The Written Podcast: Being Mentally Tired

Being mentally tired is… well… tiring. It’s vastly different from being physically tired, because your muscles aren’t drained of energy. Being physically tired is when you simply can’t move properly, where your legs can’t support you anymore, you can’t lift your arms up above your head; all you want to do is go to be and rest. Being mentally tired is where you have the energy, but you don’t have any motivation. You can wake up mentally tired, which is annoying. Your body is well rested, you know you have the capabilities to do whatever you want to do, but you simply cannot be bothered. You’re falling asleep whilst having breakfast, no conversation is sticking, simply actions seem complicated – you can’t figure how to make a bowl of cereal. These examples may be on the extreme side of the scale, but there is a clear distinction between having a bad night’s sleep or staying up to late and pushing yourself too far and burning out.

Stress is the main reason for being mentally tired. Whether it’s at work or at home, stress affects us in so many ways, but always leads to being drained of any motivation, leading to procrastination. Once procrastination strikes, you’ve entered the loop. You’re tired so you procrastinate, but you’re tired from procrastination, so you procrastinate more, subsequently growing more tired, and the loop continues. It’s a harsh loop and one I’ve been stuck in for quite some time. Procrastination has affected my writing for a long while. The leading cause for my procrastination was pushing myself, then putting pressure on myself when I didn’t do any writing that day. I wanted to write every day. X amount of words a day, and then one, I found myself particularly tired from a hard day and I mentally couldn’t bring myself to write anything, and I gave into my tiredness and went to bed. That shouldn’t have been the beginning of the loop, but I allowed it to become just that. The next day I pushed myself to make up what I had missed the previous day and then write the X amount of words the next day. Whilst I was pleased I did complete the word total, I felt drained. And then, time started flying by. The more I pushed myself to write the amount of words on consecutive days, the more time sped up. I found myself taking longer and longer to write the X amount of words, and going to bed later and later, subsequently decreasing my overall sleep time, until eventually I found myself sitting at my computer, having not written a single word, and it was nearing midnight. I was tired. Mentally tired. And I felt bad for not writing anything. I felt as if I had let myself down. I put pressure on myself to catch up the next day, but I never did, and the days started flying passed and not a single word got written.

The more days passed, the more I felt as if I was letting myself down, and the more I felt as if I was letting myself down, the more I put pressure on myself to write, and the more pressure I put on myself, the more I didn’t write as I was too stressed to process a coherent sentence. Procrastination had settled itself down inside my mind.

I’ve written about the effects procrastination has had on me a few times on this blog. I’ve even attempted to state how I’ve combatted such and detailed my plan on how I’m to take the blog in a different direction to freshen things up a bit… and then even that just stopped. I went from five blogs a week from believing that the more I do the more audience I’ll get and success, to three blogs a week. I tried out so many different ideas, none of them sticking.

There are times when it is mild and there are times when it is strong, but what needs to be acknowledged is everyone’s constant battle with procrastination is different and impacts their lives in different ways, and that’s due to there being multiple factors in people’s lives which causes procrastination to happen. There was a reason why I was particularly tired that day the loop started – there was a reason why I wanted to push myself to write as much as I could. For me, the main thing I did - and still do on occasion - is watch TV and films, all day, sometimes browsing on the Internet for no reason at all.

Procrastination is often mistaken as laziness. Don’t get me wrong, there are people who are genuinely lazy, but that’s usually for the sake of simply not actually caring at all. People who are suffering from procrastination do care, they just can’t show that they do, because they’re too mentally tired from procrastinating all day.

That’s why my blog has been all over the place, or I’ve missed days entirely where I simply haven’t uploaded anything, because I was going through another strong wave. That’s why I’ve tried so many different ideas, been versatile with how best to write what I want. During those moments when I found myself at the end of another idea that didn’t defeat my procrastination, that was when I was struck down the hardest. I was pushing myself to make that idea work, I burnt myself out, and went straight back to being mentally tired again. This has happened so many times; I have lost count.

