just pales in comparison.

No statue room???

I’ll be a little more brief here, but the fact that this moment is completely missing infuriates me. You have the quintessential moment where Aang is in full view of the scope of his legacy, a monument to hundreds of all the past avatars, a moment for our characters and the audience to visually realise the weight and burden that Aang Carries upon his shoulders… and you completely take it out??? What the actual FUCK???

Kyoshis premonition almost ruins the show! as awesome and badass as Avatar Kyoshi was in this version, this one tidbit is by far not just a weird addition, it’s arguably one of the biggest fundamental flaws of the show, not as an adaptation, but the show in of it self. The idea apparently (according to behind the scenes comments) is that kyoshis premonition to Aang of the northern watertribes destruction is to give him more of an assentive to head “straight to the point”, removing the unnecessary detours and filler of the original. The problem with that is even for that reason, this addition is completely pointless, because Aang already has enough assentive to head to the north: LEARN WATERBENDING!!!

In the original show after Katara and Sokka save Aang from zukos ship in the 2nd episode, they establish that they must find Aang a water bending master so he can begin his first step in becoming the avatar, in fact rewatching the first few episodes, AANG MAKES THE SUGGESTION FIRST TO KATARA SO SHE CAN MASTER HER WATERBENDING! Even the god awful movie understood that that was enough reason to head north! And if you really want more reason and imperative for them to get there as soon as, why not just reiterate that there is a WAR GOING ON! The attack on the south, the genocide of the air nomads, accidentally bringing an invasion to Kyoshi island, these are all good enough reminders for the Gaang to showcase the need for Aang to head to the known one place in the world where Aang can possibly master an art integral to achieving his destiny. But even worse than that, this addition seriously hurts the show going foward, because now, after Aang has been shown the impending doom destined for the north, he STILL detours from it, not once but twice! (And according to one gossiping bartender, possibly a few more times!!) in an attempt to try to showcase his nobility and compassion to always help those in need, every time he decides to stop to help a new problem, HE IS LITERALLY RISKING THE DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE CIVILISATION!!! Priorities dude!!! It’s not like he’s given a time frame, for all he knows this premonition could happen at anytime, it could be already happening??? It is by far one of the biggest, if not THE BIGGEST flaw of the show.

Muddying the rules of the spirits and spirit realm

Aside from kyoshis future sight, too many instances does this show, in an attempt to expand ideas of worlds spirituality, often just make things more confusing. Another example is when Aang accidentally drags Katara and Sokka into the spirit world, which even with the reasoning they give it makes no sense whatsoever and it only serves an excuse to combine moments from other episodes into one. Or how about when wan shi tong… for some reason… explains that spirits can only talk to the avatar and only they can communicate with and talk to spirits… except that rule is completely ignored when Katara and Sokka can clearly hear what koh is saying? ooops???

Hai Bai has no agency or resolution in his inclusion here, he’s not even the central threat despite HIS forest being burnt. Instead of going on a full rampage against humanity for their destruction, he’s now just really angry about being wounded? Instead of hai bai kidnapping people, it’s now Koh, who while still really creepy in this version, his abilities are now greatly diminished. Instead of his lightning quick speed to remove the faces of anyone who show any ounce of emotion in his presence, here he can only prey on negative emotions, and is never shown to be especially fast (except the two jump scares). again it just pales in comparison to the intensity of the original scene.

Kuruk should know why his advice is horseshit!

while I like the inclusion of some details of the lore outside the original show, using it during Aangs scene with Kuruk significantly hurts his first scene, because now we have the writers completely miss the point and lessons of Kuruks life. Kuruks advice to “walk the path alone” to “distance himself from his friends” is not just obviously poor advice on its own, but considering that the past avatars are aware of events after their death, it especially doesn’t make sense coming from Kuruk! Avatar Kuruk HAD friends! the kyoshi novels go into detail about his closest companions as well as his secret deeds of hunting dark spirits. Yes Kuruk did it in secret and inadvertently and purposely distanced himself from the people he loved so that he could in his mind protect them, and that’s excusable because Avatars never have hindsight about some of the consequences of their actions, in fact past avatars often use their mistakes and their consequences as advice and warnings to the current avatar. KURUK SHOULD BE ADVISING THE EXACT OPPOSITE!!!

One of the major consequences of pushing his friends and keeping secrets was that when he eventually died mysteriously at a young age, his companions felt they had failed in their mission to serve and protect their friend, pushing one of them, Jianzhu, to fall into a path of political meddling and corruption, and being consumed with keeping his power and influence through back handed tactics like kidnapping, torture, intimidation and murder, eventually becoming Kyoshi’s earliest nemesis and one of her greatest enemies (highly recommend reading the Kyoshi novels 😍) Not to mention that Kuruks “advice” leads to an incredibly forced scene and trope where our hero attempts to push Katara away and “nobly distances himself to protect his friend”, only for the advice to be immediately ignored a few minutes later, making it entirely pointless.

AANG NEVER LEARNS WATERBENDING???

yes, through the entirety of BOOK 1 WATER, Aang never learns waterbending! Katara offers to show him some techniques she knows in one scene, but for some reason he’s hesitant to take her offer, which would have been interesting to explore, except they never really address it?? Worse even when they finally reach Pakku in the north, all that happens is that he’s kind of scolded for not starting his training, but not once is it seen or mentioned by pakku that he’ll teach him ANYTHING. If there’s enough time to have Katara shown water healing lessons as well as arguing and fighting Pakku to teach her combative techniques, WHY THEN DOES EVERYONE IGNORE TRAINING THE GOD DAMN AVATAR!!! The fate of the world rests on Aang learning the 4 elements, but for some reason they completely leave it out?

Now Katara is mentioned to teach him in the future like in the original, but the problem now in this version is that while Katara is gifted and talented, unlike the original show she’s never formally trained (outside of healing lessons) by Pakku or a master to warrant her to become Aangs official waterbending teacher. They are literally leaving the training of the most important person of their time to an AMATEUR!!!

a baffling diversion?!?!

Finally my last big problem with the show is the handling of the ending scene. Take in mind that the fire nation sends an entire fleet, no, hundreds upon hundreds of ships to invade, subjugate and snuff out an entire civilisation, and to take out the avatar, once and for all. Also consider the sheer loss of life and devastation that was unleashed by the ocean spirit upon them when zhao murdered the moon spirit, they got hit back hard and then some, honestly it was spectacular to watch! The problem, according to Ozai: “it was all according to plan”…..

