Defiance League

Today I felt like rambling. I felt like I needed to look into a few different things and explore my interests a little differently than recently. So I’ve thrown together comments on the Snyder cut of Justice League, The Rook, and my gaming plans.

First Half of Justice League

I have to admit that I was not expecting too much from the Snyder cut of Justice League but so far, I am pleased. I’m not sure if it’s just been a lot time since I saw the theatrical release or if I just have a poor memory, but I don’t recall the characters and the story being developed as much as they are in this one. I mean sure, I would not expect a movie to show up in the theaters running 4+ hours long but I do prefer to have a coherent story and characters with some depth to them. In looking back at the 2018 release, my main complaint was that the characters all seemed one dimensional. Why were the bad guys trying to get the boxes – I never knew – though I started to figure it out as I read some DC comics, but I certainly did not expect Mrs. Redshirt to understand what was going on.

One thing I will say about the Snyder cut…ok other than I have only watched the first half so far…is that while I like the background soundtrack for the movie I despise the droning lyrical blather they seem to love throwing in. I certainly do not recall the crappy songs in the theatrical version but perhaps I pushed that out of my memory. I’m not sure why I wouldn’t remember since I remember I did not like the movie much in the first place, an extra fact about the songs would not take up much more space.

Anyway, while only half way through I am enjoying the new release better than the original. And then there is Darkseid! I always wondered what DC was thinking with their first foray into a super team film having a B-list bad guy. Even though I read comics, I had never heard of Steppenwolf before the theatrical release but even non-comicbook fans can tell that Darkseid is a bad dude. Showing that Steppenwolf is just the lackey of Darkseid but he is almost able to defeat all of Earth’s heroes adds so much to the impact of the movie. The bad guy has motivation, the good guys might win but there’s definite hints that something worse is coming, and it gives motivation for the heroes to actually make the Justice League rather than just get together to play pickup games on the weekend.

I’d say from the first half of the Snyder cut, I am glad they released it and I’m happy to have taken the time to watch it. I’m gonna try to watch the rest sometime this week but I’m already feeling like I know what the story is this time and I have a good feeling for the characters where with the Theatrical release I was left confused even after watching the whole thing.

I’ll also say that I was cautious watching this new releases since I did not want to waste 4+ hours of my time. Yup, I considered the Theatrical releases so bad I watched it once and was done with it.

Games I’m focusing on

On to other things…

I am looking to try to put some sort of framework around the games I’m playing so I’ve decided to pick a few to focus my attentions on for now. We’ll see how long this lasts but I need something to keep me focused a bit more than my scatterbrained usual.

With that in mind, I am gonna try to look at my 5+1 gaming like I did previously.

My 5 games are:
League of Legends, Disco Elysium, ESO, SWTOR, and LOTRO

And for my +1 I’m actually gonna grab 2 for certain reasons:
Defiance 2050 and Rift

I chose 2 games for my +1 since Defiance 2050 is sunsetting soon and I didn’t want to shortchange myself. Rift is a game I’ve wanted to get back to sometime and with it being in the same stable of games (Gamigo) as Defiance I fear it may not be long for this world.

Anyway, I am hoping to focus on these games and make some progress over the next month or so.

Chapter 20 & 21 of The Rook

Heading back into The Rook and jumping to chapter 20 has our hero Thomas doing her bureaucratic due diligence and finding out information about the kids at Camp Caius . It turns out they’re not born with abilities like everyone at the Checquy Academy but instead, they are augmented after they start attending the school. When we return to the present in chapter 21, and Myfanwy’s timeline, we find that things are heating up here too. Our hero has been “invited” into a house full of chanting cultists . When she gets there, though, it appears the leader was expecting Gestault. This certainly seems like an interesting turn of events and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next chapter.

It’s a Wrap

It felt good to put some things down today on movies, gaming, and reading and I’m looking forward to continuing these little rambles just like I’m looking toward finishing off the Justice League this week, continuing reading The Rook, and jumping into the games I mentioned. Hopefully I can get back to regular commenting so I can get my random thoughts out of my head.

Ramble 20210201 – 2021.03.21 | Defiance League