Review of Venom (2018) + little rant

I just finished watching Venom, its the first movie I've watched in a while, and not to say it was bad, but it reminded me of why I lost interest in cinema. I'll get to that later, for now, let's focus on the movie.

Venom is a decent movie, I wouldn't say it's bad, but I also wouldn't say it's good. I don't know if it's because I've been watching very expressive shows lately, but watching venom made me feel like I was staring at a white wall. Every shot is so clean and stable and smooth, I would understand that in peaceful scenes, but the entire movie is like that, which is kind of jarring. To be fair, the fight scenes had some better camera work, but there were always so many cuts, that it made the fights look strange as well.

Most scenes felt rushed, almost all of them felt meaningless. For the most part, it didn't really feel like I was watching a movie that had a purpose and a story to tell, it mostly just felt like a generic superhero movie that was doing the things it was doing for no narrative reason, but more so because that's what it's supposed to do as a superhero movie.

What I'm trying to say is that it's a very safe and bland movie, perfectly engineered to be watched and loved by the masses and whoever just wants to turn off their brain and watch violent fight scenes. I'm not judging or trying to be disrespectful, I just personally didn't find much to be enjoyed in the movie myself, but I have found time and time again that most people wouldn't agree with my taste.

One thing I did very much enjoy, was the dynamic between Eddie and Venom, and it's quite sad we don't get to see much of it. If it were me, I'd shorten the boring fight scenes and chase scenes and have more moments where Eddie and Venom get to talk with each other. Though I think that should be a very easy thing to figure out, its a movie about them coming together, doing things together, and coming to accept and respect each other, if that were to be the core of the movie, my suggestion would sound obvious, which leads me to believe that that was not the purpose of the movie. Like I said, it doesn't feel like the movie has a story to tell, just an audience to appeal to.

Now, the thing that I believe brings the movie down the most and, like I said, reminded me of why I lost interest in cinema, is the timing and build-up. Movies can be good and can use all of their time perfectly, I personally find it limited since you can do it well, but not much of it. So in movies like Venom, where time is not used well and the build-up is not good, it is no longer a limitation, it is a problem, most of the scenes in venom feel like they could be edited out since most of them don't serve any real purpose.

Just to make it clear, Movies are a very good and interesting media format, but it's very limited in their storytelling, in a way that isn't an issue in longer media, like series. Just like Live action is limited compared to animation, movies are limited compared to series, that isn't to say that any of them are bad, but I personally appreciate media a lot more when there's more nuance to it, more things to analyze, break down and ultimately love or hate.

On the other hand, every now and then, there are movies that manage to accomplish so much with so little time, and that definitely feels impressive and special. But it's not every day we get movies like that, and Venom certainly wasn't one of them. I wouldn't really recommend this movie to anyone who isn't a fan of superhero movies, but I wouldn't stop anyone either. It's not a bad movie, just bland and boring.

Sincerely, Spoon.

Thoughts on Arcane

As of right now, I've rewatched each episode a handful of times and ill probably rewatch more.

I was really excited about reviewing this series as I watched it, but when I finished it I realized this is a show that I don't have anything to say about.

It's perfect, that's pretty much all I'm able to say. Everything is just so good, the writing, the animation, the choreography, the special effects, the dialogue, the music, the sound effects, the themes and approaches to said themes. It's all just outstanding.

By now it shouldn't surprise us that riot would make something on this level of quality, they have never been shy about investing money into anything. They have branched out into music, comics, and now a freaking TV show. They have always made impeccable animated cinematic trailers for the game, but it's a big leap, going from 5 minutes to 360~ minutes. And yet, most people would argue it's even better than the trailers. It may not look "realistic" like a lot of their trailers, but I think Arcane's animation is much more beautiful and satisfying to watch. And finding out all these little details, like how the characters are animated on 1s and the special effects on 2s. Just brilliant.

I also really love the characters, they are amazingly written and very well explored. Powders descent into being Jinx is really well done, the trauma was there from the beginning, but seeing it progressively get worse is incredibly sad and intriguing.

It would be hard to choose a favourite character, all of the protagonists are amazing in their own way, but putting champions aside, my favourite character would definitely be Silco, everything about him is so good, and he is the embodiment of doing well, not doing much. He is a busy man so most of his interactions with other characters end up being very short, but the dialogue is good, Silco manages to get his point across very quickly with minor effort.

Something I found strange was how so many people called the ending a cliffhanger. To me personally, I found the ending to be a very satisfying conclusion. Everything went full circle and (almost) every character fulfilled their purpose (I'll get to that in a second).

I can't move on without spoiling so here's your spoiler warning.

To go over the main characters of this season of arcane, we have Vi, Caitlyn, Jinx, Markus, and Silco. Ekko, Heimerdinger, Viktor, Jayce, and Mel are propper main characters but they don't have a role to play in the "main" conflict of this season which revolves mostly around Jinx, Vi, and Silco. I imagine they will have more important roles in season 2 given that season 1 perfectly concluded its themes and conflicts.

Vi has always been who she was meant to be. the trauma for her made her grow up fast in order to protect Powder and provide whatever she would need, her purpose was to be a callback to the past, a memory, and a symbol of hope that things could go back to what they were, given that she had already grown a lot in act 1 and was in prison without much contact until act 2, she wasn't meant to get much development. the only development she needed was realizing her way of dealing with things isn't good nor bad, she just needs to find the right time and place.

For Silco and Markus, despite having a very different dynamic, their journey is very similar, as both try to do what their predecessors did, try to do it differently in hopes of doing it better, doing it wrong, and then trying to fix the broken by doing what their predecessors would have done, only for it to be too late at that point.

Caitlyn was there.

(JK, I love Caitlyn and her purpose as a character is very dear to me, but not relevant enough to elaborate here)

Jinx is, in a strange way, almost the protagonist of this season, as most of the stuff that happens is almost directly connected to her. And yet she gets the least development throughout the show, we mostly just see a poor broken girl trying to be what she always hoped to become while trying to disassociate from the repercussions of such. We don't really see her change throughout, and that's the point, she never grew up, she is still the little girl she was in act 1. That becomes evidently clear during the climax scene when Jinx prepared the most important confrontation in her life as a colorful tea party, but it's hinted at many times before as well.

Arcane has crows in a bunch of scenes with Jinx. Crows are a symbol of change and transformation. After testing hextech and having flashbacks of that tragic day in act 1, Jinx decides to go back to where they used to play. there she finds a crow that essentially screams at her. A call for change, she needs to change, she can't be the same little girl anymore, but Jinx shoots the crow, not wanting to change. The next time a crow appears is when she meets Vi for the first time after many years, a confrontation that makes her realize things are not the same anymore, everything is changing.

And it all builds up and back, back to where it all began. During the climax, there are dozens of crows outside, this is an important moment for Jinx, a moment where she is bound to change, a moment where she can't run anymore. and after all is said and done, Jinx finally accepts change, takes a seat on the chair with her new name, a chair decorated with crow feathers, now ready to reject everything she ever wanted, and embracing everything she ever feared.

Jinx's Journey is one of tragedy, one that the way it was handled, explored, and concluded made me see arcane as a perfect show that wouldn't need another season. That is, until an hour later when I remembered Ekko and Heimerdinger aren't quite where they are supposed to be yet, and Viktor is very far from it. I'm really curious to see where those stories will go. But, for now, arcane has left me full and satisfied, this was a lovely show and I hope to see more things on this level of quality in the future.

Sincerely, Spoon.