[ANIMATION] April and the Extraordinary World / Avril et le monde truqué (2015)

It's 1941 but France is trapped in the nineteenth century, governed by steam and Napoleon V, where scientists vanish mysteriously. Avril, a teenage girl, goes in search of her missing scientist parents.

#sci-fi, steampunk, adventure

This was so INTERESTING!

French can do it. Also, the French dark humor is chef's kiss~.

And I'm being honest, despite some of the obvious conveniences, overall it's such a unique story and unique-looking style. Maybe for French viewers it won't be something out of ordinary, but I'm impressed. Because I love animation and it's always nice to see something that sticks out from the oridnary.

Avril lives in a world alternate to ours, where steam machines integrated and vastly influences Earth as a whole. Paris is a huge city full of concrete and iron pipes, it's all grey and desolate, since all the trees were wiped out. Literally. The heavy smog hovers in the sky, making people wear protective gear like gas masks. No one had made a grand scientific discovery in years, since all the scientists are kidnapped by unknown organization or they're made to work for the Empire and also disappear. 

I love it when the idea behind a story is simple. In this case even ironic. The disappearance of the living world of flora and fauna is directly connected to humanity's overconsumption, but at the same time it is the result of all the scientists being kidnapped and not making new discoveries. And there is of course a secret behind disappearance (in spoilers).

Avril had lived alone since her parents disappeared, her family are all prominent scientists and they worked on some absolute solution, a potion that will allow a living organism to regenerate and survive in the harshest environment.

Avril only has a talking cat Darwin that was with her for all these years and Avril continues to replicate the potion for the sake of Darwin's survival. Only to find herself involved in the disappearance of scientists and a big plan behind it.

The animation is amazing. When I saw the poster with two Eiffel towers I was like - heck yeah, I want to see it, also all that steampunk gear, so exciting. The style is disticnt thanks to the style of Tardi (also illustrated Adèle Blanc-Sec, which I reviewed a while ago), the colors are bold, as well as lines of artwork. The atmosphere is immersive thanks to many details that happen in the background. For example like pedestrian wear masks or how a black dust flies when Avril dusts her jacket, to showcase how heavy the smog is. Overall despite how desolate and bare the city of Paris looks like, it also looks quite cool with all the piping and steam.

I think even if technical part uses a lot of conveniences (like for example the world looks desolate, but what about food and crops, it is not mentioned) you can let it go while watching, because it just looks cool. Some are made outright funny, but I did laugh at them instead of being - well, this is ridiculous. Indeed, and this is why it made me smile.

Because why not?

SPOILERS:

It's not really hard to connect the dots when you see two intelligent (able of speaking and thinking) lizards escape from a scientist's lab (Avril's ancestor) and from then on scientists around the world started to disappear and the progress stopped. But this also triggered the ecological devastation. But when you think about the "big plan" by these two lizards you'd say - what?

Because indirectly their actions caused the world to be devastated and they claimed how people will kill each other one day, while they want to save the planet and spread the trees to make the earth almost into a jungle and because the jungle will be injected with the potion it will not be damaged or destroyed an dwill be regenerating, marking a new era. This is why I say it's ironic, you blame humanity, while these two lizards caused so much harm as well.

Ridiculous part is also about the very ending when all their children started fighting against each other.

Ironic, isn't it?

So overall I really enjoyed it 😄

RATE: 9/10.

[ANIMATION] Ernest & Celestine / Ernest et Célestine (2012)

This is so adorable!

The story is a bit bizarre to me, but overall it was heart-warming and great. The animation is amazing, care for details is fantastic. A lot of humorous moments to enjoy.

A story about unlikely friendship between Ernest, the bear, and a young mouse Celestine.

French can really do it. It's the third French animation movie I watch in the span of last two months and I liked them all.

I started watching not knowing a single thing about this story, so imagine my surprise seeing that it will involve teeth.

The short gist of it is bears live on the surface, they love sweets (obviously) and thus they loose teeth from time to time. Then we have mice who live underground, they built everything thanks to their teeth, but when a mouse looses their teeth it's basically game over, thus they need teeth and they take it - of course from bears. So bears have a legend of "mouse-fairy" although they don't welcome real mice.

