the chorus was entrancing but the dancing was a lamentable mess
I have been far too hectic to post properly lately. I have, at least, managed to make some headway into the disaster area that is my room. This is of the Good. SO. I offer to you my thoughts on yaoi my belated thoughts on some of the media I've been imbibing, namely: Shrek 4, Glee, and Doctor Who.
Shrek: I hated the premise like a burning thing. Shrek is tired of his happy ending and wants to go back to the days when he was a feared and hated ogre. Really. WTF. Okay, rewind. In the very first film, the source of his angst, misanthropy, and insecurity was the very fact that he was an ogre, a creature people found repulsive and frightening. In the second movie, the source of his suffering was that he was being treated unfairly because he was an ogre. In the third movie...you get the picture. Now, after three damn movies of hammering in the 'beauty is only skin deep, be yourself, don't be an asshole' POINT, he goes and pulls the same crap? Not only do we have him being a douche to Fiona by telling her that he wishes life was like it was before he rescued her from the castle, but he actually longs to return to second-class citizen status? It makes no sense.
Added to that, Shrek also follows the same pattern of being an insufferable ass to Fiona/the people he loves. Now, you think he'd have learned his lesson in the third and second film, but no. Apparently, almost losing the woman he loves twice to his bigheaded idiocy isn't enough. At this point, I find the character utterly dislikable. In every movie, the plot revolves around Shrek being unsatisfied with his life and throwing his man-angst in the face of his wife, who is supposed to be disappointed with him, but still support him through all of this. At least this movie brought up that issue, since Fiona's plot in this movie consisted as being the biggest BAMF that ever BAMFed, and pushing it in Shrek's face that he was just not THERE for her when she needed him, so what good was he?
Speaking of Fiona, she is one of the things I do kind of enjoy about this movie. Alternate timeline Fiona saved herself from the dragon, formed an alliance of ogres, and planned a rebellion against the tyrannical dictator. She's entirely focused on her cause and has no use for Shrek's weak attempts at seduction. I did enjoy that Shrek had to work for her love in this movie, and that she didn't automatically fall for the true love clause. She had no reason to, her life had been nothing but hardship up until that point. I liked that she outclassed him and brushed him off, and he had to actually think about her feelings and how she felt.
I didn't like that Shrek didn't seem to take her seriously at all. Throughout the film, it's clear that he thinks of what she's doing as frivolous and pointless (to be clear, what she'd doing is leading a fucking REBELLION FORCE), and doesn't seem to take her leadership seriously, either. I think eventually he managed to show respect for her position, but it was all subverted by him trying to get her to kiss him and just assuming it was going to be love at first sight. I LOVED that she kissed him to prove a point, (It's not love, and this is not a fairytale,) wiped her mouth, and walked away. You have to work for it, douche.
I also didn't like that it was seen as a bad, horrible thing that Fiona saved herself and became a badass. You can say that it was seen as negative because of the dystopia and Fiona's distrust towards fairytale love, but is that really a bad thing? As far as personal developments go, it formed a woman who was courageous, dedicated, and scary competent, one who wasn't willing to allow fairytales to rule her life and wasn't willing to wait for love to save her. That it was shown as something depressing and negative undermined the agency she gained in the new continuity.
Aside from that, Rumplestiltskin was hilarious, and the movie did have its entertaining moments. It wasn't genius, but there were plenty of funny scenes and snappy dialogue. I felt sad, though, because it lacked the heart and simplicity of the original film- something I've noticed has diminished with each sequel. I hope this is the last one.
Doctor Who: So, starting out with the obvious: OMG THEY KILLED RORY. I was certain that he was going to leave the main cast for some reason or another, but it didn't occur to me that they would both kill him off and wipe him from all living memory. I am expecting him to return at some point, since not doing so would be poor writing, but still. Wow.
Around the time Rory was killed off, I had begun to kindle an appreciation for the character that started in Amy's Choice. What can I say. I like it when the man sacrifices himself for the woman. I wasn't entranced with him by any means, but I was somewhat settling into the idea that Rory and Amy might get together in the future. There were/are some aspects of the relationship that I dislike, mostly from a meta standpoint: lack of chemistry, the idea that the woman should choose the safe and stable road, and the Awesome Girl/Scruffy Loser pairing. Rory was shrugging of his Scruffy Loserhood to some degree, though.
What I dislike is that they killed him before they threw him into the crack. I know they will, most likely, bring him back alive. I hope they can do that without nullifying the fact that he was already dead and gone before the time energy got to him.
