owlmoose: (ff13 - vanille)

Top Gun: Maverick: I've seen the original of course, a few times I think, but it's not a deep and unshakeable part of my youth the way it is for many of my generation (including T). It's also been many years since I've seen it, but fortunately I was recently reminded of most of the major plot beats by Legal Eagle's video on all the laws Maverick broke (tl;dw: he's lucky if he's just in jail). Anyway, this movie is entirely a love letter to Top Gun, so if you like that movie, you should enjoy this one. I thought it was a bit silly, very predictable (I called a major twist at the end because "I have seen a movie before"), and riddled with plot holes and characters making ludicrous choices, but it tugged the heartstrings in the right time and places, so I found it worth watching, if impossible to take at all seriously.

She Hulk: Attorney at Law, Episodes 3-4: I'm continuing to enjoy this show. It's not particularly earth-shaking, but it's a fairly light comedy -- it doesn't need to be earth-shaking. I enjoy Jen a lot, her relationships with her work friends and with Wong are great, and the fourth-wall breaking asides work really well.

Thor: Love and Thunder: I admit, I'm not sure how to feel about this one. There was some fun stuff in here, but overall I found it a convoluted mess, mostly because its tone was all over the place. Spoilers )

owlmoose: (ffiv - cecil)

Only Murders in the Building, Season 2: Through most of the first season of this show, I had no idea how they were going to make a second season work, but the turn in the final episode set it up so well that I wasn't particularly worried. And they did, indeed, manage to capture the magic twice, with wonderful chemistry among the actors and a plot that kept me guessing until almost the very end. And we're getting a third season; once again, they presented a fantastic twist in the last episode, and I'm now officially willing to go wherever this show takes me.

She Hulk: Attorney at Law, Episodes 1-2: It's nice to get a pure comedy out of the MCU. Early Wandavision had some comedic aspects, as did Hawkeye, but the former showed its underlying darkness early on, and the latter was more of an action-comedy (like the Ant Man movies). Tatiana Maslany is clearly having a lot of fun in the role, and I'm excited to see where the story goes.

Lightyear: I didn't have many expectations for this, so I found it a fun watch. I do have questions, though, about positioning it as movie beloved by six-year-olds in 1995 that was designed to sell a ton of toys to children. The time travel aspects are a bit confusing, and I don't know how a young child would relate to the set-up, with the idea that the life of the world is passing by Buzz as he focuses on his mission, a clear metaphor for letting yourself become too consumed by your work. It's also interesting to reconsider the world-building of Toy Story's setting as a culture where a kids' movie can have a background same-sex relationship and an out lesbian character (when Alisha tells Buzz she's getting married, he asks "what's her name?" without missing a beat) and no one treats it as remarkable. (Note that, in our world, this wasn't even really possible in 2022, much less 1995, given that even a movie as mild as this got homophobic backlash).

owlmoose: (star trek - sisko baseball)

This is, of course, not everything I watched in July, but it is everything I wrote a little about and never got around to posting. Other media from July I could talk about, and possibly will later (especially if anyone is interested): Severance, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Better Call Saul S6.5, Stray, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Upload: I don't think I ever posted here about the first season of Upload, an Amazon Prime series about the digital afterlife, so even though I watched it over a year ago, the occasion of finishing Season 2 is a fine time to talk about the series as a whole. I feel like I haven't heard a lot of buzz in fandom circles about Upload, and it's a shame, because it's a solid sci-fi comedy drama with clever writing and excellent chemistry between the leads. The premise: it's the near future, and we've figured out how to upload full human consciousnesses to the cloud at the time of death. But because we live in a capitalist society, the digital divide carries over into the Great Beyond, with those who can afford it living in posh resorts, while lower-cost solutions feature bare-bones accommodations and strict data limits. Our two protagonists are Nora, who works as a sort of digital assistant in Lakeview, one of the higher end residences, and Nathan, a programmer who was working on a more egalitarian solution when he died unexpectedly in a car accident... or maybe it was murder. Lots of clever skewering of corporate greed, a charming romance, and excellent character interactions. Both the first and second seasons have ended on extreme cliffhangers, and I can't wait to see where it all goes.

