Posts tagged with "pessimism"
Sunday, 6. July 2008, 15:55:41
book-review, doomed optimism, always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations
...
The only difference between a dream and a nightmare is how big your balls are, bitch.
- The FoxSo, seeing as I was planning on watching the loose movie adaptation of
Wanted in the cinema in the upcoming week, I figured I'd give the original graphic novel a try first.
The premise was interesting, and the artwork by J. G. Jones was easy on the eyes. Seeing as it's additionally written by Mark Millar, I had rather high expectations to this, considering what I've read of his work before. Millar's DC Elseworld story
Red Son featuring a "what is Superman landed in Stalnist Russia?"-premise was amazing, his recent major Marvel event
Civil War was actually
very good for a mainstream superhero giga-crossover, his original run at
Ultimate X-men was exhilarating and often quite moving, and
The Ultimates, especially the second installment, is simply awesome.
Thus, I must say, this was quite the disappointment. With
Wanted, Millar is doing his completely own thing, writing with his own characters in a universe he made up himself. It's ironic, then, that one of the main strengths I see in the book is actually the ofttimes clever way he alludes to mainstream DC and Marvel characters and continuity. (Sadly, it often goes horribly wrong and just comes off as stupid or juvenile, like for instance his imitation of Scarface and Two-Face) In particular characters like his Mr. Richter deserves credit for being a funny and charismatic villain reminiscent of characters like Batman's "Black Mask" or Cap's "Red Skull", but not exactly like either of them nor a stupid parody. Another excellent character is Doll-Master, a character blatantly ripped off of DC's Toyman, but much more interesting and charming than Toyman ever was. Still, you're more often than not left sitting with the feeling that this'd be a lot more interesting if it had the original characters instead of Millar's homages, parodies and copies.
The plot of this comic, without spoiling more than your average blurb would, is that a normal pushover wussy office rat learns his father was a supervillain and willed him a fortune on the condition that his son learned to be a supervillain too, being trained by a secret society of such. The story is actually quite intoxicating, sucking you in, making you want to read on, see what happens next. The problem is that what happens next is (almost) never particularly interesting beyond making you want to see what happens after that again.
The reason for this is that Millar's created an interesting world for the story, but plotted it along the life of a main character totally devoid of any form of charisma, allure or even agenda for me as the reader to get excited about. All he does is kill people. There's no elaborate planning, no finesse, no charm, no interesting and complex motivations. The character simply has no draw to him, there's no...
je ne sais quoi, nothing of
interest. Just a hell of a lot of potential for interest that keeps you going. But by the end of the book, the potential's gone unrealized and the character's more boring and unappealing than ever. It doesn't exactly help that he's drawn to look like Eminem.
A little more spoilers from this paragraph on, if you're phobic you should skip to the last one. What happens, you see, is that our main character becomes a remorseless rapist sociopath. Fair enough. Why? Because he can, because the world's always screwed him over and he figures he can now screw it back. Fair enough again. How? By doing stuff like killing random people in the street. Alright. Also fair enough, I suppose. And then what?
Well, and then nothing. That's the problem.
Wanted is the story of how a boring wuss became a boring bully. That's all he is at the end of this story. A rich, remorseless, super-powered bully with no intelligence or charm to his actions, nothing to keep the reader connected to him.
Oddly, Millar seems to think I'd somehow envy this guy. The story ends with the protagonist breaking the fourth wall, addressing the reader, accusing him of having as empty a life as he had in the beginning, and that reading about others doing things like he's been doing in this story is the illusion used to fill up the meaningless drone life. I suppose it's intended to make me feel provoked, or insulted, or maybe make me reconsider some priorities or something. All it does, honestly, is make me go "fuck, this man is
stupid." If anyone in this story wanted to tell me a line like that, it needed to be one of the heads of the five families, or possibly Doll-Master. Heck, even the protagonist's father, whom he turns into an almost identical replica of, was a little bit more interesting than the guy we've been following throughout this. All the ending leaves me with is a feeling of "this was it?" I read five issues to get to the point where character-development as a concept is non-existent, the only interesting characters are killed by the most boring ones, and then one of the boring ones claim that my life is empty compared to his? Really Millar, Fredegar Bolger had a more interesting role in
The Lord of the Rings than Wesley Gibson had here.
Thus, I'm sucked through five issues of action, constantly feeling as though the cool moments, the truly awesome entertainment, are all right around the corner. But in the end, all I'm left with are secondary characters who for the most part were more interesting in their original DC incarnations, stupid plot-devices like when Sucker doesn't know when 24 hours have passed since he did something but the protagonist who wasn't present at the instance somehow does standing in for what should be genuinely cool character moments, and a main character who was a million times less interesting than the badguys he fought but just as morally reprehensible, giving me no reason to root for him whatsoever. I know the movie is supposed to make him into more of a hero, but honestly, I've kind of lost all the drive I had to watch it.
Friday, 13. June 2008, 11:24:04
doomed optimism, rant, expectations, general obnoxiousness
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So, I did really well on the exam that mattered and I thought I did mediocre at. And then I did mediocre at the exam that didn't matter and I was sure I did very well at.
And somehow, I'm thoroughly unhappy about that. Sigh.
Monday, 2. June 2008, 11:58:13
doomed optimism, boardgames, rant, expectations
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Smaller sets would be awesome. Way overdue, albeit far better late than never. Mythic rares probably isn't a very good idea, but if the maths
as Rosewater lay them out indeed work out, it shouldn't be more difficult getting one than any given Lorwyn-rare in the smaller sets, and it does appeal to my inner Vorthos.
