Monday Media Musings - 12/27/21

Arcane: We ended up taking a bit of an accidental break from this one; we finally finished it up this weekend. I was very impressed -- great story, wonderful characters and relationships, beautiful animation and production design, excellent writing that highlighted strong foreshadowing and continuous character growth. Very excited to hear that there will be a second season, and not just because of the way it ended. The connections to the video game world seem to be mostly via characters and setting, not so much plot, which I think partly explains why it works so well. I think it's safe to say this show will be on my best of 2021 list.

The Matrix: Resurrections: Pretty solid return to this universe. Some of the most effective meta-commentary I've ever seen in a movie. I think it did a good job of revisiting the previous story and setting while doing something fairly different with it. I doubt it's very comprehensible to anyone who hasn't seen the other movies (yes, including Reloaded and Revolutions -- if your enjoyment of The Matrix requires pretending that the rest of the trilogy doesn't exist, maybe skip this one). Lana Wachowski has made no secret of the fact that she brought back Neo and Trinity as part of the process of grieving the death of her parents; good on her for making the movie that she wanted to make and that felt true to her. I won't say it's an amazing film, but I definitely enjoyed it and like where it left the universe and the characters.

F9: The latest movie in the Fast and Furious saga, which is one of T's favorite series. I started watching with the sixth one, and I find them entertaining, if fairly ridiculous in the way of most big budget action movies that revolve around set pieces; since I enjoy superhero movies, I feel that I have no room to complain. One thing I do appreciate about the Fast series is how racially diverse the cast is, and how the female characters have nearly as much action and agency as the male ones -- heroes, villains, and morally dubious actors alike. Letty does everything Dom does, and they don't even make her do it in high heels and/or backwards. I do wonder how much longer they can keep raising the stakes on these, though. Sometimes I think about going back and watching the old ones. Anyone have thoughts on whether it's worth it?