Movie Review: Rebel Moon (Part 2)

Yeah, I said I probably wasn't going to watch this after watching Part 1, but I did. So how was it? 

First of all, there was a bit of swearing, but not much. PG-13 level. 1 f-bomb, a few other swears. Not a lot. So parents searching for "curse" words, you've been warned, but it's not bad. 

This was more of the same. 

There were some cool visuals and action sequences, but not as many as in Part 1. 

There were ham-fisted attempts at characterization. Sorry, this is a bit spoilery, but it's at the beginning so I'm not spoiling much. They literally go around the table with each "hero" telling their sad tragic backstory with flashback. And no, they don't actually make me feel more invested in each hero. Except Kora, the main character. She had an additional flashback during a love scene (didn't they do that in part 1 as well? I think so...). During the group therapy session, she clams up. 

King Kong had better character development in Godzilla x Kong (which I saw just before leaving for the USA, and enjoyed, I should write about it). 

The villains are cartoonishly bad. They should be menacing, but they're just kind of pathetic. Why isn't the Resistance mopping them up across the galaxy?

So many plot holes. 

So many predictable developments. I was literally thinking, "Oh, this should happen next" and it does, quite a few times. 

They took the basic framework of 7 Samurai, but other adaptations ranging from The Magnificent Seven to Battle Beyond the Stars have made you at least feel invested in the seven heroes. I don't need to know what it was that Robert Vaughn's character did to feel an attachment to a guy trying to redeem himself. I just need to know that he did some shit and now this is his last chance to make up for it. 

Part 1 at least had some interesting visuals and action scenes to just sit back and enjoy the eye candy. Part 2 felt pretty flat, although the conclusion was done in a way that makes you feel the triumph of their victory (yeah, spoiler, but you knew they were gonna win)...until something happens that seems like it should be a reversal...and then predictable deus ex machina saves the day after all. 

And of course, there's set-up for a sequel. 

I really wouldn't waste your time on this. I had two hours to kill Saturday morning, but even if you are in a similar position, find something else to watch. It's disappointing.

Movie Capsule Review: Dune Part 2 with bonus Lynch 84 Dune notes

Last Thursday, I showed the boys the 1984 David Lynch Dune movie. I hadn't seen it since I was pretty young (late teens or early 20s?). I'd forgotten or hadn't realized back then that it was acted and directed much like as if it were a stage production. Sparse sets, heavily enunciated, etc. And of course, watching it now, the personal shields make the characters look like Minecraft or Roblox characters. 

Still, I enjoyed it. It is suitably weird, and while many of the effects do look dated, I think the sandworms hold up after all these years. Plus, you've got to love Patrick Stewart as Gurney. But this film's version of Duncan Idaho really gets treated poorly. If you hadn't read the books you'd wonder why we should even care about his death. 

Oh, then on Saturday, Flynn and I went to see the new Villeneuve Dune Part 2. 

I liked it, and so did he. It has good production values, and it's pretty well acted. In particular, Christopher Walken is restrained as Emperor Shaddam IV, which is good. Maybe it's his age, maybe it's the directing, but wacko Walken of yesteryear would not have worked for this. 

The film follows the book more closely than the 84 film, but then being split into two parts allows for that. And it has been quite a while since I've read the book, so some of my memories of it could be off, but in this film, Paul is very reluctant to 'go south' and lead the Fremen for a good part of the movie, which I don't remember it being such a big character point in the book. Maybe it's time to read it again, though, I may be misremembering. Other than that, I enjoyed it. 

Is it my favorite sci-fi movie of all time? No, but it was definitely worth the wait from part 1. And having just recently (finally) read Dune Messiah, I'm looking forward to the Part 3 coming in a few years.

Movie Review: Rebel Moon (part 1)

On Friday, my older son and I watched the new Zack Snyder film on Netflix, Rebel Moon (part 1). 

For those who don't know, this started out as a pitch for a Star Wars film that Lucasfilm rejected. 

And for those of you wondering if it has curse words, not really. Other than the violence and one attempted rape scene (no nudity), it's pretty kid friendly. 

Now I'm not a huge Snyder fan, but I've enjoyed some of his works in the past. So I was curious to see what he would have done with a Star Wars film. Obviously, this film has been changed. The serial numbers have been filed off, but I also assume some things have been changed story-wise as well since it was pitched to Disney/Lucasfilm. But the curiosity was there. 

While watching, at first, Flynn kept puzzling over what era of Star Wars this would have been set in, if LF had picked it up. Was it Palpatine's Empire? The Sith Empire? Some future era? The opening narration tells us that it happens after 100 kings had ruled (or was it 1000?) but that could easily have changed from the original SW version. Were the Bloodaxe siblings originally Luke and Leia? Probably not. We never could figure it out.

Anyway, about the film itself: we were both disappointed by it. 

I don't want to spoil things, so I'll just say this: the pacing was slow and plodding, which you'd expect from a more character driven piece. But there was little to no character development, and most characters were introduced in a way that didn't give us much emotional involvement with them. The ending wasn't a surprise, and didn't really leave me thrilled to have spent two hours watching this thing. 

Snyder is known for his cool visuals, and this film was lacking in that as well. The CGI and the settings looked OK, but they used camera settings that hyper-focused certain things and left the periphery looking like vaseline was smeared over the lens. At first, I thought it was my eyes or a smudge on my glasses, but no, it was the way the movie was shot. And when there were big action/adventure set pieces, they weren't that amazing. Fairly run of the mill, really. 

I'm not sure if I'll bother with Part 2 when it comes out in a few months. 

Would I recommend it? Not really, but if you're already paying for Netflix and you've got a few hours to spare, it's not the worst thing you could watch. There are a few things you might be able to pull from it as gaming inspiration, but don't expect to be taken away to a place long, long ago in a galaxy far away.  For all of George Lucas' faults as a writer/director, the worst of his Star Wars movies are still better than this.

Why People Are Upset with the MCU (And how that relates to high level gaming)

In 2008, the same year we moved to Korea and my first son was born, Iron Man debuted in theaters, and The Hulk (Ed Norton...remember that?) not long after. And the MCU was born. This led to an eventually more and more interconnected series of films based on the Marvel comics, culminating in Avengers Infinity War in 2018 and Endgame in 2019. 

Right before Covid19. 

And since Endgame, we've not only had covid delaying projects, we had the release of Disney+ streaming with more MCU content in the forms of limited series and one shot special presentations along with the movies. And in this post-Endgame MCU, lots of fans have been underwhelmed. I've been enjoying most of it, but it's hard to follow something as cathartic as Endgame. Say what you will about the quality of the movie itself as a film, as a culmination of 11 years of interconnected storytelling, it was a satisfying way to wrap up that story arch. 

And then Marvel had to keep putting out more content. 

I think they've been making the right moves. They've diversified the types of content they're putting out, both as types of media properties, and with regard to the types of stories they're telling and the characters they're bringing in to the MCU. We've got intense character-driven drama (WandaVision), typical action adventure fare (Shang-Chi, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Hawkeye), horror-tinged superheroics (Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Werewolf by Night), comic action (Loki, Ms. Marvel), 4th wall breaking comedy (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), along with continuing some of the previous popular franchises (Guardians of the Galaxy [done well], Thor: Love and Thunder [not done very well]), and even working in previous Marvel movie properties (Spider-Man No Way Home, The Marvels) within the MCU's new Multiverse phase. 

