RatCreature's Journal

I'm trying to decide whether it's worth the risk (and extra hassle, tbh, what with reservation and name check-in) to watch Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in the cinema.

The mainstream reviews I've seen all sound really positive, otoh I haven't seen anyone squee about it in my DW network, and I'm unfamiliar with the comic character this is based on and have no prior fannish interest in him.

I'm also a bit unsure how risky sitting in a cinema for two hours is. Considering that I'm now fully vaxxed and cinemas are still requiring masks and distancing, and only let you in if you are vaccinated, recovered or recently tested (though depending on the cinema the tested option is being phased out here), it would probably not be that risky, except that people can take masks off for eating and drinking in cinemas, so that makes it more like indoor dining, which is high risk. And if I skip the popcorn myself and keep my mask on throughout (and I now commonly use the FFP2 kind, so that gives some protection for yourself) I probably would have to deal with my glasses fogging up at some point. Even with my best efforts for a tight fit with the wire and taping up the small gaps near my nose, that tape starts to fail at 30-40 minutes, since the moisture of the breath it blocks eventually starts to loosen it. And then the glasses fog up.

Then there is the whole extra hassle of having to reserve and buy your tickets online now and check in with your name for contact tracing, when I just used to buy my cinema tickets in person with money without anyone collecting my data. I mean presumably they aren't allowed to do anything with this personal data, but then nobody is supposed to make unsolicited phone calls to sell me stuff either, yet that happens.

So I'm waffling whether it's really worth it.

Knives Out opened here, so I could finally watch it after seeing others squee all over the place. And it was indeed a lot of fun. The actors seemed to enjoy themselves as well.

This was the first time in ages that I saw something that wasn't a superhero or SFF movie in the cinema. I don't even remember what the last one was.

So I watched Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald yesterday, and though I continue to like Newt, I mostly felt confused, and the story such as it was never really grabbed me. I think they maybe should not have spread out the plot over quite as many movies (and yet they somehow still fail to explain what happens).

I'm not sure whether that confusion was because I hadn't rewatched the first part since I watched it in cinema, or whether it was because I have gaps in my recall of the Dumbledore/Grindelwald backstory from the books, or the Harry Potter movies did some different set up (I've never watched those), or what but...

( cut for spoilers )

I went to watch Solo last night...

( cut for some spoilers )

I wanted to get my tickets for Black Panther, but apparently right now the cinema where I can watch it in the original version is only selling for opening day here, i.e. Thursday, not for the Friday when I have time to watch it. I asked why they weren't, because for Thor Ragnarök and Spider-Man they were selling post opening day tickets two weeks in advance (and for Star Wars even longer), and they said that it depends on how much the opening screenings are sought after.

So I guess people are less eager for Black Panther? Or they're like me and just can't on Thursdays.

I watched Spider-Man: Homecoming this afternoon, and it was a lot of fun.

( cut for spoilers )

So I watched Alien Covenant. I liked that much less than Prometheus. Maybe because it was more of an Alien film in that ( spoilers )

Recently I talked with my niece about Harry Potter, Star Wars, the MCU and fiction in general, and apparently she's dissatisfied with the genre convention that in the end the "good guys" always win.

Now I don't get that at all, because for me one of the main draws of fiction, and genre fiction in particular, is that it is escapist and less depressing than reality, so I pretty much only like genres that for the most part abide by the convention to deliver a happy ending, i.e. I like fanfic, romance, YA, mysteries, and the kind of SF&F where heroes win, and am much less into e.g. horror or "literary" fiction or other genres where that isn't the convention. Even when I read stuff like apocafic or such, I ultimately want it to end hopeful for at least the main characters.

So I don't really have any recs for media (books, movies or tv series) that end badly for the heroes overall, because even when I encounter the situation of just some of them not making it (like in HP) I'm on the look out for fix-it fic. But I wondered whether others might have recs that I could pass on to my niece to satisfy her odd (to me) preference for some variety and a more fraught fictional experience.

Though I'm not sure whether she wants depressing stuff or more things along the line of the fanfic type revisionist AUs with perspective shifts, because she mentioned that she was kind of rooting for Loki and Tom Riddle and such, i.e. where the story just takes the bad guys' side and for them it is okay, even though the world is then in the hands of a megalomaniac. I mostly dislike that type of fanfic as well. And I don't look for that kind of "twist" in original fiction either.

It would have to be stuff that is available in German and at least somewhat suitable for an eight year old.

My expectations were kind of low, because most of what I heard about it in advance were the casting issues and such, and also Benedict Cumberbatch is a bit hit and miss for me, but I actually had a lot of fun watching this one. Then again I, heretically, enjoyed Antman too. Though I'm not feeling particularly fannish about either.

( quick comments, cut for spoilers )