Quarantine Diary: Entry 1

It's been a while since I published anything here that wasn't also a Youtube video (I'd put out more of both but video-editing takes a long time and is something I find specifically very hard to stay focused with) but it's not like I'm particularly busy right now, let's be honest, few people are.

So, long and short of it is, I'm basically in quarantine until this lockdown situation is over. Technically I'm part of two high-risk groups, as I have both Cerebral Palsy and Asthma, luckily for me, the former doesn't really affect me in any way that I think would exacerbate the effects of COVID-19 (which my friends and I, for shorthand have taken to calling the C-Virus, because it sounds a bit like something from Resident Evil) and my asthma is rarely an issue, and even when it is, a couple of doses of an inhaler and I'm usually fine. (though it can be made much more of one if I also have a cold) still, better safe than sorry. Especially since someone in my household is also disadvantaged in the event of catching it, so regardless, we cannot risk having it in the house.

It has been at least two weeks since I left the house at all, and the last two times I did were both trips out for supplies culminating in less than an hour. The last time I went "out" out, was the first of March when I went to see Jollyboat at the Firebug in Leicester (who you should definitely look up if you haven't) the venue was small, so, so was the crowd, maybe 30-50 people, didn't do a head count. In any case, I'm pretty sure if I caught anything there I'd know by now, almost a month later. So, if nothing else, at least I can be sure that if the virus does make it into the house it won't be me that brought it here. Besides, I may well be the least symptomatic person in the house, so at least guilt won't be an issue.

So, despite having self-isolated for several weeks, I only thought to write this entry on the 28th of March, 2020, Perhaps I would've wrote more if I had more to report, but honestly, the last two or three weeks I've barely left my room, for a week after I developed some mild but specific symptoms I didn't leave my room at all, then I came out to discover that everyone else in the house seemed to be feeling worse than me, and went right back in there.

Mentally, it's a weird one, my default position is that I basically idle as an anxious mess. Weirdly enough I'm not that. I don't want to get into too many specifics, but this upset in the status quo makes one of my great constant worries incredibly unlikely, (If you've talked to me lately there's at least an even chance you know what I'm talking about) which, now that I'm not currently anxious about that, I realise how much I constantly was. Ironically, I have more peace and calm of mind now, in a time of global crisis, than I do on a regular day, which, honestly, feels kind of fucked up, but oh well, every cloud.

I really want to try to get some creative momentum going, now that I have the time for it and no expectation of really doing anything, but so far I've managed to spend at least a week replaying the Shenmue games and re-watching BoJack Horseman yet again. I have a script for a video-essay that desperately needs editing down (it's 21,000 words long and really rambly) a novel I want to finish writing, and at least 5 other projects I could be getting to work on, and yet I can't seem to get the ball rolling on any of them. I'm sure I'll get it going eventually, but for now, I'm stuck somewhat in limbo there.

Also, for the last year or so, this blog hasn't really done much but serve as a kind of promotional arm for my YouTube channel, and I don't really like that, so I'm going to try to remedy that by writing more. I'm better at that anyway.

So yeah, those are basically my thoughts right now, for anyone who might be curious or bored enough to read them, how you all holding up? You good? I hope so.

Review: Sonic the Hedgehog (Spoiler-Free!)

TEXT VERSION

Right off the bat I have to acknowledge my surprise at the quality of this movie. If you
followed development, you’ll know there was a bit of shall we say, dissatisfaction from the fan-base regarding the appearance of Sonic himself. The film was, of course, delayed to rectify this. However,
my logic at the time was that a studio that thought little enough of Sonic to give him a design liable to later become an actual sleep-paralysis demon, was unlikely to care enough about the property
to make a good Sonic movie. Even putting that aside, I wasn’t exactly sold on the initial trailer. Gangster’s paradise is never a fitting song for Sonic regardless of the percentage of his life spent
living in one, and it showcases my single least-favourite scene featuring Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik, and honestly little else I considered of note. I therefore assumed, that even though Sonic was being fixed up, the change would ultimately make a bad movie look a little better, and therefore be less noteworthy for no longer also being nightmare-fuel. Add to that the usual level of quality to be expected from Video game movie adaptations (with one or two exceptions but by their virtue a nevertheless proven rule) and I assumed the film would go from being hilariously bad, to simply bad, at best.

For this reason I wasn’t planning on seeing this movie at all, which is why this review is coming so late. But when I saw the review scores and a few figures I follow speaking to the surprising quality of this film, I became curious. Nevertheless, it is a videogame adaptation, and that trailer was still in my mind, so I went into the theatre with duly tempered expectations, which may have coloured my experience, so I should mention that.

Guys, I cannot remember the last time I was so pleasantly surprised and glad to be wrong.

So yeah I really enjoyed this movie. I’m probably going to see it again just to see how it stands up to repeat viewings, but going along for the ride this first time I had a blast. James Marsden is a likeable human sidekick for Sonic, in fact the entire cast is largely likeable
unless designed not to be. Ben Schwartz is not the voice I’m used to Sonic having, (I’m going mostly off my memories of playing Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 here) but he makes the roll his own and after a few minutes I stopped noticing, This version of Sonic is endearingly dorky, which plays well off James Marsden’s Tom Wachowski, (at least I think that's how you pronounce it) who is a more straight-faced version of the same. The story is essentially a road-trip movie with a chase element, and speaking of which, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention their pursuer.

So here we are folks, Jim Carrey makes his big-budget comeback, and a few years ago whoever would’ve thought that the character he chooses to return to the big screen with would be Doctor Robotnik? And you know what else? It really works! Jim Carrey in this movie is as Jim Carrey as he’s ever been, there’s one particular sequence where he’s dancing with his machines that felt for all the world like a segment from Carrey’s heyday. His legendary manic energy is spectacularly present and he lends himself incredibly to the character of Robotnik. Welcome back sir!

The plot is nothing groundbreaking, a standard comedy road trip with the wholesome themes of togetherness you’d expect from anything Sonic, but the characters really do make it work.

There are one or two nitpicks I could make, like the rampant product placement, but some of it was so blatant as to actually be funny, so I’ll let some of that slide. There are road-trip tropes abound with this movie, but with Sonic, so I suppose that does keep it at least somewhat fresh, even if he cribs some of the slow-motion running schtick from Quicksilver in the X-Men movies. But None of this film is badly done, even if little of it is anything too new.

The redesign of Sonic was of course the right decision in my opinion, even in this exact film, I think I would’ve found the original design of Sonic distracting, at the very least. Bottom line, this

movie put me in a good mood, by regular standards, it’s a perfectly serviceable family movie with plenty of fun to be had if you’re into what it does. Which by the, considerably lower standards set by Videogame movies, is fucking great!

Sonic the Hedgehog is a ton of fun, and definitely worth seeing if you have any interest at all in the source material, or Jim Carrey, for whom this is a great return to form. Even if you’re not, but you have kids, you should definitely take them, I think they’ll love it, and wouldn’t bet against you being pleasantly surprised yourself.

8/10. I expected to
give this around 2 or 3, and I’m glad to be wrong. Could we be seeing the beginning of an era of competent game adaptations? Only time will tell, but with Detective Pikachu last year, and Sonic now, I’d say we’re off to a promising start.