the light is from today
Aug. 14th, 2012 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damkiannaI was doing so well, and then the Olympics. (Women's basketball is my favorite, I have tremendous girlcrush feelings for Diana Taurasi.) Sigh.
But they're finally over, which means I'm actually a productive adult again. Sort of. And things have happened in the interim!
My birthday, for one, which started out a little rocky but ended great. My mother let me wear stilts on our morning walk up the road, which was awesome - I'm always afraid that I'm going to have forgotten how to do it, but it's like riding a bike, every time. And then I slept through the grossest part of the day, and we had an excellent dinner and the same blissfully amazing cake we always get for family birthdays.
And presents! Unbeknownst to me, my mother saved the list of books I gave her at Christmas, so my presents from her were that pleasant combination of surprises and things I had asked for. I just finished Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History this morning - I'm not a particularly critical or intelligent nonfiction reader, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.
idriya got me what I think are the first two? Toby Daye books, which I am looking forward to, and Thor on DVD; and she also made me another fantabulous set of icons. Korra, this time, and it's possible you'll be able to tell something about where my interests lie. I swear I don't hate you, Mako. /o\ You just aren't that interesting!
And somewhere back there, I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man, or whatever they called it. Which I liked? Ish? I don't know, it was okay? I mean, there were some good funny parts, I like me some awkward heroes, and perhaps because he's less extensively meta-human than some superheroes, Peter Parker tends to end up seriously-injured-but-still-plugging more than, say, Superman, or many of the Avengers.
But I think overall the first Tobey Maguire movie hung together a bit better. For me the plot of this one sort of unraveled in the middle - it didn't help that it was based around the doctor with the damaged arm wanting to grow a new one so badly that he turned evil, but then he - didn't? Or he was taken over by lizardness? Hallucinating? Evil enough to try to kill Peter and to actually kill Denis Leary, but not enough to not save Peter before he could fall off the building?
You can see by the sheer volume of question marks in that paragraph that I had no fucking idea what was going on with his character or motivations. I'm all for depth and not making evil a black-and-white issue, but there's complexity and then there's incoherency.
I'm also not totally sure what to think about Gwen Stacy. I think Emma Stone did a really excellent job, and she had some great lines here and there; but there was sort of a lot of getting her out of the way, too. I did like her clonking the lizard with the trophy, and I liked her in the lab and preparing that impromptu flamethrower. But those were immediately followed in the former case by her getting hung off the building to keep her safe; and in the latter case by the lizard ... not even seeming to reach for her, or care about the flamethrower, and then her getting shut in a police car to keep her safe. And then Peter breaking up with her to keep her safe, which, again, everybody involved did a good job with that scene, but a) we've seen that a gazillion times, and b) we've seen that a gazillion times in the movies this is a reboot of. If you want to distinguish yourself from the last Spider-Man, maybe don't count on the girl's hair color being enough to keep people from noticing you're hitting the exact same emotional beats.
So: I didn't think it was bad or anything! But it didn't blow my mind, either. I liked it fine, that's about all I've got.
idriya and I also went to see The Bourne Legacy. I don't think it had quite the same - complexity, or something, as the first three Bournes; it didn't have the same tangles in it. But then I wasn't expecting it to, considering. Aaron Cross knows who he is and how he got where he is; he knows he's in a secret program, he knows the effects of the pills he's taking, and he knows exactly who's trying to kill him. So honestly it's no wonder they couldn't manage the same degree of mystery.
Actually, I think that's most of the difference right there - it wasn't a mystery movie, or a thriller, or whatever the hell you'd categorize the first Bournes as. This was a straight-up action trying-not-to-die movie, and for what it was, I enjoyed it.
For one thing, as a direct contrast to Spider-Man and to the first Bournes, this was almost half Rachel Weisz's movie. I always liked Marie, but the story never had all that much for her to do (except die, of course). Marta felt much more important in her own right - I mean, I'm still holding out for the one where Angelina Jolie is the enhanced super assassin and has to keep, idk, Mark Ruffalo safe from everybody trying to kill them both, but Marta had her own backstory and her own awesome.
I also thought it worked relatively well to frame it as partly concurrent with Bourne. I have no idea what that looks like if you haven't seen the other Bournes, but for me it worked; it didn't close off that open ending of Bourne's escape into the river, it didn't declare Pam's efforts to shine a light on the whole thing a success or a failure.idriya was sort of annoyed with the repetitiveness of it, like, why yes, there's another sekrit program with sekrit experiments that tries to kill its own members when shit goes down! Which I can totally see, but it didn't get to me as much. (I argued that half the theme of the Bourne movies is precisely that these dickheads high up in these fictionalized covert agencies keep on trying this shit over and over and not caring how many people they wreck in the process; in retrospect, I think that might actually be the deepest thing in this movie.)
