redfiona99

Yes, I've only just got round to finishing them ;)

( 38 Questions Under The Cut )


My Year In Fic

Fics

A Man Who Trusts (1/1, TNA gen fic) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1379443.html

The New York Incident (1/1, Marvelverse gen) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1361675.html

Now I Turn Unto My Calling (1/1, Marvelverse Gen) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1365639.html

Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent (1/1, AEW wrestling gen fic) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1372366.html

Out of the Ice (1/1, Captain America Gen) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1373734.html

Whiskey, Hotel, Echo, November (1/1, Torchwood and Captain America Crossover) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1375889.html (Sequel to 'And yet they say you should never meet your heroes' - https://archiveofourown.org/works/34127452)

And a whole bundle of 3 Sentence fics - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1366982.html

6 fics, at least two of which are expansions from the 30 AUs meme (https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1333150.html). Not as much as I might want but justifiable I feel.

( Meme under the cut )

Apparently the early December 2024 nonsense really did scramble my brain and I missed doing this:

January - My top 10 films of 2023
February - Plotters vs Pantsers
March - Saints Ahoy - Visualisations from game 2 and the season to date Oh did that ever end up falling behind because of RL bad things
April - I am still not dead
May - I didn't post anything, see also RL bad things
June - Saints Ahoy - Visualisations from game 7 and the season to date
July - Euro 2024 Network Diagram - Quarterfinals
August - Back from Chicago
September - Saints Ahoy - Visualisations up to game 11
October - New Laptop
November - Fandom data viz
December - Fandom data viz

I am blaming slowness of everything on RL bad things.

My "not first released in 2024" option is Galaxy Quest, which I saw at the Electric, about two weeks before it closed. Which was a real shock! The owner was perpetually threatening to close it but hadn't ever (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clm7nnyx2d5o). It just means I really need to get myself more organised to actually get back to going to the Mockingbird (https://mockingbirdcinema.com/MockingbirdCinema.dll/Home) when I get the chance.

For films released this year, I am applying my usual 4 criteria:

a – did the film do what it set out to do?
b – did it use its resources to its best ability? A £250,000 film is not going to have as good explosions as a £25,000,000 film, or it shouldn’t, and if it does, there’s something wrong with the £25,000,000 film. Basically, it's a technical merit score.
c – Intellectual satisfaction – does the film’s plot pull some really stupid move at the last moment? Does the plot rely on characters being more stupid than they are?
d – Does this work as a whole? Did it work for me? I am aware that this is the most subjective of subjective criteria!

I saw 13 films this year, 12 in the cinema and one on a plane, because the cinema-to-plane turnaround time is ridiculous nowadays. The bottom 3, which didn't make the top 10, can all be missed quite happily.

Of the 10 here, I can find something to recommend in everything down to 9, while I'd say the top 4 are actively good and Kalki 2898 AD is intriguing but that might be my lack of knowledge.

1 - Monkey Man - If we could give Dev Patel all the money he wants to make any film he wants, I would be so grateful. This was marvellous. Fills my need for arthouse violence exactly.

2 - Kneecap - I am going to caveat this one. How do you feel about about swearing, drink and drugs? If any of the above are not your thing, please skip. The politics is also ... intriguing (let's be honest, they go with 'Band banned by the UK gov' for a reason). (The politics is a whole section of the full review, a long section.)

On the other hand, other than 'oh heck, Fassbender is old enough to be playing parents', this was good. Openly, 'our story as told by a drunk', in the best sense, and DJ Provai can act (the other two, not so much but not worse than many pro-actors).

3 - The Beekeeper - Kurt Wimmer is a member of the Garth Marenghi school of writing, where subtext is for cowards. His style really works for me. The Beekeeper is a very straightforward story of good guys, bad guys, necessary bad guys and a lot of violence. They fill this out by casting a bunch of British actors in random roles (and have Josh Hutcherson being the sleaziest sleaze ever).

Catnip for me.