None of these projects really come close to the feeling of culmination that Endgame brought the long-time fans, although GotG3 and Spider-Man No Way Home come close. And that's upset a lot of fans. And then there are the chuds who think every project with a female or POC lead is pandering to the "Woke Mob" or some garbage. But they'd be upset no matter what Marvel does, since outrage leads to social media engagement. Let's ignore them and focus on the fans who are just feeling a bit let down because the drama isn't cranked up to 11 on these projects. 

How does this relate to high level D&D? Isn't it obvious? 

Look at Marvel Comics. I don't know any comic fans that try to follow every single book Marvel (or DC or Image or whichever comics company you follow) puts out. Not every book suits everyone's tastes, and it's okay to follow those you like and not those you don't. 

The current state of the MCU is pretty much the same. Before Infinity War/Endgame, everyone was pretty much on the same page. You had to watch the movies. All of them. The TV shows were optional (I still haven't seen Agent Carter, The Inhumans, Cloak and Dagger...I did watch Agents of SHIELD and all the Daredevil Netflix related shows). Now, though, not every movie is for the entire audience. Not every show or special is for the entire audience. It's OK to pick and choose. There is variety. 

Your campaign should be similar to the comics or the current MCU. There should be all sorts of things going on in your campaign. Different types of things. Sometimes, every player will be interested in something going on. Sometimes, some players will and others won't. Sometimes, no one will be interested. And that's all good. 

If you're playing a high level game, as I've mentioned before, not every player needs to be involved in every game session. Each player should be able to follow their own interests. Maybe a subset of PCs will be interested in a common thing, and they can game together. Sometimes, everyone gets together to forward some common goal. But the campaign should cease to be built around the idea of all the players getting together each week or fortnight to game as a unit. 

If you've built your game up to basically focus on this small group of heroes and their antics, and then you suddenly try to diversify the campaign now that you're at high levels and the typical dungeon raid is losing it's appeal, you're going to run into some of the bumpiness that the MCU fandom has been going through the past three years or so. But you can get through it, if you stick with it. If you're not at that climax moment of the campaign yet, start diversifying it now (ideas for adventure/challenge diversity in that link). 

Trust me, if you do start diversifying the campaign now, then after the PCs have finally toppled Drol Krad the Dark Lord, they will still have many irons in the fire for them to pursue after the campaign's "endgame" and they can start the real endgame of the campaign: Domains. Political Intrigue. Leadership. Quests. Personal Ambitions. Planar Exploration. Epic Challenges. Building Legacies.

Reviews: Loki Season 2, The Marvels

This week, we had both the season 2 finale (possibly series finale?) of Loki on Disney+, and the premier of the newest MCU film, The Marvels. This is a spoiler-free review of both. 

Obligatory "Curse" Word Notice for Parents: The Marvels has a few mild swears. Loki as well. Nothing much to worry about. 

Loki Season 2

I really like how this show played out in the second season. I really enjoyed the first season, as well. 

In season 2, we see Loki and companions finding out about what the TVA really is, and is not, and it had a few surprising twists along the way. There were great comedic performances from Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, Key Huy Quan, and the rest of the cast, and some bits of good emotional/dramatic acting as well. 

I may have mentioned this in my Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania review, but I'm bummed that Jonathan Majors may be out as Kang, because he is (despite being an accused abuser) very talented and does a great job as Kang/He Who Remains/Victor Timely. But if Marvel/Disney need to replace him with another actor, or find a way to switch to another villain like Dr. Doom, I can handle it. 

Dealing with characters who are "outside" of time, where time is a constant flat circle to those outside its frame of reference, is difficult, and there were definitely times when I thought, wait a minute... But the show made sense in general, and the emotional through-line was satisfying. 

The Marvels

The family just saw this yesterday. My older son and I enjoyed it. It's not a top tier MCU film, but it's solid and entertaining, in our opinions. My younger son proclaimed it "mid" and my wife (who wasn't all that impressed by the Ms. Marvel show, but who did enjoy the first Captain Marvel movie) didn't like it that much. 

While overall, it's a fun movie, and the plot is interesting, there is a bit of unevenness in the acting. Iman Velani is hamming it up, and really makes the film, as Kamala Khan. Kamala's family, just like in the D+ show, are also really fun to watch. Brie Larson, who in general I find to be a good actress, seemed to be phoning it in, though. Every emotion was muted. In scenes where Carol Danvers had some emotional struggle, she wasn't overly upset, wasn't overly happy, wasn't overly embarrassed... She was a bit too Zen. 

And I think the editing of the movie, while it did cut the fat and make it speed by, rendered some other parts a bit off-putting. Sam Jackson's Nick Fury is a big part of the movie...except it feels like he's hardly in the movie. He does stuff. People do stuff around him. But it never really quite feels like he's fully part of the story for some reason. There was a big focus on developing the character in Captain Marvel, and maybe they thought with the release coming so soon after Secret Invasion that they didn't need to play up the Nick Fury side of things, but he could have been replaced with generic S.A.B.E.R. Agent and it wouldn't have changed anything. The nameless (Asgardian?) S.A.B.E.R. agent that Yusuf tries to talk into investing for retirement could have filled the role. 

On the plus side, Zawe Ashton's villain Dar-Ben had a plausible beef with Captain Marvel, and a sinister and crafty plan that made sense and would put her in the "hero" role for the Kree. And that role didn't need a ton of backstory to make it plausible and understandable, either. 

Oh, and of course there is a fun final scene, and a mid-credit scene that tease future projects and provide a LOT of fan service. 

________________

My recommendation? If you haven't seen Loki, watch it. It's fun, funny, and charming. It's the best MCU thing that has been on Disney+. 

The Marvels is good, but not amazing. If you're feeling super-hero fatigue, I won't blame you if you skip it. The stuff with Kamala Khan and her family may make it worth the price of admission if you enjoyed their show. Otherwise, it's a fairly by-the-numbers comic book hero movie.

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

 I just finished watching the new, and final, Indiana Jones film. I won't spoil it, but I'll give a few thoughts. 

And for parents wondering about curse words in the film, rest assured, this is as family friendly as Indy has always been. 

I, like many people my age, grew up with the original Indiana Jones trilogy, and love those movies. And while they're set in the modern age, they've got a lot that can be emulated in D&D. The movies are, after all, about a treasure hunter. But also like most of us, I felt that the 4th film, which came out 15 years ago, was terrible. It had some of the style of the old movies, but not enough. It relied overly much on CGI (which wasn't always that good), and had a clunky script. 

But this latest and final movie learned from those mistakes. And it's not surprising, as it's directed by James Mangold, who knows how to make a great movie. 

This iteration of Indiana Jones is of course much older, but we do get some time at the beginning with a digitally de-aged Indy during WWII, and it looked really good. It felt a lot like Spielberg's original trilogy. The whole movie, really. Even once it transitions to the "present" of 1969, they quickly move the action to the Mediterranean Sea, where things are a bit older and less modern than 60's New York City. 

