Really interesting to see how Tenet eventually gets released.
I can very much see this becoming the most pirated movie in history if they stagger the global release (possibly even putting America after other countries).
Sink global cinema, or let go of the US box office. WHAT A DILEMMA
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As I understand it the foreign box office is often more lucrative these days anyway, if you leave out the super-hyped opening weekend.
But of course some of that success is because of American hype/glamour.
I watched The Umbrella Academy last weekend. I enjoyed it pretty well. Itâs a fair mix of Grant Morrison and Wes Anderson in its sensibilities.
I would have enjoyed more Wes Anderson but going in I donât think I would have ever said that about a supers story.
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I really enjoyed UA. Definitely one of the more successful comic adaptations. I really liked the aesthetics, it had a really strong identity. Locke & Key was pretty flat in comparison.
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We watched the first episode of Muppets Now on Disney+ last night. Full disclosure, I adore The Muppets. It was superb.
With the season starting today, I shall hopefully get some live streaming of County Cricket in for the next month or so. Glamorgan not doing badly yet, which is better than the usual first day of the season. Iâm not going to start a cricket thread, if youâre a fan of the game come and join me here.
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So my partner and I have been shotgunning The Expanse. We originally watched it when the first season was coming out, and then stopped because who watches one-episode-a-week th(o/e)se days!?
Yesterday we started from scratch and got to S2E6 (I think 6⌠after Eros -> Venus, and the last thing we saw was the firefight on Ganymede). Not bad for a single day (we couldâve watched another 2 or 3 episodes, but we had to go bed shopping).
One of my favourite hard sci-fis (well⌠âhardâ). Nagata and Halden are a treat, Amos is fantastic, Alex is okay. Oh, and Chrisjen? Sheâs amazing. She has a scene early, early on that gave me such exquisite professional jealousy as a writer (why didnât I get to write that scene!?!) that I had to pause the show and take a few deep breaths.
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Iâm a big fan of Draper . . .
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I just started watching Season 2 of Umbrella Academy and was enjoying it until I accidentally spoiled something thatâs going to happen. It wasnât so much that the knowing spoiled it as something else. I enjoy a lot about the show, but the way the previous season ended made me a little worried the show wasnât going to keep moving forward. Time related gimmickry or no, tâs important to build on the things the characters have been through and I feel like with the way this season is going to end is a bit ⌠Everything Is Different, Nothing Has Changed. Weâll see how I feel about it when I get there. For now itâs a good ride.
I also just finished Full Metal Alchemist which was lovely. It gets a bit stilted in places, but considering they were more or less making it up as they went I think it hung together pretty well. I tried watching the more recent, more faithful adaptation but wasnât feeling it a few episodes inâat that point they were still more or less telling the same story, but the pacing and dialog was quite different and not to Brotherhoodâs benefit. Maybe that one gets better later, but I never read the manga anyway so Iâm not particularly invested in that version. Overall, it was a much more grim and depressing show than I expected but not necessarily in a bad way. The show has an awkward relationship with the fascist military at its center, but otherwise mostly earns its darker moments and does really solid thematic work to support them.
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We finished watching this on Saturday and started on Brotherhood yesterday as the Conqueror of Shamballa movie is not available on any streaming service. Weâre only 3 episodes into Brotherhoodâitâs supposed to start delivering ânewâ stories around episode 12 or 14. I still enjoy getting back to the Elricâs early days and donât mind that the initial stories are the same. The animation is far better than the earlier series but I find that doesnât matter much.
I really loved the first series so much so that I just want âmoreâ. I havenât watched a lot of anime (yet) so I have little comparison. I found the ending far less confusing than others Iâve watchedâbut then I went to Trope wiki for this one a lot and that probably helped.
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Umbrella Academy season 2 first episode spoilers, nothing beyond that.
