Miscellaneous Movie Musings the Sequel

[innerSpaceman]

You do not own The Avengers, LSPoorEeyorick. I might not post such stuff if Joss Whedon posted on the LoT, but he does not. Funny, but just yesterday I was linked to this brief article on Five Ways to Be a Good (Nerd) Fan. One of the essences was stop taking your fandoms so personally. You don't have to like every aspect of fandom, and neither does anyone else. Stop the personal attacks and lighten up on your reaction to criticism that's not about YOU.

My criticism of The Avengers is not about you, LSP. And speaking of funny, that comparison film strip I linked to is FUNNY. It may not be to your sense of humor, but if you can't see that it's entirely humorous in nature, I respectfully suggest you consider that you're taking barbs directed at a movie you like a bit Too Personally.







Edited to fix URL link

[innerSpaceman]

In other movie news, I apparently chose the wrong Spielberg movie last Christmas. It turns out I rather like The War Horse (which I declined to see in theaters after experiencing the disaster that was TinTin.)

Yeah, it's schmaltzy, but - um - it's a story about a boy and his horse. A little schmaltz is appropriate. It's got the sensibilities of a movie made in the 30's or '40's, total innocence and little cornball, and it's told in a movie style which reminds me of that time period of movies - plus it's rendered like a beautiful story book.

In fact, it reminded me of nothing so much as an old 50's Disney film - if Disney had better production values, great casting, and a fantastic cinematographer.


This is hardly the first time Spielberg has schmaltzed a war story. Revisit Empire of the Sun if you want some real Spielberg schmaltz. And Saving Private Ryan was not entirely unschmaltzy either, ya know.


The War Horse is a darned good Boy and His Horse tale. I surprisingly recommend.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Saw Avengers. Didn't hate it, didn't love it, found some things distracting. I still like Captain America, and Bruce Banner, and sometimes Thor. I still dislike Hulk, and have become familiar with IronMan (and dislike him). I know, not a surprise.

[CoasterMatt]

The only Avenger I care about - Toxic Avenger!

[Ghoulish Delight]

This.

Probably not coincidence I came across this only a day after having heard about the upcoming Criterion edition of Being John Malkovich. With reportedly bizarre commentary by Michel Gondry.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Finally saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

I went in with high hopes. Wasn't entirely disappointed. I certainly could pick a lot of it apart, but despite that it was a fun movie to watch.

However, I despise the ending. It's the John Crichton "Aaaaaaaaand....a virus takes care of the rest. The End." ending and I can't stand it. Boo.

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, I was sold on that until the ending as well. Turned an ok movie into a meh.



In other surprise recommendations from me, however ... The Iron Lady.

I'd heard it was a hot mess, and that Streep stole the Oscar with a fine impersonation.


Nope, I must have seen a different movie. It was a perfectly fine biopic, told very sweetly from the point-of-view of an aging Margaret Thatcher coping with deep senility and looking back on her career. I don't want to give too much away because I recommend seeing it on disc, but the particulars of that point-of-view established a deep sympathy for the character. And Streep's performance is far more than impersonation (but the impersonation aspects are indeed there and indeed fun).

I can't help but compare this favorably to last year's other famous biopic, J. Edgar, which was appalling and a dismal failure. Both movies shuttle back and forth in time, but The Iron Lady keeps a firm footing in the "present" of Thatcher's old age, and the flashbacks are presented pretty much in chronological order. J. Edgar seemed to have no "home base" and the time periods just fluttered about randomly and confusingly.

Oh, and the old age makeup in J. Edgar was embarrassing. The make-up in The Iron Lady is fantastic. This is not an unimportant element when telling a life story from young to old. Oh, and J. Edgar stars Leonardo DiCaprio, clearly out of his depth. The Iron Lady stars Meryl Streep, earning yet another well-deserved Best Actress Academy Award.

Both films take the standard biopic tack of pinning the main character's, well, character on a parent. J. Edgar did that with a sledgehammer, Iron Lady with a feather. But it's too simplistic in both cases, and I left both films not really feeling I got deeply enough into the life motivations of the main characters. I'm not sure if that can be done to my satisfaction in a movie-length biopic. So I give lots of leeway to the genre. Even with that slack, I left J. Edgar feeling confused about the character and not at all entertained. To my surprise, I was very entertained by The Iron Lady and left less confused about Margaret Thatcher than when I came in.

The Iron Lady is a bio success in my book. J. Edgar a sorry disappointment.

[Strangler Lewis]

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady. I had assumed it was going to be one of those things where a great actor puts on the Wookie suit for a paycheck and that she got an Oscar because she was long overdue for one. Plotwise, the movie was kind of "and then she, and then she and then she," but it was still engaging.

[innerSpaceman]

I think that's the failure of all bio films; they're kinda 'and then s/he, and then s/he, and then s/he" - hence the current trend of trying to jump around in time to shake that up a little. I find some movies better at that than others.

[Alex]

Poor Jules Verne, he doesn't get credit for that ending any more.

Normally I'd agree, but on the other hand if suddenly the entire world population of non-human apes became just as smart as us they'd still pose no real risk to us as a society. So something had to help.