Adolesence and Twilight of the Gods

Two Netflix series about killing!

Adolesence

This four episode British series starts off with the arrest of a 13 year old boy for murder and goes from there. It's a pretty heavy story in terms of content but also features excellent cinematography and acting, the primary reason for which is that each of the one hour episodes is all shot in a single take with no cuts. This is excellent TV and is high on my recommended list.

Twilight of the Gods (Season 1)

This Norse themed animated series has a high content of violence, gore, nudity and sex - definitely not for younger audiences! It follows a vengeful bride to be who goes after Thor with the help of Loki and more than a few other Norse mythological beings. I like the art style and the flowing animation but it suffers from characters passing the idiot ball which makes the tale far less epic than it's trying to be. I'll watch season 2 if they make it but am not so fussed if it never happens either.

Thor: Love and Thunder and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

Superhero comedies.

Thor: Love and Thunder

When a serial god murderer goes on the loose it falls upon the only god in the Avengers line up (Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth) to stop him! This seems to be an odd premise to base a comedy off, but most of this classic Thor adventure is set to the tone of "laughing in the face of death" backed by classic rock tracks and dosed heavily with high quality CGI. I felt it went on for a little too long though, and that the villain should have had more focus than some of the other extra characters. Still worth a watch.
 
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

When Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) gains the power of the Hulk, she has to deal with being a female lawyer AND She-Hulk at the same time. Somehow, her strongest ability is that of breaking the fourth wall though - and it's something she does A LOT. Much of your enjoyment will be if you are ok with that, and if you dislike that trope then stay far away from this currently one season series. While the episodes are short and entertaining enough, it's also telling that episodes with guest cameos are much better than those without. Hopefully this improves in future seasons as currently She-Hulk can't stand on her own.

Avengers: Infinity War

All hail Thanos!

Wow. This is a great film, packed with story and every actor brought their "A" game. As expected, the music, CGI and plot are all top notch too - it had to be to get all the heroes together, and while you don't get too much of anyone everyone does get their chance to shine.

I'm the glue that holds it all together.

There are action pieces a plenty mixed with strong story moments and Thanos himself (the villain) is surprisingly charismatic, which is great as the movie is basically about him. As far as I'm concerned, it was a perfect 5 infinity stones out of 5. I do suggest that you watch a few of the lead up movies though (at least anything with the word Avenger in it, as well as Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok) or you will be very lost.

Thor: Ragnarok

Aka. Asgard gets caned.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) experiences a lot of loss in this film (its titled Ragnarok after all) but he somehow manages to be a cheeky and funny fellow throughout. Eventually finding himself a gladiator at an alien arena, he not only has to regain his freedom but make it back to Asgard to save his home and his people.

The action pieces in this film are quite good, and the CGI is superb as to be expected. It's also very humorous, especially the cameo filled stage play and Korg (played by the director himself, Taika Waititi). Thumbs up from me for the main villain as well.

Plot wise, while Thor himself grows a lot there are a few things which felt off for me ... Karl Urban's extended extra and that other wizard probably didn't need to be here for example. The female lead also felt lacking. It's like the studio just needed to put a colored female to balance out the cast.

Easy way to test: If you removed those characters or switched them with throw away ones, could you still tell the same story?

Literally the best thing she did.

All up, Thor: Ragnarok is a very entertaining film and one I wouldn't mind watching again. I give it four melt sticks out of five and can easily recommend it to any action fan.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

WOW! 

That is a pretty good word to describe this. While it probably helps if you know who is who by having watched the many previous linked in movies, and possibly even some of their series, I think you can get by if this is your first foray into the Marvel universe as Joss Whedon weaves a very action packed and entertaining tale. If you are a fan then you'll probably get a kick of seeing a whole slew of minor characters from the other movies appearing here as well.

Fighting. This movie has lots of it. :)

Thor as a comedy character? Yep, it works. Also with a big studio backing it the effects are top notch. Most of the time. One short part of Thor flying looked a bit like the old superman flicks and another bit of Thor fighting was noticeably sped up. Also I have to question why the Black Widow would wear lighted shin and wrist guards, other than to let the audience see her fighting moves in the dark. Yes, there are small fiddly bits if you go poking for them but for the most part it's just pure spectacle and very fun to watch. I give it four and a half attempts at lifting Thor's hammer out of five, and highly recommend it.

Vindictus: Sewer Sniping

[This is part of my Vindictus tutorials.]

More tips today but these are more for a Kai/ranged type.

The sewers are both an excellent and a horrible place for a Kai. Apart from being tight quarters and home to some agile lizardmen assassins (who are perhaps the only trash melee mob that manage to get up and damage me in a combo), it features very few types of boss chambers. The first is little more than a slightly larger than average square room. This type sucks, and you will have to fight fairly against the usually spry (ratman kung fu dude) or cheating boss within (I'm looking at you Shadow Shaman Ingkara - who summons shadows of other bosses to help him)!

Fortunately the other type of boss room is much more favourable, and is connected by a few passages to a portion that looks like this:

The bosses in those chambers can be lured back here, and then by simply standing on a different level you can snipe them at your leisure. Only the lizard assassin boss I think has means to chase you up and down, but even then it isn't consistent, giving you ample time to displace and snipe him from
elsewhere.

There's also one boss, Warrior Chuilin, who has a cliff. You have to be a bit speedy to make sure he is downstairs while you are up, but if you stand at this spot his AI breaks and again you can snipe the otherwise dangerous boss to death.

Owned.

Lastly, the raid boss Thor - a giant electric frog, is pretty easy for a Kai player in a group. Stay away from the frog. Stay out of the water. Fire at will. Easy peasy.

Eurovision 2013

A musical post for a change! One of the guilty pleasures I have is watching this Eurovision stuff because most of the time the performances are just silly or flat. For the benefit of those who do not get it in their countries I've put numerous links in this post to give you a taste! This year wasn't as crazy as in the past as there were no Latvian pirates, singing demons, lucky Moldovans, or dancing ukranian alien crossdressers to leave us running scared but at least they did have a giant, a mellow Thor, Dracula, Asterix and leggy dames who wanted to either marry you or feed you their love. Still a fun watch, and as usual my favoured one to win didn't (I always pick the silly ones so Dracula or Asterix for me! :P) - leaving Only Tears which is a far cry from the Fairytale which was one of the more deserving winners in my book.

I guess I know what's in his flask now!

Not part of Eurovision but another song stuck in my head at the moment is Space Oddity version sung by astronaut Chris Hadfield (which is far superior to the original not just because of the setting) and going with the musical theme I guess it's ok to say that I'm trying to learn A Thousand Years now too (sans the Twilight parts). :P