Media Consumed

[lunabee34]

Thor

I loved this movie so hard. I know that a movie about the death of a parent and the destruction of a world being so funny and lighthearted registers as a tonal failure with some people, but it worked for me. I love me some pain and misery and angst, but real life has gotten way too heavy on those scores for me to want much of it in my entertainment anymore. Loki and Thor were both sad at their father's death; they were both committed to saving their people from Hela; Bruce was clearly really messed up after Ultron without having to belabor that point. I'm glad this movie didn't wallow in the pathos but went the comedic route instead.

Everyone is so beautiful! I knew Tessa Thompson is beautiful; I had seen her be beautiful in Westworld; I have seen her be beautiful and totally naked in Westworld even. But she was incandescently gorgeous in Thor. Cate Blanchett was also amazingly beautiful. I adored her costuming and makeup; I loved the way her helmet slid up and all the cool shadows of it morphing onto her. Dark!Galadriel, I both fear and love you, yes. LOL Love Thor's short, whacked off all lopside hair with the razor cuts. Love his sexy eye patch. He can challenge Fury to a staring contest. LOL Loki is never my jam; I do not find him very attractive (it's the hair; someone should sit on him and cut it off; then they can go sit on Carl and Daryl from The Walking Dead and give them buzz cuts, too).

I am wondering where the Asgardians will eventually settle. I suspect that the people from the first Guardians movie (the Glenn Close people) will help them find a planet. Earth is not going to want to house refugees from an alien world, especially not after the Accords (although Thor doesn't know any of that happened yet).

Really looking forward to Infinity Wars now. After I see Thor again, I might have more substantive thoughts to share. Right now, I'm stuck on pretty and yay.

Walking Dead

I got caught up on the first three episodes of The Walking Dead yesterday. I cannot tell you how satisfying watching them actually accomplish a goal and kick some ass was. Love it.

I hate that Michonne and Rosita are sidelined, but I also hate it when shows act like severe wounds are something you get over in five minutes, so I appreciated that the complete beat down Michonne went through and Rosita getting shot were treated like serious injuries.

I'm glad to see Carl exhibiting more kindness and willingness to trust than his dad. At times, he's been a little Rick clone and not in a good way.

I hate that Rick is the protagonist of the show because I find him boring. I hate that he's the framing POV for most of the episodes. That being said, I find him less obnoxious when they're actually kicking Neegan's ass, so it worked for me in these opening episodes.

I think taking the prisoners was a 100% wrong move. There's a time for mercy, and this is not it. They should have killed every soldier in every outpost. Where will they house prisoners? How will they feed them? They can barely feed and take care of their own medical needs. Will they imprison them forever? How can they let them go when they'll likely try to get revenge? They can extend mercy to the people being kept in the Sanctuary as slave labor; the soldiers deserve no mercy. None.

If Gabriel is killed by Neegan, I'll be deeply annoyed. I appreciate the arc his story has taken. He's come such a long way from the coward he used to be, and he's managed to uphold the moral principles he's supposed to stand for as a man of the cloth.

I hate that Eugene is irredeemable now. Like, absolutely hate.

I am so glad that Rick explicitly saves the baby. I spent two episodes on tenterhooks that the baby was either going to die or that they'd just not mention her again, and I'd be caught in a spiral of imagining that they left her there to die.

I am looking forward to the next episode, but sorry that so many of King Ezekiel's people are clearly going to die. :(

I'm ready for this show to end; let's defeat Neegan, show society rebuilding, establish that babies born to infected moms don't have the zombie virus, and boom--end. Of course they're going to drag this show out to epic, Supernaturalesque proportions. *sigh*



The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really liked this book. I found myself getting bored during some of the technical, hard science parts of the first one, but I wasn't bored a single time while reading the second book in the series.

Cixin Liu's gift for description (especially of the natural world) is foregrounded in The Dark Forest, which is beautifully, movingly written.

I love how none of the characters is an open book; each has secrets that are revealed at pivotal moments.

I don't want to give too much away, but this is a fascinating look at the way Earth might react to a first contact situation with a hostile alien race if Earth had centuries to prepare for that contact to take place.



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Kingsman 2

I loved this movie with two minor quibbles. Quibbles first: hate Roxy dying, hate Merlin dying. Merlin's death especially seemed unnecessary. Also, the whole having to have sex with the mark was so stupid. He just needs to get the nanite into a mucus membrane. The goal isn't to cultivate a relationship with her. She doesn't have to like him once the tracker is implanted. He could literally have stumbled and jammed his finger up her nose, or kissed her and shoved his finger in her mouth, and she could be all, "OMG, I met a weirdo at the festival." No need to actually have sexual contact with her.

Everything else was gold:

Taking what was a crass and unnecessary joke, the only mar in an otherwise lolariously awesome first movie, and turning that into a real and loving relationship

amnesia

so much slashiness; it was literally raining men

Elton John cameo

Julianne Moore as the villain

Thoroughly enjoyed this one.