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING FUCK?!?!?!

apparently it’s revealed that the North Pole wasn’t the “real target”, but instead a “clever ploy” to instead… invade Omashu?? First of all, who are you creating a diversion for??? We don’t see earth kingdom soldiers coming to assist the fight in Agna Q’ela? It’s not like we ever see waterbenders helping to defend Omashu when we were there earlier, it’s not like anyone outside the protagonists was aware of Aangs premonition (oh by the way why didn’t Kyoshi warn Aang it was a “diversion”??) WHO ARE FUCKING TALKING ABOUT???

and again, just to reiterate, you are saying you sacrificed an ENTIRE INVASION FORCE, big enough to destroy a whole society, which led to a huge loss of life and ships which YOU CLAIM was “to be expected”…. In order for you to take one city???? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING JOKING??? That’s not just bad writing, that is beyond STUPID!!! Oh and just to add, unlike in the show where Bumi willingly surrenders to avoid the destruction of Omashu, instead opting to wait for the right opportunity to free it later, saving his people doing so, here we see him bruised and bloodied after a siege! Yeah, one of the most powerful earth-benders in the world is taken out offscreen!!! CHRIST ALL BLOODY MIGHTY!!!

okay… rant over… 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[piduai]

Thanks for answering my ask before. If you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......

they're all fictional stories but i perceive ones that come with a visual element (manga/moving picture) and ones that lack it (books) in very different ways so i cannot really mix them since they fulfill different roles

top 10 anime/manga

golden kamuy (manga), there's nothing else like it and it excels in both story and character writing, with good and polished visuals. it took tremendous effort to create and it paid off... one in a million work

fullmetal alchemist, it's been around since forever there's not much i can say at this point. the golden standard really

saraiya goyou, phenomenal ost, pleasant story, unique visuals, overall a favorite work of mine due to its production and atmosphere. very slept on but it's ok... watching it is like chewing kinoko mochi

shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu, has its faults but it's undeniably a masterpiece. great story, good visuals, good character writing, good ost

berserk (up to golden age arc only), again it's ancient so i don't really have much to say. it's a classic for a reason

hoozuki no reitetsu, it's everything a comedy needs to be. funny and enjoyable but has its own twist on what it's trying to present, and the setting is rather uncommon. very pleasant visually, fun character designs. also slept on but ig it's a west issue bc it was popular in jp at its peak

shigurui, very edgy and #problematic but i enjoyed it a lot. it's very atmospherically heavy but i love the kind of drama it engages and i love the pacing & the kabuki-esque mood

trigun (og anime), a childhood favorite of mine i don't have much to say i just love it a lot because it made me sad

michiko to hatchin, it's a good story and very enjoyable. setting unusual for an anime. feels like watching an action movie...

dorohedoro, it's just very fun and pleasant it's a good watch. very likeable characters

books

ningen shikkaku by dazai osamu, i don't have much to say it's been obscenely popular with emo losers since forever. i read it at 16 for the first time and was like wow this is really the i'm a creep i'm a weirdo manifesto #relatable #letsjumptherope

of human bondage by somerset maugham, it's a long boring book and i read it in my teens too but i just love it... the journey of going through mc's life since childhood into late adulthood is just so charming i like this kind of stuff

all quiet on the western front by erich maria remarque, i like war stories and it's a sad read

i forgor the rest 😭 there's a lot of books i read and many i liked but they usually don't really stay with me at all it's more of a 👍👎 thing

for movies i only like park chan-wook's vengeance trilogy + the handmaiden i don't really go there. and i don't watch tv shows

[montyterrible]

Miller’s Actually-She’s-Eighteen

Pithy Letterboxd-style review (read: attempted virality): They finally made a movie adaptation of the YA-obsessed adult’s idea of what adult literature is.

You might get the impression a movie about an inappropriate student-teacher relationship that opens with the line “What is an adult?” and ends with Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen” is some kind of self-aware parody or satire. While Jade Halley Bartlett’s Miller’s Girl (2024) certainly has moments of what might generously be called “clarity” (re. subjects like writing and sexual dynamics)—more tortuously: “quasi-didactic”—it feels more or less like a straightforward, even predictable telling of this kind of story. (Or, in an era of excessive self-awareness—“He’s Right Behind Me, Isn’t He?”—maybe this is the radical approach.) I found the film’s tone fascinating, however. There are fleeting notes of horror in the visuals and soundscape, and then there’s stuff that feels artlessly moving or wistful or romantic. It strikes me as, overall, not at all the “slick” sort of movie where I should be seeing pop-ups highlighting messages from people’s cellphones, but there they are.

Similarly, the dialogue is a mix of the sort of awkward, “unrealistic,” strained, “literary” style that I personally enjoy with an occasional frankness or even crassness that borders on parody again by virtue of its extreme contrast. Here are several examples, all taken from throughout the same scene:

“I’m smokin’ now. No plans for it to define me yet.”

“It becomes a conversation about achieving emancipation from your inherited beliefs about sex and age.”

“We’re like the fuckin’ American wet dream. Young girls with ambivalent sexuality.”

“I don’t wanna drop it for some rando jock-twat whose sexual standards are mandated by the shit porn he downloads. That’s deli meat.”

“No, you’re being… Shut up.”

The highest compliment I can pay Miller’s Girl is that I did pause it early on to Google and find out if it was based on a book. I also think it’s risky to write a movie about writing and then have a bunch of characters’ writing shared in it, as the danger is that the audience won’t agree that the work is actually that great. This is obviously a matter of personal taste. As I mentioned before, I… liked it, but the writing uniformly has a tendency toward being “verbose” more than anything else, coming off like the characters are constantly deep-throating a thesaurus. It’s what a lot of people could (justifiably) call pretentious.

Obviously, there’s the question of the movie’s Content: As someone who has worked in education, I always respond negatively to bad teachers in art more or less as a matter of reflex. I recently finished re-watching season one of the 2015 comedy-horror series Scream Queens, for example, and one of the characters has a father who teaches a truly abysmal film class in certain episodes, which seems to consist of him just showing the students movies and then lecturing for a few minutes afterward. In Miller’s Girl, the issue is less how Martin Freeman’s titular Miller teaches and more about the mistakes he makes in handling Jenna Ortega’s precocious Cairo Sweet. It’s a necessary conceit of such stories that the teacher behaves in a way that lets those boundaries ultimately get crossed, but it’s hard not to watch those “slips” happen and not feel like this guy is just terrible at his job, with no sense of propriety whatsoever. Although, obviously this does happen for real. I went to school with someone who ended up crossing that line as a teacher, in fact.