4 - The Count of Monte Cristo - It needed to be a mini-series. But I enjoyed what there was. Pierre Niney was excellent, I did not expect to fall for Andrea Calcavetti quite that hard and loved how they did Dantes acting as the Count.

5 - Kalki 2898 AD - The full story of how I ended up watching this will wait until the write up. Safe to say it was longer than expected, and could have done with some judicious cutting. On the other hand it felt very fresh, although how much of that is me not knowing the Mahabharata, I do not know. (It is a gap I am planning on fixing eventually)

I do find it interesting that 4 out of my top 5 are not English as their main language. Monkey Man and Kneecap (and the Count, to an extent) are also good at the way people who use more than language use their languages and flow between them.

6 - Furiosa - It wasn't as good as Fury Road (but that's a very high bar), and it did make Furiosa far too nice and cut-out how she was supporting Immortan Joe. But the images were still awesome and it does interesting things with revenge.

7 - Dune 2 - I am the problem with this. I acknowledge this. But there are three scenes I demand in any adaptation of this part of the book, and it whiffs all of them. I grant there's reasons for one of them - can I recommend SelenaK's review here - https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1573791.html? - but I still want those scenes.

8 - Argylle - It has problems. For spoilery reasons, Bryce Dallas Howard is mildly miscast, but she's not miscast for the more important part. I would have re-edited several of the scenes that ran too long. But it's pleasingly silly, and does some fun things.

9 - The Fall Guy - This is probably better than Argylle, I just do not vibe with Ryan Gosling. The parts that are David Leitch's love letter to stunt guys, and any part that features Winston Duke, are absolute love, mind you.

10 - Venom 3

Everything above 10 has some redeeming feature. Films 10-13 have almost none of these. Venom 3 comes the top of them because while it is a pointless sequel (like film 11), I enjoyed it more than 11. Unlike film 12, I didn't consider that it might have been written by AI, because AI would be more evenly-toned. Unlike film 13, it didn't make me drunkenly rant at L, because it's just so wrong.

Also, it did have Venom Horse and Mrs Chen.

And Venom Penguin!

TW: Brief mention of COVID in the summary section at the bottom. I have labelled it summary so it's avoidable.

( Alexander the Great RPF: )

( Blade Runner )

( Buffy: )

( Doctor Who: )

( Marvelverse: )

( Miscellaneous: )

( Wrestling: )

And a few bits and pieces of late fest fics.

Summary:

Added to the never going to be finished pile: 7 (3 of which hurt because what there is is gold, they just don't go anywhere. One of these is likely to rise like the phoenix at some point)
Unstuck: 1

I've been doing a yearly post about this for goodness knows how long, and removing ones that haven't moved in at least 4 years for 11 years (or thereabouts).

I think this is the year with the most fics sent to the "never going to be finished" folder. I was trying to figure out why, and then I realised, oh yeah, 4 years ago was COVID.

And that's odd because I was one of the people least affected, I kept on working, yes from home but pretty much doing the same job, I wasn't furloughed, I didn't catch it and me and mine weren't harmed.

And yet it still seems to have done something because there are so many fics from back then where I've just lost all ability to carry them on because I can't remember where they were going. It's most odd.

In 2023, I watched 12 new films in the cinema. I was on track for more, but then I broke my leg. A determination to watch Napoleon was on of the things that helped get me out of the house.

The very best film I saw last year was Blue, which I saw with ioplokon as part of the Horrorshow exhibition (https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/the-horror-show) [fuller review of the show eventually].

If we agree that art is trying to convey experience through a medium, Blue is exceptional. It's undoubtedly one of the greatest works of art I've seen in any medium.

The chance to see things like that, so utterly better than any of this year's films (most year's films), is why I have a separate category for films not released in that year.

