The Odyssey

 Well, I finally all-but-exhausted that Regal Cinemas gift card by catching a matinee showing of The Odyssey.  It's a well-managed edit of the original thousands-of-years-old story, and I enjoyed it overall, especially the core concept of the Law of Zeus - I assumed I had read the base material before at some point, but it must have been select readings for a class at best, to let that sort of story thread slip by me.  At any rate, I enjoyed myself, and I think it's worth your time, should you want to experience the whole audio-visual spectacle on the big screen.

That said, it's not a movie without its issues... and lest anybody get the wrong idea, no, I'm not bothered by the multi-racial cast like the world's richest Nazi and his ilk are.  The easiest one is that Matt Damon delivers some lines a bit flat, but that might be just a personal taste issue.

No, the biggest issue likely ties back to the source material.  See, Odysseus is painted as the strongest man in Ithaca, and the smartest warrior among the Greek forces.  I get it, he's supposed to be like the ancient Greek Superman, and you can't have a war story without warriors.  Given the time period, strong warriors are better warriors, sure.  But the thing that sets him apart, particularly starting with the Trojan Horse (side note, well done on making that sequence work without making the Trojans look like complete idiots) and continuing on through his travels, is him using his cleverness to make the best of bad situations.  Then, he finally makes it back home (I know, spoilers) and, without explicit coordination with his family, sets up first a test of strength, then a wholesale slaughter of the suitors for his wife's hand.  I get it to an extent, Homer's setting up the contrast between the "true warrior" Odysseus and the only-clever suitors.  But it also paints being clever as a sin in and of itself, as even Odysseus comes to believe his clever trick with the Trojans becomes the trigger for the downfall of civilization in years to come.  It's a common-enough view in early warrior cultures, sure, but as a more-clever-than-brawny sort myself, I don't much care for it, especially in times like these.

Project Hail Mary, and another dose of the Regal experience

 This past week, I went and saw Project Hail Mary.  For those not in the know, it's basically the story of a man who wakes up, after an induced coma and with severe memory loss, on a ship at a distant star as the last survivor of his crew.  After working out/remembering why he's there (saving Earth, natch), he encounters an alien ship, crewed by the last survivor of their group, similarly looking to save their world.  Hijinks ensue, hurdles are overcome, and everybody makes it through.

I liked the film overall.  Sure, it's got its holes in the science here and there, but all in service of telling a better story, so I'm not going to nit-pick too hard.  There were even a couple of "oh, you decided to go there" moments that elevated the film a bit in my eyes.  Of course, it probably helped that I was in a better mood from a somewhat-improved theater experience from last time.

 I'm still working on that gift card I got for Christmas, so I chose a different Regal theater this time.  The main positive takeaway here is that you want to check the tag-spam of your theater/show choices for the "Recliner Seating" option - I'm sure it's more expensive (although I don't know for certain, since I did a matinee this time around, so it's not a simple apples-to-apples comparison), but actual adult-scale furniture with padding and the ability to put your feet up makes a world of difference, especially when it's time to get back up.

Beyond that, the compare-and-contrast with my last Regal experience was pretty spot-on.  Same dodgy app experience (and a note on the ticket booth to buy tickets at the concession stand instead of touch-screens), same commercial overload.  I did get to experience the concessions this time around, and what an experience that was - it's never been cheap, but I'm amazed at what it's become.  Candy is no longer hoarded behind the counter, but scattered through a serpentine approach to the stand.  The signage above the stand shows large photos of the products on sale, in their various combo packs, while the prices are relegated to a small bar at the bottom, barely legible while standing at the counter - not certain what percentage of "intentional customer behavior shaping" and "shame at the prices we're charging" is involved, but the first part's gotta be higher.  End result, for a small popcorn (similar size to the 3/$1 microwave bags you get at the grocer) and a medium soda (which translates roughly to Big Gulp sized) approaches $20, pre-tax.

Well, now I know what Regal brings to the table for the movie-going experience, and I remain unimpressed.  I figure I'll get one more movie out of that gift card, then I'm going to have to pay for a movie or two at other local theaters to see how deep the industry rot has spread. 

