So I know I promised two blog updates a week, however I had a few issues with coming up with a theme for Monday’s blog post. Fortunately I finally settled on one – unfortunately it was Sunday night when I was hit with inspiration and didn’t have a topic that fit my theme that I felt comfortable writing by Monday. So there will definitely be two blog posts next week – I apologize for that!
Moving on to this week’s Good, Bad, and Weird:
THE GOOD
Logan
I saw Logan this weekend and it was fantastic. As I described it to my friends, I came out of it thinking it was a good movie that happened to include superheroes, as opposed to a good “superhero” movie – if that makes any sense. It wasn’t perfect by any means but it was damn good and a wonderful send-off for both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart – who have both said this would be their last movie in the X-Men universe. And what a movie to go out on.
I won’t spoil anything about the plot itself, but if you didn’t know this is an R-rated take on the character of Wolverine. And within the first ten minutes the movie lets you know that this isn’t a family-friendly take-your-kids-to-see-superheroes-fight movie: there’s boobs, there’s cursing, and Wolverine slashes a guy’s arm off in a much bloodier fashion than we’re used to from the sanitized previous X-Men.
Once the director establishes that this is not your father’s X-Men, it slows down a bit and becomes plot-focused. Not that it’s a bad thing. Both Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman are at the top of their acting game, giving increasing depth to both characters we’ve come to know and love. And Dafne Keen does an amazing job as Laura, the young girl Logan ends up having to care for, and manages to keep up with both actors in her film debut.
This isn’t a popcorn flick by any means – it actually evokes a very T2: Judgement Day-like atmosphere both in cinematic experience and also the world created. I highly recommend seeing it even if the regular Marvel superhero movies aren’t your thing – I have a feeling in years to come Logan is going to stand up with the greatly respected movies of the genre like The Dark Knight.
THE BAD
Obama is not the Oboogeyman
On Saturday morning, Donald Trump tweeted a message accusing the former president of wiretapping Trump Tower. Trump claimed in that tweet that it was a Nixonesque, Watergate level scandal. Now, as far as reporting has investigated, it seems Trump got this idea from a Breitbart article that mentions wiretaps in regards to an FBI investigation regarding the Trump campaign and Russian banks. Having to condense the article into a 160-character tweet, it became “Obama’s wiretapping me!”
Now let’s put aside any sort of discussion that maybe it was to distract from the Sessions/Russia brouhaha that was stirring. Let’s focus on one simple fact:
For 8 years, Barack Obama has been the person the GOP blames for everything. Now they’re having trouble letting go, and on top of that Donald Trump is trying to invoke the former president’s name as some sort of Bloody Mary type scenario.
The White House leaks are Obama loyalists. Obama wiretapping. Obama is secretly still pulling strings in the WH to make Trump look bad. Trump inherited Obama’s mess. Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama. (Careful, Congress GOP, don’t say Obama’s name three times in front of your bathroom mirror or Obama might appear and allow transgender people to use your bathroom.)
But in all seriousness – Obama is no longer the President. There’s a little bit of wiggle room at the beginning here during the transition of power. But invoking Obama’s name to take the blame can only work for so long. The GOP is in control from top to bottom. They basically have all three branches of government in their control (whenever Trump’s Supreme Court nominee goes through) so eventually it’s going to become their mess. I think the actual career politicians are starting to notice this – especially with the Trumpcare bill that is now being debated. They’re starting to realize the blame game they’ve been passing forward for the last eight years is no longer a credible action. Especially because they tied everything to the former president. But that’s what they have to live with – they spent those two terms villifying Obama and everything he tried to accomplish, and set themselves up to be the conquering heroes if they only got that dastardly Obama out of office.
Well he’s gone now…you’re going to have to stop trotting his name out to distract from your own problems. Sorry!
THE WEIRD
The Switch Taste Test
If you’re not up-to-date on video game news, the latest hot new console has been released: The Nintendo Switch. Now I’m not going to review it (I don’t have one) or talk about it much yet. Instead, I’d like to inform you of the weird internet-goings-on related to the Switch cartridges.
You see, Nintendo (in a smartish move) applied a bittering agent to the Nintendo Switch cartridges to keep small children from licking/biting/eating them. The same agent used in anti-nail-biting treatments and the like. That’s a good idea…except, well…
See, the funny thing about human nature is that we have an indomitable spirit. And when we’re told “NO” sometimes we just have to do it anyway. So when the Switch released this Friday, it wasn’t long before YouTube was flooded with videos of people “taste testing” the cartridges. Because they couldn’t be THAT bitter, right?
You think I’m joking? I’m not. Just take a look at all the hits when I search for Switch Taste Test.
Yep. That’s this week’s weirdness. Don’t have anything else to say about that…other than…for the love of God, why?
Warning! Opinions Ahead 