Celestine is one of those who travels to the surface in search of teeth. Encountering a problem she is stuck in a garbage bin.

Then we have Ernest, he is living alone far from the city, waking up before spring he feels so hungry that he decided to go to the city and perform.

When nothing comes out of it he searches the garbage and finds Celestine.

In this case Celestine is a pretty smart mouse, really witty, while Ernest is more like a happy-go-lucky and loud.

She helps him open a window to sweets warehouse. She helps him again when he is arrested and makes him make a promise that he will help her in return.

In between first and second instance we see the way the mice live underground, it's pretty neet I'd say. But she as a collector of teeth is sent back to bring back at least 50 for her night failure (after all she was stuck in a garbage bin). She saw that across the sweets shop is a shop that offers teeth and they have lots of them. So she asks Ernest to rob it at night.

So you can guess these two are quite involved in criminal activities aahahha

Yet since Ernest helped her bring back the heavy load he slept underground and of course the mice noticed him (pretty cool animation moments) and a swarm of them chased after him. They came t the surface and while trying to escape they stole a van :'D I can't. The way the police bear chased them ahaha

The two managed to escape and came to Ernest's house where they spent time.

So the two through time developed this unlikely friendship through adversities. Both felt the same way, a bit lonely and feeling they don't belong among others.

All ends well, even too welland the two actually live together as two happy friends.

Want to note that although they are antropomorph animals, they still have a bit of their animal traits, especially Celestine. She won't just stand in front of the house, she can climb it. So they included a lot of such details throughout the story.

Also this has other movie and also a TV series released later.

RATE: 10/10.

[Chinese BL novel] 影帝只想咸鱼 by 日光融融 / The movie star just wants to be a salted fish

I actually read this back in 2021, I know this because I had a post made about it. And judging by what I wrote back in 2021 I didn't like it that much. But now I'm reading it and I think it's okay. This is such a bizarre feeling.

Summary: Getting his Best Actor award accomplished actor Zhu Yu suddenly meets an accident and is transported into a novel where he becomes an "illegitimate" child of the Zhu family, gloomy and unlikable little person who was taken to Zhu family half-through, but of course no one welcomed him, even his own father often had different reactions, but mainly couldn't cease to lecture him all the time.

Zhu Yu knows that the OG followed the protagonist group and liked Zhou Ming, but of course his feelings would never be reciprocated. He also will have a fateful meeting with Zhou Jiarong, Zhou Ming's uncle, who has a specific condition where he has trouble sleeping, but being around MC helps to relieve it.

Zhu Yu is pretty positive about his new life, he wants to stay away from the protagonist group and actually wants to study, what he lacked in his previous life as an orphan.

Who knew his path will cross with Zhou Hiarong so early and this will lead to a new home filled with understanding and love.

Ironically, this is one of the authors I'm following on JJ. So I happily read them.

I can understand my previous irritability, probably caused by reading many similar novels and being done with tropes and cliche. After re-reading it (because I wanted to read some nice BL story) I realized that I quite like it.

Surely, it has a lot of casual tropes and popular things, but I think the characters are great and it all flows nicely. I admit that I was quite harsh on it before. Was my mood that bad at the time lol.

Characters:

Zhu Yu (MC) he is quite remarkable. Very positive and pretty lively personality. He lived long enough and survived in entertainment industry without being marred. Now he has a new life he cherishes and he also can study. Although he has a lot of skills he brought with himself he never shows off, they just come around from time to time. In previous review I said these things were brought up in abrupt way, but I do not agree with my past self, because he mentions from time to time that he learnt skills and took liberty hiring professionals even for smallest roles, so we can guess his approach and that he has many tricks up his sleeve.

Zhou Jiarong (ML) is a bit typical domineering CEO, but not really at the same time. Surely he has some sad past because his mother was a second wife, she wasn't loved, the same goes for him. Even if he is an adult who rules the Zhou family, others might say he guards it for his eldest brother, who actually looks down on him. He has quite a cold personality, but it is explained by his upbringing. Now when he met Zhu Yu he saw a lively and smart young man who is worthy of raising. He knew that Zhu Yu's experience in the Zhu household was far from ideal, thus when Zhu Yu found himself in predicament he reached out to help.