I did like that it was partially the Doctor's fault that Rory died, due to him coming down with one of his dangerous bouts of curiosity. Not that I expect it will come into play, but there was a good chance for Amy to be angry with him over endangering them and leading to Rory's demise. Another nice aspect is Rory's sacrifice when you think of what he told the Doctor in VoV: "You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around."
I know people have been complaining about the quality of this two-parter compared to the other episodes, but I considered it entertaining enough. It wasn't as good as Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone, which I consider the peak of this season's quality, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the Dalek episode or Vampires in Venice. The plot was easily followed with few obvious holes, the Silurians were likeable and understandable and didn't float out in the sun when they exploded in daylight, and there were some excellent elements to the whole thing- such as the Doctor actually advocating peace between a nonhuman race. Holy shit. And here I thought there would be more dead nonhumans. (Also. Nice of you to tell the Silurians that the others were killed off by humans, though. That was in 2084 and hasn't happened yet, AND they were threatening to release a deadly virus and kill humanity. You helped kill them. Way to make it sound like a one-sided massacre in which you had no part, you ass.)
I didn't like that it was a young, emotional women being judged and lectured by the wise old men, and I didn't like how judgemental the Doctor was to her. I hated him telling her to raise her son to be better than she could be, and I hated his condescension when he told her not to bring any weapons. It made perfect sense for her to want some kind of self-defense in case she was attacked, it made logical sense for her to want to ensure the safety of her family and not rely on this weird freak with a bowtie. Not that I'm saying that her actions were just- she had too much on the line to kill their hostage. However, she was an emotional wreck, her father was dying, and her husband and son had been taken and possibly killed. Her actions made complete sense and the Doctor had no right to judge her and call her a bad person for what she did.
In the meantime, the scene with Amy and the Doctor after Rory's death was great. Him resolutely pulling the lever, her attacking him and sobbing and then finally forgetting...I loved it. Bwah. And the ring is still there! Possibly because it's in the TARDIS. And speaking of the TARDIS, a shard of it was in the crack! I am spellbound for more.
And as for Glee, I hated it. Hated. It. I'm so done. Perhaps if I read that an episode was really enjoyable, I'll watch it, but as long as the characterization is this shoddy, I'm over it.
Also, I was thinking of watching the Sarah Jane Adventures. It's a spin-off of Doctor Who following the life of Sarah Jane, apparently a kickass female companion with a sonic screwdriver that looks like a lipstick. Has anyone seen the show and can tell me about it?
Shrek: I hated the premise like a burning thing. Shrek is tired of his happy ending and wants to go back to the days when he was a feared and hated ogre. Really. WTF. Okay, rewind. In the very first film, the source of his angst, misanthropy, and insecurity was the very fact that he was an ogre, a creature people found repulsive and frightening. In the second movie, the source of his suffering was that he was being treated unfairly because he was an ogre. In the third movie...you get the picture. Now, after three damn movies of hammering in the 'beauty is only skin deep, be yourself, don't be an asshole' POINT, he goes and pulls the same crap? Not only do we have him being a douche to Fiona by telling her that he wishes life was like it was before he rescued her from the castle, but he actually longs to return to second-class citizen status? It makes no sense.
Added to that, Shrek also follows the same pattern of being an insufferable ass to Fiona/the people he loves. Now, you think he'd have learned his lesson in the third and second film, but no. Apparently, almost losing the woman he loves twice to his bigheaded idiocy isn't enough. At this point, I find the character utterly dislikable. In every movie, the plot revolves around Shrek being unsatisfied with his life and throwing his man-angst in the face of his wife, who is supposed to be disappointed with him, but still support him through all of this. At least this movie brought up that issue, since Fiona's plot in this movie consisted as being the biggest BAMF that ever BAMFed, and pushing it in Shrek's face that he was just not THERE for her when she needed him, so what good was he?
Speaking of Fiona, she is one of the things I do kind of enjoy about this movie. Alternate timeline Fiona saved herself from the dragon, formed an alliance of ogres, and planned a rebellion against the tyrannical dictator. She's entirely focused on her cause and has no use for Shrek's weak attempts at seduction. I did enjoy that Shrek had to work for her love in this movie, and that she didn't automatically fall for the true love clause. She had no reason to, her life had been nothing but hardship up until that point. I liked that she outclassed him and brushed him off, and he had to actually think about her feelings and how she felt.
