Weekly reading/watching meme
Still no books. Like I maybe read three Cavafy poems. Went to see Pacific Rim, which was very exciting but also disappointing. Part of that is me: I have watched a scientific amount of This Sort Of Thing, can call the reveals before they show up, so as far as I was concerned all that could be hurried along in favour of some non-predictable characterization beats (arguably I liked the Charlie Day/Ron Perlman sequences best). Which Del Toro is capable of; it's not like I'm asking Michael Bay to eke out Oscar-winning performances here.
In fact, I kind of suspect Del Toro worldbuilt for a 24-ep TV series, wrote for a 6-ep OAV, shot the equivalent of two movies, then edited it down to a Hollywood-acceptable one. That's the sort of vaguely dissatisfying perfunctoriness the result has: like watching the glossy big-FX-budget movie version of a really great TV anime. Then you're left explaining to your friends after the Fantasia Film Fest matinee showing that no, actually, in the manga those pilot teams that LITERALLY HAD NO LINES were really cool personalities and had their own backstory chapters and everything.
Also, if this were an anime, Mako would be explicitly the main character and the story would have started with her flashback (leaving Raleigh's as the reveal), which would have been a better edit IMO. And long as we must have a tiresome sub-plot with dude pilots being macho at each other, an anime would have had the decency to distinguish them visually by having one be the brunette. To be fair Del Toro has basically made the first Hollywood action movie with a Japanese character who seems like a real Japanese person so, yanno, kudos for that? XD;
And yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, KAIJU VS GIANT ROBOTS. I'm not even much of a monster movie fan, but dude is an auteur when it comes to creature design.
I have figured out how to add the footer on a crosspost! Go me! /rollsalot (Original post is here: http://petronia.dreamwidth.org/56295.html)
In fact, I kind of suspect Del Toro worldbuilt for a 24-ep TV series, wrote for a 6-ep OAV, shot the equivalent of two movies, then edited it down to a Hollywood-acceptable one. That's the sort of vaguely dissatisfying perfunctoriness the result has: like watching the glossy big-FX-budget movie version of a really great TV anime. Then you're left explaining to your friends after the Fantasia Film Fest matinee showing that no, actually, in the manga those pilot teams that LITERALLY HAD NO LINES were really cool personalities and had their own backstory chapters and everything.
Also, if this were an anime, Mako would be explicitly the main character and the story would have started with her flashback (leaving Raleigh's as the reveal), which would have been a better edit IMO. And long as we must have a tiresome sub-plot with dude pilots being macho at each other, an anime would have had the decency to distinguish them visually by having one be the brunette. To be fair Del Toro has basically made the first Hollywood action movie with a Japanese character who seems like a real Japanese person so, yanno, kudos for that? XD;
And yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, KAIJU VS GIANT ROBOTS. I'm not even much of a monster movie fan, but dude is an auteur when it comes to creature design.
I have figured out how to add the footer on a crosspost! Go me! /rollsalot (Original post is here: http://petronia.dreamwidth.org/56295.html)