Movie Reviews: Where the Wild Things Are, and The Plan
First: my dreamwidth paid time is almost up, and I'm not yet sure if I'm going to re-up. Going back and forth about it.
That aside, here are some reviews:
Where the Wild Things Are, I think, is a movie not for everyone and a certain number of reviews have said it's basically for hipsters. I don't THINK I'm a hipster myself, but I loved it. It was basically, exactly what I expected it to be. Not sure I have much more to say about it, except that the sheer level of CRAFT in it was amazing. Max Records is a phenomenal little actor, the monsters are all very real. The cinematography is gorgeous. I expect it'll be a classic, just like the book.
For the record, we took Sabastian who is two, and there were other toddler/pre-schoolers in the audience. Not a single one seemed to be scared. Scary factor is very over-rated. (But only in Las Vegas is the 8:30 for a two hour movie full of parents and kids.)
The Plan
I guess this is not officially out yet, and it was a leaked DVD copy. Oops, I posted all over my twitter about it. Sorry if I spoiled anyone!
The non-spoilery review is that I think it's worth your time to see this if you enjoyed BSG. You have to have liked the Cylons though - I can't imagine anyone who was watching it for the true true love of Adama/Roslin or Lee/Kara getting anything out of this.
Good things: there are a lot of funny lines in this. (Hat tip to the line going around the internet everywhere: "His jacket was burgundy. Mine is teal!") You get to see the other colonies, and they ACTUALLY found ways to make the destruction of the twelve colonies more horrifying than the last time. There's a lot more screentime for Simon, who turns out to be fairly awesome even as the movie somewhat undercuts what little characterization the Fours had in the show. They add a cool retcon to the Boomer-sleeper agent story.
Bad things: As the movie progresses, it relies more and more upon intercuts between the new material and old material from the show. Surprisingly it doesn't look as bad as you would think - it's just repetitive and drags on what new material The Plan has to offer. And as the TV program began to lose its way, so does the narrative threads of this film.
Mixed things: The movie doesn't do anything to change the ultimate outcome of BSG's theist ending. Indeed, the movie ends right before the New Caprica arc and doesn't comment on anything after the two Cavils get airlocked.
Of the Cylons, Cavil gets the most screentime. The story basically follows two copies of him, one who rescues Ellen and thus gets aboard Galactica, and the one who was with Sam on Caprica. Unfortunately, what we learn in the film is that the Cylons really never had a plan - the Cavil models were simply acting out on their petty desire to revenge upon his parental figures.
So basically the movie changes nothing except underlining and bold printing that everyone goes through ALL OF THAT TRAUMA because Cavil is butthurt that Ellen doesn't love him best. Weak.
The interesting thing is that he gets paired with a Simon on both worlds. On Caprica, the Simon begins to see through Cavil's facade and realizes he's simply obsessed with hearing the Final Five confess to their sins. What exactly, this Simon makes of it isn't clear - especially as I don't believe they say what happens to this model. I presume he is downloaded when he dies.
Meanwhile, on Galactica, Cavil takes up shop in the chapel which he is using as a base to organize the Cylon cell. This section is mostly very funny because of Cavil and the other Cylons ineptitude. However, this is the section which gives the other Simon a lot to do, and raises real questions about the canon. In this part we learn that Galactica's Simon has a wife and adopted daughter, and essentially wants to cease being a Cylon now that they've survived.
Obviously because Cavil hates any form of love that isn't directed at him, he orders Simon to kill them. Simon refuses and airlocks himself, outside resurrection range, because he can't bear for his wife to find out the truth.
The question this raises is thus: if two Simons are capable of seeing through Cavil's bullshit, why do the Fours side with One in the Civil War? It's a big ass plot hole. Despite that, I've always been a sucker for a Cylon falls in love with a human story, and I found it really touching.
The other thing of note about this section is that it involves Cavil waking the sleeper agent Boomer up and establishes their relationship. Which is probably much desired by those who cared about how all THAT went down.
My last bug-a-boo: this movie actually shows us, briefly and in slightly iffy cgi what the other colonies looked like. Heck, Tory and Ellen aren't even ON Caprica. (I can't recall if the last episodes made it explicit that that titty bar that Adama, Tigh and Ellen are in was on Picon before, though I suppose it could have been put together before this.) What it DOESN'T tell me is what happened to any other survivors on the other colonies. Or, for that matter, what if you and your group of twenty Pyramid survivors had been hiding out in the mountains of a DIFFERENT continent on Caprica? This assumption that the fallout would kill everyone only worked before we saw Centurion mop-up crews and Galactica went back for Kara's boyfriend. Planets are not cities, it's still very likely that when the Cylons left there were plenty of people left on the planets.
