Life of Pi + Skyfall
Life of Pi (2D)
I actually wanted to see this in 3D but the theater's projector broke. Alas. I read the book about 6 years ago and flat-out did not like it due to the writing style. I like the movie better. Buuuuut just like the book, it's a bit slow going for you to get to the boat; which the movie is cognizent of. At the same time they frame its importance by claiming this is a story that will make you believe in God. Unfortunately there's a disconnect between the India section and the boat section. I will say I think the movie did a better job with the ending in some ways. On the one hand, the utter mindscrew of it is utterly gone, but it makes a very interesting contrast of what it means to come to terms with mankind's capacity for cruelty (which, sorry Pi, I think is the better story). There were some very gorgeous scenes I wished I could've seen in 3D though; pretty much any scene involving looking straight down into the water. Like the whale!
Skyfall
I haven't seen the prior two Craig!Bond films, so IDK what I can really contribute to the conversation when other people have already done such a nice job. Llike hellotailor have here and here on the Bond women and Bond as blunt instrument (
shimizu_hitomi , I think you might like her blog for her non fashion posts).
It's not very action-y for a Bond franchise film, but I honestly really liked it. And I think they handled the Evil Villain's Motive quite well in just hinting at it and not giving too much (if they'd done the latter it would've been extremely cliche). Also! Possibly next films will go into Bond's past (otherwise, Kincaid feels strangely out of place)? It feels like a sound set-up without feeling like Obvious Sequel Plot Thread We Left Open. And I also really dig the song. Bully for you Adele. Tangentally, as always I was the awkward person laughing alone throughout most of the film, pfffft.
Um, I guess most of the bloggers I've read have been interested in the desk/field agent thing going on, which yeah, totally. I also think it's an interesting reflection on antiquity/modernity. Part of me wonders how Bond can continue as he's been framed as aging just as M has, and if so, how the franchise will address a new Bond, whether as a title or a successor, or IDEK. Which, 2 cents, Idris Elba ftmfw. Anyways, these kind of old/modern conflicts are interesting in general when you look at RL trends (one of the trailers was for the Bin Laden assassination movie, which IMO is a movie that functions to validate and vindicate the costs of what some believe to have been a war for the wrong reasons).
Anyways, both M and Bond (as by extension all of MI6) are threatened by obsoletion, as old dogs in a world too modern for them. Like when the cowboys had no wilderness left to roam as the urban sprawl settled in. And yet MI6 finds a way to thrive. Skyfall walks this really interesting line of not falling into the trope of The Old Ways are Bad Ways nor The Old Ways are the Best Ways (see post Civil War nostalgia for slavery), as MI6 still has function and validity and finds a way for "old ways" to change in order to address "new" needs which really are the same ones, just evolved. (Alternately, Your Rival's Bulbasaur became a Venasaur so your Squirtle became a Blastoise).
The rat metaphor. WTF was up with that. Because you initially get Bond/Silva posited as the rats, but it's really M/Silva who are the two rats. Also really obviously missing from the rat metaphor is the origin story part of it where the two rats have to create offspring and then eat them. Like, how could you not mention that? (Why is Silva blond anyway?)
So when Silva first appeared my first reaction was "Oh dear heavens, not another gay villain. Please. Just. No." But then I thought about it and something's going on here. The film actually establishes (or plays on) Silva's heterosexuality to begin with. (This is actually a function of heteronormativity I suppose where: "Oh, he has a girlfriend. He must be straight.") Silva is heavily implied to have a sexual interest in Severine. So then I went, "Hmmm, well, we have a bisexual villain. Urk. Not much better." Especially with the whole "effiminancy" going on.
But again, something's funky going on. Silva and Bond are being posed as foils as antiquated agents, and when you consider that along with the "It might not be my first time" line you suddenly have Bond as a bisexual character too. (Well, implied, but hey, fanfic's already picked up on that line.) (Also, the whole double entendre of that conversation was a nice update of the old school cunning linguist dialogue) Which is kinda a big deal since Bond has been the bastion of Manly Man Who No Woman (Not Even Lesbians) Can Resist. Bisexuality in some sense becomes acceptable (as part of masculinity? Which in that case is still problematic when relying on men must be masculine). I'd also argue Silva's touching of Bond was more intimate and sexual than the rest of Bond's encounters with women in the film; an odd move.
ETA: There was something I wanted to say in conjunction with the antiquity/modernity issue and something to do with the sexual rat metaphor, gah. But anyways this bisexual!Bond is perhaps a neat reflection of the world we live in. In the US, at least, marriage is in the news a lot. For this film to go and make a classic hero bisexual is a rather large move. And a smoothly done one at that, fitting in with Bond's history of terribly double entendres. The movie in no way could've made Bond explicitly bisexual without everyone throwing a fit about (Fanboy Rage, Pearl Clutching, etc.). ...........gah there was more I wanted to say!
Uhhh, so yeah. tl;dr something's happening with bisexual!Bond/Silva but IDK what.
Oh, and based on minor plot spoilers I received, was disappointed to see M san sawed off shotgun but pleased to see Severine not fridged. And the Moneypenny reveal was pretty slick, and to add to HelloTailor's thoughts, putting Eve at a desk isn't bad at all. She's shown to be a perfectly capable field agent. I also felt deprived of M pulling the trigger; it was practically a Chekov's gun. And one last thought: fairly certain she clears Bond because he's like her: deemed unfit when they clearly got more left in them.
On my to-watch list for winter: Wreck-It Ralph and Django Unleashed.
