HTTYD Live Action Remake Teaser

This is a repost from my HTTYD Blog, but it fit here as well.

Well, the teaser trailer for the HTTYD live-action remake (HTTYDLAR? Idk) dropped and, I have thoughts. Honestly, I didn't want to come back to this blog in a negative way, but as it is my HTTYD fan blog, I think this is the most appropriate place to cover this topic.

Recent Media Diet: July 2024

 

I felt it would be fun to give a bit of a spoiler free blurb about what media I've been watching/reading over the last half a year or so. Below I will give a tiny bit of input on what I think of them (or think so far).

The Score: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

With the sequel having been released this year, I wanted to go back and review an animated film that absolutely blew me away back in 2018. This film's impact has been tangible on the 3D animation industry with other studios being emboldened to take much riskier, more experimental, and more artistic visual styles. I rewatched this film to see how I would feel about it now, and I am pleased to say that it is still a film I would strongly recommend. I will this film first and probably review the second film shortly after.

The Score: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

 

Yesterday I went and saw Godzilla Minus One in IMAX. I am pleased to say that I loved the film. Since it is very new, I am going to do a spoiler free review before the page-break. 

Godzilla Minus One returns the legendary King of Monsters to his classic role as the antagonist of the story. The setting is a post World War II Japan, and this is used to great effect. The narrative uses this to explore several interesting themes and is a much more thought provoking film than you might expect. Overall, the film also looks good, sounds great, and is well acted and paced. The protagonist of this film is probably the best human protagonist I have seen in a Godzilla film, and he and his costar have good chemistry. I would also like to note that the supporting cast is endearing and many of the characters are decently well characterized, established, and given good payoffs. There are multiple action scenes that worked very well. While the story has many bleak elements to it, I would argue it has many uplifting themes as well. For a story about a giant laser breathing monster, it does a fantastic job grappling with the value of a human life. 

Overall, even if you are not a huge Godzilla fan, I would highly recommend checking this film out in theaters. It made me think, grieve, beam with joy, and rejoice in triumph.

From this point forward, there will be SPOILERS:

The Score: Goodbye, Eri (2022)

Goodbye, Eri is a manga I read this month. It is by Tatsuki Fujimoto, the author of Chainsaw Man. Before clicking through to this review, I want to strongly advise reading the story for yourself. I will give spoilers, and a lot of really impactful moments in this story are built on twists. I will say that the narrative has less problematic content than Chainsaw Man, so I can recommend it to a more general audience. The main sensitive issue is the topic of suicide. If you want to read it, it is available in a Shonen Jump membership (found in most app stores) which you could get for maybe 4$. I enjoyed the short story so much that I wound up buying my own copy! So, now that I've given my spoiler warning, let's get into a short story that is Fujimito to a T.

The Score: How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

I will start off my broad critiques with a film I have loved for over a decade. It is still my favorite film, so it just felt right to cover it first. This will be the first in my series of "The Score" posts. These should be a broad discussion of the piece of media. I will try to focus on what worked and what didn't. In the end, I will give a personal score to each piece of media I discuss in this series. Without further adieu, let's jump into the story that remains my favorite of all time.

The Score: Story Scoresheet (ver1.0)

I have been tinkering around with a scoresheet that I could use to quantify elements of stories that I really value. In this post, I will go through this scoring system and my mentality behind this. This will apply mostly to books, movies, and shows. I feel that games would need additional categories. I may or may not stick to this system and I also may tweak it over time, but for now, it is a fun thought experiment.