The resonance I feel with stories like this one and also with the way weirdos on the internet talk about girls/women, the age of consent, fertility, birth rates, and so on is just how young people this age actually look. In contrast to the famously skeevy line from Dazed and Confused (1993), teenagers don’t “stay the same age”—I keep getting older, and they keep getting younger. I didn’t know how young I actually was at eighteen when I was eighteen. This here is meant to be a Heightened reality, where predatory teenagers who rattle around alone in their Southern Gothic houses emerge from the mist of the spooky woods to seduce you, but it’s hard for me not to see this Cairo as a flimsy phantasm, this schemer who seduces and then ruins her teacher so that she can write a really bangin’ application essay for Yale about the experience. She’s a sort of mythological figure in a Culture War, MGTOW, incel-ian mode—handled here with a certain ambivalence and enthralling grace even as the film technically panders to boring, old cishet male fears of entrapment and exploitation and degradation at the hands of wily Females.

It's another area where the film threatens to fall into parody—that and how it’s not just Cairo, but also her friend Winnie (Gideon Adlon) doing this. They’re both seducing teachers, but Winnie maybe genuinely likes hers and ends up falling out with Cairo in the end over it. The whiplash of Winnie’s transformation from short-skirted bisexual seductress to frumpy, teary-eyed defeat is also pretty comedic. Meanwhile, the mirrored pairing of Mr. Miller and his friend Boris (Bashir Salahuddin), Winnie’s target, further feeds into that sense of ridiculous excess. Boris’ ultimate rationalization of his own behavior is perhaps frustratingly brief, though intriguing for its moral ambiguity. Again, though, the fact that this is happening twice in the same school, simultaneously, with people this closely connected to one another, feels almost like unintentional comedy.

I’m sure Seth Rogen is a consummate professional, but knowing that he was a producer on this movie made me really want a commentary track from him, or to be a fly on the wall when he read the script. Like, I can just imagine his reaction to the scene where Mr. Miller is whackin’ it to Cairo’s midterm short story in what amounts to a shed. I thought it was pretty funny! I partly blame the “Peterotica” episode of Family Guy for me having this impression, however: You could just not take your shirt off while driving! You could simply not jork it to your student’s writing! That these reactions seem so… involuntary is part of what makes me laugh. Miller dramatically cranking hog does strike an ok balance between eroticism and thrills, I feel, and I don’t want to only disparage it. This is probably the stylistic—erotic and thrilling—high point of the movie. One criticism that could be levied against Miller’s Girl is that there isn’t actually enough of this sort of thing. It’s a real “Yes, and what else?” sort of deal.

Miller’s more successful writer wife, Beatrice (Dagmara Domińczyk), is a frustrating element of the story because of just how off-putting she is. She’s often demeaning toward her husband and only seems more drunk and belligerent as the story goes on. She’s meant to contrast with Cairo, obviously: The younger girl is sweet, whereas Beatrice is not. She lounges around the house in sexy sleepwear, and she’s not not into the story Cairo wrote when Miller shares it with her, which is… problematic. While Cairo is clearly antagonistic after a point and isn’t meant to represent a real option for several reasons (her age, her sort-of madness), the film doesn’t make staying with Beatrice feel like much of a viable choice either. It reminded me of a similar issue that I had with Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011). The fiancée in that film is so obviously a bad match (and person) that there’s not much tension where the question of staying with her is concerned. I think if Beatrice was just a skosh less aggressively dismissive of Miller, then it would make this situation more thrilling.

The film is perhaps surprisingly slight: Not much really happens, and I think it could have afforded to go a bit bigger and darker (embrace more of the grotesque potential of the tentative gothic flourishes), though the slightness of it all might add a smidgeon of verisimilitude or else at least make it feel that bit more Literary. In that sense, Bartlett may understand something about writing that Cairo did not—the value of doing less, in more than one sense.

[skullsmuldon]

So David is out with his sugarbaby and I am hearing Gillian is back with the royal fanfiction fishstick? is that true? I am really so over the both of them. Their acting also hasn't been great the last couple years. And sorry the emmy or golden globe doesn't mean you can act it just means someone paid the most money for you... I still think Gillian is the better actor but she is lacking projects that show off her skills

I think she has been back with him for a while now but has kept him out of the spotlight in connection with their rekindled relationship because that doesn’t fit with her independent, feminist “I take not shit” persona she is selling to her fan/stan base. I always said GA imo isn’t that strong independent woman when it comes to her relationships in general. She always adapted to her partner and change to fit his needs and interests. And I think lots of ppl mix up her brand persona and her private persona.

I didn’t like any of the stuff either of them did the last years. And to me GA is doing way too much period dramas and historical characters. I liked The Great not because of her but for the overall comedy. As for David I mean what is there left to say other than he has become the typical Hollywood geezer cliche 🤷🏽‍♀️ BFD will tank like house of D imo and then he’ll go off do some more roles to keep busy. And if nothing comes along he can always write more or pay for his own indie movies to get produced. And last but not least he can always do another tour because you’ll always find 400-500 ppl wanting to see Mulder or Hank and wanna have a good time with friends out and about. Maybe he’ll do a Duett with MP 😂 I mean at this point nothing seems off the table with GA DD MP and PM. And if you asking me if I think their partners will stick - I say No.

[shut-up-rabert]

Welcome back is the worst sequel ever for several reasons but the one that irks me the most is that they took a movie like welcome, whose charm lied in the fact that these were people in bizzare situation acting just the right mix of normal and weird that seemed appropriate yet funny, to an over the top caricaturish just another watch and forget bad movies that John has lately made a name for.

I mean, firstly they go and replace the MC . Yes, I know the most memorable ones of the movie were Nana and Anil, but I think people forgot that the MC was still Rajeev, the guy who was the link tying the normalcy and fear of Ghungru to the incredible mafia life of his BILs, he was still the normal guy holding his ground perfectly in such a flambouyant situation (and Kudos to Akshay for playing the role so brilliantly that even though he was the underdog of the film, he still made his mark as the MC with what he was given) and while that might have seemed a given at first, when welcome back introduces Ajju bhai (yuck) you realise all over that Rajeev truly was one of the main components of the film, neatly joining the mundane with outlandish. Same with Sanjana tbh. I won't go out and say Katrina is a great actress, but the way she portrayed a sweet and somewhat light headed Sanjana despite the circumstances that surrounded her, that is memorable still. I mean, if Katrina seems like a better actress than Shruti Hassan, you know you doing shit wrong😶‍🌫️

And I mean, this argument can be used overall all the replaced characters. Feroz Khan as a gullible don seemed lot more funny than the tried and repeated formula of an Idiot , dramatic don portrayed by Nasruddin. Shiney Ahuja instead of Lucky was an eyesore tbh. The girl who took over Malika's role seemed to lack the wit and charm with which Ishika duped everyone, her scheming was shown a lot more often to be actually as smooth as Isha's.

