During my weekend alone, I think I made it kind of clear that I wasn’t feeling too great, emotionally. Catching up on writing about things kind of helped, but along the way, in between posts written, I found myself getting distracted. I would check Facebook or play a League of Legends match, and then I’d chastise myself for squandering the opportunity of time that I had, and that I shouldn’t be wasting time doing what I could do at other times.
This was Saturday afternoon. Since then, I haven’t played any League, and I closed Facebook everywhere; my browser, the tabs on both my iPhone and iPad, and on my other laptop. More than anything, I think not looking at social media has been something cathartic and the forced separation something of a good thing. What started as an evening became a day, and then it’s become several days, and at the time I’m writing this, I still haven’t checked Facebook.
The funny thing is how many times I’ve had to stop myself from almost doing so, especially over my phone, while I’m at work, in between assignments, or those fleeting moments where I want to not be doing work, catch my breath and see what’s going on elsewhere in the world. I’ve frantically forced quit the app numerous times since then. Eventually, I’ll check again, once routine settles back down.
But the time not spent playing League or looking at social media and thinking about either, I’ve actually, not surprisingly, been somewhat productive, in a manner of speaking; by catching up with stories. And not “stories” as in hicks talking about television shows per say, although I am talking about some television shows; but if it weren’t for the fact that I finished reading one book, then I’d basically have entitled this whole thing “catching up on movies and shows.”
I really enjoyed Ernest Cline’s Ready, Player One, which I’m under the impression that it’s going to be made into a movie that’ll come out somewhat soon-ish, based on the chatter I’ve heard about it the last time I did check social media. But over the weekend, I finished reading his second book, Armada.
Whereas Ready, Player One was an enjoyable story, I’d have to say that Armada fell very short in being Cline’s literary encore. It was a fast read that wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever written, but it was predictable, clichéd, and had an ending that was more abrupt than when I’m brogging and I suddenly decide I don’t feel like writing anymore, and have a really, really harsh finish. That was Armada.
Not to mention after two books, I think Cline has a tendency to write some serious Mary Sues, because the love interests in both books are some textbook Mary Sues.
Anyway, with the sole book out of the way now, what I did catch up on a lot of was, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not that I’d never been a fan of Marvel Comics, quite the contrary, but I’d just never taken the time to go watch all the movies as they’ve been rapidly coming out. I’ve always been a fan of Iron Man, but I’d never really cared much for Hulk, Thor, and I don’t really care much for the upcoming Doctor Strange or Black Panther for the matter. The only reason I showed any remote interest in Ant Man, was solely based on the fact that he was played by Paul Rudd, who I think is awesome. And honestly? I’d never really been that big of a Captain America fan either, but he’s still one of the cornerstones of Marvel, so I’d have to watch them too.
But one character I’d never heard of before prior, was Jessica Jones. I watched the entire series anyway, because I was on a Hell’s Kitchen kick after Daredevil. JJ wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely a step down from Daredevil, and frankly didn’t have to be 13 episodes. The main storyline probably could’ve been wrapped up in six, but 13 seems to be a standard number for episodes produced, even if some of them end up being kind of fluffy or repetitive. Luke Cage was an intriguing introduction into the series, and based on the references they made, it’s clear this takes place in the cinematic universe as well.
Frankly, one of the guilty pleasures I had throughout the series was the anticipation of whenever David Tennant, playing the antagonistic Kilgrave, got his ass kicked, because I’m not very much a big Doctor Who fan, and I associate Tennant with him more than any of the other Doctors, so it’s fun to see him get punched out.
After Jessica Jones, I decided to delve into the films that I’d never seen, because I don’t like watch movies by myself, and I didn’t have a mythical girlfriend at the time when most of these flicks came out. I realized that I was quite behind on the eventual storyline, but I had a little bit of time to start chipping away.
Guardians of the Galaxy was a fun movie, but I will say that thanks to social media, it was hyped to proportions that couldn’t be met. Thankfully in this case, I’m jaded and aware of this, so I didn’t have high expectations of it in the first place. Chris Pratt as Star Lord was entertaining, and I wasn’t aware that Batista was playing the role of Drax the Destroyer. Either way, I was surprised to see ol’ Dave jobbing as hard in this film as he did in his later WWE runs. Zoe Saldana was completely unconvincing in performance, and to no surprise, if anyone managed to shine in spite of an uphill CGI climb, Bradley Cooper was intriguing as Rocket. And let us not forget basically the sequel to The Iron Giant, and probably the easiest pay day in history, as Vin Diesel groaned his way through 129 minutes as Groot.
Fun movie, nowhere close to the overblown hype that people heaped on it, but still enjoyable.
As I said earlier, if Paul Rudd weren’t cast as Ant Man, there’s probably a very high chance that I wouldn’t have bothered to watch this, even though it was freely available via Starz. But because I’m a Paul Rudd fan, I gave Ant Man a whirl, and it was a good thing, too. Ant Man ended up being pretty enjoyable in its own right, despite the fact that it was basic as hell, in terms of plot and general storytelling. In a way, that’s not a good thing, because it gives off the impression that Disney/Marvel studios are kind of cranking out these introductory movies left and right, so that the characters can be established and built up, for when they eventually start doing comprehensive storylines, like the Infinity Crusade. But for what Ant Man was worth, Rudd was decent, and I didn’t hate the film at all.
I watched the first Captain America film several years after it was in theaters, and just like that one, it was several years later until I finally watched Winter Soldier. I still think it’s funny that Chris Evans was also Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four (the one that sucked… okay, they all sucked) and how he basically got a second chance at landing a Marvel franchise by being Captain America as well. I’m still waiting for them to sneak in a line where he takes a jab at Johnny Storm in another film.
But as suspected, it’s pretty clear the titles of these films are becoming less and less important, because the storylines are overlapping, and they’re all building towards a similar goal. Despite the fact that the film was entitled “Captain America,” it was pretty much Cap, Black Widow, and the introduction of Falcon, and their hijinx as they took on SHIELD and Hydra, and so they could integrate Bucky Buchanan into the storyline.
Either way, it was a watchable film, that I wouldn’t watch again, but I’m glad to have seen it once, so I can at least be aware of the groundwork it’s laid down, for future storylines. Especially since one of the impetuses for this Marvel spree is that I’m probably going to end up watching Captain America: Civil War, hopefully not too long after writing this post.
Ironically, the two films that have eluded me, are the two films that are supposed to be comprehensive films: The Avengers, and Avengers: Ultron. And the reason is simple: I can’t find The Avengers available to stream; not without paying money first. Ultron however, is available on Starz, but I don’t see a point in watching the sequel before its predecessor, despite the fact that I did that with Thor, but Thor sucks anyway.
Regardless, I’ll pay the $2.99 to rent it from Amazon Prime, although it seems silly, because despite the fact that I’ve seen numerous films and shows that take place after it, it still feels like I should probably watch The Avengers for myself in its entirety before I start trying to play more catch-up.
The point of all of this was that I made a decision to close two of the biggest time sucks in my life, League of Legends and social media, and I was free from distraction to pursue other endeavors. And sure, some might not interpret “watching a shitload of tv” as one of the better productive endeavors out there, but I’m certainly not regretful for capitalizing on the opportunity to catch up on a lot of popular shows and films. It certainly beat getting aggravated with video games and the voices of other people.
