Quarantine Control #23: The Last COVID Ragnarok

We’ve talked about how the United States is deep in the crapper when it comes to handling the COVID-19 pandemic (and plenty of other things, but let’s focus on one here). It’s catastrophic when people don’t listen to health experts, and it sure isn’t helping when the person at the top of the country also didn’t take it seriously in public, though insidiously knew just how bad this thing would be in private. Terrible, and it’s tough to see how the US will get out of this without further disaster unfolding. It’s not exactly perfect everywhere else either, but man.

Good thing there’s plenty of entertainment to busy ourselves with, which is what we did. Not that we’re featuring everything we watched here. In fact, one entry is special.

 

Joseph Daniels

Parties in Kingston, Ontario.  100+ new cases in British Columbia daily.  An outbreak in Chinook High School in Lethbridge, Alberta while schools in other parts of the country are as crowded as ever.

I work in an “essential” job because we all still need food and so grocery stores remain open throughout the country.  I also have a grandmother living at home that I need to worry about keeping healthy through the pandemic.  So when I hear about how badly we’re handling the second wave, I get a little annoyed.  Here I am, wearing a mask at work and washing often, not going out unless I absolutely have to, and what do I see?  People coughing into their hands and not their sleeves.  People using our public bathrooms and then not washing their hands.

You know, people like Howie Mandel are right to be germaphobes.  People are gross.  People were gross before the pandemic and people are still gross even as everyone around them are dying.

What, just because we crushed the curve here in British Columbia during the first wave, do you think that means we won Covid-19 and we don’t have to worry about it any more?  Do you think we’re suddenly immune just because we were good at not transmitting it for a couple months?  No!  We need to stay the course more than ever now!  Have you seen the United States lately?  Guess who we share a border with?

I know a hundred new cases daily is not a lot compared to some US states, but it’s significantly more than what we had during the first wave, and there’s no indication that we’re slowing down.

Did I watch stuff this week?  Yeah, I watched stuff this week.  I don’t really feel like talking about any of it because I don’t think anyone’s earned a Quarantine Control this week.  All everyone seems to want to do is party.  Party and then run away when the police show up because you know it’s against the rules but you want to do it anyway, don’t you?  You’re tired of having to social distance and stay home and “waste” your summer, so you’re salvaging what little time you have left.  But what you don’t realize is that if you just stay home and not hold parties until the virus is over, you won’t catch this thing.  And here’s a news flash, it’s not just the elderly who’re dying from it.

I promise that, if you keep isolating yourself when possible and only going out when absolutely necessary, that you’ll survive this thing and there’ll be plenty of time to party afterwards.  You’re not going to lose being able to party for life just because you missed a summer or two.  Or is that a new rule of partying I never learned back in high school, that there’s only a two year window in which you get to party and then it’s all downhill from there?  Is that what’s going on?

I especially would rather not catch it because some dumbass decides they don’t care about my health and brings it into the grocery store I work at.  By the time one of us notices we have it, most of us will be carrying it and spreading it to our families.  This is how outbreaks happen, guys.  This is what happens when we’re reckless with our health.

So no, I’m not going to talk about what I watched this week because it’s quite clear to me that those who need to stay home and self isolate simply aren’t doing it, and everyone’s too eager to return to normalcy that no one’s thought about the consequences of failure.

Covid-19 (2019)
Source: All of you dumbasses
Episodes: Far too many than there needed to be

 

Geoffrey Barnes

Fortunately, I watched more than I did in last week’s Quarantine Control entry.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Source: Blu-ray
Episodes: 1 movie, though it’s the eighth episode in the series

For me to merely say that I heard a lot about Star Wars: The Last Jedi before finally getting around to it would be one of the biggest understatements made on this blog, and not because it was reviewed here before. The movie was enough to ignite a political firestorm thanks to the themes it tackled, wherein a subset of laughably oblivious people discovered for apparently the first time that Star Wars is political. It even involved foreign interference on social media, from a country that meddled in the 2016 election and is gearing up to do so again for the presidential election in (oh God) less than two months from now. We’re talking about a sci-fi series where it’s clear the Empire from the original trilogy were stand-ins for the Nazis. Creator George Lucas is known for a lot of things, but subtlety isn’t one of them.

