Film Review - X-Men: Dark Phoenix

 Spoilers throughout

With Dark Phoenix I find myself torn because I am not sure how much of my dislike of the film was it being bad, and how much of my dislike is how close it came to being better.  

I'll quickly skim through the bits I liked - Kurt being the loveliest (even if Kodi McPhee's accent continues to be made of LOL), Genosha not starting in (hell)fire and the film getting me to shout at Charles the way it wanted me to (even if I don't actually believe in the film's solution to the problem, mostly because Hank does not have the personality to be a headmaster and no-one else is alive or around).

The largest part of the problem was the film spent so long on action scenes that went nowhere that there was no time for character bits.  Now that was fine for Xavier and Magneto where we know them well enough, but it's a problem for the characters, or versions of these characters, that we've barely met like this Scott Summers and this Jean Grey.

Jean is the one who suffers the most from this overweighting of action over character.  Sophie Turner does amazingly well with nothing, Jean's dialogue being the same three lines on repeat all the way through.   

I'd accepted that one of my bluesome twosome was not going to make it out alive, and was just happy it wasn't both of them.  Hank suffers a lot from having nothing to do, with a lot of the rage reaction he ought to have being given to Magneto instead.  I'm not sure if that's because it's more expensive to pay for the blue furry special effects than Michael Fassbender's wages or what, but it was annoying.

The other person who got to have manpain over the suffering of the female characters rather than be useful is Scott.  Now I am miffed because they have finally made a film where Scott gets something to do … and they have given the role to someone with the range of a wooden spoon.  The one poor choice the X-Men casting directors have made over 10 films really broke part of the heart of this film.  I didn't believe in anything Scott was going through.

But the worst thing about the film is that they finally had a perfect Emma Frost and they made her a space alien for no good reason.  I don't even like Emma Frost but Jessica Chastain in the scene they used in the trailer was perfect, all slinky evil and seducing Jean to the darkside; the White Queen of the Hellfire Club writ cinema screen large.  Oh, how I would have love the film that scene was from.  But no, we got random alien Emma instead.  

And that's the point, if they'd wanted aliens there is a Phoenix Force plus aliens story.  It's called the Dark Phoenix story - you know the comics arc this film is named for.  It's a fantastic story, with aliens, but no Emma Frost.  Just make Jessica Chastain Deathbird and have her be the power-mad dictator instead of D'Ken.  Or do the Hellfire Club story properly.  Do not mix and match and end up with sludge!

(Like I said, I would be happier with this if that one scene hadn't given me perfect Hellfire Club Frostie)

Overall, that’s why the film doesn’t work.  It tries to be all things to everyone and ends up missing important things about all of the characters.

Very Belated French and Hungarian Grand Prix Thoughts

The thoughts are belated not just because Ferrari have depressed me, they are also late because I have been busily watching events live at the Commonwealth Games. If you do ever get the chance to watch anything like that (the Olympics, World Championships, anything like that) grab it with every hand available, it's such a fun experience. 

French Grand Prix 

Despite the engine penalty, and the pitstop screw up, Sainz jnr did well, as well as he could have done. To beat the two Red Bulls, things need to go well, and I think the 5 second penalty meant that neither Mercedes could be caught. Sainz jnr gets a cookie, because none of this is his fault. I'm not even going to talk about Leclerc because if I did, I would have to give him a card, and I do not want to. Hungarian Grand Prix Which I missed, between the Commonwealth Games hockey, eating some excellent food and then desperately trying to find somewhere to wait for trains that wasn't showing the Women's Euro 2022 final so I didn't accidentally bring them bad luck. 

All I knew about the Grand Prix was L occasionally looking at his watch and wincing. And L isn't even a Ferrari fan (I have tried to bring him to the one true faith but he resists). I cannot sum up the problem any better than the last 20 seconds of this video.

   

Ferrari strategy is so bad that our rivals are laughing at us. LAUGHING!!!! It is so bad that I am bringing back the bingo card.

   

You'll note some of the squares have been updated for this year. The feelings behind it haven't been.

How are one team so consistently bad at the basics? 

