After the local elections: where next for class politics?

Between Faiza and Leanne we're quite spoilt for choice when it comes to community based political discourse. Today was the former's first post election talk and it's safe to say that it was a little abstract as a result. Yes, it's easy enough to relate anything to the slapping that the Labour Party recently got, but Class Politics is a subject of its own.

Much was learned, and yet I had a feeling that today's talk was more of a catharsis - a sounding board to rant about where we are with respect to class in the UK. Some interesting points were made about class and its relation to the surge in populism, but to my cynical ears we were just dancing around the fact that sometimes people vote in stupid ways.

Otherwise business as usual here.

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.