Movie thoughts and reviews, once more.
Last week we went to see Prince Caspian. I knew pretty quickly that I didn't like it as much as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, although I wasn't sure whether it was because they did a worse job of adapting it or a consequence of my liking the book Prince Caspian better than its predecessor. Come to think of it, I'm still not sure, although I think they did make more (or at least more noticeable) changes in this movie.
I understand that they changed the timelines around so that the Pevensie siblings would have more to do over the course of the movie -- and perhaps to avoid starting off in medias res, although the technique works perfectly well in a movie (cf. The Thief of Bagdad). As a consequence of this, the reasoning behind the location of Trumpkin's foiled execution makes less sense, and because of the method they chose for it, Caspian starts out with the appearance of decidedly less-than-stellar tactical sense.
I love the fact that the Telmarines have clear Iberian Peninsula influence. That makes perfect sense with their origins, and I think it will now go into my mental deuterocanon. I also like that Miraz's wife was more than a plot device in the movie, and that she (and her even-more-plot-device infant son) was the second to volunteer to return to the South Seas. (After all, what in the world would Caspian have done with them?) I also like the way that we get a sense of the flaws in Peter and Susan's characters that will be more evident by the time of The Last Battle, although I could have done without Peter's endangering the heroes more than they did in the book.
I do not love the decision to replace some of my favorite scenes (Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi!) with more battle scenes, although I must admit that the battle scenes were well done, and that I did like Susan getting more to do in them and the alternative use of Edmund's torch(flashlight). Also, what was the reasoning behind the decision not to keep the distinction between the Talking Beasts and ordinary animals? After all, the Talking predators have to eat something...
Also, I've had a ginormous crush on Reepicheep since I was seven years old, and was very happy that the movie got him absolutely right. (And played by Eddie Izzard, yet.)
I was rather taken aback by the kiss at the end -- I remember reading once that a major source of confusion for American GIs in Britain during and after WWII was that, if one thinks of a relationship as containing thirty or so steps to complete physical intimacy, the American perspective at the time would have had a kiss as #5 or so, while the British would have thought of it as more like number twenty-five. Granted that Susan and the others have been returning to being very Narnian over their few days there, I still feel that -- especially on the morning of her return to England -- she would have been more conscious of her birth mores.
I still liked the movie, and Edmund and Lucy were still my favorite other two characters -- I just wish that they had included the part where Aslan, once finally invited in, goes running through the streets of Telmarine Narnia calling those who will listen to come and join the gladsome throng, because that bit was important.
I've also been doing more Netflixing.
My history with Fullmetal Alchemist is complicated -- I saw the first three episodes at my local anime club, and thought they were interesting but that I didn't feel the need to run out and see more. Then over the years fanwriters I like have written for it, and people have spoken highly of it, and several of my friends have said "Ysabeth, you should see this, you'll absolutely love it -- won't she love it, [other friend in room]?" Then there was the time I wandered in in time to catch the end of the movie.
So I decided to watch the series from the beginning, and. Well.
It's a good thing that Animania showed the third episode, and that this disc had 1-4, because based solely on the first two episodes, I wouldn't have liked the show. Part of it was the treatment of the subject matter in that two-parter -- but also, so far, I... don't like Edward Elric.
I'm not quite sure why I don't like him; he's arrogant, yes, and I usually like characters who are almost as good as they think they are, even if their social skills fall in the raised-by-robot-wolves category... but not Ed. Maybe it's that he's arrogant and thinks he isn't?
Also, the first, in medias res episodes? It's not that I dislike the idea of the exposure of a religious fraud (in fact, it generally falls under my definition of a Good Thing). Nor is it the fact that the guy doing the exposing pretty clearly claims not to believe in any organized religion (although the rationale he gives for not doing so is rather brain-breaking, that falls under the aegis of character development).
The thing is, that the people of Liore's reasoning for believing in their bishop and his faith? He performs miracles. Very little mention of whether the sect had been active before or not, some mention of part of why they've been buying into it, in a world where it isn't impossible for someone else to do as much -- but when the authenticity of the miracles is called into question, the people turn on the bishop demanding answers, and when another one is performed, they go back to believing him. After he's been trying to build a cult for five or six years. THIS IS NOT PLAUSIBLE.
The people are either being treated as overly stupid or as not docile enough. If he'd been cultifying for long enough, the mob mentality should have gone after the Elric Brothers from the first. If he'd been setting up something that focused more on the trappings than on him personally (and, given his stated objectives, that'd have been foolish), the crowd should have split into angry groups, one of which still defended him and another of which tried to elect an episcopal successor on the spot.
Also, I can understand that Ed thinks they're stupid for wanting to believe in a higher power in the first place, but the anime doesn't do too great a job of disassociating his views from its views.
Now, the backstory I like. The backstory is great. I also like the episode with the mannequins. I really like Al. I like Winry(sp?). I like Pinako. I rather think I'd like Mustang if I got to see more of him. I get the feeling that the Elric Brothers are going to be the equivalent of the Lovely Angels when it comes to success rates and collateral damage and responsibility for that last, and I look forward to it.
