Aquaman movie review

With all the failures that the DC universe has had lately with their crappy director directing crappy Marvel-wannabe rip off movies like Batman vs Superman and Justice League, it was good to see a lighthearted and actually good DC movie for once.

Aquaman is a great movie. Aquaman (and probably Wonder Woman) is one of those DC superheroes that can pull off a Marvel like concept because the character itself is meant to be a bit more lighthearted. It doesn't deal with identity issues and PTSD or the concept of psychology like Batman does. Christian Bale Batman really pulled this off well versing Joker and Bane. The recent movies didn't really shine well on Superman either and poorly depicted his super...ness (?? haha) and equally poorly depicted his struggles. But Aquaman was built to be a character with little inner conflict and that's what makes him suitable to be a Marvel-like superhero, where he just goes on an adventure, fights some evil guys, have a bit of slapstick jokes flying about and just over power his enemies with little challenge.
I mean if you want to point out the conflicts, well here they are. Major conflicts that he had was that he was a half-breed, a fact he ignored most of the time by just ignoring the Atlanteans (... is that what you call it?), he felt a bit guilty being the cause of his mother's death, another fact he mostly ignored and the very, VERY small regret that he didn't save a pirate causing his son to be revenge-ridden. Most of those conflicts were either resolved or ignored mostly throughout the movie.
In any case, so Aquaman went on a journey, did some cool superhero stuff, got a girl in the end. Happy ending.

I'm just going to point out the two small things I didn't like about the movie and it's very minor.
*Warning spoiler alert*
After Aquaman got the trident, he went into... battle... with the Atlanteans... before the movie, it seemed obvious that most of the water tribes didn't actually want to go to battle with humans. Xebel (the kingdom with the redhead) had a king that stated that he was basically going with the flow, Fishermen (people that look like a giant version of sea monkeys) had their king actually killed because he didn't want to join, Kingdom of Trench (the crab people) actually raged war because they didn't want to side and lastly/mainly the Atlantis people were mainly following their ruler, Orm.
The thing is, Aquaman could've came into the battle between crab people and everyone else by... oh I don't know... doing a big shout and showing off his new trident? If people can't hear him, maybe get the giant talking kraken to say it for him? or just simple demobilize them by using their marine creatures... I don't know, there could've been hundreds of creative ways to just stop the fight. But nooooo the director HAD to showoff how powerful and cool Aquaman was. He went in there and started, basically what I saw was a massacre. They never showed the full violence, since the movie was intended for children as well, but I saw sharks about to bite someone, kraken stepping on crab people and smashing ships with tentacles... I mean... If no one died in there, it would've been a miracle... He's the king for godsakes. Good kings don't make sacrifices of his own people just for a cool comeback. The war was unnecessary in the first place and as a king, he should've stopped it as soon as possible. And you know what else?? After Mera said "there's too much casualty. We have to stop the war" or something like that... THEY KISS!??!? WHILST PEOPLE ARE DYING IN THE BACKGROUND!!!! jesus... Like yeah, they should've kissed at some stage in the movie, but really guys?? This is the right time??? People are dying ffs! And what did she mean by 'casualty'??? Casualty is when innocents are hurt as a byproduct of war. Everyone was in the war first of all, but more importantly, people were dying because Aquaman, you weren't stopping the war, you were making it worse by sending out a bunch of sea creatures to massacre a bunch of random Atlanteans!!! grr... Anyway, that was the main thing I didn't like about the movie.

The next annoyance was that... Atlanteans spoke English. I know... I know... it's a fantasy story and how can we have a bunch of people not being able to communicate with each other... but still... Atlantis... is a part of Greek mythology. They went underwater thousands and thousands of years ago. If not Greek or Latin, they'd have some new broken old English... Like you know how with new technology and media, language changes? Most people will have trouble reading at least a few lines of Shakespeare, not only because the culture was completely different, but mainly because English has changed so much throughout the centuries. Grammar, the way people talk, words they use and the way they use it were all different. Even if Aquaman learnt Greek and Latin from early childhood, they will be totally different from the Atlantean version of it. Not to mention how his mom, queen Atlanna, came straight out of the water and started speaking English.

