In 5.5 hours I will have hot people on my TV
1. Vampire Diaries/Nikita double header tonight! I don't want to live chat because I want to pay attention to the shows, but I'll probably be typing notes as I go. I always mean to do that with Warehouse 13 just so I can get all the funny quotes.
Now, please just don't suck, OK shows? BTW, LJ still seems pretty clear for now, but the race wank is already getting annoying on other message boards. OMG, guys, did you know that the new Nikita is Asain? And Nikita is not supposed to be Asian! Dogs and cats living together! And she's Asian and does martial arts and it's a total stereotype so the show is racist!
It's getting to the point where I want the show to succeed simply to piss off the obnoxious dicks who keep predicting its doom.
2. I saw the extended addition of Avatar this last weekend. I know, I know. I was bored, OK? And my feet hurt and I needed to sit down and I stupidly didn't have a book with me and it was either Avatar or Dinner for Schmucks, and considering all that can you really blame me?
There was a lot of extended shots, just an extra 10 seconds here or there. There were only a few substantially new scenes.
* When Grace, Norm, and Jake first go out in the forest, before they start taking samples they stop at the old school house to pick up extra supplies (it's storage now). Nothing hugely groundbreaking but it does give some nice visuals to reinforce why relations have gotten so bad, like the bullet holes in the walls.
* After Jake learns to fly, before he and Neytiri get attacked, there's a hunt scene. I actually liked this for two reasons. One, while Jake does kill an animal, it's actually Tsu'tey who's first shown succeeding. It's nice for it not to be all about Jake, even just for a few moments. Two, after Jake gets his kill he shouts 'hell yeah', and Neytiri, laughing with him, shouts it back. And it's just kind of adorable, because you know she doesn't know what it means, she's just copying him. And it's nice to see he's rubbing off on her too, it's not all one sided.
* After the humans bulldoze the trees Jake/Neytiri got busy under, and after Jake and Grace have been pulled out of their avatar bodies, The People attack and burn the bulldozers and kill the soldiers (we see the bulldozers burn but don't see most of the attack). And we see Selfridge and Quaritch react. It gave a little more context to the decision to completely destroy Hometree immediately instead of trying to forcibly evacuate everyone before setting things on fire.
* Tsu'tey actually survives his fall during the final fight, initially. After it's over Jake and Neytiri gather around him for his big death scene. I don't know how I feel about this one. It kind of made me uncomfortable. See, he doesn't just die, he asks Jake to kill him (which he doesn't want to do at first but then goes through with it). It's not like he would have survived otherwise, this was really more a mercy killing to end his suffering. It just...reinforced the whole Mighty Whitey thing even more for me. The dying tribal leader asks the white guy to take his place as leader, and then asks to be killed and it's their way and it will be an honor and blah blah blah...weird vibes. Plus, I'm fairly certain the music playing was the same as what played when Jake/Neytiri made love. I know they didn't rescore anything and had to edit in what they already had, but really? There were no other cues that were appropriate?
Despite all of Avatar's problems, and believe me I freely acknowledge it has many, I still like it. And the main reason, I think, is that James Cameron is an excellent director. Notice I said director, not writer. He's really great at world building, and that's what works most for me. I get completely sucked in. Even though the characters aren't the most well rounded, the world feels so real that they feel real too, I guess. Basically, what I'm saying is I wish James Cameron would find a trusted writing partner to bring all his ideas together, because the man has talent, writing just isn't one of them.
And I've decided there are two easy things they could have changed to help some of the main problems. I'm not saying this fixes everything, it just helps. One, having us meet the Navi through Jake was a good way to start, since we were all newbies, but after that I think we should have gotten one or two scenes (at least) of the Navi without Jake. It makes them less Other. In particular I would have liked to see more after Jake and Grace get yanked out, when they're having to make decisions about how to fight the Sky People without outside influence. Those are important moments for them as a community and a culture and it shouldn't have just been about Jake's view.
Second, make Neytiri be the one to become Toruk Makto. She and Jake lead the charge against the humans together, as partners, with Neytiri rallying her people and Jake providing strategy against an enemy he knows better than they do. It takes care of a lot of the Mighty Whitey issues without cutting the hero completely out of the action, shakes up the genre a bit by giving the girlfriend a much more active role, and gives us an opportunity to see Jake and Neytiri really work together in a much more substantial way.
I'm curious, has anyone seen or heard Cameron respond to the criticisms from the first movie? Since there's going to be a sequel, I'm wondering if he'll take to heart what people said and make more of an effort to flesh out characters and spread the focus beyond the white guy a little.
3. I have to do a political assignment in papermaking later in the semester (yeah, I don't know why either), and I think what I want to do is collect quotes from fundamentalist/conservative Christians trying to use the bible or Christianity in general to argue their bigoted points, and then pair those with bible verses that show what hypocrites they are. So obviously I'm going to do my own research, but if anyone is a big news watcher/reader and hears/reads a quote they think I should know about, let me know.
