Weaboos: We Want Anime to Be Real!

James Cameron: Say no more.

I'm hyped for Alita, tbh.

 

To make her look like anime. That's literally it.

 

So I saw Darkest Hour on Saturday. It's very good.

(And it has Lily James in it, which would have been enough on its own to make the movie worth seeing.)

The acting and the visuals are great. The plot is perhaps a bit slow moving, given that this period of time is meant to be a crisis, but if you're interested in the material that's not a problem.

There are two scenes, near the end, that are incredibly powerful. I cried like a little patriotic baby. Perhaps they won't have the same impact on a non-Brit, but I think the "weaponisation of the English language" will be moving for everyone, especially if you're French or American.

The "fight them on the beaches" speech has always been an excellent speech, but the barrier of 1940s recording technology has always prevented it from having its full impact with today's generation. In Darkest Hour you see and hear it as it should be seen and heard, and boy does it pack a punch. I also like that they don't cut it short like they have in some movies, so you still get what is perhaps the most powerful line of them all:

 

I'll be seeing it this week, can't wait.

Have you seen Lithgow's Churchill? Who does it better?

 

I also thoroughly enjoyed The Darkest Hour. It's my kinda thing.

 

So, I saw Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri last night. It was spectacular. It has an excellent cast with some bigger names like Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, Woody Harrelson, and Frances McDormand. It won a Golden Globe I think.

Admittedly, it was released late last year here in the states, but it was just released in the UK.

It’s a crime drama that is wonderfully written and acted. It combines some spectacular gallows humor with some poignant moments of extremely visceral drama that left my date and I with sad little smiles as we left the theater.

 

I saw that last week, and yeah, it's really good. There's been a certain amount of backlash to it after an initial rave response, and it feels like people just aren't used to properly complex, multi-faceted characters in (relatively) mainstream cinema anymore. Definitely worth a watch.

 

People really, really don't like giving racists any positive aspects. Despite the film basically being about shitty people period.

It was easily my favorite film of the year, but in terms of more negative reviews I think Wesley Morris probably had the most legit one

 

Went to see Greatest Showman over the weekend.

I'm a Brit, so whilst I'd heard of PT Barnum before, I didn't actually know anything about him, other than the link to the circus. A quick check online after coming back says the story isn't really close to how any of it happened, which appears to be something people disliked with it.

I quite liked it. Jackman's a good lead, and the songs weren't too out there or anything - I've found musicals can be either really good, or absolutely shit. A few of the songs have been bouncing around my head since then, and I'm not completely sick of them.

Some issues with pacing - quite a few timeskips, and whilst early ones are relatively easy to judge, based on the age of the characters, I've no idea what sort of timescale the story unfolded over.

Not a must see by any means, but if the trailer caught your attention, then maybe worth a punt.

 

The Shape of Water finally entered theaters, and as soon as I saw it, I dashed to go see it. I've been trying to see it for two months.

I didn't like it.

This is probably because I thought the premise was very interesting and I like cold war settings, but I overlooked the huge bold letters saying, “THIS IS A ROMANCE FAIRYTALE.” Romances aren’t my thing at all, and it impacted the way I saw the movie.

Spoiler

Characterization was mixed. Liked the supporting cast, liked the antagonist. Didn’t really buy Elisa and Fishman’s relationship. She seemed immediately interested in him and wasn’t afraid of him at all. People online say that maybe she was just a fishman too, or some sort of subspecies, but ehhh. I bought Fishman was intelligent but once Elisa and him started the sexual relationship, I wondered how into this Fishman actually was. He did show some interest, but because the relationship moved so fast, it seemed Elisa’s feelings were much stronger than his. If there were more scenes of them bonding before the breakout, I’d feel better about this.

The ending isn’t happy. Sure, maybe Elisa survived and went to go live as Fishman’s wife in South America, but no matter what, her two good friends who she left behind are still screwed. I was in shock when Zelda showed up the police. What the fuck was she doing? This is why crimes against prostitutes aren’t reported, because prostitutes will get in trouble because they’re going against the law while this is happening. It’s the same thing here, but way worse. I get you want to have backup, but in the 60s? A black woman is calling the cops in America? Jesus.