But a LAND replacing a common in every expert-level booster? That's effectively dropping one card from every pack I buy while putting just enough lands there that new players will be annoyed for not having enough of them to play with anyway. I'll feel like I'm being flipped every time I browse through a pack and see those lands.
Seriously? A
basic land?!
I'm too old for this nonsense.
Monday, 5. May 2008, 22:03:28
always-wanted-to-do-that, doomed optimism, pessimism, Marvel Comics
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The Hulk was kind of artsy and dark and weird, and though it had some cool moments it'll hardly go down in history as an example of a successful attempt at making a movie of a Marvel superhero. The
Fantastic Fours sadly kind of put themselves on a more kid-movie sort of level, but they weren't as bad as everybody says they are. (Alright, maybe a little bit, but I'll maintain that the casting was pretty good)
Elektra, however... And just when
Daredevil stood a good chance to redeem himself through the impressingly improving director's cut. But, you know,
Spider-man was a pretty darned good movie. And though Dafoe was sorely missed,
Spider-man 2 was probably even better.
X-men was rather unimpressively decent, but laid a fantastic foundation for the brilliant
X-men 2. Both franchises kinda limped their way through the third installments, though Spidey did so remarkably well, but the point is, Marvel's really done some pretty darn good superhero-movies before. Heck, I even liked
The Punisher, though I'll accept that while a decent movie it wasn't that good a portrayal of the character.
But this... this buggers those "decent attempts" up the arse, if you'll pardon my French, wipes the floor with
Spider-man and gives even Spidey 2 and
God Among Insects X-men 2 a run for their money. Even DC's
Batman Begins should get a little uneasy seeing Downey Jr. donning his armor.
Because of THIS is the result when Marvel decides to finance their own movies, then I need to look into getting some kind of moviegoing discount card.
Iron Man is the kind of movie that had me go home feeling guilty that I hadn't gotten a premiere ticket to see it. It had Robert Downey Jr. in the main part, and I knew from the second I heard that that I was in store for something good. Now, I'm one of those losers who only really know the man from his relatively short run at
Ally McBeal, but he made a strong and lasting impression on me there as one of the funniest and most charming characters the show had (and this was a show sporting the infamous duovirate of Cage & Fish) and I spent every episode the show had after he left hoping he'd come back on. And something in my head just clicked when I heard he was signed on as Tony Stark, instinctively I just
knew he'd do a stellar job of portraying the guy who's probably my favourite Marvel character. (Yes, I have a thing for billionaire control-freak geniuses with eccentric alter egos, it's TV2's fault for airing
Zorro every weekend when I grew up, let's move along?)
So, my favourite character played by an actor I felt unusually confident would do a good job - and from Jon Favreau, the guy who directed the very funny
Elf and was hilarious as Foggy Nelson on
Daredevil. Then came the mindblowingly awesome trailer. And suddenly, the movie was out, and people were going crazy praising it. Reviewers, people I knew, online acquaintences with very good tastes,
fans of the comics and
uninitiated alike. They were all jumping through hoops to tell me how much fun this movie was. It simply
had to disappoint, and all that remained was hoping it only did so somewhat.
So, yeah, no, seems like someone decided they'd just skipped the hole conforming to reality-thing with this movie and in an astonishing feat of improbability worthy of Zaphod Beeblebrox,
Iron Man lived up to the insane expectations and was all kinds of awesome.
Sure, the plot is rather predictable, particularily due to the very conventional and orthodox use of an overused badguy-formula without any real twists. (Though they do have some half-hearted attempts at throwing you off track) Also, the badguys of the movie are rather flat and uninteresting in their own rights.
It just doesn't matter though. This movie is solid through and through, and aside from whoever wrote the script and the fantastic dialogue, the main credit for that HAS to be given to Downey Jr.. Tony Stark is not just any ass, he's a
brilliant ass, and watching this movie, you
love him for it every single step of the way. You coo like a fanboy at his (often incredibly lame) jokes and chuckle merrily when he treats people like crap from the very first scene he's in - a scene, incidentally, that's somehow the best scene in the movie without ever making anything coming after it seem like a downer.
Spider-man's constant quips were probably one of the more poorly treated aspects of the character in the movies, but that slight has not been done here. And it's even funnier than Spidey's quips, because Parker is too much of a goodguy to mock anybody but the badguys he fights. Stark has no such qualms. You might be the only person in the world mattering to him, and he'll still treat you like your very existance is basically there to convenience him and set up the occasional joke at your own expense.
Which brings me to Gwyneth Paltrow, who surprised me a lot in this movie by being very memorable in her portrayal of Mr. Stark's personal assistant Pepper. I've never disliked her in anything, but I also cannot remember every really noticing her that much. Here, she has a presence on screen that sticks with you, and while nothing bad is to be said about the other major cast members, she is probably the only one who manages to have a scene with Downey Jr. without his stealing it completely away.
All in all, a highly funny and vastly entertaining movie that, ironically, just feels like a set-up to something bigger once it is done. The sequel(s! please?) cannot come soon enough.
A weak 9,5/10
(The only problem is that after this,
Dark Knight is kind of forced to look worse, isn't it...)
Sunday, 30. March 2008, 16:24:46
politics, rant, conspiracy-theories, pessimism
I give you - with great sadness - the Signs of Modern Norway:
The beauty; gone. The charm; gone. The identity; gone. The soul. Gone.
All that remains are traffic signs. Anonymous traffic signs for anonymous traffic with anonymous people with anonymous lives in an increasingly anonymous country.
Damn them all.
Thursday, 21. February 2008, 17:44:12
doomed optimism, always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations, movie-report
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[Note that I saw this movie in its (quite excellent) Norwegian dub)
I had very high hopes and very low expectations to this movie. My expectations panned out, sadly, but the movie wasn't a complete waste as with certain select scenes, so did my hopes.