Zhu family, I think they don't appear much, only few times just to spice things up or progress the plot. Like stepmother Feng Wan who is always hostile to MC let it slip that she is the one who interfered in the relationship of Zhu Yu's mom and his biological father. Others consider Zhu Yu as illegitimate child, but he's actually not.

Zhu Shaoran is the typical small animal, looking as if the whole world wronged him type of character. It's not that he doesn't change, he does with time, but the story doesn't include him much. He had a lot of misconception about Zhu Yu for a very long time, also because of his attitude OG Zhu Yu was scorned by others, so that's a "kind protagonist" for you.

Zhou Ming, also does not participate much I'd say, he admires his uncle and thinks what his grandfather and father do is too much, but he's still a kid. He is a dignified young master, but not that follows tha illogical route, which is prevelent in such books where characters don't know right from wrong.

Jin Shengchi maybe has the biggest transformation. He has that braindead flavor when it comes to Shaoran, since he considers him weak and incapable from guarding from someone cunning like Zhu Yu, but with new Zhu Yu who kept to himself and changed he started from agression to eventually admitting he was wrong and wanting to be friends (boy probably didn't realize his attraction), but it was partially too late. Zhu Yu didn't like his character much, but wouldn't make things difficult or ugly either.

There is also a bunch of other extra characters who circle in this universe.

Relationship:

Is the focal point of the story tbh. We spend a lot of time witnessing the development of how relationship between Zhu Yu and Zhou Jiarong transforms.

It has a bit os misunderstanding taste at first. Like, for example, we as readers know that Zhu Yu does not really need anyone's protection, but Jiarong is differet, he knows that Zhu Yu was abused at the Zhu house, so he sees this liveliness differently.

What is remarkable in a way is how Jiarong starts from truly raising Zhu Yu as a kid, he sees his potantial and doesn't want him to be submerged in the Zhu family's quigmire. Of course the fact that Zhu Yu can help him get rid of insomnia is part of the deal, but his feelings are genuine.

Zhu Yu is probably the only one who has such a connection with him, treats him like normal. They truly care for each other.

Note: some may not like the fact that Jiarong has used a ruler on Zhu Yu, but the purpose of it was purely educational, since Jiarong wanted Zhu Yu to continue work hard and correct his mistakes. A lot of people think that parenting should be soft, but how can you built a stronger character and resilience if you allow a person everything. Because Zhu Yu indeed lied when he promised not to or fought when he promised not to. Jiarong was afraid he would grow crooked, he repeated many times that Zhu Yu can do anything, but never grow crooked. But he still used it only a couple of time and later could not bring himself using it again.

Also, the fact that Jiarong suddenly felt the surge of feelings for Zhu Yu (physical) did not make him happy at all. He immediately distanced himself. He is not some abstinent CEO and acknowledges the presence of physical need, but not with Zhu Yu for sure. After all he didn't bring Zhu Yu for him to become a little wife. So he didn't make any moves. 

The development from here basically depends on their discovering feelings for each other. And everything follows quite a step by step motion.

I'd say it's not bad, since even if the entire book focuses on these two, but they don't have this instant come together moment and you have to read really far to get there. So yeah.

One thing I do admit that after reading I did feel like some characters are there just to move the plot forward and when they were done with their role they disappeared.

Another point I do not appreciate, but it was handled with more or less care is that two from the protagonist group eventually fall for Zhu Yu, but the thing is it's the new Zhu Yu they appreciate and cherish. He is indeed someone truly likable, but it also put the original boy down a bit. Even if author did not really bring him for harsh comparison. On the contray commenting on his unfortunate fate.

But I prefer when someone who might fall for the MC but who is not a designated ML to have a moment of peace and they don't develop into some love-crazed maniac as if love becomes everything for them. The two have their hearts broken because someone was there first.

So all in all it was okay. Had some good moments.

RATE: 3,5/5.

[SHORT REVIEWS] #30

I feel like I've been lucky, few of these are on-going, so it's more like first impressions (but I crave to read more). I wish they'll end up as good as the beginning.

I actually took a new hobby of updating old "short reviews" posts where I add the progress, especially if things changed.

