No comment.
The return of Tarantino
Did Django Unchained really have a 2h 45min running time? Because damn, I didn’t notice. In case you were wondering, that haunting Italian song in the middle of the movie was Ancora Qui by Ennio Morricone and Elisa (some Italian singer). The movie and the song are much recommended by yours truly.
Are you fit to serve? (No.)
As part of the marketing campaign for Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, Sony Entertainment has released a browser-based text adventure game which is ostensibly a test to see if the player has the right stuff to become a spy for British intelligence. The last time games of this type were popular was in the 1980’s so it’s rather nostalgic to be playing this (admittedly, I’ve only played pure text adventure games as part of my retro-gaming hipster nostalgia freakery).
Still, it’s easy to forget that computers are goddamned stupid and are nowhere near ready to take commands phrased in natural language. Case in point:
Comprehension test: FAILED
AGENT: What’s my first move?
YOU: Hold on
AGENT: We have all day.
AGENT: It’s not like we have a problem with weapons of mass destruction in a Caribbean holiday resort to figure out.
AGENT: Anything like that.
YOU: Pull both white wires out at once
AGENT: Be as clear as you can. Appreciated.
YOU: Pull the white wires
AGENT: NO. Cutting wires at random is my last option. Want others first. Don’t care if you’re an expert. You’re not HERE. Ideas. Fast.
YOU: Call the bomb squad
AGENT: Device right in front of me. Five wires and a USB port. How to handle this?
YOU: Err
AGENT: Keep it simple. Say again.
TIME PENALTY: FIRST WARNING
YOU: Throw it into the river
AGENT: We’ve got the bomb. It’s even nastier in the flesh. Check the photo I sent and then advise me on how to proceed.
YOU: Plug the tablet into the USB port
AGENT: I can try plugging the tablet in. One second.
AGENT: Interesting. It’s displaying … hang on, I’ll transfer an image.
YOU: You need to pull out the white wires
AGENT: Explain your plan first. I’m not starting cutting until I know where we’re going with this.
YOU: The white wires are the main ones
AGENT: So you mean … actually, what do you mean?
YOU: THE WHITE ONES ARE IMPORTANT. CUT THEM
AGENT: No savvy. Re-state?
YOU: Cut the white wires NOW
AGENT: If you think you’ve figured out the image, tell me what you think it means. Then I’ll start cutting.
YOU: It means that all the coloured wires lead to the white one
AGENT: Not sure I understand. Put that another way?
YOU: The white one is the important wire
AGENT: Be as clear as you can. Appreciated.
YOU: The white wires power the bomb
AGENT: Put that another way? Sorry.
YOU: The colored wires aren’t important
AGENT: You’re right. The colours in the picture do match the wires. What do you think we should do?
YOU: Cut the white wires
AGENT: Sounds like you’ve got a plan. Spell it out. Don’t just tell me to start cutting wires.
YOU: CUT THE WHITE WIRES. THAT IS THE PLAN
AGENT: What’s your thinking? Not just going to cut arbitrary wires.
YOU: The white wires are key. You need to cut them first
AGENT: In other words…?
YOU: In other words, if you cut them the bomb won’t go off
AGENT: Keep it simple. Say again.
YOU: BOMB NO EXPLODEY IF WHITE WIRES NO WORKY
AGENT: Try and be concise.
Your progress is currently below average. The HELP command may offer ways for you to improve it.
TIME PENALTY: SECOND WARNING
YOU: Cut the white wires, because they are the important ones
AGENT: So you mean … actually, what do you mean?
YOU: The white wires detonate the bomb. Cut them
AGENT: Break that down for me once more. Please?
YOU: Forget it. You deserve to die
AGENT: So… put that another way?
The mainstreaming of sci-fi
I just saw Looper. It was an okay bit of time travel narrative but I’m rather surprised so many people thought it was mind-bending. I thought the time travel aspect was fairly straightforward and can only assume that it was confusing mostly to people who didn’t see time travel being the main plot of like every fifth episode of The Next Generation.
In fact, the reception for Looper rather reminds me of that for Inception as far as its sci-fi bits go. Have we forgotten the lessons taught to us by both the Back to the Future franchise and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure?
Primer, now that was a genuine time travel headscrew. Be more like that, Looper. And as for the rest of you people, quit being so dazzled by sci-fi, these plots have been going round and round for decades by now. And while we’re at it also make me king of the world. Is any of that really too much to ask?