Why high hopes to begin with? Well, the first live-action Asterix-movie was an excercise in blandness. It was alright. It was decent. It was half-amusing and semi-exciting. It was worth the cinema-ticket. It didn't feel like a wasted two hours. And yet I can't remember a single good thing about it. The second, however, was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant, in point of fact. Surreal, silly, funny, almost Monty Pythonsque at times, and, I suspect, very French.
This third one kind of falls between the two chairs. It tries to do what the second one did, but mostly ends up feeling forced and excaggerated. When it does succeed, however, it's quite funny and delightful to watch. It never captures the feeling of perfectly sense-making surreality of the second one, though, which is a great shame. It also feels - maybe due to this - more juvenile and flat than either of the previous movies.
Like the second one - but unlike the first - Asterix at the Olympic Games finds its source material not in an amalgam of the comic book series as a concept, but in one specific volume of the series. (There are, however, references and scenes from other books as well) Also like the second one did, there are quite a few different approaches to the story when compared to the comic book. Completely unlike the second one, it butchers the comic book quite thoroughly. The only things kept from the book feel overly forced and badly pulled off, which is such a shame as it makes the book appear bad. It is not.
While the comic book mixes together everything from the entire Classical era to make as many jokes as it can, it stays true to the history of it in its own way. This movie did absolutely everything BUT that. That being said, after ten-fifteen minutes of cringing, I got used to it and moved on.
The plot had next to nothing to do with the plot of the book beyond the "Asterix and Obelix competes at the Olympic Games"-premise. Instead, they inserted a Brutus-character (decently well done if not at all like neither the historical Brutus nor the Brutus of the comic books) in love with a Greek princess invented for the movie, and a Gaul from our heroes' hometown who has somehow mysteriously fallen in love with this same princess - despite her living on the other side of Europe where he's apparently never went and her being some twenty-odd social steps above him. I'm assuming there's supposed to be a slight hint of the incredibly well done animated movie's "Asterix and Caesar's surprise" (I refuse to use the American title which is apparently "Asterix Versus Caesar") romance-plot and its corresponding storylines in the comic books in this, but nothing of the genuine affection or interesting twists in it is called back to in any way. What's left is a couple of mildly amusing scenes with Gerard Depardieu's ever-awesome (and ever-rottenly dressed up) performance as Obelix as Cupid's assistant and an excuse to put the plot in motion.
Ironically, the one truly superb, brilliant, hilarious thing about this movie is the one character who didn't even appear in the comic book volume it's based on; Julius Caesar. Beautifully (that's a pun, by the way) portrayed by Alain Delon, who's apparently really famous for people who watch French movies without moustachy Gauls in them, his every single scene was ingenious.
So, what did I think of the movie? 6,5/10. 3 points out of which are brought to the table by Julius Caesar's scenes, out of which I'm giving none a lower score than 9.
Friday, 1. February 2008, 02:21:33
Non-Whedon-Television, always-wanted-to-do-that, pessimism
Well, watching that "Season 4 Pitch" on the last Veronica Mars' box-set was a very bittersweet experience... heavy on the sweet, though. 'Cause wow, here's a whole brand new 12 minutes of Bell-starring Thomas-made Veronica Mars-scenes, and I had no clue they even existed! Basically, it's the teaser/first act of a hypothetical season 4 of the show, made to try to convince the network of renewing the show anyway after the cancellation.
'Course, it didn't work, but bless their hearts for putting it on the DVDs.
(Oh, and folks, strong suggestion, watch the "pitching season 4" before the "presentation"-featurette, because the latter uses the same scenes, but out of order and in between interview-bits and will thus spoil this golden opportunity to watch a quarter of the closest we're likely to ever get again to a VM-episode...)
Sunday, 27. January 2008, 19:19:58
this-blog, pessimism, megalomania, doomed optimism
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I'm currently trying to attend lectures in eight courses, four of which I've actually signed up for. Add to that 1300 pages of rather heavy curriculum on Ancient Egyptian religion as well as another 1300 pages (40 out of which is in bleeding German!) on Roman same, an unwritten 6000-word assignment on the cult and worship of Victoria and an equally unwritten project draft for my Master's thesis, and I'm quite stressed out. All of that is somewhat doable, though.
What really Zaps My Energy is the constant knowledge that I on top of this should be cramming Latin vocabulary and grammar-tables every day, and hardly ever do.
On the bright side, I'm channeling my Need To Remidy My Guilty Conscience By Doing Something Constructive into finally sorting my Magic: The Gathering-cards which have been a complete and unapproachable constant presence of mess on my desktop for three years now. Thinking I've finally reached the collection-size-point where ever colour of magic will need its own folder. Also, yay, they've finally errata'ed all those class-only creatures into having proper creature-types, so now I can sort all the soldiers and knights and clerics and whatnot under Humans. (Every fiber of my being resented a filing system which sorted some cards under "Elves" and some under "Wizards". Shudders.) Hopefully, on a slightly longer-term basis, I will also be able to channel some of this into reading my Stack of Unread Comic Books. However, my stack of unread fiction and non-curricular-nonfiction which I only made some meager progress with this Christmas (better than last year, though!) will probably be on stand-by for now. I just cannot justify sitting down to read anything which isn't about Roman emperor worship or the possibility of an Egyptian pantheism or similar. Sigh.
So, there you have it. This is why I don't seem to have the will to post here lately. That being said, there should at some point, when exactly being very much in the unknown, appear some form of posts on/reviews of the movies Waitress, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God and Hocus Pocus. So the silence isn't for lack of topics.
