Twice burnt... Justice League SDCC trailer

Warner Brother know how to cut a trailer... That much we should all agree upon. Both Man of Steel and BvS had trailers that got me hyped, So does Suicide Squad... And now we have the trailer for Justice League(and Wonder Woman). 

And i am... Well... really really hyped. With out a doubt the trailer at least have all that i wanted, sharp humor, great sets and Ezra Miller, sure he is no Grant Gustin but it seems they are taking the Flash character in a good direction and Ezra is the a perfect fit for that direction. 

But

As the title hints at i have twice given the WB/DC producers my vote of confidence and twice they have gone out of their way to stick their dick in a wall-socket. I wish i could just give in to the hype and just completely immerse myself in the world. But i honestly fucking hate BvS, i somewhat dislikes Man of Steel but it did have some promise. Sadly that was not delivered upon in BvS. In fact both movies suffer greatly from sloppy editing, and sloppy here should be read as them having cut away too many small movements that set up the greater arcs. This in turn leave the movies annoying and confusing... Not City of bones confusing but way more confusing than i care for. 

So against better knowledge i am hyped for the Justice league movie... But i am also preparing to be disappointed. 

That is why my next movie going experince is one i know what i will get... A really stupid popcorn action comedy... In short.. Ghostbusters. 

So until next time. Stay safe and play nice. 

Pokemon is go

I literally have nothing to say about the app Pokemon GO. Actually that is not entirely true, I have some choice words like piss poor and barley working. But that is in the long and short of it irrelevant because it is not the app it self that have made a impact. 

No it is the sheer social movement behind this barley AR like app that has me scratching my head and in equal measures praise humanity and start question if we should not start hand out "almost Darwin awards". But then again I have been a long time viewer of Radio Dead Air and the show What the fuck is wrong with you... So I have a fairly high bar for the stupidity of people. I am not even going to dignify you with a explanation of what Pokemon GO is, if you somehow have missed it i am utterly impressed. 

Now let us instead do a little mental exercise and I want you to try and remember the last time you saw a huge group of people from all walks of life getting together and sharing... Now try and find one that did not happen due to a tragedy of some kind. 

Pokemon GO have brought people together in a way that give me hope for humanity and show us that despite what media is trying to say, the world is not teetering on the bring of destruction. Not really. 

Of course this crazy will die down soon, give it a month or two and most people will be feed up and the novelty will have worn off. But that will not really matter because it will still have changed the people using it in a small way. And it have opened the eyes of the general public to what Augmented Reality is and what it can do. No longer is it a weird buzz word... OK it is still a weird buzz word but now you can tie it to P:GO and that way make it tangible. That in it self is a victory i think. 

As for all the arsehats and socially misaligned fucknuts, they will also move on to the next way to ruin their own and others life, because that is what they do. 

Then Pokemon GO 2 will come out and we start all over again. 

Until then 

Go forth and conquer. 

First Ghostbuster numbers are in and i have started to watch NCIS:LA

Let me start off with that the early reviews of the new Ghostbusters movie are looking good, sure it seems that it went the road of Star Wars and played it a bit too safe. But to be fair the movie is 30 years old and never had the pop-culture presence that Star Wars had. Now I have stayed away from plot reviews and you can bet your arse on me doing a full review once I go see it. But for now things are looking good and I can´t help but feel a tiny bit smug. 

And now back to your regular scheduled programming.

So having some free time I decided to finally dive in to NCIS: Los Angeles. Having been a fan of the earlier seasons if NCIS and that this series dropped any pretense on being based in reality, it pretty much fixed all the things that annoyed me with the original one. Now the show itself is pretty much what you expect from a crime drama/action show. But what makes me appreciate it is how well it deals with humor, especially the character of Hetty. Hetty is the operational manager (aka big boss) and is played by the amazing Linda Hunt. Now Linda Hunt is a short woman and the series use this to the max by not only playing with our established idea of power and the attributes tied in to it. The writers also elegantly weave jokes about the fact that she is short in to the story in such a way that it empowers and even humanize the character. This is sadly an uncommon occurrence in modern day TV. Way to often I see writers lean on broad stereotypes and go for the simple laughs. As an overweight person myself, I belong to a group that way too often see this treatment. In general overweight males end up in one of three groups. The creep, the looser or most often… the punchline.

