The Long Night

I was a bit disappointed and a bit confused

Yes, I get what they were going for, the sheer confusion and bloody panic of battle. So the smoke, and fog, the confusion. Were well done. I imagine quite realistic but it is a fantasy series with dragons and zombies. So maybe realism is not your friend.

In fact it was

I think we got cheated.

Okay

Let us get Ayra, out of the way. I do not see Ayra as Mary Sue. One thing I like about the novels is seeing Ayra broken at Harrenhal. We see her become a mouse. Literally no one. She just about manages to avoid rape.

What I think we are missing is the connection between the Braavos and the faceless men, and the White Walkers. My view is that the Faceless men as the heirs of slaves. Fear the Night King, more than anything. It would be slavery for eternity So all men must die, is a promise of hope.

Ayra trained by the faceless men brings an end to the threat of eternal slavery. That is a good idea, but this was just not develped. I suspect the real reason why Ayra killed the Night King is because she has a brilliant agent

It also IMO links Ayra to Jon Snow's mother.  The She-wolf. I think you can see a call back to Ayra protecting /liking Jon. But it came out of nowhere. Or the story was potted at a glacial pace.

Also, we will now learn what?
Will Westeros have normal winters and seasons?
If the Wall is down, and now never needed. So the Seven Kingdoms can overrun the Free Folk
Was there anything behind the White Walkers. Are they just Ice demons

I also think we should have had more deaths. We had The Red Woman, okay. Mormont. And One of the Night's watch. It is obvious Sam Tarly has plot armor. He must survive to bring Jons claim to the Iron Throne. Several times I thought Brienne was dead. Pod survives which is nice. But you never get anywhere by being nice. The only shock is probably Lya Mormonts death, but even she kills a Giant

The dead rising in the crypt was actually terrifying

But in the end I felt cheated. Was it for this?

Avengers Endgame

So part two

I am reminded of Back to the Future franchise which is mentioned in the picture. But if Endgame reminded me of anything it, was back to the Future two. We see the dystopia, and then rehashes of the first film. Some of these work. Some do not. There was an attempt to answer some questions Which I did appreciate Some Cameos pleased me. I was left with some nagging questions

Okay

So firstly the Universe after the click. I was surprised that no one seemed to be willing to defend it. We hear about the pod of whales, but why was everything covered with rubbish five years afterward.
I did like the memorial. Though I wondered why Antman, did not just check social media. The same trick is used in reverse when the phone call, comes through when everyone returns

I did not like the Bruce/Hulk character I have been disappointed with the Hulk, in these two films. Hulk is able to go head to head with literally everyone. Here he gets his arse handed to him, by Thanos and sulks. Bruce/Hulk serves a purpose he builds the time machine Stark perfects. But he is an arse. Oh and Bruce/Hulk does the second snap.

I did like the Jarvis/ agent carter cameo. It was nice to see Slattery/Howard Stark again. I think too much time was spent with him. While Cap, saying Hail Hydra and avoiding the elevator fight was nice. I did like the call to a dreadful arc in Captain America

Thor. I liked he actually killed Thanos, oh and btw, I liked the fact Thanos destroyed the glove after using it. But Thor gave a lot of comic relief here. A bit too much. I think it would have been interesting to see Thor go, on the rampage. Have him have Hawkeye's arc. Speaking of Thor and Hawkeye When Thanos attacked the Avengers base, there were too many survivors. Letting Hawkeye die, knowing his daughter lived...

I thought Scarlett Jo looked pretty but really did not care much about her arc in this film,.

Nice to Scarlet Witch fighting Thanos, Really hitting him hard. I did not understand why they did not use her more.

I did like the fact they did not overuse Captain Marvel. They used her, for a deus ex machina in the beginning but okay. Also, I note Karen Gillam is now sharing scenes with Downey jr.

