4thofeleven: (Default)
1. We shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age.

2. I felt as though I was unable to wake up, slowly sinking deeper and deeper into madness.

3. If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!

4. Our best bet is to pack it into a crate lost deep within a warehouse next to all the other dangerous artifacts man was not meant to tamper with, before it kills us all.

5. Ultimate horror often paralyses memory in a merciful way.

6. I felt myself on the edge of the world; peering over the rim into a fathomless chaos of eternal night.

7. I felt the light inside me slowly fading.

8. I have seen sights no human should see.

9. I have looked upon all the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me.

10. Oh God, my eyes!

Answers: )
4thofeleven: (Default)
Well, that was certainly... a movie I saw.

Talking about the movie afterwards, my friend asked me if I'd rate it as better or worse than the Last Jedi... and I honestly can't say. The Last Jedi was a thematic mess with a nihilistic attitude towards Star Wars, but at least I ended the film feeling something. That something was kinda depressed and hollow, but it had an emotional impact. Rise of Skywalker, meanwhile, leaps from half-formed plot point to plot point with a manic energy, desperately trying to reach a conclusion that really isn't worth it. It feels like a summary of three movies, and refuses to linger on anything long enough for any of it to have any weight or meaning. It feels disposable on a level that even the much-maligned Solo avoided.

Spoilers follow:

Young fool. Only now, at the end, do you understand... )
4thofeleven: (Default)
We need to give George Lucas and the prequels more credit. Sure, nobody liked Jar-Jar Binks, but that was because of his dialogue and actions - not because the CGI set off an instinctive "Kill it with fire!" response. If Star Wars could do it twenty years ago, you'd think modern film-makers could manage the same thing...
4thofeleven: (Default)
...Who Deserve an Expansive Backstory in a Tales From... Style Anthology:

  • Grumpy Dreadnought Captain
  • Evil BB8
  • The Rebel Trooper Who Apparently Tastes Every Planet He Visits
  • The Master Codebreaker and His Distinctive Pin That is So Unique That Giving His Name, Species, or Indeed Any Sort of Description Would Be Superfluous to Identify Him
  • Carrie Fisher's Dog

4thofeleven: (Default)
Thinking some more about The Last Jedi, now I've had a few weeks to digest it – and gotten back from my holidays. Indonesia's national parks are beautiful!

I think there's two main issues I have with it. One's somewhat unavoidable and unintentional, but the other is a real weakness of the film as it stands.
Spoilers Within )
4thofeleven: (Default)
So, I didn't get a chance to write about this immediately – was away over New Years, and I've been kind of mulling over what I wanted to say since then.

I've got to say, I wasn't exactly a fan.

Part of it's subjective, of course. This wasn't exactly the Star Wars I wanted to see after 2016; Star Wars can be many things, but it should be fun, it should be exciting. I was expecting something of a heist film, what I got was a grim and gritty war film. Points to the writers for trying something different, but I really don't think we needed a Star Wars where rebels against the Empire are visually identified with mujahideen extremists, where the Alliance condones assassination in the name of expedience, where X-Wing fighters are harbingers of destruction and tragedy...

It's a film that tries to end on a note of hope, but seems to think the only way to get there is by wallowing in despair in every scene leading up to it. It's certainly an interesting approach, but not really an enjoyable one.

From a less subjective point of view, there's the issues with the characters and story:

(Extensive Spoilers) )
4thofeleven: (Default)
So, the alternating pattern continues, as the abysmal “Into Darkness” is followed up by... hell, probably the best Trek film since Undiscovered Country? The reboot finally steps out of the shadow of the original series, and is all the better for it, finally feeling fresh and exciting. Hell, that's practically one of the movie's themes, letting go of the past, and I can only hope that carries through from now on.


Spoilers and specific comments below:
Read more... )

The title is still terrible and means nothing, though.
4thofeleven: (Default)
I'd like to thank whoever it was at Qantas who decided to add Alien to their list of in-flight movies. Because, really, when stuck on a plane for 10+ hours, nothing's more relaxing than claustrophobic horror...
4thofeleven: (Default)
So, general thoughts? I'm not exactly disapointed, but I can't help but be reminded of the quote about someone's work being both good and original, but the parts that are good are not original and the original parts are not good...

