SCALES OF DISAPPOINTMENT
SCALES OF DISAPPOINTMENT. Things I've been recently disappointed by on a scale of 1-10. One being LEAST disappointed, 10 being MOST disappointed.
THE DEATH NOTE LIVE ACTION MOVIE:
Okay, I wasn't THAT disappointed with this. It's probably because I've been waiting so long for it, it can't possibly live up to expectations. All my gripes are TERRIBLY minor and petty.
Let's start out with the RANDOM FEMALE character, Shiroi (I think) who was concieved just for the movie, I know, but that doesn't excuse the writers from setting her up as a strong, female character with her own morals and convictions and THEN, over the course of one minute, reduce her to the simpering, bimbotastic girlfriends Light DOES have in the manga in the line, "L-light." And then snuggling up against his shoulder, IN FEAR. That made me twitch.
The plot was well established, a little TOO well established. I'm surprised to say the ANIME is faster paced since this movie got a little bogged down trying to intoduce new characters and audiences. Light also starts out as a University student to make things easier. I think one of the sources was this was under utilised music. The music in the anime makes it so much better paced, and a lot of the scenes in the movie only use atmosphere when a good, dramatic opera track would've fitted in like a charm. It followed the manga strangely closely. L doesn't actually APPEAR ON SCREEN for an HOUR, while L in the anime was there since the second episode. I guess that rackets up the tension for newbies, but for me, was kind of frustrating.
The other minor gripe is Ryuk's animation. I'm... sort of surprised Ryuk wasn't animated better, or more realistically, he looks very obviously CGI. They could've used a lot more shadows to *fit* him into the frame rather than bring him out. But I'm delighted the seiyuu for Ryuk is exactly the same as the anime. I can forgive a lot if the spirit is still there.
... Also I'm not sure if that is Chairman Kaga as Light's dad. I WAS sure, until I kept staring at him and second guessing it. I'd be disappointed... if it wasn't.
And the final disappointment factor lies in Light himself. Don't quite know what happened there. He lost some of manga-Light's suave by constantly crowing about his accomplishments. The throwaway line about, "SHE WILL UNDERSTAND THE JUSTICE OF KIRA," also made him dislikeable purely out of the fact it reduced him to a typical bad-guy. Manga!Light honestly didn't care what any of his girlfriends thought of him. If they liked him, they could be manipulated, if they didn't, they weren't of use, and not worth his attention. (But this is corrected by the latter half of the movie).
Some of the decisions Light made were also muddled by pacing, it made him seem more impulsive and not the cold hearted, rational bastard we know him as. Though, the MOST dislikeable thing was his GINORMOUS WRITING WTF. HOW MUCH SPACE DID HE WASTE. He wrote one name DIAGONALLY. AND THEN HE MOVED ONTO THE NEXT BLANK PAGE. Who wastes even NORMAL stationery like that?!
THINGS THAT I LIKED:
- Matsuda. He wasn't there for long, but the boy was a complete scene stealer.
- Watari who was a dear. He's the Alfred to L's Batman. I was charmed.
- The Police Files. Why? It made me LOL everytime Raito hacked into it. I know it is just film-visualisation to make things more interesting, but I laugh in the face of some stupid IT person who was commissioned by the police department in this movie to make an unnecessarily flashy network with matrix code and spinny pictures and titles. Real police files look nothing like this of course, but I'm strangely delighted by the unnecessary work gone into this detail none the less.
- L. Okay, he has his acting problems too, but he struck a nice note of being bizarre but also childishly adorable. I like how he drinks his tea. I also pity the actor for eating so much chocolate. I winced when he took a bite out of that bar. It hurts to bite chocolate that hard. And the SUGARCUBE TOWER also, MIXING WITH A WOWWIPOP.
- THE MISA MISA BUS. HAHAHA. Funniest prop ever. I also noticed that Mariko from Nobuta wo Produce is going to be Misa. That's... that's going to be interesting to watch. So far I like what I've seen. She's... actually LESS annoying than manga!Misa, due to the superb acting. I also feel sorry for her, since Mariko got it so bad in Nobuta, it's nice to see her so genuinely happy and in love.
- The second half of the movie, better than the first. The last scene is sex with potato chips. AND NEXT MOVIE! HANDCUFFS. YUSSS.
Verdict: Not actually that disappointed. I'd rank this a 3. Disappointed, but not wanting to kill myself afterwards.
Unlike MIENE LIEBE WEIDER.