NOVELS

CHN

[BG] 穿书后反派将我视若珍宝 by 今妤希 *JJ

(mtl: After transmigrating into a book, the villain treated me like a treasure)

Status: Completed

Year: 2025 

Summary: Lin Zhiyu travels to a book, but she read only spoilers and does not know much of the plot, she thinks she got the protagonist with her, but Shen Yanli happens to be the villain of the story.

Abandoning the idea of helping the protagonist Zhiyu starts to help the villain become the final winner.

I honestly simplified the contents of the summary and also of course did not write or copy the official summary which looks commercialized.

This story is quite compelling and is quite emotional from the very beginning. It does nothing spectacular in terms of prose (though what would I know, I read the mtl :) ), but it hit me in the heart while reading. It's very concise and does not dwell much, so I consider it fast-paced enough. Like the initial misunderstanding, the realization that this plot isn't simple, realizing she married a villain, abandoning the protagonist and vowing to fight with Shen Yanli happens in first 10+ chapters.

What I mean by not simple plot is that you realize pretty soon that this is not first, but a second timeline. In the first timeline I assume Zhiyu misunderstood the villain and still married him, but later tried to strike a deal with the protag (who is a scumbag, big douch I tell you) and confessed to her knowledge, was used, she also was used against Shen Yanli who fell for her and this is why in that timeline she died and the villain lost. Now she returned to the very beginning. At first she had no memory, maybe doesn't realize her dreams are her memories, but it punches in the gut the way it is described. She was too far into this deal to separate herself and the protag can easily dirty his hands with kidnapping or murder. The protag actually had his entrance into the story and already acted disgustingly. Even then FMC was like - I want to talk to him. At which point I honestly was on the edge, I was hoping author would not go that way and author did not disappoint. First of all, she had those dreams and was overfilled with emotions towards Shen Yanli, so most likely this will be love from the very beginning. Second of all, protag created an incident thus basically putting Zhiyu on the opposite side.

Zhiyu actually confessed to everything about the plot to Yanli, but he answered that he does not believe in fate. Yet both joined hands and plan to deal with protag together.

[BG] 白月光和替身联手整顿虐文[娱乐圈] by 雪龄 *JJ

(mtl: White moonlight and her stand-in team up to clean up the messy angsty romance novel)

Status: On-going

Summary: An Suiqing found out that she is a white moonlight in a tragic romance novel.

An Suiqing: Who? Me?

She is now bound to a system that forces her to follow the script. She was pretty fine by herself, she moved abroad, she had a company, but because of this system her luck crashed into negative and to restore everything she has to follow the script. 

But it doesn't mean she can't completely deviate, right?

With time everyone waited how she and the girl will fight each other for a man, but as a result the two became besties and Bai Qianqian would not allow anyone to badmouth her friend Qingqing.

IF YOU HATE FORCED PLOTS I KNOW GIRL I HATE THEM TOO BUT!!! HeAR Me OUT!!

Things change rather quickly, it won't take long before things start to change and the bond starts to form in first chapters between the two.

I also was so disappointed when I saw the fact that the system intervened into Qingqing's life. MY LIVER ACHED! It was so infuriating!! But then things changed rapidly and I sighed with relief, since I hate forced plots and following the plot the most, on paper it's not funny at all.

The situation is as follows. An Suiqing indeed dated the man in question, but she moved on and moved out. Later QianQian and her ex came together, so now everyone is clammoring that she is a mistress who came to destroy a good marriage. The secret to their relationship is that both of the girls sat at the same desk in school, so they know each other.

With the involvement of Qingqing she kinda follows the prompts, but she also does things outside of that and it changes the plot instantly.

The female friendship, we're waiting for it!!

So far I have no idea if there will be romance for any of them, because it may be as well as veiled lily or no CP, but again authors choose romance genre, even it may not end up this way.

(god, this author chose these elaborate colors, but I heard it reminds people of some product, brand? anyway)

[BL] 权臣穿进豪门养子文学 by 二月竹 *JJ

(mtl: Powerful minister transmigrates and becomes anadopted son of a wealthy family)

note: usually on-going novels get their titles changed during publishing time, so this may not end up being the final title, just saying.

