#(if anyone did at all… or maybe Paul Hester)

[northwestofinsanity]

To what do I owe the pleasure for having not one, but *FOUR* different rock stars, from four completely different bands show up in my dreams throughout my sporadic sleep last night? (Not counting that light sleep and waking up every hour was probably what made me so aware of my dreams.)

[woodsteingirl]

chapter two is out here! or read below the cut!

Dean turned the key to unlock the door. they all stepped inside, still in their moment of Revelation. the silence was eventually broken by jack saying, “why’s it empty?”

“It’s ‘cause our furniture isn’t here yet,” Cas explained. Dean tacked on that it would be arriving sometime today. In the meantime, before the stuff arrived, Dean took the time to explain what exactly this endeavor meant for everyone. He had applied online for a mechanic job the week prior, they had only gotten back to him to tell him he got the job the day before. Dean was still reeling from everything happening so fast. it’s like everything hed wanted for so many years was finally coming to fruition, and it was an adjustment.

Cas had signed both Jack and Claire up for school. Jack was going into first grade and Claire into her senior year of high school. Obviously, Claire was older than that, but she could pass as younger just for a little while, while everything was sorted out. Plus she could gather valuable intel that way. The hard part would be getting her to agree to this plan. Jack, on the other hand, was completely thrilled about starting school. He couldn’t wait to be able to have friends his own age. Cas didn’t have much to do throughout the day, but with the other stay-at-home parents in the neighborhood, he was sure he could find some way to help out.

Snapping out of his daydream, Dean took the time to explain how everything would go in the next month or so. “I got a job at the repair shop down the road, Cas will stay here and look after everything, Jack will go to school like we planned, and Claire, we sort of set you up in school again.”

“Wow, you guys are really on a kick of making life decisions without asking me arent you!”

“Claire, it was the best option at the time, we needed the intel from kids that age, and its not like Dean or I could just walk in and ask,” Cas explained.

There was no doubt about it, she reacted as expected. Even though shed only been out of school for a year or so, she’d never enjoyed it when she was involved, so the thought of going back made her sick to her stomach. Since there was really no where to stomp off too, as the entire house was empty, she settled for sitting on the floor behind the kitchen island to process. Some ten minutes later Dean came and sat down on the floor next to her.

“Look, I get it. Nothing can be perfect for us, but sometimes you just gotta tough it out and it’ll be better than you think.”

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾

(This is a flashback to the action point just so everyone knows whats happening)

It was a normal Tuesday evening. The couple was eating dinner just as normal. Quiet conversation, and unspoken glances were commonplace for them, so the feeling over eerie silence was nothing new, and neither thought anything of it. They didn’t even hear the sound of the door open. Did the door even open?

The husband reached across the table for the salt, his wife screamed in horror when she caught sight of the tall hooded figure above him. The town was small and she shouldve known who it was at first sight, but unfortunately, when youre about to be stabbed, those things dont come as easy. She reached across the table for her phone to call 911, but she didnt make it before the figure had stabbed her husband and was moving on to her. Those were the last thoughts she had before being found in a pool of her own blood the next morning.

The neighbor had heard them and called the cops. News spread like the blight, and everyone was taken in for questioning, so far, no motive or prime suspects had been declared. It had been a month since, and the police presence was now slim to none, even though almost no progress had been made into the actual investigation. That’s just how it is when you have to solve a murer case with nothing to go on but a dead couple and a town of suburbanites.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾

(this is bak in normal time just fyi)

After about half an hour of just trying to process what was happening, Claire was ready to go back to join the rest of her family in putting their furniture together. Cas was sitting on the floor in front of what looked like it could be a table, if you positioned it correctly.

“You need some help?” She asked.

“Yes, if it isnt too much to ask, I could use an extra hand,” he gestured to the manual, “it says you need two people here anyway.”

Claire sat down next to cas and took the manual from his hands, “what step are you even on? None of the pictures look like whatever you’ve managed to create.”

