| My Email Asks Me If I Like Elf-Woman |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|12:31 pm] |
One of the reasons I've held my peace on this journal for so long is the all-too-keen awareness that it's not really a diary in as much as it is a public forum, and I try not to speak on a public forum unless I actually have something interesting to say. Added to the knowledge that the people I associate with tend to have a very specific range of interests indeed, the result is my choosing to just keep to myself for now the personally important but admittedly mundane business of building a marriage.
Well, I could wax poetic about what is to me an exciting engagement, as well as a very riveting religious regimen, but given the volumes I could easily fill my friends' FLists with, I decided to spare everyone for now. :V
Logistically, it's not looking good for me on the pop culture front; of the last few batches of nonessential purchases I've made, the overwhelming bulk was made up of history and historical commentary books (SHOCKING!). Muramasa was the only game I bought this year, and I didn't even play that, leaving it for my brother to finish while I messed around with Einhander, Geometry Wars, Team Fortress 2, and Rock Band 2.
Fortunately I've bought some DVDs instead, plus my youngest brother has been pirating movies like a crosseyed Hong Kong Chinaman selling to the Philippines, thus freeing me from legal culpability, as well as providing me with provender for pithy pulp perspectives!
Alliteration is fun.
Ponyo
As much as I like Miyazaki, I can't help but wish that he actually has less to work with than has been the trend. It may be an inaccurate assessment, but I've observed that the more leeway the animation giant has (i.e., a bigger film budget), the crazier and more involved his movies get. Attend-- My Neighbor Totoro and Whispers of the Heart are among his earlier works, and their charm rests primarily on the character relationships captured by the simplicity of their movies' execution. This is in direct contrast to Princess Mononoke, a movie I outright disliked just because of how convoluted it got towards the end. I don't even remember everything that was going on in that story, it just got so bogged down. Even in the later ones I did end up enjoying, such as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away, the sumptuously animated sequences with the most happening onscreen tended to be a net minus for the films as a whole.
At the risk of lecturing an acclaimed director in a field I have no formal training in, I'd have to say that some of his work could have been better served by the elimination of a good deal of the most fantastical scenes-- distractions at best, confusions at worst. I've decided that my favorite has to be Porco Rosso, a near-perfect balance of narrative simplicity and the impressive animating muscle we've come to expect from Studio Ghibli.
Ponyo belongs to the middle-latter class of Miyazaki movies as I layed them out. Storywise, there's not much to say, really-- a fairy tale that claims direct descent from the Little Mermaid, retooled for more modern youngsters. Animation-wise, it was superb, but left me reeling in some parts. Overall, a cute diversion, but light fare to more seasoned tastes.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) allisino liked it a lot though, so this review will probably get me in trouble. :(
Coraline
Gaiman, a strange creature in his own right, breeds similar oddities in the media he touches. Treatment of his original work into different forms have been maddeningly inconsistent in resultant quality-- e.g., the Neverwhere comic was ghastly; the Stardust movie was flashy and fun; both Beowulf movie and comic were inventive and haunting, but strangely bland and lifeless at the same time.
Coraline was simultaneously a relief and a pleasant surprise. I found the book alright, but the animated film adaptation is a decided improvement of the sort that immediately and immovably ingratiates itself in my estimation.
In specific, the stop-motion technique for one lends itself particularly well to the story's mood of muted melancholy, making the brighter parts all the more appreciated. Also, I'm typically wary of any major changes made to story dynamic, such as the introduction of a character woven out of whole cloth, but Wybie was here not only a welcome addition, but an active foil and indispensable support to the film's timing and flow.
At least I'm pretty sure there wasn't a Wybie character in the book. It's been a long, long time since I read Coraline, but I'm preeeeetty sure I'd have remembered a character as... ahem... colorful as Wybie.
... right?