Status: On-going (very fresh at the time of me posting this)

Summary: Why the latest novels I pick up have longer and longer titles. I think only the romance section has a lot of short, normal sounding titles.

Anyway THIS IS MESSY, I tell you, this is DRAMAtic circumstances. My favorite author knows how to do things ahahaha

So the MC is called Xiao Lanyue (hope I didn't butcher his name), he was a powerful minister in ancient times, but because he was crippled in an accident he drank poison. His accident was man-made and his place was given to one of his brothers, but he himself asked to be a teacher to unloved prince - Lu Ao (ML).

Both eventually rose to prominence with him teaching and strategizing, so MC is very intelligent and beautiful (I wish the emphasis on his beauty will be toned down tbh).

He knew Lu Ao was gay, but he was oblivious that the person he loved was himself.

Lanyue transmigrates and here is the MESSY situation he's in.

His father is gay and he and his ex-boyfriend both entered marriages for obvious reasons (basically to swindle kids). Almost at the same time their wives had children. His ex was dying and asked to take care of his son. Here comes the disgusting idea to his head, he changes the children (though it shouldn't have happened so easily, they were birthed at different time, like months apart?) he takes the child of his ex home, later he takes his own son home and reveals as if his son is his illegitimate son, so the entire family will hate him, but will love the child of his ex. While he himself pretends to shower Lanyue with fake affection just to make matters worse. No one doubted anything. No one even knows that this disgusting piece of shit covets the child of his ex. And this is how Lanyue died, he was drowned by his own father because that witnessed him jacking off to Anfeng (the ex's kid).

On top of that, his eldest brother knew the truth but because he fell for Anfeng he continued to conceal it.

Their mother always thought he was a mistress' child, so she actually poisoned him for years.

Anfeng always acted hurt, though he was emotionally hurt for real thinking his dad didn't love him. Not realizing what hides behind the scenes.

I WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS. This is horrible, but it's exciting at the same time.

Lanyue is very assertive and strategic, he is very meticulous about his actions and words, so I want to see him as he slowly gets revenge for the young man who was wronged for all these years. I root for him. No one should be spared lol.

On the other hand Lu Ao has transmigrated too.

Esciting, right? I think so too.

[BG] 我都要死了，打你怎么了！ by 千萌 *JJ

(*mtl: I'm going to die, so what if I hit you?!)

Status: On-going

note: it is a free novel and it is on-going (I know the status changed to complete, but there is no indication it was abandoned and the story is far from over), but I must warn anyone, at the moment of me typing this the novel had no updates for quite some time and who knows if it'll ever be finished.

Summary: Qi Qingzhu endured it all, but what she got was a diagnosis, she has little time left to live and her endurance was all for nothing. Her biased mother, her hypocritical father, her crazed brother and hypocritical adopted daughter. She wants to see it burn. She doesn't care to keep up with this facade.

The situation in this family is really messy~ Philandering father brought back the illegitimate daughter with his "true love" who died. This daughter has no idea she's a biological child, she is always preoccupied this is why she wants to secure her future and seduce her brother she thinks is non-biological one. Mother knows that this daughter is the illegitimate daughter, but she always fawns over her because her life depends on her philandering husband. Brother is of course in love with adopted daughter, but he doesn't know and has no idea why both parents are so protective of this daughter. Thing is, both siblings will go south when it comes to compare them and illegitimate daughter. FMC knows the secret, she wanted to keep the two together, since she knew it was immoral, but now.. she actually condones it, wants to see them dig deeper into this mess.

A lot of time is also spent on Qingzhu's best friend, who changed and became love-obsessed woman, but I honestly liked this part since the portrayal of their relationship was good. Although Qingzhu said she won't let it bother her anymore, but she still had some human feelings for this relationship and gave few chances to her friend before giving up, since she always was there for her when she was beaten up by her bf, yet she still returned to him.

The ML of this story is the step-brother of FMC's best friend. They knew each other since they were little, had a separation time when both cared for school but now they got closer again. To FMC his home is a safe haven, since her own home is a mess and she doesn't want to deal with them. She told no one that she is terminally ill, since she doesn't want to be surrounded by their hypocritical care.