There was one other thing and this is also minor, because I know this is a universe that has no laws of the universe we live in and it's a fantasy story that doesn't follow science. There was a very poor explanation of how Atlanteans began breathing under water. Get a bunch of rabbits. Like millions if you want. Now put all those rabbits in the bottom of the ocean. Do you know how many of them will magically survive, start breathing under water and start being able to swim very well? NONE. THEY'LL ALL DIE. It's just not how evolution works!! Evolution works with 2 big factors in play, having children WITH mutation. Just because I throw myself into a pit of lava, it doesn't mean I'm randomly going to grow super skin and be able to breathe super hot air. If people living in Atlantis already had some mutations of being able to breathe under water, well those people would survive, reproduce with more children being able to breathe under water. I just didn't like the premise that, "oh the city sank... and people began breathing under water! Tada!!"

Actually, I'm going to rant about just one more thing. Pollution. I liked how the movie started by pointing out human faults. How we were trashing the ocean, over fishing and catching endangered species. I even liked how the rubbish were sent back to the beach. But you know what I didn't like? Aquaman... didn't really care... I mean... he might have?? But he doesn't do anything about it... He just mostly goes around saving fisherman or innocent marines in submarines that got hijacked. All he says is "don't judge a book by it's cover" or something like that and shows Mera how beautiful one city is and proceeds to continue not caring. Pollution is a big deal. Most fish that we eat are now known to carry some form of micro plastic. Coral reef are dying and fish are getting smaller due to size constraint and over fishing. You... You're not gonna do anything about it??

sigh... in any case. I'm done ranting. It's a lighthearted fiction that, as usual, I take too far anyway. It was a good movie and I did like it. I probably will see it again in the future.

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE review

As usual, the movie was alright. I liked it. It was easy to watch, heart warming at times and had lots of fun adventures. This is going to be the most petty 'review' ever. I'm only going to review one thing as well, which makes this not really a 'review' of the movie either. Just of the wardrobe.

The biggest thing I didn't like was the outfit.
.... I know... That's why I said it was petty. Ok so Gwen wearing a white outfit was already bad enough, but really, in most Spiderman universe, comic, movie or whatever it is, she's not a main character. She'll be like a main character for like a few cartoon/comic series and that's about it. Same thing with the Japanese spider'girl', Penny Parker (which... doesn't even have any remotely Japanese name) who rides a mechanical spider robot with some red and blue features. They're not going to be the new face of spiderman. Buf Mile Morales is. That's where the problem in his outfit lies.
I get that the new gen spiderman had to be a black cool kid who does cool things like vandalizing with his uncle, goes to a preppy school but is so cool and weird that he doesn't fit in and he can't relate to his uncool parents who has normal jobs like being a police and a doctor or what not and spiderman has to hate his life in general to be relatable. I get that. The new spiderman comic or movie has to gain new audience; young, cool and some teen that identify with the whole, 'not fitting in' (not realizing every single one of their generation says the same thing) audience at that. He even has new cool, awesome superpowers, like becoming invisible and being able to use venom. I told myself, "Well, this is the new spiderman". But I still couldn't get over this one fact.

Gwen's a girl. She gets a white and red (mixed to be pink I guess) spider suit. Miles's a black. He gets a black spider suit. Are you kidding me?? I didn't know I was watching Spider-rangers?? Oh I wonder why Penny Parker, the asian spiderman wasn't wearing a bright yellow suit??? Is it cause you have a poorly explained mechatronic spider thing?? Red and blue is an icon. If I wanted black suits, I would've watched black panther. But not only is this kid nothing like the previous spiderman who represented a lot of geeks and struggling early 20s in a different light, he didn't even care about the previous spiderman's life. If I really wanted some cool, uncaring, non-geek or nerd individual, I really just would've watched deadpool or one of those poorly made DC movies these day.











Sigh... In any case, as I've stated, the movie itself is alright. I just didn't like some very few facts.

Deer plush fail

Sigh... I am not good at sewing.
So I got a bunch of random fabric in the end of the year throw away at my work. Some people were throwing away fabric and it looked good so I thought 'why not' and went dumpster diving. Now I have more fabric than I know what to do. They're probably too small to sell, but enough to make things like pillows cases (which I've made 2 of).
I also wanted some christmas stuff to put on the tree. So I looked up a pattern for deer... and well... here's the creation.

It's very poorly built with seems actually showing quite vividly and I haven't made enough seem allowance in some places.
Oh well. That's one plush down the drain. I got the pattern from Nuno dolls and I guess it's no wonder why I failed since the plush was for a felt fabric which I have done in the past with better results... but I was hoping it'll still be something... alright? Now, it's just a pug deer.

