Quarantine Control #205: Golden Tales from the Lost Kingdom
As we’re quickly coming up on the fourth sordid anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s start, we’re learning more about Long COVID. If you ever thought that maybe you were still taking this virus too seriously, just read this report to continue convincing you that you’re not being paranoid. It’s all an illuminating study, showing how it could lead to serious issues like dropping your IQ. Not everyone who catches COVID-19 will get Long COVID — most won’t, in fact. But you can’t know this before you catch it, potentially more than once considering how lax society is with the virus these days. Keep taking this seriously.
Geoffrey Barnes
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
Source: HBO Max (It’s the hallmark of a great name change if I’m still instinctively typing “HBO Max” after all these months)
Episodes: 1 movie (The sequel to the 2018 film, and the last DC Extended Universe film)
I wanted to give Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom the benefit of the doubt, because expectations for it were ridiculously high given its status. The movie is the sequel to the 2018 Aquaman film, easily one of the best DC Extended Universe films; but that’s only one matter that placed a heavy burden on the production crew. Multiple delays thanks to production being held up by the COVID-19 pandemic and actress Amber Heard’s trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp didn’t help. The story also needed multiple changes when the filmmakers and editors found out during production that this would be the last DCEU film, prior to the rebooted universe spearheaded by James Gunn and Peter Safran. It needed to go out on too high of a note than what was expected of it, and it really, really doesn’t.
That’s not me saying it’s bad. There are indeed good ideas and entertaining moments scattered throughout. But it never advances beyond fine, and sits below the original film.
This movie picks up four years after the first film, with Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) and Mera (Amber Heard — who at least has a better wig this time around) ruling the Kingdom of Atlanta. They’re doing this while also raising a child of their own, with Aurthur’s father Thomas Curry (Temuera Morrison) helping taking care of Arthur Jr., and Queen Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) helping with the ruling part. They start running into problems when Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) comes back for revenge after Arthur got the best of him in the previous film, which contributed to the death of the former’s father. Manta returns with brand-new powers.
Look, I don’t want to be too negative here. There’s plenty I enjoyed with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. It’s perfectly entertaining for the first half, with even a former villain returning to assist with fighting the much-more-powerful Manta this time around. The movie also maintains the sense of humor from the previous film, in contrast to the Zack Snyder-directed DCEU films, while not veering too far into the Marvel Quips Multiverse. The increased focus on Manta is also nice, with Abdul-Mateen II turning in a pretty good performance, after he was the comparative afterthought in the first movie. The minor twist midway through was also a welcome one.
The acting talent is solid overall. I’m glad Morrison, Kidman, and Dolph Lundgren got a bit more to do this time around, and Amber Heard’s performance was pretty good. There were rumors that a bunch of Heard’s performance hit the cutting room floor following the aforementioned trial, and if that happened, it was barely noticeable. Perhaps that says something about how much you should trust some Twitter “insiders.” (I’m not veering any closer to the Heard/Depp drama here, thank you.) I also enjoyed the hell out of Randall Park as Dr. Stephen Shin, and Jani Zhao as Stingray. It’s a big shame that Willem Dafoe didn’t return for this film, and his character was killed off-screen as a result, but the movie nonetheless had a solid crop of talent.
It’s a shame about the story and writing, which I’m absolutely attributing to this having a messy production. The writing and story execution get extremely wonky in the second half, with the main villain going out like a bigger chump than most Marvel villains these days. (I’m leaving the name out for spoiler reasons, though I couldn’t for the life of me remember it by memory before typing this post.) The entire second half is also extremely predictable for a comic book film.
It’s not the filmmakers’ fault that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ends with a thud, because they clearly didn’t know this film would wrap up the DCEU until it was too late. And though that thud is fitting considering the inconsistent quality and success of the DCEU, it still feels unfulfilling and unsatisfying by the end. The movie is fun enough in the moment, but remains the kind you’ll think about afterward and realize how underwhelming it all was after the credits have rolled. At least better things are on the horizon for DC’s movies with the upcoming DC Universe, assuming Warner Bros. Discovery’s inane leadership doesn’t get too in the way of Gunn and Safran.