As for her fiance. Basically she was sold off to this family, she was chosen among others as a good wife candidate. Both she and her fiance had an agreement that even if it's a business marriage they will live their own life. Actually, their agreement is quite steady, since they don't care about each other. Well of course the guy starts to care later, but it's a different story. basically they wanted to drag it on and choose time when to separate. FMC wanted to go abroad, but now those plans are meaningless.

Although the plot and relationships sound so melodramatic there is actually enough care for caracter development and relationships.

[BL] 科研大佬魂穿假二代 by 词酒 *JJ

(mtl: Top researcher's soul transmigrates into a fake second-generation rich kid)

Status: Completed

I knew I started this one, I can also tell I never finished. I was checking bookmarks and saw that several don't have a mark on them if I added them to short reviews or posted reviews on NU. But I also did not remember a single thing about it before I read first few chapters.

To me this book is rather boring. I'm not against tech texts, it's just random to me. But the biggest question mark to me is actually the insta-love situation between two protagonists, not to mention they don't really have a basis for such strong feelings but they went from 0 to a 100.

So Zhou Cheng was tossed out from his family, because the real master demanded he leaves. Zhou Cheng changed his core at this moment and didn't care for these parents unlike the original. So he is tech savvy and can do what he wants. He goes to school and also slowly integrates into this world, while commenting how backword it is and which path to choose, since he wants to help every field to grow seeds of science (commendable tbh). While he lives in a rented apartment the landlady is a friend of his adoptive mother, he befriends or more like tutors her son - Cheng Yuan (ML). I don't understand medicine but Cheng Yuan has to stop doing sports due to the condition of his bones and instead will take exam like everyone else. During tutoring actually nothing happens much. But then MC notices ML (both are in high school mind btw, but he is older if we talk about years he lived) who is not so subtle. It felt more physical. And later when they wanted to come out to Yuan's mom, she separated them and here we have a shortest separation ever, since Yuan had a fight with his mom and she later came to her senses knowing how her son loves Zhou Cheng. But honestly it felt like this love came out of nowhere.

And considering that the plot with all the random tech moments is not exciting at all I had to put it down right at the same moment where I left last time. This part made me remember why I ever dnf'd it.

US

 

These are future releases, I wanted to add some contemporary romance for the summer, since I'd like to try other authors instead of popular ones. I must admit I am pretty indifferent towards omse of the popular authors, I might have tried a book or two, but I think I said it once, I prefer my romance to be romancing, I understand people try to include depth, but all that stuff about trauma does not help, because in several cases it's not the partner who helps to overcome everything, it's just there to be part of the story, just a tool. Like you're asking yourself - why is this in the romance category again?

ANIME

Skip to Loafer / スキップとローファー

I added this one to Tongari, which is the only anime I planned to watch this season, I'll try if it's good, I wanted to try another school romance, which I don't like and usually when I watch any of them I close it even before finishing the 1st episode. Illogical to hear me describe it like that, I am aware ahaha. But this one had good vibes. I felt for the FMC, such a nervous wreck. me too sis, me too.

[MOVIE] MICKEY 17 (2025)

I had no diea what to expect, except the trailer I watched and knew that Mickey agreed to be "Expandable" and did all the dangerous jobs on this ship / expedition. So every time he died, they printed him again.. and again. This was before Mickey 17 survived, came back and realized they printed a new version, which was a violation.

I can understand the dark comedy element in this movie, but most of it was a parody I'd say. A parody I didn't care about.

I liked the beginning, it started off good to give a backstory, the way the printer stuck at times was indeed funny, because it's pretty much real life. The concept itself, with a bunch of lousy "scientists" who looked like a bunch of youngsters who barely did their job right, pretty much real life. Of course they'd want to bring a person along. I thought why they don't have robots too, but I could see they wanted to experiment on a human they could experiment on.

This is where the dark comedy elements worked for me.

But then this Marshall or who the fuck he is came out and he is played by Ruffalo. And I don't even bother to type his last name right, I have this instinct aversion towards this man, unexplained. I don't know him, maybe he's the kindest person, but I just don't like him. Weird. And he also plays this parody on a polititian, which couldn't have been more obvious as a jab at Tr*mp. Even his fans wear the red caps.. how original.

Honestly these parts lost me, like I couldn't care less.

