The Monthly Roundup -- August 2024

Gosh, where have the days gone? Welp, the roundup is finally here, as delayed as it is!

Movies & TV

• Deadpool 2 (2018) -- More jokes, more thrills, more Deadpool. I don't know if I would say that this one was as well-written as the first, but it was definitely more exciting. I don't have much more to say about it other than that. Did you like Deadpool? Well then you'll like Deadpool 2. Okay, now that that's over with, what's nex- ...oh.

• Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) -- In short, I really liked this movie, but the MCU stuff lost me. The dynamic between the two titular characters is 100% on-point and undoubtedly the best part of the movie. It was also super heartwarming to see the tributes and homages to the FOX X-Men films, even though I haven't actually seen any of them. I like Deadpool as much as anyone else, but the X-Men in general didn't really interest me much as a kid. I'm glad I could experience this moment of film and pop culture history, but given the density of the time/multiverse content in this one, I don't think it's incredibly likely that I'll revisit it much in the future. It needed more Zazie Beetz.

• Jimmy/Timmy Power Hour 3: The Jerkinators -- This was a complete impulse viewing. I really can't remember what compelled me to put this one, but it happened somehow. I was just as big into this trilogy of crossovers as every other Nickelodeon kid was in the 2000s, and while this one definitely belongs in the ranks as those first two, you can definitely tell that the formula got kind of stale at this point. The stakes never felt that high, and the whole plot was just caused by them being careless (typical for them, but the others' plots felt more incidental.

• Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) -- Jack recommended we watch this because he remembered watching and enjoying it as a kid. I realized halfway through that I actually read the book that this movie was based on as a kid, which was an unexpected fun bit of nostalgia. It's basically just Jumanji, but in space, and with a tiny Josh Hutcherson, and Kristin Stewart. And, for being a somewhat forgotten kids movie from the mid-2000s, I was actually thoroughly entertained by this flick. It's got a level of imagination that's perfect for young kids, but equally so for adults, and a lot of the visual effects still hold up well today.

• Back to the Future (1985) -- Jack and I had a very Back to the Future-centric weekend once I learned that these movies hit Netflix. I've always loved these films ever since I first saw them as a teen, even though I'm able to see through the plot holes more and more as I get older. This first film always kind of felt the weakest to me. I can understand why a lot of people would call it their favorite, but it always felt the most low-stakes to me (relatively speaking). That said, this has rightfully earned its spot in the American cultural canon. The dynamics between the actors are super charming, the score is great, there's a good deal of suspense, and Robert Zemeckis' visual effects game is unmatched. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, because the very next night we watched...

• Back to the Future Part II (1989) -- Yeah, I'm one of those guys who considers this my favorite of the bunch. Another reason I love this franchise so much is that I love time travel as a plot device, as messy as it can get sometimes, and this installment really ramps up the intensity of its use. I had forgotten just how much Jennifer was utilized in this part, which is kind of a shame. She already wasn't given much screen time in the first movie, and I feel like she would've made a really fun third party in this adventure. Instead, she just sleeps for most of the story. This was still a really fun rewatch, though.

• Back to the Future Part III (1990) -- I like this one, okay? I don't love judging media based on the "Come onnnnnnnnn! How're you gonna hate this??" kind of scale, but despite this movie feeling a smidge less exciting than the first two, it's still the same team continuing the same story, and it still delivers on all of the same feel-good criteria. It's pretty imperfect, but there's no way you could make me dislike it.

Books

• Lots of IDW Sonic the Hedgehog (~Issues 12 - 56) -- I will come clean in saying that this comic book for 8-12 year-olds has kind of become my new obsession. I slept on it for far too long, and I'm kicking myself now because of it. Speaking as a lifelong Sonic fan, it's hard to put into words just how giddy the writers and creatives behind this series are making me. The key personality traits of the pre-established characters are more entertaining than any other Sonic media, the new characters are given an insane amount of A++ depth and backstory, and the world that they've built for this iteration feels so definitive and rich.

• Everything is an Emergency by Jason Adam Katzenstein -- This is an illustrated depiction of the author's life while growing up with OCD, and although I don't officially have such mental illness, I found myself getting queasy with how much I related to his story. As someone with GAD, there's definitely some overlap in the things and thought processes he describes, and I was deeply engrossed in all of it. This was the first book I've read in a long time that I completed in a single hour. This gets a big recommendation from me!

Games

• Disney Illusion Island (Switch) -- I briefly picked this up from the library because I'd been curious about it for a while, but I decided it wasn't really my thing pretty soon after. This is a Mickey Mouse game very much in a Metroidvania style, which is what really lost me. It's not that I dislike the genre as a whole, but progression felt kind of slow to me. Aside from the character speed literally being slow, it's hard for me to feel like I'm making significant progress when each level is just a big maze as opposed to a simple "Go from Point A to Point B" kind of game. I liked the humor and writing from what I saw of it. It's definitely got a lot of charm, and I hope some real Disney adults got their fix from it, but it's not really my thing.

• Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed [DEMO] (Switch) -- Now THIS is what I've been waiting for! I was so excited for this remake when it was initially announced earlier this year. I was an avid Epic Mickey fan in the 2010s, as imperfect as the series was, so to see it get new life on modern hardware so long after the franchise was presumed dead is frankly incredible. This demo comprised of roughly the first hour of gameplay (tutorials and such) and it was enough for me to get a feel on how this whole game was going to play out. I had a lot of impressions from this demo, but my thesis is this: The passion is clearly there, but it could still be better. The most jarring thing about it to me was that the point-and-shoot motion controls that the Wii version pioneered have been almost completely nixed. I understand this was likely an adjustment made due to the game being cross-platform, but I still really hope this feature will be patched in soon after the game releases. It's just so weird to me that a game that was originally Wii-exclusive and was announced in a Nintendo Direct, of all means, would negate one of the most defining selling-points of the original release on a console that could very easily still support that feature. Fortunately, I was able to adjust to using the pro controller, but it was still pretty alienating for an OG Epic Mickey player. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to playing the full release later this month (or whenever the library gets their copies in).