Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by https://www.skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
“We’re contracting out this year,” The elf said, leaning their long and angular frame down to peer at the two gnomes. “Contracting out? I don’t understand,” one of the pair said. The elf sighed. “It has been a difficult year. The Big Guy needs a bit of help with deliveries.” “Does he?” The other asked. “Belief is somewhat thin this year. We were hoping to borrow some power from the Deep Places,” the elf admitted. A gnome grinned wolfishly. “Were you now? And what have you brought to bargain?” The elf reached into their sack, hoping for a Christmas Miracle.
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He dreamed of the future. He imagined a sky full of jetpacks and flying cars. He pictured each star crowded with gleaming space colonies, the void between them plied by ships full of utopian heroes. One day he got up and found himself in the wrong future. His vision had been replaced by a maze of dark alleys ruled by sinister megacorporations in high-speed sunglasses. He raged against the unfairness of it all. A small hand rested on his shoulder. He looked into his daughter’s eyes and realized you don’t dream the future. You build it. He got to work.
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He always carried a hatchet on his belt, prominently displayed. He had a lot of problems in public, but he insisted it was a tool and nothing more. He had to get an open carry license, even though he didn’t own a gun, just the chopper. He only used it once, opening the locked door of a public restroom where a man was having a heart attack. His wife hugged him as they carried the man out. “He would’ve died if you hadn’t had that weapon on you.” “It’s not a weapon,” he replied. “It’s my small axe of kindness.”
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Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Developed by Omega Force Published by Nintendo Played on Nintendo Switch
The Skinny: Breath of the Wild: The Champions’ Jukebox Musical
The follow-up to 2014’s Hyrule Warrirors, Age of Calamity rejects that game’s franchise-spanning scope to focus on the cataclysmic events that led up to Switch smash-hit The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The result is a story-focused game that refines the mechanics of the first game and delivers a high-stakes epic. While the -Warriors games have become a showcase for various tie-in properties, the series started out as an adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and AoC brings the game back to its mythical epic roots. Also, there’s time travel. The game is a lot of fun to play, and the smaller roster of characters feels really well tuned. This isn’t a game where you pick your favorite and main them through the whole campaign. Players are encouraged to keep characters leveled, and to play with all of them. And there are very few ‘bad’ characters in the game. Combat is intuitive and fun, and everyone gets their opportunity to smash wave after wave of monsters. Age of Calamity also does an excellent job of incorporating the engine and mechanics from Breath of the Wild. The music and sound effects bring the world of Hyrule to life, and it was almost comforting to be back in a world of paragliding, hunting for koroks, and dodging and countering giant Lynel sword-swipes again. But this gets into the flaw inherent to these nostalgia-driven -Warriors titles. Evoking a beloved, and in most cases better game makes me want to play that one instead of the one I’m in. Stomping whole armies of moblins in the Divine Beasts is great fun, but I’m getting a real craving to load up Breath of the Wild and sneak up on them with bomb arrows instead. Ultimately, a spin-off is always beholden to its parent property, and unable to surpass it. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is army-destroying fun in a charming, familiar world. While it evokes the spirit of Breath of the Wild without quite delivering on it, it is still a great time. It is available now for the Nintendo Switch.
Her father disappeared when she was very young. She remembered the day he left, and his last word to her before he rode out into the fog and vanished. She waited her whole childhood for his return, and when she was old enough, she went looking for him. Her journey took her all across the world. She chased leads and rumors for years, always one step behind him. She finally caught up to him in a mountaintop bar at the edge of the map. She reached across the table, tears in her eyes and grasped his hand. “Tag,” she whispered.
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They came to his workshop and interviewed everyone, asking pointed questions about political affiliations, religious backgrounds, and ‘proclivities.’ As he was cleaning out his bench, he heard a machinist say, “You have to hand it to them.” He built the first prototype out of scrap wood. A giant hand, with articulated fingers. It was just a project to occupy himself, but he was not alone, and they caught on online. Soon, the hands were everywhere. They curled into middle-fingers at protests, and made victory signs at resistance marches. The regime quavered, and worried about when they would curl into fists.
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The Union #1 Written by Paul Grist Drawn by Andrea Di Vito, Drew Geraci and Le Beau Underwood with Paul Grist Colored by Nolan Woodard Published by Marvel Comics
The Skinny: This comic feels a lot like Jack Staff, but that’s hardly a bad thing.
The Union, Marvel’s (mostly) new team of British superheroes debuts at a rocky time for the island nation, both in the real world and the Marvel universe. On our Earth, Brexit continues, while on Earth-616, their most prominent superhero, Captain Britain, has been replaced by his sister, Betsy Braddock, who is a mutant. While neither of these issues are explicitly addressed in the comic, both loom large over the book as it introduces a new government sponsored team lead by Britannia, a character who feels very familiar to the absent hero. The one familiar member of the team is Union Jack, who fills the role of a Captain America-like super-soldier on the team. Grist wrote a long-running indie comic Jack Staff, about a similar character who was based on a rejected pitch to Marvel. This opening chapter has a similar feel, and artist Andrea Di Vito literally has him holding onto a flag for most of the issue in a likely homage. The Union looks like the start of a clever superhero satire. Let’s just hope it can survive being tied-in to Marvel’s latest event, King in Black. You can download it digitally through Comixology, or pick up a print copy at your local comics shop.
Welcome to Nostalgia Pilots! This week, Spence, Jurd, Hugh and Jason discuss Gundam the 08th MS Team episode 10: The Shuddering Mountain Part One.
In tonight’s episode, Genias continues to be a terrible boss, The Federation mobile suits can’t escape gravity, and Eledore is at least competent. Plus, Norris has an awesome exit and Shiro wins the fight but loses the battle. Promo: Writing In Suburbia
The Skinny: A broken-up couple adventures through a muliversal furniture store on a desperate rescue mission.
Imagine an IKEA that goes on forever. In this retail hellscape, Ava and Jules find themselves on a quest to find a missing shopper that has gone missing not merely between aisles, but between realities. Even though they have just broken up and are avoiding each other, they have been sent by their manager to rescue a lost grandmother, with no hope of overtime, but if they can prevent any bad press or leakage from a dystopian parallel Earth, there might be a Pasta and Friends gift card for them when they get back. Cipri has pulled off something magnificent with this quirky novella. I’ve never seen the existential dread of modern retail work so elegantly expressed. They also set this story not at the beginning of a relationship, but at the fractious end, throwing together two humans who are still emotionally raw and wondering what comes next. They cover a huge amount of thematic issues in such a scant story, and they thread the needle beautifully, providing a moody, atmospheric story full of sympathetic characters. But Cipri’s compelling fantasy worlds will be what really draws you in. From a floating city of merchant ships to a forest of carnivorous furniture, Cipri creates a multiverse of dangers and wonders that is not to be missed. Finna is available in print and ebook from Tor.Com and all the usual retailers.
Hugh J. O'Donnell 
Podcast: CCRC72 – Batman TAS S1E2: Christmas With The Joker
December 13, 2020
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Tonight your hosts, Hugh, Rich the Time Traveler, Opop, and Jurd, discover a different sort of jolly fellow crawling down the chimney.
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by https://www.skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.