So a bunch of brainwashed people fly to a different planet in hopes of expansion under an idiot who always gives speeches as if the rally never ends. The big idiot does idiotic things and his minions are no better.

So...

These painfully obvious references or attempts to say something did not impress me. I just wonder if the book it's based on is same awfully painful and has so little to show when it comes to Mickey.

You know why I started to watch it in the first place? Because I was fascinated by the idea. You have this cool concept, which has a lot of room to play, not to mention the comedy part, but also interesting questions to ask yourself, especially when things go wrong and there are two Mickeys.

Pattinson did such a great job to distinct himself even through his voice, it was such an interesting character to follow, I wished to see more of this character and his sort of adventure. But alas.

RATE: 5/10. I ended up watching three movies in one night because I couldn't sleep.

[MOVIE] Project Hail Mary (2026)

You really can't hype it all.

I always heard that the book had some special "twist" in it, I heard it so many times that I couldn't help my expectations to be at least present.

But I didn't see it as that big of a twist, maybe books and movies are different, but honestly I thought that was the pretty obvious path that it might take?

So I watched the movie. The technical side of it sucked, not going to lie about that. But the alien was the best part. Oops, is it a spoiler? The poster says it all though. I think everyone knows by now.

SPOILERS:

Technical part: he won't be able to move or think normally after a coma, but the way movie starts.. oof. If not for cinema sins, but for science sins it'll be leading. That vodka after just waking up? Do you know what happens to muscles and the stomach after a coma that lasted this long? And this is just first few minutes.

In what fever dream that setting would be possible I don't know. What? Some organisms threaten the sun? Really? Okay~ as you say~.

It's also very Hollywood like they take a random teacher, who weren't random in his past but who cares (again, very Hollywood-like) to join the Project Hail Mary or a project to save the planet.

I will stop repeating that it's very Hollywood-like because there were too many scenes that are so classic for Hollywood. For example, they only prepare three people for the mission.. Are you kidding me? Shouldn't this be an important mission? Anyway. Why this reminded me of Armageddon while I was typing this..?

A whole bunch of scientists and Grace, who is very good with tape, try to figure things out. What it is, how can we fix it. because this unknown but very potent thing that appeared for unknown reason is killing all stars / planets.

Except for one and this is where our team will be going.

Back to Hail Mary. Grace wakes up from a coma, we remember, and finds out that he's the only one alive. Didn't catch if they ever explained why other two died.

Grace can't remember shit (something that others surely did not take into consideration), but tries to piece any information together. So we follow two timelines, on Hail Mary and memories on Earth.

Honestly, things get more interesting with unexpected contact and that is alien later known as Rocky. Honestly, best character of this movie. Too human for his own good. Rocky's planet faces the same predicament as Earth, so the two try to connect and communicate and later solve things together.

Pretty cute team. Again, skip all the technical stuff.

Technical stuff is replaced with visuals. A lot of cool visuals tbh.

And this is where the shit's about to go down. Of course it would, any part that involves some sort of big thing will always go out of hand, pretty normal if you ask me, no plan is a perfect plan. The only thing I question is how they survived that "taking the sample" part. But it's a movie and they do.

Tbh at this point Rocky is the hero of this movie.

From here everything seemed easy, like returning to the same point, each now getting ready to travel back, because thanks to Rocky, who is a champ, Grace can travel back. And everything went good before there was a leak, the substance they were looking for and sampled "escaped" the container, something that our Earth plastic and tape could fix, but here's the problem, Rocky doesn't know the danger and he has not plastic and tapes. So Grace decides to be a champ too and save his buddy.

Sending samples back to Earth (tbh was not surprised tha they just knocked him off and sent him to the ship, I thought it was obvious, considering one of the team members died in an accident), Grace changes course to Rocky.

Again very American style that everyone survives and everything is solved etc. Rocky and everyone on his planet even created a special place for Grace to live in (how, don't ask) they even fixed his ship. He even teaches small stone spider-like aliens Earth physics class.

Actually the bonding part was really the best part.

The visual part was quite stunning. 

The technical side used a lot of conveniences, obviously.

