Quarantine Control #53: Read About the Birds and Kaiju

It’s true that COVID-19 cases are rising again around the world, a constant occurrence documented in the ledes of too many Quarantine Control entries over the last year. But there’s another potentially important statistic: The United States could soon be number one in vaccines being administered. There have been setbacks, but the vaccinations and the pace at which they’re being injected in people’s arms, especially the most vulnerable has been one of the most encouraging signs that this pandemic could actually have an end. We’ve been in this for so long that it’s sometimes tough to think that we’ll even establish a new normal, but a sense of normalcy could be a case of “when” and not “if” assuming this keeps up. Making assumptions is dangerous these days, but this one might pan out.

 

Geoffrey Barnes

Birds of Prey (2020)
Source: HBO on Demand
Episodes: 1 movie

I had no idea of what I’d be getting into with Birds of Prey, with it being a DC movie. There was potential for it to join the actually-good DC films like Shazam! and Wonder Woman (2017), given the solid critical reception. But this is a DC movie, so I wouldn’t have been surprised at it being merely okay like Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition and Man of Steel, or bad like Suicide Squad and Joss Whedon’s Justice League. (I have yet to see Wonder Woman 1984 or Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but will sometime this year.) It’s fortunately on the enjoyable side, but I wasn’t blind to its issues.

Birds of Prey is a movie largely about Harley Quinn (and actress Margot Robbie) having fun. She’s hardly a hero, but is still slowly inching her way over from anti-villain to anti-hero following the Suicide Squad film through being outclassed by a far worse villain. She’s joined by Dinah Lance/Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett), Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) in helping Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), who’s drawn the ire of a crime syndicate. The movie has the feel of a Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino film with its tone, action, and story development, including with how occasionally reliant it is on flashbacks. But it all works out by being an entertaining ride by its end.

This is unfortunately the kind of movie that I realized could have been better after the credits finished rolling. It’s called Birds of Prey, but it’s not really about the Birds of Prey. It’s a Harley Quinn film, with the title group assisting her. Harley gets by far the biggest focus and is the key character with an actual character arc, with Renee Montoya having one to a lesser extent, but this is to the chagrin of other characters. Helena Bertinelli is particularly hurt by this, who arrives late in the movie and receives little development despite Winstead doing a fantastic job portraying her as a skilled-though-socially awkward hero. I like Robbie’s Harley enough not to complain about the focus being on her, but it’s a damned shame that she far overshadows the others.

Even with the issues, Birds of Prey is still one of the better DC films. This says a lot about their general quality, but this movie shows how there’s potential for them to be better, and that future efforts shouldn’t be written off. The movie didn’t do that well in theaters last year, even before COVID lockdowns became prominent. But I would nonetheless like to see Warner Bros. do more with the Birds of Prey, either by making another movie with the same members that doesn’t need Harley Quinn to drive it, or through a kind of TV series.

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
Source: HBO Max
Episodes: 1 movie (a culmination of two movie franchises)

It could not have been clearer that the producers knew what the movie-watching audience wanted out of Godzilla vs. Kong: A very pretty movie with very pretty fights and special effects. This is what it is, and all it needed to be.

It was part of a bet that it would work well. There are several human characters involved, a couple of which return from Godzilla: King of the Monsters, though Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) is the only returning face who actually does anything worth a damn. But make no mistake: The humans are along for the ride. The kaiju, Godzilla, King Kong, and other forces that I won’t elaborate on for spoiler reasons (yes, even though they’re all across the internet now) are what the movie is about. They heard enough criticism from Michael Bay’s Transformers film and, to a lesser extent, the 2014 Godzilla film that they know what people wanted to see. (I will not address the 1998 Godzilla film.) This same strategy of largely mimicking the Japanese kaiju films was a bit clumsily executed with King of the Monsters, but it’s perfected in a western movie here.

The story is little more than an excuse to pit the title characters against each other, both of which have been portrayed as more noble creatures that needed a good reason to go at it. There’s a mysterious force luring Godzilla to the Florida coast, which makes it appear that he’s attacking the factory to simply cause destruction. Any watcher will agree that there has to be an explanation for this, and some humans in the movie feel the same way, but Godzilla films are never short on other characters who think he’s a fearsome brainless beast destined to attack the people eventually. But even the reasonable people who take King Kong along for the ride can’t solve the mystery initially, while another group, which includes the aforementioned Russell and a conspiracy theorist who has the closest thing to human character development go see what’s happening with the creatures. Is it dumb? Absolutely. Does that matter? You know the answer by now.