Upstairs, Dean was trying to show Jack how to use an impact driver, “look, I know youre only like what? Five? But its never too early to learn how to use a set of tools.” He handed the tool over to Jack, it looked wildly disproportionate in his hands but that’s not what mattered, what mattered was the fact that he was having a bonding moment with his son, a positive one too. He was bridging the gap of what he missed in his childhood, and giving Jack what he had wanted.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾

The next day was spent almost exclusively on introductions. First they went over and greeted their new neighbors on each side, Tracey and Paul Wayne on their right, and Peter and Vicky David on their left. It seemed to them that neither of them had much of a clue as to what was going on regarding the murder, seeing as that was not mentioned even in passing. However it could be basic politeness and not wanting to scare your new neighbors away. Both couples were in their mid-fiftes and greeted them kindly. The Waynes had a wooden statue of an eagle with some pro-America quote on it, and that was one of the most memorable things about them. The other memorable thing was their brigh red Volkswagon Beetle in the driveway. Dean silently noted a love of older cars as something to connect over in case he ever needed to get closer to them. The Davids had 6 small dogs, and that was their defining trait, they seemed like the people to have “I love my shitzu” stickers plastered all over their car, but they seemed like fine enough people.

The next thing on the agenda was when someone rang their doorbell. It was a woman about their age, who had come to their door both to introduce herself, and to inform them of a house party happening later that night. The woman introduced herself as Hester Stewart from two houses down. Both Dean and Cas were glad to see that there was someone their age who didn’t have a strange amount of pets, or questionable taste in outdoor decor. They made introductions of their own, Claire and Jack even briefly appeared to say hello. They asked her for more information about the party, and she explained that it was being put on by the HOA president to distract from all that was happening, “I guess she figured one shindig would make everyone forget about the murder that happened a few houses down from her house.” She gestured down the road and to the right, apparently in the direction of the woman’s house, “Also she did ask me to invite you, I’m not just asking you to show up without anyone’s permission,” she clarified.

After that they thanked her and went on with their day. “Do you think we should attend the party later today?” Cas asked. Not looking up from the loveseat he was putting together

“I think I was planning on it, it’d be a good way to get out and meet people, not to mention gather details on what’s happening around here without looking suspicious,” Dean replied, flipping the page in the manual.

Cas agreed. Usually events like this weren’t his thing, but he could suck it up for an hour or two if it meant gathering intel. He made a mental note to prepare for more events like this one, and pushed it to the back of his mind. He found himself having to do that more often since becoming human. His angel brain could process more information than any human by hundreds, but downsizing the amount of space in his brain was an adjustment, and he found himself having to push things of the back of his mind more often.

Claire had been eavesdropping from the top of the staircase for the past exchange. Truth be told, she was almost excited to ‘meet the new neighbors’ in such a domestic fashion. She had just gotten off the phone with Kaia, she was showing her the layout of the house, as well as updating her on the situation she had gotten herself into. “They really put you back in high school?” Kaia had asked, thinking about how if anyone had done that to her, she’d’ve put up a lot more of a fight.

“They really put me back in high school,” she had replied. Maybe deep down she did want to sort of have the closure she missed in her high school years.  She missed Kaia a large amount for only not seeing her face to face for a little less than a week, but she had learned from all she’d lost, that she just had to let herself feel her feelings.

They all gathered in the empty living room shortly after. Cas explained the whole plan to Jack and her. Jack was thrilled to be getting out of the house, and getting to see new people. He’d always been a social person, even before becoming a child, but that certainly amplified his social need. This was part of the reason Dean and Cas wanted to get out of the bunker in the first place. Now that they were actually in a position for him to make friends his age, they were certainly going to make that a priority. Dean had noticed that there were more than a few kids Jack’s age in his walk around the neighborhood earlier that day.

The hours before the gathering came faster than expected. Everyone was in a rush to change into nicer clothes and make themselves not look like they’d been putting together furniture all day. (they had, but it was the act of making themselves presentable that matters in this case.) After all, weren’t first impressions the most important? Dean hadn’t really taken account the need for nice clothes this early on in his endevour, so the nicest things he had were a button down and his spare pair of jeans. Not that anyone else was much better off. Claire was wearing a skirt with a jean jacket and combat boots, Jack didn’t change at all seeing as he didn’t see the need, and who were they to argue. Cas was probably the most normal looking of them all, with his blue suit jacket paired with some jeans.

[ryanmeft]

Mortal Engines Movie Review

Maybe it’s just my personal make-up and my love of larger-than-life fantasy, but yes, I can work up an interest in a desolated future world populated by mobile cities on tank treads that prey on settlements like ancient beasts lumbering across prehistoric tundra. It’s popular among critics to dunk on the very ideas of such things, as if only real-world character pieces can be worth viewing. What’s harder to stomach is when the folks making the film don’t seem too invested in their own story. Dialogue in this movie is entirely meant to move the action along, and most characters are so underdeveloped they might as well be named Plot Device. It’s a pretty empty world.