Fun movie, bad theater

 It's been years since I've stepped foot in a movie theater - the last post I see here that attests to me being at a theater was from 2011.  I'm sure I must have seen something else in a theater in the meantime (maybe Everything Everywhere All at Once?  Great film, by the way), but I couldn't swear to it.  However, I got a Regal Cinemas gift card for Christmas, and found something worth giving a go over the weekend, so away I went.  Sadly, there's nothing like years of absence to make enshittification stand out when you do eventually return.

First things first though, the movie... Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die was both different and better than I could have ever expected, given the setup.  A man shows up at a diner, looking like the prototypical paranoid homeless guy, ranting about being from the future, where things have gone horribly wrong due to social media and AI, and he's looking for team members to change how it all goes.  This is one of those movies that's better to go into blind, so I'll just say it's a little dark, a little gory, and supremely silly.  I giggled several times throughout, and not in an "it's so bad it's good" sort of way.  I heartily recommend it.

In contrast, we have the Regal Cinemas experience.  I mean, I know theater chains are struggling, but some of this shit is downright abusive.  I've still got credit on that gift card, so we'll try another of their theaters in town for my next experience for a compare-and-contrast, but some of it is outside of any one theater's control.

I knew I was in for disappointment as soon as I went to order a ticket through their phone app.  Yes, I'm sure there's some way to use a gift card without the app, but I'd already accepted that modern inevitability and set things up prior there, so it's not like the app itself is all that terrible, if you set aside the popup ads that get in the way of doing what you came to do, of course.

Anyways, I pick my seat, select an adult ticket, and go to checkout... and they hit me with a $2 booking fee on top of the ticket price.  A booking fee, on their app, for their theater.  If I were paying cash, I might well have noped out at that point, but somebody else already paid for this, so what the hell.  Continuing on, as soon as the purchase is complete, I get no fewer than four "special offers" from various services that I have to decline before I can get the QR code for my show.  At this point, I'm wondering whether the convenience of the app beats just showing up at the theater and buying a ticket.

I get to the theater about 10 minutes before the posted showtime.  The first thing I notice is that the ticket booth is entirely unstaffed, humans replaced by touchscreens, so I fully expect the local purchase pattern to mirror the app.  That's not my problem for the day, though, so I head up to the ticket taker (or whatever their job is called now), get scanned in, and head off to the theater - no time to stop for concessions, right?

As I arrive, the ads are already playing, so I find my seat.  Turns out, whoever's in charge of arranging seats here has some airline experience.  I mean, there's plenty of legroom (because the layout of the concrete steps dictates it), but the fold-down arm rests are close enough together that I couldn't comfortably sit with one arm squarely on each (never mind the one-arm method they must be envisioning).  And of course, those armrests are also too short to lay an arm down, without your hand sitting in the drink holder - very convenient, if you have a drink, I'd guess.  I'd get one, but the show's about to start.

Of course, the show wasn't about to start.  From at least 10 minutes before showtime, to more than 20 minutes after, the ads continued to flow.  They eventually shifted to mostly movie previews, as expected, but not entirely - there was one of those superbowl AI ads thrown in the middle, which was kind of funny in hindsight given the way the movie goes.

Eventually, the ads end, the movie shows, I have my fun, then I creakily lever myself out of the seat and go home.  I will say, what was in the control of the local staff seemed to be fine - everything was clean and in seemingly good repair, and no hiccups from the projection and sound equipment were noticed - but, if this is the standard across theater chains for how they treat their customers, I'll stick with streaming, thanks. 

Backlog progress

Apart from posting my disappointment about Star Wars IX, it's been a month since my last post.  That's how long it took me to play Diablo III start to finish in "campaign" mode, and I rather enjoyed it.  It might not have the flexibility of choice in setting up your powers that a game like Path of Exile has, but it does have a decent variety of opponents to slaughter, plus a storyline that can only be called epic.  It's also mostly-serious, but not entirely opposed to a little silliness... for example, the mage I was playing, earlier in the game, acquired a disco ball to use as a spell source, and much of the late game he was using a "pig sticker" for a weapon that actually squealed like a pig when you used it - annoying, but worth it for the stats.  In all, the only real weakness to the game was the selection of powers you could unlock, since the game's primarily-horde-tactics approach makes some choices inherently better than others... but, in the mage's case, that still meant I got to unleash my inner Palpatine with some chain lightning, so it's not all bad.

