Film: Mortal Kombat II

Rewatching the first (of the modern rebooted) Mortal Kombat films made me realise it wasn't as good as I remembered it being. The main culprit was the random new character lead - never a good sign when seeking something a bit authentic. Otherwise it kind of just tread water with some (admittedly decent) fan service.

Mortal Kombat II is more of the same, although I did come away from it feeling a bit better about the franchise as a whole. There is less random non-MK stuff and more fan service - and to be honest that's all one would want from such a franchise. The fighting is decent, the jokes chuckling, the plot and characterisation... well non-existent, but you can't have it all.

Will see if I don't also look back at this as a big mistake. For now though it just about squeezes in a recommendation. 

Film: Hokum

Hokum was an above decent horror movie. The scares were good, albeit sometimes cheap. Adam Scotts's Ohm was an annoying and easily-hated spitwad who somewhat redeems himself by the end. The plot (or rather, plots), although not complete, was left open in all the right ways.

It just oozed a confidence and attention to itself that a lot of films, let alone horror films, lack in an age of low attention spans. Even the relatively non-eventful first act was watchable.

Recommended. 

Book: Dark Matter, Blake Crouch

To be honest I'm not sure why this book was on my list. I like to think I have a robust and discerning filter mechanism - mainly because I don't have the time any more to consume all the books that I want to. I guess no system is perfect and thus Dark Matter slipped made it to my reading list.

How bad a book is doesn't typically stem from a single reason. Dark Matter is badly written (both technically and creatively), has bad characters (although I was made to feel very strongly how much of a douchebag Jason was) and characterisation and treats the "multiple worlds" concept with such a lack of care and attention that I was left unusually frustrated. This wasn't just bad scifi, it was bad art, and I firmly place it amongst Twilight and The Hunger Games as one of the most awful books I've read.

The only reason I completed this book was because it was mercifully short. One to skip.