My only regret was that I watched it for the first time in DVD-quality 3-D version, complete with red-blue stereo-optic glasses. While admirably effective at first, the technology was still largely rudimentary, and the novelty wore off fast. I missed a lot of the color play and other visual cues because of 3-D-induced squinting that time around, but it's fortunate for me that Coraline is a movie I'll be sure to watch over and over and over again over the years, one of the surest signs of something's significance and superiority to my standards.
allisino wasn't that fond of it though, so this review will probably get me in trouble. :(
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
AHAHAHAHHAHAHA, OH WOW, IS THAT REALLY SUPPOSED TO BE DEADPOOL? AHAHAHAHA
Easily one of the dumbest things I've ever seen, even without the ham-handed handling of established comic characters, and that's no mean feat.
Drag Me To Hell
A good film by its own standards, meaning that fans of Sam Raimi and the Evil Dead series won't be disappointed, I don't think. Great special effects done for relatively cheap by Hollywood reckoning, and with admirable directing resourcefulness. Ironically enough, it leaves a lasting impression for a horror movie with a lot of bright primary colors, thanks in no small part to its use of basic cinematography and still imagery, coupled with Raimi's macabre sense of humour as manifest in some of the most disquieting but grimly amusing moments I've ever seen in a movie.
I guess it's a compliment to dressed-up schlock that I can proceed to the next points of discussion, but the movie is otherwise a moral morass, and fairly imbalanced in terms of spiritual thermodynamics as well. The weaknesses of the movie's superstructure can perhaps best be expressed in the many questions the film's ending (SPOILERS AHEAD) gives rise to.
Among which-- how broken is it that, according to the movie, gypsies can pretty much consign anyone they wish to eternal hellfire? And with such a simple-seeming spell too! Is denying a mortgage extension to anyone really something deserving of an infinity of punishment, as the main character's final plight seems to imply? From the events of the movie, the main character's pivotal decision appeared to be nothing worse than a momentary failure of charity, with mitigating circumstances to boot, and-- here's the important thing-- eventually repented of as well. You mean to say that saying sorry doesn't count anymore? Perhaps Sam Raimi's own mother was denied a similar extension?
And when will I see a movie where a psychic the characters "happen" to consult is actually a fake (my brother pointed out the movie Ghost, but that doesn't count because Whoopi turns out to be real anyway, she just didn't realize it yet)? Nine times out of ten, movie psychics are real psychics, which is immensely better odds than you'll get in the real world.
Finally, why consult a psychic anyway? Seriously, don't deal with demons on their own terms, don't play by their rules, and you certainly do not try to appease them. You fight the diabolical with its opposite number. If you ever find yourself in any kind of similar straits with occult trouble, do yourself a favor and find the nearest Catholic priest. If he isn't trained to help you, he will know someone who is, and he can help you improve your lot in the meantime.
But again, the movie gives little indication that it even cares about the curious implications it slings around in the service of grisly entertainment, so conjecture and speculation may be for naught. All the same, I am compelled to object; it's no joking matter to condemn anyone to Hell, even in fiction, and I can just hope, perhaps vainly, that future films deal with the subject with more responsibility than was demonstrated in this one.
Perhaps a better title would be I Got Dragged To Hell, WTF?
Monsters vs. Aliens
Watching it by myself would have been bad enough, but with my fiancee and my brother in the same room, I was just downright embarrassed for the craft, that craft being of writing in particular, and making things that are not garbage in general. It hurt to watch, when we weren't all just bored out of our wits that is.
One of the biggest disappointments in animation I've had to stomach, due mostly to my high hopes for the Susan character, hopes which in their turn inflicted the most grievous wounds on my shattered expectations.
This is intolerable. I can do better than that without trying. In fact, I have half a mind to do so. I've got a few minutes and a laptop. That's all I need.
I started making this post at eleven o'clock am. It is now just a little past four in the afternoon. Chee, I'm thinking and moving in slow motion today. Must be the three-day, twelve-hour weekend I just got through. Sooooooo tired. I hope these ramblings find you in better spirits. XD
God bless~
|
|
|