I don't know what I expected. A lot of people hyped it, especially because it became quite a popular pick. Everyone was so secretive about the plot of this novel when I first came across that I thought it had some dark secret, but no. Especially mentioning the twist. At least in the movie the twist was coming way before it happened, so can it be called a twist then?

All in all it was okay. Maybe I unknowingly had high expectations, could have watched it with more leisure if not for the tech part.

RATE: 7/10.

[ANIMATION] The SUMMIT of the GODS (2021)

It is called animated adventure drama.

Based on the Japanese manga. 'Le Sommet des Dieux' follows a story of journalist Fukamachi makoto who accidentally comes across a camera that might've belonged to George Mallory, who was rumored to be the first to climb mount Everest, but there is no solid proof, yet it is a known fact that he had a camera with him. The one who walks away with the camera Fukamachi believes to be Habu Joji, a mountain climber who once had a name, but Habu disappears right before his eyes and he does not know how to contact him or find him. The idea of seeing the film becomes his obsession, but he also follows the path of Habu Joji to figure out if he could find him through old contacts. This is how we see Habu Joji who was always obsessed with climbing and only saw a new goal after standing at the top of the mountain.

Fukamachi realises that Habu still climbs and not only, he might want to do the impossible solo climb of mount Everest and he wants to be there for that moment.

Note: My description would make anyone confused, it's not that important how Fukamachi was in a bar and some random man heard him talking about photos and he offered him a camera, Fukamachi was dismissive - like hey dude, not interested in your scam. But when he walked out he saw in the alley how the same man who offered him camera was confronted and threatened by someone unknown (it was dark). The unknown man got the camera and told the dude to disappear, while Fukamachi was witnessing this scene and thought of interfering the conflict was resolved an dhe finally saw the face of this unknown man, so looking at his missing fingers and his face he came to conclusion that he reminded him of Habu Joji, but when he came to his senses and tried to chase after him, he saw that he missed his chance and this is how his investigation of Habu Jojis life in an attempt to find him came to be.

The story mainly follows the two timelines, one of Fukamachi investigating and following the path of Habu through reports and newspapers, while the other timeline shows the path of Habu Joji from his young age, to the way he was always more of a loner and strived to climb higher and higher among people who did not share the same passion. The drama of losing someone during climbing or being stranded himself. Which still did not stop him.

I must say I really liked the switch between the two timelines, it was directed really well. because what Fukamachi held in his hands were reports. For example, Joji and his partner climbed some dangerous mountain in winter, which was never done before. And we see a small article about it in Fukamachi's hands as a result of their success. Then we see how Joji met some man who asked him for his climb and who was more interested in how he had done it. Eventually Joji was so passionately telling everything he figured from that climb, what followed is that man who listened to him attempted to climb the same place solo and Fukamachi held a magazine that covered the story with the man's photo on the cover. I liked the attention to such details, because one news is worth celebrating more than the other in terms of significance according to news outlets.

Fukamachi finds Habu in a village closes to his target place and finds out that Habu has been there for years and tried to achieve his goal few times, but without success.

Fukamachi following along Joji's path and this climb is the final part of the movie.

It is very atmospheric. There is a sense of awe and also dread, the danger is always there, no matter how silent the mountains can be. The magnitude of mountains and the insignificance of a human being.

Really made me think of how much work may go into a single photo, especially if it's something in connection with nature.

I'm not surprised by that ending. It brings the story to its' conclusion. But does the path end here?

I think the two Fukamachi and Joji were like kindred spirits without realizing it. Fukamachi is passionate about scoop and taking a good picture, props to him, he actually went through dangerous situations. But he still couldn't get the feeling Joji had for climbing. What is so special about it. Though through the final experience he came close to realization and I'm not saying he inherited the mantle, but he later climbed not for the scoop.

The only thing I kinda want to nitpick about and not at the same time is color palette. The animation is amazing, so don't get me wrong, but the color palette is pretty much the same for everything, with slight difference (like before and during the climb). I'm not talking about that. My only wish was to make the scenes of reaching the summit more special? Because they looked like any other view in the movie. Though at the same time I think that maybe this was the point in a way? I'm pulling excuses out of thin air maybe, but that's what Habu meant when he said he can't give answer in what they see at the top of the mountain and what is so special and why they want to risk for it.

RATE: 9/10.