Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 35

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Captain America teams up with Spiderman in a race to find the Infinity Stones before Magneto and his new ally, Drax the Destroyer, do. Those, obviously, aren’t exactly the dramatis personae, but the real ones in the movie are of a certain type. Another paint-by-numbers video game adaptation for kids. Sonic has enough clout that the story quality won’t matter all that much. I kept getting distracted by the animated characters’ eyeballs; they have cartoonish proportions but freakishly realistic textures. There was maybe 10 or 15 minutes spent on setting up and resolving a conflict between two very minor characters—two humans that had little consequence to the main plot or any of the subplots, and it was not even something enjoyable for the kids in the audience. I want to think it was another owed favor to one or both of the actors involved, because I can’t think of any reason why it was included.

The Cosmic Secret
A New Age documentary, similar to Above Majestic, but dealing more with humanity’s ultimate destiny, as opposed to the knuckleheads in power on earth. No Nazis were mentioned. I don’t know, man. These people have such a great imagination, they should be writing fiction and not grifting for the ultimate truth of things. Then at least we’d be aware of the boundary between the fiction part, the normie reality part, and the speculative reality part. With jokers like Dan Brown and The da Vinci Code, that’s not a guarantee.

The Last Unicorn
A lonely unicorn embarks on a quest to find out if she’s truly the last of her kind. This was another staple of early childhood. The voice acting performances are dated; you can tell the actors really dug into the 70s-80s theater aesthetic, though they did a fine job. I never liked the singing butterfly at the beginning, and I thought it was stupid of the unicorn to upend her life on the basis of his weird ramblings, though I think he was vindicated later on by Schmendrick. This wasn’t as strong as a narrative for me as Secret of NIMH, but it has definite rewatchability.

AI: The Somnium Files (video game)
Inspector Date (pronounced DAUT-ay) investigates the murder of a woman whose corpse was tied to a merry-go-round and her left eye removed. I like stories where the protagonist can secretly communicate with an AI; even better when the AI has a good sense of humor. There was absolutely no way of predicting who the culprits were, or even figuring out any possible motives for the murders (aside from guessing) until much later in the story, when you discover what is capable with the Psync machine in a huge Domino Revelation. A few absurdities took me out of the story, like a police detective directly questioning a high-profile politician. Likely, any LEO would talking to the guys’ cadre of lawyers. Other things, like the team of hitmen being distracted from an active job because of a p0rn magazine, were in keeping with the absurd humor of the story and didn’t so much break the world for me. In a sense, I prefer mystery and detective stories in game or book form, over a movie format. You’re able to stop and think about the clues and characters, without being shoved immediately into the noise and bluster of the next scene. Cinema doesn’t allow for the slow thinking and reflection that can happen to really appreciate what’s going on. This didn’t have the realism or strong storyline that a game like L.A. Noire had, but there was value in the character development, gadget/technology, and humor with Somnium.

Attack on Titan, The Final Season (Part 2)
The Jaegerists and Eren release the Wall Titans and the Rumbling begins. That was the culmination of a butt-ton of events that passed in part 2, between all the different factions and parties within the factions: Annie being released, Eren visiting the Paths realm, Ymir’s backstory and her daughters (barf), Eren group text messaging (actually just speaking telepathically to) all of Ymir’s descendants, Levi…still not doing much, people and groups moving all around, shooting and getting shot. This whole thing is a veritable soap opera of plotlines. I feel like I need to restart the season to catch everything, but it’s better to read the manga to accomplish that. Unfolding apocalypse scenarios are a dime a dozen nowadays, but the final scene depicting the Rumbling reaching the Marley mainland was genuinely frightening.

Trigun
The Humanoid Typhon, Vash the Stampede, causes trouble wherever he goes on the planet Gunsmoke, so it’s up to Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, odd-couple adjusters working for the Bernardelli Insurance Society, to make sure he doesn’t do any more damage. You know a series is going to be good when the opening scene involves a cyborg cutting a saloon in half with an oversized metallic boomerang. There’s Wolfwood, a itinerant priest carrying a life-sized cross that doubles as heavy armament, interdimensional beings trapped in gigantic light bulbs that power the whole planet, and an assassin with a chain gun attached to each arm, and who trained for 20 years straight just to fight Vash. Absolutely ridiculous setting and characters. You’re really left trying to figure out, just as Meryl and Milly are, if the happy-go-lucky, pacifist Vash is for real or just a victim of circumstance. Yes, as the title suggests, there are three guns, each one more ridiculous than the last, but you have to watch the whole series to see them all.

Black Crab
A solider ice skates to deliver a package in a last ditch effort to turn the tide of a post-apocalyptic war and see her daughter again. There were some neat ideas here with a lot of predictable moments mixed in. Some of those predictable moments are meta: every time I see Noomi Rapace and her high cheekbones in a movie, I know she’s gonna have the worst luck imaginable. There were times in this movie where I thought that wouldn’t be the case, but nah. It’s one disaster after another.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone.
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.
Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time.
These four movies, the Rebuild of Evangelion, are a retelling of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series and associated movies. Hideaki Anno, the poor nerd—it took him 14-ish years to complete it all. What a trooper. The first two movies follow the original story somewhat closely, the latter two are much more notable departures. The final scenes in the last film that depict Shinji and one of the worst parents on earth doing…something…are pretty mystical; a really protracted Mind Screw that never is explained. Stuff happens with the Evas and the fighting with little explanation or context, but it’s likely more a series of events to experience, than really hear detailed explanations about. The original series tended to do that a lot, with the staff in the Central Dogma command center yelling out every minute detail and mishap with the Evas in combat to Gendo, or whoever was running things. It was fun techno-babble that made sense to the universe, but still techno-babble. Asuka forcing Shinji to eat was one of the most uniquely-animated scenes I’ve seen. A normal director would likely have a bunch of quick edits, alternating between Asuka’s face and Shinji’s face, but there’s a greater discomforting effect with the shaky, pitching/yawing camera and having Shinji mostly out of the frame. The focus is on Asuka’s frustration and aggression, and we’re half witnessing it and half in Shinji’s place.

10.0 Earthquake
Incomprehensibly, two scientists figure out how to stop a major earthquake in Los Angeles from destroying the city. I knew this was going to be bad, but I watched it anyway. Enjoy the trailer; it’s better if you think of it as a comedy going in.

Call of the Sea (video game)
Norah Everhart travels to a Polynesian island to search for her husband, Harry, who had searched there for a cure for her mysterious illness. People were saying this was Lovecraftian, but I think it barely was. There was some slight horror but there was no dread of the unknown and supernatural. There was actually the opposite. No dread means no Lovecraft. For as much as I like his writings, that constant thread is what bugs me about him the most. There are two possible, opposite endings, in this game, based on an explicit choice the player can make right at the end, which I would add one small thing to each to make the story more impactful. First, with the “accepting fate” choice, I would double Norah’s doubt about going through the final gate to the Elder God. She feels already confident that she is going to her actual home, which was hinted at throughout the game. I’d make her a little more doubtful that she’s not stepping into a kind of trap. She’s hesitant, but not enough. For the “stay with Harry” choice, I’d make her question she’d be able to find him again, or even if he’s still alive. She knows he was wounded, and but she knows he still left the island. He could have died later on from an infection, or he could be lost or intentionally hiding from her. Adding another layer of doubt to both choices is reasonable, and bolsters the (already great, mind you) difficult choice of choosing your spouse or choosing your real home.