All in all, bad character replacement. In case of Rajeev to Ajay, bad actor replacement aswell.

Secondly, its the script itself. It sucks, the scenes suck, the dialogues suck, the idea itself sucks. All the good scenes I remember were all references , fucking references either to welcome 1 or other Nana's and Anil's movies. Imagine making a movie so bad that Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Nasruddin Shah, Rajpal Yadav TOGETHER cannot save it and then going ahead and removing Akshay Kumar aswell💀

Just look at the stuff. Lucky’s replacement is more one dimensional than lucky despite having more scenes, Ajay and Anjana’s Chemistry is so bleh when you compare it to how cute and wholesome Rajeev and Sanjana were, Uday and Majnu are stupid enough to fight over the same girl for a second fucking time. Uday and Majnu don’t feel like Uday and Majnu; both were gullible enough and shown powerful, here they are SCARED OF HIDING A DEAD BODY YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING GANGSTERS HELLO?!?!

Thirdly and finally, expanding on the script thingie, the acting that it required from the actors is not what welcome was about.

Like I pointed out, Welcome was a comedy that was absolutely absurd, but what made the charm for me was how rationally everyone was overreacting (how is that any making sense? Lmao). It was how Nana laughed after Majnu got insulted on call, my man looking much less angry than someone who threw someone off a yatch, ready to punch Rajeev after Lucky was presumably killed. Anil Kapoor hogging a road on gunpoint and painting like, idk, a normal person? A don that doesn’t give a fuck? That ek tang nakli guy just being there for plays and it Nana Patekar just keeping him being so funny? Akshay Kumar being rightfully frustrated in situations so, so funky that it feels so wrong yet so right at the same time.

Basically, you get the point, right? The comedic sounds and overracting was limited, they let the comedy sink in and never forced it (example, the ghode gadhe waali painting) The movie was not off the hinges, just barely holding onto them. People acting weird with body language but sane with speaking (mostly), ya must be getting it I hope

Now replace that with a generic off the hinges over acting film, where the comedy is so forced that you just cannot laugh because its that unfunny. The actors are phenomenal, well ‘cept John and Shiney, so and made the last movie so good. Welcome back relied and was banking on Welcome so bad but it lacked the movie’s very essence. Who will like it? What were they thinking making it? Why?

So yeah, tldr: Welcome back sucks and Welcome has no sequel.

This post was made by Welcome is my favourite movie ever gang

*poster for extra feels*

[muninnhuginn]

Thanks for the tag @pinkie-satan!

-last song: 0 - LMYK (English version)

-song stuck in head: 勇者/Yuusha/Hero - yoasobi (it's the frieren op)

-fav colors: purples, especially when they're down the blue end.

-currently watching: ah okay. so. I'm watching anime seasonals this time for some reason? Kinda surprised I'm keeping up with them as well as I am honestly. so anime-wise: frieren, spy x family s2, my new boss is goofy, deranged detective, tearmoon, I'm in love with the villainess. kdrama: move to heaven (I am genuinely enjoying it but there aren't many episodes so I think I keep delaying to make it last longer). don't think there's anything else I'm forgetting rn (but there probably is). I have a few other shows I want to check out like scavengers reign but probably when I'm less overloaded with my current lot.

-currently reading: does it count if I technically read it all yesterday? uh, ima say yes because I was probably sleep-deprived and so may give it a reread when I'm less so. latest murderbot book: system collapse. really good. there were a couple of parts I wish had been pushed further but overall it was exactly what I wanted out of a murderbot book so I can't complain (for context: murderbot is sci-fi and a mix of hurt/comfort, comedy, and intense relatability courtesy of the main character). other than that, it's mainly dungeon meshi. finished up volume 1 earlier today after getting distracted for ages and the fake biology aspects are so fun. (also have ongoing stuff in terms of manga and fics but I'll spare the details of those as there're a lot)

-currently craving: hot chocolate (brb)

-last movie: the marvels. was kinda disjointed but I was expecting it to be a lot worse than it actually was given the reception to it. also I know cats are probably expensive to deal with on film sets but did they really have to cg them to that extent? pls. I want real cattos. real alien cattos. whatever

-sweet, spicy or savory: usually sweet but occasionally spice

-relationship status: single, which personally I'm happy with, but people can be weird about it sometimes.

-current obsession: still in my link click era, trying to resist getting back into murderbot or nirvana in fire or stranger/secret forest.

-three fav foods: hmm, bolognese, gyoza, fior di latte gelato

-last thing googled: showings for anatomy of a fall. (unfortunately there aren't many which is a shame. I'd like to watch it but not really planning to go out of my way for it)

-dream trip: going to be boring and say the same here but japan fr. I'd want to actually have a vague sense of the language before even considering it though because what I have rn is just an assortment of words vaguely to do with murder mysteries

-anything you want right now: my original answer to this was depressing so I'm just gonna say the motivation to actually sort out a new laptop because rn I'm probably going to beat out my record for how long it took me to transfer over to my new phone after getting it (around a month iirc). I haven't even started figuring out what I want to prioritise in terms of specs or how much money I'm willing to spend and it's so much easier to do this kind of thing *on* a laptop (that isn't broken :V)

Tagging in anyone who wants to join in. I know especially I have some newish mutuals/followers and I'm not great at interacting directly but feel free to have a go ^^

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Haunted Mansion (2023)”

Haunted Mansion is Disney's second attempt at making a movie based on the titled ride. The 2003 version starring Eddie Murphy was critically not well received and flopped at the box office. However, it has a cult following nowadays and honestly, it's a decently fun movie. Does this second attempt deliver more or is it just another failed attempt at turning another ride into the next Pirates of the Caribbean?

One of the biggest things you will get out of this film is how amazing Lakeith Stanfield is as the main lead. He delivers a standout performance with some genuinely strong emotional performance from him. This is thanks to how his character is written. It is surprising to see Disney have an adult character dealing with loss and still grieving from it. He is also an introverted character with anxiety issues which is not something you see a lot from main characters in big IPs. His character is the heart and most engaging element. His character development is a wonderful thing to watch. The exploration of grief is well-done and it's a meaningful theme to explore in a family film.