Turn, turn
What the hell? One day it was warm, the next day it was actually fall. I’m pretty sure last weekend was the last time I could have worn shorts but I foolishly didn’t take the opportunity. The Toronto International Film Festival really marks the end of the summer movie season, doesn’t it?
And by the bye, The Bourne Legacy wasn’t a pile of crap. Kind of weird pacing in the start but it was okay enough.
The answer is blowing in the wind
On The Onion AV Club there is a discussion about the first film that participants have seen. I couldn’t contribute anything in my case because I honestly have no idea what my first movie is. I have seen hundreds upon hundreds of movies in my life and would be hard-pressed to tell you which specific movie was my first ever. I’m not even sure if it’s something I saw on video or at the movie theatre.
However, this realization also brought to light the fact that I have no idea how much media I consume beyond the vague estimate of “hundreds” in the case of movies. Therefore, I have a new project for myself: between now and the end of August of next year, I will count what and how many novels, movies, tv shows, and comic books I consume. I’ll even list what I’ve consumed in a given month.
Luckily August has only started so I still remember what I’ve consumed so far. Anyway, this project should be very instructive.
Books: Started reading Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Comic Books: Gokuko no Brynhildr #21, Sket Dance #204, Otogi no Machi no Rena #49, The World God Only Knows #197
After the end
Okay, I’ve had time to sleep on it and I have to admit that The Dark Knight Rises is better than I thought it was. It’s already the next day and I’m still thinking about it. I’m reading online reviews and discussions about the themes and characters, so evidently the movie is one of those slow-burning ones where it takes you a while to fully digest everything. I’m revising my opinion upward.
No Man’s Land
I just saw The Dark Knight Rises. It’s an interesting little blockbuster.
All in all, I would say I liked it. I think the second was superior but I also think this film is better than the first. However, in the years since The Dark Knight I’d forgotten how melodramatic the dialogue in Nolan’s Batman films could be. It also had a somewhat clumsy thematic link to the Occupy Movement, the story being based mostly on the No Man’s Land arc from the comics, where Gotham City is cut off from the rest of the United States and anarchy rules the land.
I do think a stronger thematic connection could have been made between the villain, Bane, and Batman, particularly since they are both figures who deliberately disregard established social structures, but perhaps it’s better that link shouldn’t be returned to when it was used so well in The Dark Knight (the link being violence and insanity in that case).
The movie was good, not great, which makes it sound somewhat disappointing for what’s supposed to be a summer blockbuster, but then again, I can’t remember the last time I exited a movie theatre thinking, “That was awesome!” Perhaps I’m just picky.
Isn’t it good?
After all this time I’ve finally seen the film adaptation of Norwegian Wood. I’m really not sure what to think.
As it is, I’m not sure how to evaluate Norwegian Wood as a movie. Having read and liked the book, I already knew what was supposed to be happening. I don’t know how someone approaching the movie as a movie would evaluate it.
However, I am not that hypothetical person. I did read the book and then I did see the movie. I can only react from my own experiences and not from someone else’s. So how does the movie stack up against the book?
First, it’s definitely not a poor translation of a book to film. It successfully captured the quiet mood of the book but at the same time it’s also its own thing. Props for that.
Still, it should be no surprise that I still prefer the novel. That’s almost always the go-to answer when evaluating book-to-film adaptations, with a few notable exceptions. Yes, Midori is peculiarly forward in the film, but it’s a pity there wasn’t enough time to show the variety of her strange flirtations with Watanabe.
Additionally, I’m not sure how well the movie conveyed the strangeness of the book. Haruki Murakami’s stuff is always suffused with an air of quiet strangeness (technically I believe it would be termed magical realism but somehow labelling it makes it seem more dry and boring). The film got the quiet part right but the strangeness didn’t come across as well.
Also, this is probably the only Haruki Murakami novel that will ever be turned into a movie. It’s probably the most conventional one in terms of plot and yet the movie adaptation by necessity still turned out a bit peculiar in conveying its narrative. Good luck filming something like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
Anyway, I don’t regret watching this movie. It’s not a bad way to spend a hot Sunday afternoon.
The glory of violence
I saw The Raid: Redemption yesterday. It’s hard to describe my reactions to the movie without speaking entirely in clichés. It actually was balls-to-the-wall action. It actually was superb and thrilling. It was almost literally pure action (I think there may have only been 10 minutes in total where nothing violent was going on). It’s not ironic and it’s not metatextual. It’s just legitimately good.
My god, it’s incredible.