A little bit of everything.
May. 5th, 2007 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clo_againSpider-man 3 was... okay. I wasn't expecting to be overwhelmingly enamoured since I'm a Batman girl and always will be but I was at least hoping they'd have cracked the little problems that have always made me more apathethic towards the Spidey movies in general. For some of them they had -- I liked it more than the second one -- but there were whole new things to go 0_0 at. A couple of times I genuinely thought they'd jumped the shark, only for something shiny to distract me in the next five minutes. Also I'm a pretty bad superhero fan in that I haven't read original comics of anything, for excuses reasons from not knowing where to start to not having the money to start. The only Spider-man-related things I've read are the first thirteen or so volumes of Ultimate Spider-man, which gave me the false impression that Gwen Stacy was generally tough, smart and liable to kick the ass of anyone who bugged her. Was somewhat disappointed to see her as something of a ditz in this, though she got brownie points for the apology to MJ.
One of the things I liked more was probably the slow build-up of Brock into Venom, because I kinda didn't see it coming. The coincidence of them being in the same damn church had me rolling my eyes but I liked him as a proper bad guy. The only thing is, A said to me after "Why did he jump back into the sludge after Peter pulled him out?! WHY?" which made me think that his liking of being bad and his jerk side wasn't built up nearly enough.
They killed Harry. God, I am so disappointed in them for that. I was expecting him to die from the moment he was such a jerk to MJ and Peter (which by the way, was totally not explained enough, hello) and it's always disappointing for a film not to subvert expectations. I would've loved to have them cut to the funeral only to see that it was a fake one for the Sandman guy and Harry recovered to continue being a friendly/a jerk toward Peter. They also could've cut the scene with Bernard who, while awesome, was set-up enough earlier that Harry could've just turned up and on "his deathbed building could've mentioned Bernard reminded him of what friends meant. Or something. As it was it just meant I spent the first half of that fight going "Where's Harry?"
Did anyone else see the watertower he flew around too and thought it was a POINT for how they were going to kill/incapcitate Sandman? I sulked that they set the water thing up earlier and then never revisited it. Bad form.
Kirsten Dunst looked very pretty in this film and the red hair finally worked for me. It was gorgeous. Thought Toby Maguire looked oddly chubby for much of it but he made up for it by being such an adorable nerd.
Oh but screenwriters? Don't have the voiceover telling everyone your message at the end. Really. Just don't. I like it in Grey's Anatomy where it's told in a cutely colloquial way often without an overtly moralistic tone. I do not like it when it seems to be bashing the audience over their head with a moral that should, if you were doing your job right, have come across in the film itself. See Batman Begins. It's one thing that's always bugged me about the Spidey films; the clumsy handling of the ending and they did it again this time, though the Peter/MJ scene was nice. It just leaves me with a vague sense of disappointment, no matter how much I liked the rest of it.
I've just realised it sounds like I'm being totally down on this film which I'm not, really. I pick the bits to criticise out but that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of stuff I liked (Toby Maguire going emo to Indicate His Evil not being one of them -- EYELINER IS NOT AN INDICATION OF INNER DARKNESS, KTHNX MORONS -- but I didn't regret for a second going to see it. Even when I got chewing gum on my jeans. -_- It was worth that and that's saying something.
What's not worth is paying to go see it again and probably not buying it on DVD until it shows up in the bargain bucket. I've come to a conclusion that a marker of how much I like a film is whether or not I'd go see it again. A marker of how much I really like a film is if I'll buy it on DVD as soon as it comes out, which doesn't apply to many films because new DVDs are stupidly overpriced. I would've gone to see Hot Fuzz again (still would if it was still showing here) and I'm thisclose to paying crazy money to pre-order it from Amazon and get the shiny limited edition artcards with it. Serenity I would've gone to see again. Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one) I saw four times in the cinema and bought immediately on DVD (the second one I saw once and still don't own the DVD for, nor am I planning on it any time soon). Casino Royale I'll watch again on TV but not pay a cinema ticket. It's a good system of rating, once I work out abbreviations.
In short: enjoyable but not wonderful. Looking forward more to PotC 3 later this month.
In other Things of Fun (and sticking with my current Pegg-Frost-Wright obsession - Edgar Wright is adorable you know, especially when he throws his head back for his Evil Overlord Laugh) found this last night and watched it several times, marvelling more each time at just how off their faces they are on something, though Simon's waving a can of beer around which might be a clue. The first and second Cake Flushes are worth watching too, if just for the utter bizarrity but that they're in no way sober
Simon Pegg also wrote an interesting article on the differences (or not) between American and British humour, which is interesting to me because I always leaned toward the 'different type of humour' camp before. It's vaguely reassuring (especially when I affectionately wind friends up all the time and sometimes worry how it'll go with different cultural humours when I finally meet the Inmates) to know it'll probably translate pretty well. Mostly.
Beaker is looking less well by the day and I've lost hope of it being moving stress that'll wear off. Wondering what to do since I still can't quite work out what it is and I'm still useless with medicating fish. I'd also like to fix it sooner rather than later because Kermit is starting to go stir-crazy in the small tank but I don't want to put him back in the bigger one in case he catches whatever Beaker's got. Something to work on today.
Doctor Who is *finally* back on at 7pm. It's been ridiculous reading stuff where people reference its "Saturday 7pm" slot the last few weeks because it's been more of a half six or half seven or twenty-five minutes to infinity slot. Haven't decided if I'll watch the Joseph thing this week, since I'm still woeful over last week and I should catch up on work, given that the Badminton Horse Trials are on 'til 4:30pm so it's unlikely much work will be done until then.
