Quarantine Control #28: A Solo Apocalypse in One Room

The ledes for these Quarantine Control posts have been focused on how the United States has been handling the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to most of this blog’s staff being from the country (and one being near here); but especially because the US is has handled it extremely poorly. Other countries, however, shouldn’t be forgotten. Cases are rising all over the world, leading to some territories locking down again to prevent further spread and keep the number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths as low as they can. Others are over this whole lockdown thing, and are telling their citizens to deal with it. You’ll never guess which approach is the working one.

Anyway, we watched stuff in the last week. We needed to in order to keep our minds off how depressing reality has been in this deeply cursed year of 2020.

 

Geoffrey Barnes

My entry was a political post last week, but that, perhaps fortunately, won’t be the case this week.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Source: Disney+
Episodes: 1 movie (though it could have been more)

Solo: A Star Wars Story was doomed from the start. Han Solo as played by Harrison Ford is not only one of the most beloved and memorable characters in the Star Wars universe, but one of the biggest in nerd history. It would have been impossible for any actor to do a younger portrayal of him justice. I felt the same way other skeptics did about the movie in terms of its concept and after watching the promotional trailers. When you associate a character so closely with one live-action actor, it’s difficult to imagine someone else playing that part. It’s somewhat, but not entirely, the reason why several fans and casual moviegoers didn’t give the movie a fair shake when it released in theaters in 2018. That’s a real shame. Given its quality, it deserved to do better.

True to its name, Solo stars a younger and greener Han Solo prior to becoming the cynical-through-endearing smuggler from the original trilogy. Here, he’s an ambitious young adult who seeks to be more than a young man with no future living on planet Corellia, and intends to take his girlfriend Qi’ra with him. To no surprise for an origin story, this doesn’t unfold as Han expected, and he stumbles upon plenty of colorful characters along the way, some of whom are familiar.

Alden Ehrenreich’s portrayal of Han was better than I expected, as he hit the same verbal cues and tics that Ford did in the role while not having an identical interpretation. Among the characters and acting crew, I also enjoyed Emilia Clarke and Donald Glover as Qi’ra and a young Lando Calrissian, respectively. The movie is full of good performances, even if a few solid characters didn’t stick around as long as I would have liked.

The story isn’t the most original around, and features the kind of predicable twists expected from a movie that takes place about a decade before A New Hope. But there are some surprises. For instance, some characters absent from future Star Wars works timeline-wise don’t kick the bucket, and could appear in future works. I also enjoyed how the tone of the movie has more in common with the older George Lucas-directed Star Wars films compared to the newer Disney-funded ones, as someone who appreciated the chances The Last Jedi took despite the execution being iffy with some concepts. Heck, Lucas actually directed a scene in this film. It doesn’t stick out too much from the other Ron Howard-directed parts, but it’s clear that it has his touch.

Solo is a good film that didn’t get a fair shake when it first released for multiple reasons, but it makes for perfect watching on home video or especially a streaming service. I liked the characters enough, along with the continuing plot threads from other canonical expanded works like the Clone Wars and Rebels animated series, that it’s a shame the original concept of this being a trilogy wasn’t realized. Perhaps it could have been more palatable as a high-budget series for Disney+, but it’s probably too late for them to give it a do-over. At least some stories here could be picked up in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series due to arrive on the service in the near future, one originally intended to be a film before Solo bombed.

Aquaman (2018)
Source: HBO on Demand
Episodes: 1 movie

DC Comics hasn’t had anywhere near as much consecutive luck at movie adaptations compared to their forever competition at Marvel Comics. You couldn’t count the number of good and successful Marvel films in a little more than the last decade on one hand, but that’s easily possible with DC’s adaptations. This is why I went into Aquaman with my expectations lower than they would be for other modern superhero films, despite the movie having a pretty good reception compared to the likes of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. I wasn’t surprised to find it an enjoyable film, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as others did.

