Prometheus. I’m surprised you haven’t seen it.
Yes! I was hoping that the existing sets from Dune 1 helped accelerate production of the sequel, or perhaps they’d done some parallel filming during the creation of part 1, so we’d see something by 2023. But I guess production efforts were much greater. Now coming up to 3 years. I hope the wait is worth it!
Prometheus
I did see Prometheus but I thought it depicted a different race. Wasn’t the corpse found in the crashed ship on Aliens gigantic? I’m overdue for a rewatch of Aliens too lol
Dune production time
Well, COVID happened, and then the writers and actors went on strike which made promoting the movie difficult. I guess the stars were not allowed to go on press junkets. It was supposed to come out last year. I bet maybe 1.5 years of actual work went into it and the rest was a series of delays. Either way, hope it turns out awesome!
Edit: Hold up, Dune 1 was post-COVID, or at least post-lockdown. 
Yea IDK why it took this long. Hopefully Dennis was just putting the shine on it.
They ARE huge, those Engineer aliens. And that control station with the enormous projection sticking out of it on a rotating platform makes it look even bigger, as well as the bloated container-suit that encapsulted the Engineer “pilot.”
The whole franchise story evolved over time. I think Ridley Scott intentionally depicted a ship that wasn’t built by the creatures, but instead by an alien race. The illusion we’re given is that they have a bizarre exoskeleton like body… but as Prometheus reveals, that’s just a container suit of some kind. The homosapien like creatures fit inside it. And they look a lot like us, most of our DNA matching, but they’re like 9 to 10 feet tall.
Not to get into a whole criticism rant on Prometheus, I really felt like the Engineer depiction was flawed. I really don’t think they’d be so immediately violence prone and unable or unwilling to communicate. I had hoped the Engineer would lash out from being woken up, speaking out in his native language… and David would quickly learn from him and respond back… much to the Engineer’s surprise. He’d then ask some basic questions, while sizing up the alien humans among him. And when learning of Wayland’s vain request to have his life extended, he’d feel utterly insulted, lashing out with a mortal backhanded blow to Wayland. David would then attempt to appease him, apologizing, further annoying the Engineer where he’d reach out with a hand to rip his head off… when Shaw would shout out to David to tell him what to say, causing the Engineer to pause just a bit. Shaw basically saying “You created us. We beseech you, with respect and humility. Please just give us a moment for some information and we will quickly leave you alone!” And from there, the Engineer would already know what she said, speaking to David in his language “You are a mistake. Just like our weapon. Your appeal means nothing to me, because you are inconsequential. You do not matter. And now you will die.” Then he rips David’s head off, while Shaw makes a run for it… movie continues as-is.
I probably should have just started from the first movie on this re-watch. I just suddenly had an urge to revisit the bad ones since I had watched the first two slightly more recently.
I like your version of the Engineer waking scene better than what we got. I remember being pretty disappointed in how it shook out–it was forgettable. Although I hadn’t seen Arrival yet, I think I was expecting a first contact to start out more like that at first and then get brutal. The engineer in the movie becomes violent immediately and wordlessly(IIRC?)–makes them seem a bit stupid imo. At any rate, it doesn’t do much to enhance the lore.
Personally I think the Engineer should have talked sparingly. The language should have been completely alien, with the android being the only one to understand (possibly having interfaced previously with alien tech or something). Maybe at first he listens thinking the humans are something else–convergent evolution, or possibly the results of an intentional seeding. But then when they ask to be fixed (i.e. longer lifespan) he could become upset and call them an abomination or mutt. The underlying idea I’d be going for is to imply that they would view the human race as disgusting and perverted due to it’s impurity. He would react as a human might if they encountered a pig/human hybrid created by a mad scientist.
EDIT: In fact, maybe his first kill could be an accident where in his hurry to create distance from the object of disgust, he accidentally backhands a human into a wall or something. This could be followed by hostile human action which would result in the Engineer losing any possible sympathy and instead becoming enraged at being attacked by a lower lifeform.
I saw Oppenheimer (2023).
This movie is good.
The acting is top notch and the music is extremely good.
The movie is an important one, and it’s educational.
Parts of the movie are interesting, but not the entire movie.
The movie is not very entertaining overall.
The movie clocks in at three hours long, and I think the movie is at least an hour too long for its own good.
There just isn’t enough interesting content to justify the length of the movie, even though the movie isn’t overly boring.
Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s second or third worst movie, with Tenet (2020) being Nolan’s worst film.
I don’t remember exactly how bad Insomnia (2002) was, but I remember not being impressed by it.
I enjoyed Oppenheimer. While it was a bit slow at times it is a a very interesting history of the development of the A bomb. It also is a sad commentary on where we were in the McCarthy era and how it impacted people’s lives. But in the end, it shows how making an enemy of a single powerful person can ruin one. I really felt sorry for Oppenheimer. For his conflict about the bomb. But more so about how the “government” treated him.
In the end, it was a pretty depressing movie. But one I have recommended to several people and one I intend to watch again. It was a film that made me think.
BTW, I did watch it in two viewings. But I don’t think they could have adequately covered the subject matter if it were a shorter film.
Napoleon 2023…
battle scenes are worth watching.
the rest is FF territory.
glad i did not pay
to watch this.
“Full Circle” 2023 1h 43m (Netflix)
The stories of viral sit-skier Trevor Kennison and alpinist Barry Corbet shape this documentary about the history of adaptive athletes in extreme sports.
I normally don’t watch beyond 15-20 minutes of most documentaries, but this one was able to hold my interest throughout. As a serious, lifelong athlete who can no longer do most of the things I used to enjoy, I couldn’t help thinking that despite the serious injuries I’ve experienced, and the degenerative changes my body hasn’t been able to overcome, this film and it’s two subjects nevertheless reminded me of how fortunate I’ve been in my life.
Johnny Cool…just because
i like the people in it.
standard gangster stuff.
nothing special and it
does not last long.
Saw Godzilla Minus One with my kid the other weekend. Made me remember my father taking me to see a godzilla movie when I was a kid many decades ago.
I’d say it was enjoyable overall. My son liked it, too. He already wants me to take him to see Godzilla x Kong when it comes out in a few months.
The Mask of Zorro [1998]
Re-watching this movie was a treat. Fantastic stunts and practical effects help to round out the solid acting and story. Love the cast too. Someone nitpicky could complain about the theme of revenge being wrong for Zorro but it didn’t bother me. Besides, I love to hate Captain Love. 
The Mark of Zorro [1940] is also a wonderful film
Got around to watching The Marvels because I’m a comic book nerd and I felt I had to. That’s the only reason I think anyone should watch this, unless you just like watching one of the actresses for some reason. Or cats. It’s … just … not … a good movie.
In fact, watch Honest Trailers - The Marvels instead and you’ll probably know everything you need.
I think the most interesting thing that happened was the 2nd post credit scene, cause, you know, marvel likes to have 2 post credit scenes.
Wow, The Marvels have a 5.6 on IMDb.
That’s one movie in the MCU that I will avoid.
It seems like the MCU has lost its magic for a while now. 
The MCU has been running on fumes since Endgame. I officially stopped seeing them in theaters after Spider-man: No Way Home. Before that I was already cherry-picking heavily based on my best judgement and reviews. (For example, if they had a good Black Widow movie to make, they would have done it before they killed her. !%$#!%$ )
Spider-man: No Way Home wasn’t all terrible, but Into the Spider-verse is a much better movie imo. The live-action movie was a lesser rehash of the same concept. But it had worse action and existed mostly as a set-up to the next Dr Strange movie. I didn’t think the actions taken by Strange really fit his character and represented more of a regression of his previous character arc. Marvel just looooves to roll back character arcs–see what they did to my boy Thor.
Re: “The Marvels”… did youse hear about (or better yet, see) the deleted scene with the “strap-on” joke? Oy…
PSA: The movie Argylle (Kingsman Director) does NOT star Henry Cavill even though he is front and center in the advertising. Apparently he’s in it for about 5 minutes. Personally I was somewhat interested until I heard about the bait-and-switch. I’ll watch it for $3 on streaming. I assume based on critic scores it won’t be a high-cost rental long term…
The Marksman.
free on Plex right now.
that makes it worth it.
you have seen it all before in some other movie.
no surprises. standard script. still not boring.
Ooh, Katheryn Winnick? Just that she’s in it makes it worth the watch.
(Just watch the ep of “House” she was in to see what I mean.)
No thanks on the marksman. Liam is anti-gun, but makes his money pretending to master and utilize them. No thanks and I will not support blatant hypocrites.
Great books, worth reading as an adult and as a child. Harry Potter and Hunger Games should be the next step to read with your young children. (after captain underpants of course)
