I watched the most recent Fantastic Four trailer and I can't be the only one who thinks the VFX for the Torch looks bad? It looks so muddy and overly bright with no contrast and vibrancy. I feel like you could make it better by defining the suit below more, have darker values, more red, etc. ...

that didn’t feel quite as sophisticated like the rest of the movie - Like the overreliance on flashbacks.

and discriminated against by white people who took and stole their lands. It does feel like the movie hampers in its last leg though, with the final brawl having conveniences and some filmmaking choices

but it also feeds into the central themes of the movie. The vampires are quite humanized in this one. I particularly enjoyed the reintroduction of the rule that vampires can’t enter unless being invited, again possibly being another imagery of black and irish communities being broken apart

It’s a successful mix of genres; Depicting the struggles of black people in the 1930s in South America, while also transitioning later on into a vampire horror movie, which, mind you, was not only quite tense to watch (I was on edge all the time),

Sinners - 8/10

Directed and written by Ryan Coogler

The focus on music, and how it builds community and ancestry, combined with an excellent score by Ludwig Göransson and strong direction by Coogler himself, makes this a movie that particularly benefits from the audio setup of a cinema.

Nah how tf am I supposed to sleep with that Superman teaser. That looked so good, sometimes I question if I'm too hyped for this and then Gunn drops new footage

They really know how to tease us.

I find it interesting that so many people like the Sentry suit. Me and my friend kinda laughed when we saw it on screen, like it looks so bad and also so corporate. He was like a propped up goose. He even comments on that himself.

It feels different than the Marvel movies we had for a long time now, prioritizing telling an emotional story about trauma than trying to showcase a new IP. (The ending and credit roll is also hilarious, lol.)

God. I already want to watch this movie one more time.

but it makes me worry about Doomsday and how they will handle the much larger cast and amount of plotlines there. That being said, Thunderbolts rocks.

you can clearly tell on the other hand what aspects the movie didn’t choose to focus on – Without spoiling I can say there are a good number of characters here that don’t have much to do in this movie. And the movie feels freakishly short and sort of fast paced too. Definitely not a bad thing,

Thematically it’s a lot about depression and trauma (although it’s also light-hearted here and there), and the movie focuses very much on how these themes affect the main characters. While that leads to a strong main narrative and in my opinion also a great third act,

Thunderbolts - 8/10

Directed by Jake Schreier
Written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo

Everyone loves this movie, and I’m here to say that I share the general sentiment. I think Thunderbolts is a great time, and it reignites in a way the excitement for the MCU I once had.

Been in an interesting mental headspace for a while due to a burnout but I'm planning to pick up anime again and write reviews too

Fantastic Four Poster, a lot of people cheering for the Fantastic Four, waving flags and posters

Close-up of a hand in the poster as an example, where the hand only has 4 fingers

Did they use fucking AI for this poster?

The trailer is okay I guess... aesthetic is good but it feels like a retro sitcom and I'm unsure how that translates as a movie. And the script is my biggest worry.

Happy lunar new year!

bsky.app/profile/kait...

its highs such as the last stretch (Lakan's storyline) show how clever, intense, and emotionally gripping the show can be.

such as the squeaky-clean and moe aesthetic and the way it incorporates shoujo tropes into a narrative with themes that don't benefit at all from these tropes. A bit of a pity because while I enjoy the show overall,

Cover of the Apothecary Diaries Season 1, showing the main characters Maomao and Jinshi. I rated it a 6.5/10.

The Apothecary Diaries S1

Director: Norihiro Naganuma
Assistant Director: Akinori Fudesaka

When this series ties everything together and gets rolling in delivering some satisfying pay-offs, it's really good. And I enjoyed most of it, but there are still things that overall hold it back for me,

yea, prob dehydration. I have that problem sometimes too

I also hoped for a more honest and raw confrontation between Maomao and Lakan, which hopefully will take place in the future. It's nice in a way, however, that this backstory very much peels all the layers back.

Admittedly it's not a huge twist for me though. The more build-up took place for this backstory, the more the initial hunch that Lakan is likely a tragic figure in some ways got more and more foundation, even without some key details being shown in advance.

The Apothecary Diaries 1x23 - 7/10

Lakan's backstory as expected is very good. It also recontextualizes his previous exchanges in a tragic way, such as him speaking about the possibility of devaluing a courtesan (Implying rape) is actually just a messed up way of his to cope with his grief.

Maybe Lakan believes that Maomao struggles to earnestly love and empathize with someone else like he does and he's now shocked because he realizes that's not the case.

And Lakan was the one who made her aware of that incident. It could be that he orchestrated for her to solve the puzzle but didn't expect that she would be willing to risk her life for someone else.

the look he had when speaking to the guard was great. I'm still excited about which direction the series will go with him. There's also the interesting bit about how the case about the death of the metal craftsman helped Maomao to connect all the dots -

The Apothecary Diaries 1x19 - 8/10

This series is kinda popping off right now. I liked how all the cases connected, and it was very climactic with the big reveal - not for us, but for Maomao - that Jinshi is of pure noble blood. Speaking of similarities between Lakan and Maomao,

*1x18. Oops