I did enjoy the star-studded cast, who all appeared to have a good time with their roles. Jason Momoa’s interpretation of Aquaman is prettier compared to some (though not all) of the character’s other appearances in DC works, and especially the classic appearances. But his interpretation works thanks to good acting and sense of humor, good enough that this movie did its job in fully erasing the trope of him being one of the most useless among DC’s slate of superheroes that’s pervaded for years. (Again, that reputation wasn’t fully earned.) Yahya-Abdul Mateen as Black Manta is also good, and Dolph Lundgren’s performance as King Nereus was better than expected. It’s nice to see Lundgren not stuck in direct-to-video low-budget action film hell.

The movie is cheesier than I expected, with a script that often reminded me of a mid-00s superhero film from well before the Marvel Cinematic Universe came to be. It’s good that an Aquaman film has a sense of humor, but not all of the hits land. It’s perhaps not fair that I’m watching this after seeing the Guardians of the Galaxy films and Thor: Ragnarok, where the mix of humor and drama are very well segued, but the humor hits land more than they miss.

Aquaman is a good popcorn film, and stands out compared to the other not-Wonder Woman films in terms of quality (note that I haven’t seen Shazam and Birds of Prey yet). It had to have been a tall order to get the fight choreography for “underwater” action scenes right, of which there are many, but the filmmakers did an exemplary job with it. That alone is worth high praise.

Even if it wasn’t on par with a number of recent and similarly-themed Marvel films, it was a good-enough attempt that I’m looking forward to where they take the next Aquaman film, given the extremely blatant sequel hook. Aquaman doesn’t have many dedicated underwater enemies, but there are still places they can go.

 

Angela Moseley

October started off incredibly grueling. This week I’ve had some time to relax and have been watching and reading a lot. So much in fact, that now I have a small backlog of items to talk about. I’ll start with a video game this week and hopefully I can move onto anime and books for subsequent weeks. Considering a second wave of the virus is starting even while the first wave was never really under control, staying inside is a really good option.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (2016)
Source: Nintendo 3DS
Episodes: 1 video game

I thought I would be done talking about Shin Megami Tensei: IV Apocalypse until after I finished the game, but the story turned out to be really engaging. Just as Krishna of the Divine Powers is confronted, he reveals Nanashi is literally a walking corpse. Not only that, but he also reveals the protagonist and Asahi are the ones who originally freed him from the Ark. Members of the Hunter’s Association and Nanashi’s friends take it hard. That surprised me because how many characters in video games die and are revived for some larger purpose? I never thought this event would play a major role in the story.  Once the truth comes out and everyone at the Hunter’s Association becomes wary of Nanashi and it felt like a gut-punch. The reason given for the apprehension isn’t unrealistic. The question of Nanashi having free will or being a puppet of Dagda is extremely valid. 

Just as it feels like this low point can’t get any lower, Dagda rubs it in by preaching about the need to rely on oneself instead friends. After all, humans are fickle creatures and solitude is true freedom. As the mood continues to darken, a ray of light pierces the darkness in the form of Nanashi’s partners all vouching or vowing to stand by him. The scene wouldn’t feel out of place in a Persona game, really. In fact, the sense of comradery among the group only grows stronger once the truth of Nanashi’s actions is revealed. It is clear that SMT:IVA is pushing you to either accept the bonds of friendship or to push them away, especially since there isn’t a clear law, chaos, or neutral route. I’m positive there will be a point of no return where you must choose your allies or Dagda. 

Eventually at some point the push to vanquish the Divine Powers is put on hold after fighting Krishna to a draw. The alliance between Merkabah, Lucifier, and the Hunter’s Association is also put on hold as all of the samurai in Tokyo are called back to Mikado. Wanting information, the Hunter’s Association has Nanashi and friends infiltrate the land above the firmament. As the hunters change into samurai uniforms and make the ascent to Mikado, I was hit hard by a wave of nostalgia for Shin Megami Tensei IV.