Ms. Marvel: I wanted to post about this as we were watching it, and I kind of wish I had, because I probably would have been more enthusiastic. This is a show that started off amazingly strong, then devolved into Marvel's usual third act problem of raising the stakes too high and forcing a CGI-heavy mega-battle to round things off. That said, when it hit, it hit. Iman Vellani was born to play Kamala Khan -- most spot-on casting since Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and I am not exaggerating, and I loved everything about her interactions with family and friends (even parts of the CGI mega-battle). So excited to see how they work her into the movie universe.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: I mentioned earlier that I watched the first episode of this show; I enjoyed it, but it took a little motivation to continue. Upon reflection, I think my reluctance was caused by Star Trek saturation (watching two seasons of Discovery in a little over a week plus a season of Lower Decks and a few episodes of Picard S2), nothing to do with the show itself. So T and I decided to give up on Picard for now and watch this instead, and it was an excellent decision. While I generally prefer my TV serialized, it's nice to get a break from it, too, with a show that carries character development and motivation across episodes but also tells a self-contained story in each show. I could quibble with some of its decisions, but overall I thought it was great and look forward to the next season.

owlmoose: (tea - tea cup)

The Prom: The official touring stage production, not the Ryan Murphy movie based upon it. Having seen the musical on stage, I don't think I need to watch the movie -- it's a cute show with some fun and memorable moments, but it's not one that's particularly going to stick with me, and its messages get pretty muddled. I did love the actor who played Emma, though -- they did a wonderful job of making Emma into a real person, in all her awkwardness and sincerity. (The actor, Kaden Kearney, is trans nonbinary; I think this may be the first Playbill I've ever seen with pronouns included in almost every entry in the cast list.) I also really liked Emma's relationship with the principal, Mr. Hawkins, who is much of an ally to her than the Broadway actors who parachute in (although they get better by the end, and Emma's relationship with Barry grows to a place of genuine support). Probably the aspect I was most impressed by was the dancing -- excellent choreography, well-performed.

A Familiar Problem: Sprinkle's Incredible Journey: Speaking of things that are cute, I enjoyed this one in a much more straightforward way. This was a special episode of Critical Role, a new one-shot game GM'd by Marisha using a one-page system she co-created. Not major spoilers but cutting it anyway )

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: There were some things I really liked here, most of them having to do with Wong and America Chavez, but two overarching things really bugged me. Read more... )

owlmoose: (avengers - a little help)

It's been some time since I've written an entry just about an MCU property, hasn't it? Maybe since I posted weekly reaction shots to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Most of my MCU reviews are finding their way into Monday Media instead, which is fine, but I feel like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings wants to stand alone. Not necessarily because it was so amazing that I don't want to bury my thoughts in the Monday Media post -- although I did enjoy it, quite a lot -- but because this was probably my most anticipated Marvel movie of the year, and I want to give it a little extra room to breathe.

When SCL10R first came out, I was really irritated that this, of all Disney's big movies, is the first one they didn't make available right away on streaming to Disney+ subscribers. It was the first such movie I would have actually paid extra for, but I didn't have the opportunity. Although no one said this, I'm sure it was due to ScarJo's lawsuit, which, fair enough -- she had a legit complaint and I'm glad it seems like it was settled in her favor -- and I suspect they wanted to avoid any further potential breaches of contract with big-name actors. Still, I was bummed, and actually thought about seeing the movie in theaters, but it was early September, Delta was still peaking in the SF Bay area, and it just didn't feel like a good idea. (Depending on case counts, Spider-Man: No Way Home might be my first movie theater experience since I saw Little Women in January 2020 because 1. I'm pretty excited for it and 2. the contract situation with Disney and Sony suggests that it might be a long, long time before it comes to streaming.) Fortunately, it sounds like it did pretty well in theaters -- at least I haven't heard that it was a box office disappointment -- but imagine how much better it would have done in the before times?

Anyway. So we watched it on Friday, the first day it was available, and I'm very happy to have done so. Cutting for length, spoilers. )

owlmoose: Picture of MLB pitchers Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain (baseball - pitchers)

I know this looks like a catchup post (and it's also true I haven't posted in awhile), but this really does all represent shows I watched (or seasons I finished) last week.

Arrowverse update: Caught up on Supergirl as of now, undecided as to whether I'll try to catch up on anything else. Spoilers for the end of S6 E15 )

Ted Lasso, Season 2: We watched this second season with our TV group (except for the last two episodes which we ended up watching on our own). I know some corners of the internet didn't like this season as well as the first, but I thought it was fantastic, taking some of the characters in new directions and building on everything that happened before. There are lots of character developments that I could talk about, but I'll limit myself to two: Ted and Nate.