That's not the only game I played, though... I also picked up Clubhouse Games for my Switch, and got a few sessions in on that.  The games I've played are all pretty well done... but I'm hoping for a patch to help with network stability.  It's hard enough to come up with a 4-player game of Riichi Mahjong without weird slowdowns and players dropping out mid-game.

On the watchables side, I've gotten some use out of Disney+ outside of that one disappointing film, but I'll try to keep it brief.  Avengers: End Game was a fun romp, with plenty of action but not entirely so.  Onward is a lovely Pixar movie that I quite enjoyed, but then I'm also a huge D&D nerd.  A Wrinkle in Time suffers the fate of many book adaptations, compounded by the need to trim it to a "kid-friendly" viewing length.  Finally, I've dipped my toes into both The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars, liked them both enough to watchlist, but that's about it so far.

Next on the XBox One backlog looks to be Divinity: Original Sin.  As I recall, the main issue I had with that game was that it would have been better with a second human player, given the way it's designed... but short of re-buying it on Steam, then bullying someone into playing it with me using their "remote couch co-op" feature, whatever it's actually called, that's not going to happen, so, time to give it a proper go solo.

Star Wars IX was... disappointing.

I did subscribe to Disney+, and so, of course, I queued up the latest Star Wars flick.  I'd heard there was some disappointment in the fan base over it, but I pretty well assumed it was the standard "not what we expected/hoped for" thing.  What I didn't expect was a barely-coherent, poorly paced film like this one making it into public view with the Star Wars name attached to it.  I mean, there were times where I thought I was watching the modern equivalent of one of those '70s knock-off films.  Oh well, at least that finally puts the main series to rest, these 40-odd years later.

Another week of staying home down...

...and more progress made on the ol' entertainment backlog!  Just polished off what I was looking to accomplish in Borderlands 2, more or less, and I rather enjoyed it, for the most part.  Mind you, I did start from a previous save that was a fair ways into the main story... one of the advantages of shooters, it's not like you generally have to relearn a whole lot of controls or anything to do reasonably well in them.  If you haven't played any of this series of games, Borderlands 2 is a decent place to jump in.  Also, if you're a D&D player, and you ever had any doubt about how terrifying a Mimic can be, the "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep" DLC is definitely worth a go... or, you know, look it up on YouTube.  Sadly, that's what I had to do to see the ending on that DLC, since I hit a bug where the game was demanding "all players must be present" to continue, even though I was playing single-player... and considering the game's been out since 2012, a game-stopping bug like that being present is simply sad.

So, yeah, that's it for Borderlands 2.  I might have stuck it out a bit longer without that bug, but probably not.  I could move on to the "pre-sequel" game they released later on, but I never really did care for the low-gravity, low-atmosphere mechanics involved in that game, so next looks to be giving Diablo III another go... it will at least be interesting to see how it feels after having played Path of Exile.

Games aside, I also finally got around to watching The World's End.  I caught it in a 3-pack Blu-Ray disc set along with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, both of which I quite enjoyed.  As I recall, when The World's End came out, initial reaction was that it was okay, but nowhere near as good as the other two films.  I'm going to guess that a lot of those people either didn't care for the ending, or got the main twist in the story spoiled for them before they hit the theater.  I went in blind, found the first part of the film to be as cringe-worthy as intended, and was caught entirely off-guard by the twist that shapes the rest of the film, so I rather enjoyed it... not the best ending, but try not to let perfect be the enemy of good, or something like that.

Next on the watchables list?  Well, I did get gifted a copy of Parasite that I could watch, and I'm sure I will at some point... but, frankly, I'm still rather in a "light entertainment" sort of mood, so, fair odds, I'll be subscribing to Disney+ before long.  At the very least, I've got the last Star Wars film, the last Avengers film, and one or two oddities that should be caught up on, and what better time than now?