Originally posted on DW with
comments.
I actually wanted to see this in 3D but the theater's projector broke. Alas. I read the book about 6 years ago and flat-out did not like it due to the writing style. I like the movie better. Buuuuut just like the book, it's a bit slow going for you to get to the boat; which the movie is cognizent of. At the same time they frame its importance by claiming this is a story that will make you believe in God. Unfortunately there's a disconnect between the India section and the boat section. I will say I think the movie did a better job with the ending in some ways. On the one hand, the utter mindscrew of it is utterly gone, but it makes a very interesting contrast of what it means to come to terms with mankind's capacity for cruelty (which, sorry Pi, I think is the better story). There were some very gorgeous scenes I wished I could've seen in 3D though; pretty much any scene involving looking straight down into the water. Like the whale!
Skyfall
I haven't seen the prior two Craig!Bond films, so IDK what I can really contribute to the conversation when other people have already done such a nice job. Llike hellotailor have here and here on the Bond women and Bond as blunt instrument (
shimizu_hitomi , I think you might like her blog for her non fashion posts).
It's not very action-y for a Bond franchise film, but I honestly really liked it. And I think they handled the Evil Villain's Motive quite well in just hinting at it and not giving too much (if they'd done the latter it would've been extremely cliche). Also! Possibly next films will go into Bond's past (otherwise, Kincaid feels strangely out of place)? It feels like a sound set-up without feeling like Obvious Sequel Plot Thread We Left Open. And I also really dig the song. Bully for you Adele. Tangentally, as always I was the awkward person laughing alone throughout most of the film, pfffft.
Um, I guess most of the bloggers I've read have been interested in the desk/field agent thing going on, which yeah, totally. I also think it's an interesting reflection on antiquity/modernity. Part of me wonders how Bond can continue as he's been framed as aging just as M has, and if so, how the franchise will address a new Bond, whether as a title or a successor, or IDEK. Which, 2 cents, Idris Elba ftmfw. Anyways, these kind of old/modern conflicts are interesting in general when you look at RL trends (one of the trailers was for the Bin Laden assassination movie, which IMO is a movie that functions to validate and vindicate the costs of what some believe to have been a war for the wrong reasons).
Anyways, both M and Bond (as by extension all of MI6) are threatened by obsoletion, as old dogs in a world too modern for them. Like when the cowboys had no wilderness left to roam as the urban sprawl settled in. And yet MI6 finds a way to thrive. Skyfall walks this really interesting line of not falling into the trope of The Old Ways are Bad Ways nor The Old Ways are the Best Ways (see post Civil War nostalgia for slavery), as MI6 still has function and validity and finds a way for "old ways" to change in order to address "new" needs which really are the same ones, just evolved. (Alternately, Your Rival's Bulbasaur became a Venasaur so your Squirtle became a Blastoise).
The rat metaphor. WTF was up with that. Because you initially get Bond/Silva posited as the rats, but it's really M/Silva who are the two rats. Also really obviously missing from the rat metaphor is the origin story part of it where the two rats have to create offspring and then eat them. Like, how could you not mention that? (Why is Silva blond anyway?)
So when Silva first appeared my first reaction was "Oh dear heavens, not another gay villain. Please. Just. No." But then I thought about it and something's going on here. The film actually establishes (or plays on) Silva's heterosexuality to begin with. (This is actually a function of heteronormativity I suppose where: "Oh, he has a girlfriend. He must be straight.") Silva is heavily implied to have a sexual interest in Severine. So then I went, "Hmmm, well, we have a bisexual villain. Urk. Not much better." Especially with the whole "effiminancy" going on.
But again, something's funky going on. Silva and Bond are being posed as foils as antiquated agents, and when you consider that along with the "It might not be my first time" line you suddenly have Bond as a bisexual character too. (Well, implied, but hey, fanfic's already picked up on that line.) (Also, the whole double entendre of that conversation was a nice update of the old school cunning linguist dialogue) Which is kinda a big deal since Bond has been the bastion of Manly Man Who No Woman (Not Even Lesbians) Can Resist. Bisexuality in some sense becomes acceptable (as part of masculinity? Which in that case is still problematic when relying on men must be masculine). I'd also argue Silva's touching of Bond was more intimate and sexual than the rest of Bond's encounters with women in the film; an odd move.
ETA: There was something I wanted to say in conjunction with the antiquity/modernity issue and something to do with the sexual rat metaphor, gah. But anyways this bisexual!Bond is perhaps a neat reflection of the world we live in. In the US, at least, marriage is in the news a lot. For this film to go and make a classic hero bisexual is a rather large move. And a smoothly done one at that, fitting in with Bond's history of terribly double entendres. The movie in no way could've made Bond explicitly bisexual without everyone throwing a fit about (Fanboy Rage, Pearl Clutching, etc.). ...........gah there was more I wanted to say!
Uhhh, so yeah. tl;dr something's happening with bisexual!Bond/Silva but IDK what.
Oh, and based on minor plot spoilers I received, was disappointed to see M san sawed off shotgun but pleased to see Severine not fridged. And the Moneypenny reveal was pretty slick, and to add to HelloTailor's thoughts, putting Eve at a desk isn't bad at all. She's shown to be a perfectly capable field agent. I also felt deprived of M pulling the trigger; it was practically a Chekov's gun. And one last thought: fairly certain she clears Bond because he's like her: deemed unfit when they clearly got more left in them.
On my to-watch list for winter: Wreck-It Ralph and Django Unleashed.
Originally posted on DW with
comments.