I've bitched to everyone about this anime already, but GOD, MY FLIST LIED TO ME. Y'ALL LIED. YOU PROMISED ME PRETTINESS AND GAY. But NEITHER of this happened in his anime. In fact, NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENED IN THIS ANIME. I don't even mean the promised gay, I mean ANYTHING AT ALL OMFG.
I watched ONE episode, expecting the usual introductionary episode with obligatory action scenes and humour, and instead, I got the BORINGEST 20 minutes OF MY LIFE. It's even worse than NOIR-the anime, which had the main characters sit around for 10 minute sections! In this, THEY SAT AND TALKED FOR THE ENTIRE FUCKING EPISODE. Sometimes they didn't even TALK, just STOOD and LOOKED PRETTY, without introduction for INEXCUSABLY long periods of time. The most CLIMATIC thing about this episode was ONE GUY STANDING UP.
Who sanctioned making such terrible mush!? WHO!? I don't understand what people see in this AT ALL. Pretty boys isn't enough to make something good yo. The opening sequence/actual anime disparity is even WORSE than Weiss Kreuz whose streamlined, beautifully animated and high paced opening have little to do with its shoddily animated emo and melodrama (though I love this series anyway). Meine Liebe had such a DYNAMIC and catchy opening! And then WOOSH. ZERO ENTERTAINMENT FACTOR IN ACTUAL ANIME.
God. This is like a 12!!! On the disappointment scale. I was FROTHING at the MOUTH by the end.
Third is my Little Brother, who came by and showed off his yoyo-skills, and I was feeling very proud of him in making the yoyo return to his hand... until he showed me it was a yoyo BALL and not an actual yoyo (yoyo balls automatically retract). I deflated like a balloon. 5 on the disappointment scale.
ANNNNDD
This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished, and put an asterisk* beside the ones you loved.
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert (Though, I've seen ALL of the movies, including the double mini-series, and that's really more than anyone can say. I would give an asterix for the movies, not so much for the book.)
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley (Again, saw the movie, which was, really, just as long.)
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett*
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
.23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien (So boring and confusing I can't even begin.)
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut*
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein (This movie was a TRAGEDY.)
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
But... what about GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman + Prachett? Or The THRAWN trilogy, the hands down best Star Wars fiction novels? Or hey, SWORDSPOINT? Best Historical Drama of Manners (by Ellen Kushner) EVER, with CANON GAY as the main couple/characters!
THE DEATH NOTE LIVE ACTION MOVIE:
Okay, I wasn't THAT disappointed with this. It's probably because I've been waiting so long for it, it can't possibly live up to expectations. All my gripes are TERRIBLY minor and petty.
Let's start out with the RANDOM FEMALE character, Shiroi (I think) who was concieved just for the movie, I know, but that doesn't excuse the writers from setting her up as a strong, female character with her own morals and convictions and THEN, over the course of one minute, reduce her to the simpering, bimbotastic girlfriends Light DOES have in the manga in the line, "L-light." And then snuggling up against his shoulder, IN FEAR. That made me twitch.
The plot was well established, a little TOO well established. I'm surprised to say the ANIME is faster paced since this movie got a little bogged down trying to intoduce new characters and audiences. Light also starts out as a University student to make things easier. I think one of the sources was this was under utilised music. The music in the anime makes it so much better paced, and a lot of the scenes in the movie only use atmosphere when a good, dramatic opera track would've fitted in like a charm. It followed the manga strangely closely. L doesn't actually APPEAR ON SCREEN for an HOUR, while L in the anime was there since the second episode. I guess that rackets up the tension for newbies, but for me, was kind of frustrating.
The other minor gripe is Ryuk's animation. I'm... sort of surprised Ryuk wasn't animated better, or more realistically, he looks very obviously CGI. They could've used a lot more shadows to *fit* him into the frame rather than bring him out. But I'm delighted the seiyuu for Ryuk is exactly the same as the anime. I can forgive a lot if the spirit is still there.
... Also I'm not sure if that is Chairman Kaga as Light's dad. I WAS sure, until I kept staring at him and second guessing it. I'd be disappointed... if it wasn't.
And the final disappointment factor lies in Light himself. Don't quite know what happened there. He lost some of manga-Light's suave by constantly crowing about his accomplishments. The throwaway line about, "SHE WILL UNDERSTAND THE JUSTICE OF KIRA," also made him dislikeable purely out of the fact it reduced him to a typical bad-guy. Manga!Light honestly didn't care what any of his girlfriends thought of him. If they liked him, they could be manipulated, if they didn't, they weren't of use, and not worth his attention. (But this is corrected by the latter half of the movie).