Procrastination took hold of me in 2015. It was at its strongest in 2018, when it was affecting other aspects of my life other than just my writing. When asked why I hadn’t cleaned my room, my answer was: “I wanted to, but I just didn’t.” Talking about procrastination is difficult, because if you speak how it is affecting you, it can be misunderstood as laziness, which doesn’t help anyone who’s suffering from such a problem.

The worst part about procrastination is knowing you are doing it but unable to do anything to stop it simply because you’re too tired from the constantly building pressure inside your mind from not doing what you know you really want to do. I am not, nor have I ever been lazy, I’ve just been mentally tired.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Film of the Week: Men in Black – International

The first thing I’m going to say about this film is its immediate contradiction at the beginning of the film. When Agent M (Tessa Thompson) is becoming an agent for the MIB, Agent O’s (Emma Thompson) narration specifically states that the suit she is putting on will be the only suit she’ll ever wear and no other clothes as she’ll always be a part of the MIB. This is a direct reference to what Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Agent K, said in the first film when Will Smith’s character, Agent J, is getting ready for his first day in the organisation. That narration is then immediately contradicted when we see Agent H not wearing the classic suit. That statement is opposed several times throughout the film when they take their ties off, untuck and unbutton their shirts, and once again ditched the clothes for civilian ones. During the longest sequence of them not wearing their suits it didn’t look or feel like it was a MIB film, just a spy movie with an aliens in. At least they wore their suits during the final battle.

I understand the purpose of the title. The international subtitle is confirmed when we see the London’s Branch. Upon seeing this for the first time, I believed this would be mainly based in London, but instead we go all over the world. The first three films stayed relatively on one site only, with the third expanding further than New York by going to Cape Canaveral, so having the climactic fight in Paris atop the Eiffel Tower would make sense within the stylistic brand the series has approached in the previous 3 films. This film goes all over the world. Those trips other than to Paris felt a little unnecessary.

The story isn’t too bad. It’s a classic “we suspect there’s a mole in the organisation and we have to find out who it is” story that has been played out multiple times before and so therefore was easy to figure out who the mole was, even when the film so blatantly attempted to put the blame on another character. For the style of the MIB franchise, the story isn’t boring, just a little predictable.

The chemistry between the two leads, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson was one of the only redeeming factors in the film, the other was the cute alien guard, Pawny (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani) who fittingly played an important role in saving the world. Their chemistry was as strong as it was in this film due to having acted together on Thor: Ragnarok.

My overall summary of this film isn’t a description in favour of this film. I wanted to enjoy it because it was an MIB film, and I do like the franchise, but even though MIB 2 wasn’t entirely my cup of tea as it emphasised the silliness of the first one even more, it was still an MIB film. This didn’t feel like it was always an MIB film. If they were to take off their suits, or meddle with the integrity of the suits, then they should have just taken them off for the entirety of the film. MIB – International shouldn’t have the name.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Mum's Monday: The Desert Rats

I thought ‘The Desert Rats’ were all part of the ‘British Army’, but in this film we also see the ‘Headquarters of the 9^th Australian Division’.

As much it is caring to see that if a fellow wounded soldier is ok. It is wise not to crowd around him and to spread out. Ammunition can wipe out a crowd and you lose a load of soldiers in one hit. This sadly, high-lights it is hard to keep friends in the army in a war.

A sand storm comes in very handy if the enemy cannot see you then it is wise not to fire and draw attention to yourself, (Now we hear of Italian guns) until necessary.

When making this film they were not just working out the filming of it, cast and script, they also included war strategies, like where and when to give orders, the timing in a war situation and to make this film realistic, timing in this film had to be carefully worked out.

It is good to see high-lighted in this film that war isn’t all ‘Black and White’ with orders being orders and it was nice to hear of a withdrawal of a court martial charge, but this film soon gets back to business and no one else is to risk a court martial.

