blearytoo

[blearytoo]

Murderbot - If I were a Grumpy Robot...

Apple TV’s offerings have always been a bit of a hit/miss thing for me. There are those home runs like Ted Lasso or Severance, but there are others that, well, just don’t seem to work for me (let’s not mention those, shall we?). However, I am very glad to say that Murderbot, starring the wonderfully stoic Alexander Skaarsgard, is a fun science fiction piece about a guy who I’d honestly hang out…

[blearytoo]

F1 - It Makes Q3.

It’s F1. I mean, how much did I expect from a movie about Formula 1 racing? Especially in this case, it’s about a fictitious team. Yes, it has Brad Pitt (see the image above), and Javier Bardem. Yes, it was shot during the actual Grands Prix in 2023 and 2024. Yes, it has incredible visuals, using tech pioneered by the director while filming Top Gun: Maverick (which was also a pretty good film).…

[blearytoo]

Patlabor The Movie 2: An Underrated Classic

Giant robots are a big thing in Japan. Since their introduction in the 1960’s with Tetusjin 28, which spawned an entire genre of manga and anime all telling various versions of the adventures of protagonists fighting giant monsters with powerful robots, there have been countless versions of these colorful, and often fantastic machines that have filled manga pages and screens not just in Japan,…

[blearytoo]

Titanfall 2 - 8 Years Old and Still One of the Best

Titanfall was seen as a bold move when it came out in 2014. It was a very crowded gaming segment, filled with all sorts of styles and mechanics that made it seem, at least at the time, like there wasn’t a lot left that a developer can do. So, Respawn decided to do something new, and in the process kickstart the nerd fantasies of thousands of players. One was, of course, the titular Titans, giant…

[blearytoo]

Ranma 1/2: An Excellent Re-make

One of the anime from the 1990s that stood out to me was Ranma 1/2. Ranma is a romantic comedy centering on the relationship between Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo, who are set up in an arranged marriage by their fathers, who are both martial artists and friends. Ranma, however, is also cursed. He will turn into a girl if he is doused with cold water, a result of a training accident in China. He…

[blearytoo]

Returning with Arcane, Season 2. Wow.

Ok, ok. I’ve been gone for a bit. Again. My bad, really. Life’s gotten a lot busier with school and, well, life, that the ol’ blog gets set aside for a spell. That, and there was a time that I really had nothing to say. Well, that’s over. Welcome to Arcane Season 2. The Netflix blockbuster and animated surprise has come back on high expectations and I’m so happy to report that they’ve not only…

[blearytoo]

Tyson-Paul and the Circuses We're Subjected To

I must admit that I was very excited to see the Mike Tyson – Jake Paul fight mainly because I’m an Iron Mike fan. You can, therefore, imagine my profound disappointment when I was expecting this dynamo of a human being come out and pummell an (admittedly) annoying opponent. Instead, I saw a 58 year old man struggling to keep up. He couldn’t throw a punch because he was not just a second, but…

[blearytoo]

Blogging. I'm Back. Again.

It isn’t really easy now to sit here and write on this platform. I nearly lost it; the two-step authentication thing wasn’t working and I lost my backup codes somewhere between Pandemic and Old Age. Thankfully, WordPress was able to get me back on my increasingly rickety feet and here I am. Again. But, sitting here, I can’t help but wonder: what’s blogging for now? It was fun in the beginning.…

[blearytoo]

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Shakespeare?? Really??

Well, in a word, yes. The story, well, at least some of the story of the latest Gundam anime was inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Which, when I realized it, made all these little hanging doubts I had about the anime fall into place. Admittedly, I was very incredulous with the anime, especially at the start. It didn’t feel like a Gundam story. Coming from the gut-wrenching saga of…

[blearytoo]

On Coming Back, and On Succession

Oh, let’s not be fooled… Hello. I haven’t been around for a good few months. It’s been… a bit of work, in truth. 2020 has been a bitch to everyone and I’m not an exception. Instead, I found myself trapped in my house curiously with even more work than I had then before COVID happened. I teach, and the transition(s) that I and my colleagues had to do, jumping onto an online format, trying to…

[blearytoo]

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners - Classic Cyberpunk, Anime Style

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners – Classic Cyberpunk, Anime Style

The videogame, Cyberpunk 2077 is, well, a bit of a train wreck. At least, that was what I heard when it launched. I’m a fence sitter when it comes to games; I’ve seen enough launches of half-baked games to know that, normally, it’s best to wait for these games to percolate a bit and allow the developers to patch it to what it was supposed to be. No Man’s Sky is a clear example of it. That is a…

[blearytoo]

The Bear - The Ugly Beauty of Reality

The Bear – The Ugly Beauty of Reality

The first five minutes of FX’s The Bear throws you into an overwhelming series of events and we are immediately left behind by Carmen Berzatto, played to an incredible intensity by Jeremy Allen White, who is rushing to solve crisis after crisis in trying to get The Original Beef, an Italian sandwich shop in Chicago, running. Carmen, or Carmy, is a genius chef, at least, that’s what everyone says…

[blearytoo]

The Matrix: Resurrections - Bitter Pills are Good For You

The Matrix: Resurrections – Bitter Pills are Good For You

Image taken from The Verge I admit, I was a little late to the viewing party. This new COVID-era streaming releases often leave me, with my other stuff to do, behind. Being late, however, gave me a chance to see how people were responding to the fourth Matrix film. It’s a very polarizing film, apparently. There are reviews that praised its wit and emotional content. There are others which panned…

[blearytoo]

Arcane: League of Legends - What a Surprise!

Arcane: League of Legends – What a Surprise!

From imdb League of Legends (LOL) was this video game that I never took an interest in playing. It was a game that was based off of the Defense Of The Ancients (or DOTA) mod of Warcraft III that became massively popular, ironically, even more popular than the game that originated it. While I appreciated the app, I was never a big fan of the skirmishes, or of multiplayer, for that matter. (Blame…

[blearytoo]

Exploring the Divinity of the Hulk

Exploring the Divinity of the Hulk

Al Ewing’s run on The Immortal Hulk will probably be considered one of the greatest runs of the character. He returned to the horror roots of the comic, and used it effectively to create not only a definite aesthetic to the character, but a version of the Hulk that showcases much more depth and complexity than we’re used to. One of the most intriguing additions used by Ewing was the introduction…

[blearytoo]

Black Widow: Better Than I Expected

Black Widow: Better Than I Expected

Image taken from rogerebert.com So, what can we say about a film that should be irrelevant? After all, this is a story about a character who is, at least in viewer chronology, already dead, right? And yet, it isn’t quite the prequel either. Rather, it’s separate story, albeit one that fills in a crucial gap in the narrative between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Also, it…

[blearytoo]

Trese. Filipino Fantasy Finally Found?

Trese. Filipino Fantasy Finally Found?

Netflix’s Trese is an animated series based on the comic book series of the same name created by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo. It is a supernatural crime thriller with gobs of Filipino mythology weaved into it. The books were beautiful works of art done in black and white. They’re also, currently, sold out, though I suspect that they will return to print soon. I say this because the animated…