Media roundup: music, film, art & jdoramas
I'm nearly caught up on replies to comments! Yay! :)
Music
Muse: Muse at George Mason University's Patriot Center last Thursday was a fantastic show! I was extremely impressed with their high production values: the light show and set were terrific and perfectly highlighted the music. A friend had complained to me that Muse was a very non-interactive band - that they just played without really engaging the audience in banter, but honestly, to me, a good show is a good show, and not every band needs to talk to me in order to have my undivided attention. Muse was tight and bombastic and full of energy. They also played everything off Black Holes & Revelations. I loved the show, and I would love to see them again.
Film
Sunshine. I saw this recently because I remembered someone had mentioned it online and it was playing at a Landmark theater and generally speaking, I usually enjoy Landmark selections, so I didn't think it was too risky to see a film I knew little about. I didn't even know who was in it.
The plot: The Earth is covered in a deep winter due to a dying sun. An earlier mission to "recharge" the sun failed when the mission disappeared and was never heard from again. So a second and final mission was assembled with the last scraps of metal and other resources, and a crew was dispatched to attempt to jumpstart the sun for a last attempt at saving the Earth and everything on it from extinction.
It was a good film. To me, not a great film, but a good solid film. What I loved: I adored how the future was realized, the way everything looked and how it all worked, especially the oxygen garden aboard the spaceship. I loved the special effects, which were beautifully realized considering this was not a big budget Hollywood film. Like the gorgeous effects of The Fountain, I think sometimes having a lower budget can inspire filmmakers to be more creative in order to achieve their visions.
The cast was very good, and I was invested in the characters. I was frankly quite surprised by the effect that the film's first death had on me; I sobbed during the entire sequence. I loved the communications officer who dived into the freezing liquid to restore the ship's computer - he was such a hero, and I think my favorite character. I thought the suspense was very well-done and I liked that the Bad Things kept escalating until it looked like everything was doomed and hopeless.
What I didn't like: I didn't care for the crazed captain of the earlier mission - I guess I didn't like how two dimensional he came across as the saboteur, and...I didn't care for the end (I mean the ultimate end=point of the film, not the final sequence). I know that must seem strange, but somehow I wanted the film to be about more than just achieving the mission. I was hoping for something more profound than "merely" saving Earth and all its inhabitants - I know that sounds crazy! To me, it felt like there was a pinch of salt left out from an otherwise very good film. I was in an agony of terror and suspense right up until the end, though.
However, Nic noticed something annoying: why was there gravity inside the "bomb" at the end of the film when they were hurtling towards the sun? (Instead of being flung every which way, somehow the humans managed to be pulled toward the central surface (floor) inside the bomb. And I would have thought that as close as they were to the sun, the bomb and the humans inside would have been crushed by the sun's gravity field. Ah, well.
The Game - an older film that we recently watched from Netflix, and surprisingly I liked it quite a lot, even though I normally dislike Michael Douglas. It was a roller coaster of a film that puts the audience into the game right along with the protagonist until it's impossible to distinguish reality from the game. I particularly loved the lovingly-detailed look and feel of the film, which was warmly-lit and the sets were used beautifully to convey the opulent, utterly removed life and lifestyle of Nicholas, and then later to convey Nicholas's disorientation as all of that is taken away from him. By removing the insulation of his life and lifestyle, the film reveals the barren landscape of his life and personality. One of my favorite moments was seeing him wake up in Mexico in a graveyard. I also loved watching Douglas's character bound up the stairs of his mansion which he discovers covered in luminous grafitti and Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" booms out with Grace Slick's fabulous mind-bending lyrics. I find it very interesting that the same song is played over the final seconds of the film, which leads me to wonder if the protagonist is about to be pulled down yet another rabbit hole. :)
Transformers - very cute. The CGI was spectacular, and the film was smarter than I expected although some of the dialogue was definitely on par with the cartoon. And Bumblebee was adorable! My only real gripe: all the Transformers were American vehicles. Bah! Why couldn't one or two of them have been a Japanese or German or Italian car?