I feel that there is no real story line to this film, no real focus point or a solid mission. The character Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason) and Capt. ‘Tammy’ MacRoberts (Richard Burton) do discuss the mission in a conversation while they are having their wounds seen to, but this is a little flimsy in the script and is not articulated concisely.

A part that is well done, pure and simple, and yes, there is only one thing to do ‘Sleep’.

Although there is narration it is sporadic and hardly there, captions would’ve worked just as well.

Something that is good to see is that the night time scenes were filmed at night. In some films you can clearly see that what is supposed to be a scene at night is quite clearly filmed in the day time and just dimmed down a bit or with less lighting.

One loosely heart-warming story line that does run through this this film is the school connection between pupil Capt. ‘Tammy’ MacRoberts and school master Tom Bartlett (Robert Newton).

This film ends very quickly, the mission was completed and that’s it.

The film leaves me with one question, ‘Where is Montgomery?’ He is famously linked with ‘The Desert Rats’ so you would think he would be portrayed in this film somewhere, but his character is actually not in it.

The Written Podcast: BIDMAS Vs PEMDAS

You may have already seen this math problem circulating the internet as of late:

8 / 2 (2 + 2) = ?

I was pitched this question by a friend who tasked me to solve it, and so I did, using these specific steps:

2 + 2 = 4.

8 / 2 = 4.

4 * 4 = 16.

So the answer is 16.

I used the BODMAS method. Brackets, Indices, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction. By following that rule, you can’t go wrong when solving these types of math problems, only if you calculate the individual sums wrong will you get the wrong answer.

This was when my friend revealed there is another way of solving this problem. Sure, there may be many ways you can solve this problem; with maths, with some equations, there are multiple ways you can reach the same answer. However, my friend then revealed that you wouldn’t get the same result, but the other way is perfectly valid. I was confused. He explained to me the act of using PEMDAS. Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. PEMDAS swaps the two stages of multiplication and division around, resulting in an entirely different answer.

I went ahead and calculated the question using the PEMDAS method:

2 + 2 = 4.

2(4) = 8.

8 / 8 = 1.

So the answer is 1.

He said the method is perfectly valid, and by researching that method, I discovered it actually was a used method a hundred years ago. Upon further research, I unfortunately didn’t come up with a time frame when BIDMAS started coming into effect, but that PEMDAS was used for quite a while beforehand. Modern calculators will interpret that equation by today’s accepted method, and to make the computer believe the answer is 1, you’ll actually have to change the question by adding an extra Bracket. 8 / (2(2 + 2)) = 1. For modern calculators to accept that the answer to that question is 1, you’ll have to change the question, which then, logically stats it is a different question. What I did find out via my research is that BIDMAS started fading into view around about the same time as computers did. Does this mean that computers are wrong? Have we accepted the method they showed us as a way to slowly conquer our world one mathematically wrong answer at a time until it’s too late? Er… no. Or at least I like to think so anyway.

If you insert that equation into a computer, its interpretation is thus:

(8 / 2) (2 + 2) = ?

By following that method, the answer will always be 16. A computer would separate the equation into smaller questions, then calculate the answer.

8 / 2 = 4.

2 + 2 = 4.

4 * 4 = 16.

So the answer by a modern day computer is 16.

There is an old episode of QI where they brought up an equation comprised of symbolic logic. Bertrand Russell set out to prove that mathematics made sense. He discovered there were too many paradoxes and illogical solutions regarding his modern day interpretation of maths, and so he decided to write a book proving that maths did in fact make sense. The symbolic logic equation which appeared on the big screens behind the panellists was the one which proved that 1 + 1 = 2.

David Mitchell’s response was one of an understandable reaction, stating that it was a bit late within the 20^th century to prove that 1 + 1 did indeed make 2, because what would’ve happened if Bertrand discovered that it didn’t?

My reaction regarding the BIDMAS and PEMDAS debate was synonymous to that of David’s concerning the very different answers and that we have a lot riding on the specific method of BIDMAS. What happens if we discover that BIDMAS isn’t actually the correct way but instead another way is? What the heck would happen to our society as we know it?

