Posts filed under ‘Movies’
Joel: I can’t see anything that I don’t like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: [pauses] Okay.
Diane and I watched Tron: Legacy last Wednesday. Overall, we enjoyed it. I hadn’t seen the original in 20+ years, and even when I did see it, I wasn’t all that into it (this being the “cartoon era” of my viewing life, which meant I had little use for live-action films). The new movie’s visuals were very impressive, as was the soundtrack, which I’m currently listening to.
I was a little concerned that due to all the advances in special effects and digital filmmaking since the original came out, we would be too “jaded” to appreciate whatever the new film had to offer, but visually, I think they genuinely pushed the envelope and offered something, if not entirely new (there are homages to / ripoffs of other movies everywhere), at least dynamic and fresh. There have been huge cultural shifts in the years between the original and the sequel; computers have become ubiquitous and much less “exotic” than they were in the mid-’80s, so the new film had a lot of work to do to overcome that familiarity. There were a number of approaches they could have taken with the plot, characters, and visuals, and I was a little disappointed they decided to do pretty much a straight update instead of something more creative and ambitious. They tried to shoehorn in a few more current themes, like the ongoing open- versus closed-source software battle, and the more immediate nature of virtual reality vis-à-vis what it means to be human, but unfortunately, they were just window dressing on a fundamentally conventional and convoluted action flick. But at least the movie looked and sounded great. I’ll choose to focus on that. Very eager to see what they do with the upcoming animated series.
I’m really angry right now. I just finished watching the trailers to the upcoming Narnia movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I’m beyond incensed at what they’ve done to the story in adapting it to the film. From the Wikipedia synopsis:
On their quest to find the Seven Lost Lords of Narnia the crew of the Dawn Treader come across several strange and exotic places. With the help of Lilliandil, the half-star, and Aslan, the great lion, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, and Caspian find themselves on their greatest adventure yet in order to save Narnia from a threatening green mist that has taken the form of the White Witch.
“Threatening green mist?” “Lilliandil?” What the heck? The first is nowhere to be found anywhere in the book, and Ramandu’s daughter (the half-star) doesn’t come onto the scene until the last chapter, and then only as a minor character (Caspian’s eventual bride). What the heck have they done to my story? VotDT is my favorite of the books (The Silver Chair and The Last Battle a close second and third) and this kind of plot alteration, nay, dumbing-down, is completely inexcusable. Of course I know why they have to do it; they have to shoehorn some kind of “doomsday” plot arc into a story that essentially amounts to a loose series of vignettes that illustrate various aspects of Lewis’ theology, but even so, it’s supremely disappointing. Do they not think people would sit through a more faithful adaptation of the book’s plot? Are we that stupid? Easily bored? I would hope not…
At this point I don’t even know if I’ll go see it. I mean, I will, but it’s got a heck of a deficit of anticipation to overcome at this point.
Watched and greatly enjoyed Serenity last night. I’d watch the series but Tom from my Tuesday morning men’s group saw a few episodes and cautioned me there are some unsavory moments in it, things I’d rather avoid. The movie, ironically (since TV shows are usually tamer than their film adaptations), was pretty clean.
I won’t go into a plot exposition, but only point out that it’s a kind of a sci-fi/western hybrid with excellent characterizations and fresh, witty dialogue. The way the characters are portrayed is especially good—they’re given smart exchanges that allow them to feel like more than just two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Not only that, their interpersonal chemistry is palpable and rounds them out further; it makes you care about them and gives an emotional backbone to the action scenes.
I couldn’t help noticing a marked contrast between the film and the steamroller sci-fi franchise of the past 15 years or so: The Star Wars prequel trilogy. The comparison is especially apt given that Serenity and Revenge of the Sith came out roughly at the same time. Everything the Star Wars movies did wrong, Serenity does right. I could go on for ages, but I’ll just point out a few of the contrasting elements:
In addition to the Star Wars smackdown, there are some other noteworthy aspects to Serenity:
Though he’s not the first to present a less-than-polished vision of the future (in contrast to the Star Trek universe, where “war, poverty and disease have disappeared”), I admire how forthcoming Joss Whedon is about the worldview reflected in his film:
“…nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today.”
I know it’s implied in many other sci-fi works (take the rough-and-tumble neo-noir dystopian vision of Blade Runner, for example); I guess I just admire Whedon for being so explicit about the take on human nature that informed his screenwriting and directing.
One more thing about the film: I also couldn’t help noticing the parallels to Cowboy Bebop:
All in all, Serenity is a great film. It’s in my sci fi top-five for sure. Two thumbs up.
Christmas has come and gone. I’m back to work tomorrow. It’s a quiet Sunday evening. Diane and I have resumed our Netflix subscription and are working our way through episodes of Cowboy Bebop—I’ve seen it; she hasn’t, but she’s enjoying it. Generally I’m a subtitle snob (foreign-language films must be viewed subtitled, not dubbed), but I tried the series dubbed and it’s not bad. Thinking about just watching it that way for the rest of the run. We’ll see.
I received a whole bunch of guitar-related stuff for Christmas: a “Beatles Fake Book,” a book of acoustic rock numbers, a songbook binder Diane made for me, a capo, some picks and a guitar cleaning kit. So I’m set there for a while. Making some progress, but not enough to keep it from being frequently frustrating. I bought a chord book with photographs of fingering, so I’m trying out some better ways to form “A” and “G” chords, and I think that’s part of what’s contributing to my lack of progress. I’m hopeful they’ll give me a good foundation going forward, though. No shortcuts.
Luke and Penelope like pretty much everything they got. Luke particularly loves the magnetic building set his Grandma got him (he likes to make pyramids and then step on them while we watch), a little motorized bug his Nana got him, Guess Who? and Frog and Toad’s Adventure Game (both board games), his McDuff books and of course his Little Einstein figurines. He really likes playing his Little Einstein piano, too. He turns a knob and it makes a funny noise and he looks at us to see if we’re smiling along with him. Penelope loves to sit on her Little Einstein car and press the buttons She got some stuffed animals, too, which she loves. They also got a bunch of stuff they need, clothes and whatnot, which they could care less about.
Last night my parents, Diane’s parents, my brother, his wife and daughter and our little family ate out at Arigato. It’s the third year in a row we’ve had a post-Christmas outing there, and it’s always fun. David and Rachel’s four-month-old daughter Catherine was along for the ride and a lot of fun. She’s beautiful and been a great sport over the course of the holidays and its hustle and bustle. I carried her around a good bit a week ago during a visit to my parents’ house, and it was the first time I felt like an uncle. Pretty special.
Been watching Star Wars movies lately. Diane and I finished a Lord of the Rings marathon not too long ago and recently realized that although we’d done the extended-edition-LotR thing twice now since we’ve been married, we’d never done Star Wars. I rented Episodes IV and V from the local movie place and watched them piecemeal on successive nights.
The lightsaber duels are always a highlight for me. I love the choreography, but it’s always bothered me that it’s not in the least bit realistic as far as what would actually occur if the weapons, combatants, motives and intentions were real. I’m no expert on swordplay, but I just have a feeling watching the movies that backflips over the opponent, exposing one’s chest with one’s weapon off to one side and even twirls—turning one’s back on the opponent—probably aren’t the best moves. Clearly others agree. Also, for your reading pleasure, lightsaber combat has been categorized into various “forms” in an attempt to explain the differences in energy level and general athleticism between the earlier and later films. It’s an interesting exercise, but it’s difficult for this untrained eye to discern much difference between lightsaber styles on screen, at least between humans—Yoda’s style, for instance, is obviously going to differ.
I still want one.