The three big trailers from Comic Con do not spark joy

The two of the three big trailers from Comic Con have left me underwhelmed. I was worried that I was being impossible or nostalgia was blinding me, because the one I quite enjoyed is the one where I don't know anything about the source material but I don't think that's the case. Let's start with that one I enjoyed. The Witcher looks like perfectly servicable nonsense. And let's be honest, they had me at "people with swords". I am a simple creature. Cats does not look like perfectly servicable nonsense. I did wonder whether I felt that way because it didn't live up to my expectations but no, I think even a completely disinterested observer would go, "nah, that looks terrible." It looks like someone has spent a lot of money on SFX that are not up to the job.* I know that the only way we will ever get SFX that are up to the job is through failures like this, but I'd much rather they'd fail on something I am not fond of. Because I am fond of Cats. I went to see it for a birthday party when I was little, and will still happily belt out random bits of songs for no good reason. As someone who does like it, this looks godawful. None of the characters look right and I do not even want to know WTF they have done to my beloved magical Mr. Mistoffelees. He is supposed to look magical and mysterious, not like Charlie Chaplin Cat! I am sure Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench will be having all the fun in their roles so it does at least have that going for it. I am somehow even less impressed by the new Watchmen trailer than I am by the Cats trailer. It's not like Watchmen is my favourite Alan Moore comic. Promethea is (yes, I know). But I have long since given up on ever getting any film or TV version of Promethea (mostly because of the yes, I know). But there is already an Alan Moore comic about a violent police state with people running around in masks. It's called V for Vendetta. But I can imagine it is hard to raise funds for a TV show where a fascist is brought to power with help from the religious right, and then puts people in cages. Obvs. too far-fetched (and yes, I know it's set in the UK). Either which way, I have no interest in watching Damon Lindelhof's dark future AU fic of the Watchmen! Mostly OCs with a few canon characters appearing. Not least of all because he suffers from JJ Abrams problem of "dude, I have seen the same films as you, that is not anything new!" For instance, I suspect we're supposed to be shocked, shocked I tell you that FBI lady is Laurie when we find out somewhere in episode 13-17. If they do decide to give him any depth, Jeremy Irons will knock (possibly spoilery character) out of the park. Plus, he gets to practise his German again. I am intrigued, just a little, by how they will handle (spoilery character) because, yeah, I had problems with how the film did him. I have no idea if that's because I read the character differently to everyone else, or because the film decided to simplify his character, which ruined a lot of the glorious ambiguity of (spoiler) but either which way, (spoiler) is the only thing that interests me about it. I would prefer to be thrilled by Comic Con trailers!

* There is a reason why everyone is posting that image from What We Do In The Shadows.

Women's World Cup 2019 Final

Normally, here's where I'd talk about which club team(s) are guaranteed to have a player on the winning team, but in this Women's World Cup final, there isn't one. No club teams link both national teams. I don't know if this is because women's football strongest leagues haven't calcified as much as the men's have, or if it's because the teams are from different continents.

North Carolina Courage, Chicago Red Stars, Portland Thorns, Arsenal and Ajax all have 4 players in the final, the most of any club teams. I've chosen to post the version of the diagram coloured to show number of connections to highlight those 5 teams. They're the bright blue ones.  

No community view this time because it provides no extra information in this situation.

Women's World Cup Semifinals

The semifinal diagram is here.

The diagram definitely shows the advantage of using the blue and red spectrum colouring, it is much easier to see which are the biggest teams, and to see gradations of shade.

The national team closest to the centre is England, while the Huston Dash are the club team closes to the centre. The US is linked to others by Jodie Taylor who plays for Reign FC. The three other national teams form a pretty solid triangle.

Through this link to Jodie Taylor, Reign FC are one of the teams who will have someone in the final, no matter what the semifinal results are. The other two are Bayern Munich and Montpellier.

The club with the most players left is Manchester City with 8, followed by Chelsea with 7 and Arsenal with 6. I don't know if this reflects the spending power of the Women's Super League now that most clubs are attached to Premier League clubs, or if it's pure chance.

Going to the community view, there are 4 teams left but 6 communities.

Lyon and Wolfsburg, the two "extra" communities, link two national teams teams, with one player from each team, other clubs that are joining two teams have been put into the community of the nation who supplies the most players.

Of course none of this answers the most important question - who do I support when England play the US? The Lionesses or Megan Rapinoe's team?!