The Week In A Bad Education Towers #41

Hello you! You coping okay with the heat? I'm not, not a big fan of hot weather especially when its all humid and that. If it has to be hot, give me a dry heat. And anyway, if it is hot its always best to spend your time sitting a big dark room watching a film.

Speaking of which...

Saw Transformers Rise of The Beasts last week, which I was half looking forward to and half very much not.

The live action Transformers films don't exactly have a great history; the first was pretty good, but then after that the drop off in quality was almost comical. The best thing I remember about the fourth film, Age of Extinction, was me and my best pal Ryan smashing into a wheelie bin full of popcorn after it got stuck at the bottom of the escalator we were on.

But then Bumblebee was back to pretty good, they had de-Michael Bay-ified the robot designs a wee bit so the future looking good right? And then the trailer for the new one dropped and it looked good as well!

But then the thought struck me; the trailers always looked good. Every time I'd walk out of the cinema and be like "never again", and then the new trailer would drop and I'd be like "that looks cool, its bound to be better this time" and it wasn't better it was worse*.

So, it felt like another ride on the same ride, but you know what? It was a decent film, I think the only time we've had back to back good Transformers films. I mean, it still has a lot of the same issues; the robot designs are still too busy and make no logical sense (Why glasses? Why a moustache?), the humans barely get sketched in, the plot is at once really dense and also pointless. But the action is clear, the cast is likeable and the soundtrack is good. So whilst the series has a low bar of quality this clears that bar and lands firmly in the "you know what, that was a fun watch but one I'll probs not go back to" camp.

Also, a quick word on how we saw it as we saw it in 3D, which surprised me! I didn't think we were getting regular 3D films, I thought it was only in like fancy IMAX screens now. Apparently, according to my Letterboxd, the last non-IMAX film I saw in 3D was Avengers Endgame in 2019. And you know what? It was pretty good, not sure if that was because I had bought new 3D glasses, or if the projectors had got better or anything else. But it was clear, it wasn't too dark and looked actually pretty good in a few shots. I always felt that trying to poke 3D things out of the screen never really worked that well, but when its used to position things in the frame and accentuate scale then that works better. Which is what this film did, to its credit. So yeah, 3D can be good, who knew?

A quick note on going to see The Big Lebowski at the cinema for a 25 year anniversary showing; its a great film, and still good and the eldest really enjoyed it as well so thats always good. I was a little worried that the humour wouldn't land with him, but it did which was great to see.

The biggest room I spend time in over the last couple of weeks, and the reason for skipping last week's newsletter, was seeing Elton John. And it was well worth the very long wait.

This was part of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, John's final world tour which has been going on since, I think, 2018? So a long final tour. I bought the tickets in November 2020, then the show was delayed due to COVID and then John did his back in** which delayed it from 2022 until 2023. So a very long wait for a very long tour.

And, turns out, Elton John is really good at doing music so the show was brilliant. The band were brilliant, the songs were brilliant, it was brilliant. This was his last show in England but he is doing Glastonbury next week so mark that in your calendar.

And the week after seeing that AEW licences one of his songs for their new TV show, imagine that?

Continuing the theme of being sat in big dark rooms, also saw The Flash. This was another film that I was excited for based on the trailers, but every time this was tempered with the thought "but Ezra Miller is in it".

Now, I won't summarise that myself (here's his wiki page that lists it all out) but suffice to say he's clearly a douche who should have had his film cancelled when other people's get cancelled for pretty much no reason. I didn't really enjoy him in the Zack Snyder films, mainly because at same time you had the TV show running which had a much better interpretation of the character. And Miller's role in the Fantastic Beasts films didn't exactly set the world on fire so the thought of him carrying a whole film wasn't exactly an appealing idea.

But Michael Shannon is back as Zod! He was brilliant! And Michael Effin Keaton back as Batman! I mean, come on right? Surely that has to balance things out.

And you know what? It does! The film was a fun, enjoyable watch with some great set pieces. Miller actually doesn't stink up the screen and carries the film well.

After trying to go back in time to stop his mum dying The Flash ends up in the past (well, past-ish, we're talking 2013 which apparently now counts as the past? Good God) and ends up meeting another version of himself. After realising he's inadvertently created a world without super heroes (or rather, he's moved to the Batman '89 timeline) he has to figure out how to fix things whilst also trying to save the world from General Zod.

Yep, this film is set during Man of Steel, only no Henry Cavil as this world doesn't have a Superman, which is an odd time to go back to. Do we really want to revisit that film? I mean, the Krypton bits maybe as they were awesome, so I guess we kinda do.

So whilst a lot of this involves 2 Millers on screen at the same time, it works well; pretty much every joke works, the cast is clearly having fun with it and it doesn't outstay its welcome. I know this film was pretty much in the can before James Gunn took over the DCU films but it does feel like his fingerprints are on the film. Maybe not a huge influence, but enough.

But then it does have Ezra Miller in it. But then it has a couple of brilliantly done cameos towards the end.

But Ezra Miller is in it.

A new video!

Another old arcade game that got a kicking for, well, for being an old arcade game. Its a bit harsh, as Gain Ground is a decent fun game, a much more measured and tactical take on shoot em ups. But its al old arcade game, so it gets a beating.

And we're caught up! This means that the episodes will be going up alongside the podcast when a new episode of that drops. I mean, this it still a bit weird as it's essentially 2 podcasts running at the same time but it might be good? The videos seem to be doing alright, getting a few more views since they were marked as podcasts. Still, can't hurt right?

Right, that'll do now, time to have a Father's Day tea that neither child has been involved with due to work and laziness. Got some more videos and podcasts to edit as well at some point.

Anyways, bye!