This has been an Utterly Unnecessary Update (also known as a triple-u), you will now return with my permission to your regularly scheduled activities.
Tuesday, 18. December 2007, 20:41:45
time, doomed optimism, blogs, always-wanted-to-do-that
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Guess what I just found out!I'm happy - not psyched or anything, but happy - about this. If nothing else because it will let me see Smaug on the big screen.
And Smaug, ladies and gents, is
cool.
Peter Jackson not directing but producing sounds... vaguely promising, I guess. (Why mess up something that works?)
I'm intrigued by the whole (obviously run on the moneymaking incentive) decision to make it into two movies. Where'll they chop it? A slow-paced start in Rivendell in the second movie? Beorn, maybe? Right before Mirkwood? IN Mirkwood? After Mirkwood? It would kind of make sense, actually, to make the first movie about the journey and the second about the dragon and the war, but I suspect the second movie would be stretched very thin if that's the case. Oh, well. I guess we'll see. In three years or so.
Sunday, 18. November 2007, 17:27:04
doomed optimism, rant, expectations, Non-Whedon-Television
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Smallville either just commited seppuku on its own continuity, or had the most brilliant plot-twist in ages.
If it's the latter, they'd DAMNED better start to clear up the continuity-issues in the very next episode, because this is just too much.
Saturday, 17. November 2007, 23:36:21
people, quote of the day, pessimism
Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop.
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall;
and down will come baby, cradle and all!
- Traditional nursery rhyme
Monday, 5. November 2007, 04:21:44
quote of the day, roman-religion, pessimism
That long time, when I shall not exist, troubles me more than this brief life which yet seems to me too long.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Letters to Atticus"
Friday, 2. November 2007, 03:19:57
time, Non-Whedon-Television, pessimism
Sunday, 21. October 2007, 20:32:24
general obnoxiousness, people, time, megalomania
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So, I'm on my first year of my master's degree, this term being the boring compulsory shit. Next year is the writing of the actual master's thesis. But next term is all up for grabs, I can do almost whatever I want with it. Hence my total lack of making my mind up. Keep in mind that no matter what I'll do, these three suggestions are all full-time suggestions but that I'll still take an additional course (in Norse Religion, I've always wanted to and this is kind of my last chance for a long while) bringing the total workload up to 150% in all scenarios).
So... next term... should I...
A. Take fun courses that I know with reasonable certainty I'll get good grades in and learn useful stuff in, but that won't in any way alter or improve my range or depth of knowledge - for instance, should I take courses in, say, Archeology, Rhetorics, Philosophy and/or Classical Literature to improve my knowledge of the Ancient Mediterranean world and supplement the courses I have in Religious Science and History? This is what I WANT to do from a short term-perspective, as this would be both fun and interesting and relatively easy work-load wise. It would, however, limit my ability to write a particularily "serious" master's thesis, as I would not be able to discuss any aspect of any primary source in its original form. Most likely, this would lead to me writing a "fun" assignment on, say, the uses of Ancient Greek religion in modern comic books, for instance, which while fun I'm doubting will really get me anywhere afterwards.
B. Take Classical Greek - that is, the language. Upside is, this'd allow me to work on Greek mythology, which I find to be fun. Downside is, I have no idea whether or not I'll do okay in this, and I know it'll be a lot of work. Upside is, beyond the having great use for some insight into the language as stated above, having some minimal knowledge of Classical Greek is more or less expected if you write your master's thesis on Ancient Greece, and this way I'd not feel like a complete idiot every time someone expected me to know something I don't.
C. Take Latin, full term. This would basically be choosing to work on Roman religion instead of Greek, but that would maybe not be so bad - due to having had a course in the history of the Roman Republic, I feel much more familiar with Roman history anyway. It would mean re-taking a course in Latin I already have before continuing with new stuff, but that might be smart, as I don't remember any of it.
D. Take Latin, half the term as well as one of the fun courses from A. Upsides would then be same as in A and C above, only assuming of myself that I'll remember stuff from last time I took Latin so I won't have to re-take it. However, while this sound enticing, I'm thinking that it might end up being very taxing work-load-wise...
E. Combining B, C or D with attending a lot of lectures from courses in A throughout the term, but not signing up for exams in them.
F. Combining B, C or D with signing up for a couple of A-exams without compulsory activities and attending their lectures throughout the term, but not do any reading or book-purchasing at all and show up for the exams just for the heck of it.
Any suggestions? B&C would be the smart choices, A the fun choice, D and F the attempted compromise combining the best of the two, and E is more of an ideal I won't be able to live up to as there's no way I'll have the self-control to attend lectures I won't have exams in on a regular basis.
I'd really like some input, who knows, maybe some of you'll say something which'll be all helpful. Stranger things have happened...
Sunday, 7. October 2007, 14:21:15
doomed optimism, expectations, always-wanted-to-do-that, pessimism
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With the exception of "Angel", "Firefly" and maaaybe (but, in lieu of the weaker third season, probably not even) "Veronica Mars", I've never felt more horrible about approaching the end of a show. Ever. And I've seen a ton of them.
I'm dreading when I, an hour's time from now, have no more "Deadwood" to look forward to; save hoping and praying for those two maybe-slightly-possibly-hopefully-could-be-television-movies.
Sigh.
So. Onwards, to the final episode. "Tell Him Something Pretty", it's called. I hope they will.
Friday, 21. September 2007, 00:32:49
doomed optimism, time, expectations, Non-Whedon-Television
...
Wow.
