Review: Space Jam: A New Legacy
2021-07-17 - Reading time: 2 minutes
If they'd called it "Space Jam 2.0" it'd almost be appropriate: "New Legacy" is the same basic premise, but with improvements everywhere.
And maybe a little TRON rubbed in for good measure.
I literally saw the original Space Jam earlier this year for the first time, so I don't place it on a pedestal. There's no nostalgia tint for me, outside of basic pop culture references to it.
I liked the original, but overall it felt like a flick of certain era, who's success was largely boosted thanks to the obvious gimmick involved.
New Legacy, too, is a gimmick film, make no mistake. But in 2021, nothing it does technically, as far as modern audiences are concerned, is "special". Mixing humans and CGI and classic cartoon animation is old hat by now, and no longer a feat that can carry a film to success, alone.
While New Legacy absolutely pushes as hard as it can into the marketing cross-over spectacle, and the real life/animation gimmick, the actual skeleton of the story that's draped over is much stronger. It now leans hard to the relationship between a father and son. In fact, it's central to the conflict both at home, and on the court.
Don't misread me: it's still corny as hell, and you have to kind of go in with a certain attitude and accept that it'll be absurd. But that's no more or less than what you needed to enjoy the original film.
But overall? I dug it quite a bit. Wasn't expecting that.
4/5
https://letterboxd.com/drfortyseven/film/space-jam-a-new-legacy/
3 Minutes On... Bananas
2021-07-15 - Reading time: ~1 minute
After a couple years, I've finally recorded a brand new 3 Minutes On! Hoping to do these a lot more frequently. What's next? You decide! (Wait, no, that's ERB's thing.)
Review: Suicide Squad (2016)
2021-06-24 - Reading time: 3 minutes
Finally got around to it!
I was initially interested in it back when it came out, but all the stories and horrible things I'd heard... and THAT JOKER... I noped out pretty fast.
Fast forward to 2021 -- figured I'd give it a go, since I seriously enjoyed Margot Robbie's version of Harley in Birds of Prey. That, and it's pretty much the last DCEU film I'd yet to see.
And I... liked it?
Now, hold up, I mean, it's by NO MEANS perfect. But I actually had a better time here than, say, with the sequel to Wonder Woman '84. Which, honestly, I never thought I'd ever say considering how near godly the original WW was.
This was fun. It was pretty much what I expected after years of exposure, but there were actually several twists in this I didn't know about despite everything I'd heard.
Smith's Deadshot is fun, but only because it's Will Smith playing Will Smith with shooting skills delivering dialogue like a tired Will Smith. And if that still works for you, here you go. (It did for me, despite this.)
Harley is fun, but a lot more unhinged. In the bad way. I thought for sure Joker was going to betray her at some point, and we'd get the start of her disconnect from him and her liberation.
But no, we're in full Stockholm Syndrome mode for the entire film.
That said, this was a great stepping stone to her further refinement in Birds of Prey, where she stole the film for me.
The rest had their moments -- especially Diablo. (And hey, it's the positively delightful Karen Fukuhara (The Boys) as Katana! Woo!)
Hell, I didn't even hate Joker...?! No, I'm serious -- and I can't believe I'm saying it.
I still absolutely LOATHE his version of the character. But.... I can't really deny that this gangsta thug incarnation... he slots in quite well into this particular, gritty universe.
I mean, I can dislike him and still accept that he's a good match, right?
Enchantress was interesting, but as the ultimate goal of the film it was kind of lacking. The ending reminded me a whole lot of Ghostbusters, actually. With more sword fighting. Less marshmallows.
Far better than expected, but it was a almost the lowest possible bar going in, so... the deed is done. Glad I gave it a go. It's not the complete dumpster fire folks said, but still on the lower end of the DCEU's already low-skewed rankings.
3/5
[via https://letterboxd.com/drfortyseven/film/suicide-squad-2016/]
ToneDef 21
2021-06-06 - Reading time: ~1 minute
After a long hiatus, I finally have a good build workflow for Android again -- which means I can push out some updates to ToneDef!
This was more of a "proof of concept" build with the beginning of some CI to automate checks, etc. I've already started working on the audio "popping" bug, and looking into some other reported issues. Those are being saved for 22.
What's new:
- Added French tones to the 'extras' section
- Added link back to my blog (as seen below)
- Minor layout updates, including removing action bar from most screens (will remove the rest later)
- Code cleanup, refactoring, and other behind the scenes updates
Concerning Goonies
2021-06-05 - Reading time: ~1 minute
Finally caught "The Goonies". Another in a long line of films I knew 80% about but never actually sat down to watch, start to finish. As good as expected, but I never knew about this downer ending. 😞