Now, please just don't suck, OK shows? BTW, LJ still seems pretty clear for now, but the race wank is already getting annoying on other message boards. OMG, guys, did you know that the new Nikita is Asain? And Nikita is not supposed to be Asian! Dogs and cats living together! And she's Asian and does martial arts and it's a total stereotype so the show is racist!
It's getting to the point where I want the show to succeed simply to piss off the obnoxious dicks who keep predicting its doom.
2. I saw the extended addition of Avatar this last weekend. I know, I know. I was bored, OK? And my feet hurt and I needed to sit down and I stupidly didn't have a book with me and it was either Avatar or Dinner for Schmucks, and considering all that can you really blame me?
There was a lot of extended shots, just an extra 10 seconds here or there. There were only a few substantially new scenes.
* When Grace, Norm, and Jake first go out in the forest, before they start taking samples they stop at the old school house to pick up extra supplies (it's storage now). Nothing hugely groundbreaking but it does give some nice visuals to reinforce why relations have gotten so bad, like the bullet holes in the walls.
* After Jake learns to fly, before he and Neytiri get attacked, there's a hunt scene. I actually liked this for two reasons. One, while Jake does kill an animal, it's actually Tsu'tey who's first shown succeeding. It's nice for it not to be all about Jake, even just for a few moments. Two, after Jake gets his kill he shouts 'hell yeah', and Neytiri, laughing with him, shouts it back. And it's just kind of adorable, because you know she doesn't know what it means, she's just copying him. And it's nice to see he's rubbing off on her too, it's not all one sided.
* After the humans bulldoze the trees Jake/Neytiri got busy under, and after Jake and Grace have been pulled out of their avatar bodies, The People attack and burn the bulldozers and kill the soldiers (we see the bulldozers burn but don't see most of the attack). And we see Selfridge and Quaritch react. It gave a little more context to the decision to completely destroy Hometree immediately instead of trying to forcibly evacuate everyone before setting things on fire.
* Tsu'tey actually survives his fall during the final fight, initially. After it's over Jake and Neytiri gather around him for his big death scene. I don't know how I feel about this one. It kind of made me uncomfortable. See, he doesn't just die, he asks Jake to kill him (which he doesn't want to do at first but then goes through with it). It's not like he would have survived otherwise, this was really more a mercy killing to end his suffering. It just...reinforced the whole Mighty Whitey thing even more for me. The dying tribal leader asks the white guy to take his place as leader, and then asks to be killed and it's their way and it will be an honor and blah blah blah...weird vibes. Plus, I'm fairly certain the music playing was the same as what played when Jake/Neytiri made love. I know they didn't rescore anything and had to edit in what they already had, but really? There were no other cues that were appropriate?
Despite all of Avatar's problems, and believe me I freely acknowledge it has many, I still like it. And the main reason, I think, is that James Cameron is an excellent director. Notice I said director, not writer. He's really great at world building, and that's what works most for me. I get completely sucked in. Even though the characters aren't the most well rounded, the world feels so real that they feel real too, I guess. Basically, what I'm saying is I wish James Cameron would find a trusted writing partner to bring all his ideas together, because the man has talent, writing just isn't one of them.
And I've decided there are two easy things they could have changed to help some of the main problems. I'm not saying this fixes everything, it just helps. One, having us meet the Navi through Jake was a good way to start, since we were all newbies, but after that I think we should have gotten one or two scenes (at least) of the Navi without Jake. It makes them less Other. In particular I would have liked to see more after Jake and Grace get yanked out, when they're having to make decisions about how to fight the Sky People without outside influence. Those are important moments for them as a community and a culture and it shouldn't have just been about Jake's view.
Second, make Neytiri be the one to become Toruk Makto. She and Jake lead the charge against the humans together, as partners, with Neytiri rallying her people and Jake providing strategy against an enemy he knows better than they do. It takes care of a lot of the Mighty Whitey issues without cutting the hero completely out of the action, shakes up the genre a bit by giving the girlfriend a much more active role, and gives us an opportunity to see Jake and Neytiri really work together in a much more substantial way.
I'm curious, has anyone seen or heard Cameron respond to the criticisms from the first movie? Since there's going to be a sequel, I'm wondering if he'll take to heart what people said and make more of an effort to flesh out characters and spread the focus beyond the white guy a little.
3. I have to do a political assignment in papermaking later in the semester (yeah, I don't know why either), and I think what I want to do is collect quotes from fundamentalist/conservative Christians trying to use the bible or Christianity in general to argue their bigoted points, and then pair those with bible verses that show what hypocrites they are. So obviously I'm going to do my own research, but if anyone is a big news watcher/reader and hears/reads a quote they think I should know about, let me know.