The only other aspects the movie needed to nail were the special effects and scenery, which it delivers hard. Every battle between Godzilla and Kong looks and feels authentic enough that it won’t take the viewer out of the experience by a need to highlight any odd choreography and inconsistencies, no doubt thanks to its high production values. It would be reasonable to criticize how every kaiju film needs to have a fight in the middle of a busy metropolis instead of in a wide open rural or beach environment with plenty of room, but it was tough to care when it looked so pretty. Kaiju films have these environments for good reason, and no one should have expected anything else given this film’s title.

Box office numbers as of this writing suggest that Godzilla vs. Kong will be one of the best-performing movies during the still-ongoing pandemic, for good reason. People needed a film where you can shut your brain off, sit back, and enjoy, but not too dumb to take seriously. The excuses to get Godzilla and Kong fighting are just good enough for the viewer to not find it too ridiculous, which in turn makes the movie quality entertainment.

 

Joseph Daniels

A movement has been growing on Twitter, one that supports the notion that LeVar Burton should be the next host of Jeopardy!.  Our own Drew Young supports this movement, if his post last November is any indication.  I feel like Jeopardy!’s decision to limit the pool of guest hosts to those who were already “part of the family” was both a fair way to play no favourites among the various candidates they’re likely considering and yet at the same time, a bit unfair to those who haven’t had an opportunity to work with them yet and who are being denied a chance to show the audience what they could bring to the show.  It perhaps gives an unfair advantage to people who shouldn’t have been given the privilege in the first place, like Dr. Oz.  Incidentally, Dr. Oz’s episodes were the worst rated episodes since the period of guest hosts began.  His brand new episodes were pulling rerun numbers in the ratings.  And if I may be frank, considering some of the things he promotes, I shouldn’t call him a doctor.  I think it’s safe to say that if Jeopardy! cares about their long term survival, Oz will probably not be the new host.

As for LeVar Burton, it would be awesome to have him as the host of Jeopardy!, and I have a podcast I’d like to recommend you listen to so you can judge for yourself how good a host he could be.  I think he’d be great at it, but you don’t have to take my word for it.

LeVar Burton Reads (2017)
Source: Stitcher
Episodes: Ongoing (almost 140 episodes currently available)

I have found, in recent years, that podcasts are a great way to spend time while grinding for resources in Final Fantasy XIV or doing your dailies in Gems of War.  Browsing the Internet, going on a walk around town, hiking, riding the bus down the highway… I feel like I can get a lot out of the time spent doing these activities if I add a podcast to it.

However, I’ll rarely listen to audio books.  I much prefer to hold the book myself, to turn each page and get lost in the words before me.  It wasn’t until I discovered The Voice of Dog (see Quarantine Control #45) that I discovered the value of listening to a story.

Not that I haven’t listened to stories before.  One of my favourite styles of podcasts is one that plays out like a radio drama, like The Bright Sessions (see Quarantine Control #17), or is scripted to sound like a podcast, like Tanis.  But having a story read out to me is something that I only recently started indulging in.

LeVar Burton Reads is similar to The Voice of Dog, but has very, very high production values.  Mr. Burton has been entertaining audiences for longer than I’ve been alive, and you can hear in his voice the love he has for the short fiction he reads.  His calm voice, plus very well chosen background music and effects, makes me think I’m listening to an ASMR podcast (see Quarantine Control #29).

Out of all the episodes I’ve listened to so far, my favourite one is “Tiger Baby.”  Since Mr. Burton doesn’t stick to any one genre in particular, there’s something for everyone here.  Various authors are featured, like Neil Gaiman, whose excellent short story “Chivalry” was recorded back in July of 2017, and Ursula Vernon, whom you might remember from Quarantine Control #21 and #22 is a podcaster herself and whose amazing short story “Jackalope Wives” I was already familiar with and which was recorded in September 2018 for this podcast.

Anyone who wants to figure out whether Mr. Burton would work as the host of Jeopardy! should just listen to him reading any of the stories he recorded for the podcast.  It seems like a very obvious decision to over two hundred thousand people, if the petition that’s being circulated on-line is any indication.

 

Since the chances of the US being number one in vaccine allocations are high, perhaps they can spread the wealth to several other countries that need it, and don’t need Big Pharma thinking of how they can profit off it first. The sooner we’re out of this, the better, even though it’s still hard to believe this hell could have an end.