X-Men: First Class and the Garland Theater

Now that it's hit the bargain circuit, and looking hard for a reason to go someplace air-conditioned for a couple of hours, I went to see X-Men: First Class. It's a good little superhero flick, and doesn't try to do too much with too many characters... but it's not my favorite superhero movie of the summer (that would probably be Captain America). Still, I'd say it's generally worth bargain theater price, or DVD/streaming rental, when the time comes.

Of course, that depends on the bargain theater you have in mind. I've been a long-time fan of the Garland Theater in Spokane... sure, it's always been a little run-down, but, generally, it's been an enjoyable experience. This time, not so much... never mind the bits that they don't have much control over, like the genius parents who brought a fussy baby to an action film. The price has gone up since last I went, to $3.50, while the general quality of the theater has gone down even more than in years past. The seat I got, at least, was so swaybacked that I couldn't sit in one position through the whole movie, or else I would have damaged my back. The projector sync was off, so "still" scenes were all but unwatchable. Heck, even the popcorn (at full movie theater popcorn pricing, of course) was considerably south of fresh. All in all, in its current state, I couldn't recommend the Garland to anyone these days.

So, another nail set in the "going to the movie theater" coffin... I'm still in the market there for some good first-run movies (for all those are fewer and farther between than in recent memory), but, especially at the price, it just makes more sense to wait for something to hit a streaming service than bother with the bargain theater, in my book.

Still here!

Yeah, it's been almost a month since I posted anything... but that's mostly because the things I like to post about seem so banal compared to what's happening in the world around us. Just as a for example, yeah, Despicable Me was entertaining enough (especially the sequences dealing with the Bank of Evil), but stack that against either the current Libyan fighting or the earthquake/tsunami/nuke plant failures in Japan, and it doesn't even rate for distraction purposes.

One thing I will mention, on the off chance it passed under your radar... the last IPv4 Internet addresses were handed out to the regional authorities last month. Long story short, you can expect change to come to your Internet connection, one way or another, in the next few years.

DVD pick: Summer Wars

For once, it's a reasonably new release I'm talking about... Summer Wars just came out on DVD and Blu-Ray a couple of days back. It's a nice anime movie, concerning a high-school computer/math nerd and the popular girl that convinces him to accompany her to a family gathering in the countryside, where she expects him to pass himself off as her fiancee. Of course, the family turns out to be "landed" family from several hundred years back that, while no longer rich, still has influential contacts all over, which poses its own set of problems... and there's a standardized, worldwide computer architecture that covers everything from gaming to mission-critical systems (which, for any budding computer engineers out there, would be a Bad Thing)... and something gets let loose in that system, so additional chaos ensues.

Now, having read that, it would be fair to assume that the movie is an impenetrable mish-mash of story lines from a group that couldn't make up their mind as to what sort of film they really wanted to make. Nothing could be further from the truth... whether it's the mix of real life and online activity, or the ratio of funny to sad bits, the one word that best describes this movie is balanced. Yes, there are a few characters who stand out, but it's not in the sense of "here's the anointed hero coming to save the day" that is so common in anime... rather, there are a few necessary roles needed to give the story the gentle nudges it needs to get started or keep going, but, outside of those moments, it's really a case of everybody doing what they feel is the right thing. Sometimes, that "right thing" turns out to be terribly wrong... but, that's life, isn't it?

So, long story short, it's not a perfect film, but it's definitely worth your time to watch. I think the DVD version, at least, is available through Netflix... if you can get your hands on the Blu-Ray, all the better.

DVD pick: Stardust

Wow... this movie's only three years old, so I don't know how I didn't notice it come through the theaters. Maybe I did, and dismissed it as kiddie fare, but the PG-13 gives the lie to that.