I have to say, this surprised me. The show's been getting increasingly better, with the third season by far being the best, but this... this knocked the ball out of the park. The already promising series-plotline is given full attention, the very, very few freak-of-the-week-episodes this season has are neatly sewn in to the plotline so you rarely even notice that it is a freak-of-the-week-style episode, and most of the not-so-good characters are MIA, dead, getting less screen-time or simply flat out improving (in particular I should mention Kyle on this one)! The only thing I miss is Peter Coyote's brilliant Dennis Ryland, but I guess you can't have it all. I would've LOVED to see Ryland in some scenes with Collier now, though. And dear gods is Sean Farrell growing into a good character! Also special props to Joel Gretsch (Tom Baldwin) who really showed that he could act this season (not that I've doubted it).
Seriously, this is a very recommandable a show now. It took it some time, the opening miniseries (called season 1 despite its shortness) wasn't particularily strong despite a very strong idea and potential, but if every show improved this much with every season, the television landscape would be very different indeed.
Truly hoping and waiting for a fifth season now, on the edge of my seat, from a show that hitherto had only moderately grabbed me, even with its solid third season.
Sunday, 2. September 2007, 14:40:54
always-wanted-to-do-that, doomed optimism, pessimism, Non-Whedon-Television
...
I'm halfway, and I have to say, while this new character seems okay enough, it just isn't the same without Mickey Bricks. Here's to hoping he'll return in the rumoured fifth series.
Good show, though, and still is. Not excellent, the characters are too static (and, partly, with too little depth, though that's obviously related to their staticness) and the episode-plots somewhat too repetitive for that, and there is very little in the way of season-arcs to make up for it. And yet, it's damned entertaining. 'Cause who doesn't like to see shitbag after shitbag be conned well and good? It's very rewarding, let me tell you. And a gazillion times better than, say, "Ocean's Twelve".
Friday, 10. August 2007, 19:52:15
Jade, Angel-referances, always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations
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Huh. So this wasn't half bad.
After all the badmouthing this movie has on its rep, including from Mastah Whedon himselfest, I expected it to be way, way worse than this.
It was actually a pretty decent flick. Brilliant by no means, but... it was entertaining.
First and foremost due to what remains of Whedon's original idea, I'd suspect (and see traces of - though I'm nowhere near arrogant enough to actually suggest that I can pinpoint what off Joss' original stuff remains and what doesn't, so you won't be gettin' examples. Suffice to say, you can see Joss' hand in this much like you could in Disney's Atlantis and Toy Story.) Second, Luke Perry. He's really funny and captivating in this movie, for instance is the scene where his buddy comes back as a vampire hovering outside his window downright awesome. His character is basically the proto-Xander, and I quite liked him. Third, Rutger Hauer. That's right. The villain could've been less cheesy, the scenes where he's exchanged with a stunt double could've been less obvious, and the plot he was put in could've been (way) better. But seriously, it's Rutger Hauer. You can put him in a monkey suit and have him throw bananas for twenty minutes and he's still awesome.
Same goes for Donald Sutherland, though apparently, Joss got quite fed up with him in the movie. (He won't stop dissing the guy online, that's for sure) Supposedly he changed his own lines to the worse, made changes that made no sense, and was a general jackass on set. But still, while I do not doubt at all that his part could've been miles and miles better if Joss had been in control, there's no denying the guy and the character is a big part of what carries this movie. As Joss at some point's said:
Some people didn't notice. Some people liked him in the movie. Because he's Donald Sutherland. He's a great actor. He can read the phone book, and I'm interested. But the thing is, he acts well enough that you didn't notice, with his little rewrites, and his little ideas about what his character should do, that he was actually destroying the movie [...]
And as the devout little fanboy I aspire to be, I'll take his word for that. ^^
Kristy Swanson in the lead role was okay. Compared to SMG, of course, she falls dreadfully short, but honestly, who wouldn't. In some scenes she's even quite good.
What detracts from the movie, mainly, is a somewhat weak plot, overly cheesy villains (like Paul Reubens' character, through no fault of the actor's as far as I could tell), and choosing to go with the silly instead of the captivating and scary a great deal too often. (There's next to none of the excellent switching between truly exhilaratingly tense scenes where you're at the edge of your seat and sudden moments of hilarious comedy that's so trademark to Joss' work on TV.) They do bring the silly, though rarely at the level of funny the show used to have, but they never really bring the ensnaring plot and characters which pulls you into the story.
Still, a fun, okay watch, and not stinky like I thought it'd be. A weak 6,5/10.
Saturday, 28. July 2007, 19:18:39
lists, self-pity, I implore you, people
...
I am currently, fiction-wise, reading "Jimmy the Hand" by Raymond E. Feist and "The Bonehunters" by Steven Erikson. After I finish these - and I will try to speed up the reading-process once I get back to Norway, the ambition is to have read at least one chapter of a book for every episode of a tv-show I watch - I will catch up on Feist (I'm one novella and two novels behind, but he's a very quick read, so shouldn't take too long) and read "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman (likely to take a bit longer). Then, I'm finally ajour with the most immediate parts of my to-read-list.
I have promised to read Robin Hobb once I get to the end of that, and I will, at least one book. However, I wish to check the terrain on what you people reading this think I should try out of the following, regardless of this fact. This list only contains authors I as of yet haven't read anything mentionable of. It's all fantasy (so that when I list, say, Stephen King, I mean his Darktower series and nothing else), but please specify which books you're talking about in your comments.