Alright, maybe that's a bit unfair, but the movie really struggles when it's not following A New Hope beat for beat.

The Good, the Not-So-Good, and the Baffling (Contains Spoilers) )
4thofeleven: (Default)
Look, I told myself I was going to keep an open mind, I said I didn't care about the old EU going away, I wasn't going to be one of those fans who just complains about how things aren't the way they used to be, but some things... somethings are just beyond the pale.

[Spoilers follow] )
4thofeleven: (Default)
Was thinking about Star Trek 5 – because somebody has to, right? And it occurred to me – why is it a terrible Star Trek movie? Because it’s actually a Star Wars movie!

Think about it. Who’s the villain? Well, he’s a renegade from the group of powerful psychics who repress their emotions and avoid strong attachments. He’s been cast out because he delved into ancient forbidden philosophies, and decided to follow a different path, one all about gaining strength through embracing pain and revelling in emotions. Using this power, he gains power over the minds of the weak-willed and forms an army to carry out his monomaniacal obsession.

The plot draws everyone inexorably to the desert planet with the city full of scum and villainy that is somehow both a total backwater and also the most important location in the galaxy. Everything’s sort of worn out looking and broken down – even the good guy’s ship is a malfunctioning, unreliable hunk of junk.

There’s a lot of weird mystical babble going on as our heroes fly across the galaxy. The villain tries to tempt the good guy psychic into joining him, but fails, even after a contrived family relationship is revealed. Eventually, however, the villain sees the light and sacrifices himself to save the heroes from the real evil, who at the time was busy shooting lightning at everyone.

The movie ends with our heroes celebrating as night falls over a Californian national park, and a childish song wraps up the adventure!
4thofeleven: (Default)
"And then, the moment arrives—the moment when the movie spreads its wings and reveals its truest self: Noah gives Claire a gift. A first edition of the Iliad."
- In Jennifer Lopez's The Boy Next Door, The Trashiest Moment is a Real Classic, slate.com
 

A first edition. Of the Illiad. It's... pfft... heh... BWAHAHAHA!

Is it signed by Homer?

4thofeleven: (Default)
It's long overdue, but it's good to finally have a decent sequel to The Matrix.
4thofeleven: (denny crane)
Everyone knows the old thing about the even-numbered Star Trek movies being better than the odd-numbered ones. Some people might think this pattern was broken when the forgettable Insurrection was followed by the dreadful Nemesis.

I would argue, though, that the pattern holds – provided you count Galaxy Quest as the ‘good’ movie between those two. And really, why wouldn’t you?!

And, unfortunately, with that addition, the sequence continues perfectly, as 2009’s rather good, if flawed reboot is followed up by Into Darkness, a film that manages to make all the mistakes the reboot avoided. I really can’t recommend it.

[Spoilers follow] )

4thofeleven: (Default)
A quick comment on getting back from Into Darkness: Can someone please, PLEASE, turn off the recording of Wrath of Khan that seems to have been stuck on loop at the Paramount writer's studio for the last decade or so? Why not rehash Undiscovered Country or the Voyage Home for once? Or try doing the Motion Picture or Final Frontier properly?

You're never going to top the original Wrath of Khan, please stop trying...
4thofeleven: (Default)
Had the urge to watch the Wrath of Khan last night (New movie? What the hell are you talking about?!), and I think I’ve got a new contender for my least favourite Star Trek character:

David Marcus.

I mean, what is he even doing in the film? Alright, there’s the themes of death, resurrection, growing old – but you’ve already got Genesis, Kirk’s birthday, the Enterprise being literally crewed by cadets to illustrate those themes, having Kirk’s literal son pop up seems to be just an overly literal way of handling that.

Then there’s his characterisation. He fears Starfleet – “Scientists have always been pawns of the military” – but I have no idea where he gets that from; Carol Marcus basically rolls her eyes at that, so he’s not getting it from his mother, and considering how much his project relies on Starfleet to do the grunt work, it’s more than a little hypocritical. But then, at the end of the film, after watching Kirk risk his life, save the day, and lose his best friend, he decides to magnanimously admit that hey, his dad’s not such a bad guy after all. That’s not a character arc; that’s being a dick for 90% of the movie then at the end being slightly less of one!