Angela Moseley
My Four in February run was successful. Last month I was able to finish The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Streets of Rage 4, Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness, and The Stanley Parable. The last game on my list was a bit of an emergency run, just in case I needed a game that could be finished in less than hour– which is exactly what I did. I actually managed to end the game in about five minutes, but kept playing to receive a few more endings. The true game I was aiming to finish was Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Intermission, but I never even managed to boot the game up on Steam. Oh well, maybe I can finish it another time. The pressure isn’t really on to play it before Final Fantasy VII Rebirth seeing how I’ve not even acquired a PS5.
Golden Kamuy, Season 4 (2023)
Source: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 13
It’s been over three years since I last wrote about the first three seasons of Golden Kamuy. To be fair, there was a huge gap between the third and fourth seasons of this show. It didn’t help that new episodes arrived when I was falling behind with new anime. I haven’t completely dug myself out of that hole, but I have been able to keep up with a few series here and there.
It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t get to the newest season of Golden Kamuy until earlier this year. As the entire 13 episode run ended up being somewhat of a split season. In other words, the first half of season 4 premiered for the Fall 2022 anime season, but the second half was delayed until the Spring 2023 season. To make up for the gap, the first six episodes were rebroadcast during the spring. The reason for the delay was because of the untimely passing of a key member of the production staff. The announcement was originally for an indefinite hiatus, but the delay ended up being about seven months. I actually didn’t discover this until I was researching the season for this column. The more you know, as NBC once said.
After the violent events that went down at the Japanese and Russian territory border, Sugimoto and Asirpa are finally reunited. The members of Lieutenant Tsurumi’s unit they’re traveling with inform their leader they have Asirpa. So the group travels back to Hokkaido to meet Tsurumi. Along the way they come under fire from a Russian sniper looking for Ogata. He actually departed from the group when they were inside of Russia and has gone rogue. After the misunderstanding is made clear, the unnamed Russian silently follows the group in the hopes of having a sniper vs. sniper rematch with Ogata.
At the same time, Hijitaka’s group has sent members to infiltrate Tsurumi’s unit in order to kill members and to steal back tattooed skins. Asirpa finally meets Lieutenant Tsurumi, and in an instant decides she can’t trust him– especially when he moves to separate her from Sugimoto and Shiraishi. She runs from Tsurumi and Sugimoto follows her with Shiraishi joining amid the chaos. The trio barely escape from the unit thanks to one of Tsurumi’s men, Tanigaki deciding he’s had enough of the military. He looks the other way as his friends escape deeper into Hokkaido.
Asirpa and Sugimoto decide to renew their contract as partners looking for the gold (with Shiraishi and the unnamed Russian tagging along). At this point Asirpa has remembered the key to finding the gold. The group also decides they can grab whatever tattooed skins haven’t yet fallen into the hands of Tsurumi or Hijitaka. Still on the search, Tsurumi splits up his forces to find Asirpa and the rest of the skins while Hijitaka’s group continues to gather more skins.
Season 4 mainly served to have Asirpa, Sugimoto, and Shiraishi make the decision to find the hidden gold on their own. Sugimoto wants Asirpa to live her best life and not worry about the burden of leading the Ainu. She wants Sugimoto to remain in her life, but also has to decide what she can do for Ainu while discovering what her father did in order to obtain the gold. It’s still unclear if Wilk was the monster he’s been made out to be, or if he was simply used by someone else who had greater political goals and wants something similar for Asirpa.
These episodes also do a great job of fleshing out the rest of the cast. While many of the men in Tsurumi’s unit continue to follow him, it’s clear that most of them are endeared to the lieutenant in one way or another. As a result, we get deeper looks into the lives of Koito, Usami, and Tsurumi himself even after the bombshell revelation of his past in earlier seasons. We also have the question raised of how to get soldiers to kill others in battle without hesitation. The answer being love, which is how Tsurumi more or less leads his men. (When that fails, there’s straight up manipulation and threats.) The more heinous characters in this show are given motivations for their actions while not having them condoned– but these people are mostly batshit crazy.
