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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Emotional journey, but illogical!
First of all, yes, this is an emotional train to ride. If you've been walking with the guardians along their journey, then the feels will hit you and punch you good. Rocket's past, Quill's grief and the less subtle story of coming for the other characters in the background will all make you reflect on things...
That being said, the other aspects of the story are either less than interesting or are illogical. The larger plot against which we watch the guardians guard the universe again, is set by a villain with a weak background, which I could not get invested in. GOTG 2 had a great antagonist, so we were interested in the conflict and the resolution. We have a generic baddy who needs to be stopped, and that's about it. When the plot demanded it, he was extremely powerful, and when the plot needed of it, he was defeated.
That brings us to the other complaint: logic. Things happened very conveniently during the movie to setup a happy ending for our story. Every one learnt a good lesson and changed for the better.
A few scenes that just fell in place for cinematism - warlock gets defeated at the right times, groot saving warlock to have him ask him the most cliche question with the cliche answer, rocket revived (a scene similar to one in deadpool 2), warlock reforming to save quill, and an extremely powerful villain getting defeated so easily by the power of friendship.
Overall, the GOTG movies tend to follow a formula that works, but this time certain necessary elements weren't added. But the ingredients added to the formula seem to be modified to try to achieve the same result as the previous films. That's why it doesn't work for me.
Black Mirror: Smithereens (2019)
Subtle representation of what we've become
This tells the story of a man wants to be heard and felt of his pain. Even judged for it. Instead, what he gets are standard reactions from people around him, for his situation.
We've always observed on social media, a plethora of unanimity in opinion on any event. We congratulate people on their successes, express grief for their tragic events. Our reactions have become quite standard to most situations. Social media is to blame for this. It has already consolidated the consensus about opinions and we just follow the flow. Sometimes there is a divided opinion, but that's all we are limited to, picking an option like we do from an online form.
No one is deeply touched by anything. We all claim to be connected by the internet and social media, but somehow, we've removed the human-ness out of it. You might wish your friend on their birthday or their wedding, but is it really heartfelt a wish?
Do we all really feel what we post on social media, or do we do it because it's the default reaction that you exhibit on social media?
Yosuga no sora (2010)
A compelling drama on distraught teenagers
The anime is famous for its controversial topic of dealing with incest, but if you could look past it, you will be able to feel a yearning and longing for happiness, when watching this anime.
A more serious rendition of the anime would have cut out on the ridiculousness of the sex scenes and made them more subtle, the unnecessarily humungous breasts being thrust in our face and the needless fan service to the most common demographic of anime watchers.
However, when weeding past these obvious flaws, the anime seems to have built a world with decent characters who gripe and suffer hard with morally grey situations.
Whilst the teenagers aren't being horny, their turmoil and inner trauma that they go through is reasonably showcased in each of the situation.
One word of advice before watching the anime, is to be aware of the fact that the entire anime visits four different timelines in a common setting and that everything that you see in all the episodes isn't happening together, but are different branches of situations that could have happened.
The Queen's Gambit: Exchanges (2020)
Sets the pieces on the table right, yet the outcome of the game is unclear.
This episode serves well to help the viewer understand the characters and their states, much like the start of a chess game. We see the incredible genius of Beth manifest engulf the world around her. We see the fire when it is small and how it will blaze to become bigger than it currently is. We see the grieving stepmom, who recovers from her troubles and shows signs of avarice, which will also add to the young flame.
The episode does a good job of setting the main character on her trajectory towards, what I can assume, would be a magnificent crescendo of glory and destruction. Although, some elements that have been inserted, like her womanhood, don't quite help me in predicting how it would play out in future episodes. But, I'll keep my eyes open to be able to connect the dots.