I havenât finished it yet, but Iâve already had that impression early on without any spoilers. I thought the time travel would change things up, but as it was clear the aim was to stop the world ending AGAIN (this time chased by hitmen instead of agents?) it all seemed a bit too similar. Still fun, but not so innovative. Not read the comics, but the second season has a strong Milk Wars/Doom Patrol feel to its look
C and I have bought the first season of Maverick (the original show from around 1960) after watching a few episodes. Weâre liking the complex plots, which we usually canât figure out until weâre a fair way in. Weâre also giving Netflix a try, now that weâve suspended Hulu, and weâre probably going to stay with Netflix. Weâve seen a few episodes of The Good Place, which I donât find all that impressive, as the characterization doesnât seem to have a lot of nuance. But weâve gotten further with Sense8, which has an interesting premise; and Iâve been watching Jessica Jones on my own.
And when we want something light, weâve started on the second season of the original Addams Family, which has possibly the healthiest marriage of any classic sitcom.
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Not a big fan of her yet: too hot-headed and short-sighted for my tastes. A replacement for Miller in that regard, but I wasnât crazy about that character either.
But last we saw her she was bleeding out on Ganymede, so maybe thatâs the end of her arc and I can not worry about not really liking her!
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I cannot comment on this without providing spoilers.
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So what is the deal with full metal alchemist.
I heard itâs good but it dips hard in one version (Overtook the anime or some such, looking staff you GoT) but they fixed it in the other.
Can I just watch the good one, or does it have an expectation that you have watched the poorer one first?
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So there are two anime and one manga (plus 2 movies and a live action movie in the franchise).
The first anime Fullmetal Alchemist overtook the manga about halfway through the 51 episodes. They consulted with the author of the manga on how to proceed and decided to split into their own continuity. The thing is this happened with the okay from the author which seems to be rare.
This is the 2003 anime which we watched and loved. It is supposedly darker in tone than the second series. We liked the style and characters and the music is awesome. We watched with subtitles and I loved the Japanese voices especially those for the two Elric brothers (they are the same voice actors for both series)
The 2009 anime is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood which remains true to the manga story. One major difference is supposedly that the villain is completely different. Not having seen much of Brotherhood I only know it is rated higher in imdb than the other. The animations are improved a lot. At the start they cover some of the same stories as the earlier series⌠the first few episodes of this seem to be mostly exposition.
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I burned down the whole second series of Umbrella Academy over the weekend. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I found the early bits that itâs all Vanya again an acceptable comic trope and I liked the way it twisted at the end. I also liked that it changed without interference from any of the characters more closely tied to the time control group. I liked the twist at the end to setting up that the other metas Hargreaves didnât get are out there and may matter to the story. I also liked the teleporting fistfight between the Fives at Dealy Plaza. It reminded me of a gaming moment when a time traveling character had a gunfight with himself at the foot of the cross. Itâs interesting to see that part of history be treated with less reverence as pop culture time marches on.
You can just watch the good one. Iâve only seen Brotherhood, and itâs amazing. The only drawback is that you then canât watch the Conqueror of Shamballa movie, but the series itself is much better. The animation is smoother, but more importantly, the story is more consistent, because the hints dropped early on actually tie into the climax, and they could prioritize what was actually meaningful.
Definitely in the top 5 anime Iâve seen (which is a fair few)
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Still on with Community, I am nearly through the third season. It is goofy and weird enough for my liking, but my OH has not really clicked with it (too much geekiness for her liking, I guess) so we have started watching The Norsemen in Netflix. Silly enough for her to like, I think it is great fun, loads of tongue in cheek and surreal humour, we are nearly through the first season.
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I and the family thought that we would give âThe Norsemanâ a try after catching the auto-play trailer. About 15 minutes in we got to the scene where the new slave (yes, this show has comedy slavery) complains that one of the Vikings has stolen his cloak and then in punishment for that complaint the accused Viking obviously sticks his finger into his anus and then forces that finger into the Slaves mouth and gives it a good rub around⌠As a unit we all said âUgghhâ, I hit the stop button immediately and I donât think any of us are going to go back.
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