Godzilla x Kong: The New What-now?

So, I just went to see Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

That was a thing.

It's good to see the studio is learning not to waste money on big-name actors in kaiju films. I couldn't tell you who any of the lead actors were. Not at all. The only one I recognized was the little girl from the previous film who could do sign language with Kong. Now she's a sullen teen. That's a thing.

Yeah, so... Godzilla x Kong... what to say about it. Hm... let's start with the good stuff, shall we?

• Kaiju dentistry. Yes, I'm being serious.
• Kong getting his Kong on a lot.
• Baby Kong.
• Utterly pointless destruction of humanity's creations from ancient times (good-bye pyramids!)
• Godzilla's preferred bed.
• Crystal gravity pyramids.
• The little girl has superpowers.
• MOTHRA!
• Lots of monster on monster action. Eventually. Like in the last half hour or so.

Right, so the bad...

• Waaaaaaay too much pointless exposition.
• Just who the fuck were all these people on screen?
• Really awkwardly-bad attempts to add human interest to the film. I'm fairly confident the audience gave zero shits about the main heroine and her relationship with her daughter.
• Hippie kaiju dentist.
• Taking waaaaaaaaaay too long to get to any sort of point.
• Technobabble.
• Camera angles. Unnecessarily weird camera angles.
• Kaiju cavities.
• The script could have benefited from any sort of editorial process to trim down the bullshit by a good 90%.
• Incredibly awkward title.

So, in the end, I enjoyed seeing Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. More accurately, I enjoyed the last... oh... 25% of the film. There were some nuggets earlier on, but the film was mostly a meandering hot mess that tried to hard to come up with a plot that wasn't there. I'll admit, I was a bit unimpressed with the villain monsters, too. Oh, the fights were good, but they lacked the real oomph that Ghidorah or Mecha-Godzilla had. Such is life.

Strange New Worlds

I spent New Year's Eve binging season 1 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds".

Billed as a spin-off of "Star Trek: Discovery" (which is, itself, allegedly a spin-off of the Star Trek franchise), its association with "Discovery" kept me from watching it.

I tried to get through some episodes of "Discovery" while on an international flight. It was shockingly-bad. Like, horrifically bad. Weird alternate-Klingons and lots of labels that were vaguely "Star Trek" while having a show that was painful to watch.

I switched to something else mid-flight and wrote off the franchise.

A friend suggested I give "Strange New Worlds" a chance. It's a sort-of prequel to the original series of "Star Trek". Set during the time Christopher Pike commands the Enterprise, before James T. Kirk takes over. It's got a quirky and fun crew and it really captures the explorer's feel of the original series. There's sime time-travel shenanigans in it, but they keep that sparse, thank goodness. And the stories feel solid and self-contained.

I loved it. I'll have to give season two a try at some point.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

And fuck 2023

2023 can go f*** itself

The blog title expresses my sentiments regarding 2023 well enough.

This year has been a shitshow.

I was one of the waves of tech layoffs early in 2023. Finding new work has been... challenging... amid the ocean of other people in the same situation.

I sustained several injuries from hobbies. None serious, but all-together, they've been problematic.

Several friends died over the course of the year. Each one was a shock.

And the capper was when my father passed away.

Gotta say I'm still struggling with that one. There's a 'Dad-sized' hole in my life that I can't quite figure out how to process.

In the interests of fairness, it hasn't all been bad. The layoff meant I could spend time with my father before his passing, and that worked out remarkably well. I've also been able to help out family in the midst of all this, which has also been nice.

And I can't recall the last time I've managed to get so much sleep!

The year's been a constant source of anxiety, from the personal to just watching the news and seeing the wars and the violent rhetoric and the rise of - let's be honest here - nazi-like sentiments in my homeland.

Fucking shitshow all around.

I will not look back on 2023 with any fondness. If 2023 were a person, I'd be tap dancing on its face until it stopped being fun. And I think I'd get a lot of fun out of that.

I certainly hope 2024 is better (though the jury duty summons I got suggests that won't be the case... that's almost funny, really).

So, as I raise a glass... fuck you, 2023. Fuck you and good riddence.

Ah, that felt good.

For anyone reading, I hope the coming year brings you good fortune, good health, and all the good things.

In the spirit of the season

Attention shoppers

There's three months left until Xmas. That time's gonna blaze by fast...

What We Do in the Shadows - Season 5 reaction

I just finished "Exit Interview", the final episode of season 5 of "What We Do in the Shadows".

Damn!

I have to admit, I thought season 4 was weak tea. I dared to wonder if the show was getting into a rut.

Then this season happened.

Potential spoiler if you haven't seen season 4:



















At the end of season 4, Guillermo asked his vampire friend Derek to turn him into a vampire. Season 5 deals with the fallout of that while adding "The Guide" as a regular to the cast.

It's been utter genius. Brilliant, demented, and unpredictable genius. I have to say, I didn't see most of it coming when season 5 hit its finale.

I was a fool to doubt the writers. This show maintains its place as the best out there.