Some of the decisions Light made were also muddled by pacing, it made him seem more impulsive and not the cold hearted, rational bastard we know him as. Though, the MOST dislikeable thing was his GINORMOUS WRITING WTF. HOW MUCH SPACE DID HE WASTE. He wrote one name DIAGONALLY. AND THEN HE MOVED ONTO THE NEXT BLANK PAGE. Who wastes even NORMAL stationery like that?!
THINGS THAT I LIKED:
- Matsuda. He wasn't there for long, but the boy was a complete scene stealer.
- Watari who was a dear. He's the Alfred to L's Batman. I was charmed.
- The Police Files. Why? It made me LOL everytime Raito hacked into it. I know it is just film-visualisation to make things more interesting, but I laugh in the face of some stupid IT person who was commissioned by the police department in this movie to make an unnecessarily flashy network with matrix code and spinny pictures and titles. Real police files look nothing like this of course, but I'm strangely delighted by the unnecessary work gone into this detail none the less.
- L. Okay, he has his acting problems too, but he struck a nice note of being bizarre but also childishly adorable. I like how he drinks his tea. I also pity the actor for eating so much chocolate. I winced when he took a bite out of that bar. It hurts to bite chocolate that hard. And the SUGARCUBE TOWER also, MIXING WITH A WOWWIPOP.
- THE MISA MISA BUS. HAHAHA. Funniest prop ever. I also noticed that Mariko from Nobuta wo Produce is going to be Misa. That's... that's going to be interesting to watch. So far I like what I've seen. She's... actually LESS annoying than manga!Misa, due to the superb acting. I also feel sorry for her, since Mariko got it so bad in Nobuta, it's nice to see her so genuinely happy and in love.
- The second half of the movie, better than the first. The last scene is sex with potato chips. AND NEXT MOVIE! HANDCUFFS. YUSSS.
Verdict: Not actually that disappointed. I'd rank this a 3. Disappointed, but not wanting to kill myself afterwards.
Unlike MIENE LIEBE WEIDER.
I've bitched to everyone about this anime already, but GOD, MY FLIST LIED TO ME. Y'ALL LIED. YOU PROMISED ME PRETTINESS AND GAY. But NEITHER of this happened in his anime. In fact, NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENED IN THIS ANIME. I don't even mean the promised gay, I mean ANYTHING AT ALL OMFG.
I watched ONE episode, expecting the usual introductionary episode with obligatory action scenes and humour, and instead, I got the BORINGEST 20 minutes OF MY LIFE. It's even worse than NOIR-the anime, which had the main characters sit around for 10 minute sections! In this, THEY SAT AND TALKED FOR THE ENTIRE FUCKING EPISODE. Sometimes they didn't even TALK, just STOOD and LOOKED PRETTY, without introduction for INEXCUSABLY long periods of time. The most CLIMATIC thing about this episode was ONE GUY STANDING UP.
Who sanctioned making such terrible mush!? WHO!? I don't understand what people see in this AT ALL. Pretty boys isn't enough to make something good yo. The opening sequence/actual anime disparity is even WORSE than Weiss Kreuz whose streamlined, beautifully animated and high paced opening have little to do with its shoddily animated emo and melodrama (though I love this series anyway). Meine Liebe had such a DYNAMIC and catchy opening! And then WOOSH. ZERO ENTERTAINMENT FACTOR IN ACTUAL ANIME.
God. This is like a 12!!! On the disappointment scale. I was FROTHING at the MOUTH by the end.
Third is my Little Brother, who came by and showed off his yoyo-skills, and I was feeling very proud of him in making the yoyo return to his hand... until he showed me it was a yoyo BALL and not an actual yoyo (yoyo balls automatically retract). I deflated like a balloon. 5 on the disappointment scale.
ANNNNDD
This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished, and put an asterisk* beside the ones you loved.
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert (Though, I've seen ALL of the movies, including the double mini-series, and that's really more than anyone can say. I would give an asterix for the movies, not so much for the book.)
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley (Again, saw the movie, which was, really, just as long.)
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett*
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
.23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien (So boring and confusing I can't even begin.)
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut*
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein (This movie was a TRAGEDY.)
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
But... what about GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman + Prachett? Or The THRAWN trilogy, the hands down best Star Wars fiction novels? Or hey, SWORDSPOINT? Best Historical Drama of Manners (by Ellen Kushner) EVER, with CANON GAY as the main couple/characters!