We also get a glimpse into the lives of escaped prisoners. Some of them are unrepentant murders, while some of have odd justifications for their murders while they wait to be put out their misery. Others have turned to a life of crime in order to fund their dreams or run from terrible past lives. None of these characters are sympathetic, but I do appreciate having their stories fleshed out.
Just like with the previous three seasons, Golden Kamuy continues to swing from deadly serious to weirdly funny. Which illustrates that this series never takes itself too seriously. We receive dark glimpses into the backstories juxtaposed with an on the spot movie created with ample dick jokes. Or a deadly chase scene that has slapstick humor serve as the climax. Even the hunt for a serial killer ends with a masturbation showdown because again this is Golden Kamuy. Now, this type of humor might not be for everyone, but it’s one of the stranger aspects of this show that I absolutely love. Even without the sex jokes, it’s a historical drama that stands out from other anime series set in the same time period.
The season ends with Sapporo being set up for the location of the upcoming series finale. All the factions descend upon this town for various reasons, and the showdown promises to be eventful.
If you’ve seen Golden Kamuy, you don’t need my recommendation. If you haven’t, as I noted in QC #34 the animation is on the rough side, but season 4 gets a huge boost in production quality. Likely because the main animation production was shifted from Geno Studio to Brains Base with the start of season 4. I’m glad ugly CGI animated animals are now a thing of the past.
Joseph Daniels
A while back, I was listening to a D&D style Redwall podcast that I suspect got disrupted completely by the COVID pandemic before they could really get going. I wrote about it early into Quarantine Control, but the last episode was uploaded in January 2020 and the Twitter account also stopped updating after January. It makes me wonder what might’ve happened to them, and if they’re safe and healthy.
Since then, I’ve not really listened to “actual play” style podcasts, because my interests are actually rather narrow in that regard, but the YouTube algorithm blessed me recently with a suggestion for one that I might like. I started listening to it and I think I may stick with it if the next few episodes are good enough.
Tales from the Blue Cottage: A Fox Tail (2022)
Source: YouTube
Episodes: Ongoing (currently 36)
A Fox Tail appears to be a spin-off of another actual play adventure, and is set in a world slowly being eaten by a rolling green fog. I’m still very early in the campaign but I plan on at least listening to the second and maybe third episodes before I decide for sure if I want to stick with it. Each episode is about three to four hours long, so this is something that I’ll be giving significant time to if I do. It’s perfect for those times when I’m playing a game and there’s a significant roadblock ahead of me. It’ll make for a good diversion when I’m tired of binging the early episodes of Factually that I’ve been catching up on.
The reason I gave it a try was because the characters are animals. Well, animal people. Redwall style animal people. The first episode introduces us to a fox, badger, raccoon and skunk who set out on the adventure. It’s starting to make me want to dig out all of my Redwall books and read them, which itself is a daunting task, considering how many there are, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy returning to that universe, even if there are aspects of it that feel a bit racist towards specific species. If I were feeling creative and ambitious, I would make my own similar setting and help bring a little bit of justice to the marginalized species Brian Jacques didn’t like. How SJW of me.
I’m a little light on details because I’m very early in the podcast, but if actual play podcasts starring Redwall style animals appeal to you, I would suggest giving their YouTube channel a browse or watching them play live on Twitch (they also play other campaigns they’re in the middle of on their channel).
This Week’s Short Film
Show Me Your Sketchbook, Bro! (2024)
There are bound to be more reminders of just how bad COVID was in the next couple of weeks, but that resurfaced knowledge is bound to fizzle mere days afterward. We have largely learned nothing, and are woefully unprepared for the next pandemic. Good luck to us all. Until next week.
About The Author
dcstaff
The collective will of the Damage Control staff combined into a single article.
