2319 Words.

Tonight in about three or so hours I have written two thousand three hundred and nineteen words.

I'm been struck with some kind of writing bug. I've mostly just written towards a goal of a sword fight. This fight is cool and has been in my mind for about two weeks now. I think I'm about about another 2000 words from the start of the fight.

It it any good? I don't know yet.

I've not even checked the spelling and typos (of which the are many) yet. But the point is to get the words down. 2000 bad word is better than none at all.

I like to write but sometimes I cant seem to, but today they just came poring out and the ideas flowed out with them. I was on quite the role and I promise to myself that I will do this more often. It was actually fun.

Now to see if I can make anything of this.

Drinking Hurts

How's that for a click bait type title.

I like a drink. Mostly only one at night usually, whilst watching a film or something. Sometimes I make a night of it with my mates but not that often. Just a nice drink and a good film or while doing some personal work is a nice way to round off the day.

I tend to stick to a few drinks I like, my main poisons are Guinness, Newcastle Brown, Hobgoblin or Gin and Tonic. I'm don't much care for larger or most other 'party' drinks. I like something with both taste and a body to it. In short I like my drinks.

Well tonight I ran into a issue.

Well I should back up to just before Christmas when I fell ill for a bit. I was floored for a few days when I tried a drink in the evening (after feeling a bit better that day). I got massive waves of pain and felt like crap for a bit longer. Silly me for not waiting until I was better, or so I thought.

Due to not drinking in Lent I've not had much to drink this year so far, and what I have had has mostly been Guinness or GnT. Well I decided to stock back up and decided to get some of my favourites, Hobgoblin and Newcastle Brown. That night I settled down to watch 'Tales from Earhsea' (yep that long ago, late blog is late) I chose to have pint of my Newcastle Brown.

Only two or three mouthfuls in I felt uncomfortable and started to get hot. After another drink got pain in my chest. Only maybe a third of my way into the pint I was in a fair bit of pain. I brought back memory's of before Christmas and recalled it was the same drink as then.

I felt terrible all night and for most of the next day.

I don't know why I now have this reaction to one of my favourite drinks, but it sucks. I just hope its not part of some larger intolerance issue. Its a shame but that's life and hey, I may have to try more ales to find a replacement.

[This post has been in the works for far too long (11 days), I must get better at finishing up my thoughts before they go out of date]

So, Just How Good is Batman V Superman?

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

I saw batman v Superman at my small local cinema, it was in their smallest screen and for a Monday afternoon in the school holidays the were only about ten of us there. Not a good sign.

The viewing experience was ok cold have done with being higher up but I could see fine. The was no major distractions other than random things going through my mind. Such as; why has that lady brought her five year old to see this film? Strange parenting aside I enjoyed my time watching the film.

I went into this film very spoiled, not that I sort them out but I didn't go out of my way to avoid them. Heck I want going to see the film but my brother wanted to see it. People were throwing spoilers net anyway so I had a peek. Strangely I think I would have liked the film less if I was unprepared for what was to come.

The feel of the film is all over the place, from the dark look to the try hard dialogue and the crazy plot. Don't even get me started on the narrative.

It is a film of parts most of which would be good if they were framed in a way that they stood out or made some resemblance of sense within the story. It it like a film full of 'money shots' one after the other with no though or effort put in to get from one to another they just happen.

As with Man of Steel the main problem with the film is that it isn't Superman! Its a strange alien  that looks like him who doesn't want to save people. He cares less about people who aren't his mum or Louis. The character is just broken.

Batman was ok, different from the Nolan Batman but a interesting look at him. Nice to see he has been around a while.

The plot is dumb!

There I used as much brain power in that description as the writers did in coming up with the plot. its a bit harsh but man is the film dumb. The actions scenes are cool but far too dark. The was other thing I enjoyed like the music and Alfred but they don't carry a film.

I liked Wonder Woman. Her film looks like it could be good. :)
 

I wont mention all the logical problems the film has but they are numerous and are what ruin it at times.

A very poor film, it should have been so much better. I've put far too much time into this scattered bran post time to stop and watch a good film.

In the the end Batman V Superman is just a bad film.

2016 The Year of Films [April]

Here is the post for all the Films I've watched in April, be it at home or at the cinema.
Link back to the year Index.

01. Good Will Hunting (01.04.16)
A acting masterpiece. Such a good film and a very good look at how people of all kinds tick. Loved it.