The cast also all have decent chemistry. Owen Wilson just steals a lot of the scene with his charisma. Danny Devito is a bundle of joy as usual. Tiffany Haddish is good during the more serious and emotional stuff but her comedy is a mixed bag. Rosario Dawson is mostly serious but it works fine. It is at its most enjoyable when the cast is bouncing off each other. Jamie Lee Curtis has a minor role as Madame Leota but she does great with her small screen time. The first act started strong with some decent horror and tension. Some of the scares are pretty surprising for a movie that is also aimed at kids. There are also some great visual sequences. For example, the door opening to a sea or the hallways becoming longer or the pictures starting to move behind the character's back.

Unfortunately, it becomes pretty bland after the initial strong start. The second and third act start ditching any of the horror energy and becomes an adventure movie. It becomes reliant on jump scares but none of them are really that effective. The plot is also very standard and forgettable. There isn't any interesting character development for other characters nor is there any great twist or revelations in the plot. It doesn't help that this movie tries to be a PG13 horror but also a comedy and is not good at either. There are so many silly jokes and dialogue that just don't land. It didn't even give me a chuckle.

The movie is 2 hours and that is too long. There are many moments where the pacing is just slow or where scenes drag on longer than necessary or there is a pointless padding scene. 20 minutes could have been easily cut out of this film which would no doubt help the pacing. I'm also saddened by how reliant this movie is on CGI. A lot of the ghosts are CGI and the effects are CGI, all of which are very noticeable. It's a shame as most of these could have been done practically and look way better for it. It baffles me that the main antagonist is CGI. Could they not get Jared Leto in prosthetics or something? Also, there are so many noticeable product placements as well. There are so many dialogues where characters randomly mention products for no reason. For example, a character mentions getting a mansion from Zillow or getting stuff from Costco. The biggest offender was during a serious moment and the character mentions Baskin Robbins which took me out of the moment.

Overall, Haunted Mansion 2023 is a decent second attempt. It's not amazing or that memorable and it's not better or worse than the 2003 version. It's an okay movie but I definitely expected better from a movie with Disney money. I do want to see what ride they adapt into a movie next, Expedition Everest perhaps?

For more reviews like this visit: https://moviewarfarereviews.blogspot.com/

[nintendroid]

This is some kind of record. I can't recall the last time I went to the theater twice in one year. I saw the Mario Bros movie a month or so ago and tonight I saw The Flash. I had mixed expectations and its safe to say it was what I thought it was going to be (possible spoilers).

Ezra Miller carries the movie. The rest of the cast is good too but Miller really put his best foot forward. If this is his last movie as Barry Allen/Flash, he gave a heck of a send off.

There was fear that Michael Keaton's Batman return was an overexposed cameo and I'm glad to say its not. He's in a good chunk of the film, so if you're here for Keaton, you get your money's worth.

For better or worse, this is DC's "Marvel" movie. A big-budget summer blockbuster with lots of comedy and action. Don't expect Zack Snyder's Justice League.

The CGI is downright awful. Borderline unacceptable at times and it really took me out of the movie. Take Bella and Edward's baby in Twilight and times that by 10.

Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne is fun but it sorely needed Tim Burton's direction. It's missing the dreary-ness and tone of the Burton Batman movies and something about it just never fully clicked.

Some great cameos and I'll leave it at that.

When we get into the more grounded issues of the film, its great stuff, but there's not enough of it. Its clear DC wants the Marvel audience and wants the comedy almost front and center at all times.

OK, I think that's all I have to say about The Flash. Its a fun popcorn movie and while I'm disappointed they've abandoned Zack Snyder's DC vision, The Flash is ok for what it is. I have no interest in James Gunn's interpretation of the DC "universe" so this is probably the last DC movie I'll see. I left happy, overall and thankful for a night at the movies where I can turn my brain off for two hours.

2.5 of 5 Lanky Kongs

[lcatala]

Top 10 Favorite Movies discovered in 2024

(very late to this but here we go)

Honorable mentions to I Saw the TV Glow (2024), which didn't completely work for me but it's my fault for being terminally autistic and somehow not getting that the film was about the trans experience, and to Cannibal Holocaust (1980) for being a dirty bastard of a movie that tricked me into thinking it was going to be normal schlocky gory exploitation before switching genre halfway thru and becoming one of the most shockingly disturbing movies I've ever seen.

10: Dogma (1999)

Much less edgy and awkward than I expected; a fair bit of offensive-even-back-then humor, but most of it cleverly put in the mouth of a character who's clearly framed as a dumbass. Comedy can age pretty poorly, but Kevin Smith managed to avoid this trap and produce an abrasive classic.

9: Lake Mungo (2008)

I anticipated a somewhat manipulative mockumentary and instead I got a subtle drama that just happens to be conveyed in a documentary format. People sell this as an extremely scary story, but I mostly found it pretty sad and tragic, in a very human way.

8: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Guy Ritchie's debut is basically the British answer to Pulp Fiction, with a cleverer plot, dialogues both wittier and less gratuitously offensive, and more self-aware comedy.

7: Monkey Man (2024)

John Wick meets Agneepath in Dev Patel's first directorial attempt, where he takes the best of revenge films from the US and from India and combines them into something both more heartfelt and politically biting than the former, and more streamlined and effective than the latter.

6: Nosferatu (2024)

While I have some reservations about the length of the screenplay, which I felt was a bit overstuffed in contrast with that of the original from 1922, overall it was exactly what I wanted out of a remake of Nosferatu: aggressively gothic, and bringing back a great deal of eldritch aw into the portrayal of the vampire as an elemental force of terror beyond human reason.

5: Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain (2024)

This one is definitely going to be more niche, being a spin-off movie of the series Mononoke from the mid 2000s (which itself was a spin-off from an earlier series) and because this movie takes no prisoner: the characters talk fast and a lot; the visuals are often allegorical, surreal and abstracted, shifting rapidly from one set piece to the next with no relation to what's happening on screen; the plot is complex and exposition is delivered in a way that assumes that you already know the basic structure of Mononoke's stories set by the original series.

But it was worth the challenge. It's the most visually gorgeous and artistically ambitious movie I have seen in 2024, a demonstration of the kind of amazing stuff that can be achieved by high-effort and creatively unrestrained digital animation mixing 2D and 3D techniques.

4: Dune: Part Two (2024)

So here's the thing: Part Two didn't fix the problems I had with Part One (which was still in my top movies for 2021); the lack of human warmth due to the characters being so theatrical and serious all the time; the interior set design that feels so empty and sterile, not lived in. But Part Two kind of managed to work with these problems, or at the very least around them. As the story gets into its second half epic swelling and as the distinctive of Villeneuve's interpretation crystalizes, the lack of warmth now comes into play as Paul loses his humanity to be devoured by his role of messianic figure, the large empty sets come to emphasize the crushing of the characters under the forces of history, and the whole picture finally comes together beautifully.

