4/5 week in review (part 1)

4/3

I failed to go on a hike last month, and didn't really care about it.  But the weather is warmer now, and I knew that I didn't have rain or snow as an excuse.  So I did the traditional hike up the mountain here in town.  I'll admit that it was a bit of a bugger starting out (and my calves complained almost from the moment I started), but hey, I still managed.  What have you done, Derek?

Truth be told, I have been feeling out of shape and vaguely unwell for a while now.  So it does please me that I could manage the same hike that my uncle claimed would kill me in 2019.  I have to admit, though, that I did stop and rest about a third of the way through, going on YouTube and finding a video that talked for an hour about the top ten greatest rollercoasters in the world. 

It's getting to be springtime, with blossoms on the trees, and I really ought to start doing . . .  EVERYTHING again.

4/4

Boy, my legs were complaining today.  Sometimes it would take a few steps before I could even walk normally.  It reminded me of a post I saw on Facebook the other day that said, "To those of you in your thirties and forties, enjoy it while you can, because once you hit fifty, the Check Engine light will come on."

Every month, I record and edit an address to my Patreon supporters.  In it, I talk about what's going on in my little world, and try to share something interesting that happened to me.  This past week, I sat down five different times, trying my darndest to do just that (I also look at the goals I set for the previous month and set new ones for the month that's just beginning), and pretty much failed.  

I talked about a recent brush with eBay Horror I was experiencing, I sang the theme from "The Greatest American Hero" with Fake Sean, and tried desperately not to say anything about the Oscars.  All in all, I've got an hour and fourteen minutes of very little to say . . . AND it's the fourth of April already.

I wonder how other people with Patreon accounts do it.  I wonder if they feel a desperate need to be entertaining and/or insightful every month.

4/5

So, months and months ago, when the first trailer for MORBIUS came out (back when it was supposed to come out in July of 2020), my nephew leaned over and said, "Promise you'll take me to that when it comes out!"

Well, it got delayed, and then bumped, and then moved again* and finally came out last Friday . . . and boy oh boy, did it get pummeled by the critics and fans.  Right now, it has a 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, and that was enough for me to think I could give it a miss.

But my nephew remembered that I had said I would take him to it, so I arranged it with my cousin to go on Tuesday night (they have five dollar specials on Tuesdays), but because I was bringing my nephew, he felt justified in bringing his daughter, the one who calls everything "sick."

I knew it would mostly likely suck, and wondered if I was an idiot to go see it (I still remember Jeff's wife in 1997 after BATMAN & ROBIN got out complaining, "If you knew it was going to be bad, why did you go to see it?"  And then worse, shouting, "Why did you drag me to it then?"  But hey, people loved THE JOKER, and continue to love THE BATMAN, so I figured, if those folks hated MORBIUS, then I'm bound to like it.**

Well, it wasn't terrible, really.  By the halfway point, I was even thinking, "Hey, I'm enjoying this thing."  The special effects were really good, the vampire designs appropriately frightening, and Matt Smith is a cool bad guy.  Plus, unlike VENOM 2, the toned-down violence didn't detract from my appreciation of the film with confusing cut-aways and ham-handed TV edits.  But yeah, it falls pretty flat at the end, and sets up some kind of sequel/spin-off thing that, well, I have no reason to look forward to.

No, it wasn't great.  And the ending was the worst part (including their, what, three mid-credits sequences?), but hey, this is hardly the worst Marvel film, not by a long shot (not in a world where GHOST RIDER 2 and FAN4TASTIC exist).

*It may sound like I'm exaggerating, but it was supposed to be release July 2020, then March 19th 2021, then October 8th 2021, then January 21st 2022, then January 28th, then April 1st, 2022.

**A bunch of internet memes were going around saying that Jared Leto had the distinction of being in both the worst Marvel movie (MORBIUS) and worst DC movie (SUICIDE SQUAD).  But eff that noise.  First off, MORBIUS is hardly a Marvel movie.  And secondly, SUICIDE SQUAD doesn't even belong in the bottom ten worst DC movies (not if you can count STEEL and SUPERGIRL, SUPERMAN IV and JONAH HEX, BATMAN & ROBIN and GREEN LANTERN, and of course, CATWOMAN, directed by a guy named Pitoff).  So, put your childish exaggerations away, before I start ripping on the Prequels again.