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Monday, February 26, 2024

Avatar: The Last Airbender live action

 

 Spoilers for a 19 year old show and a 50 hour year old show.'

 

Things I like:

  • Having Azula in the first season was seen as a contentious move by many, but I like it. People are annoyed that she loses her temper and wants to go out and do things, but that is a completely normal reaction for a talented, competent person trapped in a gilded cage.
  • I feel a little less positively about seeing Ozai so early; I wish they had kept him in shadow, still pitting his children against each other, until the Agni Kai. That way, he still has some menace and we still hear and see Daniel Dae Kim. Like half the promo shots of him were him shirtless, you couldn't just deny us that.
  • Zhao being a slimy middle manager is funny.
  • Putting some storylines together in the same episode - Mainly, Omashu, is a smart idea. I don't know if I would have chosen Cave of Two Lovers, but it's not a huge issue.
  • Gordon Comier as Aang is adorable. One thing this show understands is that Aang had a tendency to be funny in the original show, which is something people kind of ignore.
  • Dallas Liu as Zuko is the best casting out of the young cast. This young man understands the assignment!
  • Showing the Air Nomad Genocide is endearing. I also like Gyatso!

 

 

Some of the changes they make can work, they're just so beholden to the source material and hamfist references in, especially when they rely on Kanna to basically say OG Katara's opening monologue while looking at the symbols of all the Nations - which, the show says, have been isolated and fearful of each other, so why does she have this. 

Things I don't Like:

  • The previous Avatars are treated as save states in a video game, where Aang can call upon them to basically do his job for him if he is near their statue. To their credit, the one Avatar who shows up to thrown down is Kyoshi.

For the second LA adaptation in a row, Katara and Sokka are the weakest aspects, truthfully, Katara gets the worst of it. Moving on.

It's easy to say "Oh I don't know Yue's characterization" but A) She didn't get much in the cartoon, but I do miss the fact that she was a shy girl who took some time to open up to Sokka. Also that wig is terrible.

I think they took out a lot of the conflict out from people on the same side, but they added it in bombastic fashion - I like how Bumi is angry that Aang basically abandoned his duty. Hahn (who is cute!!) and Sokka don't have animosity.


Overall, I'd watch a second season just to see the GOAT Toph and how they do The Drill.

Friday, January 19, 2024

Book(s) Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan

 So this has been optioned (for at least a second time actually - Book 6 or 7 has an author's note at the end that the series was optioned...and that book came out in about 2008) to be adapted into a movie, and I remember reading them in high school in about 2010. 

But rereading them, I realized I don't remember any of it. Honestly, not a whit. It's not even "oh I remember bits and pieces", I think the one thing I remembered is that, well, there was a ranger and he had an apprentice. 

I wonder how many of these I ended up reading eventually. Maybe up to Battle for Skandia? Well, now I read the first 10 (because there's both a sister series AND a sequel series AND mini stories and the continuity is a bit of a mess).

21 The Boy and The Heron

    Watched in 2023 and completely forgot to come here and review it.There's not a whole lot to review because it's surrealist and everyone will take something different from it. I do think some parts felt aimless and boring (mainly the parts with the spirits), but that's about 10 minutes if that. As a whole I do enjoy it.

Friday, December 8, 2023

20 Godzilla Minus One

The difference between Japanese and American Godzilla movies has never been more evident than here. In the US, we see him as a hero, in Japan, he's a force of nature. It's a testament to the general ubiquitous of Godzilla that its so flexible as a concept.

I'm not talking about the movie because it is honestly pitch perfect.

Monday, November 27, 2023

19 Wish

 Just...copying from my Letterboxd review with a few additions, that will be in italics.

I didn't hate this as much as I expected, but there are some huge flaws.

The rules in this world regarding magic are not set up too well, and that could be easily ignored if the story didn't focus so much around it.

ex. yeah we don't know why Mirabel didn't get a gift from Casita, but the story isn't finding out why and giving us a story about a magic system, the story is about how Mirabel is being poorly treated by people for not being magical. 

It's so funny how Dreamworks last year beat Disney at its own game with a story about wishes.

Book: Father of The Future by Darren Dash

 

 There are 9 Archibald Lox novels, 4 Larten Crepsley novels, 12 Darren Shan and Zom-B novels,and 10 Demonata novels - and I own digital copies of all of them, a few digital copies of the Vampire's Assistant manga issues, and physical copies of 5 or 6 (look I don't have the space).

When I say I'm a fan of his work, I am a fan of Darren Shan's work.

 

Sunday, November 19, 2023

18 The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

 

 Some spoilers.

This movie has 2 huge problems that doesn't quite make this accessible for audiences who didn't read the book;

You see in the book Snow's internal thoughts and monologue, that his care for Lucy Gray is 75% based on his own survival, how possessive he feels over her to better himself. It's very hard to portray that in a movie without having a voiceover of internal thoughts. 

You do see some other mentors (the rich kids who are still starving probably but) who get lines that Snow could have had about the self-serving attitude they had, but a lot of it is simply "Here's a close up on him, hope you get the idea."

So it works, to the uninitiated audience, as "Oh this boy went bad because of circumstances [also his girlfriend didn't like that he was a murderer]"

 Also, the first 45 minutes is really rushed. This movie is 2hours and 37 minutes. Slow down.

Outside of that, as someone who read and really enjoyed the book, I really enjoyed this. Viola Davis as Volumia Gaul is awesome.

The music and performances are impactful (I do not give a shit what some people have to say online, Rachel Zegler is great).

Avatar: The Last Airbender live action

   Spoilers for a 19 year old show and a 50 hour year old show.'   Things I like: Having Azula in the first season was seen as a content...