#hurrah.

Sorry for skipping day 1 gang, I may or may not get to it- but here's a very late day 2, im like. Not sure what flower language is so I drew them in flowers, hope that counts

I set up my business bank account today and even though I got there at 5:00 after work, and the office closed at 6:00, the lady stayed late to to help me finish all the setup and answer all my questions. I felt so bad about having them stay late but she was SO NICE about it and said "I love my job, I love watching businesses grow and succeed and it's so fun to help you get set up, I don't mind being here all day because this is satisfying work and I want to see you thrive" which was just.... so nice to hear!! She also gave me contact information for a women's networking group in our local area, told me that the ladies who run it are mostly retired school teachers who want to support young professionals so it would be perfect???? for me??? both professionally in my engineering career and to connect with the local school community to make inroads with Runaways!!! I'm a little nervous about in person networking still but she was just so friendly and she offered to take all the business cards I had on me and give them out to her friends and put them out in the office??? I don't know if that'll actually happen but I left a stack in the branch and holy shit???

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀  THE WOLF.

It was decent, but I’m really glad I watched those first ten episodes of the TV series first to get an idea of who everyone was. >.>;

Pros:

Jackie Chan is an absolute delight & I love him always. The movie is literally worth watching for him.

It’s hilarious. I laughed a lot in this film. The jokes are spot on & everything Garmadon says had me in stitches. Good stuff. (Garmadon’s story about how he met Lloyd’s mom, in particular, was a highlight.)

And lastly, I really like Lloyd; he is a sweetie. His emotional moments are some of the better parts of the movie (even when those emotions are frustrated ANGER). While I wish we got to see more of him & his friends, I did like his story and wish the poor kid didn’t feel like a kicked puppy that entire movie.

Cons:

The plot is a rush. For what is essentially a really simple story (Save the city from the Giant Cat) with a complimentary subplot (Lloyd & his Dad), the movie felt sort of rushed & lacking in story. Character development & plot felt traded out for one more joke, which resulted in plot points feeling like a check list of “oh, oh, we need to get to this now.”

While I enjoy a lot of humor, the movie probably shouldn’t feel like 90% punchlines.

But speaking of character development, if your name wasn’t Lloyd, you probably didn’t need to be in the movie. His fellow Ninjas felt sort of brushed over & super unimportant for a good chunk of the film. I don’t mind that the plot was Lloyd focused, because that’s how you keep the movie from being overcomplicated, but they could have integrated his team into story better without making them all feel like extras.

The first ten episodes of the TV Series were better in pretty much every way but production value, which is a little disheartening.

Especially considering the big message at the end concerning “Lloyd’s power” --- that probably would have been more effective if we actually saw more of Lloyd bonding with his friends (aside from a bit in the opening, there was more “they’re great friends!” implied than seen).

Conclusion

Generally though, I’m glad I went to go see it. The opening & ending bookends were absolutely worth it, the movie was hilarious, and it made me want to go binge the rest of Season 1 before starting on the other like six seasons, so that’s a win.