Russian Guardians aka Защитники

So I feel this might be me and a few other random folks who enjoyed this film but I’m going to try and break it down. I’d also like to say – Spoiler Alert – but let’s be honest, if you were excited about the film you would have watched it by now I am sure. Maybe this little write up would intrigue you mildly, who knows?

Guardians came out here, UK, in 2017 and was directed by Russian-Armenian Sarik Andreasyan and it is a shame it didn’t get to make a lot of reserve and wasn’t highly rated but I enjoyed the film and I’m pretty sure the rumoured sequel will never happen.

To be fair it is an easy enough plot to follow, (also rated 12+ here) and this is the case I found with a lot of things of this ilk, to be fair that isn’t a bad thing. Let’s be honest who needs an in-depth political level plot for everything? Sometimes I just like watching a fight scene and some silly jokes.

During the Cold War era a secret organisation (Patriots) gathered together and created superheroes. The team was pretty much designed around defending all of the Soviet nations and a bunch of scientists cross various nefarious boundaries to make them.

Inevitably we get the mad scientist plot and Professor August Kuratov (Stanislov Shirin) is that very mad scientist. Side not he had boots that looks a lot like Wellingtons… He turns himself into a cyborg, learns to control machines and sets off to prove to every naysayer he is a genius! Of course he’s so insane he can’t come up with a better idea like curing cancer, resolving mobility with prosthetic limbs that work or some other sensible thing. Silly man right?

In comes Patriot – reimagined with four superheroes, Arsus (Anton Pampushny) is a shape-shifting bear with a giant gun, Khan (Sanjar Madi) is a speedster and martial artist with curved swords, Ler (Sebastian Sisak) can control earth and stone and finally Xenia (Alina Lanina) who has the power of invisibility and can negate temperatures for the most part. They go to battle and after being kicked down they finish the fight on top.

So it is not an entirely new plot idea and I can see it has faults, mainly I think it lay with the special effects. Here’s another thing though, it is not Marvel and did not have that kind of budget! Also for kids I think the less scary the better and the bad guy was still creepy enough regardless, also I grew up with the original Power Rangers… The other thing I noted is that I think the dub-over in English was awful and I really didn’t find it a good watch, swapping to the native language and using subtitles meant it flowed far better.

I can understand that not everyone would enjoy this film but I did. I mean I must have liked it a bit as I ended up scouring the net for cosplayers and getting a little Russian under my belt, feeling inspired to understand the language more.

#хан ##защитники #khan #guardians #cosplay #pleather #superheroes this took a while to make. I hope someone likes it ^^ pic.twitter.com/p4g0gcIQno

— New Cog Recruit (@COGRecruit) 5 November 2018

come on it’s a bear with a gun!!!!

Abandoned Disney

Discovery Island is an 11.5 acre island at the Walt Disney World attraction, Bay Lake, Florida and was once open for guests from 1974 until April 8th 1999 when it was closed to the public.

From the early 1900’s it was known as Raz Island and Disney brought it in 1965, it opened up as Treasure Island in 1974 as a place to observe wildlife. It was later renamed Discovery Island and was recognized as a zoological park. 8th April, 1999 it closed but was operational until 9th July whilst they relocated the animals into other Disney areas like their Animal Kingdom.

Once closed Disney considered teaming up with Myst game creators to make it into a living game island. It never got past the concept stage, a shame as having played Myst that could have been something pretty awesome.

In 1990 the dusty seaside sparrow was declared extinct as the birds were last recorded on the island in 1987 and they seemingly died off entirely.

Online information states that the power was cut in 2009, but before that the illusion was that it was fully operational. Someone in 2009 on a blog mentioned the eerie sounds of the Disney theme music still playing. From most sources that I could find it seems that it more likely the place is operating with power as security would need it; the island is still patrolled with security so this would make sense.

As of this year it is also reported that the buildings and the attractions are still on the island. It is pretty much a given that they will have suffered through the ages, that hurricanes and weather patterns have meant that the usual toll has been taken and it is possible to see it from the Disney Wilderness lodge, the Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground and there are boat trips that mean you are likely to spot them as you head around on that trip. If you have been or seen it would you let me know?