Don't know enough to comment on the use of the Phillipines as backdrop, although they'd have to use the word "Oriental" several hundred times before that would truly reflect Robert Ludlum's storytelling abilities. I can only assume they were trying to make a statement about the reach of the program, but every Outcome agent died exceptClint Aaron, and he was the whitest guyiest white guy of the bunch. I would like the movie about the Korean female agent next, please.
And then yesterday there was the Closer finale, and the pilot of Major Crimes. I haven't posted while I've been catching up on The Closer, but I did catch up before I watched the last ep; I'm bummed that they killed Brenda's mother, but I have very few complaints otherwise. It's been seven seasons and I've been watching right along, I couldn't offer up objective feedback on this show if you paid me. I called the use of DNA from the elevator fight, and I thought they did a reasonable job making Brenda's transition out of Major Crimes her own decision - I would have absolutely LOATHED this if it had been the scandal of the elevator thing getting her fired or something. As ever, I could have stood for it to be a bit longer, but on the whole I liked it. That final shot of her in the elevator with the chocolate was just beautiful, and I loved every second of her interacting with Raydor. ♥
And Major Crimes! Honestly, it feels like exactly the same show - I laughed when we saw that the credits were done the same way, and MARY MCDONNELL YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU. I might actually have to watch the first season of Battlestar Galactica, just for her. And Sykes! Kearran Giovanni is hot. If they don't keep her I'll cry.
The resolution felt weirdly fast, but, pilot - pilots always get some slack from me. And, honestly, I didn't even care, because everything else was exactly what I wanted. I'll read bad books and watch truly terrible movies if I like the characters enough, and I just love Captain Raydor. I love the dynamic, I love her rule-following and her ethics and the way she works with people who hate her, I love her so much I am running out of words. Unless they do something really drastic and awful with this show, I'm going to watch it as long as they'll air it. ♥________♥ HELP ME I CANNOT HAS OBJECTIVE OPINIONS.
And that's probably enough of a textwall for one post. Next chapter of LttE has cracked 15k with only a couple of sections left to go, so I swear to god it's coming. /o\
Also: my mother only recognized Taio Cruz during the Olympic closing ceremony because of that Korra vid I made. Win.
But they're finally over, which means I'm actually a productive adult again. Sort of. And things have happened in the interim!
My birthday, for one, which started out a little rocky but ended great. My mother let me wear stilts on our morning walk up the road, which was awesome - I'm always afraid that I'm going to have forgotten how to do it, but it's like riding a bike, every time. And then I slept through the grossest part of the day, and we had an excellent dinner and the same blissfully amazing cake we always get for family birthdays.
And presents! Unbeknownst to me, my mother saved the list of books I gave her at Christmas, so my presents from her were that pleasant combination of surprises and things I had asked for. I just finished Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History this morning - I'm not a particularly critical or intelligent nonfiction reader, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.
idriya got me what I think are the first two? Toby Daye books, which I am looking forward to, and Thor on DVD; and she also made me another fantabulous set of icons. Korra, this time, and it's possible you'll be able to tell something about where my interests lie. I swear I don't hate you, Mako. /o\ You just aren't that interesting!And somewhere back there, I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man, or whatever they called it. Which I liked? Ish? I don't know, it was okay? I mean, there were some good funny parts, I like me some awkward heroes, and perhaps because he's less extensively meta-human than some superheroes, Peter Parker tends to end up seriously-injured-but-still-plugging more than, say, Superman, or many of the Avengers.
But I think overall the first Tobey Maguire movie hung together a bit better. For me the plot of this one sort of unraveled in the middle - it didn't help that it was based around the doctor with the damaged arm wanting to grow a new one so badly that he turned evil, but then he - didn't? Or he was taken over by lizardness? Hallucinating? Evil enough to try to kill Peter and to actually kill Denis Leary, but not enough to not save Peter before he could fall off the building?
You can see by the sheer volume of question marks in that paragraph that I had no fucking idea what was going on with his character or motivations. I'm all for depth and not making evil a black-and-white issue, but there's complexity and then there's incoherency.
I'm also not totally sure what to think about Gwen Stacy. I think Emma Stone did a really excellent job, and she had some great lines here and there; but there was sort of a lot of getting her out of the way, too. I did like her clonking the lizard with the trophy, and I liked her in the lab and preparing that impromptu flamethrower. But those were immediately followed in the former case by her getting hung off the building to keep her safe; and in the latter case by the lizard ... not even seeming to reach for her, or care about the flamethrower, and then her getting shut in a police car to keep her safe. And then Peter breaking up with her to keep her safe, which, again, everybody involved did a good job with that scene, but a) we've seen that a gazillion times, and b) we've seen that a gazillion times in the movies this is a reboot of. If you want to distinguish yourself from the last Spider-Man, maybe don't count on the girl's hair color being enough to keep people from noticing you're hitting the exact same emotional beats.
