rosanicus

Yesterday was a very packed day for me. Firstly, I had the joy of meeting black_bentley at the Biggles Forum gathering. I had a lovely time gluing myself to her (as well as LM1 and her communist husband) for the entirety of the morning and afternoon, and came out of the meetup having spent an inadvisable amount of money at all three of the shops in the Imperial War Museum. Some might say this was a bad decision, but those people don't have a Spitfire lunchbox so I will ignore them all and cherish my new possessions.

Having enjoyed my time Biggling, however, it was time to move on to different pastures (as well as a number of secondhand bookshops on Charing Cross Road). I met up with one of my best friends, Alex, who lives in London, for an evening of entertainment. After goggling at the prices in Marchpane Books for a while I came away with a copy of Worrals on the War-Path, which is my first ever Worrals! I like that it starts with a preface explaining why Worrals is a spy now, as if prefiguring internet arguments about Rey from Star Wars multiple decades in advance.

From the bookshops we made our way to Picturehouse Central. Alex and I have made a project for ourselves of watching as many shark movies as possible, and in our time doing so one of the very best examples of the form has been The Meg (2018), a deeply stupid film which wants to be Jaws so, so badly. So of course we have been desperately awaiting the release of Meg 2: The Trench (directed by Ben Wheatley of all people, I must know who it was that watched Kill List and A Field In England and thought ah yes, this man will be perfect for our big budget sharkquel) and I am pleased to say that it lived up to our very wildest expectations.

It is of course deeply stupid in every way (there's a scene where Jason Statham stabs a megalodon to death with a detached helicopter rotor with his bare hands) but that is the appeal of such films and therefore we had a fantastic time. Alex had in fact seen it before and as a result I would always know when a particularly fantastic part was coming up solely from the expression of expectant delight on their face. It's a film which knows exactly what it is and does not even try to be highbrow but instead focuses on Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor, unexpected dad to a teen girl, who is engaged in two homoerotic friendships with 1) the girl's uncle, brother to the woman from the first film who I assume did not want to be in the sequel and is thus unceremoniously backstory killed, and 2) one of the crew from the first movie who I liked at the time but only learned the name of in this one. It's very polycule-flavoured for those among us who sense the deeper vibrations of cinema. I also enjoyed how it followed the same philosophy as the first film, which is that any time the Meg is not on screen all the other characters should be asking "Where's the Meg?". There is also a giant octopus.

I made this icon especially for this post and now feel even more betrayed that I have yet to encounter a book in which Biggles & Co tangle with a shark of any kind. Perhaps I'll come across it one day but as of yet I feel quite bereft.