The movie has all the plot points you'd expect from an Indy film. Lots of chases, reversals, switching possession of the McGuffin, clever escapes from dangerous situations, bad guys who just won't stop, and tension between Indy and his allies. One down-side is that the movie is nearly 3 hours long. That's a bit much, but the movie does keep things moving so it wasn't boring. And Harrison Ford was still able to pull off that Indiana Jones charm one more time. 

In addition to all the swashbuckling, derring-do, and such, Indiana Jones is given an emotional character arc in the movie, but that part was a little weak. It's set up and worked into his character choices in the film, but in the end it gets resolved a little too quickly, and not by a choice made by Jones. But we really come to these movies for the chases, the crawls through old ruins and tombs, and the excitement. So it doesn't bother me too much. Indy didn't really have much character growth in the first two films, either. 

There are only a few references to the older movies (and that includes Crystal Skull), but there were some nice cameos from some of our favorite characters. One was noticeably missing, though. Too bad. 

Now that Ford is retiring the character, I'd love to see a reboot of the series, but not a rehash of the old films. I'd rather they do what they do with James Bond. Cast a new young actor. Make more Indiana Jones films set in the 1930s. Hell, they don't need to stick to any sort of timeline. Just give us some good early 20th century cliffhanger serial style adventure films, and every few years recast Indy with a new, younger actor. Why not? Disney has the property now, you know they're going to try and milk it for all it's worth. Might as well dive feet first into what really works. 

Oh, and an interesting side note. Neither of my boys were interested in seeing it, so I went by myself. There were maybe around six or seven fellow geezers (yeah, I'm not quite that old, but...) in the theater. When I arrived, there were around 100 6th graders hanging around the lobby. I thought they were probably going to see Across the Spiderverse as a school trip (my younger son's school is right now on a science museum field trip, must be field trip day in Busan). But no, they were here to see this movie. And there were more than 100. The theater was packed with them, and I think there were 180 seats. While they were somewhat noisy and disruptive, they were having fun. And when the movie finished, a lot of them started to applaud.

Multiversal Movie Micro Reviews

 Just a quick post to discuss briefly two movies I've watched. Gaming is going well, and work on the GM guide for TS&R is going really slow (too much real work to do), so not much directly game related to blog about at the moment. So we get this instead. 

And yes, today I'm going to give my quick capsule reviews, spoiler free, for Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse from Sony/Marvel, and The Flash from Warner/DC. 

For parents worried about cursing: I don't remember any horrible swears in Spider-Man. The Flash had the one allowed F-bomb for a PG13 film, right at the end, and not a lot of other swearing. 

Across the Spiderverse (AtSV) is of course the sequel to Into the Spiderverse from a few years back. As with the first movie, I really love the mixing and unconventional use of animation styles in this movie. It's just a pleasure to watch from a visual arts perspective. It uses colors, art styles, meta details like art direction notes, and even frame rates to make each world and each version of Spider-Man distinct and interesting. I really enjoyed watching this up until the ending. The story is good, but not as tight as ItSV. It's got that "middle of the trilogy" problem that we saw in The Matrix or the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, where the first movie was a solid standalone story with potential for more, but the second and third installments are really one big story so you need to wait for the conclusion. That said, it was a solid film otherwise, and it has me excited for the conclusion. 

The Flash is the possibly final entry to the current DCEU movie line (I think there's some TV shows left as well) before James Gunn takes over and relaunches things. I've never been as big of a DC fan as I am a Marvel fan from my comics reading days, but the Flash has always been my favorite DC character. This movie actually does something I found really cool, in that while telling its own self-contained story, it also sets up the possibility of multiversal rebooting, which would allow the upcoming Gunn line of DCU movies/shows to take what they like from the Snyderverse and ditch the rest. As a story on its own merits, it was entertaining, and I don't want to spoil things, but it was a bit refreshing that the main conflict for Barry Allen/The Flash Prime in the end was internal, and the external challenges are really resolved by all the other characters. It seems like they learned from the mistakes of Wonder Woman, which should have had internal conflict front and center in the end, but was just a big punch-out instead. 

Both of these movies, by their multiversal nature, spend a lot of time referencing previous media involving their main characters, which is always a lot of fun. I think both of these films handle multiverse concepts better than either Spider-Man: No Way Home or Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did. Of the two, AtSV is the better movie, but The Flash wasn't bad.

Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Yesterday (Friday) was Children's Day, so the boys had the day off from school. We celebrated by seeing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and having lunch at a pizza/salad bar buffet. Oh, and I ran a session of Star Wars d6, but I'll save that for another post. Let's talk about the movie! 

First off, since Google searches for movie title + curse word tend to direct people here, if you're worried about curse words in a movie, this one had a small amount, but as you may have heard, Star Lord drops the first F-bomb in the MCU. It wasn't where I would have expected it to be, and so it comes off as rather inconsequential. So anyway, be warned if you don't want your kids to hear that kind of language.

How was the movie? So good. There is an interesting plot line, not a ton of exposition at the beginning but you don't need it anyway, and the emotional stakes are clear through the movie. And they don't all resolve the way I expected them to resolve, which was a nice touch. 

I've got to say, like a lot of other people, I thought Phase 4 of the MCU was weak. And maybe it's just hard to follow something like Infinity War/End Game with lesser stakes, lesser intensity movies. And Phase 4 was also an expansion/set-up phase, which Marvel needs. They can't just keep milking the same characters forever if they want to keep audiences involved. I thought Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a step back towards the sorts of movies we expect (although it has some flaws). This movie, though, was not just getting back, it was overdoing it. 

I don't want to give any spoilers this early after the movie's release, but as I said, the movie makes you care for these characters and their troubles, and forces them to confront a lot of issues, but it's also got that GotG humor throughout. The movie has lots of crazy locations and action set pieces, an interesting and differently motivated villain, interesting new characters, some old familiar supporting characters returning, and a lot of heart. James Gunn knows how to make a movie, and I'm actually looking forward to him setting the DC hero movies on the right track after the years of whatever they've been doing (which mostly hasn't worked for me). 

Go see this movie. Even if you're sick of Marvel, even if you're not a fan of comic book movies, go see this. It's a rare trilogy ender that is better than the previous two entries.

Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves review

Yesterday morning, the boys and I took in an early showing of the new D&D movie. We went to a morning show because after lunch, we met up with the group for my TS&R Jade game. The game went well. We had a new player, Philip who has been playing in my Star Wars campaign tried D&D for the first time. Nate & Denis, plus my boys, and Denis' daughter Renee (who played Goldie the Fairy Princess in my West Marches game) also showed up. Philip and Renee needed new characters, and Flynn (my older boy) forgot his character sheet, so we needed to roll up 3 new PCs for the game. But despite that, they still managed to make their first foray into The Pits of Lao, the micro-megadungeon near the home town (300 keyed areas over 3 levels, but no plans to expand it further, so micro-mega). They found one of the "special" special rooms, where they had chances to compete in various challenges to raise their ability scores...at the risk of dropping them if they lost. Some winners, some losers. Lots of fun. They also managed to talk or sneak their way past every other encounter, and steal a bit of treasure on the way, so all in all a good session! 

But you're probably here to read about the movie, not my game. And of course, since internet searches for "curse words in movie x" often end up here, there were some swearing in the movie, but not too much. Several instances of thematically appropriate or comically timed "shit" but no f-bombs. That's about it. 

