Move Marathon 22

Missed another day, oh well. Plus I’ll be missing tomorrow most likely because that’s the day I leave for Bronycon. Probably not going to post anything during the con either, so nothing new here for a week or so.

The Phoenix Tapes 97
First off, the trailer for this was nicely done. Didn’t give away anything but still gave a good sense of what kind of movie it was. Not that I was going into it blind given the description and having gotten to it via ‘customers also watched’ from other found footage horror films. This one is probably going to be aliens, which is neat. I do have a preference for scifi over supernatural as a general rule.

…and then I apparently didn’t write my reaction to it after I watched it, as the above thing was written as I started to watch it after the trailer. I remember almost nothing about the movie. So nothing special. On the other hand I don’t remember anything bad about the movie so it wasn’t terrible. Probably just a bit above average in the genre of alien found footage.

 

Movie Marathon 21

Three or four more days until I leave for the con, depending on how one counts. Though I’m still pondering just leaving early on Thursday since that’s the day the con rate reservation starts. Not that I’m going to, since I really do want to have a casual drive down, plus be rested and ready to go the day the con starts, so that means heading down Wednesday.

Survive the Hollow Shoals
I think I really like found footage horror movies. Or at least ones with aliens/supernatural stuff. At least in concept. I’d have to find one I really enjoy and not kind of like but lots of flaws. That’s fine with a favorite subject, such as myself and anime, but to get to the point of forgiving a favorite subject’s flaws there needs to be a really good example to actually set the bar for things.

This one isn’t bad, mind you. Just kind of… off. The suspense, scares, spooky nosises, and other factors that go into a found footage supernatural horror just seem to be in the wrong ratio. There is no real slow buildup. There is a bit of normal stuff at the start, then right into the seeing weird stuff and hearing scary noises, and then that continues to the end. No real escalation of minor events to major events. The movie tries, but fails at it. Plus it doesn’t manage to stay consistant with the found footage bits. There is really no reason for the main character to do somethings, except that’s what better found footage films do, and especially near the end there is no real reason for him to still be carrying around a camera. Just a few dialogue tweaks could have fixed that.

So… If you are a fan of supernatural found footage horror, might want to give this a try. It’s not great but I’d say average quality for the genre? I will say that it at least held my attention. Some of these movies the pacing and/or atmosphere is so bad that I often start writing up my thoughts about it during the movie because it’s just not holding my attention. This one, almost nothing actually happens but I was engaged enough to wait until it was over to open up the laptop and type about it. On the other hand, it was overused the dramatic scary music. Almost every time I was so startled by the sudden loud scary music that I honestly missed seeing the brief supernatural event on the screen that it was indicating.

 

Pony Stories 923

Going to mix it up with some pony reviews today! In between the aches in my lower back since I’ve switched from a sitting desk to a standing desk and fuck my back muscles are not liking it one bit. Hopefully it’ll be good exercise for the con.

• I Love the Smell of Friendship in the Morning by Moosetasm
• MLP 40K: Cold Comfort by Moosetasm
• MLP 40K: Marker Mayhem by Moosetasm

 

Movie Marathon 20

I was pondering wealth/money yesterday driving home from my weekly therapy. Just how immense a difference between even being well off and being rich can make things. Somewhere like 80% of my problems in life, depression/anxiety/autism/etc would be barely a problem if I could afford a personal secretary. Just someone to keep track of appointments and call places to speak to people on my behalf. I’m lucky enough that I have a support network of friends and family that I can rely on to help me through things, financial and personal, but if my family was even just millionaire rich my problems would pretty much vanish. No real bigger thought, just a realization of how much different money makes in life.

Anyway, here’s my reaction to a time travel movie.

 

Movie Marathon 19

Moving a bunch of my books from one set of bookshelves to another both reminds me of how heavy books can be, and how scattered and eclectic my collection of media (both book and dvds) really is. Kind of weird how many things kind of fall under the ‘nerd’ category.

 

The Axiom
It’s funny how standard the cast is in these horror/alien movies are. This isn’t a found footage, but is the same kind of movie without the camera tricks. Kind of interesting how much the found footage format adds, given that this movie is basically just a ‘people trapped in a weird situation’ like several of the others I’ve seen. Having it shot in ‘normal’ camera view lets me see how it holds up without the camera tricks. Well, without the found footage tricks anyway.

The horror loses a bit of sting when the mystery is removed. The weird stuff is right from the start and there is no doubt as to what is happening. It’s closer to a fantay or even scifi than a horror in my opinion. Though that’s going to be a matter of opinion given the gore/scary bits.

I’ll say that the main character of the show is in the running for dumbest horror movie character. She’s directly responsible for everything that happens because she didn’t want to tell anybody what was going on and is generally a whiny wuss. Some of that is the situation, but not all of it.

Did tickle my worldbuilding itch in that it all seemed internally coherent and not just weird stuff for weird stuff sake. Not that it was great worldbuilding mind you, but more of it than a lot of these types of movies have. Ending was a bit disappointing, if expected.