In unrelated-to-anything news, finally bought Hal Duncan's Vellum last night. Figured I need inspiration this week and it sounded interesting. Hopefully it'll get here Monday or Tuesday so I have time to use it as inspiration. In the meantime I'm thinking I'll re-read some fic, starting with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seperis' Sleep While I Drive which is still my favourite fic ever written.
Think I've run out of things to make this A Stupidly Long Post. I'll probably be mortified and go back to cut everything when I see how much flist space it'll take up but maybe, just maybe, I've now said everything I can possibly ramble about and will do some work.
...Maybe.
One of the things I liked more was probably the slow build-up of Brock into Venom, because I kinda didn't see it coming. The coincidence of them being in the same damn church had me rolling my eyes but I liked him as a proper bad guy. The only thing is, A said to me after "Why did he jump back into the sludge after Peter pulled him out?! WHY?" which made me think that his liking of being bad and his jerk side wasn't built up nearly enough.
They killed Harry. God, I am so disappointed in them for that. I was expecting him to die from the moment he was such a jerk to MJ and Peter (which by the way, was totally not explained enough, hello) and it's always disappointing for a film not to subvert expectations. I would've loved to have them cut to the funeral only to see that it was a fake one for the Sandman guy and Harry recovered to continue being a friendly/a jerk toward Peter. They also could've cut the scene with Bernard who, while awesome, was set-up enough earlier that Harry could've just turned up and on "his death
Did anyone else see the watertower he flew around too and thought it was a POINT for how they were going to kill/incapcitate Sandman? I sulked that they set the water thing up earlier and then never revisited it. Bad form.
Kirsten Dunst looked very pretty in this film and the red hair finally worked for me. It was gorgeous. Thought Toby Maguire looked oddly chubby for much of it but he made up for it by being such an adorable nerd.
Oh but screenwriters? Don't have the voiceover telling everyone your message at the end. Really. Just don't. I like it in Grey's Anatomy where it's told in a cutely colloquial way often without an overtly moralistic tone. I do not like it when it seems to be bashing the audience over their head with a moral that should, if you were doing your job right, have come across in the film itself. See Batman Begins. It's one thing that's always bugged me about the Spidey films; the clumsy handling of the ending and they did it again this time, though the Peter/MJ scene was nice. It just leaves me with a vague sense of disappointment, no matter how much I liked the rest of it.
I've just realised it sounds like I'm being totally down on this film which I'm not, really. I pick the bits to criticise out but that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of stuff I liked (Toby Maguire going emo to Indicate His Evil not being one of them -- EYELINER IS NOT AN INDICATION OF INNER DARKNESS, KTHNX MORONS -- but I didn't regret for a second going to see it. Even when I got chewing gum on my jeans. -_- It was worth that and that's saying something.
What's not worth is paying to go see it again and probably not buying it on DVD until it shows up in the bargain bucket. I've come to a conclusion that a marker of how much I like a film is whether or not I'd go see it again. A marker of how much I really like a film is if I'll buy it on DVD as soon as it comes out, which doesn't apply to many films because new DVDs are stupidly overpriced. I would've gone to see Hot Fuzz again (still would if it was still showing here) and I'm thisclose to paying crazy money to pre-order it from Amazon and get the shiny limited edition artcards with it. Serenity I would've gone to see again. Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one) I saw four times in the cinema and bought immediately on DVD (the second one I saw once and still don't own the DVD for, nor am I planning on it any time soon). Casino Royale I'll watch again on TV but not pay a cinema ticket. It's a good system of rating, once I work out abbreviations.
In short: enjoyable but not wonderful. Looking forward more to PotC 3 later this month.
In other Things of Fun (and sticking with my current Pegg-Frost-Wright obsession - Edgar Wright is adorable you know, especially when he throws his head back for his Evil Overlord Laugh) found this last night and watched it several times, marvelling more each time at just how off their faces they are on something, though Simon's waving a can of beer around which might be a clue. The first and second Cake Flushes are worth watching too, if just for the utter bizarrity but that they're in no way sober
Simon Pegg also wrote an interesting article on the differences (or not) between American and British humour, which is interesting to me because I always leaned toward the 'different type of humour' camp before. It's vaguely reassuring (especially when I affectionately wind friends up all the time and sometimes worry how it'll go with different cultural humours when I finally meet the Inmates) to know it'll probably translate pretty well. Mostly.
Beaker is looking less well by the day and I've lost hope of it being moving stress that'll wear off. Wondering what to do since I still can't quite work out what it is and I'm still useless with medicating fish. I'd also like to fix it sooner rather than later because Kermit is starting to go stir-crazy in the small tank but I don't want to put him back in the bigger one in case he catches whatever Beaker's got. Something to work on today.
Doctor Who is *finally* back on at 7pm. It's been ridiculous reading stuff where people reference its "Saturday 7pm" slot the last few weeks because it's been more of a half six or half seven or twenty-five minutes to infinity slot. Haven't decided if I'll watch the Joseph thing this week, since I'm still woeful over last week and I should catch up on work, given that the Badminton Horse Trials are on 'til 4:30pm so it's unlikely much work will be done until then.
In unrelated-to-anything news, finally bought Hal Duncan's Vellum last night. Figured I need inspiration this week and it sounded interesting. Hopefully it'll get here Monday or Tuesday so I have time to use it as inspiration. In the meantime I'm thinking I'll re-read some fic, starting with
seperis' Sleep While I Drive which is still my favourite fic ever written.Think I've run out of things to make this A Stupidly Long Post. I'll probably be mortified and go back to cut everything when I see how much flist space it'll take up but maybe, just maybe, I've now said everything I can possibly ramble about and will do some work.
...Maybe.