Annihilation movie review

By the way this has spoilers.

I liked Annihilation.
It was a good movie. Good plot development with diverse characters that are intriguing, interesting and likable in their own way. The graphics were great and the ideas behind the movie was great as well.
Quick synopsis is that a biologist/ex-soldier travels to an unknown, alien 'shimmer' zone to find out what it's all about, to find a cure for her husband. Her husband is a soldier who traveled into the shimmer before her as a consequence of... something I can't say because it'll be a spoiler.

I just quickly wanted to write this review because, as usual, I just couldn't shake off the small annoyance I had of the movie in the back of my mind.

Annoyance 1: I hated how they just didn't get out after getting a good sample of the materials in there or the idea of what was happening in there. This part just leaves a whole tonne of questions of what the former troopers did when they went into the shimmer. Maybe in the book they've explained it further, maybe in the arc, they've done everything I would've thought of, but didn't portray it in the movie, because it'll make the movie too long. But really, if there's an entity that engorged everything that entered it, then one of the things I'd do, (or any sensible scientist) is to send someone in just to get out immediately, just to give a sense of what it's like. The only basis that we have, of a reason why they can't escape, is that as soon as they enter (or not? since we're not told when they lose their memory??) they lose their memory and end up in a semi-random location. But this seems weird, because they seem to have a sense of direction towards the lighthouse and a sense of where they are looking at the sun or even the base that was abandoned... so my question is, what happens when they try to go back? If other groups have tried and not succeeded, that's fine, but can we at least have some hints that they've done it because without that, it just seems like either bad exploration practice, or a tremendously bad decision from everyone who've entered this place.

Annoyance 2: bad team choice. I mean, the main leader was someone who hand picked the previous teams, apparently being very cautious through psychological screening and testing... but let's look at the current group. No one, (except Lena who only volunteered AFTER the current team was built) had combat experience. It's like no one cared about the guesses on why the previous teams failed. They theorized that the team got attacked or the team went crazy and killed each other. Well ok, if that's the case, then have you tried just sending one person in? If you have to send them in as a team, then... like the groups before, shouldn't you send in people who can handle stress and pressure? Josie is already shown to cut herself for unknown reason, Anya is a paramedic who seems to be hot tempered, and clueless about the expedition from the beginning. The notion that the only groups sent in before were armed forces is also questionable. No scientist before this expedition? Are you kidding me?? What were the actual missions of the previous armed forces? "Get in there. Go randomly to the lighthouse. Collect what you think is 'data' and maybe come back out"?? I'm pretty sure they had scientists in there, but I don't know... The whole explanation was poor. In any case, the current team's failure was a bit imminent, just because of the composition.

Annoyance 3: She had a grenade. She didn't use it wisely. When she did, the doppelganger who was previously mimicking all her moves... decided not to follow that one move of her running away frantically. Also this weird alien species who seemed to be immune to gun shots and is incredibly strange to the extent that it has no conceivable form except some weird shape shifting Mendelbulb or whatever it is, is... weak against fire?? wow... just wow... I mean, everything indestructible needs a Achilles heel right? Like superman with kryptonite... but my annoyance is that why did no one find out about it until now?? So what did the previous expedition guys do?? Go to the light house, poke it with a stick and run?? I mean, you seriously can't tell me that this expedition people were the first ones to actually stay sane until they got to the lighthouse. sigh... in any case.

I don't know. Overall, as I said, the movie is good. Just... had some annoying moments. I'm guessing the book was better?