But wow, I hope Ed learns either the meaning of humility or how to be enjoyable without it.
A while back, I picked up the 1924 The Thief of Bagdad cheaply, not realizing that there were two of them, and fell in love with it.
Then I was made aware that there was a second (and far more famous version), and got around to renting it.
Aside from the title, the idea of someone falling in love with the princess at first sight and sneaking in to visit her, and the use of a flying carpet as ending deus ex machina, this movie has nothing whatsoever to do with the 1924 one, although they are both fun mindless action fantasy.
This is the sort of movie that the phrase "in glorious Technicolor" was coined to describe. Much of the photography in this is really amazing (although the special effects are clearly of their time, and one -- the six-armed lady -- is filmed such that in several instances it is clear that the other arms are coming from the wall behind her and are not attached to her torso; even in 1940, it should have been possible to change the angle a little, especially considering the technical excellence of the shots of Abu and the genie.)
It begins in medias res and then uses a lengthy flashback, which works well in the context of the movie. The characters, while simple archetypes and prone to acting without thinking whenever called to by the script, function well in the sort of fairy tale this is.
And yet I still prefer the 1924 movie; go figure.
I also saw a 1981 Canadian production of Anna Bolena, with Dame Joan Sutherland in the title role. It was an exceedingly no-frills disc -- it had the opera divided into chapters with the ability to play the whole thing, with a simple white-text-on-blue menu, and that was it.
The sound of the opera was very well recorded, although the camera work was sometimes (perhaps unavoidably) dark, and some of the close-ups of Dame Joan seemed to catch her least flattering angles and stay there for too long.
The opera is a rather modified version of the downfall and execution of Anne Boleyn. Donizetti is known for including emotionally satisfying scenes whether or not history was so kind as to cooperate: here he adds Anne lamenting the bitterness of the queenship she so wanted and innocently advising Jane Seymour (Judith Forst) never to have a king for a lover, a tender reunion with Lord Percy (Michael Myers) (amalgamated with Weston/Brereton/Norris and rather puzzlingly renamed "Riccardo"; presumably two "Henry/Enrico"s might have been confusing, but since he now includes a perfectly good "Francis" and "William", one of them should have an Italian version that fits the meter) before she goes in to her trial, and a gorgeous duet where Anne nobly forgives a repentant Jane on learning that the latter is the Other Woman who has roused her wrath. He also adds a mad scene on the eve of Anne's execution, presumably just in case the audience wasn't sympathizing with her enough. After seeing this, I thought it was a real pity that he never found anyone to write him a libretto for the Maria Tudor opera he had in mind, because I'd have loved to see what he did with it.
I understand that they changed the timelines around so that the Pevensie siblings would have more to do over the course of the movie -- and perhaps to avoid starting off in medias res, although the technique works perfectly well in a movie (cf. The Thief of Bagdad). As a consequence of this, the reasoning behind the location of Trumpkin's foiled execution makes less sense, and because of the method they chose for it, Caspian starts out with the appearance of decidedly less-than-stellar tactical sense.
I love the fact that the Telmarines have clear Iberian Peninsula influence. That makes perfect sense with their origins, and I think it will now go into my mental deuterocanon. I also like that Miraz's wife was more than a plot device in the movie, and that she (and her even-more-plot-device infant son) was the second to volunteer to return to the South Seas. (After all, what in the world would Caspian have done with them?) I also like the way that we get a sense of the flaws in Peter and Susan's characters that will be more evident by the time of The Last Battle, although I could have done without Peter's endangering the heroes more than they did in the book.
I do not love the decision to replace some of my favorite scenes (Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi!) with more battle scenes, although I must admit that the battle scenes were well done, and that I did like Susan getting more to do in them and the alternative use of Edmund's torch(flashlight). Also, what was the reasoning behind the decision not to keep the distinction between the Talking Beasts and ordinary animals? After all, the Talking predators have to eat something...
Also, I've had a ginormous crush on Reepicheep since I was seven years old, and was very happy that the movie got him absolutely right. (And played by Eddie Izzard, yet.)
I was rather taken aback by the kiss at the end -- I remember reading once that a major source of confusion for American GIs in Britain during and after WWII was that, if one thinks of a relationship as containing thirty or so steps to complete physical intimacy, the American perspective at the time would have had a kiss as #5 or so, while the British would have thought of it as more like number twenty-five. Granted that Susan and the others have been returning to being very Narnian over their few days there, I still feel that -- especially on the morning of her return to England -- she would have been more conscious of her birth mores.
I still liked the movie, and Edmund and Lucy were still my favorite other two characters -- I just wish that they had included the part where Aslan, once finally invited in, goes running through the streets of Telmarine Narnia calling those who will listen to come and join the gladsome throng, because that bit was important.
I've also been doing more Netflixing.