As far as I can tell, here’s the details of this ending:

One soldier is dead by lethal injection. At the time, he was talking to the driver of a van that’s caught on camera.

One other probably high-ranking guy got his throat cut (rip).

Three dead guys will be found outside of town, and since the antagonist had his subordinates watching one of the guys, I don’t think it’ll be a hard leap to figure out they’re Russian spies since they were already being suspected.

A black woman and a gay man, one who worked at the same facility this shit went down at, are left at the scene of the murder of the antagonist, a white guy. Another woman who worked there is missing. Antagonist’s gun had fired a lot of bullets and is probably still in his hand.

Like, best case scenario, Fishman’s disappearance is blamed on the Russians, and maybe antagonist went insane and tried attacking uninvolved people.

But that one soldier is still dead, and the same van that showed on the cameras belongs to Giles (I think. I doubt he stole it). Someone still killed the antagonist. If it’s the Fishman, then why are all these apparently involved people at the scene?

The last point is that the general, who seems dumb and trigger-happy, will be out for blood.

And minorities are easy targets. Especially ones with evidence against them.

So, yeah, this concludes Vira’s Nitpick Corner.

5.5/10.

 

Solo trailer dropped this morning. TV spot aired last night during the Super Bowl. Party I was at went apeshit.

I'm hype, obviously, but cautious. Given the dialogue in the trailer, I'm not entirely sold on the actor who plays Han. Time will tell, I guess.

Glover looks fucking dope as Lando though. Smug AF.

 

He doesn't have the presence, voice, or swagger of Harrison Ford. That means he needs to reinvent the character and make the part his own. Not saying it's impossible, but it's definitely an uphill climb. No matter how good he is, I doubt it'll be received well by the long time fans. It's really tough to replace an iconic character, especially this soon after his last appearance.

(I'm prefacing this by saying I'm not a gigantic mando-fan... at least not the Travis kind) I think a Boba Fett movie would have been a safer pick to do for a stand-alone movie... much like Kenobi will be in a couple of years.

Still, I'll see it, and probably enjoy it for what it is.

 

Who gives a shit about Solo, Mission Impossible 6 has a trailer out. In the trailer: Tom Cruise running, Tom Cruise on a bike--all the great things us fans want from Mission Impossible.

Seriously though, this franchise is 20 years old and has consistently delivered across 5 movies so far, even 2--the weakest one--was entertaining. That's a respectable track record. Regardless of how crazy Tom Cruise may be off-screen, you know he will give a 100% and do ridiculous practical stunts as long as he's able to. Next to Infinity War and Fantastic Beasts, this is one of my hype trains for 2018.

 

A mixture of different forms of media, but these are all the things I'm looking forward to in 2018, including video games, studio originals, and movies.

The Looming Tower (Hulu Special)
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (Prime Special)
Westworld Season 2 (HBO Special)
God of War IV (Ps4 Exclusive)
Red Dead Redemption 2
Soldado (Sicario Sequel)
Waco (Paramount Exclusive)

 

I watched Sicario and found half of the movie to be great, half to be boring. Maybe I'm just over the Hurt Locker/Zero Dark Thirty phase now--handheld footage of nightvision/infrared/whatever soldiers Going Somewhere, where I can't actually see shit and don't know what's going on. Like, obviously the highway shootout--master class of build up and tension. But I was falling asleep through the whole painfully drawn out journey to the drug lord's dinner table.

Arrival (another film by the same director) was also hit and miss for me, more miss than hit, actually. The only film of his that I've seen and enjoyed from start to finish was Prisoners.

 

It's a little thing, but I just really liked the audio at 42~44 seconds, or so, with the background music and the switches being flipped. Overall, as others have said, I'm not entirely sold on the actor, but who knows. This is only a glimpse of the film, after all, and some of his lines were delivered well.

 

Can we just fucking get a Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan movie already?

 

Oh god yes.

 

I really liked BR2049 but the other two I've seen (Sicario and Arrival) suffered from an absolutely idiotic mid film plot twist to create tension which tonedr the whole experience