Spoilers )

Black Widow: Finally watched it now that it's on the regular Disney+ subscription. I find I don't have a ton to say about it. I'd say it falls somewhere in the middle of the MCU movie scale. The plot was fine, some decent action, Florence Pugh's Yelena is the best thing about it, it's hard to care much about the family themes when we already know Natasha's eventual ending. I think it would have worked much better in actual chronological order, not as an extended flashback. Still, it was nice to finally get a bit of real backstory on Natasha.

Jesus Christ Superstar: This production is part of the 50th anniversary tour and was my first time seeing live theater since The Last Ship in February 2020. I probably wouldn't have sought out live theater just yet, but my season subscription is starting up and the theater requires masking and vaccination, so we decided to go. JCS might be the musical I've seen live the most times, and it's almost certainly the one I know the best -- we owned a copy of the original concept album when I was growing up, and I listened to it a lot, so I have it effectively memorized. The vibe of this one was interesting, almost more like a concert staging than a play, with all the main performers using hand-held mikes. Some effective use of the cross motifs and especially glitter -- gold for Jesus, silver on Judas's hands at an opportune moment. I didn't love every choice they made, but overall it was enjoyable.

Major League Baseball: The playoffs continue, but the Giants are done, after a 107-win series, one of the most incredible division races in baseball history, an epic five-game series with the Dodgers (I watched them all except for game 4), and a blown call on a checked swing that will go down in infamy. It was a hell of a ride, and I'm excited to see what the team puts together for next year.

owlmoose: (let go)

Most of the media I've been consuming have been of the binge rewatch (in the case of Leverage original flavor) and replay (in the case of the entire Ace Attorney series) variety, and I haven't been really feeling like posting about those as I go. I did, however, recently finish watching a show as it aired, and that show was

Loki: I enjoy Tom Hiddleston's take on Loki as much as anyone, but I didn't have the same fangirl anticipation for it as I'd had for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (a high bar, to be fair). Still, I was looking forward to it, especially after the trailers started coming out. And overall, I quite enjoyed it. Hiddleston plays Loki brilliantly in every incarnation (it's obvious how much he loves embodying the character), his chemistry with Owen Wilson is excellent, and I found his interactions with Sylvie compelling. I love the aesthetic, too, especially the design of the TVA as a 1970s era bureaucracy -- it reminded me of Brazil in many ways. It also probably has the best pacing of any MCU Disney+ show so far, in that I thought it worked well in the episodic format, as opposed to Wandavision and especially TFatWS. Lots of spoilers, of course. )

owlmoose: Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes on a gray background with stylized Captain America shield imagrey (marvel - falcon and winter soldier)

Mostly great, with one significant complaint and a couple of more minor ones.

Spoilers. )

owlmoose: Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes on a gray background with stylized Captain America shield imagrey (marvel - falcon and winter soldier)

I enjoyed this episode very much for all kinds of reasons.

Those reasons are spoilers, so they are behind the cut. )

Finale next week. It seems doable to wrap things up. I wonder what, if anything, on the movie side that this show is setting the table for.

owlmoose: (marvel - daisy and mack)

Damn.

Spoilers, naturally. )

This is a lot to wrap up in two episodes. I hope it doesn't end up feeling rushed, and that not too many threads get dropped.

owlmoose: (avengers - captain america)

Interesting that they seem to be alternating between giving Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan top billing in the closing credits.

Everything else is spoilers )

owlmoose: (ramona flowers)

Catching up on a few weeks' worth here...

To All The Boys: Always and Forever: The third movie in the trilogy was cute, although like its predecessor it didn't live up to the charm of the original. Spoilers, although really how much can you spoil a romcom that's this by the book? )

Olive Kitterage: A limited HBO series from a few years ago, based on a book of linked short stories by Elizabeth Strout, about a woman living in a small town in Maine. I don't think I can quite say I liked this, because the characters were for the most part difficult to sympathize with, and it was also quite depressing (we got to the point of joking about how many characters might die in each episode), and the main character at the end made a decision I had a hard time believing. But it was certainly well-made, with a phenomenal cast -- the star was Frances McDormond, and Zoe Kazan and Richard Jenkins also gave memorable performances. I'm glad it was only four episodes, though.