3: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

It is remarkable when a creator doesn't rely on formulas and instead reinvents themself between two pieces of art. It is even more remarkable when they do so by taking a completely opposite approach to their previous project and still make something amazing in the process. It starts to stretch disbelief when the creator in question is 79, at an age and with an amount of experience where most artists have long abandoned any desire to experiment, break the mold and take risks.

And yet here we are, with a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road that shares its worldbuilding and aesthetics, but is its polar opposite in terms of pacing, scope, camera movement, editing, mood… And it's an amazing piece of cinema, an action movie that bets on the slow and heavy rather than the fast and frantic, and delivers; a good lesson to those who think that editing, especially fast editing, is the only critical part of creating a good movie.

2: The Exorcist III (1990)

It's hard to properly convey the gap that exists between what spontaneously comes to your mind when you hear of a movie called "The Exorcist III": unnecessary cash grab sequel that misapprehends everything that made the original good — and what this movie actually is: a dark, gritty horror thriller with an incredible atmosphere, that served as the cornerstone to bleak 90s procedurals — Silence of the Lambs, Se7en and The X-files all stand on the foundations laid by The Exorcist III (along with those laid by Twin Peaks).

Letting a horror writer direct the adaptation of their own book can go in a number of ways — Clive Barker's Hellraiser (1987) is seen as a classic, but doesn't work for everyone, and the less said about Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (1986), the better. But in that case, this is a master's work in setting an oppressive ambiance of supernatural dread and never letting it up for the whole movie, thru effective use of symbolist imagery and blending of the border between sound design and soundtrack.

1: Longlegs (2024)

And speaking of movies that owe their existence to The Exorcist III-- but no, starting the sentence in this way would imply that Longlegs is just another exercise in retro and nostalgia bait, when Oz Perkins has really been doing for 90s thrillers and religious horror films what Panos Cosmatos is doing for 80s neo-noir and cult horror films, taking the building blocks of an ancient genre and of the associated aesthetics, and expending them beyond anything that could have been done at the time, finding new, more cutting meaning in the old tropes, and as a result building something truly modern, that could only exist today.

So, Longlegs. A simple screenplay elevated beyond expectations by amazing set design and direction. A you-would-think-overdone-and-even-problematic theme of satanic conspiracy subtly turned on its head by executing the expected tropes in unexpected ways. The incredible actor performances, from Maika Monroe's mask of professionalism and coldness hiding a deep visceral terror, to a barely recognizable, nauseatingly creepy, sick and bloated Nicolas Cage.

Best horror movie of the decade so far.

[enbypotat53]

I mean.. this is after episode 18 dropped, but hey, this seems fun! Why the heck not :P (EDIT - I didn't read the rules properly, that's on me, spoilers will be deleted from my answer or reworded to be vague!)

(Also I'm proofreading, and.. jeez. Take a shot every time I say "for sure" 💀)

Favourite character/s?

Well, if we're going for contestants only, my favourite from each season would be Paintbrush, Fan, and Silver Spoon! But my actual top 3 are Paintbrush, Mepad, and Baseball :3 💙

Favourite season?

Season 2 for sure! It's how I found II in the first place, and it's undoubtedly had the biggest impact on me as a whole! (And that finale was PHENOMINAL!)

Favourite episode/s?

FOR SURE either S2 EP12, or any of the movie acts. I have a DEEP personal connection with Alternate Reality Show, as Painty's coming out scene made me realise I was trans! It's also when I started to REALLY ship Lightbrush. And the movie is just.. wow. Couldn't have asked for a better conclusion if I tried.

Favourite scene/s?

Ough.. that's a toughie. Paintbrush's coming out scene is an obvious one, as well as Knife and Suitcase being deleted in EP17. From season 3... I'm not entirely sure! The Nickloon hug was a cute one though :3 (I had an answer for episode 18 too, but I cut it for spoiler reasons. I'll post my EP18 answers seperately if anyone wants them!)

Favourite team?

The Bright Lights for sure! Both S2 teams are great, but c'mon! Ya gotta love the Lights!

Favourite ship/s or friendships?

Hooh boy I could go on for hours about my favourite ships and why, but I'll spare y'all the essay and just list a top 10. (No particular order!)

Ships - Lightbrush, Knifecase, Basenickloon, Fantube, Silvercandle, Tacosoapmic, Toipad, Payjay, Marshbowpple, Comedy Gold

A character you'd like to know more about?

Honestly? Probably the Creatorbots! I know we had the Q&A stream, but the Meeple products are just so intriguing, and although they kinda... exploded, I'd like to see more of them! (Plus goose J.U.S.T.I.N is adorable lol)

Favourite non-contestant?

Mepad for sure! He cares so much for the contestants, and he's just overall such a sweet guy! 💙💙

Favourite voice for a character/favourite VA?

Hmm.. top 10 favourite voices would probably be Lightbulb, Knife, Paper, Cobs, Taco, Mepad, Toilet, Paintbrush, Springy, and Fan!

As for VAs.. top 3 - Jazzy Oliver, Justin Chapman, and Joshua Waters! (I'm sensing a theme here..)

Jazzy is an AMAZING singer, and she is the PERFECT voice for Painty! Her voice for them sounds so determined and upbeat - absolutely the right vibe for them! Plus, her streams are always so fun to be in :3

Joshua does a PHENOMINAL job in voicing Cobs! His (Cobs') voice is such a perfect mix of slimy, kinda bratty, yet intimidating, and it works SO well. Plus, just. I've said this before, but the fact that I feel PHYSICAL RAGE when hearing Cobs speak to Mephone and the contestants? So good. And Josh himself is super chill! Definitely seems like a great guy! :)

Justin's voices are just. Mwah. Chef's kiss. The absolute RANGE they have?? It's SO impressive - I'm jealous! They manage to keep a fun yet unique vibe for every character they voice, and that's hard to do! If I didn't know already, I probably wouldn't believe you if you told me Mepad, Goo, Knife, Silver Spoon, and Paper were voiced by the same person. SERIOUSLY impressive stuff, and I don't think there's a single character they voice that I dislike! They just make them so fun! Plus, Justin themself is a great person. Very genuine, very upbeat, just such a positive guy overall! 💙💙

Favourite song/s?

Well, as I've said before, Just Like Me is probably my favourite song, mostly because of sentimental meaning! There IS another one thay could probably take it down a peg, though.. (or at least share its place!)