Robin Hobb
Stephen King
Orson Scott Cards
Tad Williams
Ursula Le Guin
Gene Wolfe
R. Scott Bakker
Jack Vance
T.H. White
Michael Moorcock
Tim Powers
Scott Lynch
Please make your cases. And please bring up all the ones of these that you have read, even the ones you don't recommend. All information is good information, right? And feel free to mention others. Only looking for fantasy, though, not even science fiction at this point, I've no time for it. (Even if it involves time-travels, yes, ironic, I know)
Oh, and authors I am considering reading more of rather soon, so that you can take that these will compete with your recommendations into consideration in your replies:
Katherine Kerr (the rest of the Deverry-stuff)
Terry Goodkind (Phantom)
C.S. Lewis (his other fantasy-series, not Narnia, can't remember the name right now)
Neil Gaiman (most notably Neverwhere, I guess)
Friday, 27. July 2007, 21:00:31
blogs, rant, always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations
...
Rowling doesn’t reach Gaiman to his ankles in a technical study, but she had a brilliant idea at a time that every teenager and child was growing cynical and losing faith in the idea of Magic. Harry Potter became the modern version of a fairy tale, making adults and youths alike imagining a world much like our own, but flavored with something of the extraordinary.
Seems it is inescapable these days, so here goes.
In response to a blog-post by Lothair Mantelar.What you’re saying, about HP being the first fantasy (or even the first more or less adult literature) one’s introduced to, might explain a lot of people’s relationship to these books. I quite loved the first three, but I didn’t start reading the series ’til all the first three were already released (and that in Norwegian), ’cause it just looked plain silly to me. (I did, though, in the interest of full disclosure, find them to be far less silly than I'd expected, this I will readily admit) I’d been reading fantasy for… I guess at least four years at that point, probably more, and while the books were entertaining enough, never, ever did they blow me away. The world struck me as simplistic and childish, at that point in time I think I’d probably called it the least impressive fantasy world I’d read anything out of. The prose was fast-paced, at least in the first three books it felt like that to me, and captivating, but it never felt extraordinary. Nor did the characters. The four only characters I remember to this day with some fondness (I’ve read the first four books, so you know what basis I’m saying this from) is Hagrid (not a very original character but maybe the one with the most depth that I can remember from this particular series), Snape (who’d be the possible tie in the depth-department, and slightly more original, to my great joy. Was thrilled to find Rickman would portray him in the movies, I recall), Lupus and obviously Dumbledore. I also liked Sirius and Malfoy Sr. a good bit back then, but all these are sadly stereotypical and flat characters (though for all I know they could be deeply fleshed out in subsequent books) The Big Bad himself was never interesting at all, save in his incarnation as his younger self in the journal Harry finds in the second book. Nor were really any of the three main characters remotely exciting beyond the “Adequate protagonist material”-level. Hands down, though, I did enjoy the books, and I probably will finish this series at some point.
The reason I went off on this ramble, anyway, was that you made me realize, I read the books too late in my reading-process. When you’ve read, I guess at that point, five books in WoT, a handful in SoT, everything Tolkien wrote on Middle-Earth more or less, The Solitaire-mystery and Sofie’s World, the Chronicles of Narnia, half the first Deverry-cycle, all of the Belgariad, the Riftwar Trilogy, a couple of Thomas Covenant-books and a bunch of Verne and Dumas a handful of times each, there is nothing about Hogwarts and its world that seem remotely original or extraordinarily interesting. If anything, the world struck me as kind of cheesy, much like Artemis Fowl’s world would some years later. And the writing, as you say, isn’t all that, though to my young eyes at least it was far from weak, that must be said.
So I’ve never been able to resummon the first spike of interest I had in the series all those years ago for the much-needed reread I have to do before I can keep on reading it. And even if I could, it wouldn’t be prioritixzed over catching up on Malazan, Sword of Truth, Deverry, Midkemia, or even Wheel of Time. Nor would I put it above reading, say, more Gaiman or giving authors like Robin Hobb or your much-pimped Lynch a shot.
Thus my conundrum. I seem doomed to forever be stuck in a HP-limbo where I want to read the rest of the series, I just don’t want it enough to actually do so.
Thanks very much for making me feel slightly better about never getting around to it with this post of yours.
Friday, 27. July 2007, 17:13:45
doomed optimism, Angel-referances, people, general obnoxiousness
...
Seeing as I seem to forget removing obsolete polls, I put one up which doesn't matter if stands for a week or two years. Not that I actually expect any of you freeloaders to care enough to vote.
(Those who against all expectations would like to not only vote but comment on their choice, or are unable to vote yet would like to share what they'd have voted if they could, feel encouraged to comment to this post)
Wednesday, 25. July 2007, 12:48:52
expectations, time, doomed optimism, self-pity
...
Okay, so I'm now officially a student of religious science at Master's level.
*terrified*
Thursday, 5. July 2007, 16:17:20
always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations, self-pity, pessimism
...
...I've had a wish.
To get my hands on
this show again in a language I could understand (i.e. English or Norwegian).
When I was little, my dad used to rent me one video from this series every weekend if I'd been good. The local video-rental in my town later went bankrupt, and I to this day still wish it could've held out with doing that for another couple of years so I'd have been old and coherent enough to realize I could probably buy the whole series from them at that point. I loved that show. It's no overstatement to say it pretty much shaped the way my imagination worked for years and years.
Since then, I've been more or less constantly looking, though with less and less hope I'll ever find anything.
For all my searching, I've only found three old VHS'es, of two episodes each (3-4, 5-6 and 7-8). One I found in my early teens, one two years later, and then nothing for years until I some thirty months ago stumbled over another one in a VHS-rental-shop making the transfer to DVDs and selling out their hold VHS'es. They had another one, too, but obviously, that was one of the two I already had.
Sigh.
Monday, 28. May 2007, 12:48:58
Star Wars, doomed optimism, expectations, Non-Whedon-Television
...