So, what's it like? Well, it's a "cross-worlds" fantasy tale about a young English land entering a magical realm in pursuit of a gift for the girl he thinks he loves. It's also a tale of the remaining scions of a newly-dead king vying for the throne. It's also the tale of a lady escaping the clutches of a group of evil witches who want to sacrifice her for their own ends. It's all these, intertwined, plus a couple of side stories, nigh-on-perfectly meshed, sprinkled with dark, wry humor, with some great actors in key roles to boot. Particularly memorable to my mind are Robert de Niro as Captain Shakespeare, whose position and circumstances are difficult to describe at best, and Peter O'Toole as the dying King of Stormhold, deliciously wicked and somewhat disappointed that his sons haven't "worked out" the succession yet... oh, and of course, the ghosts of the sons that died, who serve a great spectator/color commentary role on the whole proceedings.

I enjoyed this movie immensely, and I can think of very few people that I wouldn't recommend it to... if you're not sure, here's a link to the IMDb page for more details.

DVD pick: Sita Sings the Blues

OK, Sita Sings the Blues is odd, even by my standards... but it simply works. Basically, through a rotating pack of art and animation styles, the old Indian story Ramayana gets told (in a couple of different ways), interspersed with both a story of the film creator's own breakup and "musical numbers" set to 1920s-era recordings. The musical numbers in particular caught my attention: the art and animation stylings struck me as the sort of thing that cartoon studios back in that era might have done, if color were available/affordable... and are especially fun to watch when they're depicting fight scenes in cute counterpoint to the lyrics in play.

I list this as a DVD pick because you can get it that way (especially fun if you care about extras like subtitles, including LOLspeak subtitles)... but, if you just want to check it out now, it's available online through its own website, here. You won't miss that hour and a half anyways... :)

Movie o' the day: Inception

I'll keep this brief, because, as many have said before me, trying to describe this movie adequately is a fool's errand. The basic structure is a "heist movie", but dealing with secrets and beliefs in dreams (and dreams within dreams, and...), but, much like the action in the movie itself, there are multiple layers beyond that. All in all, it's great sci-fi, or maybe fantasy, without devolving into space opera or swords and sorcery. Better still, I only left the theater with one hole in the mechanics of the film, which could have been explained away with a throwaway line of dialogue, but they chose to focus on the action at hand instead, and I honestly can't fault them for that. So, if you're looking for action, intrigue, sci-fi, or a nice dense mix of the above, go see this film.

DVD pick: Negima!

If I had to choose one trait about myself that stood out beyond all others, it's my capacity for suspension of disbelief. In day-to-day life, that trait pairs nicely with my intelligence to let me find ways to do things, system-design-wise, that others would deem impossible, impractical, or only feasible with large teams and layouts of cash for software. In relaxation, it allows me to enjoy some truly ridiculous things... like this anime series I stumbled across called "Negima!", thanks to Netflix.

The premise is bizarre enough, to be sure. The main character is a ten year old boy named Negi, who is a wizard-in-training from Wales. He is sent, as part of his training, to an all-girls academy in Japan, where he is to serve as a teacher for junior-high students... and, of course, keep his magic a secret from his students. It doesn't take long for him to slip-up in front of one of his students, at which point damage control, and hilarity, ensues.

As the series progresses, you discover that few, if any, of the students in Negi's homeroom class are "just" junior high students. While many present initially as broad stereotypes, you get to discover more about their true personalities (and true natures, in some cases) along with Negi, which makes a charming addition to the individual episode storylines.

Of course, suspension of disbelief isn't without its hazards, either... Negima! is a six-disc series, and the first five are reasonably happy affairs, with a fair share of comedic bits and action sequences. By the end of disc 5, they appear to be setting up a storyline about one of the central characters getting sick from overworking herself, but, in the general flavor of the series to that point, it shouldn't be anything too terrible, and it will all work out in the end. In disc 6... it turns out that the character knows the time of her approaching demise, which she doesn't look forward to, but, believing that nobody can do anything to help her anyways, keeps quiet about it to the very end. They go through an entire sequence of holding a funeral for her, nailing her coffin shut, then cremating her remains... which, in my case at least, hurt a lot more than it had any right to. The follow-ons of watching the class try to get back to normal, with different individuals blaming themselves for her death, and Negi basically suffering a breakdown while trying to figure out how to make her not dead, and the lengths he contemplates and attempts to meet that goal... well, it's much darker than what came before, but all the more powerful for that. As an added bonus, everything does turn out alright in the end... but that would be way too much detail for this review.

