Just a few brief reviews of some movies I've seen in the last few months.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Effie for the feels, wow. I’m impressed; in the books, Effie was a mostly oblivious character, from what I remember. The emotional moments (from non-main characters) were from Katniss’ hair and makeup people. These normally oblivious people cried about losing Katniss. But in the movie, Effie conveyed all those emotions in a few brief glances placed here and there through the movie, and they punch right to the heart.
Of course, there are several changes from the book. I accept that fact about movies. In this case, the changes improved the movie, and some of the changes were fairly hard to notice. A few points that stuck in my head didn’t make it into the movie (the flash of the Mockingjay on the watch) but really nothing that ruins anything.
I’m looking forward to Mockingjay Part 1, which comes out comes out late November. I understand that Hoffman's major scenes for that movie were finished, and the few spots left will have him digitally inserted.
I, Frankenstein
I didn’t go in expecting anything, really, except Frankenstein fighting monsters. They fairly quickly summarized the events of Mary Shelley’s book, and then immediately dropped us into a story involving gargoyles and demons. Frankenstein hangs out in the arctic for a few minutes of screen time, and eventually finds himself in the city, hunting the creatures that have been hunting him. They don’t waste time hinting at the backstory; they give it to you right up front so that you can just sit back and watch the action.
Minor spoiler, a question which reveals a plot hole: Okay, so the gargoyles are basically angels that can turn into stone. They are losing the war with the demons. The head of their order can call for back-up; why doesn’t she?
Delivery Man
A touching and mildly funny movie starring Vince Vaughn. Who knew? And considering the situation the movie is based around, it’s amazing how many dirty jokes they didn’t make. It barely even earns the PG-13 rating. It does explain why he has 533 children and, I think, gives a good reason not to look down on him for it.
This movie is based on another movie, Starbuck, which is available on Netflix. Starbuck is subtitled, and the Delivery Man is nearly a scene-by-scene recreation. It explores issues of privacy and parental responsibilities, and I think handles them fairly well. Overall, a surprisingly watchable movie, if not one to rush to the theaters for.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Do I lose all my geek points for not having seen The Desolation of Smaug yet? I hope not (not that it matters...geekdom isn't tracked by points. Except by very specific people.) Anyway, situations in life arise, and…don’t look at me like that. I’m going to see it soon.
I look forward to hearing Bilbo's barrel-rider riddle; it was one of my favorite parts of the cartoon from so many years ago, and I really enjoyed it in the book, as well.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
A New Relationship?
Happy Discount Chocolate Eve! A poem for those just starting a relationship:
Early meeting, less than glance,
Should we even take a chance?
Can our future be that bright,
Are we passing in the night?
All the bridges that we've burned
And harsh lessons that we've learned
Mean light has been growing dim,
And old hope has become thin.
Serious questions we ask,
Of the future and the past;
We might still go different ways,
Alone the rest of our days.
Time was I could not believe
Someone good might come to me
Maybe someday, plan or whim,
I will find a way to him.
I thought I was without light;
No one, it seemed, was quite right.
I thought there could never be
Somebody who could match me.
Although it's too soon to say,
Where it will lead, where it may,
Once faint hope has been renewed;
With new life, I've been imbued.
But whether we last or not,
Love or heartbreak be our lot,
Either way, I'm glad we met,
Even if just on the net.
Awooooo
Monday, February 10, 2014
We Value The Difficult
(I am taking a philosophy course. It caused my brain to think. Also, sorry about the more or less two months of inactivity on the blog; family and life have proved to me, once again, that I should really have a backlog of posts.)
Why are the things that are most critical the most difficult to do? Why is it that the important subjects such as math and philosophy give us headaches? Why is it that unhealthy food can taste so good?
Is it to give those things value? This does not necessarily imply a consciousness directing these things to be difficult; I can imagine mechanisms of the mind and evolution that would also accomplish this without outside interference.
Whatever the root cause, I think it is good that we must work for important things. We value the things that give us tribulation; we value the things we work for. It is as parents raising children; they may rate each moment of child rearing as an unhappy moment, (fixing dinner, cleaning up after a mass, trying to get them to bed) but they also (usually) rate children as a great source of happiness.
I have worked some dreadful hours doing tedious projects to accomplish goals that I doubted were important; I treasure those experiences, not because I'd be willing to do them, but because I pushed myself and learned something of what my limits are, and what my limits are not.
Things we have to work for, we value. Perhaps this is so that we will work for these things; we desire fat and sugar so much because it was so difficult for ancestors to get - if they didn’t desire it so greatly, they would have died out from the lack of vital nutrients.
It’s similar for many other things. We have to expend effort to get a return. This is true in the physical world, and perhaps our minds are structured that way fundamentally. Perhaps math is so difficult to so many people because it is so important. Perhaps philosophy gives people so many headaches because it is important.
This, of course, does not mean that everything that is difficult is important. It would be difficult to create a Death Star, but do we really need one? We don’t even know whether there are other planets sustaining life in the universe, not with 100% certainty. (I suspect that there are at least a few.) We are certainly not at war with any of them, and, I imagine, most people on this planet wouldn’t want to just destroy an entire planet filled with life, anyway.
But perhaps even when difficult things are not important, they can still be the source of things that are important. Take the book Contact by Carl Sagan. (And to some extent the movie, though I don’t think the movie portrayed this very well.) Constructing the orb spawned entire new industries. Nations were forced to work together. A whole philosophy of peace sprung up around this monumentally difficult task.
What difficulties have you faced in your life that have shaped you? If you had not experienced them, what would be lost? What would be gained? Should that experience be eradicated from the world?
Why are the things that are most critical the most difficult to do? Why is it that the important subjects such as math and philosophy give us headaches? Why is it that unhealthy food can taste so good?
Is it to give those things value? This does not necessarily imply a consciousness directing these things to be difficult; I can imagine mechanisms of the mind and evolution that would also accomplish this without outside interference.
Whatever the root cause, I think it is good that we must work for important things. We value the things that give us tribulation; we value the things we work for. It is as parents raising children; they may rate each moment of child rearing as an unhappy moment, (fixing dinner, cleaning up after a mass, trying to get them to bed) but they also (usually) rate children as a great source of happiness.
I have worked some dreadful hours doing tedious projects to accomplish goals that I doubted were important; I treasure those experiences, not because I'd be willing to do them, but because I pushed myself and learned something of what my limits are, and what my limits are not.
Things we have to work for, we value. Perhaps this is so that we will work for these things; we desire fat and sugar so much because it was so difficult for ancestors to get - if they didn’t desire it so greatly, they would have died out from the lack of vital nutrients.
It’s similar for many other things. We have to expend effort to get a return. This is true in the physical world, and perhaps our minds are structured that way fundamentally. Perhaps math is so difficult to so many people because it is so important. Perhaps philosophy gives people so many headaches because it is important.
This, of course, does not mean that everything that is difficult is important. It would be difficult to create a Death Star, but do we really need one? We don’t even know whether there are other planets sustaining life in the universe, not with 100% certainty. (I suspect that there are at least a few.) We are certainly not at war with any of them, and, I imagine, most people on this planet wouldn’t want to just destroy an entire planet filled with life, anyway.
But perhaps even when difficult things are not important, they can still be the source of things that are important. Take the book Contact by Carl Sagan. (And to some extent the movie, though I don’t think the movie portrayed this very well.) Constructing the orb spawned entire new industries. Nations were forced to work together. A whole philosophy of peace sprung up around this monumentally difficult task.
What difficulties have you faced in your life that have shaped you? If you had not experienced them, what would be lost? What would be gained? Should that experience be eradicated from the world?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)