So, how did we like it? Overall, it was entertaining. Compared to the bar set by the D&D movies of 20 years ago, it was amazing! But that's a pretty low bar. Compared to other classic or more modern fantasy films, it was decent, but not amazing. 

The casting and acting was pretty good. Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez are charming and funny as the leads. Hugh Grant is having a blast hamming it up as the con-man turned nobleman. The other supporting actors all turned in good performances. 

The special effects were fine. Nothing amazing. The magical effects and monsters looked pretty good, but they weren't the best CGI I've ever seen. Sometimes it was just very apparent that it was an animated thing. While I think some early CGI movies (the original Jurassic Park, the Lord of the Rings trilogy) have effects that still look pretty good all these years later, I don't know if these effects will still look so good down the road. But for now, they're good enough. Better than a lot of the stuff in Quantumania (a film I enjoyed, but it's pretty much 2 hours of CGI soup to look at). 

The story was very appropriate to D&D, and all the fun little references and Easter eggs were fun to try and spot. There wasn't anything in the film that isn't established in D&D already as far as magic or monsters go, which is a plus for fans of the game. 

But while I've seen some people online praising this move, there's one thing I found it annoying and caused the first half of the movie to drag and be a bit boring. Every time a main character gets introduced, there's a big exposition scene. Now, that is kind of like what happens in some peoples' games when a new character joins the party. And so that does kind of fit in a D&D movie that's trying to play out like it could be a game of D&D without the 4th wall breaks of a movie like The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. But as a guy who has studied how to make a movie, it was a bit grating. My boys found it pretty boring at first, too, and they have not studied screenwriting. I've been thinking of all the ways they could have shown us the backstories without having to tell them to us. And in some instances, the whole "backstory" flashback was just to set up a joke later in the movie which was extra annoying.

The second half of the movie was much better. It focused on the characters having to overcome their personal issues while trying to overcome the external challenges of the film, which is what makes for good cinema. And the ending was suitably emotionally engaging (if predictable). There were a lot of jokes in the movie. Some hit, some missed. I'd say for me more hit than missed. The potatoes usually hit. ;)

We liked it, but none of us came out of the theater loving it. It was fun. It was alright. I'd watch it again when it comes up on streaming (if it's on one of the services we subscribe to). And if they made a sequel, I'd go see it. But I wouldn't go spend money to see it again in the theater.

The movie, huh? And TS&R Updates

So it's been 10 days since my last post. I figure I should put something up here on the old blog. But I don't have a lot to say about gaming at the moment. 

My last Star Wars session (on the 12th) went really well. They managed to avoid some of the complications and finish everything I'd prepped in just that one session. They did some pre-planning before the session started, and that allowed me to get some of the fiddly logistics out of the way (ship upgrades, droid purchases, trading the Inquisitor's shuttle for a Z-95 Headhunter to run escort for their YT-1300 freighter, etc.) before the session started. Then they managed to leverage their various skills to slip through an Imperial blockade, pick up a group of Mandalorians including an armorer who could forge the beskar steel they found in the previous game, and then run a con with the blockade just long enough to plot a course into hyperspace and jump out seconds before getting intercepted by TIE Fighters and engaged with by Star Destroyer long range guns. They got the Mandos to the 4th Moon of Bogden (where once upon a time Jango Fett was hired to be a clone donor), and after a run-in with a pair of pickpockets running a damsel in distress con, got their weapons/armor upgraded in thanks. Mandalore has been destroyed in the Night of 1000 Tears though, so that will have some ramifications going forward in the game. 

I've been watching The Mandalorian season 3, and liking it so far. It's a bit different feel than the previous two seasons, but so far I'm interested in what they'll do with the story now. Also, season 2 of the Bad Batch, which is not quite as interesting as season 1 was. Maybe it will pick up in the final few episodes? 

I had originally planned to wait and binge watch season 3 of Star Trek Picard. Season 2 was so-so, so I hadn't been too eager for it, despite knowing that most of the TNG cast would be appearing. But then I heard some good buzz from friends, so started in on it. It's definitely better than S1 or S2 so far, but the whole "dark and gritty" tone of modern Trek, and the emphasis on trying to tell cool stories rather than interesting (pseudo) scientific stories, just doesn't work as well for me. Maybe I should start in on Strange New Worlds. I haven't watched any of that yet, but I hear it's more like classic Trek. 

And on the movie side of things, Shazam 2 is out, but we haven't seen it yet. I really liked the first Shazam. It's the best DCEU film. But we were busy this past weekend with a lot of stuff, so it's still on the to-watch list. And the D&D movie seems to be out in the US, at least in some markets. I've seen people posting about it on Facebook. But it's not out in Korea yet. We'll definitely go see it. It looks fun, and from what I've been reading on social media, it's a decent adventure comedy film, although not so "D&D" other than a lot of fan service thrown in. 

Back to gaming, other than Star Wars, I'm still working on my TS&R Ruby books. The players book could be released as is, but I think I should read over it one more time. I always find a few small mistakes. Also, I don't have any equipment illustrations like the Jade book has, but then the Jade book's ones are my poorly hand-drawn efforts, so maybe it's just as well without it.

I'm almost done formatting the Ruby Bestiary & Treasury as well. It's got even more monsters than the Jade book (over 400, compared to 350+ in Jade), but more of them are familiar to D&D players. Still, I've managed, while formatting for space and illustrations, to find space to plug in a few more monsters, so there are some new things in there. Both of these books will also be pay-what-you-want titles when I get them ready. B&T just needs a reworking of the random encounter tables, as the ones I had before included a lot of monsters that are only in Jade, and I might want to put a few of the late entries in there as well. Once the random encounter tables are done, the book is ready. 

Editing/revising/formatting the Ruby books also helped me find a few mistakes in the Jade books, so I'll likely be updating those soon as well. I'll let everyone know here on the blog, and via DriveThru when the updated versions have been uploaded.

Movie Review - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

The movie opened on Wednesday, 2/15 in South Korea, so we got to see it a bit before some other countries did. So if you're surprised that I'm already reviewing it, that's why. I don't have any inside connections. :D 

Mandatory Curse Words Warning: For parents googling "Are there curse words in Quantumania?" (Yes, I still get those!), there isn't very much. Hank Pym has the worst mouth in the movie, but all in all it's pretty family friendly. I think it was a bit less than in the previous Ant-Man movies, actually. 

On to the movie itself (no spoilers)! First of all, I really liked it. After Dr. Strange & the Multiverse of Madness (which I quite liked but was a different kind of superhero movie) and Thor Love & Thunder (which was OK, but I'm not itching to give it a second viewing), then Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (which was emotional but felt incomplete), this felt like a return to the Marvel formula in a way, but it wasn't 100% the typical MCU plotting. In fact, the plot draws heavily on pulpy/YA secondary world fantasy, where characters from our world get pulled into a fantasy land and have to learn to navigate its ways while fighting the evil wizard who rules over the place (as seen in The Wizard of Oz, Narnia, Three Hearts & Three Lions, The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon show, etc.). 

It's also nice to see a Marvel movie where instead of the main character having daddy issues, he has issues with being a daddy. 