So, overall, Negima! is a worthwhile watch... but, be forewarned on a few issues. First, on content... as I stated above, it's not entirely a happy show. Also, given the general type of anime involved and the cultural differences between Japan and the U.S., there's some material that might be a bit risque for some (e.g. somebody threatening Negi getting "pantsed" accidentally when he sneezes), but the "perv factor" is really very low. Second, getting the show... "Negima!" is the show I watched, while "Negima!?" is a "reimagining" of the original material... I haven't watched the other one, so I can't say anything about the show's quality or perviness at this point. Also, as of this writing, Netflix apparently doesn't have disc 3 of the series any longer... but, if you watch the first 2 discs and want the rest, I was able to find a box set of all 6 discs for about $15 new on Amazon.

If you're still on the fence as to whether you want to explore this show, here's a link to the Wikipedia page. As for myself, I think I'm going to hunt down the manga source material... knowing there's more to the story, I want to see where it goes, for a while at least.

Movie o' the day: The Secret of Kells

Spokane has this little art-house theater that's come and gone over the years, called the Magic Lantern. I normally don't pay it much attention, since the majority of its fare tends to be small foreign films and documentaries that, if they grab my attention, I can generally catch on Netflix in short order, in the privacy of my own home. However, they do also occasionally show some piece of animation that had escaped my attention earlier, and isn't currently available on DVD, and may never be, for that matter... such was the case for The Secret of Kells.

The story itself isn't anything earth-shattering... during Viking times, our young hero Brendan lives in an abbey where his uncle is the head abbot. The abbot is doing his best to make his abbey defensible, and shield his flock from the northmen... in his nephew's case, to the point of forbidding him from leaving the abbey. A master limner, who survived another Viking raid on his abbey, comes to the abbey with his cat, Pangur Ban, and a book that generations of limners have been working on, the Book of Iona... and proceeds to lure the hero away from the path of the abbot's choosing. In the end, the vikings come, the abbey is razed, but the limner and his new apprentice survive and complete the book, now called the Book of Kells. In and amongst all that, there's a fair bit of Brendan sneaking out of the abbey, befriending a local faery who's the guardian of the surrounding woods, and battling a dark pagan god in the process. It's a passable tale, but not something likely to grab the imagination of young children, I'd wager.

That said... the animation is oddly beautiful, in its own way. The main art style is influenced by anime, but also looks to draw on time-appropriate European artwork (it wouldn't surprise me if that influence came from the real-life Book of Kells itself). When they deal with the Norsemen, the color palette shifts extremely dark, and the motion they use to imply their implacability and unstoppability is inspired. At times, they split the behavior of a character and their shadow, to better portray mood or shadow something they're describing. The one time the faery does actual magic involving Pangur Ban is understated but simply outstanding. Oh, and Pangur Ban is one of the better mostly-normal cat portrayals I've ever seen.

So, overall, if you're an animation geek, get thee to the Magic Lantern before this goes away (or check your own local art-house to see if it's coming or already gone), or at least get it saved in your Netflix queue and pray that a DVD release is forthcoming soon. For those of you looking for something to take the kids to... it's not bloody, it doesn't have any bad language or other naughty bits, but neither does it have enough action to keep real young kids enthralled. If it still sounds like something they'd enjoy, by all means go, or stow it away in your Netflix queue.

Something good, for a change: The Maxx

Yeah, I've been doing a lot of focusing on the craptastic side of our life and times here of late, so it's high time I highlighted some of the cooler things about living today... to wit, The Maxx.