And all of his dialogue feels like it should belong to other characters – hell, in his last scene, he’s literally quoting Saavak! The scene would have been so much stronger if it had actually been her talking to Kirk; Spock’s protégé and friend mourning his loss together. He has no reason to be in the movie. He has no arc, no motivation, and steals time from better characters.

Alright, maybe I’m just overly harsh because the rest of the film is so close to perfect; David feels so much like an afterthought, he sticks out like a sore thumb…

An unrelated quibble: When, exactly, could Khan have possibly learned a Klingon proverb?!
4thofeleven: (Default)
An odd thought: I was still in my mid-teens when I saw Fellowship. I’ll be thirty when the last Hobbit film comes out…

Anyway, I liked the film. Compared to Lord of the Rings, it seemed a little more… light-hearted isn’t exactly the right word, but certainly a fair bit less serious or weighty – which fits the difference between the books. I thought the film handled the difference in tone quite nicely by framing it as Bilbo’s account of his adventure, and much of the early scenes is word-for-word from the book. I do hope the rest of the trilogy keeps up that mood, and the attempt to expand the story into a trilogy doesn’t result in attempts to make it too serious or ‘epic’. I liked the cameos from Galadriel and Saruman, but I wouldn’t want the movers and shakers of Middle-Earth to overshadow Thorin and company…

Regarding Thorin and the dwarves – I found it interesting that the film seemed to take Tolkien’s comment that his dwarves are vaguely analogous to Jews and ran with it – some of Thorin’s company seemed to have a very eastern/central European look to them, there were a lot of references to Dwarves as a people in exile, victims of an involuntary diaspora, outsiders wherever they go. Of course, there’s problematic attitudes in associating dwarves with Jews – but, on the other hand, it’s pretty much impossible to adapt Tolkien’s works without carrying over some problematic content, and a fantasy film with Eastern-European Jewish analogues as the heroes makes for a nice change from the usual Anglo/Nordic cultures. And the Hobbit ends with everyone consumed with greed for Smaug’s hoard, not just the Dwarves…

There’s also a nice sense that Thorin’s band are fairly ordinary people – not as unaccustomed to adventure as Bilbo, of course, but hardly on the level of Aragorn or Legolas. A few orcs on wargs is treated as a serious threat, and they avoid combat whenever possible. I liked that – Smaug should be an utterly terrifying threat once we get to see him in full, a year or two down the line.

Things I disliked – Radagast was a bit too goofy for my tastes, and seemed rather supurflous. Everything he said was repeated by Gandalf a few scenes later anyway, his appearance seemed more to make up for him being cut from Fellowship, less a useful addition in its own right. The escape from the stone giants dragged a little too – then again, they’re slightly out of place even in the novel, never being so much as referenced again anywhere else…

An odd realisation – outside of the brief glimpse of Dale-town at the beginning, I don’t think there was a single human onscreen in the entire film. Certainly none with lines…

Anyway, bring on the Desolation of Smaug! Next year in Erebor!
4thofeleven: (Default)
Been doing research for my thesis on the American occupation of Haiti. One thing that struck me was noticing that, as late as the 1920s, ‘Zombies’ were still unknown in America – a fair number of writers, talking about superstition in Haiti, seem to think zombie is a type of ghost.

It’s weird to realise zombies have only been part of English-speaking pop culture for less than a century. They don’t feel that recent – zombies feel perfectly at home in medieval European-style fantasies, they don’t feel like foreign intruders like monsters from middle-eastern or Asian folklore would. They’ve certainly lost any specific connection to Voodoo or Caribbean culture.

Then again, most of the modern ideas about Vampires and Werewolves entered popular culture through film at about the same time; the 1930s was a remarkably influential era for horror. One wonders if the Zombie would have gone on to have the same impact had the early film industry developed in another country, or if the United States hadn’t been occupying Haiti at the time the industry was looking for new supernatural beasts…

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