You can actually get a third answer from this equation if you ignore both methods but instead just go straight across from left to right:

8 / 2 = 4

4 * 2 = 8

8 + 2 = 10.

So the answer if you ignore the equation’s layout is 10. Will that soon become the next accepted method of calculating the equation?

Three different answers to one equation. Two of which were perfectly acceptable methods so why not logically accept the third way and state the answer is also 10. This equation has turned into an engineer’s nightmare. If they were designing a building, one will build one that’s 16-metres-tall, the other will build one 1-metre-tall and the third will build one that’s 10-metres-tall; and now we’ve got that classic joke where “three engineers walk into bar…” Is the reason the Burg Khalifa so tall is because they used BIDMAS instead of PEMDAS?

Mathematics is supposed to be fixed. There may be different methods upon solving the problem, but usually the answer is the same, and the other ways which result in a different answer is tossed to one side. But it now appears it’s in a constant state of flux. It changes much like language does, every now and again. We may have accepted BIDMAS as the accepted method, but according to those who were living a hundred years ago, PEMDAS was also accepted and they may have completely disregarded BIDMAS as the wrong way of doing things. Makes you wonder if BIDMAS will no longer be the correct method but instead another one will be used, resulting in a completely different answer, and society as we know it will change forever, for better or for worse.

All I know at this present time is BIDMAS must be the correct method because if it’s discovered to be wrong, I wouldn’t want to be living in the resulting society. It’d probably be a little apocalyptic… may be a little over-exaggerated, or not… who the heck knows anymore…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Mum's Monday: Ice Cold in Alex

The title of this war film, which is mostly based on a true experience of J. Lee Thompson, doesn’t automatically make you think "This is a war film", and once you know it is, it could lead you to believe that the battle in Alex was fought in the winter time. The title however, turns out to be a clever one, as it signifies the aim of the mission in this film, which is to cross the desert in an ambulance with the intention of having an "Ice cold Beer" in Alex; an obscure riddle of a title that works.

The mission doesn’t look like it is going to be an easy one, with two nurses now to escort, Sister Diana Murdoch (Sylvia Syms) and Sister Denise Norton (Diane Clare), one being under sedation. It is good to see that "Panic" or maybe Shell Shock (Shell shock is not actually used in the film but this is OK) are high-lighted and acknowledging people suffered from it, a blown bridge and a mine field. Now they have another passenger Captain van ver poel (Anthony Quayle) and I agree, alcohol is not a good idea before entering a mine field.

There are a few tense moments, they come thick and fast and now they have a bigger problem on board the ambulance, which turns out to be beneficial. The script seems a bit harsh "Dead within the hour". This sadly, shows the cold-heartedness of war.

With an ambulance and the desert being a rough terrain a break down would seem inevitable. Van der poel is the hero of the hour, but he is being very secretive, which seems strange to others, but he has a war time ‘radio’ reason, but what do they do? He has helped them; the dilemma makes you think.

With all the ups and downs of crossing the desert, they now have a "Quick sand" problem. The techniques of getting van der poel out is a bit unrealistic to start with.

Despite the war, it is nice to see romance is not dead. It is unnecessary in this film but it is included. There is now a steep sandy slope in their way. This is an intense part of the film. The script is well done, but annoyingly two attempts are needed, however, the script is lovely someone should have been on the brake. This is the most memorable part for me. There is a time and a place for a "Love life", and this isn’t necessarily it. Also you find yourself routing them on the succeed to the top.

After six hundred miles, a feat of endurance, four ice colds in Alex and "Here’s to Otto".

Film of the Week: Hellboy

This is not a film for the weak stomachs. There is a lot of blood and gore, and everything else in between. The film’s tone is tongue-in-cheek; it doesn’t take itself at all seriously. The surreal nature throughout does dampen the blood and gore’s overall effect it has, but it is still at the high end of the spectrum. The first two Hellboy before this reboot weren’t as gory, and so you do have an even adult version of the franchise, something I didn’t know they could do until upon watching it. The blood and gore can put a lot of people off even if they are a fan of the character, they’ll automatically return to the original two films as it’s an easier watch.