I was also lucky enough to see Dr. Strangelove and Grand Budapest Hotel at the Electric Cinema (https://www.electricbirmingham.com/)

For films released this year, I am applying my usual 4 criteria:

a – did the film do what it set out to do?
b – did it use its resources to its best ability? A £250,000 film is not going to have as good explosions as a £25,000,000 film, or it shouldn’t, and if it does, there’s something wrong with the £25,000,000 film. Basically, it's a technical merit score.
c – Intellectual satisfaction – does the film’s plot pull some really stupid move at the last moment? Does the plot rely on characters being more stupid than they are?
d – Does this work as a whole? Did it work for me? I am aware that this is the most subjective of subjective criteria!


1 - Polite Society

This gets both style and ridiculousness points, and extra bonus points for Eunice Huthart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunice_Huthart) [every girl my age wanted to be Eunice Huthart when we grew up] and introducing me to Nimra Bucha.

It also get a bonus for not being based on a pre-existing media property.

2 - Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

If you'd told me that Mission Impossible 7 would be one of the freshest films I'd see all year I would have laughed at you. It is still a series of action set pieces barely held together with a plot and the lead villain is miscast, and everything I loved about Elsa Faust's fight choreography in Fallout (https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2019/04/06/mission-impossible-fallout-is-solid-but-the-fight-scenes-are-exceptional/) this one got wrong.

On the otherhand Vanessa Kirby, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cserny and Shea Whigham's Briggs. I am so easily pleased.

3 - Across the Spiderverse
It's not Across the Spiderverse's fault it's not as good as Into the Spiderverse. Unfortunately, some of it did feel like filler when they realised that they'd made one and a half films and they needed to turn it into two.

I also really don't like cliffhangers.

4 - Guardians 3

Was it "a bit much"? Yes. Does James Gunn need someone to shout "no" at him? Yes.

On the other hand, did I go in knowing that? Yes. Did various bits of it, not least of all Teefs, break me in the way James Gunn always breaks me? Yes.

It was horrific, in a way this sort of film often isn't, but probably should be. It also had the best explanation of why I skew Marvel rather than DC - "everyone deserves a second chance."

5 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Could I have done without the romance? Yes. Other than that, it was pleasing Turtle-y nonsense.

6 - Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania

To return to the cake metaphor I first used for the first of the Fantastic 4 films, bad superhero films are like bad cake. Yeah, it's bad, but it's still cake. And this was only mediocre cake, not actively bad cake. I didn't like what they did with MODOK, and it was too obviously setting up Wave 4 rather than being its own film (see also my problems with Stephen Strange 1 and 2) and there wasn't enough of team minor criminal, but it was bland not bad.

7 - Indiana Jones 5

I know what they were trying to do, it just didn't work for me. Sallah steals the film entirely.

8 - Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves

I am the problem with this one.

My first exposure to D&D was Neverwinter Nights so I totally squeaked when they moved around Neverwinter, and when I play that I almost always play a lady barbarian so Holga, entirely my speed, ditto Doric.

On the other hand, it was just too ironical for my tastes. I find irony fine seasoning but a poor main course.

9 - John Wick 4

The problems with John Wick 4 were accidentally caused by John Wick 3. That was a series of excellent set pieces barely held together by some excellent acting. In this one, the thread holding the action set pieces didn't work, because John spent 3 desperately trying to find the Elder, only for spoiler to happen at the start of this.

Okay, given spoiler, ragnarok is coming for the High Table. I could get behind that.

Only then they don't do that either.

The plot made no sense!!!

10 - Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan/Three Musketeers: Milady

If this ranking was just based on the acting, the set design and the lighting, these films would be in second.

The directing would have moved them down anyway (directors, we have steady cam, use it).

And then we hit the screenplay. May the good Lord grant me the self-confidence of someone who adapts one of the most popular books in the world, one which has been consistently popular since its release, and then changes every single bit of the plot.

By the end of the second film, it wasn't even suggested by Dumas anymore.

Also, given they changed everything, one of the revelations in part 2 means someone's actions in part 1 make no sense, and it's just urgh!

I can happily recommend everything down to 3, would say 4-8 depend on people's likes and dislikes, and several of them have been moved around in this ranking every time I sat down to update it, and 9 and 10 had serious flaws.