This actually looks interesting. Considering their previous animated series about the Clone Wars was at times better than the movies have ever been (Me? Bashing Star Wars? Why, I resent the implication, I still have a poster from Episode I over my bed! (Oh, Qui-Gon, why did you have to leave us?)), I think I'll actually allow myself to hope for some quality here. After all, it'll have Dooku, Asaj Ventress and probably a cool General Grievous, which is more than what ROTS managed.
Wednesday, 23. May 2007, 16:44:50
doomed optimism, expectations, Non-Whedon-Television, self-pity
...
is over. Really over. Very good finale, of course, and I'm glad, they deserved to get it right with their last episodes after having been forced into the mediocre run that has been the third season.
But it is over.
Sigh.
I'll need to start re-watching "Galaxy Quest" monthly just to get my Enrico Colantoni-shots now. And where will I get Kristen Bell's snark now?
Double-sigh.
At least there's DVDs. At least there's DVDs.
Sunday, 13. May 2007, 08:32:33
doomed optimism, megalomania, time, expectations
...
HIS102: Overview of recent history (1750->, with focus on Europe and Norway)
In other words, I'm supposed to know 257 years of history for an entire region of the globe plus some global history that's relevant for it by tomorrow.
Aieeeeeeeeeeee!
Monday, 7. May 2007, 21:59:54
doomed optimism, always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations, movie-report
...
As the opening credits started, I started looking forward to this movie again. I hadn't done that for a while, the whole hearing it'd stuff Gwen Stacy, Green Goblin II, The Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock, Sandman AND a twist on the Ben Parker-mythos into one movie, whilst centring around yet another MJ-and-Peter-have-emotional/relationship-issues-like main plot... seemed like they'd go the way of X-men 3 and stuff way too much into one movie, giving none of it the time it should have.
To a certain extent, I was right. Had I watched this immediately after exiting the theatre from Spidey 2, I'd probably be disappointed. But with my adjusted expecations, this was quite satisfactory.
Of course, it had J. Jonah Jameson, it couldn't not be, but moving on, I like that character way too much, it can't be healthy.
Everything was pulled off well. They should've spent more time on Peter trying to get the symbiote off, playing on angst he wouldn't, etc, than they did. They should've spent more time on Sandman and his motivations and his despair than they did. They should've spent much more time displaying Harry's madness and his attempts at villainy than they did. They should've spent much, much more time on Eddie Brock as Venom. And it'd be nice if they'd had a movie where Peter and MJ were just happily together for once, and the drama was brought on from another angle.
That being said, all they DID do was done well. Things were mainly done a little too quickly, too much stuff being jumbled together, and it was all one a little too much on the "safe" and orthodox side, but it all worked, and it was an entertaining and engaging movie, though not on par with the previous one.
It did have Bruce Campbell as the overly enthusiastic Frenchman, though, so I can't bring myself to give this movie any lower than 7/10. (For the record, I think I'd give Spider-man 1 something like 8/10, possibly 8,5 and Spider-man 2 something like 9)
Friday, 9. March 2007, 12:29:09
rant, always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations, pessimism
...
The last test went straight to hell, but hopefully, my average will come out reasonably okay.
For those wondering, the amount of Latin I've studied these two months exactly corresponds to what you'd learn of a language the first year of high school if you didn't study it 'til then. (GK C-språk) So, having done that in two fracking months, I'll be happy just for the passing grade.
Dixi.
Saturday, 3. March 2007, 01:39:25
rant, always-wanted-to-do-that, DC Comics, conspiracy-theories
...
They sold volume 1 of "Y the Last Man", "Fables", "Lucifer", "Preacher" and "100 Bullets" for 50 kroners (a little over 8 USD at the current rate) each. Which is a quarter of their regular price in Norway. You can almost hear the people behind the counter wheezing "First one's free..." behind your back.
And yes, I bought them all. Only one of them I've read before is "Lucifer", and in its case, it was actually quite the coup, 'cause I'm going to buy the entire Lucifer-series at some point anyway, this got me volume 1 cheaply.
But the other four... all widely recognized as quality-comics, all stuff I've thought I'd one day read... but not priorities I was actually going to buy (more than maybe one of, at some point) any time soon at all.
And the bastards do this to me.
I won't have time to read any of'em for weeks yet. I want to finish "Bone" and the Bone-prequel I picked up earlier this week. I still think I'll end up picking up "The Fountain" next week, and if I do, I'll read that first, too. And there's always books of the non-graphic variety, of which I've got plenty. Oh, and there's, like, 2000 pages of unread curriculum in plastic bags beneath my table, don't tell anyone.
But I've bought them. At some point, I'll read them.
And we all know it. I know it. You know it. The weasels behind the counter, oh, don't they know it. Everybody knows it.
'Cause, seriously, there is no doubt about it at all. There'll simply be no such thing as "stopping at volume 1".
I'm fracked.
Tuesday, 27. February 2007, 22:46:48
expectations, movie-report, Marvel Comics, pessimism
(Note that I haven't read any of the comics.)
What a piece of...
Sigh.
Plot: 3,5/10. Extraordinarily unoriginal, but otherwise okay, I guess. Illogical and fake-feeling end, though. Cop-out.
Acting: 3/10. Cage was... animated. If barely. A couple of decently played tertiary characters, like Mack and the camera-guy, and obviously the Caretaker, but otherwise... Not too good at all.
Special effects: 3/10. Other than the bike-stuff, which I don't care about at all, this was just sad. It looked so corny and cheesy it was to cry over. (It didn't look particularily fake, compared to most such movies, just really lame overall) Most fight-scenes looked good, though.
Characters: 2/10. Even the devil didn't have personality to speak of. Sigh. The camera-guy did, but he got so few scenes that hardly matters.
