1.19.22 - Eternals (Movie)
This movie...didn't do much for me. It's a Marvel movie, it looks like a Marvel movie, it smells and tastes and sounds like a Marvel movie, but there's just nothing compelling about the story or characters whatsoever to me. I think there's something about coming in with a large band of new characters that keeps me from caring about any of them. Individual movies work (Shang Chi), and group movies work once we know and care about the individuals (see all Avengers movies basically, for the last 10 years), but coming in with 10 new characters and expecting me to care about them and their plot is a big ask, and one that reaches too far for me.
1.23.22 - On Stranger Tides (Book)
So - this was delightful - my new gold standard for a "rollicking pirate adventure". To be frank, at times this book feels all over the place. There is what I'd consider our central character / protagonist, John "Shandy" Chandagnac, but it's a widely-cast net of other pirates, both real and invented, with multiple plot themes and elements just all slung in there all over the place. Piracy, magic, legends, sorcery, the Fountain of Youth, Blackbeard, voodoo rituals, puppets, swordfights, I could go on and on. And yet it all works - it took me a couple chapters to get in but once I did I didn't want to put it down. And it crackles right up through the epilogue to the final pages. This book is about to inspire a 2022 Pirate Bender, and I'm not even mad about it.
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