Weeknotes 258

I just about coasted past the finish line this week. At one point my brain was so sluggish that I considered taking a sick day, but instead I showed up and only got a small amount done. Better than nothing, maybe.

On Monday night I saw Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre as a Christmassy treat. It was classy, cosy, sweet and unchallenging — pretty much exactly what you want in December.

The office Christmas party on Tuesday turned out to be at a venue which could comfortably accommodate fewer than half of the people who showed up, so I quickly excused myself from the scrum. Unlike last year I didn’t get a meal or a beer out of it.

If I believed in out-of-office replies, mine would be on. Three weeks off now. Bliss.

In preparation for the holiday I picked up both Still Wakes the Deep and Neva on sale. Maybe it’d be fun to stream them, and/or the Astro Bot Christmas DLC, while I put my feet up. I’ll mention it here if I do.

I was happy to see Astro Bot win game of the year at the Game Awards. I know money’s the only thing that really matters but it’s still comforting that an actual fun single-player game can achieve this level of critical success.

Of course I’m excited about Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. I’ve resisted the temptation to watch the trailer. That’s not for fear of spoilers exactly — I assume the trailers won’t reveal anything important — but I’m definitely going to buy it anyway, so what’s the upside of starting to see bits of it now? I look forward to playing it when it’s ready.

I’d like to also be excited about Fumito Ueda’s new project but The Last Guardian wasn’t a good game so I’m managing my expectations pretty hard this time.

I watched two more episodes of Silo. Rebecca Ferguson and her inexplicable accent are back, and things are starting to happen to them. Episode four contains an underwater sequence which is one of the most shamelessly nonsensical things I’ve ever seen on a TV show.

I saw Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and it was way better than I thought it’d be, with incredible visual effects and an exciting adventure vibe. I’ve enjoyed all of the Planet of the Apes reboot films but this is one of the best.

I also watched Challengers. It’s mostly fun with good performances and a great soundtrack, soured by too much boring tennis at the end.

The soundtrack didn’t feel particularly well integrated into the film, which made me think of how much better that was done in The Social Network, so I watched it back-to-back with Challengers. It’s still excellent, and yes, the first half of the film plays out as a near-continuous music video, one propulsive montage after another, to great dramatic effect.

I hadn’t seen the (upscaled) 4K transfer before. It looks amazing and the sound in particular is fantastic. The many, many visual effects hold up better than I expected for an almost 15-year-old film. Well worth a rewatch.

Video of the week: Who Cares 2.