If you could go to any location in the show, where would it be?

Hmm.. probably Cabby's library or Hotel OJ! Both seem like super chill places to be, and I'd love to see the contestants!

Favourite AUs?

Lab Rats AU FOR SURE. Made by @ask-lab-rats, the II characters are kids who were born/kidnapped into experimentation by Cobs! It's SUPER unique, and very well drawn, too! Plus, the storyline is great, it really keeps you hooked! :D 💙

How were you introduced to II?

Oh jeez, it's been at least 9 or 10 years so I can't QUITE remember, but I think I found it alongside BFDI! I watched the second season, and loved every bit of it!

What's a crossover you'd love to see?

Hmm.. inside the OSC, probably another dark show like The Nightly Manor or ONE. It'd be interesting to see how they'd interact, honestly! Outside.. not sure! I guess if I had to go with my other current hyperfix, Detroit Become Human would be kinda fun! And ngl it'd be VERY funny to see Kamski and Cobs interact lol

If you could get any merch, what would it be?

For SURE one of the plushies, the sticker sheet, or the blanket! I'm VERY tempted to ask for the blanket honestly, but £40 is a LOTTA money, so.. 👉👈

Would you recommend the show to friends/family?

I mean. Considering I've been begging my friends/siblings to watch the show, and the fact that I JUST watched the movie with my ma? I'd say it's a solid yes

What would you want to see more from the show that didn't happen?

(Again, spoilers, I'll post it if anyone wants the answer!)

How much does II mean to you?

Honestly? So damn much. More than I can possibly describe. I owe my own path of self-discovery to this show, and I've found so many amazing people through this community. The characters mean everything to me, and I'm genuinely so grateful to everyone I've met in the OSC. Plus, the love people have shown for my fanart and analyses means a lot! I'm honestly just a random guy on the internet rambling about his favourite show, but I've found a family here. The journey's been a long one, but for sure an amazing one. I'm looking forward to seeing AE's future projects, whether it be II-related, or something else, and I'm so glad to see the show get the conclusion it deserves. Thanks so much, II crew. You made my childhood a special one. 💙💙

As for who I wanted to win, I was personally rooting for Knife! But as the movie went on, I found I wouldn't have minded either way. I won't spoil ofc, but I'm satisfied with who won. They deserved it :)

It’s finished! Welcome to II-blr’s…

PRE-II18 MINI-Q&A!

A set of 18 QUESTIONS celebrating 18 EPISODES that I’ve prepared for the entire fandom!!! Reblogs are definitely appreciated! As a bonus, you can go into my ask box and ask me any of the questions that *I* made!

You can answer as many questions as you want! Answer one, two, or maybe all of them!

There are no right or wrong answers! Everyone in the II fandom is welcome! (just no rule-breaking responses, please!)

STRICTLY NO LEAKS OR SPOILERS FOR THE UPCOMING EPISODE!!! Please be respectful to those who weren’t able to see the the theatrical releases! (including myself!)

Transcript + Description:

1. Favorite character/s? (bonus: give one that debuted in each season)

Everyone in the fandom has this character that they love a tiny bit over the others. Who is YOUR favorite character? Or characters, if you have many.

2. Favorite season? (S1, S2 or S3?)

Between Inanimate Insanity, Inanimate Insanity 2 and Inanimate Insanity Invitational, which one of them did you like the most, and why? Is it their charm? Their artstyle and animation? Or is it because you enjoy it the most? There’s no wrong answers!

3. Favorite episode? (bonus: give one from each season)

Inanimate Insanity has 54 (about to be 55!) episodes in total! (not including S1 Ep. 5.5.) Out of all those episodes, which one did you enjoy the most, and why?

4. Favorite scene/s? (bonus: give one from each season)

Every episode is made out of SCENES! Was there a specific scene that you really liked, and why? From the emotions, the voice direction, your connection to the scene, or ALL OF THEM?

5. Favorite team? (across all seasons?)

Between Season One’s Team Epic and Team Chicken Leg, Season Two’s Bright Lights and Grand Slams, and Invitational’s (Old OR New) Sinkers, Thinkers and Pinkers, which among all these teams were the best among the rest?

6. Favorite ship/s and/or friendship/s?

You can’t have a fandom without ships! What are YOUR favorite ships? If romantic pairs aren’t your thing, give some friendships that you really loved.

7. A character you’d like to know more about?

With all the characters within the show, we’ve been dying to know more about the characters that didn’t get as much screentime as the others! Who do YOU want to know more about?

8. Favorite non-contestant? (Host, Co-Host, Misc., etc.)

Let’s give some love to those who don’t partake in the game! Your favorite non-contestant could also be the same as your favorite character! They could be hosts, co-hosts, background characters, other Meeple products— HECK, maybe Steve Cobs himself! There are a lot of characters out there that aren’t in the premises of the game.

9. Favorite voice for a character / favorite voice actor?

Let’s give some love to our beloved crew members who made the show possible! There was DEFINITELY that one character who you really like solely from their voice. Who is your favorite voice for a character, or your favorite voice actor?

10. Favorite song/s?

Let’s get musical! Without the people behind the music of II, these bangers would’ve never been possible! What is a song from the show that you’d put on repeat?

11. If you’d like to go to any location in the show, where would it be?

From the mysterious underground Gemory Cave to the Meeple Headquarters found in the sky, the world of II is endless! Maybe you want to go to a contest area to try a few challenges yourself. Or you want to relax and explore Hotel OJ!

12. Favorite canon divergence / AUs in the fandom (if any)

Now let’s give some love to our artists and writers in this very app! There’s a lot of awesome alternate universes in this fandom. (heck, I have an AU myself! the WTI au! check it out pspspspsps /nf) What are some alternate scenarios you’ve thought of that would make a GREAT AU? Or maybe some existing ones that you’ve followed for a while now?

13. How were you introduced to I.I.?

Were you introduced to the show when you were a child? Or maybe you’ve just learned about it pretty recently? Everyone starts somewhere!

14. What is a crossover (any crossover!) that you’d love to see?

We all have interests outside of II. Let it be shows, games, movies, books, or other interests! Even if it would absolutely NEVER happen in reality, what media do you think should have a crossover or collaboration with the show?

15. If you could get any merch you want, what are you getting?

Imagine this. You have won a raffle, and your prize is ANYTHING YOU WANT that has been sold during II’s runtime! Let it be t-shirts or mugs that aren’t being sold anymore, plushies that got sold out or on sale right now, or all the cool merch that is being sold this holiday season! Heck, you can ask for a merch item that hasn’t existed yet! Like your favorite character that doesn’t have a plushie yet! What are YOU getting?

