West Side Story (2021): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: An excellent version. Some parts I like as much as or better than the original, other parts the original still wins out. And, unfortunately, Tony is where this one falters the most, and keeps it from equaling or surpassing the original.
TV And Films
The shows and movies I like (or don’t).
Scaling Back Star Trek
Adapted from a Twitter thread:
My biggest hope for Star Trek going forward (Strange New Worlds, Discovery S5, whatever else comes out) is that the writers rediscover the ability to tell small stories.
Disco S1 was the Klingon/Federation war, with a half-season jaunt into the Mirror Universe that removed the Emperor of the Terran Empire, returning to a decimated Federation. S2 was the Red Angel and the battle against Section 31’s Control to save all life in the galaxy. S3 had a shattered Federation because of the Burn, which destroyed most of Starfleet and nearly entirely wiped out warp drive; the actual damage and death toll (both immediate and long-term from the lack of intersystem transportation) is never specified but likely isn’t small. And then S4 had the entire galaxy at risk from a randomly moving literally-planet-shattering device, with at least one inhabited planet destroyed and Ni’Var and Earth under threat (because, of course, Earth must be under threat of destruction fairly regularly).
Then in Star Trek Picard S1 we have synthetics on a mission to destroy all organic life before they can be destroyed. S2 ups the stakes from there with a timeline variant that has altered the course of the entire known galaxy.
It seems like every season of every show has to have some sort of Big Bad that is Bigger and Badder than the last Big Bad. The stakes are always so high that it’s become virtually meaningless. One death is a tragedy, millions are a statistic, billions are a plot device.
This is part of where the first season of Prodigy has been a bit of a breath of fresh air. So far, at least, it’s been relatively small-scale: One group of young adventurers finding a ship and trying to escape their captor. There are signs, of course, that this may change, with the Protostar apparently carrying some sort of viral doomsday weapon that could wipe out Starfleet. Which…well. Here we go again. Why must everything be super-sized?
Lower Decks is the sole entry that has been doing well at having a more focused, smaller scale. Whether intentional or a side effect of having lower deck crew for main characters, it hasn’t gone too large-scale (or when it has, it’s been in the background and we only get hints for comedic effect).
Maybe the stated goal of going back to a more “planet of the week” format for Strange New Worlds will also mean that not every event will be an EVENT. I really hope so. Because while yes, sometimes it can be fun to have a Big Bad that’s Very Big and Very Bad, if you do that every time, it ceases to be particularly interesting.
Big drama can come from small events. Not every threat has to be planet-, system-, galaxy-, or universe-spanning to be threatening.
None of this is to say that I haven’t been enjoying the modern reinvigoration of the Star Trek universe. I have, quite a bit! I just find myself wishing that the stakes weren’t always turned up to 11. That’s good for Spinal Tap. Less so for Star Trek.
🎥 Eternals
Eternals: ⭐️⭐️: Really long. Lots of things happened that involved a lot of fancy glowy effects. Outside of that, I can’t think of much to say about this addition to the MCU. Where Shang-Chi felt like it was part of the MCU but you didn’t have to be particularly well-versed in the MCU as a whole to enjoy it, this seemed like it wanted to feel that way, in the lack of direct overt connections to any of the other films, but was so steeped in the larger Marvel cosmology that I never felt like I really understood what was going on or why I should care about the characters or the events.
🎥 Agatha and the Truth of Murder
Agatha and the Truth of Murder: ⭐️⭐️⭐️: An entertaining “what if” exploring what might have happened when Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days. In this, she finds herself playing the part of one of her own detectives, trying to solve a murder…or two.
Original Audio? Commentary? Why Not Both?
I’m watching the new 4K restoration of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and one of the nice things about this release is that not only are there commentaries, but there are subtitles for the commentaries (this is a very rare thing, unfortunately). So I can watch the movie with the original audio, but pop on the subtitles for one of the commentary tracks to read that as I watch.
At which point Prairie looks at me and says, “Oh my god, you’re such a nerd.”
Yup.
🖖
Meatloaf Again?
Content warning: Morbid, dark humor.
Seems the Weber grill company sends out regular “recipe of the week” emails, which I’m sure are pre-written and pre-scheduled and just go out automatically.
Today’s was for BBQ meatloaf.
They had to apologize.
“Meatloaf again?”
Also: I honestly did not know until today that Meat Loaf was a vaccine-denying Trumpublican and (at least according to a lot of online scuttlebut) very likely, and unsurprisingly, died of Covid-related complications.
I can simultaneously be disappointed at the death of a long-time favorite musician, be disappointed that he got sucked into MAGAland, and think that it’s his own damn fault for dying that way — which makes it even more disappointing, because it’s quite likely that it was preventable.
🎥 Jungle Cruise
Jungle Cruise: ⭐️⭐️⭐️: Exactly what it purported to be: A Disney action/adventure with The Rock and Emily Blunt having fun playing in the Disney sandbox and making bad jokes. Perfect lightweight and low-stress entertainment for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
We watched two films today. If we can keep up this momentum, we’ll watch 730 over the next year!
To be clear, we are not going to keep up this momentum.
🎥 No Time to Die
‘No Time to Die’: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2: Definitely one of the top two Daniel Craig Bond films (along with Skyfall), and a good end for his arc. His hasn’t been my favorite tenure (on the whole, too many of his entries went too far into the “gritty and realistic” approach), so it was nice for the final one to be one of the more enjoyable entries. I particularly appreciated the coherent and well-lit action scenes, all too often a rarity these days (particularly noticeable just after watching The Matrix: Resurrections, which had confusing and underlit action scenes that were often difficult to follow).
🎥 The Matrix: Resurrections
‘The Matrix Resurrections’ ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2: I’m going to have to do some thinking and reading on this one, and possibly re-watch it at some point. I very much enjoyed the first half, with all the de-/re-construction of the original trilogy. The action in the latter half could probably have been cut down a good chunk, it rather dragged on, and I’ll admit to being confused about just what was going on and why (Neo and Trinity are…super-batteries? But only when connected in parallel? Something?). But my first impression is that while it doesn’t reach the heights of the first, there was more about it that I liked than that didn’t work for me.