WandaVision: A lot of people have a lot to say about this, and I'm not sure how much I can add to it in terms of interesting analysis. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, although I agree with the criticism that the end didn't live up to the promise of the beginning. Because I watched the entire series in less than a week, I didn't have time to build up the fan theories that I know a lot of people did, and I think it was better that way -- fewer thwarted hopes and dreams. Spoilers, obviously; mostly stuff I liked. )

Leverage, Season 1: I'm rewatching this again because T has never seen it, and he expressed interest, so I pounced. He is much more hit or miss with it than I am -- something about "realism" and "that doesn't make sense" and "it would never happen like that" and other such unimportant things. To the point where he almost gave up on it, but then he agreed to watch through the First and Second David Jobs, and he liked those better -- appreciated the various reversals, thought it mostly hung together. Meanwhile, I'm just happy to revisit this little family again, see them coming together from the beginning, knowing where they're going to end up. I'm so excited for the new series, you have no idea.

owlmoose: (avengers - captain america)

And now, the real reason we got Disney+, and the reason I knew that I was going to get Disney+ eventually someday. I wasn't able to watch yesterday, but I made sure to watch tonight, and I plan to keep up as best I can.

Spoilers, naturally. )

I hadn't realized that the series was only going to be six episodes. Curious to see how much story they pack into a relatively short space.

Weekend

Mar. 7th, 2021 01:27 am
owlmoose: (dim sum)

Yesterday (Friday) was my birthday. I took the day off of work, spent the morning relaxing, the afternoon playing DA:I, and the evening eating crab for dinner and then playing Gartic Phone with friends. It was supposed to mostly be Among Us after a round of Gartic Phone, but GP was so hilariously ridiculous that we played it all night instead. It's an online implementation of Telephone Pictionary, which is one of my favorite party games, so I'm not at all sorry we shifted gears. Today I had a backyard visit with a friend I hadn't seen since the initial lockdown began, and tomorrow I'm having a backyard meal with other friends, so all in all, as a birthday weekend, it's been pretty nice, especially by current standards.

Also tonight I finally wore T down -- he signed us up for Disney+ and we watched the first three episodes of WandaVision. No spoilers please (although I've picked up a few hints of what might be going on Twitter and in other places); I am very excited to see where it all goes. I will definitely watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as it airs, or at least on the same weekend. I also need to catch up on The Mandalorian and probably some other things as well -- any recommendations?

Last but definitely not least, I set aside my m!Trevelyan game, because I think I'm to the point where I played DA:I endgame too recently, and I'm rushing him through when I really ought to give him his due. So instead, I rolled up a new Warden for the first time in five years? six years? (I went back to look it up, and the actual answer is NINE. July 2012.) It's finally time to play Tabris; she's a rogue, likely stealth-and-sneak because that's my favorite mode of gameplay in DA:O. I got her to Ostagar, and oh, starting up that game again, Denerim, Duncan, the music, random dogs barking everywhere in the background and, of course, Alistair... it does the heart good. I don't quite yet know who Devin Tabris is going to be (though she killed Vaughan with gusto, and while she had less than zero interest in an arranged marriage, she still put on the wedding ring that was on Nelarose's body -- all that must mean something), but I look forward to getting to know her.

owlmoose: (marvel - daisy and mack)

And so this series makes a triumphant (maybe) return, after nearly a year away.

Agents of SHIELD, Season 7: This wrapped up many months ago, but we only got around to watching it recently. I found Season 6 a little disjointed and overly complex, and jarring in how it seems to have decoupled from the timeline of the movies, and T seemed even less interested in getting back into it, especially after the Season 7 premiere, which I liked well enough but he didn't find inspiring. But we finally picked it back up again a couple of weeks ago, and once we got to the third episode, the plot picked up some steam and we got more invested. Does anyone care about AoS spoilers? Well, I'll cut anyway. )

I enjoyed the finale, and I'll probably rewatch the whole series again someday to see how it all hangs together (rewatching the first two seasons was certainly rewarding).

Outlander, Seasons 1-2: I actually watched the first half of Season 1 shortly after it aired, but since it wasn't on any of my streaming services then (I bought those episodes on iTunes to watch on a plane trip/vacation), I didn't watch the rest, and to be honest I wasn't sure I even wanted to see the scenes of rape and torture that I knew were coming -- I've read the first four books in the series many times, so I'm familiar with all the beats. But seeing that the first three seasons were on Netflix, I decided to give it a shot. It's reasonably good, although there are SO MANY changes from the books, and not all of them are effective -- there are moments and lines and a few entire set pieces that I kept waiting for and missed. And although I understand why they took some scenes away from other characters and gave them to Jack Randall (presumably to give Tobias Menzes more to do -- and to be fair he is quite brilliant in the role, possibly the best-cast of all the main characters, as both Jack and Frank), more Jack Randall is not why I read these stories. Overall, I wouldn't say it's a bad adaptation, but it's not quite what I wanted, either.