If you can see past the gore, the question remains on whether it is actually a good movie. Being a reboot of a popular franchise, the character was made semi-iconic due to Ron Perlman’s performance, and for some people it was difficult to see Hellboy played by anyone else. In fact, Ron actually set up a campaign attempting to get Hellboy 3 made, but the studio opted for a reboot because, why not, I guess.

David Harbour’s performance as Hellboy isn’t anything to complain at. Sure, Rom made the character is own, but David leans into the tongue-in-cheek nature of the film, and boosts the overall self-aware tone throughout.

With a reboot, you expect it to be synonymous to the original, but this was very different. The filmmakers were given permission to make an R-rated film – which in America is England’s equivalent to a 15. For studios, it’s a gamble to release R-rated films, as the audience shrinks considerably if it had a PG-13 (England’s equivalent of a 12A). From a studio’s perspective, an R-rated movie doesn’t bring in as much money as a lower rated film does, but that’s slowly changing as studios are having more faith in those rated films ever since the release of Deadpool. Deadpool was an eye-opener, because it made an absolute tonne load of money at the box office, and left other studios scratching their heads wondering what the heck can they do to jump on this wagon and ride this particularly big wave, without considering that the reason why Deadpool was good was because it was a good movie, as it basically ticked all the boxes fans had in front of them whilst watching it in the cinema.

Hellboy was given permission to be R-rated, and therefore the filmmakers were allowed to raise the bar on what was allowed in the film. Hellboy went from being a humble reboot of a franchise we love, to being its own thing entirely. Sure, it’s still looked at and labelled as a reboot, but the fact it was allowed to go beyond that of what the original two films did, a completely different film was made as a result.

Strong comparisons can be made with other rebooted franchises. Lists are created with deep analyses on the original set of films and the rebooted ones, but it would be difficult to compare this version of Hellboy with the original two as they are, tonally, so different. Same character, but in a different movie, because it has an R-rating. It doesn’t at all feel like you’re watching the same film again, but a fresh take which acts as if it’s the only one that had been made. Therefore, you can watch both the first two and this one and not get bored; but the blood and gore knocks it down a few points for me.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Mum's Monday: Kelly’s Heroes

The start of this film is a little confusing as to what is happening apart from the obvious and the rain.

After Kelly (Clint Eastwood) brings back the captured German colonel to what could be described as command central, you have to be very observant to notice that the lead bars are not all that they seem to be.

It is very clever to get the colonel drunk, not for the purpose of war intelligence information, but for information on a more lucrative pot of gold or bars as in this case.

It turns out gold can be very persuasive over ruling any need for authorisation.

Don’t you just hate it when a vacation turns out to be, not what you expected or wanted it to be? They have very different ideas of a good time or a rest.

This film reminds me of the film ‘The Italian Job’ but set in war time also instead of three minis, three Sherman tanks will have to do, with a few amusing alterations and additions, one being music.

The mission has all  been worked out and planned with all the supplies they are going to need, but with the gold being behind enemy lines is it a risk worth taking? There is a good point that basically being in the war is a risk in itself, so they might as well try and profit from it.

Just as there are all sorts of people in the world, the good, bad and the quirky there are, as we see quirky/oddball but nice laid back and positive men in this war film. Oh and the aerial photos have been located, they are not lost anymore. This is amusing to watch and a light-hearted distraction from the enemy lines, bombing and subsequent fires.

The mission is underway. They have to travel a few miles and cross a bridge held by the Germans, assuming the bridge is still there, but Tiger tanks may be an even bigger problem.

On the face of it the mission looks impossible, is sixteen million worth it? Kelly and the rest of them thinks so. You want to keep watching to see the outcome.

