aniki

On a related note, I rewatched Seven Samurai a couple weeks back for the first time in 20 years. What a great fucking movie that was.

Tornado is a samurai western crime revenge movie, set in 18th century Scotland. It is a collision of what, on paper, seems like perhaps too many genres. That it works at all is impressive; that it's actually terrific is bordering on miraculous.

Which isn't to say that it's perfect; the tense pacing is hampered by a lengthy flashback early on, it's heavily reliant on the admittedly effective Scottish landscapes to set the tone, but the blocking and shot composition are pretty flat. Frustratingly, the revenge stuff comes very late in the film, is over pretty quickly, and only has one truly great kill (and it's the first one).

But as a slow-burning tension engine, it's very effective, with solid performances and a memorable (if not entirely listenable) score. And at just 91 minutes, it certainly doesn't outstay its welcome.

First two episodes of Alien Earth are up. After one and a half, I'm not convinced it's fully baked. There are moments where it seems to have a personality, but overall feels like a couple of different ideas mashed together that would have been much better alone; it feels like it's had the edges sanded down by studio notes. Not sure it needed to be Alien for those strong moments, either.

The pacing suffers from the fact that the audience knows it's xenomorphs, and many of the characters seem to be expecting xenomorphs (or some kind of monster), but it's still trying to play it coy with the cinematography. The performances are almost universally flat, but in a way that almost works. (Some of the Lost Boys, secondary characters so far, are great, though, fully embodying a part of their characters' backstories in a way I wasn't expecting.)

There's still a whiff of setup about the events I've seen, so maybe once pieces are in place and the actual story starts it'll gel more, but for now I'd suggest giving it a pass.

The production design is great, though.

Rolled credits earlier today. Really liked the game, as a whole; a couple of sections dragged and the level design quality was more variable between layers than I'd expected (though there was also just so much variety it's hard to be mad about it), but smashing the place up as a big monkey never got old.

Play

It's a big Switch 2 month for me.

Donkey Kong Bananza, obviously; it's every bit as fun as everyone says and constantly surprising in different ways.

I had a go at the demo for the worst-titled game of the year, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales which was pretty good but I found some of the controls and menus clunkier than I'd like in an action RPG.

Want

Picked up Promise Mascot Agency in the sale, but so far have only made it as far as where the demo started. Looking forward to getting some time with it properly.

Bin

I've been feeling bone tired for the last few weeks, no matter how much sleep I get or at what time.