So: I didn't think it was bad or anything! But it didn't blow my mind, either. I liked it fine, that's about all I've got.
idriya and I also went to see The Bourne Legacy. I don't think it had quite the same - complexity, or something, as the first three Bournes; it didn't have the same tangles in it. But then I wasn't expecting it to, considering. Aaron Cross knows who he is and how he got where he is; he knows he's in a secret program, he knows the effects of the pills he's taking, and he knows exactly who's trying to kill him. So honestly it's no wonder they couldn't manage the same degree of mystery.Actually, I think that's most of the difference right there - it wasn't a mystery movie, or a thriller, or whatever the hell you'd categorize the first Bournes as. This was a straight-up action trying-not-to-die movie, and for what it was, I enjoyed it.
For one thing, as a direct contrast to Spider-Man and to the first Bournes, this was almost half Rachel Weisz's movie. I always liked Marie, but the story never had all that much for her to do (except die, of course). Marta felt much more important in her own right - I mean, I'm still holding out for the one where Angelina Jolie is the enhanced super assassin and has to keep, idk, Mark Ruffalo safe from everybody trying to kill them both, but Marta had her own backstory and her own awesome.
I also thought it worked relatively well to frame it as partly concurrent with Bourne. I have no idea what that looks like if you haven't seen the other Bournes, but for me it worked; it didn't close off that open ending of Bourne's escape into the river, it didn't declare Pam's efforts to shine a light on the whole thing a success or a failure.
idriya was sort of annoyed with the repetitiveness of it, like, why yes, there's another sekrit program with sekrit experiments that tries to kill its own members when shit goes down! Which I can totally see, but it didn't get to me as much. (I argued that half the theme of the Bourne movies is precisely that these dickheads high up in these fictionalized covert agencies keep on trying this shit over and over and not caring how many people they wreck in the process; in retrospect, I think that might actually be the deepest thing in this movie.)Don't know enough to comment on the use of the Phillipines as backdrop, although they'd have to use the word "Oriental" several hundred times before that would truly reflect Robert Ludlum's storytelling abilities. I can only assume they were trying to make a statement about the reach of the program, but every Outcome agent died except
And then yesterday there was the Closer finale, and the pilot of Major Crimes. I haven't posted while I've been catching up on The Closer, but I did catch up before I watched the last ep; I'm bummed that they killed Brenda's mother, but I have very few complaints otherwise. It's been seven seasons and I've been watching right along, I couldn't offer up objective feedback on this show if you paid me. I called the use of DNA from the elevator fight, and I thought they did a reasonable job making Brenda's transition out of Major Crimes her own decision - I would have absolutely LOATHED this if it had been the scandal of the elevator thing getting her fired or something. As ever, I could have stood for it to be a bit longer, but on the whole I liked it. That final shot of her in the elevator with the chocolate was just beautiful, and I loved every second of her interacting with Raydor. ♥
And Major Crimes! Honestly, it feels like exactly the same show - I laughed when we saw that the credits were done the same way, and MARY MCDONNELL YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU. I might actually have to watch the first season of Battlestar Galactica, just for her. And Sykes! Kearran Giovanni is hot. If they don't keep her I'll cry.
The resolution felt weirdly fast, but, pilot - pilots always get some slack from me. And, honestly, I didn't even care, because everything else was exactly what I wanted. I'll read bad books and watch truly terrible movies if I like the characters enough, and I just love Captain Raydor. I love the dynamic, I love her rule-following and her ethics and the way she works with people who hate her, I love her so much I am running out of words. Unless they do something really drastic and awful with this show, I'm going to watch it as long as they'll air it. ♥________♥ HELP ME I CANNOT HAS OBJECTIVE OPINIONS.
And that's probably enough of a textwall for one post. Next chapter of LttE has cracked 15k with only a couple of sections left to go, so I swear to god it's coming. /o\
Also: my mother only recognized Taio Cruz during the Olympic closing ceremony because of that Korra vid I made. Win.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-23 08:15 pm (UTC)This would be so incredibly awesome.
I liked Marta a lot, and I liked Aaron, but I just felt the story could have done with being less crazy car chase and a little more fear of going back/flowers for Algernon.
Of course if I was in charge we would have at least an hour of sweaty half-naked Aaron fighting the superflu h/c deliciousness, so maybe it's a good thing I am not, in fact, in charge of the film industry!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-23 10:18 pm (UTC)I suspect you're probably right (as long as we don't have to give up Marta's final kick, of course) - there was definitely way less focus on Aaron's past/participation in the program/etc. than there could have been, and a lot more motorcycles. I feel like the pacing ended up a bit strange because the viraling-out was relatively straightforward: they knew where they had to go, it wasn't especially hard for them to get there, &c. If that had been a little complicated, I think they might have had more time to get into Aaron's head.
Of course if I was in charge we would have at least an hour of sweaty half-naked Aaron fighting the superflu h/c deliciousness, so maybe it's a good thing I am not, in fact, in charge of the film industry!
I'm the wrong person to judge, because I would totally watch that. :D