Sadly, the bridge was ‘Still there’ it isn’t now. Well you never know until you ask. Sixty feet of bridge, there is no harm in asking for it.

Another hazard of war is a mine field, I thought there was only one kind of mine, the one that blows up, but this film implies there might be a few types. I’m not sure what the writers meant by what was said in this part of the script. Sadly, with war there are casualties.

Now it seems like this film is slowly turning into ‘It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World’ with all the characters chasing after the gold including extra people along for the ride.

An amusing part, well I don’t think it is supposed to be ‘A communications officer who cannot communicate’. When on the radio in war time, you may want to be careful who else is listening. This is another amusing part to watch. It is surprising the thought of gold can induce enthusiasm, even with the wrong end of the stick.

If there is one thing to be said about this film, it is they stay focused on the mission and it was pure gold, also stay positive.

The Written Podcast: Can’t Pass Every Test First Time

Tests are specifically designed to be difficult. That may sound like an obvious statement, but there is a reason why they need to be designed to… well, test you; they need to challenge your knowledge on the subject at hand. You need to learn as much as you can about your chosen subject in order to get as many correct answers as possible in order to pass the test. The thing is, not every test has answers you need to write down, but instead require a practical element which need to be completed up to a certain standard in order to pass.

We are required to tests all throughout our lives. At school, at college, at university, at work, outside of work; tests can come in all shapes and sizes, with varying levels of difficulty depending on what it is you want to do. It’s commonly parodied that tests in school are about stuff you’re never going to use in everyday life, but it recently occurred to me that, that’s the point. Math tests are specifically designed not to test what you know, but instead on how you need to solve the problems. Sure, quadratic equations aren’t going to come up once you’ve walked out of school, but knowing how to solve the equations do mean a lot. Knowing how to solve those equations is helping you learn how to solve problems. As long as you get the right answer, you can solve the equation in any way you want, and then show them how you solved the equation. They’re testing you on how much knowledge you’ve gained on how best to solve problems, because funnily enough in the big wide world problems are going to crop up literally every single day. Granted, they may not be math tests, but by passing the maths test you’ve proven to yourself you’re capable of thinking of a logical solution to a problem.

Some tests however, are literally just asking you to prove how much you’ve learnt. Multiple choice questions are famous for tricking you by wording their questions in such a way that requires you to read them several times, the answers being so similarly worded it’s difficult to distinguish them apart. I’ve never once come across a multiple choice test where all the answers are “C”, but you see it all the time in media where it is – and sometimes when taking a multiple choice question and you’ve selected the same letter for two or more questions in a row, of course the logical thought would be if you’ve gotten at least one of them wrong.

The physical tests may be literally anything. The first example which came to mind was my driving test, which I passed way back in 2012. It was during my second attempt, but I passed. I proved to the driving examiner that I am capable of driving a car on my own. The first test I took in which I failed, I misjudged another car at a roundabout. They had their left indicator on so naturally I believed they would be turning left but instead they were going straight ahead – I pulled out and the examiner was forced to hit the brakes, triggering an instant failure. On my second attempt, when I came up to the same roundabout, luckily there weren’t a single car for me to misread.

When we go in for a test, of course we want to pass. The feeling of passing a test is exhilarating. It’s a massive weight of your shoulders, you can now relax knowing you don’t have to go through that again, so it’s perfectly understandable to feel gutted and disappointed when you’re unfortunate enough to not pass on the first attempt. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t, that’s just how life works. Failing a test just means you’ve got to subject yourself to further pressure, which can increase in power as you really don’t want to fail a second time – so when you pass that second time the relief can equally be as strong.