Museum Exhibit
Encompassing the Globe: Portugal in the 16th & 17th Centuries - I previously posted about it in this f-locked post. It was fabulous! Wonderful! The largest exhibit every mounted by the Sackler Gallery, it was a breathtaking collection that I have now been back to see twice. To say I loved it is really an understatment: the exhibit takes you around the globe, from Africa and South America to India, China and Japan. The pieces are incredible and so is the history and culture conveyed throughout the exhibit. It would be worth a lot of money to see this world-class exhibit, but lucky for us, it's FREE!
Japanese Drama
I'm behind. Very, very behind. My every attempt to catch up has failed. Well, not entirely...I managed to catch up on Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, and I'm thrilled to see Oguri Shun emote. My girl-crush on Maki grows ever more fervent, and Toma's Nakamatsu is definitely my favorite character. Despite any flaws, this drama's unabashed dorky light-heartedness has been a much needed smile-inducer lately.
I tried to watch the finale of Hanayome to Papa last night, but it was too late, and I was exhausted, so I fell asleep fifteen minutes in. I'll try again tonight! I also need to catch up on Papa to Musume no Nanokakan and Hotaru no Hikari (I saw a little of ep. 2 and it was adorable! I'm so in love with Ayase - I don't know why I find her so enchanting.). I watched a little bit of the Love Song-subbed first episode of Sushi Oji and it was interesting.
Music
Film
The plot: The Earth is covered in a deep winter due to a dying sun. An earlier mission to "recharge" the sun failed when the mission disappeared and was never heard from again. So a second and final mission was assembled with the last scraps of metal and other resources, and a crew was dispatched to attempt to jumpstart the sun for a last attempt at saving the Earth and everything on it from extinction.
It was a good film. To me, not a great film, but a good solid film. What I loved: I adored how the future was realized, the way everything looked and how it all worked, especially the oxygen garden aboard the spaceship. I loved the special effects, which were beautifully realized considering this was not a big budget Hollywood film. Like the gorgeous effects of The Fountain, I think sometimes having a lower budget can inspire filmmakers to be more creative in order to achieve their visions.
The cast was very good, and I was invested in the characters. I was frankly quite surprised by the effect that the film's first death had on me; I sobbed during the entire sequence. I loved the communications officer who dived into the freezing liquid to restore the ship's computer - he was such a hero, and I think my favorite character. I thought the suspense was very well-done and I liked that the Bad Things kept escalating until it looked like everything was doomed and hopeless.
What I didn't like: I didn't care for the crazed captain of the earlier mission - I guess I didn't like how two dimensional he came across as the saboteur, and...I didn't care for the end (I mean the ultimate end=point of the film, not the final sequence). I know that must seem strange, but somehow I wanted the film to be about more than just achieving the mission. I was hoping for something more profound than "merely" saving Earth and all its inhabitants - I know that sounds crazy! To me, it felt like there was a pinch of salt left out from an otherwise very good film. I was in an agony of terror and suspense right up until the end, though.
However, Nic noticed something annoying: why was there gravity inside the "bomb" at the end of the film when they were hurtling towards the sun? (Instead of being flung every which way, somehow the humans managed to be pulled toward the central surface (floor) inside the bomb. And I would have thought that as close as they were to the sun, the bomb and the humans inside would have been crushed by the sun's gravity field. Ah, well.
Museum Exhibit
Japanese Drama
I'm behind. Very, very behind. My every attempt to catch up has failed. Well, not entirely...I managed to catch up on Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, and I'm thrilled to see Oguri Shun emote. My girl-crush on Maki grows ever more fervent, and Toma's Nakamatsu is definitely my favorite character. Despite any flaws, this drama's unabashed dorky light-heartedness has been a much needed smile-inducer lately.
I tried to watch the finale of Hanayome to Papa last night, but it was too late, and I was exhausted, so I fell asleep fifteen minutes in. I'll try again tonight! I also need to catch up on Papa to Musume no Nanokakan and Hotaru no Hikari (I saw a little of ep. 2 and it was adorable! I'm so in love with Ayase - I don't know why I find her so enchanting.). I watched a little bit of the Love Song-subbed first episode of Sushi Oji and it was interesting.