Review of Disenchantment

I don't know why. I loved The Simpsons since I was a young kid and I loved Futurama, but I didn't really look forward to Disenchantment from the beginning. The trailer explained the characters pretty straight-forwardly and I guess I just disliked the characters from the beginning. Anyway, I thought I might write a review of it since I kept obsessing it in my head after watching a couple of Youtube reviews on it, which made me understand why the show wasn't as good as The Simpsons or Futurama.
Before I start, the show is actually alright. It has some bland and over used (and reused) humour, which includes some of the same jokes and themes from either The Simpsons and Futurama, but never-the-less it's quite enjoyable. The story line is a bit boring, but it really does pick up in the last few episodes of the 1st season and it's not that bad. It fits as a mindless and relaxing after work show to watch. Also, I understand that I was not the target audience. I'm a teacher for god sake. I care about people, believe in the good of people and I also deal with bratty kids all the time haha.
So I just couldn't ignore the dislikes of the show. Like I said, from the trailer, I disliked the characters and they haven't changed much since the first episode.
The reason why I dislike the characters is purely personal. All three main characters are chaotic neutral. They're not really bad, but they're not really good either. They do stupid stuff to prank others and they get off pretty lightly. This would definitely appeal to teenagers, someone in their 20s or drunks, but for me... well... I still like 'good'. It's childish, I know, but cartoons of a similar genre that I like include Adventure time, Gravity falls, American dad etc. All of which have varied characters, but has at least one main character who is considered to be 'good' in nature. Even Simpsons and Futurama had these, simply because these were made to be family friendly, and I really liked that. Take for example Fry. He was dumb, but he was generally good in nature, not wanting to hurt others and had a certain level of empathy. Elfo on the other hand, is way too dumb to actually do anything good or right. He basically just tags along Bean and Lucy and does whatever things they do with little moral objections towards some of their questionable acts.
I can't help but also rant about Bean. As I said, I deal with bratty characters all the time. The thing I like about bratty kids from other shows that I've mentioned, is that because it's child friendly, there was always a moral compass at the end. Something that turns them around and makes them think "ah, that wasn't the right thing to do." I really like that about shows like Gravity falls, because it really does give the children a second view, a development on empathy. Because Disenchantment was a show made generally for adults and maybe teens, it lacked that. There were moments when Bean did regret her decision, but it was mostly from self-degradation and self-loathing rather than actual remorse from understanding the hurt she brought. Like, "Oh I couldn't do this thing. I suck. I'm sad." rather than "Oh I hurt a bunch of people, I feel bad because people were hurt." Most of the time she got away with little consequence anyway. Like that episode where she was supposed to play ambassador and got completely drunk. After they escaped... well things just went on like nothing happened. Bean didn't even really regret what she did and was only a little sad. Or when she had a castle party and got a bunch of people killed with a viking attack. She didn't even think once about the dead bodies, because it's a 'cool' show, that normalizes death. She just shoved it up a chimney.

One other thing I disliked was the use of drugs, alcohol and sex to make the show seem like it was for adults. The show itself has themes that mostly relate to children and teens. Growth, rebellion, young-mistakes, pranks etc. and I genuinely think that the show would've been more successful and more people would've liked it if it actually was for children, with a hint of an adult tone. But from the beginning the show seemed like it was made for adults with the alcoholic teenager Bean. Not really even for teens, because statistically, less teenagers are actually drinking less in the new age and even when they do drink, it's mainly this sneaky friday outing thing with friends and it definitely does not define their life except for some unfortunate few. So the alcoholic, sex tone was misdirected in a way and maybe it shows how Matt is out of times. In any case, I resonated when one youtuber pointed out that drunken night outs are fun for the people involved, but not necessarily for the sober outsiders. When bean stole a cart and trashed it in the river with a person inside. I cringed rather than finding it funny. The fact that no one actually tried to save the person made me cringe even more. Other more friendlier cartoons would've used that opportunity for characters like Bean to save the person in the cart, have a learning moment or make it lead on to another journey of it's own, making people involved something. But this was just... well... heartless? No in their point of view, it wasn't even heartless. As I said, the 3 main characters in the show are all chaotic neutral, which meant that they really don't care.
I kind of got off topic since I started talking about the use of drugs, alcohol and sex. For most sensible adults, we actually like topics and the use of drugs, alcohol and sex if it's meaningful. A lot of good shows do use the 3 'adult' combo in many ways to actually connect with people. But the over use of the the three makes it quite meaningless and dull. People who get drunk all the time, do so because they have problems and people who see shows with alcoholics in them are not dumb. They either get a kick out of these two things, they see the alcoholic with a problem and laugh and resonate with their problem. (playing with sympathy) Or they see an alcoholic and see how they resolve their issue and get a kick out of that. Disenchantment on the other hand has drunkenness all the time... but for some reason, Bean is not depicted as an alcoholic or having problems for drinking all the time. The alcohol, is just seen as their thing. Which really is what people in their early 20s do and when it's devoid of meaning, the show becomes less flavourful for people who grew out of that. When they do have issues with drinking, like that ambassador episode, it is rather benign and the Bean does not see that the problem lied in alcohol, rather in prank. Let's just take a moment to compare it with Bojack Horseman a cartoon show that was created for adults. Although I haven't seen the full series as it wasn't fully my type of show, I've seen where it headed in regards to alcohol. Bojack is an alcoholic. They don't play around it. They make the audience understand that it's a problem, they also show both the benefits and the total downfall of drinking. This brings in a lot of people with actual human empathy to engage with the show because even if they don't drink, they understand either the danger of it, or they're able to sympathize with it. Disenchantment on the other hand seemed like it was written by someone who has never seen the dark side of drinking or just never got out of the whole 'hey, let's drink and PARTAY!' phase of life. Peter (from family guy) and Homer (from The Simpsons) had their moments of alcoholism, but for most parts it was either an episode on its own about their problems, or only a very minor detail to a whole story. and because both shows had a clear audience (except family guy changed its narrative after the first 2 seasons) they didn't show alcohol excessively.
Similar issue with sex. It might be a surprise, but sex is actually still a heavy topic even for teens. Most teens don't just get all pouty when they can't have sex. Relationship is a different matter on its own. I still have no idea who Disenchantment was for, but for teens.... well this show depicts teen's personal interest and conflicts very poorly. The only actual relationship conflict someone has is Elfo, and... that's also done pretty weirdly. So to show a girl just wanting a hot guy to have sex with is... rather insulting in a way. My thought is that Matt might have wanted to be progressive in that we see a lot of boys just mindlessly chasing girls for sex in some shows and he wanted to do the same, just the other way round, and well... I guess I'm just old and the younger generation might like that but... from observation, the most successful cartoons actually had a build up on various meaningful relationships beyond sex... and well, if the show is for adults... then... obviously, the show is very directed towards a small group of adults because despite the portrayal of some adults just mindlessly chasing sex, most people actually want something meaningful and a connection. Both of which Bean isn't really looking for. Having Elfo on the side did not really do much because the tension they hinted at was almost non-existent.
In any case, I know this is just season one. People didn't like season one of Futurama or Adventure time. I'm sure it'll pick up and become good, but I just wanted to rant after seeing all these youtube videos.