The characters are pretty well established by now, and the actors were able to work well as an ensemble. Kathryn Newton fit in well as the re-cast Cassie Lang. She seemed like she'd been part of this family since the beginning. And Jonathan Majors was legitimately menacing as Kang. 

There were a few plot holes here and there (one big glaring one that would have rendered the entire movie pointless, but oh well), but overall the story line was pretty easy to follow along, even for my 8 year old, and it was engaging and fun to watch.

So if you're one of those people complaining that Marvel has gotten too experimental recently, this should appease you. And if you're one of the people who was happy to see the MCU moving away from the formulaic plots and themes, this might not be your cup of tea, but I at least found it to be different enough from the archetypal MCU movie while still retaining the MCU feel. 

And it's got me even more excited for what's to come. There's also a slightly different type of post credit scene (the second one) which I found cool. But no spoilers. You're gonna have to go see it yourself (or look it up on YouTube I guess).

Disappointment

I know I said I was gonna try to blog about RPGs more and media less, but I gotta put something up on the blog here. Sorry to disappoint.

We watched the first episode of the new Disney+ Willow show. It was a disappointment as well. 

I gotta say, when the movie first came out, and the commercials and trailers said the name, I was not interested. It sounded too soft and silly, not like the badass fantasy I wanted to watch. But my best friend saw it, told me about it, and I checked it out (later, on home video). And loved it! 

Back in the 90s, Chris Claremont of X-Men comics fame wrote a trilogy of novels as sequels to the movie. But he basically blew up the world of the movies and changed everything, just keeping a couple of characters (Willow, Elora Danan, the brownies Franjean and Rool) and shoehorned them into what I assume was the fantasy novel trilogy he wanted to write that had nothing to do with Willow. 

I don't remember if I even finished the second novel or not. 

Despite knowing that the new Disney+ show is just the latest of the relentless 80s/90s nostalgia cash grabs, I had hoped it would be better than those Claremont novels. After the first episode, I'm not so sure. 

The episode, despite having Joanne Whaley as Queen Sorsha narrating the opening explaining what's happened since the movie, felt nothing like the movie. The tone was off. The dialogue from everyone but Sorsha (and later Willow & Meegosh) was too modern. It felt like watching one of those old Disney Channel programs my son would watch sometimes when he was little. Wizards of Waverly Place or something. Well, it had a more serious tone than that, but the whole "cool teens doing cool teen stuff" vibe was off-putting. There was nothing like the mythic, classic fantasy vibe of Lucas's movie. And that was before the crappy pop song end credits. 

Now, to make sure there are no misunderstandings...

 

-- spoilers ahead, be warned -- 

 

I wasn't bothered by the lesbian romance. The inversion of the prince of Galadorn being the educated, intelligent but worthless in a fight character was interesting. There were some cool monsters to fight in one sequence. But other than that, that's about it. It was even pretty obvious all along who was secretly Elora Danan. 

I'll probably check out next week's episode to give it a second chance, but if this episode is equally bad, I probably won't finish the series. What a let-down after the entertaining She Hulk and excellent Andor (yeah, probably more on this soon, since it really knocked it out of the park after the first two so-so episodes).

Movie Review - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Went and saw Wakanda Forever yesterday with the family. Here's a spoiler free review. 

For the parents searching Google: Are there curse words in this movie? A few. Nothing too salty. No F-bombs that I remember. Fewer swears than in, say, Black Widow. 

Again with this movie, Marvel is allowing the director to go their own way with a film. Phase 4 has been full of various attempts to shake up the formula. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This one is in some ways a cookie cutter super hero movie, but it does explore a consistent theme that makes the movie less of an exciting 2.5 hour roller coaster, and more of a thoughtful examination of the genre. Not too deep, mind you, but deeper than most MCU movies to date. 

Obviously, with the real world death of actor Chadwick Boseman, they had to make some pretty big changes in this movie, and I think that may have actually worked in the movie's favor. It's a tribute to a lost friend, and that allowed them to look into how the loss of T'Challa in-universe affects the various characters, and avoid the big messy CGI brouhaha at the end of most MCU films. 

So what is the movie about? Obviously, it's about loss, grief, and revenge. While Wakanda is trying to mourn T'Challa, a machine invented by Riri Williams allows people to search for vibranium underseas, and they accidentally discover Talokan, secret undersea home of Namor (which is, like Wakanda, a vibranium-based culture). The US blames Wakanda for the loss of the expedition. Namor blames Wakanda for exposing the world to vibranium. Three-way conflict ensues, but really, for the most part it's just Wakanda vs Talokan. 

While the plot is a fairly typical comic book conflict, and the resolution is a fairly typical comic book plot resolution, along the way we get to explore the pain suffered by the various characters. Queen Ramonda, Shuri, Okoye, and Nakia all have very different ways of dealing with their grief. Namor also has his demons that haunt him, and we get to explore those as well, although not as deeply as with the various Wakandan characters. And while Namorita and Attuma have speaking parts, they get no character development. Namor is the only Talokanian (?) to get an arc. 

There are some connections to upcoming projects from Marvel. Obviously Riri Williams is introduced, which will lead into her own Iron Heart show, and most likely the upcoming Armor Wars movie. And various goings on with CIA agent Everett Ross connect to the upcoming Thunderbolts. I was hoping there would be a tease for Ant-Man Quantumania in the post credits, but all we get is a bit of revelation for one character's motives in the film that were a bit unclear, plus some hints about future Black Panther projects. Which is fine, but part of the fun of the MCU has always for me been the interconnections, and the teases for the next project up on the roster. 

So, that's what the movie is like. How did I like it? I actually enjoyed it. It's not as exciting as a typical action movie, but I liked how it did try to explore character deeper than "I have daddy issues" or "I want to prove myself" like most MCU movies. And the grief leading to revenge theme just felt weightier than in previous MCU movies. I'd definitely say I enjoyed this more than Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or Thor: Love and Thunder. But no, it didn't knock Weird: The Al Yankovic Story off my top spot for the year. 

Also, my wife was really unhappy with the movie. She wanted some big exciting action movie stuff, and didn't get it. She said it was boring. My older son also wasn't so impressed with it. My younger son can't sit through a movie these days anyway (he has no attention span, so we're trying to detox him from gaming/YouTube, but it takes time). My wife even said she's done going to see these movies in the theater. She'll wait until they come out on Disney+. 

So, a movie that's not for everyone. It doesn't follow the MCU cookie-cutter formula. I think that's its strength, my family thought that was a weakness. I think it's a good movie, better than the other MCU movies of 2022, but my family didn't. Your mileage may vary.

Movie Reviews - Weird: The Al Yankovic Story; Black Adam

My sons and I watched Weird: The Al Yankovic Story over the weekend. I've got to say, it was probably my favorite movie I've seen this year. It's a (relatively) low budget parody of the musician bio-pic (what else for Weird Al?), and it's really spot on with the satire and parody elements. It felt a lot like the screwball parody comedies of the 80s that don't seem to get made anymore. It's mocking the genre, and playing with the facts to conform to the tropes, but it does so with an earnestness and a feeling that not only is the subject matter of the musical artist being honored, it's also honoring the genre through mocking emulation. In other words, it's like This is Spinal Tap mixed with Airplane! in feel. Again, to me this seems completely appropriate to a "bio-pic" for Weird Al.