02. Tales from Earthsea [Ghibli] (02.04.16)
A bit of a strange film, unlike most Ghibli films the characters are not very well defined. The narrative is weak along with the plot but my god is it a beautiful film. The weakness are not that bad and it is still a good film. I may have to look into the books.

03. Batman Begins (03.04.16)
More comicbooky than I remembered. Still a awesome film. Not much to say but he is Batman.

04. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice [cinema] (04.04.16)
Better than 'Man of Steel', a film with problems but a good core. Well a core that is off centre. Here is my small review.

05. Rambo - First Blood (04.04.16)
I don't know much about Rambo, It's far from what I was expecting. Not that I would want it to be anything else.  Its a strange film but with some good messages to it which aren't totally undermined by the second half. Less mindless destruction and it would of been great. Its a great look into the effects of war and a solid action film.

06. Ponyo [Ghibli] (06.04.16)
A film that doesn't just defy logic it slaps it in the face. As you expect is a beautiful film; its light on plot but high on cuteness. The film makes no sense and it revels in the fact. Strange and awesome.

07. The Dark Knight (08.04.16)
Is there a more perfect superhero film? This is damn close to perfection.
It is long but very well plotted with threads that wind through that tie it all together.

08. Ghost in the Shell (10.04.16)
First time watching in Japanese with subs, it adds another layer to the film. I love this film, I couldn't have stumbles into a better one for my first adult anime all troughs years ago. Its a slightly updated version, more nudity than I remembered.

09. Edge of Tomorrow (11.04.16)
A bit of a rough start but a bloody good film. I'm not a fan of the way Americans represent the military, but I got over it. Nice concept well executed.

10. Arrietty [Ghibli] (13.04.16)
Wow, such a fantastic film. Based on the borrowers and done in a style that captures the essence of Ghiblie's best stuff but with some noticeable differences. Mainly the music, the was much more than normal and it was excellent.

11. Rejected [short film] (14.04.16)
A short form comedy animation and I laughed once. It is a cleaver little film but a bit too random for my liking. The one time I chuckled was at a Python style sketch about silly hats and that was at the stinger. I like the bleak style and the animation at the end but it needed something more.

12. The Last Witch Hunter (17.04.16)
Needs way less exposition, it falls at the show don't tell rule. Nice little film with some cool world building and action. The writing was poor but not unredeemable. All in all it was ok.

13. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (18.04.16)
Hosoda is fantastic, 2 for 2 so far. Nice look into time travel and its effects on a small scale. The voice work and art is awesome. The is some cool direction choices and the animation is smooth and looks good in his flat style. Next up from his is Summer Wars, cant wait.

14. 5 Centimetres Per Second (21.04.16)
Built out of three short stories with a small connection between the first two with the third being a continuation of the first. It is a look and love and relationship that just don't make it. Very well animated and directed with a nice calm feel to it. 

15. The Dark Knight Rises (22.04.16)
Still a very good film and a fitting end to the trilogy. Some stuff gets kind of lost and the is a bit too much telling but it works and makes sense. The flow of time felt better this re watch but the a a few pacing issues. Solid film.

16. Dirty Harry (23.04.16)
Not what I expected, a film that carried on when I though it was about to end. Nice feel to it, slow and almost silent at times. Some of the stuff is old ground now, but its take on a bad ass who goes against the grain is well done

17. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (29.04.16)
Yep still a great film. I will write a post about it I think. But I will just say I like the ending, it is different and it works.

18. Avengers: Age of Ultron (30.04.15)
In preparation for seeing Civil War. Such a good film, as good as the first. Love the dynamic between all of the members and the space given each. The plot makes total sense even the foreshadowing dream stuff.

A big month this one 18 films. 12 being first views and 7 being animation. Best is hard to choose but the one that stayed with me the most was 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time'. No stinkers and some nice surprises. Onto May!

Tech Headaches and Stuff

Wow that Ergo Proxy post took weeks to do, but I'm happy enough with how it came out. I could have spent far longer on it but I didn't want to do a in depth review just some random thoughts.

I don't want this blog just to be media reviews and the like but the will be a fair bit it of it. (I am planing something else where I can do stuff like that) I hope to do more random posts like this one where I can ramble or rant about issues.

Onto the issues: Tech problems for the ages.

Where do I start? The broken internet, battle.net issues, phone issues, Minecraft problems?

The have been tech problems mounting up on me for a while, first my phone out of the blue decided not to play music through any audio jack interface at any kind of audibility. Its a odd issue with I can't fix and have found no one else with a similar issue. So I'm left without music when I'm out and about and I hate not having any.