Dialogue: 4/10.
This could've been a mediocre movie. With another plot, it could even have been a good one. But no, they had to follow every clichè, make the villains stupid and unoriginal, etc, etc. Bah.
At least it had a guy with a burning skull. That's what I paid the ticket for, so I got my money's worth. ^^
3/10, 'cause it had decent scenes, especially action-wise, and Cage isn't all that bad. Also, burning skull.
Friday, 26. January 2007, 20:38:59
expectations, DC Comics, pessimism
Oh, frack.Now the big news is that the character of RACHEL DAWES is back in THE DARK KNIGHT but Katie Holmes won't be playing her!
I
abhor it when they do stuff like that. Stuff in the same continuity shouldn't change actors on characters. Ever. Even if the actor in the original sucked, you don't. If the actor isn't available, you either don't do the thing, or you write around the problem.
Friday, 19. January 2007, 19:18:41
lists, time, doomed optimism, always-wanted-to-do-that
...
In no particular order:
Scrubs!
Just had its musical-episode, and while nowhere near Buffy's, of course, it was very well done and great fun. Loved the Janitor's solo in particular.
Lost!
Finally up-to-date on season 3, which is looking good. Not sure how I feel about that, I had almost managed to decide stopping watching this show and now I'm all sucked in again... but yay them for making good episodes.
Smallville!
I'll be watching the much-awaited episode "Justice" later tonight, I hope it will turn out to have been worth the wait. Good season so far, Green Arrow is an excellent addition and the traditionally annoying parts of the show have really improved lately.
Battlestar Galactica!
Approaching mid second season, and it's really, really good. I've been told it'll decline somewhat in quality now and then improve vastly again with the season finale and season 3, but so far, it's been very, very, very good. Best show I'm currently watching, I'd almost dare say.
Carnivale!
Just started on the second season, and finally having started to understand some of the plot in the later episodes of season one, this show is getting pretty interesting. Miss Professor Lodz, though. Sniffle.
House MD!
A little over half-way in season 1, this is a show that's good and improving. Hugh Laurie rocks.
Shark!
Started airing in Norway recently, so just seen three episodes, but it's entertaining and well-made, so I'll keep watching it, I think. Like House, the attraction is a very charismatic and arrogant main character put in for others unsolvable cases, only he's a lawyer and not a doctor. Not on House's level of cool yet, but... still good.
Stargate: Atlantis!
Soon finished with the second season, SG:A has managed to keep the level of quality of its impressive first season throughout its second, but somehow, I'm feeling less committed to it than I used to. Maybe it's just that I'm watching so much else that's better these days.
Stargate: SG-1!
Almost through with season 9, which, as I've mentioned here before, is without a doubt the best season the show's ever had. For the first time ever watching this show, I'm anxious about every new episode.
Rome!
Just aired it's first episode of the second season, and it's looking great! Looking very much forward to the next episode.
24!
Just began its sixth season, which seems like more of the same old - which works, so why complain? - with the addition of giving Jack Bauer the burden of human limitations, which is interesting and nice.
Veronica Mars! Studio 60 at the Sunset Strip! Heroes! Prison Break!
Being on their Christmas-breaks and my having followed them every week before, haven't seen these in a while, but I guess I'm technically watching them, too. With the exception of Prison Break, which is very good but not exactly brilliant, these are among the very best shows I watch, so looking very much forward to the continuation on all of them.
Phew, I think that was all of them... I'm watching an astonishing amount of telly, aint I? ;P
Tuesday, 16. January 2007, 16:36:29
time, expectations, movie-report, pessimism
I've been to the movies! Several times in my life, actually. But right now I was thinking more of the three latest times. There'll probably be more times in the near future, by the way, seems to be a lot of good stuff showing there these days.
Anyway.
Eragon
Saw this one a week ago, can't be bothered with writing everything I thought about it now. Anyway, Druza? Good. Brom? Good, apart from the stinky dialogue. But Carlyle and Irons ARE good, so small wonder. The rest? Sucks. ;_; Even visually, they managed the grand and epic look, but they lacked the dirt to make it look real and captivating.
Then again, I had *no* expectations, so I wasn't exactly disappointed. Still, dialogue this bad comes around only once every few millenia outside reality tv. I mean, even day-time soaps write better dialogue than this movie had. And it was CRAMMED with character-inconsistancies and plotholes. Seriously. Crammed.
Had a lot of nifty ideas it totally underused and turned into unoriginal corny stuff where they could have done new and interesting things. Bah.
3,5/10, and that's giving it an entire point for Irons and Carlyle, who at least saves *some* scenes out of this mess.
Pan's Labyrinth
Pretty stuff! Dark fairy-tale going parallell with a sad story about conditions in Spain during the early Franco-years. Sad, and dark, and pretty. Compelling, too. Liked it a lot, though it's grimmer than what I usually like watching. (I've got a tender spirit) 8,5/10
The Prestige
Very entertaining! I mean, Christopher Nolan making, with Bale, Caine and Jackman in, a sci-fi-movie about two stage-magicians?! Come ON. That *had* to be good. And it was, too. I did guess one of the main "tricks" a bit before I think we were intended to (kinda proud of that) in the middle of the movie, but hey, it was still very mysterious and compelling to watch. Really grim stuff, and yet entertaining. There's this one scene, with a foot-chain and a rubber ball... those who've seen the movie know of what I speak. Hilarious. Worth the ticket just for that.
8,5/10, almost 9, but some slight parts of it, in the middle, felt sliiightly slow-moving, so I'm denying it the benefit of the doubt and assuming it will be weaker upon rewatch 'cause of that.
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