Alien: Romulus
* Pretty good overall.
* Really great lead (Cailee Spaeny).
* Noticeably lower budget than you'd expect.
* Okay to meh to "bro..." special effects.
* COMICALLY TERRIBLE creature design ruins the finish.
The writer/director, Fede Alvarez, earnestly cares about his young characters and their development. Everything about the human side of his storytelling is pretty well done. He manages the small ensemble well, but Rain and her brother Andy deservingly take center stage, leaving a lot less time to develop the others.
Alvarez falls flat with his new facehugger behaviors. Too much cgi just sitting out in the open not being interesting or occasionally inching toward silly.
The digital Ian Holm is shockingly bad. I think my RTX 4070 will be able to do better AI video renders pretty soon.
I watched it on Disney+; if that was the "improved" version... good lord.
The final creature design is just indescribably bad and, worse, once again shot way too much right out in the open. OBSCURE YOUR F'N SCARY CREATURES, DIRECTORS!!!! Especially if you have an unforgivably bad/stupid creature design.
If you're too young to have seen / known about Alien: Resurrection (holy f that was 1997!! 👀) , it actually makes for a really interesting compare and contrast here.
More stylized (deeply Frenchy infused -- for both better and worse -- by Jean-Pierre Jeunet), more confident, much more personality and flair throughout the ensemble (Joss Whedon is the master of creating characters and witty dialog). Darius Khondji is a MASTER cinematographer.
Resurrection is more comic book and brash vs Romulus' more rooted "real people" tone. Also suffers from bad creature design at the end, though Romulus' is so terrible that Resurrection's seems more reasonable in retrospect.
Romulus: more real people, more real moments. It's a pretty good human emotional drama wrapped within a good enough "Alien" movie.
Resurrection: Fails overall because Jeunet is just too Frenchy and, like Paul Verhoeven, I suspect it goes big and dumb because that's what he thinks of Americans. But he's such a good f'n filmmaker. Resurrection's impressive strengths and embarrassing weaknesses make it the more interesting film to study by far.
The writer/director, Fede Alvarez, earnestly cares about his young characters and their development. Everything about the human side of his storytelling is pretty well done. He manages the small ensemble well, but Rain and her brother Andy deservingly take center stage, leaving a lot less time to develop the others.
Alvarez falls flat with his new facehugger behaviors. Too much cgi just sitting out in the open not being interesting or occasionally inching toward silly.
The digital Ian Holm is shockingly bad. I think my RTX 4070 will be able to do better AI video renders pretty soon.
I watched it on Disney+; if that was the "improved" version... good lord.
The final creature design is just indescribably bad and, worse, once again shot way too much right out in the open. OBSCURE YOUR F'N SCARY CREATURES, DIRECTORS!!!! Especially if you have an unforgivably bad/stupid creature design.
If you're too young to have seen / known about Alien: Resurrection (holy f that was 1997!! 👀) , it actually makes for a really interesting compare and contrast here.
More stylized (deeply Frenchy infused -- for both better and worse -- by Jean-Pierre Jeunet), more confident, much more personality and flair throughout the ensemble (Joss Whedon is the master of creating characters and witty dialog). Darius Khondji is a MASTER cinematographer.
Resurrection is more comic book and brash vs Romulus' more rooted "real people" tone. Also suffers from bad creature design at the end, though Romulus' is so terrible that Resurrection's seems more reasonable in retrospect.
Romulus: more real people, more real moments. It's a pretty good human emotional drama wrapped within a good enough "Alien" movie.
Resurrection: Fails overall because Jeunet is just too Frenchy and, like Paul Verhoeven, I suspect it goes big and dumb because that's what he thinks of Americans. But he's such a good f'n filmmaker. Resurrection's impressive strengths and embarrassing weaknesses make it the more interesting film to study by far.
I don't have kids and she's my first dog so this was my first "Oh shit, this could be bad" pseudo-parenting anxiety experience. I felt physically ill.
10pm: Tried giving her hydrogen peroxide to make her throw it up.
Pro tip: hydrogen peroxide loses its fizzle a few weeks(?) after a bottle is opened. So it did nothing.
10:30pm: Called Poison Control (LONG ass wait times, $95 service charge) and they said to just monitor her for certain warning signs. Okay, cool.
11pm: My sister realizes Kuma ALSO ate all the used tea leaves out of a tea strainer (wha... why?!!). More potential toxicity.
Called Poison Control back (LONG ass wait times): "get her to throw up or you'll have to take her to the ER."
Faaaakkk.
They suggested a bit of peanut butter in a bowl w/hydrogen peroxide. Said most dogs will happily slurp it all up.
11:30pm: Minor struggle to find a 24hr drug store to buy fresh hydrogen peroxide. Like wtf.
midnight: The peanut butter trick worked. They said to keep her active for 15 min to get the hydrogen peroxide foaming up in her stomach. Ran her around but her iron stomach is legendary. NOTHING. Literally shook her in my hands to get more jiggle and foaming going 🤣. Nothing.
12:30am: Called Poison Control back. LONG ass wait time. But while I was waiting, SHE FINALLY THREW UP! I've never been so happy to see vomit (so much vomit).
1:30am: Kuma and I finally got back home.
She actually snuggled with me most of the night (unusual for her).
Today: All is good.
Brown rice for the #fiber. Red and black rice are also high fiber but supposedly have more nutrients.
Richness of the ghee REALLY brings the whole thing together. People give brown rice a bad rap, but this blend tastes awesome and doesn't need any additional sauces.
Rinse, toss it all into the Instant Pot.
* Pressure Cook setting, 7 min, turn off warming.
* After the #cooking cycle is done, let it sit under pressure for 10 more minutes.
* Release the pressure and serve.
Total time: just 30 minutes.
Comes out just al dente; not a fan of mushy rice.
Word is that I can find red and black rice for much cheaper at Indian grocery stores.
#food #recipe #foodstr
#yarn #crochet #craft #crafting
I've since taken what I learned and improvised a tail and feet! They're basically no different than the wings and beak so it was trivial.
Only problem: Only enough leftover orange yarn for ONE FOOT! 😭🤣
In a way lil' bro is even cuter in his currently handicapped state. More yarn arriving tomorrow though.
#crochet #crafting #yarn
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I haven't crocheted since middle school. But pretty easy and enjoyable so far!
#food #foodstr #rice #cooking
Live mining pool stats on 
And then only after seeing the credits did I realize that ANOTHER friend was in the same ep!
Jack is a world-class juggler. Basically any time you see juggling in a Hollywood production, odds are pretty good that it's Jack. I should've known.
OF COURSE he was the juggling holographic poodle!!! 🤣
