Just watched Alien Romulus have to say I really enjoy it despite itself.
The characters I found enjoyable and the return of a past actor (?) I found in keeping with the series and not overly off putting. The split in structure between the two key movies and the broader incorporation of past movies into the narrative was good. Also the zero g sequence was inventive and enjoyable.
I did however find the blatant nods to past films needless. I don’t need someone to say repeatable lines from old films to remind me this is an alien movie.
Regardless safe to say this is my 3rd fave alien/s movie.
Also, apart from babadook, one of the best films I’ve watched recently.
I watched Season 1 and 2 of Code Geass. That was certainly the best show I have watched in a long time. I think I still have a „story hangover“ and will have for a few days. The ending is … so good. And Lelouch is definitely the most fascinating main character I have encountered in a good while.
I watched it without my partner however and now I have to be very careful not to spoil any major plot points before we find the time to watch it together. I am surprised but I really want to watch it again—a bit slower maybe.
But now I can finally go and check out the TV Tropes entries for this one
I checked out episode 1 on our streaming service. I’d watch more, but it would cost money, and I find I really don’t like watching without subtitles - Japanese or English, I don’t care, but no subtitles leaves me guessing at too much of the dialogue. I guess my reading skills are up to scratch, but unfamiliar vocabulary and scenarios are just a bit too difficult for my listening skill. Streaming services not having audio selection is bad enough, but no subtitles? Not even automated closed captions? Seems like a big oversight to me. What about their deaf audience, for example?
I watched The Elephant Man in the end, partly because I’d never seen it.
I was fascinated to learn that it was Mel Brooks of all people who got behind that film and made it happen (and was the reason they had such an excellent cast). Lynch was the big unknown quantity for Brooks though, so before approving him to direct he insisted on seeing what he’d had done before. As this entailed Mel Brooks watching Eraserhead, Lynch said he assumed this was going to be the end of his involvement in the project; but instead Brooks emerged from the screening room, walked up to Lynch, and said something like “You’re a mad-man. I love it. You’re in.” Nothing but glowing praise for Mel Brooks in that interview.
Edit: Mel Brooks is now 98, and still working! That’s extraordinary.
(I didn’t intend the double entendre, but I figure he might enjoy it, so it stays :).
So what have I been watching? Lots and lots of anime. Crunchyroll is so addictive.
The stuff I clicked with (besides things I already posted about before. My Code Geass hangover is still on-going):
Solo Leveling–Watched it twice to help my partner catch up. It’s so very good. The style, the premise, the protagonist, the voices (both English and Japanese because the dub is only for 6 episodes so far) and the music. Just cool. But recent episodes hint at some interesting turns… I feel like I will be reading the manga before long to find out what is going on.
Link Click surprisingly interesting show about two guys who can “enter photographs” (a kind of time travel ability) and are selling their ability to make a living
Psychic Princess I have no idea why I started watching this but it was quite good. It also took home the price for silliest moment ever (anti-thievery cock with battery eyes). Overall I enjoyed the characters and the romance and I am sad that there is only 1 season. Apothecary Diaries is similar (definitely better but there is also only 1 season and a few episodes of that).
Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs That is really the funniest of all of this “otome isekai” (I have never played an otome game and likely never will, I only found out they exist after watching the first of this style of anime). This one is a bit different: Instead of a girl turning into one of the characters, this is a guy who turns up as an unnamed side character. While playing the game, he bought some premium item and that McGuffin is the inciting incident that causes all kinds of fun shenanigans.
The stuff I quit watching:
Frieren–I just can’t warm to the protagonist. I hear that there is more beyond the initial nostalgia but I haven’t managed more than 4 episodes
Dan Da Dan–I noped out after 10 minutes of the first episode. Then weeks later tried again and noped out again after 2 full episodes. This one is definitely not for me. Maybe it’s the body horror, the drawing style or the voices but… no.
Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles–at first I thought the MC had some potential but then it became apparent that this is mostly about cheap wish fulfillment and … there is more. Probably just not my sub-genre. (And a few other similar shows I tried, mostly after a few episodes)
Undecided if I will continue:
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- there are quite a few seasons of this. And the premise with for this one is interesting. But the MC refuses to learn and grow… at least it’s not simple wish fulfillment fantasy. I might go back if my watchlist runs dry… (lol… so no)
Tower of God This one was quite promising. I just interrupted myself by watching Link Click and Psychic Princess instead.
Dr. Stone I am very undecided. Premise is good. Science guy is cool but likes to lecture. I have trouble with the belligerent hyper-active archetype as presented by Taiju. This is not the first such character I encounter and I find those difficult. They need at least one Zorro and one Sanji to either side to tone them down.
Code Geass was compelling enough to watch through to the end, but not really my thing. Very… character driven. The plot beats and premises made no attempt to make sense, and the lack of effort to conform to any kind of “realism” (for lack of a better word) is something that bugs me. Also, the constant close-ups on female characters’ vulva and bums is something that irks me. A guy fighting in a mech is shown from the front. A gal fighting in a mech is shown from an awkward camera angle that is somehow wedged behind her bum. Etc.
In contrast, Dandadan, despite the rape threats and the batshit insane scenarios, still manages to treat its characters with more dignity, and maintain more… I can’t say realism, can I? Er, believability? Consistency?
Out of the others you mentioned, I didn’t like what I assume is the same Slime anime. Absurdly overpowered protagonist changing the otherworld to be a better place. Frieren I did watch to the end, but I also didn’t like the protagonist. Or, more accurately, I didn’t like the ways in which she was pointlessly infantilised in what I presume was an attempt to make her more likeable.
Kaiju No. 8 seems promising, but not much of it yet.
That’s one of the things that seems to pull me in the most. So I can far more easily forgive/ignore plotholes. I don’t have a bad memory in general but plots seem to vanish from my brain quickly. But character beats stick for a long time.
We played around with the Better Than it Sounds page as a kind of movie quiz recently and my partner can recognize movies from the most absurd plot-descriptions… while I am hopeless.
I must admit I have probably trained myself to overlook these things over the many years I’ve been confronted by those. Yes, lots of swimsuit scenes. Naked girl in shower stuff. Etc. I put it down to being almost 20-ish years old now. I think the late 00s were actually when things in SFF were getting better but slowly and not everything everywhere all at once.
I am not super-happy with these “things” and in a more modern show I might put up more of a criticism…
I didn’t get over the first scene in Dan Da Dan where she is in the chair on the alien ship. I’d much rather suffer male-gaze art than that. This scene put some really bad images in my head. In addition, I really didn’t like watching him being possessed by the ghost and how his body kept changing in horrifying ways. Just not my cup of tea.
Food for thought anyway. I always want to understand why I like certain stories/shows above others. And why am I willing to let the one thing slide and not the other.
You are totally right, of course, and yet now I’m reminded of it, I don’t like that word much. Similarity to the truth, in what looks like a Latin portmanteau? I feel like we should have a better word.