MOVIE: The King’s Man (2021)

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The King's ManYear: 2021Rating: RLength: 131 minutes / 2.18 hours One benefit of the rise of superhero movies over the years is the adaptation of other comic books to the big screen. Some are serious examinations of society, like V for Vendetta (2005), but others often keep the silly action-packed novelty of their comic origins, like The Losers (2010). Considering Matthew Vaughn's previous works like Kick-Ass (2010), the Kingsman franchise easily falls into the second category of comic book adaptations. The latest in this series, The King's Man (2021) has some fun with history while still keeping the flashy action sequences that made its predecessors successful. I love a good alternate history. They might be campy, but films like Inglorious Basterds (2009), Watchmen (2009), or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) are more fun to watch because they take a basic knowledge of common historical figures and events and spins them into an entertaining alternate explanation of what really happened. In The King's...
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BOOK: Neverwhere (1996)

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Neverwhere Year: 1996 Author: Neil Gaiman Length: 828 minutes / 13.80 hours Neil Gaiman has written a lot of different books. His writing has been hit-or-miss for me, but nothing that's truly middle-of-the-road average. That was until I listened to Neverwhere. I appreciate how Gaiman narrates most of the audiobooks of his works that I've listened to so far, and Neverwhere was in line with the narration quality I expect from him. However, the content felt so mediocre that I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if it came from any other different British authors like Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams (both of which are talented writers, mind you). There's a distinct flavor of British comedy that comes through in the absurdist naming of characters and places in Neverwhere. Perhaps it's why I felt this book was so generic. It's your classic "Institutionalized" story where a man has (what seems to him) a stable life, only to have this life upended by a fantastical parallel world...
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MOVIE: Encanto (2021)

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Encanto Year: 2021 Rating: PG Length: 102 minutes / 1.70 hours As Disney hits all the cultural checkboxes across the globe, Encanto (2021) follows in the footsteps of Moana (2016) and Coco (2017) to expose audiences to the culture of Columbia. With catchy songs by Lin Manuel-Miranda, Encanto is full of fun and color in a way that doesn't seem disrespectful to the culture it's representing. And while I know little about Columbian culture, I know enough about Latin America to realize that the foundational lesson in Encanto is important for everyone, regardless of their culture of origin. On its surface, Encanto is about a family with magic powers that live in a magic house. Everyone in the family except Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz). Normally, the story about Mirabel trying to figure out why she didn't receive magic powers would be enough for this kind of movie. Encanto, however, digs deeper and addresses the significant pressure that can come from an individual's family to live up...
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VIDEO GAME: Superliminal (2019)

by benmweilertNo Comments
SuperliminalYear: 2019Rating: ETime Played: ~2 hours I can appreciate it when a game tries to do something different. In Superliminal, the main gameplay mechanic revolves around the idea of forced perspective. Something small can appear large if you hold it up to your eyes, and vice versa. Superliminal fully explores this concept in the psychologically unending liminal spaces of an individual trapped in a dream. Unfortunately, it attempts to be witty about this setting in a way that (as with many indie first-person puzzle games) tries too hard to be Portal 2. What Superliminal does well is its puzzles. Not only is it satisfying to shrink and grow items using forced perspective, but having to align items in just the right way to match with the background uses the right amount of brainpower to be engaging. Most of the puzzles are fairly straightforward and I only struggled with a few of them that suffered from dim lighting (for ambiance/tone's sake). Each puzzle...
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MOVIE: Spider-Man – No Way Home (2021)

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Spider-Man: No Way Home Year: 2021 Rating: PG-13 Length: 148 minutes / 2.47 hours First off, if you haven't seen this movie yet, I want to warn you that there are spoilers in this review. There's no way I can talk about this movie freely without divulging key plot points. With this out of the way, I want to recognize that nostalgia played a big part in the hype for this third entry in the Tom Holland Spider-Man series. No Way Home is the kind of film that I figured could never be made due to all the different rights needed (much like Ready Player One (2018) and all its nerdy references). That Marvel and Sony pulled this off is testament to their ability to make the impossible happen. I was glad that this latest reboot of the Spider-Man franchise forewent the "origin story" in Homecoming (2017). Little did I know, they'd pull the same trick that Skyfall (2012) did with the James Bond franchise...
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BOOK: Shadow of the Giant (2005)

