Everything everywhere all at once

We tried watching this movie the other day, it's meant to be some you-beut aweseomsauce movie ... but we just couldn't get into it. Very muddled, hard to follow - not for us. Loads of people liked it (I believe it won a bunch of awards as well), but not our thing.

In a similar vein, a few weeks prior we watched the Queen biopic. I can honestly say I never thought about Freddy Mercury's name. Now that I've spent three seconds thinking about it, it is kind of obvious that it was a stage name. I didn't realise his ethnicity either - again, probably because I don't spend a lot of time thinking about celebrities.

The way I normally work is I'll like a specific song (or songs) from a band but not be a fan of their other stuff. No idea why, but I know some other people love bands and all their works. I'm not a fan of country music, but there are some specific country songs that I like.

Revisiting old movie

Currently re-watching Iron Man, which came out in 2008. I know it's a super hero fantasy movie and not based on reality. But the most unbelievable scene for me is the opening scene where they are riding in a deployed military vehicle which isn't chock full of random bags and gear.

Warcraft

Got a chance to go and see the new Warcraft movie. Normally I like to watch trailers and feel that the movie will be 'better' at the cinema rather than just waiting for the dvd.

In this case, I went in blind, just happened to go because a few friends were going. Didn't even know there was a Warcraft movie.

Overall, it was a fairly average sword and sorcery movie. Plot was okay, game aspects were nodded but overall a resounding 'meh'. Not one I'd recommemd running out to see.

What really stood out to me was the orc skin tones. They started out suitably green but scene by scene they got lighter until they were pretty much human skin tones. Probably to make them more relatable but it really stood out to me.

The characters were okay but there was probably too many principle characters to get invested in them. Good for making epics, but they got diluted so when one dies, there's no emotional content to draw the audience in.

I did like how they handled languages, and didn't opt for the old "everyone just understands everyone, because" trope.

Don't regret going to see it, but wouldn't recommend it. Wonder if they'll make a Starcraft movie? :P

District 9

Heard markedly different opinions on this one. Some people saying it was so bad that they walked out of the theater. Some people saying it was the best film they'd seen all year.

Very violent film, not for the kiddies.

Me? I'm mixed. There were a few things that seemed to not follow an internal consistency. Plot seemed a little thin. The effects were pretty good, almost to the point where the aliens blended in seamlessly with the live actors.

Didn't really like the style, though the fast cuts definitely showed a history on the part of the director / editor to have come from an advertising background.

Overall, I'd say it's the kind of film one really needs to see at the cinema (I think most of the budget went on special effects), but if you weren't already planning on seeing this film, I wouldn't try and change your mind to go see it.

It's one of those films were you either like it based on the trailer or you probably won't like it.