netflix
So, given that gas prices have gone past disgusting and soared all the way into obscenity, my sister convinced me that it would be cheaper to just get a Netflix account.
So I did. Day before yesterday.
Today, my first three discs arrived.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
I first saw this on my friend's laptop when I was zonking in and out every two minutes. This does not help any good movie, especially not a murder mystery, and certainly not one as trippy as this (there's one scene, for example, where the main characters get trapped in a repeating loop).
Seeing it when I'm awake, it's a worthy successor to the first movie (unsurprising; they were both directed by Oshii). It's rather selfconsciously intellectual (not to mention, all these 'borged up people and they STILL SMOKE? What the heck, people) and very stylized, and the CGI doesn't always mesh well with the animation. I like it very much; however, I have one problem with the DVD -- the decision to make the English subtitles identical with the English closed captions. I was watching it at some volume, did not need the "[helicopter noise]," and certainly did not need the "[Singing in Japanese]" rather than, oh, the actual lyrics of the song. Sheesh.
Also, I think I agree with the people who said that no matter how much you love particularly clever bits of quotation/philosophy/images, you need to sit down and ask yourself "does this further the story?" (whether by plot, by characterization, or by thematics) -- and if it doesn't, to cut it out or rewrite it so that it does, no matter how neat it is. Save it for the music videos and so forth.
Ghost in the Shell 2 Music Videos
Because of the way I was opening the packages, I actually watched these before the movie they're from. They did not spoil me for the movie. They did not, that I recall, contain new content, but were rather the music-video sequences of the movie, removed and with any dialogue bits excised.
Also, the subtitles for these offered both the Japanese transliteration and the English translation.
This being so, they actually worked better here than in the movie; while in the movie some of these scenes went on and on and delayed the plot, here you can fully appreciate the visual feast that is the matsuri parade, for example, without trying to figure out what if anything is furthering the exposition of the mystery. These are beautiful music videos, to two instrumentals and to several takes of two songs. One of the songs is very traditionally Japanese, so your enjoyment will probably depend on whether you like that sort of quavering chorus. The other is English-language jazz, written by someone who appears to be Spanish; while the lyrics are perfectly correct grammatically, the musical values outright contradict the natural stresses of the word, so that the song seems to be nothing but syncopation.
I'd almost suggest skipping the second movie, renting the music videos, and reading the manga. ^_^
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
This movie seems to have fulfilled one of its functions, in that I don't think it would have made any more sense to me if I had played the game. ^_^
It is very stylish but rather empty of substance; the worldbuilding that appears from all accounts to have been so much of the game is here left out, skipped over, or lightly hinted at (and not in the way that seems meant to have been icing on a preexisting cake, either). On the other hand, it is VERY pretty, the fight scenes are spectacular, and the voices are good. On the gripping hand, it suffers from "be sure to include every character the fans liked whether there's really room for them or not" syndrome, although the bit an hour in that feels exactly like the moment when all the girls combine their power with Ohgami's in a Sakura Taisen franchise is fun.
The extras include a quick synopsis (consisting of game cutscenes and recordings of gameplay, shown as flashbacks while the main character is driving his motorcycle along a tropical road) of the game Final Fantasy VII, which you can watch beforehand in case you haven't been hanging out with the online crowd that diffuses the FF7 plot and characters into general osmosis, or if it's been a while; you can also watch it afterwards if you were disappointed by the movie and want to remember how cool the game was. (They seem to have had the same director; what gives?)
Overall, I liked it a lot, but I also loved Ultraviolet, which tells you something about my kinks in movies.
Also, from the credits, it appears that the Promised Land is in Hawai`i. This makes sense in a weird sort of way. If I were a member of a planet-traveling ancient race, I would totally want to go to Hawai`i when I die. ^_^
So I did. Day before yesterday.
Today, my first three discs arrived.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
I first saw this on my friend's laptop when I was zonking in and out every two minutes. This does not help any good movie, especially not a murder mystery, and certainly not one as trippy as this (there's one scene, for example, where the main characters get trapped in a repeating loop).
Seeing it when I'm awake, it's a worthy successor to the first movie (unsurprising; they were both directed by Oshii). It's rather selfconsciously intellectual (not to mention, all these 'borged up people and they STILL SMOKE? What the heck, people) and very stylized, and the CGI doesn't always mesh well with the animation. I like it very much; however, I have one problem with the DVD -- the decision to make the English subtitles identical with the English closed captions. I was watching it at some volume, did not need the "[helicopter noise]," and certainly did not need the "[Singing in Japanese]" rather than, oh, the actual lyrics of the song. Sheesh.
Also, I think I agree with the people who said that no matter how much you love particularly clever bits of quotation/philosophy/images, you need to sit down and ask yourself "does this further the story?" (whether by plot, by characterization, or by thematics) -- and if it doesn't, to cut it out or rewrite it so that it does, no matter how neat it is. Save it for the music videos and so forth.
Ghost in the Shell 2 Music Videos
Because of the way I was opening the packages, I actually watched these before the movie they're from. They did not spoil me for the movie. They did not, that I recall, contain new content, but were rather the music-video sequences of the movie, removed and with any dialogue bits excised.
Also, the subtitles for these offered both the Japanese transliteration and the English translation.
This being so, they actually worked better here than in the movie; while in the movie some of these scenes went on and on and delayed the plot, here you can fully appreciate the visual feast that is the matsuri parade, for example, without trying to figure out what if anything is furthering the exposition of the mystery. These are beautiful music videos, to two instrumentals and to several takes of two songs. One of the songs is very traditionally Japanese, so your enjoyment will probably depend on whether you like that sort of quavering chorus. The other is English-language jazz, written by someone who appears to be Spanish; while the lyrics are perfectly correct grammatically, the musical values outright contradict the natural stresses of the word, so that the song seems to be nothing but syncopation.
I'd almost suggest skipping the second movie, renting the music videos, and reading the manga. ^_^
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
This movie seems to have fulfilled one of its functions, in that I don't think it would have made any more sense to me if I had played the game. ^_^
It is very stylish but rather empty of substance; the worldbuilding that appears from all accounts to have been so much of the game is here left out, skipped over, or lightly hinted at (and not in the way that seems meant to have been icing on a preexisting cake, either). On the other hand, it is VERY pretty, the fight scenes are spectacular, and the voices are good. On the gripping hand, it suffers from "be sure to include every character the fans liked whether there's really room for them or not" syndrome, although the bit an hour in that feels exactly like the moment when all the girls combine their power with Ohgami's in a Sakura Taisen franchise is fun.
The extras include a quick synopsis (consisting of game cutscenes and recordings of gameplay, shown as flashbacks while the main character is driving his motorcycle along a tropical road) of the game Final Fantasy VII, which you can watch beforehand in case you haven't been hanging out with the online crowd that diffuses the FF7 plot and characters into general osmosis, or if it's been a while; you can also watch it afterwards if you were disappointed by the movie and want to remember how cool the game was. (They seem to have had the same director; what gives?)
Overall, I liked it a lot, but I also loved Ultraviolet, which tells you something about my kinks in movies.
Also, from the credits, it appears that the Promised Land is in Hawai`i. This makes sense in a weird sort of way. If I were a member of a planet-traveling ancient race, I would totally want to go to Hawai`i when I die. ^_^