The Maxx is a short cartoon series from the mid-90s, with a unique concept, entertaining voice-work, and a wide range of artistic styles. For those not in the know, here's a link to more details... but, suffice it to say, that it was never mainstream fare. In years past, if it ever made it to a home recording, it would have been released shortly after the series ended, while whatever interest it held was still 'hot', then quietly stuffed into the archives, never to see the light of day, except in odd corners of video stores or even odder private libraries of cartoon nerds (and yes, I did get a VHS tape for myself back in the day).

Fast forward fifteen years, and we find ourselves with the Internet in full swing... and on the Internet, nothing is truly obscure. On the small scale, that means you could likely do a search on YouTube and piece together this series, or many others, with a little time and effort. On a larger scale, there are plenty of movies and series that have been resurrected in DVD form, the vast majority of which you can get through Netflix... unfortunately, The Maxx isn't quite "big" enough to do a full production run of DVDs, it seems, so Netflix doesn't carry a copy. Not to worry, though... we've also entered the age of on-demand publishing, which has reached into the realm of DVDs as well as books. As such, you can get The Maxx made, legally, just for you... and who knows what other "marginal" goodies are out there, waiting to grace your shelves, the better to spring on unsuspecting guests?

So, yeah, obviously, I bought a copy... here's a link to Amazon. $15 for two DVDs, and they threw in streaming copies of the episodes as well. If you've never been exposed to the series, well, check out that IMDb link I tossed in earlier, maybe do a little online research... but, if it draws your interest in the slightest, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the buy.

Movie o' the day: How to Train Your Dragon

Slow day at work, an early show of a new, animated film, you know I'll be there. Today, How to Train Your Dragon sucked me in.

It's a pretty straightforward story, which I'll outline in broad strokes: smart Viking lad constantly gets into trouble trying too hard to prove himself as much a Viking as anybody else in the village, which is constantly raided by dragons; he discovers dragons aren't just rapacious raiding machines, ends up (somewhat) taming a dragon in secret; when he tries to demonstrate what he's learned to his village, they assume he's turned his back on the Viking way, taking the side of the dragons instead; hasty words set up a 'final battle' situation, the Vikings get in over their heads, the lad and his friends save the day, and an imperfectly happy ending wraps the whole thing up.

I'm not going to go into any more detail than that... I'll just say that the story isn't quite as grim as the broad strokes would suggest, and the imperfection of the happy ending actually serves the story quite well. My only quibble with the film is the hero himself... as a "smart wannabe Viking", they cast him as excessively sarcastic, and almost world-weary when things are going wrong for him, which I can't see the Vikings putting up with without a few well-placed cuffs, chief's son or no.

So, my verdict... I liked it, and wasn't sorry to shell out $7 to see it in 2D... but then, I'm an animation fan. If you're on the whole 3D kick, I can see how this could be a good one to watch that way on the big screen... otherwise, unless you're a fan like me, or are looking for a film to take older, grade-school children to (I did hear an anguished "NO!" from a young child towards the end of the film, thanks to the lead-up to the imperfectly happy ending, so if your child still takes movies excessively seriously, be warned), you might want to hold off for a matinee, or even wait for the DVD. Still, I'd say it's worth seeing.

Movie o' the day: Avatar

I know, I know, I don't usually catch movies on opening weekend... but a slow day at work combined with the hype-storm around this movie got me into the theater.

So, first things first... Avatar is a very pretty movie. It pulls off the "you are there" vibe as well or better than the Lord of the Rings films did, which is all the more impressive considering the alien landscape and critters involved. However, it's not a very deep movie... it's a pretty standard representative-of-the-outsiders-goes-native sort of flick, just a bit more so than you might see elsewhere, thanks to the sci-fi nature of the beast.

Wait, strike that... sci-fi it ain't. Yes, it's in a futuristic setting, and technology is involved in getting the hero "in the wild"... but, in truth, this is a fantasy film. I understand that they had to do some things in service to the story, and to make this alien world acceptably palatable to the mass audience it hopes to draw, but there are just too many such concessions to call it anything but fantasy. Heck, they could likely have replaced the sentient aliens with elves, set the scene in the faery realm instead of an alien planet, and not had to change a whole lot else in the process.