Long story short: a thousand years ago, we blew ourselves up with Evil Bad Weapons, and the world that’s left is dominated by moving cities that look like a cross between Transformers and populated tanks. They roam the world, attempting to prey on smaller cities and permanent settlements for resources. The most powerful of these is London-To-Go, which has many layers topped off by St. Paul’s Cathedral, the only building not to get nukefied. It is ruled by a man named Valentine (Hugo Weaving), whose grand plan is develop a way of sustaining the city without absorbing other cities so he can---kill more cities.

No, it doesn’t make much sense, but Weaving can play a baddie like few others, and in the early scenes of the film, he injects his character with the only complexity we see. He seems to genuinely have the fate of the city in mind, though only he, in his view, is qualified to judge what that fate should be. He is opposed in this by a mystery woman with a scar across her face named Hester Shore (Hera Hilmar), and although the fact he murdered her mother to acquire a piece of mysterious technology seems, in the film, like it is supposed to be a spoiler, the trailers all make it so obvious people who haven’t seen them probably know. She fails in her one shot due to the interference of a naive pretty boy with the Dickensish name of Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan), who hears too much in his pursuit of her and winds up pushed out of the city by Valentine, who then sics a Golem-like bounty hunter (Stephen Lang behind probably a few million dollars’ worth of CG) on her. There’s a connection between her and the hunter that’s too nonsensical to even think about. They are eventually joined by an ass-kicking Chinese stereotype (Jihae). Back on London Tank, there’s a reasonably engaging mystery as to what is actually being done inside St. Paul’s. but this plot focuses on the two dullest characters, Valentine’s daughter (Leila George) and a totally random engineer (Ronan Raftery). I gather from bits of dialogue that these characters might have had some place in Philip Reeve’s novels, but the movie has absolutely no time to waste on any of them.

What happens, why it happens, and what anyone feels about it is completely irrelevant to the film, which spend about 20 bucks on anything that isn’t special effects, costumes and choreography. In this regard, the film is a rousing success, as long as you’re willing to accept a Steampunk post-apocalyptic world. I can understand that not being your cup of tea, but just as I wouldn’t demand that a superhero movie be an LGBT drama, I looked at this one for what it was. The lumbering London evoked memories of Hayao’s Miyazaki’s animated rendition of Howl’s Moving Castle, a clanking, creaking collection of parts that seems to stay together more through sheer force of will than any fantasy ideas of technology. The giant treads it leaves behind end up functioning as canyons threaded throughout the land, and roads for Hester and Tom to navigate. A slaver city evokes Waterworld, which is never going to be remembered as art but had better sets than you recall. A floating city consisting of many docked airships lashed together horizontally reminded me of the wondrous locales of games like Final Fantasy. Perhaps the reason these sights are themselves unjustly ragged on by some critics is they draw from a wide variety of sources, and things like pulps and video games are still appreciate by precious few. The world that Peter Jackson and his team of producers spent 150 million bucks on, at least, gives us our money’s worth.

Why, then, if Jackson is joined on the script by his faithful collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, is it so mind-numbingly dull? Weaving and Hilmar, in a role that would make her famous in a different film, show the only passion on display, and they’re fighting the screenplay for every inch of it. This team managed to both stay true to J.R.R. Tolkien’s high fantasy while punching up the dialogue just enough for Hollywood, creating modern blockbuster filmmaking in the process. They made a King Kong that contained humor, pathos, variety and thrills and was underappreciated by impatient audiences. We know full well they do not have tin ears. It seems questionable to blame director Christian Rivers, previously Jackson’s career-long storyboard artist, when he’s so closely tied to his former boss. Then again, perhaps Jackson did what few producers in Hollywood seem to do, and gave his man free rein. In this case, sadly, it would have been better to provide a steady hand.

That the movie doesn’t work is sad, because we desperately need new blood in the fantasy genre. Jackson and company may have ushered in a new era almost twenty years ago, but the genre then gave itself over to dull work that mostly looked and felt the same, and allowed superheroes to take the throne as the winning pop culture icons; by the time Jackson made the Hobbit movies, their era had passed. Well-meaning fantasy lovers keep trying to revive them, and if efforts like this are the best we’re going to get, they’ll have to keep on trying.

Verdict: Not Recommended (1 out of 4 stars)

Note: I don’t use stars, but here are my possible verdicts.

Must-See

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Average

Not Recommended

Avoid like the Plague

 You can follow Ryan's reviews on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/ryanmeftmovies/

 Or his tweets here:

https://twitter.com/RyanmEft

All images are property of the people what own the movie.