My pandemic

Well, keeping my fingers crossed, I guess we can say the pandemic is over right? Unless Monkeypox becomes the new hotness and we all will die… again…

*sigh*

When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was slightly relieved. Not because of the disease itself and the deaths it brought, but more about the social adaptation our society had to endure. Here in the Netherlands we also had lockdowns, but they were less strict compared to other countries. We worked from home and we were still allowed to walk in nature, meet your direct family members and get groceries. And for me this was more than enough. I guess I’m a bit of an introvert and avoid most social interactions, even though I can fake being sociable when required.

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My Christmas quest

I love Christmas and it isn’t just because of the presents, which now that I am older I no longer get, but it is for “the season”. Early December it starts here in The Netherlands. You can see the decorations everywhere and the cheerful music which gets played more on the radio and in shopping centers. It is just a period of positivity.

This of course being a pandemic, being positive can be challenging at times. But whenever I feel dark and gloomy, I put up a nice new Christmas movie, which this year for me was 8-bit Christmas.

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My technological philosophy

The problem with movies which have to make (a lot of) promotion before it hits the cinema, is the need for teasers and trailers. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, if you are capable of teasing just enough without giving away any plot points. Marvel Studios has made this into an art, usually only showing footage of the first 15 minutes of movies, shooting extra scenes for trailers or using CGI to modify trailers, just to keep enough surprises for the audience. 

If you are reading this, I am hoping you haven’t seen any promotional footage of The Matrix Resurrections, because if you haven’t you will be in for a nice ride, if you have seen trailers you might have been spoiled too much. Click on to read some of my spoiler free thoughts after seeing the movie. 

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My old friends

Growing up I didn’t have much of a social life. I am a bit of an introvert and was content playing with my LEGO and computer/console games. The small group of “friends” I did have were all related to my (mandatory) sports, chess or a couple of my classmates.

Fast forward a few years and most of what I knew back then concerning social interactions and how relationships work, came from tv series like Dawson’s Creek, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and of course Friends.

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My new world

As a kid I loved anything Disney, Marvel or DC related. I was also very fond of anime series like Spider-Man, X-Men, Dragonball, Pokemon, Battletech or Gundam. When it came to movies, the ones that stuck with me were James Bond, Home Alone, Star Wars and anything Van Damme, Schwarzenegger or Stallone. However there was this one Disney movie that was dear to me: Aladdin.

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My identity crisis

I’m still a bit shocked… trying to put to words of what I’ve just saw. But let me first try to begin at the beginning. On the podcast Fake Doctors Real Friends (episode 403) Zach Braff suggested everyone to watch Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself. After seeing it, I just had to write something straight away… because what I’m feeling is so profound.

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My Hakuna Matata

Disney has been on a role when it comes remaking their classics into live-action movies. Not all of them are a great success though, but I don’t think that is actually the idea behind most of these remakes. I am over 35 years old and I’ve seen many of the classics in either cinema or at home when it was released on VHS tape. However I’m not sure that kids nowadays still re-watch the (old) classics. Enter the remakes…

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My COVID entropy

Trying to live your life during a pandemic is odd, sure you somehow have more time to pursue hobbies or binge through that backlog of yours on Netflix (or any other streaming service). But because of the pandemic not much is happening entertainment wise, many movies and shows have been postponed or stopped filming and at a certain moment in time you start longing for fresh new content.

The big Hollywood bosses decided that Tenet and Mulan would be the first movies to figure out how people would respond if new content gets released. Disney did not believe that people would go to the cinemas and went with a VIP-pass on top of your Disney+ subscription allowing you to “buy” their new blockbuster movie Mulan. Warner Bros. believed a slow roll-out throughout the world would be the right way for their movie Tenet. So do we feel safe enough to go back to the cinemas?

My friend and I are avid moviegoers and throughout the year we will look at the list of upcoming movies and determine if they are worth seeing in the cinemas, wait for it to hit streaming services or just ignore it. Tenet was one of those movies on that list so when Warner Bros. decided to finally release it we wanted to go as soon as possible. But… COVID is still a thing…

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