But here’s the thing. I’ve learnt this from my driving experience, but it is relevant in pretty much every area you’re required to take a test in. The real test comes once you’ve passed the test. I know, almost sounds contradictory, but hear me out:

During your driving lessons and your driving test, you’ve got someone sitting beside you with a brake pedal ready for whenever you make a mistake. They’ll stop you in an instant, and sometimes they have to explain what you did wrong, because when they hit the brakes, it’s always a shock. You pull off from wherever you are, with confidence, and then suddenly your face is pressed up against the steering wheel as a result of your instructor or examiner performing the hardest emergency stop known to man. Once you’ve passed your test, you no longer have anyone beside you capable of hitting any brakes, just a passenger you’ll be along for the ride. Just because you’ve proven to be capable of driving a car during test conditions, the real confidence boost begins as during all those lessons and tests, you’ve always had that subconscious thought of their being a second brake just in case anything goes pear shape, when on your own, you have to rid that thought from your mind and focus purely on the road ahead. The most important post-test lesson I’ve learnt when driving on the road is, if you drive as your examiner is expecting you to, you’ll crash before you even get to the end of your road. When driving, it’s not about keeping an eye on what you’re doing well, it’s about looking at other people.

This lesson can be attached to everything you do in life. Once you’ve passed the test, the real test begins. And I can safely say with absolute confidence, that when you’re presented with these post-tests tests, you’re not going to pass every single one of them first time. As my boss once told me, “it’s not about passing or failing, it’s about how much you’ve learnt so you can pass next time.”

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Film of the Week: Alita – Battle Angel

The technical marvels this film has is outstanding. James Cameron may not have been the director of this film, but his stamp has been securely pressed on this film. As a director, James Cameron loves pushing the envelope on what can be achieved with computer animation, even being patient enough to wait years for motion capture technology to catch up to his monumental Avatar film, which successfully held the record as highest grossing film for 10 years straight before Avengers Endgame dropped it down to second place. Needless to say, James Cameron having made two films to be the first and second highest grossing films – the second being Titanic, is one heck of an achievement.

Terminator 2’s CGI effects still hold strong with today’s standards. It’s common for what was considered to be the pinnacle to look outdated and a little frayed around the edges compared to today’s crystal clear effects. Yet, the seamless way he integrated all the effects not only in Terminator 2, but also in Titanic, where if I weren’t told, would have believed it wasn’t computer effects, but instead a full model. Whilst a model was built for some scenes, a CGI recreation for most of the wide angle shots was used to highlight the moments which couldn’t have been properly recreated with practical effects due to the nature of how the ship sunk.

Alita – Battle Angel is yet another ground-breaking masterpiece in which the motion capture technology is wondrous. It’s a beautiful, majestic film.

Live-actions anime films, especially made in America, has a synonymous curse to that of a live-action reaction of a video game – it doesn’t go down well with the audience. The American adaptation of Death Note is a perfect example of the curse, since it changes light too much. In fact, put them two beside each other, you wouldn’t put them both in the same character category. One screams his head off at everything, whilst the real Light is a cool, calm, character. Alita – Battle Angel has come under some pressure from the fan base of the manga and anime, which is understandable. An adaptation does exactly what it says on the tin, it adapts, therefore it changes certain elements depending on what format it’ll be presented in. However, it has been well-received as well, more so than any other American live-action anime film has ever had the pleasure of having.

Could it be because of the technological elements overshadowing everything else, preventing us from seeing the truth within, or is it, generally, a good film. If you pay attention to the story and character development, you’ll see that there really is that much of it. Alita’s story arc does jump forward a bit in some scenes, and her arc doesn’t necessarily go anywhere notable by the end of the film, and some fans have criticised the character to being overpowered, defeating the necessity of any struggle her character finding out who she is would normally have.

When I saw this film, I did see the justification behind those arguments, but also noted one strong counterargument which balances the whole film out for me. She is overpowered, she doesn’t need much character development other than remembering who she is, because of her extraordinary training she had before she lost her memories. Gradually, when cornered, Alita would remember her training and perform some immense moves against her enemies. Amnesia is a tricky subject to fully get right, but the way they tackled the subject in this film by having it come back in waves, was perfect for the type of person she was, and complemented and justified the training she had. My only criticism with this film is that her backstory wasn’t as fleshed out as it could have been to explain better why she doesn’t need as much development, and why she was overpowered; once she remembered who she was, that was all the development she needed.