January - My year in Tumblr
February - Film Review - Blinded by the Light
March - Fic - We Are Not Love's Young Dream (1/1, TNA Wrestling)
April - Links
May - Formula 1 - Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2023
June - The Euro Change Game
July - Link (in the singular)
August - Women's World Cup 2023 - Last 16 Network Diagram
September - Hadrian's Wall
October - Important addendum to the last post - toe bruising gone
November - The road to explicableness - A closer look at England after their seventh World Cup game
December - Andalusia 2019 - Part 1 - Ronda

That I'm posting stuff from 2019 might tell you how behind I am. Fewer link posts than expected, but that's also possibly because I'm behind on those too.

Yes, the fact that I'm only posting these in March 2023 does reflect how busy I have been.

( My 2022 in 38 Questions )

My Year In Fic

Fics

No one likes to hear I told you so - https://archiveofourown.org/works/39926601 Entirely selfish Mission: Impossible 2 fic.

Running Till The Road Runs Out - https://archiveofourown.org/works/36749140 The much muttered about canon-welding Wolverine: Origins into the original trilogy Gambit fic.

A Suitable Husband - https://archiveofourown.org/works/42493275 Last of the Summer Wine lgbtfest fic

Take the treasured dreams, but leave me what I've found - https://archiveofourown.org/works/37415680 the Jamie Noble + Mickey James gen fic with background Jamie/Layla and sinister Regal

What He'd Never Thought To Want - https://archiveofourown.org/works/41668761 Tsubasa KuroFai identity porn, or "every Tsubasa writer writes a furisode fic"

Yet Here We Are - https://archiveofourown.org/works/36252073 Irene Adler-centric Sherlock sort of gen fic

6 fics rather than the 12 I was aiming for, it was all going so well and then the second half of the year happened. I feel the same is likely to happen in 2023.

( 12 Questions Underneath )

Normally I start with just a top x list before posting the explanations a week later because I'm running out of the door to home for Christmas. Due to everything, this is a list only for the time being because I am rushing back from Christmas.

I am reasonably sure that when I write the full version, none of the numbers will change. I recommend everything down to 3. 4 and 5 require you to be in the mood. 6 is passable (actually enjoyed it more than Everything Everywhere All At Once but it's also a much easier film to watch). 7, I am probably the problem. 8, I know what they were going for, they missed. 9 is just appalling (except one bit).

1 - Cyrano
2 - Parallel Mothers
3 - Bad Guys
4 - Bullet Train
5 - Everything Everywhere All At Once
6 - Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
7 - Spiderman: No Way Home
8 - Thor: Love and Thunder
9 - Uncharted

Or the data viz/sports/film blog (https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/).

Top 3 posts:

1 - (By a long way) - Six Nation 2021 – Visualisation of who was on the pitch when the teams scored – Introduction - https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2022/01/29/six-nation-2021-visualisation-of-was-on-the-pitch-when-the-teams-scored-introduction/

2 - (Joint)
a - One of the Six Nations round ups, the one for Wales - https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2022/02/26/6-nations-2021-data-visualisation-project-wales/ This may be explained by several of my twitter-list being Welsh.

b - Sword-fighting Films – The Three Musketeers - https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2022/09/28/sword-fighting-films-the-three-musketeers/ The next one is likely to be either the Count of Monte Cristo or the Prisoner of Zenda

3 - Formula 1 – Did the fastest lap points make any difference in 2021? - https://fulltimesportsfan.wordpress.com/2022/03/19/formula-1-did-the-fastest-lap-points-make-any-difference-in-2021/

Luckily, there will be a 2022 update. I haven't checked but I think the answer is no ... again.

Yes, I know it's cesspit etc but my parts are quite friendly.

Also, their yearly round up comes with this:
( Large image under the cut )

I stick to the Star Wars and tech support bits, which probably helps.

My greatest hit - https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/vjv48s/this_kind_of_infighting_is_why_the_republic_keep

Because some of the SWTOR glitches lead only to joy.