Book Review – The Disappearing Spoon

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sam Kean does another good job of making a scientific discipline accessible, this time bringing wit and history to bear on the chemistry and physics of the periodic table. Despite his best efforts, some of the doings of subatomic particles remained elusive. But I was fascinated by the personalities and processes that organized the table and put the elements in their places.

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Review – The Green Knight

I’m guessing I would have found this beyond bewildering if I hadn’t just watched Dorsey Armstrong’s 24-part Great Course on Arthurian legends. And even so, I thought this was just pretty rather than pretty good. Imagine the Renaissance Festival getting high on mushrooms and just kinda drifting from plot point to plot point for awhile. And I can’t say much about the cliché ending without giving it away, so you’ll just have to be disappointed with it on your own. Mildly amusing

Review – Tron: Ares

Hey, let’s build a new Tron ride in Disney World. Why? The original movie came out so long ago that nobody remembers it, and the sequel kinda flopped. Okay, but what if we made another Tron movie? I don’t know. Is it gonna be a plotless paste made mostly of bright, noisy special effects? Well, yeah. Alright then, build that thing. See if desperate

Review – The Devil’s Mouth

Movies about twentysomethings being menaced by sharks suck. Movies with twentysomethings lost in a cave suck. But what if it was twentysomethings lost in a cave full of water so they can be menaced by sharks? Let’s just say the negatives added rather than multiplying. See if desperate

Review – Godzilla: Final Wars

This is a weird blend of two not-entirely-compatible plots. In the first, Godzilla comes back from the dead and faces familiar foes, defeating them one by one. In the second, young humans with superpowers square off against young aliens with superpowers in a lot of mid-budget martial arts goofiness. Come for the kaiju but don’t feel like you have to sit through the rest of it. Mildly amusing

Review – Godzilla Minus One

The world’s most well-travelled kaiju returns to his roots as a metaphor for atomic devastation at the end of World War Two. As a result, a lot of this is grim stuff. If you want one of those fun little movies from the 1970s where Godzilla does a happy dance after he beats up his enemies, definitely seek elsewhere. But for all its joylessness, this is a reasonably good job of storytelling with some fun effects and at least kind of a moral. Mildly amusing