(no subject)
A bit more than three years ago, my father died. It was unexpected, but it wasn't. I had been waiting for that phone call for a while.
My father was not a bad man. He was just troubled. We didn't have a relationship for about the last 10 years of his life and I don't have regrets about that. It was just one of those things where neither of us were getting anything out of it.
But it was weird, regardless, and it was already a weird time in my life. This just made it weirder, I guess.
I still appreciate all the people who took care of me in the days that followed -- from my friends that just let me sit in the corner of their comic book store and read comics because I needed a place to go to my roommate who hung out on the couch with me all night to my friend who was on tour with his band opening for a fairly well-known act and really seriously looked into coming back home.
But, at the certain point, I ran out of things to do to distract myself (as well as people). So I decided I needed to go see a movie.
Do you know how many terrible movies are usually out in mid-March? So everyone basically told me "See John Carter." It was truly the only choice. (Mind you, I was asking a bunch of nerds what movie I should see, so ... bias ...)
I was the only one in the theater -- of course, it was a Thursday afternoon.
Is John Carter a good movie? I think it's a lot of fun -- it's a silly adventure movie that hits its beats. The effects and action are great and the production values are delightful. It's basically a kids' movie for grownups (it's a really light PG-13). Plus, there's Woola. It was exactly what I needed -- fun escapism.
I only saw John Carter that one time, but when it came to mind the other night, I saw it was cheap enough on Blu-Ray/DVD and thought "why not?" and bought it. I watched it tonight (although while I was doing other things). It's still a silly adventure movie that works really well. I think it deserves a better reptuation than it initially recieved.
But for me, that doesn't matter. I don't care if you like it. That movie gave me what I needed -- the perfect comfort during some bad days. I can look back and remember being happy I got to see John Carter, despite the circumstances.
(You should watch it, though -- it's better than you think it's going to be.)