For 2023, I'm making a media thread (this one) for anything I'm not livetweeting.
(Then we can all be distressed at how much time I waste on Twitter instead of reading books.)
1-2 posts per media. Micro-reviews.
_Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies_
This is the best single source for the memes about AI turning the universe into paperclips.
Sadly, if you've already read a bunch of LessWrong, this does not have better arguments, just a different flavor of narrator.
_The Golden Khan of Ethengar_
Fantasy Mongolia. Unfortunately, the NPCs, adventures, and campaign outlined here require close integration with the highest corridors of power and there's not much else to do. This one falls pretty flat.
_Sword Art Online the Movie: Progressive - Scherzo of Deep Night_
The modern Cyberpunk* series continues its cinematic rebuild. This one is at least not a retread of an existing episode. The risk blowing the timeline though.
's alright.
* Yes. Think about it
_The Screwtape Letters_
Wonderful. Regardless of if you agree with Lewis on morality, Screwtape's method of distracting people from virtue with triviality and self-justification offers a real risk to your ability to succeed at making a good life.
(Oops, wrong pic.)
_Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-_
Always wonderful to see more of this manga adapted. (I hope they do the whole thing, but evidence of that is thin on the ground.)
Serves as a good endcap anyway.
_Hanamonogatari_
With the shift of narrator to Kanbaru, we find she is just as self-loathing as our usual narrator, and possibly also psychotic as well.
(The novels are somehow less entertaining than the anime adaptations. Sorry fans.)
_Puss in Boots: The Last Wish_
A fun fractured fairy tale. The movie shifts animation styles during the fight scenes, which is an interesting choice.
I worry a little that no one is doing vanilla adaptations anymore.
_Jesus Revolution_
25% Boomer nostalgia, 25% Ministerial, 50% Historical docudrama, they somehow manage to mostly dodge being a Christian film, despite being a film about people coming to Christianity.
Conversion is still unfilmable, but the historical story holds up.
_Ghost in the Shell_
(The original manga)
Super interesting to see where it all started. It's surprising to me how long it took for Motoko to stabilize into the character we know from the anime adaptations.
_Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania_
Worst adaptation of _Horton Hears a Who_ ever.
The Marvel movies have been veering to a point where the plot of the movie is merely there to scaffold all the setups for the next movie and this is the worst version of that yet.
Also, they keep giving Hank Pym Big Damn Heroes moments, which is ironic because they went for the Scott Lang Ant-Man because Hank is a giant asshole. They could have just done <Hank, but not a giant asshole> so it's weird how they're using him.
(I've decided to abandon this thread.
Reporting on what I've read or watched makes it feel like a chore.
Bad vibes.)
@WomanCorn
> You abandon a sunk cost. You didn’t want to. It’s crying.
_Avatar: The Way Of Water_
Pretty good, especially in IMAX. (3d effects are meh.)
The evil humans have switch from evil mining to evil whaling and evil colonization.
Was worth the $20, anyway.