Geekly Daily 2 (Tuesday, October 9th): Venom Review

Now playing: Spider-man PS4

Now Watching: Venom

Now Listening: The incomparable Superfeed podcast

Now Reading: finished Vol 1 of that Mickey Mouse comic strip


It was Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday and I completely forgot to even mention it in my blog. Of course I'm so poor that my thanksgiving dinner yesterday was of the Kraft variety. There was cheese, and it was a powder. On the bright side, I think Thanksgiving is why there was nothing much new on my DVR. Thank the gods for small favors.

I had a job interview today. I got the job. It's working nights at a gas station, but they'll be paying me more, to do less work, and it seems they'll treat me nicer in the morning. I tried giving completely reasonable demands to Tim Hortons, who basically laughed in my face for wanting mroe than minimum wage after 6 years of loyalty and hard work.

I saw Venom after, rewarding myself on the new job. It wasn't bad. It was alright. Very watchable. Parts of it were a lot of fun even. I wont say the whole movie is fun, but it's also short and simple and sweet, so you never get bored and it never feels long. The action is intense, and the movie is surprisingly true to the character of Venom. Even so far as the astronaut bringing the symbiote to Earth is name dropped, for then no reason, Jameson. As in JJ Jameson's son.

It was fun seeing Venom just move and fight like Venom. They really take advantage of his power set, much like the ultimate comics, where Venom, independently of Eddie, will create appendages out of his chest or back or neck or calf, wherever, and just beat the shit out of people.

My favourite scene involved his ex-girlfriend coming to the rescue, and getting a taste of the symbiote for herself. That was a fun moment, especially as she passes it back to him. There was also a cute moment with a dog, and I actually like how Venom as an entity seems to build it's own relationships with the people in Eddie's life, in a strange sort of way.

I'm not a huge venom fan. Or any kind of venom fan. I'm not the kind of person who roots for the anti-hero, so Venom is immediately not for me. It's for that skater kid who wears the t-shirt and loves to watch bad ass shit go down. That's not me, but I'm capable of turning off the sensible side of me and going "Ooooo, bite of his head!" Like if you have that in you, even if it's not who you are. But you can enjoy a little excessive violence. Then you'll have a good time at this movie, and come out feeling like me. Did it have to exist? Any reason at all? Not really no. But it's short, bad ass, and completely watchable. Stay for the post credits to see Woody Harrelson in curly red hair, and then keep staying past like ten minutes of more credits for a meh scene from Spider-man into the Spiderverse.

Geekly Weekly TV Rankings:

1. Shameless ****1/2
   A lot of people were getting it on this week on Shameless. Can't believe Liam had his first encounter. I had a feeling she liked him, but man that got crazy fast. It's too bad, I thought they'd make a cute couple. Then there was Carl and that other girl, and that was cute, until she went crazy. But then it turned cute again. Oh the Gallaghers. Why can't I be that lucky with love? That said, the Fiona plot is getting boring fast. Every week she disagrees with her emo hipster boyfriend, and they argue for the episode, and she acts like a conservative bitch, and he acts all judgemental. But then in the end, he apologizes, and she tells him he was right all along and then they do the nasty, and credits roll. That's only been what 5 episodes straight now?
   
2. Doctor Who ***1/2
   It was a pretty good premiere. Not great, there were a lot of questionable bits. But Doctor Who has always been part amazing, and part crazy. With Doctor Who you just have to latch on and get pulled along for the ride. One thing's for sure. She was the Doctor. I had no problems in believing that. The way she solved the probem without direct violence was great, The creepiness of the villain was nice, though the groteque examination of the body off screen came across as wonky. Can't wait for the rest of this season.
3. ZNation ***1/2
   I love this show. The only person I've known who loved Znation more than me is my ex-girlfriend. It's like the Walking Dead but fun. Except this episode wasn't all that fun, so it's not getting a great rating. But it was alright. It was very near the end of my day of DVR hell. It seems to be taking a strange direction though, but only time will tell.
4. The Walking Dead ***1/2
   The Premiere had things I enjoyed, but I was also pretty bored throughout. And the whole scene with the glass floor was so predictable it was painful. There were times though when I felt a bit of the excitement, mainly around the beginning. Gregory was up to his old ways, but I was glad to see Maggie kick his ass and finally give him what he deserved. I was sitting at three stars, but they gave me what I wanted in the end. I used to enjoy Walking Dead more than this, but I might just be worn out from the like 12 hours of DVR I've spent all day working my way through. This is what happens when I sleep through a day (Sunday). Save me from my night shifts. subscribe at patreon.com/99geek
5. Star Wars Resistance **
   I watched the first two episodes, and they do a decent job of setting up the status quo for season one, using Poe Dameron as a wise mentor to the main character, then shuffling him off camera after one episode, after all Oscar Issac is expensive even in voice. But BB8 sticks around, to my disappointment considering the kid already HAD an astromech droid, that promptly disappeared when BB showed up. The racing plot was so cookie cutter from a fast and furious move, it wasn't funny. Oh and you know what else wasn't funny? The humour. That said, Neither Clone Wars or Rebels came out of the gate running, but eventually became amazing. So I'll give it more time. It's Star Wars after all.
6. The Last Ship *1/2
   This episode bored the crap out of me. There was weird time jumps and back and forths and it was hard to keep track of. On top of that, there was a love story that was all bullshit, some alright minor stories. But man, what a snoozefest. Almost gave up half way through. It was nice seeing Chandler's kids again, strangely the only part I cared about. Lol, at least until the hard rock montage juxtapositing his daughter's tantrum to them killing terrorists in Jamaica. Oh man that was dumb. And annoyingly loud. and the whole time Chandler is just yelling "I don't know what youre saying. Why are you mad at me! Why are you yelling." like it's not even about anything. Just a waste of time.
7. Saturday Night Live *
   I had a hard time with this. I like Awkwafina in interviews. I wanna see Crazy rich Asians. But I thought she was terrible on SNL. She didn't seem to do very good with comedic timing on stage. She seemed to be constantly reading the cue cards, and barely trying. and it threw off every sketch. The Ted Cruz sketch was the best part, and it was really short. A digital short. It was hilarious though. The Weekend Update had some great moments too, including Pete Davidson's rant about Kanye West. Definitely those are the two only parts of the episode you need to watch.

Geekly Weekly Talk Show Showdown:

1. Vice News Tonight (Thursday, October 4)
   Interesting discussions about Kavanaugh protests, and police brutality. Politics in Brazil (That footage of the man getting stabbed!)
2. Real Time with Bill Maher (Friday October 5)Very interesting discussion about Kavanaugh. Makes me sick how many people have taken his side, or think white men are under attack. Disgusting. Andrew Sullivan on the panel was the worst. One of the worst kinds of people. He just kept spewing the most horrible derisive ugly shit, I wanted them to kick him off the panel.
3. Graham Norton Show (Saturday, October 6)
   Good guests in Jamie Lee Curtis, Jeff Goldblum, and Rowan Akinson. But Jamie Lee Curtis seemed to not want to stop talking, and Jeff  seemed to be finding her quite annoying. She kept taking jabs at him, countering everything he'd say with stories of her own, and he seemed to get bitter throughout the interview. Graham spent as much time moderating between their strong personalities as he did doting on the other guest, some pop star I didn't recognize but everyone else could at least agree to fawn over.