The internet has been for a lack of a better word odd. It goes down most nights at about 8pm either for seconds or hours. The new router we were sent works but only has a connection speed of less that half that of our old router. And it works again when we put the old one back on a hour or so later. It strange and make little sense.

I've been playing a lot of Hearthstone lately and the was a new update to the game, but for some reason It is struggling to download. I'm getting continues errors and when It thinks its working it isn't.

Speaking of games I have wanted to get back into Minecraft for a while but for some reason it runs like crap for me. Even on the very lowest settings it can't get to 30fps and it chugs.

I'm at a loss at most of the problems but I hope at least some will clear up soon. I wouldn't be surprised if I have forgotten anything else but that's more than enough for me to worry about.

Ergo Proxy

Ergo Proxy is a 23 part Anime from 2006. I had heard rumbling about around the net over several years but had never gotten around to looking it up. I stumbled back upon it while finding out about Erased (witch I will write about when it is done) and decided to give it a go. I watched all of the episodes in about two weeks and loved it.

Trying to explain why I liked it to my brother I said something along the lines of this: “Its one part Ghost in the Shell, one part Blade Runner, one part Aeon Flux with a hint of Neon Genesis Evangelion.” And that was my reaction after the first two episodes. To be fair the comparisons aren't great but gives a bit of what the tone of the series is.

Though to he honest comparisons like that isn't fair, not only dose Ergo Proxy stand up one it's own it in some ways is so much more that just that.

The setting is interesting if a bit under developed, a post apocalypse world were most of the life has died out and humans are only around due to living in huge domed city's to protect them from the poisonous air. They seem to be doing ok and life seems good. As we get in deeper the are strange under currents in the world and in the governance of the domed city.

I love the pace of the show, slow and steady but not so much that it plods. Even towards the end with what could be considered filler the are still vital things to learn about the situation and world. It fits into a standard show structure but keeps away from any tropes with no real filler.

The show is built around its themes, they run deep and there are a fair few. It focuses on the mind and what a person is as well as the nature of a person and their sole. It is a deep psychological show and explores some big ideas. The survival of humanity through cataclysms takes centre stage near the end, and it show more than one way to save a species. Though some in way that are disturbing and very controversial.

Re-l is a interesting person; a bit cold and uncaring at times but keenly intelligent but also obtuse. Here name is strange but the is a side plot that show a possibility of where it came from and that her nature is most definitely a product of her environment.

Pino is a odd child. Seemingly there to provide a cute companion but her role is important. She adds the third side of the humanity question that runs through the show. Her development as the show goes on is very well handled and its hard at time to remember that she is a construction.

The art is desaturated and muted to help push the post apocalyptic feel of the show. Grey and blue dominate the colour pallet with blue used well to set off Re-ls eyes. Though the show is mainly dull we now and then we get a contrast with some very colourful events or episodes such as the game show one.

Though for the most part the animation is basic it ramps up for some great action scenes. The lack of emotion through almost no face movement is purposeful and adds to the feel of the show. The end of the first episode stands out quality wise, there are two big set pieces and both look awesome. The part where Re-l has a hand run down her face is both well done and very disturbing.

Some 'grown up' shows are childish and others play at being smart. Here is a show that isn't afraid to go over the top at times but not to left field to be absurd. It's themes rule the show and it makes them front and centre for much of the run time. It keeps what it wants to be at it core and is great.

What is in a name? Ergo Proxy is a name that works not because of any deeper meaning but just because it sounds cool. Is the a deeper meaning? who knows? I don't care to think about it.

Ergo Proxy is 23 episode of pure mind bending, well written story that doesn't hold your hand. It makes you think and you have to fill in some of the gaps with you imagination. This is a show I will re watch for sure just like how I watch Ghost in the Shell now and then.

Lain Makes My Head Hurt

I'm only 4 episodes into it and I'm confused to hell.

The art and direction is fantastic and the story is cool but much of the deeper parts are hard to follow and the other stuff is just plain odd. The themes running through the story and art are mental and very 90s. The show is only a few years after the Ghost in the Shell film. And that is kind of how I would describe it, its Ghost in the the shell with no military bits and slower.

I will not do any kind of deep review for this show because I think I would need a JCB to dig deep enough. I will give a few thoughts when I'm done but not much.

I'm loving it so far and it may end up as one of my fave anime shows.