Media Update 11/22/18

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

I remember watching a lot of He-Man back in the day, but I look back at it now and it was not very good. The original She-Ra was much the same, dirt cheap animation with bare-bones stories designed to sell toys. A lot of eighties cartoons were like that. We did not know any better. However, there has been a big wave of rejuvenating these old properties by giving to good storytellers. They gave She-Ra to a woman named Noelle Stevenson who I knew through the various comic books she has worked on and also through her connection to Critical Role. She is a proven artist who knows how to create things that people care about. Here, she took a stiff eighties cartoon and infused character and heart into it. She also loosened up the art style to make something that is really fun to watch. The show takes the original source material and adds to it and twists it. None of the characters are perfect and there is no annoying comic relief. The show basically works like a magical girl show, with Adora having to deal with both being herself and being She-Ra. People love She-Ra but some people don’t like Adora. I am really interested to see where the story goes because there are a lot of fun moving parts and the art is gorgeous. I definitely recommend it.

Castlevania (2018)

I remember playing Castlevania as a kid both on the NES and on the original Gameboy. I kind of hated it because they were too difficult to have fun with. Still, I loved the lore of the games and the mechanics of the gameplay. I have since seen some gameplay and artwork from later games and I continued to really like the world of the games (much like the Metroid series). When I heard about a new cartoon coming out, I gauged my interest and decided I was not that interested. However, I heard rumblings that the show is really good and those reports were not wrong. The show is short. The first season is four episodes so I breezed through it. The show is about Dracula vowing to basically burn Wallachia to the ground after his wife is murdered by the church. Opposing him and the church is Trevor Belmont, the last of the Belmonts, a family sworn to fight monsters. It is a pretty bloody and brutal show that adheres to the world of the show but expands on it. Stuck between a corrupt church and a horde of monsters, Belmont has few allies and that seems to be the way he likes it. The animation is fluid (and graphic) and the voice acting is really good. I recommend this one as well.

Tombraider (2018)

I never really played any of the Tombraider games nor did I ogle over Lara Croft like many in my age bracket did. I did once play a demo for one of her games and enjoyed it but it just was not what I played on PlayStation. I preferred games like Spyro and Final Fantasy VII. Still, I enjoyed the Angelina Jolie Tombraider movies for their campy 90s action qualities. However, when I heard about this movie based on the revamped Tombraider games, I was curious. So, on a lazy Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I decided to check it out. For starters, Alicia Vikander is a great actress and she brought a lot to this role of a young woman of privilege who lost everything and has a chip on her shoulder. She is opposed by Walton Goggins who has been a sleazy bad guy in a bunch of good things that I have seen. Dominic West plays Lara’s father with the right amount of heart and gravitas. The movie kind of drags in places but it is a fairly interesting romp through archeology. There is a lot of action and not as much acting but I suppose those who played the games expected as much. I recommend it but don’t expect so much.

 

Music of the Week:
North American Pharaohs – Suzy

No Buses – Girl

BREGMA – MILK ft. Jahmed & Thunderous Knight

Kill The Silence – Memories

Joshua Surgeon – No Time For Work

 

Weekly Update:
– This week’s theme is “Childhood Revamped”
– I watched more of Designated Survivor Season 1
– I watched more Hilda Season 1
– I watched more The Haunting of Hill House Season 1
– I watched more Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 1
– I watched more Once Upon a Time Season 7
– Happy Thanksgiving!

Tags: Alucard, Belmont, Castlevania, Childhood Revamped, Dracula, Media Update, Princesses of Power, She-Ra, Thanksgiving, Tombraider