Obligatory Note: is there cursing in this movie? Not a whole lot. Similar to Al's music, it's family friendly. The "sex" scene with Al & Madonna is also nothing I didn't feel uncomfortable with my 8 year old watching. 

I grew up listening to Weird Al, and actually still have a fair amount of his songs on the USB thumb drive in my car. Well, on the rock USB. I've got two more with blues and classical/soundtracks respectively. I'm one of those people that when I hear the original version of a song Al parodied, I'm just as likely to be singing the Al version lyrics in my head as the original's, even if I really like the original as well. And my older boy especially really liked listening to Weird Al's songs when he was younger (he's just in general not really in to music these days). 

Being a fan, I did know a fair amount of biographical detail about Weird Al before the movie started, so I could tell from the beginning that they'd nearly completely ditched reality for the story they wanted to tell. Dr. Demento helps Al get known. Pretty much everything else in the story is made up to serve the comedy, and to mock the bio-pic genre. And it is on point! 

Then there are all the cameos, which are a double layer of fun. I didn't recognize every pop culture figure from the 80s, but I got most of them. And I didn't recognize all of the comedians and actors portraying them, but I got enough of them to get in on the joke. Conan O'Brien as Andy Warhol. Jack Black as Wolfman Jack. Even though they didn't know most of the 80s figures (they knew Pee Wee Herman, a few others), seeing Devo (in the red hats), Divine, and all these crazy characters was fun for them. And my sons even picked out David Dastmalchian (from the Ant-Man movies) before I did, but I instantly knew that he was portraying John Deacon of Queen when he stepped on screen! 

I mentioned that I think this is probably my favorite movie of the year so far (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens later this week, and it looks to be a bit better than some of the recent MCU fare. We'll see if it can top this film!). Part of it is the nostalgia, for sure. The movie definitely is made to play on that tension between 70s/80s parents an children, plus all of the pop culture that Weird Al was parodying in his music. Part of it is the performances of Daniel Radcliff, Rainn Wilson, and Evan Rachel Wood (among others) and the clever scripting that makes plot holes integral to the comedy. Part of it is just that feel, I mentioned above, that the movie loves the source material that it's making fun of, and that the movie does to other movies exactly what Weird Al songs do to other songs. It's just a lot of fun.

________________________________

Okay, I saw this move over a week ago now, but was just too busy to write about it. On to Black Adam.

This will be a shorter review, and contains a few spoilers. 

Are There Curse Words? More than in Weird, but not excessive.

Black Adam is the latest of the DCEU movies. Overall, I've not been impressed by most of these. SHAZAM has been the best of the ones I've seen (I still haven't seen either of the Suicide Squad movies or the Harley Quinn movie, or Wonder Woman 1984, or The Batman...if that last one counts?). But of the DCEU movies that I have seen, SHAZAM has been the best of the bunch. 

Compared to other DCEU movies, this one wasn't bad. But compared to super hero movies in general, or action movies as a whole, it was just so-so. My older son really liked it, but I found it just a little bit lacking. 

There are plenty of cool action scenes, and it does tell a decent enough story, but there's something just a little too cookie cutter about it. Dwayne The Rock Johnson isn't an astounding actor, but he does have charisma. It was lacking in this movie, though. Teth Adam is just this scowling, brooding, force of nature. I wasn't invested in his story. The family that brings him back to life and wants him to protect their nation of Kandar were developed with all the beats that should elicit empathy and emotional response, but by the third act of the movie the story had nearly forgotten them. The Justice Society is there for murky reasons. I think Pierce Brosnan and Aldis Hodge are great actors, and made me invested in the stories of Hawkman and Dr. Fate, despite the flimsy plot devices that get them into the story. On the other hand, the other two JSA members, Atom Smasher and Cyclone, were just kinda there for sometimes effective, sometimes not very effective comedy relief, plus an undeveloped romance subplot. 

Basically, this movie seems to want to be two things at once, and fails in the combination. Is Teth Adam the hero of Kandar? Is he the villain to the JSA? He's both at the same time, and things just get murky because of it. It's very similar to my critique of the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie from many years ago. This is better executed than Green Lantern, but it still feels like two incompatible movies smushed into one. It would have been better if they'd stuck to Kandar family awakens Teth Adam to help them fight Intergang to free their country and stop the demon guy, OR it was about Teth Adam awakening, running amok, and the JSA stepping in to battle him until they realize he's not evil and they team up to fight demon guy. 

It could have been better, but it's still better than Batman v. Superman, or either version of Justice League!

Werewolf by Night

We watched Marvel's new Halloween special, Werewolf by Night this evening. 

I'd never read the comics, and I'd only head about them fairly recently (two years ago, maybe?) when someone on Kevin Smith's Fatman Beyond podcast brought it up. 

Despite not knowing much of the source material, I found it to be a fun little show! 

It's only about an hour long. It's mostly in black-and-white to emulate the old Universal horror films, and the music, graphics, and a lot of the props also reflect this...but not all of them. There are definitely plenty of modern touches in it. 

The story is almost a Castlevania story! Monster hunters gather to compete for the inheritance of the most famed monster hunter, Ulysses Bloodstone. They have to hunt a fearsome monster, but are allowed to fight and even kill each other in the process. The winner gets Bloodstone's magical bloodstone which grants some magical powers. 

I won't spoil it, but I will say I really enjoyed the campy nature of it. It's got some fun action scenes, some campy scenery chewing by the actors, and plenty of Halloween mood. Not your typical Marvel superhero fare, by any means.

Recent Viewing and Reading

 I've taken a bit of a break from running and playing RPGs. While I sort out how I want to begin my new game, which will be face to face instead of online, and my friend Denis preps for his new online Gamma World game, I haven't had much urge to run my West Marches or Star Wars games. I may not run WM again anyway (as I think I mentioned), but I will get some more SW gaming going once things settle down a bit. Anyway, it's summer vacation time. People have been going on vacations or are just busy with other stuff recently anyway (including me!). 

 I have been doing a lot of reading and viewing the past several weeks. Here's a little run-down of what I've been consuming and how well I liked it. 

Thor: Love and Thunder

I was going to do a proper review post, but it's been almost 2 weeks since I saw it already. So I'll start with that here. T:L&T is much more of a Taika Waititi film than Thor: Ragnarok was, if that makes sense. It's a bit goofier, a bit more rambling, and definitely off-beat. It's not quite as good as Ragnarok was. It's got good action sequences. Funny jokes (although many are forced or silly throw-away gags). Some emotional scenes. I think it falls a bit flat in that it could gotten much more emotional by investing more in Jane's and Gorr's story arcs, which were more interesting than Thor's. Thor is his own comedy relief in this movie, instead of letting Banner/Hulk and Korg take care of that. It's still a fun adventure movie, but I think it sacrificed some of the emotional strength it could have had for interesting but ultimately silly situations. 

That said, I am enjoying the recent trend in the MCU movies to let the directors put their stamp on their films. Eternals felt different. Black Widow felt different. Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness felt different. Shang Chi felt pretty typical, but it was full of cool magical martial arts action. Thor: L&T also felt different. I think that's a good thing for the MCU, even if it doesn't always work out.