Recipe for Seduction: This is the 15-minute Lifetime/KFC "movie" featuring Mario Lopez as Colonel Sanders, wearing possibly the worst fake mustache of all time. I watched it on a Discord stream with some friends, laughing and mocking the entire time, which is the only way to watch it. Otherwise, if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the whole thing, and there's no need to seek out the rest.

owlmoose: (avengers - natasha)
Finally, we have our Black Widow movie.

I can't say I want this as much now as I wanted it five years ago, but heck yeah I still want it. And this looks pretty promising. A mostly-female cast and heavy Natasha backstory? Yes please.

May 2020.
owlmoose: (marvel - daisy and mack)
Agents of SHIELD, Season 6: We started watching this season more or less as it aired, then ended up taking a bit of a break from it before finishing it up over the last couple of weeks. Overall it was a pretty decent season, although a distinct step down from its strongest work (my favorite stretches are from S1 after the turn through S2 and most of S4). Though I like Coulson perfectly well, I wish they'd figured out a way to let the character and actor exit gracefully rather than finding excuses to keep bringing him back. I'm far more interested in Daisy, in Mack and Yo-Yo, in May's own journey, and in the workings of SHIELD as a whole. The hard left turn in the finale, and where it's taken them to set up the next season, is pretty interesting. Although I've enjoyed this show, I'm not sorry S7 is its last -- I feel like they've taken most of the characters about as far as they can go, and it no longer feels cohesive with the movie storylines. So I'm ready for it to end.

Arrowverse: I'm now a few episodes into Arrow S7 and The Flash S5. I also rewatched a fair number of Legends and Supergirl S3, although I expect to watch fewer of each going forward because neither of them seems to have many strong ties to the larger 'verse. Spoilers for everything. )
owlmoose: (ffx2 - crimson squad)
One of my writing goals for 2019 was to write something about all the media I consume: books, shorter fiction, TV, movies, narrative games, etc. Books have been going pretty well, as has short fiction, but visual media has been pretty much a loss -- except for the MCU rewatch project and a few other films seen in theaters, I've not really managed to do this at all. So when I set my goals for July, one was to start a weekly media round-up post habit. Although I targeted Fridays in that post, for various reasons I decided to try for Monday instead -- not least the excuse to come up with an alliterative column title. :) So, here goes! Goes back to the first week of July.

Spider-Man: Far From Home: After enjoying Homecoming far more than I had thought possible, and seeing Peter Parker as one of the bright lights of Infinity War, seeing Far From Home on opening weekend was a foregone conclusion. Not quite as delightful as Homecoming, but that's a high bar. I appreciated how it dealt with some of the fallout from Infinity War and Endgame, in particular how they affected Peter, Happy, and Aunt May. Ned and MJ continue to be delightful. Do not miss the post-credits scenes of this one, because they blow the MCU wide open in terms of where Phase 4 might go next. This is a mega-spoiler so I will cut it. )

Supergirl, Season 4: I watched the first half of the season pretty much as it aired, then fell out of the habit after the annual Arrowverse crossover. Now that the entire season is on Netflix, I picked it back up with Episode 10 and have now watched through Episode 19. The main theme of this season -- anti-alien sentiment being whipped up out of fear and hatred is wrong and bad -- is not remotely subtle, but I suppose subtle is not what we need right now. It is deeply weird to see Bruce Boxleitner playing a xenophobic president who uses anti-alien rhetoric to consolidate his power. (John Sheridan would have come down to Earth and kicked his ass weeks ago.) I adore Nicole Maines as Nia Nal, who I'm pretty sure is the first out trans actress playing an out trans superhero in mainstream media, and the romance they're setting up with her and Brainy is adorable. I only have a few episodes left, so I hope to finish it soon.

...And I'm probably forgetting some things, which is why it's a good idea to write these on a weekly basis. But that's all that comes to mind, so I'll wrap up now. See you next Monday!

April 2025

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