BOOK: Winter (2015)

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WinterYear: 2015Author: Marissa MeyerLength: 1,384 minutes / 23.07 hours If there's one thing I appreciate with a series, it's when all the loose ends are tied up by the end. In the fourth and final installment in the Lunar Chronicles series, Marissa Meyer manages to wrap up all the disparate parts of the story that had been running in parallel for three books. Not only does this series have a satisfying ending, but there's even enough time to flesh out the titular character, Winter, so that her presence makes sense in the context of the whole series. Still, even if the backstory for Levanna in Fairest isn't directly needed to understand more of Winter's character in this book, it certainly helped that I had already read it going into this final chapter of the series. While my standard qualms with the "teenage girl" style of characterizations remain for this book (as it has for the entire series), the dialogue feels very natural...
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MOVIE: No Time to Die (2021)

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No Time to DieYear: 2021Rating: PG-13Length: 163 minutes / 2.72 hours Daniel Craig is my James Bond. I was too young for the Pierce Brosnan version of the secret agent, so when a re-do of Casino Royale (2006) came out, I was impressed that this decades-old franchise could take some cues from recent successful action films like The Bourne Identity (2002). Having seen a smattering of other Bond films over the years, the five-movie quintet that ended with No Time to Die (2021) felt bittersweet. Even if there were constant rumors that Daniel Craig was done with the role after Spectre (2015), I'm glad he stuck the landing with this movie. Now, I'm fairly biased when it comes to Bond films. I think Skyfall (2012) is the peak of the franchise. Not only did it cover Bond's backstory, but it also pulled a huge twist right at the end to connect it to every previous Bond film, which had me exclaiming in...
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VIDEO GAME: Axiom Verge (2015)

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Axiom Verge Year: 2015 Rating: E10+ Time Played: 843 minutes / 14.05 hours As I play more and more video games, I'm finding that I enjoy Metroidvanias. Something about exploring and upgrading a character to unlock more parts of a map (for more exploration) feels satisfying to me. Axiom Verge adheres to many of the tropes that make a Metroidvania great, including mimicking the pixelated 16-bit style of one of the genre's founders, Super Metroid. The fact that a single person created the entirety of this game is astounding, even if its edges show in a few spots. Even though I enjoy playing through a Metroidvania like Axiom Verge, I also found myself struggling to beat the final boss of the game. Much like how I had to take a break before finishing off Hollow Knight, I found myself just barely able to keep up with Axiom Verge's final boss. It turns out I had missed picking up one of the game's best weapons because...
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MOVIE: Cruella (2021)

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Cruella Year: 2021 Rating: PG-13 Length: 134 minutes / 2.23 hours It seems the latest trend in the last few years is to take well-known villains and make them relatable through tragic backstories. While Maleficent (2014) seems to have started this string of villain-centric movies, Cruella (2021) does an adequate job of showing this villain's transformation while also making you want to root for her. However, the problem with idolizing someone like Cruella De Vil (Emma Stone) is that her eventual crime against the 101 Dalmatians (1961) is the desire to kill every single one of them in the name of fashion. While the plot pulls elements from Oliver Twist and All About Eve (1950), there are enough twists at the end of this film that make it worth the watch. Even if one of these moments had me laughing at how ridiculous it was, it all paid off because of Emma Stone's excellent acting throughout. Of course, it also helped that the flamboyant fashion...
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BOOK: Fairest (2015)

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Fairest: Levana’s Story Year: 2015 Author: Marissa Meyer Length: 392 minutes / 6.53 hours I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere in the last decade or so, the idea of “redeemable villains” took off. So many stories had antagonists that had their heinous acts justified by some past trauma that somehow made them more human and understandable. While I appreciate flawed characters and the bad decisions that eventually led them down the dark and evil path, I don’t think it’s always necessary to make villains redeemable. That is unless it’s done well. Fairest does it well. Right from the first pages of Fairest, the reader understands that Levana was the runt of the family. The amount of teasing and hypocrisy that formed this young girl into the evil queen she would eventually become is understandable. However, the real brilliance of this story comes in when Levana tries to solve her problems the only way she knows how: by manipulation. It’s not entirely her fault,...
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MOVIE: Uncut Gems (2019)

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Uncut Gems Year: 2019 Rating: R Length: 135 minutes / 2.25 hours Much like The Lighthouse (2019), Uncut Gems (2019) was one of those films that gained a lot of buzz around the award season for the performances of their lead actors. However, neither of these films was nominated for Best Picture, and now I understand why. It's nice to see Sandler branch out from his standard comedy niche, but ultimately it didn't feel like he was "acting" that much by being a Jewish jeweler with a gambling problem since being Jewish is often a part of his schtick. I wanted to like this film more, but many things just annoyed me about it. I can understand the desire to create "realism" in the dialogue by having twenty people yell over each other. Still, it mostly just made it hard to understand anything that any individual said. It's the same reason I don't care for the films of John Cassavetes. On top of this, Howard...
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VIDEO GAME: Abzu (2016)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Abzû Year: 2016 Rating: E Time Played: ~2 hours After years of obtaining the free game from the Epic Games store, I'm finally working my way through many of them. I'm not doing them in any particular order, but I saw Abzû and thought it looked relaxing. Once I got into it, I found that it was basically an underwater version of Journey. While I loved the narrative nature of Journey, I felt Abzû had less of an emotional impact by the time its short playthrough concluded. While Abzû is incredibly derivative of Journey, I do have to admit that the visuals were quite stunning. Everything was rich and colorful—even in some of the darker levels. There was a lot of care given to the underwater environments and it was clear that the game developers had done their research to recreate these beautiful underwater environments. Unfortunately, the underwater gameplay is also something I struggled with in this game. I constantly found myself struggling with the...
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MOVIE: Army of the Dead (2021)

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Army of the Dead Year: 2021 Rating: R Length: 148 minutes / 2.46 hours Some of the most original movies I've seen have mixed genres to create something new. Movies like Cowboys & Aliens (2011) combine the western and sci-fi genres, while movies like Army of the Dead (2021) work by fusing zombie movies with heist films. The tropes of these genres can often accentuate each other and can fuel character development or drive the plot. The premise of Army of the Dead might be a weak reason to motivate the characters to risk their lives in the first place, but as long as the result is a Las Vegas-themed zombie apocalypse, it works. While I'm not generally a fan of "serious" zombie films, I can appreciate the level of depth put into the undead in this movie. Generally, "smart" zombies are much more interesting than those that mindlessly wander around and wait for someone to make a noise. I also loved the tongue-in-cheek use...
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BOOK: Cress (2014)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Cress Year: 2014 Author: Marissa Meyer Length: 941 minutes / 15.68 hours Anyone who has spent a considerable amount of time with me will know that one of my top three favorite movies is Tangled (2010). It then comes as no surprise to me that the third book in the Lunar Chronicles series that adapts the Rapunzel fairy tale into this sci-fi retelling would be my favorite of the set. It wasn't until I was reading original fairy tales to my daughter that I realized how close Cress came to representing the story it was based on instead of just relying on the familiar accouterments of the fairy tale. While I didn't appreciate as much of the split storylines in Scarlet, I felt they improved the greater story arc of the whole series here. Cress explored much of the inner workings of the antagonist faction of Lunars that had been missing up until this point of the series. As such, I was able to gain...
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