It was alright. I liked it. But I do not think I will rewatch it,

Avengers Infinity war

So I finally got round to watching this

The plot devices are very visible. They deliberately sideline the Hulk. Now, they have him fight Thanos at the beginning of the episode, and the Hulk comes off worse. Okay, well we have seen the Hulkbuster, knock down the Hulk, we have seen Thor go toe to toe with him.
Anyway, this is noticeable when we see Thanos, and Gamorra fight, or Iron man, lead an attack on Thanos.

Again, there is the same issue with Thor, Thor is sidelined from most of the episode. He joins the Guardians of the Galaxy. Chris Hemsworth is great in this he is well written and carries a lot of the films with his charisma

Peter Dinklage! playing one of the Asgardian dwarves! Also was Stormbreaker not the hammer used by Beta Ray Bill. Well, the Ballard of Beta ray bill is one of my favorite stories

I am reminded of  Transformers the movie. Everyone will remember the deaths. Even though it is a fantasy movie. The pleas of Tom Holland, as a young much younger than Garfield or Maguire who does not want to die. The fall of Gamora even bringing Thanos to tears. The crashes and destruction at the end of the episode.

I thought Scarlett Witch via the Hex power existed in all times, and all places,

Well, I am looking forward to End game

Captain Marvel

It is alright. I am now officially old as my teenage years are now the product of official nostalgia

So, yeah Blockbuster, Long distance carriers. Dial-up modems, Alta Vista search engine, and the CD ROM. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air is on broadcast TV. Grunge, and some music I had forgotten,
Garbage was one of the few great bands of the 1990s. 

The Stan Lee cameo was really well done. It was great to see him reading the script to Mallrats

So, Captain Marvel is well acted. I note Annette Benning's performance, particularly the heel turn.
I thought she was aping Hilary Clinton

The Australian accent seems to have replaced the British one, as the non-American weird accent in Hollywood's ear. Also, did I see a little of Angel/Buffy with the Alien drinking a coke

I am getting bored by people having existential discussions when sparring

I think the problem is two-fold.

The more powerful a superhero the less interesting they are. I found the Dark Phoenix stories in the X-men dull, for the same reason. If you can do anything...

Brie Larson is not a big star. She just does not have the Charisma

Russian Doll

Okay, the episodes are short, about half an hour long, and there are not too many. 

This is a relief after sitting through 13 hours of Marvel stories

So, the protagonist Max is a walking stereotype of a New Yorker- they gender-flipped the characters which I think was a mistake. Hence a lot of Max's dialogue sounds male. In fact, it sounds like someone trying to do a Woody Allen / Nu Yawk impression. Max is a coder, and she lives in a world of Lesbians, Deli cats, one night stands, and casual drug use. Max is, of course Jewish We will have a run in with a rabbi later, and much later we have one of the older actors from the Soprano's has a brief cameo  

Telling Max not to smoke.

Anyway, Max keeps relieving the same party over and over. Waking up in the same lavatory on her birthday. She is killed off at the end of the first episode, which does shock and keeps dying in various ways, freezing to death in one episode Falling down the stairs then.killed in a car crash.  Indeed Max narrowly escapes getting sexually assaulted. She tries to voluntary commit herself and is left at the mercy of an ambulance crew.
 This goes on and on until Max meets Alan, they are both trapped in an elevator and both remarkably calm about their impending crash to earth. We do have clues that life is passing by outside, rotting fruit and plants

I loathed the fact that the cat was called Oatmeal.

I did think what was good, was they showed Alan's gf without makeup

It is basically a story about two people trapped in hell. 

A hell of there own making, the male protagonist Alan is different. A much meeker character than Max

Alan  lives in a sterile home and is being cheated on by one of the guests at Max's party. There are several red herrings and a quite dark episode where we see Max's past
Gender flipping Alan I think has a problem as Alan is just too physically big and imposing for the dialogue to match his physical presence. There are a few fights scenes when we can tell Alex is holding back.

I liked Russian Doll though despite this  It was a pretty decent few hours of television.

My brothers 40th birthday bash

Happy Valentines day

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I hope you're enjoying DC
and the Museums too