Y'all have given me unrealistically high expectations for "The Avengers"
which I finally got to see yesterday. (Jörg got a crapload of BluRays for Christmas, including this one.)
I was duly disappointed. To me, it was a solid but uninspired action movie, which would've been OK, except I'd definitely been expecting more from a movie that elicited that sort of response from my trusty f-list! It got entertaining whenever the characters bickered amongst each other, and Tom Hiddleston was pretty good, but he could've used more lines and a less ludicrous backstory. (And yes, I did enjoy flicks like Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk, so it's not the Marvel Superhero concept as such, it really was this particular incarnation.)
As I don't want to harsh anyone's squee, I'll let it rest at that.
On the other hand, I was really positively surprised by Prometheus, which we saw the day before yesterday. Prometheus, as you probably know, is sort of Episode I to Alien (which clearly makes it a great Christmas movie :P), so I hadn't expected much; what little reaction I saw wasn't overly positive, either.
It was actually... pretty well done. Of course, they never manage to create much continuity on a technical level, but you can sort of explain that away. My initial response was "ok, solid scifi, but no more", but when we found ourselves discussing implications and interpretations the whole next day, it got clear that it was sort of more.
Of course, it only works as long as you're willing to do the Suspension of Disbelief thing, and there sure are a couple of plot-holes, but it's pulled off pretty well.
The Huge Question is "Why did the "Creators" first create humanity and then decided to wipe them out via the Aliens", and I have two pet theories.
a) Creating mankind was actually an accident. That scene you see in the beginning is a ritual execution, sort of like Socrates with the hemlock? Only this "hemlock" disintegrates the whole dude. (In the extended scenes, there's actually a whole bunch of priest-like dudes who hand that dude the "hemlock" cup before they leave in the space ship, so it's clearly either a sacrifice or an execution.) So he was a criminal, maybe a thought-criminal? ANYWAY THEY WANTED TO OBLITERATE HIM, THAT'S THE POINT. But then from the remainders of his DNA came humanity A.K.A. a whole planet peopled with basically that dude's descendants.
And when the "Creators" realised that... they wanted to make amends. Because having a whole planet full of genetic descendants of their thought-criminal is kinda the opposite of obliteration. (The rock paintings? Well, that's genetic memory or somesuch. Shut up, there are worse plot holes.)
b) The "Creators" are doing this whole creation business for a hobby. First they did humanity kinda sorta in their own image (and the initial scene is some sort of immolation rather than execution), and later on they came up with something superior, i.e. the pretty-much-unkillable killer exosceleton face-hugger chest-burster acid-bleeder alien creatures. And now they simply want to replace the flawed old model with the less flawed new model. It ain't personal.
I'm kind of hoping there won't be a Prometheus II. Unlike Jörg's brother (who was disappointed that this movie raised more questions than it answered), I don't mind unanswered questions. It's always better than getting an answer you don't like.
- - -
However, my Christmas highlight of the year is this!
Time for two little trips to the department of backstory.
Backstory I:
Jörg's brother hasn't read a book ever since he got married, like, 13 years ago. No time, no motivation, no focus, whatever. When we were on Norderney last summer, Jörg gave him The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (in German) in case he got bored; after two days, Marc returned it, saying he just couldn't focus on a book long enough to read it.
Backstory II:
Jörg got a crapload of BluRays for Christmas (I may have mentioned this before), among them The Hunger Games. We ended up not watching this one together, so Jörg tried to give Marc a brief summary of the story; eventually he said "You know what, we've got the book, why don't you read that if you're interested". Except we only have that trilogy in English. Marc hasn't read in a long time, as I said, and never in a language other than German. Jörg still insisted Marc take The Hunger Games along.
Now yesterday Marc returned home. He called in the evening. "I should throttle you some time," he said, and when Jörg asked why, Marc explained that he'd spent every moment since he got home over that bloody book. Didn't check his e-mails, didn't unpack his bags, just fed the cats and sat down and read The Hunger Games. Later on, Jörg called him again (to discuss something from Prometheus :P), at which point Marc was all "I NEED TO GO TO BED BUT I CAN'T PUT THE DAMN BOOK DOOOOOWN". We asked where he was, which was apparently the point at which the interviews end.
We advised him to put the book down, because he probably wouldn't be able to once they actually were inside the arena.
Totally my Christmas highlight for this year. (Yes, I'm a book snob. Can't help it!)
And that's all for now! Christmas is over, back to Home Improvement...