Naruto the real bro

I liked the early stages of Naruto immensely. I loved the character design and execution of their stories. Their powers, whilst unrealistic and defying logic at times, were entertaining and full of awesome action.
I got pretty bored half way through, pretty much after the Sakura vs Sasori fight where things became a bit... hmm... weirdly repetitive, dragging on and a bit dull.
But!!! I managed to pull through and actually finished the whole story. I never finished the anime, but I switched to the manga because the anime just had too many annoying fillers and slow story transgression. It was the right thing to do because after being a bit bored for a while due to the anime ruining the whole story for me a little bit, I soon got into the whole war and the background. It was a little bit ridiculous how they forged Naruto and Sasuke's connection like that, but overall, I loved the story of the Tsuki hime and her sons.
But here's one thing I also just loved in the end. Although Naruto was overly OP and overly 'nice' and 'loving' which made him all annoying, I loved that he remained a true bro to Sasuke.
Think about it. Sasuke, the emo, the rebellion, hurt a bunch of people, someone everyone hated and mostly lonely. His obsession drove him mad but Naruto kept saying he will save him, die with him and just be his friend. He never stopped called Sasuke his friend. As someone who suffers from loneliness and depression, I really appreciated that. I loved how one kid just kept fighting for a friend he cared about, that just fell into hardship in a way. Yeah, Sasuke was annoying. He was so engorged in his own little fantasy that even I cringed at a lot of things he did and say. But ultimately, he was just someone who lost a family and who wanted to find meaning in his life in his own way.

In any case, I loved the whole series in the end and I think I will revisit it in a few years time when memory fades a bit.

Donald Glover / Childish Gambino and his white wife

I honestly just wanted to write that I feel sorry for all the hate Donald Glover is getting for having a white wife. It seems like most of the hate is from black people saying he's a hypocrite to make a song like 'This is America' and then dating a white person.
I don't know the true intent of 'This is America' and the true views of Donald Glover. But I know one thing for sure which is that his music was never about 'white against black'. In fact, I dare say the purpose may even have been to unite white and black people against the current state of violence and media treatment of black people in America. It is true that the music portrays black people as being persecuted for the colour of their skin, but I think one of the point of his video and his view is that black people are just people and should be treated like a normal human being.
By pointing out his white wife is doing exactly what Donald Glover was going against. Seeing colour and nothing else. Dehumanization due to the colour of one's skin. What if Donald Glover saw beyond the colour of her skin? What if Michelle White also saw beyond Donald's colour of his skin? Dating someone who's white doesn't make him any less of a black man.