 

So to see a show that actually use a none normative character, putting a female with a look and stature that would normally exclude her from playing powerful roles as not only a strong lead but also write her as someone who has seen it all and have favors to call in from pretty much everyone. It is refreshing. Now I am only in season two (of eight) at this point so it might change but if so, at least they did it. We need more thinking like that. Breaking down the typical image of how things are “supposed” to be. Because stagnation is not good for anything. 

This is perhaps the biggest responsibility we have as a generation. We are now moving in to power and society has never been more open. We hold the keys to forming a new order of things. Don´t believe the knuckledraggers who try to paint equality and acceptance as something negative and dangerous. Don´t buy in to the idea that the goal is precis and absolute balance and thus an impossible goal.  It is about giving everybody the same basic chance and not provide a fast lane just because the person have dick. There will always be way to buy in to a fast lane, sail a gravy boat up the river privilege. But how about we try to widen that lane.

Also for the fucking love of all that is holy…..

STOP… HURTING… PEOPLE… JUST… BECAUSE… YOU… DO… NOT… AGREE… WITH… THEIR… LIFE… AND… CHOICE.

Who someone is and what they do should not be a concern of you as long as they are not hurting anyone. I know it is easy to fall back on threats and false bravado when faced with something that if different. Heck I do it myself sometimes, for an example I have at points wished bodily harm on people like the core of Westborough Baptist church and other right wing conservatives. But then I remind myself that abuse is the only language they speak and it would have no effect. Violence does not solve anything, not really.

Ok that became a bit political… but hey fuck it… this is my blog and if you do not like it you can write a comment and tell me so. We do after all live in a free world. 

The new Top Gear. Life after Clarkson.

So I was sitting here thinking about what my next post should be about. At first I leaned towards how most mobile games tugs on my nerve with the bait and switch tactics of making everything harder to get the longer the game is out. But I felt it was both a dated topic and that I did not have much more to say about it than that. So I will leave it with… “Dear mobile game designers… Fuck you”.

So I went back to the drawing board, hence the lateness of this post (but if you are a regular… and I use that term loosely… reader this will in fact be an early post as it has not been weeks or months since the last one.) But I simply decided to talk about Top Gear, especially the new series that just wrapped a short season. Let me first make it clear that this is not the Clarkson era Top Gear, and I am very pleased with it. Enough DNA left to make it recognizable as Top Gear but a new dynamic and enough changes to inject some vitality in to a show that had grown staler than a month old loaf of bread.

Because let us be serious for a while. The old show was so predictable that you could predict each down to the joke. The car reviews were still good but the rest was cringe worthy at best and desperate for the most.

So this new show brings in a new set of talent since Clarkson made his exit with the other two stooges. The setup is much more reminiscent of the competing UK motorshow Fifth Gear. Beyond the core duo of Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc taking the place of Clarkson, Hammond and May an expanded cast including a bunch of people I have no idea who they are… Apart from Sabine Schmitz do make the show have a bit more variety.

Beyond that most things remain the same, gone is the news segment, pretty much the only part of the old show I still enjoyed. And no longer having “a star in a reasonably priced car” they have “two stars in a rally-cross car” a segment that is about as hit or miss as the old one but at least it is something. Beyond that the show kept its car reviews of cars you will never even get to dream about and the story based challenges like “is a car, a bike or public transport faster across city X”.

Matt LeBlanc of course deliver a spot on impersonation of Matt LeBlanc and as expected by a seasoned actor hit all the beats. A sort of safe and toned down Clarkson. Big thumbs up from me. Chris Evans for me is not as good of a fit but I am sure that once he have a season or two beneath the belt he will stop chafing in the role. (Edit: Shortly after posting this i found out that Chris Evans decided to not continue on with Top Gear) The banter is still good and there is a warmth to it. BBC have toned down the toxicity that came to mark the later season of the Clarkson era and seem to work towards having the crew being more including and well… behave less like arsehats. Now I know some people liked the “edge” in the classic anti-authority vibe if sticking it to the norms and “PC Police”. But having Clarkson… A smart man… Acting like a punch drunk baboon for cheap laughs got old in the end.

This new Top Gear is very much a modern production, designed to offend no-one or at least as few is one can. But it was in my mind needed, the show had to be reeled back in before it was given some slack again. I am sure that BBC will now put the writers and showrunners to task going over the feedback and tweaking the show for the next season.

We fear change as Garth Algar put it. But sometimes change is needed and I feel that Top Gear was in need of such change. My recommendation is to give the new show a chance, go in with an open mind and enjoy the show for what it is.