Tag: YouTube

Ocean’s Eight

Yesterday evening I watched Ocean’s Eight and I thought it was great (within the context of fun heist-comedy films.) It is without a shadow of a doubt better than Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen, but not quite as polished as Ocean’s Eleven.

Sandra Bullock carried the film well. Blanchett as a tough, punk-rock chick; yes, please. Sarah Paulson was a delight. Rihanna had everything she needed to be the cool hacker. Awkwafina was perfectly quirky and I totally fell in love with her. Helena Bonham Carter as a troubled fashion designer was a great fit. And Anne Hathaway stole the show as the smart-than-she-looks socialite and film star who just wants to have friends.

The plot was perfectly ridiculous but immensely entertaining, and if I really haven’t find something to complain about, it’s that the magnet-lock subplot could have been a interesting narrative element, if it hadn’t be resolved twenty seconds later by asking someone’s little sister for a solution. Perhaps it was simply done to send the message that young, smart girls can be STEM-geniuses, but then still I would have loved to see that exposed more. (And I’m just going to ignore the giant “oh, the necklace must have fallen off my neck while I was running for the bathroom” plot-hole. Wasn’t it supposed to have a magnetic lock!?)

The recent trend of redoing a bro-film format (Ghostbusters, The Hangover, e.g.) with an all-female cast film (Ghostbusters, Rough Night, e.g.) hasn’t been faring very well. The all-female Ghostbusters was so awful even the amazing Kate McKinnon couldn’t save it. But this film made it work very well and in a way that felt like it wasn’t just a derivation of an already done format.

Cyberpunk 2077

Anyone who saw the Cyberpunk 2077 teaser trailer back in January of 2013 has been eagerly awaiting news since. Nobody thought it would take five years for the next concrete bit of information that CDPR released. During E3 this year, they released the trailer above, and with it quite a bit of information. I’m not sure how I feel about it.

The game is first person, which I’m not sure I enjoy the idea of. It becomes too much like Deus Ex that way, I suspect. Apparently the verticality of the game doesn’t work well with a third person game. So I’m cautiously optimistic, only because it’s CDPR and they consistently know how to make the best of things. Apparently, you’ll also have the option of choosing between a male or female protagonist, which is nice, while still maintaining an established character instead of allowing for a fully bespoke character. This will help the narrative element of the game tremendously. It worked well for the Mass Effect series, so I’m sure that will be on point.

It’s the looks, however, that I’m not sure about. And with me many others. They seem to be aiming for the mid-eighties flavour of Cyberpunk, which, admittedly, is probably the most OG version to go for. I’d be disappointed if they had gone for a more post-Cyberpunk feel, but this is a little bit too “Neon and Mohawk” for my tastes. I like it with a bit more grit. But again, I’m cautiously optimistic. I’m actively trying to curb my desire to just get Witcher 4.