Interesting Links for 05-04-2016
Probably going to buy this PC (only with 256GB SSD rather than 128). Anyone spot any problems?
(tags: gaming computer )
Prison employment pilot scheme sees 100% success rate
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Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner
(tags: advertising )
Exercise is an evidence-based
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It sounds like there's some good ideas in there. An off-the-rails batman makes sense: Batman is always teetering anyway. And it's undeniable that in the real world, being superman would have a great tendency to alienate you from humanity. It's just that not what's superman's been about, it's usually about hope for the better.
I do wonder, people who don't have preconceived notions of the characters, do they think it's great or boring?
I've seen some of Snyder's other films (I still need to see Dawn of the Dead, I think). 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. They're all really visually compelling. Most of them dwell disturbingly on a bit too much sex and violence. And most of them a bit flabby in terms of stuff happening.
In sucker punch... not that much happens. There's extended fight scenes when people do stuff to each other, but you don't get a sense of who's winning, who's risking what. If they cut the fight scenes by 50% (or, better, asked Snyder what they should look like and someone else how they should feel?) the movie would be problematic but interesting. The same felt true in watchmen, the plot was all ok because it was taken from the comic, and the visuals and characterisation was great, but it seemed to add only two things over a panel-by-panel reshoot of the comic: the intro, and the removal of the giant psychic space squid.
So there's a tendency to be boring. But none of them are grim. Watchmen is practically the same film as BvS -- Manhattan taking the role of Cold Alienated Superman and Rorschach the roll of Brutal Batman. And it has lots of gratuitous violence. But even though the philosophical message is "superheroes are screwed up, don't trust them", the film itself is enjoyable, mixing light and dark tones, etc, etc.
I almost wonder if BvS is Snyder trying to be "serious" and missing the mark tragically :(
Sadly, I can think of a plot that works pretty well with few changes: Superman discovers Noir kryptonite and slowly becomes grimdark, Batman activates "kill superman" plan. Presto, conflict, alienation, tension with no pointless death and split loyalties.
Scalzi said, people overemphasise the "don't kill" aspect, and I think that's right, but I don't think that's because there's NO problem with the film, but because people find it hard to describe that maybe, killing a couple of people who are directly threatening your life right then might be an ok story but 180 minutes of wall-to-wall amoral bloodbath might be too much.
And, I mean, if people hate that superheroes are portrayed as heroic when actually they'd just cause lots of collateral damage, then fair enough, that's a valid point, but maybe just don't make superhero movies. Or make Watchmen, and move on, don't just keep shitting on the genre. I don't feel BvS has added significantly to the "don't abuse power" sentiment...
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The Gizmodo reviewer is particularly upset at the film; I think a lot of their critique is unwarranted personally. Also, there was a four or five year old kid in the row ahead of me who sat through the whole thing just fine. Whether or not their parents should've brought them is one thing, but there was nothing that sent them screaming and crying out of the theatre.
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The weird sense of entitlement that some gamers have around computer games (where if everything isn't perfect and doesn't fit their imaginary ideal then it's a BETRAYAL and ALL WRONG and image macros and huffy youtube videos explaining why people who enjoy these things are WRONG and STUPID must be deployed) seems to be leaking out into cinemagoing too, and I guess maybe the way people seek out others online to reinforce their views in an echo chamber doesn't help.
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I don't ever go into movies wanting to hate them. And I like plenty of movies. Heck, I saw the last Star Wars film twice, and all of the Hobbit movies twice, and then in extended edition too.
So it's just possible that I ranted about Prometheus because I actually thought its flaws ruined something that could have been great, rather than because i want to be part of a special ranting club.
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Sometimes it feels like the people who say things like this saw (or expected) a different film to me. I saw a very nice-looking sci-fi with tinges of horror film which had flaws that were pretty much all the kind of flaws you get in every sci-fi/horror film. I mean it wasn't as good as the films that I see as peak sci-fi or sci-fi/horror but they're way above everything else.
Either that, or perhaps people went in expecting a different film (not as in went in expecting to hate, but maybe went in expecting a very different kind of film). I went in expecting a big budget sci-fi film that was in some way connected to the Alien franchise, which was what I felt I got.
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