My history with Fullmetal Alchemist is complicated -- I saw the first three episodes at my local anime club, and thought they were interesting but that I didn't feel the need to run out and see more. Then over the years fanwriters I like have written for it, and people have spoken highly of it, and several of my friends have said "Ysabeth, you should see this, you'll absolutely love it -- won't she love it, [other friend in room]?" Then there was the time I wandered in in time to catch the end of the movie.
So I decided to watch the series from the beginning, and. Well.
It's a good thing that Animania showed the third episode, and that this disc had 1-4, because based solely on the first two episodes, I wouldn't have liked the show. Part of it was the treatment of the subject matter in that two-parter -- but also, so far, I... don't like Edward Elric.
I'm not quite sure why I don't like him; he's arrogant, yes, and I usually like characters who are almost as good as they think they are, even if their social skills fall in the raised-by-robot-wolves category... but not Ed. Maybe it's that he's arrogant and thinks he isn't?
Also, the first, in medias res episodes? It's not that I dislike the idea of the exposure of a religious fraud (in fact, it generally falls under my definition of a Good Thing). Nor is it the fact that the guy doing the exposing pretty clearly claims not to believe in any organized religion (although the rationale he gives for not doing so is rather brain-breaking, that falls under the aegis of character development).
The thing is, that the people of Liore's reasoning for believing in their bishop and his faith? He performs miracles. Very little mention of whether the sect had been active before or not, some mention of part of why they've been buying into it, in a world where it isn't impossible for someone else to do as much -- but when the authenticity of the miracles is called into question, the people turn on the bishop demanding answers, and when another one is performed, they go back to believing him. After he's been trying to build a cult for five or six years. THIS IS NOT PLAUSIBLE.
The people are either being treated as overly stupid or as not docile enough. If he'd been cultifying for long enough, the mob mentality should have gone after the Elric Brothers from the first. If he'd been setting up something that focused more on the trappings than on him personally (and, given his stated objectives, that'd have been foolish), the crowd should have split into angry groups, one of which still defended him and another of which tried to elect an episcopal successor on the spot.
Also, I can understand that Ed thinks they're stupid for wanting to believe in a higher power in the first place, but the anime doesn't do too great a job of disassociating his views from its views.
Now, the backstory I like. The backstory is great. I also like the episode with the mannequins. I really like Al. I like Winry(sp?). I like Pinako. I rather think I'd like Mustang if I got to see more of him. I get the feeling that the Elric Brothers are going to be the equivalent of the Lovely Angels when it comes to success rates and collateral damage and responsibility for that last, and I look forward to it.
But wow, I hope Ed learns either the meaning of humility or how to be enjoyable without it.
A while back, I picked up the 1924 The Thief of Bagdad cheaply, not realizing that there were two of them, and fell in love with it.
Then I was made aware that there was a second (and far more famous version), and got around to renting it.
Aside from the title, the idea of someone falling in love with the princess at first sight and sneaking in to visit her, and the use of a flying carpet as ending deus ex machina, this movie has nothing whatsoever to do with the 1924 one, although they are both fun mindless action fantasy.
This is the sort of movie that the phrase "in glorious Technicolor" was coined to describe. Much of the photography in this is really amazing (although the special effects are clearly of their time, and one -- the six-armed lady -- is filmed such that in several instances it is clear that the other arms are coming from the wall behind her and are not attached to her torso; even in 1940, it should have been possible to change the angle a little, especially considering the technical excellence of the shots of Abu and the genie.)
It begins in medias res and then uses a lengthy flashback, which works well in the context of the movie. The characters, while simple archetypes and prone to acting without thinking whenever called to by the script, function well in the sort of fairy tale this is.
And yet I still prefer the 1924 movie; go figure.
I also saw a 1981 Canadian production of Anna Bolena, with Dame Joan Sutherland in the title role. It was an exceedingly no-frills disc -- it had the opera divided into chapters with the ability to play the whole thing, with a simple white-text-on-blue menu, and that was it.
The sound of the opera was very well recorded, although the camera work was sometimes (perhaps unavoidably) dark, and some of the close-ups of Dame Joan seemed to catch her least flattering angles and stay there for too long.
The opera is a rather modified version of the downfall and execution of Anne Boleyn. Donizetti is known for including emotionally satisfying scenes whether or not history was so kind as to cooperate: here he adds Anne lamenting the bitterness of the queenship she so wanted and innocently advising Jane Seymour (Judith Forst) never to have a king for a lover, a tender reunion with Lord Percy (Michael Myers) (amalgamated with Weston/Brereton/Norris and rather puzzlingly renamed "Riccardo"; presumably two "Henry/Enrico"s might have been confusing, but since he now includes a perfectly good "Francis" and "William", one of them should have an Italian version that fits the meter) before she goes in to her trial, and a gorgeous duet where Anne nobly forgives a repentant Jane on learning that the latter is the Other Woman who has roused her wrath. He also adds a mad scene on the eve of Anne's execution, presumably just in case the audience wasn't sympathizing with her enough. After seeing this, I thought it was a real pity that he never found anyone to write him a libretto for the Maria Tudor opera he had in mind, because I'd have loved to see what he did with it.