The Boys Season 3 (Amazon Prime Video)

I semi binged the season. It continues to entertain, but something about this season felt like going through the motions. Sure, they introduced Soldier Boy and dealt with that plot thread by the end of the season. But almost all of the other continuing plot points were just punted down the line. I'm not sure how many seasons they're planning for this show, but if season 4 continues this trend, I may be done watching it. Unlike a monthly comic book, I don't think it's a good idea to have this sort of TV show go on forever. 

Stranger Things Season 4 (Netflix)

Oh my God! This season rocked. More prominent D&D! Some cool new characters, like Eddie Munson (the DM) and Argyle (the stoner) and Jason (the dickhead jock). Homages to Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, other mid to late 80s horror franchises. Kate Bush and Metallica!!! The Russia side plot was a bit silly, much like the Russians in Indiana side plot of season 3, but other than that it was gold. Looking forward for the series finale in Season 5.

 Ms. Marvel (Disney+)

This should be the future of the MCU! This show was so good. It had heart. It had charm. It had everything you'd want from a bildungsroman hero show. The actors made you feel not just like you were watching real people deal with real situations, they made you really love their (extended to include friends) family. The plot had its "save the world" bit, but it wasn't the primary conflict and wasn't hyped as some sort of DC style "Crisis." Best MCU Disney+ show to date.

Dune (2021)

My older boy, out of nowhere (probably something he saw on YouTube or heard from a friend in one of his Discord groups) suddenly asked me the other day if we could watch this. I missed it when it was in theaters in Korea (because of covid-19 and a full schedule, and because Flynn said he didn't want to see it when I asked him then). Anyway, we watched it together. It was pretty good. It's been quite a few years since I read the novel or seen the Lynch film or the Sci Fi mini-series versions, but it was close enough to what I remembered that I could explain the strange bits to him. I enjoyed it. We're looking forward to part 2 next year (and will see it in the theaters!), but I can't say it blew me away. Flynn loved it, though, saying he enjoyed it more than anything Star Wars. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)

Speaking of Star Wars, this was a pretty cool little show. Yeah, it bent the established canon a bit, but it did its best to try and rectify things that happened in the prequels, the original trilogy, and in this show itself. And it was cool to see both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen together again. And more Darth Vader is never a bad thing. There were a few weird things that didn't quite make sense, but it was definitely a step up from The Book of Boba Fett (which I also enjoyed). Decent quality Star Wars fare, and I really don't see what all the incel/racist types were complaining about. But then they'll complain about just about everything on this list no matter what, so screw them anyway.

Stephen King's The Dark Tower series

I've read this series through several times, and I'm currently re-reading it (in the middle of the final volume). If you've read it all the way to the end, well, what Roland the Gunslinger finds at the top of the Dark Tower pretty much demands that you re-read the series. Ka is a wheel, and it keeps on spinning. The impetus for this re-reading was that I finally picked up a copy of volume I The Gunslinger in hardback. I'd been lucky enough to score a limited 1st Edition hardback of Wizard and Glass back when it came out, and then got first editions of the final three books when they came out as well. A few months back I treated myself to a hardback copy of The Gunslinger (unfortunately not a first edition, it's the revised version, and sans the Whelan illustrations). Then I figured I might as well get hardback copies of The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands. Once I had all these hard copies (including The Wind Through the Keyhole), I figured it was time to read them again. And I'm enjoying it a lot, although I've been dreading a certain scene which I'm approaching quickly. When I finished reading this morning to come to work, the ka-tet were about to assault Algul Siento. This dread of re-reading this coming section of the work has been with me since my re-read of The Waste Lands, and it really puts a new spin on my take on the thing. Anyway, long story short (and without spoilers), this series still has what it takes to move me. 

Daredevil Season 1, Episode 1 (formerly Netflix, now Disney+)

All the former Netflix MCU "Defenders" related shows finally went up on Korean Disney+. They'd been off Netflix (and available to US D+ subscribers) for a while. Anyway, I noticed that they were finally up, so re-watched the first episode the other day to see if I'd want to revisit them. I really enjoyed Charlie Cox's take on Daredevil, and I'm glad they're keeping him (and Vincent D'onofrio as Kingpin) in the MCU. Flynn is interested in finally watching these shows, but Steven is still a bit young.  Maybe. Fururama is also now available on Korean Disney+, and that's a bit more family friendly!

Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

I'm going to keep this brief to avoid spoilers. I took the family to see the film on Children's Day (May 5th), a national holiday in Korea, and the day after it opened. 

Is there cursing in the film? Parents want to know. There's a little. Disney seems to frown on too much cursing in their movies. Black Widow got away with a fair amount, and the Disney+ TV shows, but this one doesn't have too much in the way of bad language. 

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. The movie is very much a Raimi film. Lots of little touches and callbacks to his previous work. Of course there's a Bruce Campbell cameo, but beyond that. This movie touches on horror more than any previous MCU film, but never goes full bore horror. There's plenty of humor, as well, but not chock full of it like Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor: Ragnarok. It has a pretty good balance of drama, comedy, horror, and action. 

Of course, there is a TON of CGI in this film. The magic is over the top, as is the dimension hopping. Very fun visually, especially the musical magical duel. That was fun, although maybe it went on for just a touch too long. Won't say more to avoid spoiling it. 

As for character development, Stephen Strange has to deal with the fact that Christine Palmer is getting married (lost his chance) and his need to be in control of every situation. America Chavez has a very typical introduction character arc, trying to control her powers to dimension hop. Wanda the Scarlet Witch was a big part of the movie, but her portrayal was a bit off after her development in WandaVision. Can't really say more without spoiling things, though. 

Cameos? Besides Campbell and Patrick Stewart (his voice is in the trailer, it's no secret he's in it) there are a few more, mostly fan-service oriented. Since they're jumping through multiple universes, they can play with the characters they throw in without it affecting the main MCU continuity. 

I was entertained by the movie, and I liked it, but I'm still not sure how it stacks up to other MCU films. Of the recent offerings, it's better than Black Widow or Eternals, but not as good as Shang Chi in my opinion. Probably need to watch it again before deciding how it holds up overall, as it's a pretty busy film. It does break the trope of recent MCU films of degenerating into a big messy CGI final battle. The whole movie is kind of a big messy CGI experience. 

It doesn't dig deeply into the characters, and it's messy, but still I found it fun.

Movie Review: The Matrix Resurrections

It's been a week since I saw the movie. I wanted some time to think about it, but also figured it would be hard to talk about it without spoilers. So I delayed writing this. 

Is there cursing in the movie? Yes. Similar to previous Matrix movies. Aside from that, the end battle scene has some disturbing elements to it, so I'm glad I went to see it with only my teenage son, not my 1st grader. Parents, you might want to see this before taking young kids to see it, and decide for yourself.

OK, on to the review. Did I like it? Yes. Did I love it? Not quite. It was definitely entertaining. It wasn't as philosophical/preachy/talky as the previous Matrix sequels, and the plot was much more direct and easy to follow. That was both good, and bad in some ways. Overall, I was entertained. It was a fitting sequel, and either serves as a fun post-script to the original trilogy, or as a potentially interesting jumping off point for non-Neo-centric Matrix productions in the future. 

