Pretentious Watch: Matrix Resurrections @TheMatrixMovie @hbomax #GoodWatch #Matrix

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Reviews for the latest Matrix movie have been all over the place as far as my social media streams go. I’m adding my voice to the choir: It annoyed me. Note, however, that there’s something I find interesting in my reaction to it. I really hate the pretentiousness of the wardrobe and dialogue. The latter is made even more grating by the fact that everyone is either whispering (presumably to sound cool) or yelling (presumably to force dramatic tension without necessarily earning it). There’s rarely any in between, or at least so little of it that I took it for granted. That kind of movie makes me want to punch everyone involved, both in-character and out-of-character. And who wears sunglasses indoors and at night? Someone I want to punch, that’s who.

Except Corey Hart. We cool.

What I find interesting about this reaction is that I had the same reaction to the other Matrix movies, but with the exception of a few notable quotables, over time the pretentiousness slowly disappears from my memory of them, leaving me only with the parts I liked. That’s a lot, which meant that my honest emotional reaction to those movies was overall positive. (Yes, all three of them.) Resurrections may not be so lucky, though. Part of what I liked about the original were the groundbreaking special effects and visuals, as well as a relatively new story. Resurrections doesn’t have that luxury. There was nothing I noted in there that could be deemed “groundbreaking” by today’s standards.

I’ll mention something that I did like about it quite a bit. Avoiding spoilers, I’ll simply say I liked how meta it was. I also liked a callback to a past character who’s all grown up. So, while the story was good enough, it was marred by a tone that always makes me sick to my stomach. I’m glad I watched it on HBO.

I’ll probably like it more someday. As always, YMMV.

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Star Trek Dating Issues @StarTrek #StarTrek #Khan

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And now for something really stupid.

Nobody rocks it like Montalbán.

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Christmas Leftovers #StarWars #Christmas

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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s a meme appropriate to the aftermath of Christmas.

Okay, I take that back. There’s nothing “appropriate” about this meme.

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A Star Trek Christmas! @StarTrek #Christmas #StarTrek

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I was raised Catholic, but I’m, let’s just say, unaffiliated at the moment. Still, if there were any reason for me to engage in holiday traditions, it would be Christmas. In fact, people like me have influenced United States Supreme Court precedent on the Establishment Clause, but that’s a story for another day.

Patrick Stewart likes to talk about Star Trek as the modern human’s mythology, and I guess that applies to me. So, here’s my means to celebrate Christmas. Sort of. It’s all the memes that hit my stream this year, some of which are new to me. This is my mythology.

From one of the best episodes of TNG.

Fortunately, I never have to worry about this sort of thing.

Kirk is such a hound dog.

I would buy this outfit.

Ouch.

Some more decorations.

Humans apparently still celebrate Christmas in 2364, as evidenced by their viewing of Christmas movies.

Worf never got it. He never got anything.

But seriously . . .

Worf I get, but Gowron? I had no idea that Klingons celebrated Christmas.

Happy Star Trek Day … I mean, holidays!

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It’s a Jedi Christmas! @spidermalk #Christmas

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It took a while for me to recognize that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Now I came to another conclusion . . . or at least someone else did.

Happy holidays!

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I Watched Star Wars Again @kesseljunkie #StarWars

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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s some Star Wars memes (though mixed with a tiny bit of original content). Why? Because TNT was playing the Star Wars films in in-universe chronological order, and while I was organizing myself for my upcoming move, I had the movies playing in the background. I saw the tail end of Revenge of the Sith (from the point where Anakin tells Padme he’s headed to Mustafar), all of Solo: A Star Wars Story (see tweet below), Rogue One (my favorite Star Wars movie), A New Hope (for the first time in more time than I can remember), and Empire Strikes Back. After that, I had to go to bed.

To all you Star Wars lovers, don’t give me too much shit for the negativity. That’s always for Kessel Junkie’s benefit. Besides . . .

Anyway, here are some memes presented, appropriately I think, in in-universe chronological order.

Suck it, Star Wars fans that are prequel haters.
I wouldn’t be gsllc if I didn’t put one of these in there.
I should have stayed up later to watch Return of the Jedi.
I’m actually quite happy at work.
“Don’t bury yourself in the part.” — Dr. Leonard McCoy

McCoy aside, I hope that quote is accurate.

Probably not considering his dismissal of Vader’s “religion.”

I just can’t stop.

Kessel Junkie and I live to give each other shit.

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A Timeless Classic @TheGornCaptain #StarTrek

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Everything’s better with the Gorn captain.

Star Trek >> every other IP.

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Shang-Chi Re-watch, CGI, and the Eternals @MarvelStudios @shangchi @TheEternals #ShangChi #MCU

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I watched Shang-Chi again Thanksgiving morning before 9 hours of football. It’s still really good. The one consistent criticism I’ve heard is that the final battle is CGI. I don’t have a problem with that at all. In fact, I think the MCU uses CGI battles in a powerful way.

Chinese mysticism is hokey nonsense, but so is Norse mysticism, Greek mysticism, etc. As an amateur student of mythology (and legacy D&D player), I may appreciate eastern mythology more than most Americans, and I can assure you that those stories are a generally untapped resource. The MCU is the perfect universe to capitalize on that resource. Shang-Chi was just the start. If you can suspend your disbelief with superheroes, you can accept giant dragons, hokey martial arts moves, and magic in general, and those things often require CGI.

Some of those stories involve creatures that simply don’t exist in the real world, and to do things as grandiose as the MCU does, CGI is a requirement. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but you’re being a bit unfair if you claim that the CGI dominates the scene. As large as it was (spoiler alert!), the good dragon didn’t win the day. He was defeated. He was about to die. Human beings with whom we can relate, Shang-Chi and Katy, made the difference. If you want to criticize something, criticize that Katy managed an impossible shot with less than one day’s training with a longbow. Many of you have. I’m with you on that.

Side Note: I’d love it if Thor used the Bifrost to take Shang-Chi to visit Shang-Ti in later movies. We’re now dealing with celestial-level threats. We need an Odin equivalent. They should also use Black Panther to introduce Egyptian (Bast) and other African (Shango) mythology.

Tie in with the Eternals?

I had a thought. The ten rings looked remarkably similar (spoiler alert!) to what Phastos used in the climax of Eternals. Moreover, the mid-credits scene of Shang-Chi tells us that the ten rings are a lot older than 1,000 years, and the fact that the MCU has so far faced only titan-level threats, not celestial-level threats, is consistent with MCU characters having not yet dealt with that sort of energy signature. A quick search on Google reveals that my idea isn’t novel, <whining voice>but I wanted you all to know that I thought of it all on my own</whining voice>.

So when does Eternals come to Disney+? 🙂

Shang-Chi and the Eternals were fun. I have high hopes for the next few phases.

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It’s About Time @williamshatner #StarTrek

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Tomorrow morning, October 13, 2021, at 9:30 ET, William Shatner will be returning to work with his former employer. I wish him well.

I’m not as concerned for the safety of the other crew members. Nor apparently is anyone else.

You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVxTHEKKLxNjGcvVaZindlg.

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The Real Reason Pietro Died in Avengers: Age of Ultron @MarvelStudios #AoU #MCU

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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I’m answering an unanswered question from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Why did Joss Whedon feel it was necessary to kill off Pietro Maximoff?

Look, not all of these posts can be winners.

Why is this Evan Peters and not Aaron Taylor-Johnson?

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