Swinging with Spider-Man and the Future of AI
Reviews for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Creator, and episodes 2 and 3 of Percy Jackson.
Movie Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (4DX)
I meant to see this when it came out. I really did. It’s my opinion that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best animated movie yet produced this century and one of the best of all time.
But scheduling plus COVID concerns…and it was come and gone before I got the chance.
So, here’s my whine. And it’s a justified whine. I have no idea what the contractors working on the apartment two floors above us did but whatever it was generated seven full floors of water damage. Every kitchen and the corridor outside, all the way down to the first floor from the seventh. I hope my landlords reconsider their contract.
Which means that this weekend my kitchen was home to four industrial fans, with a fifth in the living room outdoors, and a dehumidifier the size of a small pony. My landlords did offer us the use of the kitchen in the nearest vacant unit, but we decided that A. That wasn’t actually that much less annoying, albeit highly appreciated and B. We needed to get out of here. My noise meter showed 75 to 85 decibels in the kitchen, and 70 to 75 in our eating area. Even on the other side of the room it was uncomfortable enough to warrant breaking out the ear plugs.
So, we needed something to do, and found out that Across the Spider-Verse had been rereleased in 4DX.
This was my first time in a 4DX theater, which I’ve avoided because, to be blunt, I have been known to start getting queasy even looking at rough seas. Blame a traumatic experience involving the Scillonian III passenger ferry when I was five and it was almost a new ship…
Turns out, 4DX doesn’t make me motion sick as long as I focus on the screen and don’t look away. So…
…to the movie.
Not as good as the first one, but I’m comparing with a movie that should be taught in film school. I mean it, teach it in film school. And they followed the winning formula. Like the first one, this is a movie that makes no pretense about being exactly what it is. It’s a cartoon. It’s about superheroes. It’s based on a comic. It loves all of those things. There’s no hyper-realism here, no attempts to ape live action. There was some particularly hilarious use of the classic Marvel comics inset.
My favorite moments were Spider-Cat (who barfs webbing because cat), “I’m an Irish cop.” “You might like pasta.” when somebody asks Captain Stacy if he speaks Italian and everything involving Mayday. Yes, Peter, giving your baby baby-sized web shooters is a bad idea.
The worst part was the cliffhanger ending. Also, it left me with two extremely important questions:
1. Where is Madam Web?
2. How did we spend that long in Mumbatten and not get a Bollywood number? Missed Opportunity!
(Seriously. I wanted my Bollywood number).
And a side note on the 4DX. Very well done, but there were a couple of times when they had it, so they might as well use it.
Movie Review: The Creator
Oh, where do I even start. This could have been a good movie. It remains a fun movie, and the anti-colonialist message is not weakened by the fact that the pro-AI Asian faction can be pretty harsh.
The problem is that it has some real science and worldbuilding problems (as well as being a very classic chosen one narrative, and I wasn’t sure about the kid going into the lotus position to hack things).
1. You can back up a human and upload them into a synth. But none of the synths are backed up. Including the most important one they have that they don’t have the schematics for because the creator took them into a coma with her. The creator who is backed up on disc and could have been uploaded into a synthetic body at any time. They had her comatose body. They had her face to scan.
2. Why did the random synth they used to pull a backup of the dying guy to debrief him look like him? I know, I know, the actor.
3. There are moon bases? There are suddenly moon bases. There’s no setup for this that I noticed, unless it was an easter egg I missed. Why is he going to LA space port?
4. Some of the vehicles are regular jeeps. Some are hover vehicles. Some are these weird monster truck things. All appear to run on ICE despite the projectile weapons. Or…who the heck knows?
5. What kind of weapon projects a targeting grid the size of a skyscraper onto the planet’s surface so everyone knows it’s coming?
6. How did the escape pod with parachute land right next to a chunk of the ship?
Good acting. Great visuals. Amusing occasional use of completely inappropriate incidental music. And I thoroughly appreciated the exploration of AI. (It was obvious to me from the start who the Creator was and also obvious what really happened in LA. Hollywood people do so love to destroy LA).
I do very much appreciate the performance of John David Washington in this movie. Also, I had forgotten it was directed by the same person as Rogue One.
You can tell. Some of the scenes definitely have the same feel.
Not a great movie. Perhaps not even a good movie. But a fun movie and you know, I can always stand to see America taken down a peg.
In bad movie fandom, we sometimes chant U.S.A. and the final crash of the helicarrier (yes, there’s a helicarrier) warranted it.
A lot of fun, but slightly missed the level that would have made it award material.
Episode Review: Percy Jackson 1.2 “I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom”
Ah, kids. Even demi-god kids. Annabeth, whom I adore, by the way, admitting she’s stalking Percy so he can help her win capture the flag is just awesome.
And mom’s not dead, just abducted. Which is still fridge-y but it’s not as bad as dead.
Dear Grover, did you know you were volunteering to go on a ridiculously dangerous quest to the Underworld when you intervened? Probably. Grover, very brave, not always smart.
Yes, I’m loving these characters but, as usual in magical school shows, the Chosen One is the least interesting. Sorry, not sorry.
The SFX for Chiron is on point! The prosthetic leg is just perfect, and they somehow manage to make him look like a well bred horse of no breed at all.
What I’m not so keen on is Hades being the antagonist. Hades is generally the most mild-mannered.
(Also, canonically, the one who doesn’t step out on his wife, so I don’t want to see Hades-spawn. It’s not in character).
Still, this is pretty fun, and would have been even more fun when I was the right age.
Episode Review: Percy Jackson 1.3 “We Visit The Garden Gnome Emporium”
Big name monsters are entirely too easy to kill. But I don’t buy that any of them are dead dead. Medusa has died before, in the same way, so presumably Athena won’t let her escape the curse that easily. And the Furies, of course, work for Hades.
(I am still not happy about evil Hades, it doesn’t track).
But the relationship between the kids is getting interesting. Percy picks a satyr to quest with him over all the demigods in camp. And then both he and Annabeth are challenged to betray their friends.
I’m starting to wonder if any of this is “real.” Are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades really at odds? Or are they testing the most powerful demigod in a while?
If so, I think he’s passed one, and so has Annabeth. Grover’s loyalty is already unquestionable.
(I was amused by poor Grover being put on Pegasus mucking detail by Dionysus. He did the right thing but also kind of deserved it. The Pegasus was also amused).