I'll just add one more niggling point before I conclude... and that's how, for lack of a better term, uneven the alien-ness of things are. Plants are as you might expect, with analogues of ferns, trees, and the like. Animals tend to be of the "add bits on to make it alien" school... so you end up with "horses" that have extra legs up front, but still move like horses. The sentients are the most human-like... down to neural interfaces that are made to look like long, braided hair, to add to the "native" look they have. Beyond that, there are the "cute" bits, things added solely for visual effect (like mosses that light up when you step on them) or, again, in service to the story (floating, fairy-like "seeds" that act as a "sign" when they clump about the hero). I guess I'm still stuck at Darwin, wanting my alien life to be different not just to be different, but for a demonstrable reason.

So, my final take: if you're mainly looking for something pretty to watch with an enjoyable-enough story that won't tax you intellectually or emotionally, catch this film... heck, do the IMAX 3D if that's your thing. Otherwise... well, it's still worth watching on the big screen, because it's that pretty, but I'd save it for matinee fare, after the hordes have passed.

DVD Pick: Hot Fuzz

This film's premise is pretty straightforward: top cop gets shuttled off to a sleepy little village, mainly because he's making the rest of the local force look bad, where he runs afoul of the more "relaxed", rustic atmosphere expected by the locals, before discovering that all isn't well in the village. Of course, if that were the entire story, I wouldn't be recommending it...

The funny thing about this film is, for all it's set up mimics any of a number of "cop working outside the system" films, it lulls you throughout the majority of the film into thinking it's just a comedy about a big city cop trying to cope with the "rigors" of working in a small village... then it lulls you into thinking there's just one madman out there causing havoc. Only in the final half hour do you get the "big reveal"... and, honestly, it's something irrational to somebody who hasn't been watching the film up to that point, but makes sick, perfect sense in context... enough so that I wondered, more than once, whether the hero was suffering some kind of psychotic break, instead of finally digging up "the truth". Beyond that point, all sorts of fun ensues, including some takes on standard action-movie tropes with a small village bent to them... it had me laughing out loud more than once, which is really quite rare for a film.

So, if you've got a couple hours to spare, and are looking for a laugh (especially if you liked Shaun of the Dead, which is where some of the players came across my screen first), give Hot Fuzz a go... if you stick it out to the end, I don't think you'll regret it.

Das Barbecü

Just got back from a Seattle trip... always good to get away from your own "real life" every once in a while, especially if you can get together with friends and/or family. While there, I caught an odd little musical piece called Das Barbecü... think of it as a hefty chunk of Wagner's Ring cycle, distilled down to about 2 1/2 hours, translated to Texas, and mostly played for laughs. I certainly had a good time with it... any Seattle-ites or Seattle-bound people are encouraged to give it a go. Here's a link to the current production.

Movie o' the day: Up

Right, well... go see Up, if you haven't already. The movie's emotionally pitch-perfect, never resorting to being saccharine or maudlin... which isn't to say it doesn't approach emotional highs and lows, just that it doesn't dwell on them needlessly long.

So far as the story itself, it deals with a widower being driven to make a choice... but, rather than take the path society has chosen for him, he decides to go on an adventure that both he and his late wife dreamed of all their lives. Of course, how that translates into him making his home mobile by means of thousands of helium balloons... well, you really need to see the movie to fully "get it", so I won't spoil it for you.

Along the way, he ends up inadvertently kidnapping a young neighborhood boy (and in the process learning that kids aren't all bad), making his way to South America, and meeting a boyhood hero (and getting that hero transformed into the main villian). Mix in a giant bird and some talking dogs (courtesy of collar translators) for plot points and comedy relief, and the end result is a wonder to behold.

Oh, and of course, being a Pixar flick, it's got a short beforehand... in this case, a piece called Partly Cloudy, which takes the old "storks bringing babies" story back to territory I haven't seen since the old Warner Brothers cartoons... namely, where do the storks get the babies? That poor, poor stork... I haven't seen that kind of abuse of a cartoon character in such a short time since those old cartoons, either, and it was just as funny now as then.

So, a great short and a wonderful movie are waiting for you at the local theater... what are you waiting for?