Anyway. I very much enjoyed it, it was a fun trip back to BSG, though it ultimately doesn't explain much of anything you probably want explained.
That aside, here are some reviews:
Where the Wild Things Are, I think, is a movie not for everyone and a certain number of reviews have said it's basically for hipsters. I don't THINK I'm a hipster myself, but I loved it. It was basically, exactly what I expected it to be. Not sure I have much more to say about it, except that the sheer level of CRAFT in it was amazing. Max Records is a phenomenal little actor, the monsters are all very real. The cinematography is gorgeous. I expect it'll be a classic, just like the book.
For the record, we took Sabastian who is two, and there were other toddler/pre-schoolers in the audience. Not a single one seemed to be scared. Scary factor is very over-rated. (But only in Las Vegas is the 8:30 for a two hour movie full of parents and kids.)
The Plan
I guess this is not officially out yet, and it was a leaked DVD copy. Oops, I posted all over my twitter about it. Sorry if I spoiled anyone!
The non-spoilery review is that I think it's worth your time to see this if you enjoyed BSG. You have to have liked the Cylons though - I can't imagine anyone who was watching it for the true true love of Adama/Roslin or Lee/Kara getting anything out of this.
Good things: there are a lot of funny lines in this. (Hat tip to the line going around the internet everywhere: "His jacket was burgundy. Mine is teal!") You get to see the other colonies, and they ACTUALLY found ways to make the destruction of the twelve colonies more horrifying than the last time. There's a lot more screentime for Simon, who turns out to be fairly awesome even as the movie somewhat undercuts what little characterization the Fours had in the show. They add a cool retcon to the Boomer-sleeper agent story.
Bad things: As the movie progresses, it relies more and more upon intercuts between the new material and old material from the show. Surprisingly it doesn't look as bad as you would think - it's just repetitive and drags on what new material The Plan has to offer. And as the TV program began to lose its way, so does the narrative threads of this film.
Mixed things: The movie doesn't do anything to change the ultimate outcome of BSG's theist ending. Indeed, the movie ends right before the New Caprica arc and doesn't comment on anything after the two Cavils get airlocked.
Of the Cylons, Cavil gets the most screentime. The story basically follows two copies of him, one who rescues Ellen and thus gets aboard Galactica, and the one who was with Sam on Caprica. Unfortunately, what we learn in the film is that the Cylons really never had a plan - the Cavil models were simply acting out on their petty desire to revenge upon his parental figures.
So basically the movie changes nothing except underlining and bold printing that everyone goes through ALL OF THAT TRAUMA because Cavil is butthurt that Ellen doesn't love him best. Weak.
The interesting thing is that he gets paired with a Simon on both worlds. On Caprica, the Simon begins to see through Cavil's facade and realizes he's simply obsessed with hearing the Final Five confess to their sins. What exactly, this Simon makes of it isn't clear - especially as I don't believe they say what happens to this model. I presume he is downloaded when he dies.
Meanwhile, on Galactica, Cavil takes up shop in the chapel which he is using as a base to organize the Cylon cell. This section is mostly very funny because of Cavil and the other Cylons ineptitude. However, this is the section which gives the other Simon a lot to do, and raises real questions about the canon. In this part we learn that Galactica's Simon has a wife and adopted daughter, and essentially wants to cease being a Cylon now that they've survived.
Obviously because Cavil hates any form of love that isn't directed at him, he orders Simon to kill them. Simon refuses and airlocks himself, outside resurrection range, because he can't bear for his wife to find out the truth.
The question this raises is thus: if two Simons are capable of seeing through Cavil's bullshit, why do the Fours side with One in the Civil War? It's a big ass plot hole. Despite that, I've always been a sucker for a Cylon falls in love with a human story, and I found it really touching.
The other thing of note about this section is that it involves Cavil waking the sleeper agent Boomer up and establishes their relationship. Which is probably much desired by those who cared about how all THAT went down.
My last bug-a-boo: this movie actually shows us, briefly and in slightly iffy cgi what the other colonies looked like. Heck, Tory and Ellen aren't even ON Caprica. (I can't recall if the last episodes made it explicit that that titty bar that Adama, Tigh and Ellen are in was on Picon before, though I suppose it could have been put together before this.) What it DOESN'T tell me is what happened to any other survivors on the other colonies. Or, for that matter, what if you and your group of twenty Pyramid survivors had been hiding out in the mountains of a DIFFERENT continent on Caprica? This assumption that the fallout would kill everyone only worked before we saw Centurion mop-up crews and Galactica went back for Kara's boyfriend. Planets are not cities, it's still very likely that when the Cylons left there were plenty of people left on the planets.
Anyway. I very much enjoyed it, it was a fun trip back to BSG, though it ultimately doesn't explain much of anything you probably want explained.