16. Would you recommend the show to your friends/family?

Maybe you’re too shy to show it to people you’re close to, and that’s fine! But would you recommend the show to others?

17. What do you want to see more from the show that didn’t happen?

This is related to the AU question! Maybe it could be a scenario that happens after the movie, or a look into the daily lives of the contestants. Let’s hope that after II18, we’ll still have post-movie content…

18. How much does I.I. mean to you?

This fandom has grown to be a vast space full of talented creators big and small. You may have made a friend or two, maybe you just joined the fandom. There are no wrong answers. What is Inanimate Insanity to you? It could be as small as a simple show you’re interested in, or as big as the show having changed your life.

Thank you for reading through! Reblogs appreciated of course! To prove that you’ve read through the whole post…

[danwhobrowses]

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero - Quick Review

So, I couldn't quite wait. I've heard good things from it so I had to see it for myself

Super Hero is Dragon Ball Super's second movie and yet another push in a different animation style, so I'm gonna go through what I thought was good and what was bad.

Spoilers for the Movie

So I liked the movie, I have to preface that because the negatives may seem to be longer than the positives, so to clarify, some of them are small gripes in the greater scheme of things.

Let's start with the negatives though

What I didn't like

So let's get it out the way; Final Gohan and Orange Piccolo. In concept it was great, but the designs were overkill. Piccolo with the SSJ3 brow that still doesn't work and Gohan with the oversized and overjagged hair. Orange Piccolo as a name is uninspired too, and I don't think Final Gohan actually needed a form change

I also don't approve of the method, Orange Piccolo is only possible thanks to Shenron adding 'a little bonus' to unleashing his potential, and Gohan goes Final Gohan having seen Piccolo almost die...compared to all the previous times Gohan has seen Piccolo almost die and Goku actually die, so it's a tad weak.

I know 'power scaling' is a bane of many an anime and especially Dragon Ball, but it does feel weird that 1 billion zeni is enough to create an android that's a physical match for Mystic Gohan. And that Shenron is capable of power boosting Piccolo to be above that level - since Orange Piccolo bitch slapped Gamma 2 while Gohan struggled against Gamma 1. It does render Supreme Kai's potential unleashed weak compared to simply wishing for more power, and by that matter renders training quite redundant.

Also why hasn't Dende upgraded Shenron to be the most powerful it can be? Surely we would need such upgrades for dire situations?

I don't understand why we wrote Beerus to have a crush on Cheelai, it feels weird, especially since she's only playing along to keep his hospitality

If you didn't know that Oreos were sponsoring the movie by god do you get it told, lots of Oreo overkill in this

Unfortunately 90% of the film does feel rather stakeless, just Red Ribbon Army back to their bullshit and Piccolo and Pan basically pranking Gohan into being more committed to acknowledging threats without leaning back on Goku and Vegeta - who are always off-world anyway.

Sadly this also means Krillin, 18, Goten and Trunks' inclusion is weak, they're just there for padding numbers and comedy. Krillin being gutless to start and all of the Gotenks stuff didn't land with me. Feel like we could've replaced Gotenks at least with Videl, who is blissfully unaware that Piccolo had staged her daughter being kidnapped. Also Tien could've filled Krillin's role to complete the set of non-Goku fighters who fought Cell before, I mean Krillin uses the Solar Flare so they could've swapped them out, even a mention outside the Cell saga montage would've sufficed

I don't know how to feel about Hedo, he's a lot older than he looks for one and though he seems fun and sympathetic he's also naive and murderous. It's not surprising that DB characters forgive murderers of course but he didn't seem like he repented that activity. His conclusion was weird too, if cosmetics were his calling it would've made more sense but it seemed more like a way to write him out even though he could be a valuable resource. Also how did he not know that Red Ribbon were evil when making Cell, he would've been old enough to remember Cell threatening to blow up the world.

And...Cell Max. That was an awful kaiju surprise villain, utilising the worst of the Cell designs and mixing it with Shin Godzilla. It was heavily meh and could've been done better.

Overall this did feel like a 'meme movie', leaning more onto pop culture perceptions (most of which guided by the Abridged Series) such as Piccolo being the responsible parent, Goku being the absolute moron, Krillin being the joke fighter, and even giving Vegeta a 'win' over Goku in the post credits scene, it might be considered fanservice but it does play more to the jokes than the canon.

It didn't quite help either that this followed a similar structure to the Broly movie but without the fleshing of the new character. We introduced the misguided villain, who is approached by actual villains to target the heroes, Bulma wants the Dragon Balls for something trivial and superficial, we swap around some fights until we reach the rage monster, Piccolo helps guide the fighters to a new form, new form wins, slightly villainous characters become allies. Nothing wrong with a formula, but you have to make it less glaring.

What I did like

The new art style was hit and miss at times, especially for the out of focus characters, but overall it was quite successful. You don't really get hit with the uncanny valley and for a first try it was pretty good. I'd probably still prefer the old Broly style but this was still good.

It was very refreshing that the movie was more of a Piccolo and Gohan movie than a Goku and Vegeta movie. Because it does make the world feel more lived in. Granted we could've used a bit more fleshing out of the other characters to validate their appearance but it was a nice change of pace, we could do more of these for the other Z Fighters.

Though a little unnecessary, I did like that we don't just forget about the Broly stuff, he's learning to control his power and from it Goku's getting stronger and Vegeta's learning to be more efficient with his power, this is positive signs too for Super's next season if they intend to use Broly more.

Like Broly last movie, Toriyama has put in the work to fix Pan as a character. The girl who was annoying and hated in GT is charming and adorable in Super Hero, so yeah all the Pan stuff was surprisingly great.

The Gammas were also pretty enjoyable, fun misguided villains who make the U-Turn when answering to reason. Gamma 2's sacrifice was earned for being the more exposed Gamma, but they still have room to use Gamma 1 more, even if it's on the smaller scale of helping Earth-scale threats with Mr Satan or teaming up with the Great Saiyaman.

I can see people finding Bulma making extremely minor wishes (most of which to make her look younger) on the Dragon Balls - as a means to prevent Resurrection F again - as a negative, but I'm holding onto a small bit of hope that it may lead to something. Perhaps another Super movie this time trying to fix GT's brighter spot of the Shadow Dragons. One hopes at least...

And there we have it, it was an enjoyable movie full of some fanservice stuff. It has its flaws and the main villain's rather weak, but that's not too different to a lot of Dragon Ball films. The less you dissect it the more you'll probably enjoy it.