Part of the reason I am being quite so hysterical about this season's failures is because they gave me hope this year. 

For the first time in years, Ferrari have managed to produce a good car. One of the two other teams who have recently vied for titles has a car that's only as good as the Ferrari, not miles better, and the other great rival are having an off season. That's unlikely to happen again, particularly with engine regulations remaining fixed till 2024. 

Mercedes will be better again next year, Ferrari, you have to use this opportunity while you have it!

Euro 2022 - Final Diagrams

No community view because community view always skews peculiar when we get down to two teams.

The network diagrams look like this:     

Chelsea are the only team guaranteed to have a winner representing them as 4 England players (Millie Bright, Jess Carter, Fran Kirby and Bethany England) and 1 German player (Ann-Katrin Berger) play for them. 

Despite that, they are not the team with the most players left in. They're not even in the top three. The top three are Manchester City with 9 players, VfL Wolfsburg with 8 and Bayern Munich with 7. 

Me, I am just looking forward to the final because it looks like it will be a cracking match.

Tour de France 2022 Data Doodles - Week 4

The rate of withdrawals really went up in the last week of the Tour.

Two Kaplan Meier diagrams, one this year's, one comparing 2022 to 2021 and 2020   

You can see that by the end, 2022's withdrawals are almost the same as 2021's. The main difference is in the Did Not Start-type withdrawals, which were mostly due to the COVID protocols.  

The percentage of Did Not Starts really was high this year - 69% vs. 30-33% in the previous two years, which again suggests COVID hitting hard. 

When the withdrawals happened also suggests that is what's happening - normally when a team lose a rider they start losing other riders too because of the strains of maintaining performance with fewer riders but this time it's just been a steady drip, drip, drip of withdrawals.  

That can also be seen when you look at the withdrawals by stage, either by order of stage or by how many riders dropped out on each stage.  

Historically one or two stages have most of the withdrawals but this time the withdrawals really were quite evenly spread, with 1 stage losing 6 riders, then 1 stage with 5, 2 stages with 4, 3 stages with three, 4 stages with 2 and 2 stages where 1 rider dropped out.

Types of withdrawals by which week they happened in:    

Did not starts increased every week.  

The mid-stage abandonments had almost the opposite pattern.  

There were only 2 Over the Time Limit withdrawals, 1 in week 3 and 1 in week 4. 

So, what can I summarise - 2021 no longer looks like the outlier in terms of withdrawals, 2020 does, but that may be because of circumstance and COVID. As we have a women's Tour de France this year, I will also look at the rate in that event, and I will also crunch the numbers for the Giro Donne to see which rate is more common.

Euro 2022 - Semifinal network diagrams

Mostly I'm happy to hear that Leuven signed Nicky Evrard to a fully pro contract before the tournament because otherwise I'd have to complain about the player of the match for one quarterfinal (and let's be honest, someone in with a shout of being Belgian player of the tournament) was only semi-pro like most of the rest of her team. There is still a much larger divide between the "big" footballing nations and the "small" footballing nations in the women's game, but hopefully the success of Euro 2022 might help close the gap. 

Following the quarterfinals, the network diagram looks like this:  

Sweden are now the national team nearest the centre, while BK Häcken are the club team closest to the centre. 

As so many Barcelona players play for Spain, Barcelona is no longer the club team represented by the most players. It is now VfL Wolfsburg, with 9, followed by Bayern Munich and Chelsea with 8 and Paris Saint Germain with 7. 

The community view looks like this:  

There are 5 communities, 1 for each country and 1 for Everton, possibly because they're the only club team evenly split between countries (neither of which is England, oddly).

Euro 2022 - Quarterfinal Network Diagrams

One thing I forgot to say in the first post was that every team had at least 1 player playing in their home league and at least 1 player playing abroad which might explain why, even when there were 16 teams, it looked quite spread out. 

Now that we're down to 8 teams, it is really spread out.  

The Netherlands are the country closest to the centre, while Wolfsburg or Ajax are the club team closest to the centre. 

Wolfsburg are the club team with the most players remaining with 12, followed by Barcelona with 11 and then Bayern Munich and Manchester City with 10. 