The acting was good overall. Keanu and Carrie-Anne were great. They really slipped back into the roles well. Most of the rest of the cast were also well done, especially as some of the actors were constrained by how previous actors had portrayed certain characters in the original trilogy. The action was exciting and usually easy to follow along with. Some cool bullet-time special effects and what not. It's the Matrix. It was what you expect in that regard. CGI and special effects also were well done. The plot was clever in some areas, a bit lame in others, and there are a few plot holes. 

Worth seeing? If you're a fan of the original trilogy, or even just of the first movie? Yes. Fan of cyberpunk or PKD style psychological sci-fi? Yes. Tired of media properties that are just relying on nostalgia to get you to spend money on their new movies? Go ahead and skip this one until it's on a streaming service. They are clever at winking and nodding to the audience about this, but that's not worth the ticket price just for that.

----------------SPOILERS BELOW------------------------

OK, gonna give everyone some space to avoid spoilers on the screen, then discuss some specifics of the film that I liked and disliked. 

Ready? 

Alright then. Here we go. 

The Setup: I kinda liked how they had us return to The Matrix. The new Matrix contains all the events from the trilogy as an in-universe video game designed by Thomas Anderson. Neat idea, and it allowed the cheeky scenes where they make fun of the fact that they're making another sequel that doesn't need to be made just because they know it will make money (and WB will eventually do it without them anyway if they don't do it). Also, the "history" of the Machine Civil War was a great take to move the plot forward. If The Architect's faction had remained in control of the machines, this wouldn't have happened.

Characters: Like I said above, Neo and Trinity felt right. Not exactly the same, but that should be expected. Niobe's heel turn shouldn't have been unexpected, really, but I was surprised by it. Of course she comes around in the end, much like her arc in the trilogy. New Morpheus was OK, but kinda got lost in the second half of the film. Once Neo was made aware of the new Matrix that he was in, New Morpheus's role was pretty tangential. Bugs was cool, but I wish I'd gotten to know her crew a bit better. I can't even remember the name of her Operator. Business Partner/Agent Smith worked well, especially his face turn. The Analyst made for a very good opponent. Much more interesting and clever than the Architect. Not as interesting as Smith was in the trilogy, though. The Merovingian and his renegade programs being a bunch of homeless drifters made me smile. Nice reversal.

Plot: It was a rehash, but they made the rehash make sense (more or less) within the bounds of the end of the trilogy. Still not sure how they could have resurrected Neo and Trinity 60 years previous but yet they're still only 20 years older both in the new Matrix and in the real world (of the film). How was Smith's code recycled when it seemed the point of Neo connecting with the Source was to destroy/delete Smith's code? There were a few other things that also didn't quite make sense, but the overall plot arc and character arcs made sense. Having Trinity and Neo be two halves of The One in this new Matrix was a great touch. I loved that. Overall, though, the plot seemed a bit rushed and some subplot elements seem to have been lost to the cutting room floor.

Themes: I think they made a good attempt to reexamine themes from the original trilogy (Can we trust our senses? Is there free will?) but also worked in new themes (How do we deal with feelings of being trapped in the wrong body? How do we rebuild our lives after disaster? How do we cope with media addiction? Are we drugging ourselves into oblivion?) fairly well. 

The Matrix Resurrections is a solid movie. It's definitely not a must-see, but similar to Bill & Ted Face the Music, we get to see Keanu take up an old role that we loved and it's fun. But honestly, the film likely wouldn't work if it weren't for the nostalgia factor. While it does cover some old ground and break some new ground thematically, it's just not as tight or as gripping as the original Matrix.

Movie Reflection: Spider-Man: No Way Home (spoiler free)

Titling this post a reflection rather than a review, because I think I need to see the film one more time before I can give it a proper review. Because it's a movie packed full of stuff, and it keeps flipping the situation around in ways such that I think I need to watch it once more, with all the surprises and reveals known ahead of time, before I can properly review it. 

Is there cursing in this movie? A little. Very little. I can recall only 3 or 4 instances, and none are f-bombs or relate to reproductive anatomy. 

So, a reflection. It was definitely a roller coaster ride. There were some things I expected, some things I didn't. Things didn't happen exactly the way I assumed they would from the trailers, which is good. It was nice to see some of the actors from previous Spider-Man movies reprise their roles, and you wouldn't think 10 or 20 years had passed since they played those parts previously. 

I was entertained, but I've got a few qualms. A couple of characters from previous films in THIS series/MCU films seemed a bit off. Maybe it was just the different writers/director. Maybe it was the actors moving in new directions with the characters. Maybe it was foreshadowing for something to come later (Secret Invasion is coming, after all, so some characters we know will surely have been replaced with Skrulls by now). 

Part of my unsure reaction to the film might also be that in comparison to the Tobey McGuire (which I loved) and Andrew Garfield (not so much) takes on the character, Tom Holland has such a different take on Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and the MCU connections especially to Iron Man really make this Spidey different. 

Anyway, I came away entertained, but as I said wanting to watch it once more to really get my thoughts straight. My older boy loved it (but he'd looked up all the spoilers online before we saw it). My younger was entertained, but the long run time got to him (he got hungry around the start of the third act and wanted it to be over). My wife wasn't so impressed by it. And I think that may be what got me thinking that there was something a little off about it. 

Anyway, there are some nice surprises that will entertain fans. Is the movie more than just 2.5 hours of fan service though? I'll watch it again when I have a chance and decide then. [Matrix 4 is out next week, though, so might not get to rewatch this until some time in January.]

Movie Review: Eternals (spoiler free)

Yesterday, I took the family to see Marvel's Eternals. It's a different sort of MCU movie, for sure. I can see why there are a lot of people trashing it (some of them before they had even watched it). And I can't say I was super excited for it. I don't know much about the characters from the comics. They didn't play a big part in most of the comics I read back in the day. But I knew it would have ramifications in future MCU projects, and we hadn't been to a movie for a little while, so we went. 

Does Eternals have cursing in it? [Mandatory question because parents searching for this get sent here.] A little. Not as much as Black Widow. It's not really that sort of movie that needs a lot of bad language.

My quick capsule review? A well made movie. The story was very much character driven, with no obvious deus ex machina moments. It had the high level of special effects we expect from Marvel/Disney (they have the money for it). The action scenes were good. There were some good comic relief moments, although a lot less than in other more recent MCU titles. The actors were cast well for their roles, and the movie did a good job introducing a whole bunch of brand new characters. Some great cinematography in a globe spanning and millennium spanning narrative. 

But was it good? It was very talky. There were action scenes, but a whole lot of talk in between. And not the snappy patter of an early Kevin Smith film or a Tarantino film that is just fun to listen to even if nothing much is happening in the scene. That, I think, is the weak point of the movie. 

I liked it, but the more serious tone (even more serious in tone than Thor or Winter Soldier), the 'more talk less rock' pacing, made it a bit less enjoyable than Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy. I think, though, this movie will hold up better than some of the other MCU films because of that, and because of the technical skill from the script to the production value to the way the film was shot and edited. 

Eternals is a good (well made) movie, but not so much a fun (exciting, engaging) movie. I liked it, but it's probably not in my top 10 MCU film list.