I absolutely loved this film, not only for the technology, but because it is also an easy watch. I just wish it went on longer, but understandably, it couldn’t as the film cost an extraordinary amount of money just to make it 2 hours, let alone 2 and a half, or longer. Hopefully we would get a sequel. Then her true development arc would begin.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Mum's Monday: Meet Me in Manhattan by Claudia Carroll

Warning Spoilers

It is not the best of starts to a book, as in the storyline, not how well it is written or described and you do want to find out what happens next.

I like how chapter three is set out as, online dating messaging. This is a realistic and modern book. If there is one of many things that gets a book/storyline or radio show phone in going, you could say dating, or as in this case, long distance online dating is near the very top of the list. The description of all the dating logistics is well written and shows that this book has been researched.

I am so glad that Holly didn’t pass up a fantastic leap forward in her career to go for a date with Andy. This book certainly shows the pitfalls of online dating.

The intrigue as to why Holly hates Christmas is long and drawn out, we get just a snippet of an idea of why but so far up to chapter eleven we are yet to find out the exact reason. This part of the storyline keeps me as the reader, reading.

In chapter thirteen, now what I have always said about New York city is ‘What you see is what you get’ I have been to New York and having seen it in movies and on poster/pictures amongst other things the Manhattan skyline is very familiar. Now in this chapter the almost exact same thing is said using different wording of course. I like the fact that the familiarity has been picked up and enhanced in this story. Showing and making a connection with me as the reader.

The reason Holly is in New York is a good one and I want to read on to see how Holly’s mission works out. We still don’t know why Holly doesn’t like Christmas but I hope we find out in good timing because to draw it out too much would be boring but too mention it too quick would be a silly blurt out and disastrous. There are still snippets of information being fed and interweaved into the nature of this book, but only just enough relevant to the story. An interesting book.

Well I didn’t see that coming, a life lesson be careful who you are talking to/meet online. I am glad that it was mentioned about the lawfulness side of things, people need to know, but in Holly’s case it is ok as it was just conversation and didn’t escalate further. Harry is not going to be let off the hook though by his family.

An amusing part, well not to begin with, Holly and Mike are at Grand Central Station. There is sadly a reference to it basically, there was talk of it being demolished and as Holly puts it about the amazing architecture being ‘Skipped’. This made me think sadly, laughingly ‘How many skips would it take to carry away the Grand Central Station rubble away? A lot. Thankfully the building was saved and still amazes people to this day.

It is nice to see Holly, being in another busy place, realising that the Christmas 24 hours doesn’t have to be, what could only be described as a ‘Duvet day’.

It is still Christmas day, Holly has had a few too many cocktails. The reading of drunk Holly flows realistically well, short of telling Mike she loves him a load of confessions are revealed. We almost get to the reason Holly hates Christmas, but alas chapter twenty-three comes around all too quickly.

Over the next few chapters there are ups and downs. It is sad, that yes Holly has to get back to home to work. This book/storyline is good at keeping the reader in suspense, whether it is Holly’s past or what has Harry been up to and what are now the consequences? It turns out that ‘Captain Andy McCoy’ has been busy.

I wandered what the term ‘Catfish’ meant, now I know for sure. Now this story has really taken off, there is a life lesson in this part, from tracking where computers are being used to a full blown media storm, this is what modern times allow us to do now. I do wander is Holly had of gone with the story it may not have gotten so far out of control and she could have controlled it herself, but I can see as yes, for the sake of Harry’s family and decency, although it comes at a price.

We do find out why Holly hated Christmas, the timing and how it could have been written/included in the storyline could have been a little better. To include it in a dream seems a waste of a chapter, only to have it mentioned that she tells Mike on the plane anyway, that would have been a better time to write it and a little less clichéd.

Ultimately we see family come above all else in the end.