Juventus have completely fallen away in terms of most players left because of how many of their players exited with Italy. 

The community view is split into 8 communities, the same as the number of teams left.  

I admit to being surprised that Belgium have got through, given where they were on the outskirts of the diagram. 

From what I know of football, I am not looking forward to Austria vs Germany game, because I feel it will end badly for unsere Mädel (listen, if they have no official nickname but the men's team are unsere Burschen, I am going to have to invent one). The diagram is also not optimistic. 

I am looking forward to Netherland vs France, because that could be ridiculously good.

Tour de France 2022 Data Doodles - Week 3

In terms of withdrawals, week 3 hasn't been much worse than week 2.  

We've also had our first over-the-time limit withdrawal (because the rules are an ass). (Yes, I know, rules are rules but ... full Morkov being cut story here).  

Withdrawals are reasonably well-spread out through the teams: 

Withdrawals:  

Withdrawals as percentage:  

Although, in the team Kaplan Meier, you can really see stage 15 happening to Jumbo Visma.

The overall Kaplan Meier curve shows the slow but constant attrition.

 

Of interest is that the 2022 withdrawals are now, once again, almost exactly tracking the 2020 withdrawals, strongly suggesting the 2021 rate of withdrawals was an outlier.

Formula 1 2022 - Austrian Grand Prix

 

Just once, I'd like to be able to have a completely happy line for a grand prix (yes, I know I had them up to April but I am a Ferrari fan and we are impossible and demanding). 

Because yay, glorious Leclerc victory, with multiple overtakes. 

But on the other hand, Carlos go boom! And very nearly ended up crispy!! Dear marshals at Spielberg, that everything is on a slope and that these cars have no handbrake are both known things - why were you not ready!!! 

I am very excited for France despite the circuit and it being The Migraine Inducer (tm).

Tour de France 2022 Data Doodles - Week 2

This week, the withdrawals came as a steady drip, drip, drip.

Types of withdrawals

 

There were no withdrawals due to riders being over the time limit. 55% of the withdrawals were due to riders not starting stages, and 45% were mid-stage abandonments. 

The withdrawals are spread out amongst the teams and stages. No team has lost more than 1 rider, and those stages were riders have withdrawn, 2-4 riders have withdrawn per stage. 

Withdrawals by stage: 

 

 Stages ordered by number of withdrawals:  

 Team Kaplan Meier: 

 

The overall Kaplan Meier looks like this:   

It does help to answer the question posed in this post, as to whether or not the 2021 Tour rate of attrition was worse than usual. 

Comparing the 2020, 2021 and 2022 Kaplan Meier charts, 2020 and 2022 almost completely overlap at this point, while the 2021 line is worse.

Women's Euro 2022 Network Diagrams - Group Stage

This was supposed to be ready for the first game, but 1) I thought the first game was on the 7th of July, and 2) I thought the 7th of July was today 

For the first network diagram view, I've gone back to an older style of presentation. Because the Women's Euros is smaller than the Men's (16 teams vs 24), and because there are fewer teams that join players from different nations, this view, not distributed by attraction, still works giving clear separation of teams, which you wouldn't really get if you used this on the Men's Euros.  

When labels are added, it looks like this  

Spain are the national team closest to the centre, and either Hegerberg or Barcelona are the club team closest to the centre. 

Juventus are the club team represented by the most players with 15, followed by Barcelona with 14. They had been together on 15 players before Alexia Putellas had to withdraw injured from the Spanish squad (that's what you call one heck of a player to miss). 

Following them are Bayern Munich and VfL Wolfsburg on 13 players. 

If you want to look at the more expanded diagrams, they are here:   

You can see that the less expanded view actually makes it easier to see that Finland, Northern Ireland, Portugal and Belgium are the outlying teams. 

Looking at the communities view, it looks like this:  

Sweden and Denmark form one community, and Iceland and Norway also form one community. 

I have to admit I am surprised that there isn't just one giant Nordic block, given how inter-related the players from those teams are. 

I am also surprised that Austria and Germany are not one block, again given how many of the Austrian players play for German teams. 

It will be interesting to see how the diagrams develop.