Welp, I finished watching Wicked Part 1. I hated that movie like few things I watch, though admittedly part of what earns media this degree of hatred is the overwhelming degree of love that everyone else seems to hold for it? (Stop reading now if you haven't seen it yet and care about spoilers -- I don't go into depth but you'll definitely walk away knowing a few reveals.)

I imagine most of the viewers singing this film's praises see themselves as Elphaba and revel in her triumph of self-actualization: whereas my strongest connection in this film was to the increasingly silenced animals.** Therefore, what I saw is a protagonist rejecting self-advancement and taking a stand -- good! -- and then nevertheless spinning that off into a prolonged musical number about her own greatness and strength in defying gravity with nary a mention of the noble cause that animated her, because it wasn't *actually* that cause that moved her. (more...)

I have viewed the first of the anime movies I queued up on Tubi! I started with Hells (2008), which actually began quite promisingly before devolving into characters screaming nonsense exposition (major characters were revealed to be Cain and Abel, also the talking cat was God) and optimistic bullshit ("I'll never give up!" "You can do anything if you just believe!") at each other around the 20-minute mark, which they energetically kept up for the remainder of the nearly 2-hour film. It was deeply stupid and kinda exhausting to watch.

BUT I did like many of the character designs... which nagged at me, since I found some of them *incredibly* familiar. Googling confirmed that this anime was based on a 2002-2004 manga that featured character designs also utilized in the 1998-2001 toyline Resurrection of Monstress.

I'd actually picked up one at Otakon in my late teenage years -- the pink/purple repaint of the witch character Noctilca -- and I've got another one from a friend in a random fodder lot. (If I haven't already dismembered her, she may be rescued for the collection.) So as much as I ultimately did not enjoy Hells, I appreciated the unexpected callback to my convention days and figures of yesteryear? Anime conventions were great places to find toys before ticket prices ballooned and shipping fees dropped, and I really did enjoy wandering the dealer's rooms in search of neat new figures from lines I'd never encountered before. Ah well -- nothing good lasts forever. And fortunately, while Hells was decidedly not good, it did not last forever either.

(Plastic endures for a good long while, though. <3)

What a goofy and groanworthy post title. 😀

So you know the drill -- I mostly do my posting on Facebook these days given that at least there (mostly) the people who see my posts know me in some capacity, which I hope means they'll be more inclined to give me the benefit of the doubt than try to have me crucified/cancelled for voicing unpopular/unsanctioned sentiments. (It sure as hell does not always play out that way, but that is my hope.) But also -- I remember when I appreciated that random folks might see things I've written and have things to say, which is to say that I remember being a whole hell of a lot more optimistic about the motivations of strangers on the internet. Indeed, I made and have even retained a number of rl friends whom I first encountered through this very blog, nor was that unsurprising to me: that's how the internet worked. But things work differently today -- on the internet and in vampire fiction.

So that was a weird segue to justify reposting an essay I just shared on FB. 😛

I really do not care for this Interview with the Vampire TV show. I imagine it's excellent for folks who aren't familiar with the source material, and I imagine even a number of folks who *are* acquainted with Anne Rice's original novel (and the 1994 film, since she also wrote the screenplay) find it compelling to the extent that they prefer more recent vampire media for its focus on gore and nonchalance and cruelty -- and sex. (more...)

Just a brief post to remind you that CHERYL BLOSSOM IS THE WORST. On this week's episode, upon receiving the news that Toni Topaz is getting married -- from Toni herself, no less, along with an invitation to her bachelorette party -- Cheryl Blossom succumbed to jealousy and used WITCHCRAFT to "drive a wedge" between Toni and her fiancé Fangs. Why? Because Cheryl and Toni used to be an item. Back in high school. Which, given the 7-year timeskip during S5, was probably at least 8 years ago. And even though Cheryl's with someone else now, she's always felt like she and Toni were destined to be together. So she cast a spell to "drive a wedge" between Toni and Fangs, preventing their marriage and leaving Toni single to someday be hers. And she explicitly ignored the vagueness of "drive a wedge" in terms of outcomes, failing to care at all about the myriad awful ways that that wedge might manifest. She's Cheryl Blossom! She gets what she wants and consequences can't touch her.

Toni and Fangs have a baby.

Yep. (more...)

(Spoiler warning. There be spoilers below.)

Comments on Jurassic World Dominion. (There may be more later; I could and just might go on and on and on about this spectacular piece of Pitch Meeting fodder. Bloody hell.) So you know why I rushed out to see this movie, right? I love dinosaurs, and I especially love seeing them fucking people up. The last movie -- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom -- ended with dinosaurs being let loose on Earth. It ended with a montage of dinosaurs just showing up in cities and at picnics and in the ocean and just fucking people up. I had *hoped* that the third movie would deliver even more in that vein -- I didn't expect I'd get it, but I had my fingers crossed for Dinosaurs Attack! the movie. No plot necessary: just a series of vignettes featuring normal people doing normal things until normalcy dies along with them as they get royally fucked up by some rogue dinosaurs. Like America's Funniest Home Videos, but instead of punchlines involving dogs falling off tables or men getting hit in the nuts the setups end with dinosaurs fucking people up. DONE. MASTERPIECE.

The movie wasn't that. I knew it probably wasn't going to be that (though I HOPED it would be). But I did still expect a fair bit of dinosaurs fucking people up. Like, at least as much as we got in the first Jurassic World -- which I loved; that was a fine amount of dinosaurs fucking people up. More would have been ideal, but I didn't want less. We know how this goes. We've seen the things. They're here. The original Jurassic Park was fantastic, but there's no need to slow burn it now. Let them feast. (more...)