BOOK: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Big Squirrels Don’t Cry (2020)

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The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Big Squirrels Don't Cry Year: 2020 Author: Ryan North Length: 288 pages In this second collection of Squirrel Girl comics, you'll once again find Doreen Green trying to balance her life as Squirrel Girl and as a computer science student at Empire State University. This can be quite the balancing act, especially when you have a huge fluffy tail that you have to hide when you're in your civilian persona. While other superheroes have origin stories that explain their tremendous powers, Squirrel Girl is...Squirrel Girl. Doreen's "unbeatable" title continues to be tested as she uses both her skills as a squirrel person who can communicate with and control squirrels and as a computer science major to defeat villains who terrorize New York City. The fact that she's a superhero who can talk to and control squirrels is just amusing enough that fans of the first collection will likely enjoy this one. However, I wasn't prepared to read a Howard the Duck...
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MOVIE: Finch (2021)

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Finch Year: 2021 Rating: PG-13 Length: 115 minutes / 1.92 hours As time goes on, one starts to wonder if all the best post-apocalyptic stories have already been told. With the current state of the world looking more depressing with each passing year, many visions of dystopia from years past are coming true, while stories of our near future are looking a lot more post-apocalyptic. Finch (2021) fits into this latter category but only has a few newer twists to this common problem: how do humans survive on a planet that is no longer hospitable toward life? Visually, I was most impressed by "Jeff" (Caleb Landry Jones), the humanoid robot Finch (Tom Hanks) builds to ensure his dog Goodyear has a caretaker. Of course, movies like Chappie (2015) have shown that CG artists figured out how to do this well over five years ago. Regardless, it's still a visual feat and treat to see realistic-looking CG robots in movies like this. I can also appreciate...
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VIDEO GAME: Tetris Effect (2018)

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Tetris Effect Year: 2018 Rating: E Time Played: ~10 hours While most virtual reality games attempt to immerse the player in an interactive environment, Tetris Effect is best played sitting completely still. Tetris is Tetris, but Tetris Effect takes this classic formula and adds just enough new mechanics to it for the entire game to feel fresh and engaging. I've played this game both on my PC and on my Oculus Quest, and I have to say that I prefer the Quest version because of how immersive it is. There are no distractions. It's just you and Tetris. Since I recently trained myself on Tetris 99, I still found some levels in Tetris Effect's story mode to be quite difficult. Of course, as a single-player game, Tetris Effect had little to offer past this story mode. That was until they added the "Connected" mode that introduced online multiplayer. The 3-versus-1 mode is some of the most innovative Tetris I've ever played. With the multiplayer aspect...
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MOVIE: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Year: 2021 Rating: PG-13 Length: 132 minutes / 2.20 hours With the end of the Infinity Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is a lot of room for new franchises to fill in the gaps left by the likes of Iron Man and Captain America. However, this means lesser-known properties like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) get their chance to shine. And while lesser-known franchises like Guardians of the Galaxy are now household names, I think it remains to be seen if Shang-Chi can truly develop its own integrated identity within the MCU. Having somewhat botched the introduction of the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) in Iron Man 3 (2013), Shang-Chi attempts to ret-con this by insisting that the Ten Rings organization is a genuine threat to world peace. However, Marvel wants to have its cake and eat it too by including the "Mandarin" in this film. There are a few other loose connections...
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BOOK: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl – Powers of a Squirrel (2019)

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The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Powers of a Squirrel Year: 2019 Author: Ryan North Length: 184 pages I was first made aware of this somewhat obscure Marvel superhero because I am a regular reader of Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics webcomic series. While I sat on the knowledge of Squirrel Girl's existence for some time, I finally broke down and bought the two-volume collection of North's imagining of the hero. In this first volume, Powers of a Squirrel, we get to know Doreen Green (aka Squirrel Girl), a computer scientist student studying at Empire State University. As a much more comedic superhero compared to the likes of Iron Man or Captain America, Squirrel Girl's claim to fame is the fact that she is "Unbeatable." This includes defeating some of Marvel's most fearsome and powerful villains in unique ways that don't involve violence. Sure, sometimes Squirrel Girl has to get her paws dirty, but the more amusing storylines are the ones where she saves the day using unconventional...
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MOVIE: Mulan (2020)

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Mulan Year: 2020 Rating: PG-13 Length: 115 minutes / 1.92 hours In Disney's ever-ouroboros-like handling of its back catalog, the continuation of live-action adaptations of its animated classics claims another victim. This time, Mulan (2020) seems to miss the point of what made the original so beloved. Of course, you can probably say that about other live-action adaptations as well (especially The Lion King (2019)). If anything, Mulan is a parody of its source material and Chinese culture overall. Everything about this adaptation felt flat and uninspired—like Disney is just running all their previous animated classics through the live-action machine to see if anything good comes out the other side. Don't get me wrong; I think Disney has had a few live-action successes. I think The Jungle Book (2016) improves on its source material. It's just when you adjust the way you tell a certain story too much, it no longer contains the elements that made the original fun and exciting. By making Mulan (Yifei Liu)...
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VIDEO GAME: Tetris 99 (2019)

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Tetris 99 Year: 2019 Rating: E Time Played: 125+ hours The "Battle Royale" genre of video games took the world by storm a few years ago. While most of these games were shooters like Fortnite, one odd entry resonated with me. Tetris 99 takes the versus mode of this classic video game and pits you against 98 other players to see who has the skills to be the best for that round. I never played much "competitive" Tetris before I picked up this game, so there was a bit of a learning curve. Still, I eventually trained my playstyle to survive long enough to achieve the title of "Tetris Maximus." With over 125 hours clocked in this game, I found it easy to pick up and play. After I rose to the top of the 99 players, I could play in the "Invictus" mode, only for players who had become Tetris Maximus at least once. I usually play in Invictus mode for the challenge, but...
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MOVIE: Venom – Let There Be Carnage (2021)

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Venom: Let There Be Carnage Year: 2021 Rating: PG-13 Length: 97 minutes / 1.61 hours A lot of critics of the superhero genre say these movies contain no substance. They claim that there's nothing in them other than quippy one-liners and hard-to-follow action. Most days, I might defend the superhero genre for its flashy set pieces or subtle character development. After seeing Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), I cannot hold the same defense against the critics here. It is unfortunate that such a good villain from the Spider-man franchise would be in such an awful movie. The first Venom (2018) movie was tolerable, if for the only reason that Spider-man 3 (2007) botched the casting of Eddie Brock so badly. Tom Hardy certainly has a better physique for the role, and the original Venom film had some fairly decent "buddy dialogue" between Brock and Venom that made it entertaining. Flash forward to the sequel, and these two characters need couples' therapy like nothing else....
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