TLJ picks up shortly after The Force Awakens left off, jumping right into the action with Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) leading the charge against the First Order’s space fleet. Finn (John Boyega) awakes during the battle following his fight with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) in the last film, while Rey (Daisy Ridley) is gearing to meet up with old hero Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil) to ask him to train her in the ways of the Jedi. This is all very basic stuff. The film doesn’t veer into original and innovative territory for a Star Wars film until a good way through, which irked a lot of people. But it’s not all bad.

The movie challenges previously-established conventions in the Star Wars universe, like the reasons that the Jedi and Sith exist and the purposes of light and dark. But I respected how it did so in a way that challenged the very world of consumerism the franchise has created over several decades. It’s enough to question the motivations of characters in previous films, and goes further in its critiques of the Jedi’s actions than even the Clone Wars animated series. This would also clearly not last. Merchandising is a significant part of this series, and Disney would not tolerate such critiques for long, and not solely because they were divisive. I don’t even have to watch The Rise of Skywalker to know it dials some of these revelations back.

TLJ also has a bunch of other less controversial innovations, including a large modern-style casino with sci-fi futuristic moderations. I always like it when Star Wars works go off the beaten path to show parts of the universe not frequently seen.

I respect TLJ, but don’t take that to mean I think it’s a flawless film. I was disappointed in how it railroads key characters. Finn and Poe’s roles aren’t as pivotal here compared to TFA, with the latter’s most important part being in the aforementioned introductory sequence. For all the hubbub there was about Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), she’s not even that important to the main story. The movie gives the feeling that director Rian Johnson and the writers weren’t definitively sure of where to go with each character outside Luke, Rey, and Kylo. (Carrie Fisher’s role as Leia went in an unexpected direction for different reasons.) But it’s all, at the very least, quite entertaining, and never feels boring despite its long runtime.

TLJ doesn’t accomplish every goal it set out for itself, but I still enjoyed it. I’d sooner rewatch this than any movies from the prequel trilogy (a set of films fans tend not to remember the quality of, perhaps intentionally). But I wouldn’t put it above any film in the original trilogy, and it’s certainly no The Empire Strikes Back, as high of a bar that is. I’ll make sure to watch The Rise of Skywalker soon, though I’ve heard… stuff about that too. I’ll leave it there.

Thor: Ragnarok
Source: Disney+
Episodes: 1 movie

The concept of a Thor film suffused with 80s aesthetic and themes sounded weird for the third film in this series on the surface. But upon watching Ragnarok, I was surprised at just how well it worked. Thor Ragnarok continues the adventures of the Thor centric characters, yes, but the updated themes are there to relay just how different this film is from its predecessors. Unlike those, this movie takes place largely off Earth and bids adieu to characters like Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), to focus closer on its central faces like the titular Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). It starts on Asgard, which eventually finds itself under significant attack by Hela (Cate Blanchett), the goddess of death.

Despite the seriousness of the threat, the movie’s comedic efforts are on par with a Guardians of the Galaxy film. But it… works? The GotG films balance themes of seriousness and comedy well, and this movie does the same. It leaves room for its existing characters to further develop while leaving sufficient room for its newly-introduced characters like Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), the Grandmaster of planet Sakaar (Jeff Goldblum), and the aforementioned Hela. The acting is great too, though it’s Blanchett that shines more than others.

The writers and director Taika Waititi finally found the right tone for the Thor films. The first film was fine for an introduction, but wasn’t quite as remarkable as other introductory Marvel Cinematic Universe films like Iron Man and Captain America: The First Avenger at the time. The Dark World, however, felt very rudimentary and unremarkable by the end, outside of key scenes with Loki. It’s a shame they had to ditch Jane and the others on Earth (and Sif, for a reason I need to discover) to achieve this, though she and perhaps others will return in the next film.

It’s taken too long for me to get caught up, but I’m getting close to finishing this batch of the MCU. It’s something I wanted to do while staying at home more, and finish before the next film, Black Widow, supposedly releases in theaters on November 6th. There’s still time for me to do that (especially if it gets delayed again, but it probably won’t), while also watching other films.

 

It feels like this post always ends by saying that we’re not out of this yet, and that you should still be staying home as much as possible despite how easy it is to get comfortable again. But, well, you should still be staying home as much as possible despite how easy it is to get comfortable again. If too many people get too comfortable, we’re going to have a real crisis again. This is likely to happen anyway given the habits of human beings, especially in the US, but this could at least have one person thinking twice.