11 years. 1300 book reviews. 170 movies. 100 seasons of TV shows.

That’s so ridiculous when you write it out. It’s kind of neat how something builds up if you just keep doing it over time.

In any case, I enjoy collecting stats on various things and sharing them out. Both as a way to look back and remember for myself and in the hope that someone else finds it interesting and/or shares anything new/interesting I haven’t seen!

Overall this year:

• Read 298 books
• Watch 17 seasons of TV
• Watched 11 movies
• Played 227 different (85 new) board games a total of 1313 times
• Played 37 games on steam (24 new) and made it to 100% Achievements on 101 of them

Table of Contents

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Oh hey, that’s a DeLorean! I should go re-watch Back to the Future.

Ready Player One is a very pretty movie (I seem to be saying that [a lot]) recently) and absolutely chock full of pop culture references… which honestly felt rather overdone. The plot is thin and the world doesn’t really make sense, although I did enjoy the characters well enough.

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That is a very pretty movie. The city had a great aesthetic. I loved the variety of cyborgs, many just trying to live their lives (in the background) or… becoming ridiculously overdone weapons platforms. And I especially loved Motorball!

Characterwise, Rosa Salazar as Alita really carried the show. I actually really enjoyed the oversized eyes (true to the manga apparently?) and her whole way of interacting with the world, the way she fights, the way she moves. It’s a fascinating combination of innocence and excellence.

Other than that… I wanted to like Christoph Walz’s Dr. Ido more than I did–he’s generally a wonderful actor, but I feel he just didn’t have much to do. Likwise, Jennifer Connelly’s Chiren. I did enjoy Mahershala Alis’ Vector and most of the evil cyborgs. They did a good job of evil/menacing!

Plotwise? Straight forward. And the ending… really is asking for a sequel that so far as I know isn’t coming. It’d be neat! But you can’t just end a movie like that! Really leaves a poor taste on an otherwise quiet enjoyable movie.

So it goes.

Onward!

And so here it is, (almost) the entire reason I rewatched Deadpool and Deadpool 2.

In a nutshell, it’s pretty much exactly what you get if you took the (crass) humor of Deadpool, jammed in as many cameos as you could, and shoved it into the modern MCU, multiverse, TVA, and all…

Deadpool: Welcome to the MCU. You’re joining at a bit of a low point.

I’m still not actually sure if that’s a good thing?

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That is a strange movie.

It’s slower movie, with a magical style to the animation that’s both truly beautiful and surprisingly terrifying at times. The plot is somewhere between simple and mostly absent and the characters are mostly–there?

Overall, it was fascinating to catch in theaters as part of the Studio Ghibli Fest 2024… but not really something I’d ever choose to watch again.

Such is life.

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I still think the first one was the better movie, but man I still enjoyed this one. Biggest negative: I’d totally forgotten this is a part one / to be continued. That was… not fun to find out right at the end with no current release date for the next sequel!

Overall, it’s a great film. I love seeing more of Miles and Gwen, especially a couple of years later. I love the introduction to even more Spider-People (and not-people even, oh Peter Parkedcar) and the introduction of even more multiverse concepts that brings to mind. And the idea that there are fixed points in each Spider’s story that makes them who they are is great fuel, both for this and I hope the eventual sequel.

Visually, this story once again shines. I love seeing all the different styles, especially when you have more than one on screen at once.

And now, on seeing this, I learn that Marvel 2099 with more Miguel O’Hara is a thing. I should read that next!

Onward! (And hopefully not too long to a sequel.)