In the original game, Flynn and his fellow samurai descended the firmament and the excavation tower in order to reach Tokyo. In Apocalypse the group slowly ascends the tower and sets eyes upon the Kingdom of Mikado for the first time. The scene was touching and made great use of the expectations of anyone who played SMTIV. I can imagine the appeal of the quality of life changes in Apocalypse making it so that some skip the original game, but scenes like these wouldn’t hit nearly as hard.  Speaking of SMTIV, the character of Akira had a pretty important role, but here he’s given more backstory here once the group reaches Mikado. While running around in Mikado, the group also comes across Akira’s original demon summoning gauntlet. It becomes obvious at this point that Nanashi is definitely related to Akira in a meaningful way. 

At this point in the story I’m preparing to challenge Lucifier and I’m trekking through Camp Ichigaya. At just under 60 hours into the game, I’m shocked that my characters have reached level 80 already. Additionally, the game seems much easier than the SMTIV given the changes to the battle system with magic affinities. (Basically, demons can be fused to use any type of magic, but they have a stronger affinity for that magic if it matches their type. For example, if you fuse Phoenix its fire attacks will have a 1+ or higher affinity. If you choose to give it ice attacks, they may have a -1 or lower affinity. Sure, the attacks do damage, but they aren’t nearly as strong. In SMTIV this system didn’t exist.) As I’m nearing what may be the end of the game, I wonder if the difficulty will ramp up or if the changes in Apocalypse just made everything easier to play. Or maybe Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux was just a harder game. 

Anyway, I’m still immensely enjoying Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

 

Joseph Daniels

Well met, everyone, and happy Thursday.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving on Monday.  This week, rather than a full recommendation, the series I’m about to mention should be treated as an experiment of sorts.  It’s… different and it might appeal to some, but keep in mind when you watch it that the comment section at Crunchyroll has been making fun of the series quite mercilessly, and I don’t blame them.

OneRoom (2017)
Source: Crunchyroll
Episodes: Ongoing (currently 27)

OneRoom is promoted as a “virtual anime”, which in this context seems to mean that you’re watching it as if you were wearing a VR set, and considering the unique premise for the series, I guess it’s an apt description.

The anime stars you as the main character in a sort of harem story, except that you interact with each girl on an individual basis and seem to be leading different lives with each of them, although it’s apparently intended that you’re the same male protagonist for each girl.  It’s kind of like playing a visual novel, except you have no dialogue choices and are presumably supposed to improvise the dialogue as you go.

Each story arc spans four episodes, and each episode is four minutes long, so each story arc ends up totalling about fifteen minutes plus four sets of end credits, which is a bit short for a complete story.  One standard episode of anime usually runs at least twenty minutes.  This is why I suggested treating it as an experiment.  Give the first four episodes a try, then try either episodes five and six or nine and ten and if you find it isn’t to your taste, you’ve not wasted a lot of time.  An entire season takes less than an hour to watch, and the six episodes I’m suggesting you try takes less than a half an hour.

OneRoom is produced by SMIRAL, and one of the things they did for the second season was bring back the first girl from season one in order to continue her story arc, then created two new girls to round out the season.  And if you’ve made it through both completed seasons and are expecting them to bring back one of the girls for season three, they instead have begun with another new girl.  I do not know if they’re planning on revisiting any of their girls from the first couple seasons, but the Wikipedia entry lists two new girls rather than three for the third season, so either it’s an eight episode season, or each story will consist of six episodes, or it’s structured exactly the same and they’re bringing back someone from previous seasons.

OneRoom is obviously an acquired taste.  Not everyone is going to be into it, and I’ll offer my honest thoughts about the show soon.  I will say now that there are ways in which it could be improved, but that it’s apparently successful enough in Japan that they aren’t messing with the formula at all in season three.  I expect the third season to air over the next three or so months.

 

The virus is resurging in nearly every part of the world, though it’s tough to call it a “second wave” when the first wave never disappeared to begin with. Stay safe, and use common sense when going anywhere and interacting with people. For the most part, the best place is in your home.