I didn't like that Shrek didn't seem to take her seriously at all. Throughout the film, it's clear that he thinks of what she's doing as frivolous and pointless (to be clear, what she'd doing is leading a fucking REBELLION FORCE), and doesn't seem to take her leadership seriously, either. I think eventually he managed to show respect for her position, but it was all subverted by him trying to get her to kiss him and just assuming it was going to be love at first sight. I LOVED that she kissed him to prove a point, (It's not love, and this is not a fairytale,) wiped her mouth, and walked away. You have to work for it, douche.
I also didn't like that it was seen as a bad, horrible thing that Fiona saved herself and became a badass. You can say that it was seen as negative because of the dystopia and Fiona's distrust towards fairytale love, but is that really a bad thing? As far as personal developments go, it formed a woman who was courageous, dedicated, and scary competent, one who wasn't willing to allow fairytales to rule her life and wasn't willing to wait for love to save her. That it was shown as something depressing and negative undermined the agency she gained in the new continuity.
Aside from that, Rumplestiltskin was hilarious, and the movie did have its entertaining moments. It wasn't genius, but there were plenty of funny scenes and snappy dialogue. I felt sad, though, because it lacked the heart and simplicity of the original film- something I've noticed has diminished with each sequel. I hope this is the last one.
Doctor Who: So, starting out with the obvious: OMG THEY KILLED RORY. I was certain that he was going to leave the main cast for some reason or another, but it didn't occur to me that they would both kill him off and wipe him from all living memory. I am expecting him to return at some point, since not doing so would be poor writing, but still. Wow.
Around the time Rory was killed off, I had begun to kindle an appreciation for the character that started in Amy's Choice. What can I say. I like it when the man sacrifices himself for the woman. I wasn't entranced with him by any means, but I was somewhat settling into the idea that Rory and Amy might get together in the future. There were/are some aspects of the relationship that I dislike, mostly from a meta standpoint: lack of chemistry, the idea that the woman should choose the safe and stable road, and the Awesome Girl/Scruffy Loser pairing. Rory was shrugging of his Scruffy Loserhood to some degree, though.
What I dislike is that they killed him before they threw him into the crack. I know they will, most likely, bring him back alive. I hope they can do that without nullifying the fact that he was already dead and gone before the time energy got to him.
I did like that it was partially the Doctor's fault that Rory died, due to him coming down with one of his dangerous bouts of curiosity. Not that I expect it will come into play, but there was a good chance for Amy to be angry with him over endangering them and leading to Rory's demise. Another nice aspect is Rory's sacrifice when you think of what he told the Doctor in VoV: "You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around."
I know people have been complaining about the quality of this two-parter compared to the other episodes, but I considered it entertaining enough. It wasn't as good as Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone, which I consider the peak of this season's quality, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the Dalek episode or Vampires in Venice. The plot was easily followed with few obvious holes, the Silurians were likeable and understandable and didn't float out in the sun when they exploded in daylight, and there were some excellent elements to the whole thing- such as the Doctor actually advocating peace between a nonhuman race. Holy shit. And here I thought there would be more dead nonhumans. (Also. Nice of you to tell the Silurians that the others were killed off by humans, though. That was in 2084 and hasn't happened yet, AND they were threatening to release a deadly virus and kill humanity. You helped kill them. Way to make it sound like a one-sided massacre in which you had no part, you ass.)
I didn't like that it was a young, emotional women being judged and lectured by the wise old men, and I didn't like how judgemental the Doctor was to her. I hated him telling her to raise her son to be better than she could be, and I hated his condescension when he told her not to bring any weapons. It made perfect sense for her to want some kind of self-defense in case she was attacked, it made logical sense for her to want to ensure the safety of her family and not rely on this weird freak with a bowtie. Not that I'm saying that her actions were just- she had too much on the line to kill their hostage. However, she was an emotional wreck, her father was dying, and her husband and son had been taken and possibly killed. Her actions made complete sense and the Doctor had no right to judge her and call her a bad person for what she did.
In the meantime, the scene with Amy and the Doctor after Rory's death was great. Him resolutely pulling the lever, her attacking him and sobbing and then finally forgetting...I loved it. Bwah. And the ring is still there! Possibly because it's in the TARDIS. And speaking of the TARDIS, a shard of it was in the crack! I am spellbound for more.
And as for Glee, I hated it. Hated. It. I'm so done. Perhaps if I read that an episode was really enjoyable, I'll watch it, but as long as the characterization is this shoddy, I'm over it.
Also, I was thinking of watching the Sarah Jane Adventures. It's a spin-off of Doctor Who following the life of Sarah Jane, apparently a kickass female companion with a sonic screwdriver that looks like a lipstick. Has anyone seen the show and can tell me about it?