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Shadow of the GiantYear: 2005Author: Orson Scott CardLength: 746 minutes / 12.43 hours I'm glad Ender Wiggin's crewmates had this side series to explore their identities. While most of these characters were in the background of the Shadow series until now, Shadow of the Giant finally gives them time to shine on their own. After all, after three books focusing on Bean, it's nice to see the geopolitical drama unfold between these young tactical geniuses. I can definitely appreciate the storytelling that fills in the gaps between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. With Achilles being killed off in the previous book, Shadow Puppets, the principal antagonist of the series left a vacuum on the world stage that was inevitably going to be filled by Ender's Jeesh. And while these individuals had aged to the point of young adulthood, I can't deny the clever game they played with entire nations so they could position themselves in stations of power. It's entertaining...
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MOVIE: The Summit of the Gods (2021)

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The Summit of the GodsYear: 2021Rating: PGLength: 95 minutes / 1.58 hours As the tallest mountain in the world, there are more movies about Everest than any other mountain in existence. A good chunk of these movies are documentaries, and even the "Hollywood" movies are about actual events (like Everest (2015)). From my own experiences climbing mountains, there comes a point where movies about mountain climbers end up all looking the same...especially when the mountain they're climbing is the same. Fortunately, The Summit of the Gods (2021) takes a novel approach to this repetitive type of story: by using animation. Based on the manga of the same name, The Summit of the Gods has a story to tell that's much more interesting than the adrenaline junkies who feature in other mountain climbing movies like Meru (2015). Sure, there's still the link to actual people and events, but The Summit of the Gods uses animation to its advantage to tell a story that...
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VIDEO GAME: Manifold Garden (2019)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Manifold GardenYear: 2019Rating: ETime Played: 5+ hours I first saw the trailer for Manifold Garden on a Nintendo Switch indie showcase. The visual style and gameplay mechanic were interesting enough for me to download this indie first-person puzzle game. I had seen nothing like it before and its infinitely repeating, fractal-like world appealed to the mathematician in me. Still, there's only so much you can do with a concept like this, so it's a good thing Manifold Garden didn't overstay its welcome. It's difficult to avoid comparisons to other first-person physics puzzle games. You might have a hit like Portal 2 or a pastiche of Portal 2 like Q.U.B.E. 2. Manifold Garden, fortunately, doesn't lean too heavily on Portal 2's mechanics. Instead, it uses the "rotate" feature to modify gravity, thus manipulating the elements needed to solve each puzzle. Plus, the cel-shaded and monochromatic color-coded visual style (similar to Gris) easily helps the player to know how the environment is currently oriented....
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MOVIE: Dune – Part One (2021)

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Dune: Part One Year: 2021 Rating: PG-13 Length: 155 minutes / 2.58 hours Adaptations of beloved books can be a challenging endeavor. It's not impossible, as we've seen with The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003), Harry Potter (2001-2011), or The Hunger Games (2011-2015) but there are certain traps that can doom a film version of a story to be hated by the community that loves the book. While Dune (1984) attempted to give this story life on the big screen, the special effects at the time and your opinion of David Lynch's filmmaking may have tainted an otherwise "impossible" adaptation. When a new adaptation of Dune came along with Denis Villeneuve as its director, I had hope that he would honor the source material. Villeneuve has proven himself to be a fantastic sci-fi director. From Arrival (2016) to Blade Runner: 2049 (2017), he has shown that he understands stories as much as aesthetics. The best way to honor Frank Herbert's legacy in this adaptation of...
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