Rifts in the space-time continuum
May. 25th, 2007 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeI replied "I don't know" to a question from a coworker on Wednesday, and he joked that I had probably just broken the space-time continuum. (Well, I gave him points for trying. It came out as "the vacuum in time and space" which amused me greatly. Technically, I think there is a vacuum, so it's not incorrect —it just wasn't what he meant).
Speaking of quantum mechanics, my disorientation with regards to the date and time continues thanks to the wacky schedule.
Yesterday was spent quietly. I spent the better part of the morning catching up on Skywatch, and then headed out. I wandered around outside for a couple of hours, which was lovely as the day was gorgeous and warm. It's bordering on uncomfortable for me, but not so bad that I can't enjoy the weather these days. I expect this to change any day now. I wilt in the heat.
I renewed my iRewards card and treated myself to some new books. I finally stopped hemming and hawing about trying Laurie R. King's other series (the ones not about Mary Russel and Sherlock Holmes), and and bought "A Grave Talent," after hesitating for years. I began reading it over a waffle with fruit and crème anglaise at Chez Cora. I accidentally dipped the corner of the book in the whipped cream, but I rescued it quickly and it seems to have come out none the worse for wear. I am a klutz. The banana-and-strawberry smoothie was delicious as well.
I finished the novel this morning. It's quite good. It's her first novel, if I'm not mistaken, and as such lacks the finesse and the character development of the Mary Russel novels, which are lovely, subtle pieces of fiction. However, the story and characters were very compelling, and the writing was quite good, more than good enough for me to overlook the slight problems with the plot in places. I can definitely spot where her style has matured since this first novel attempt, and I think I'll pick up more Kate Martinelli books in future.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
owldaughter, if you want to borrow it, you're welcome to it.
There's a new Charles Todd out, but it's in hardcover. Argh, gnash. I shall just have to wait.
Since the last movie I saw was James Bond, back in December as I recall, I treated myself to a double-bill yesterday.
I started with "Spiderman 3," which was... not bad. I remember rolling my eyes a few times, and the dialogue wasn't stellar. I don't recall the dialogue being brilliant in any of the Spiderman movies, though. I very much enjoyed the title sequence, I must say, and Kirsten Dunst is still yummy. She wasn't given much to work with, which was very sad because she's a very talented actress and, given the right material, she will always deliver a stunning performance. As it was, her performance was lackluster, but that was all the writers' fault.
Many people have criticized the movie for taking on too many plotlines at once, and while I disagree with that, I agree that the Sandman storyline was not properly dealt with. For one thing, it was never properly resolved. I for one would like to know what happened to the family of the poor man who just got in way over his head, but that's really unimportant according to those who wrote the script. Meh.
The black parasite plotline was also not especially convincing. I mean, the meteorite happens to fall at the precise location where Peter Parker and Mary Jane are watching the stars? Sheesh. Willing suspension of disbelief only goes so far. Also, that happens *right* at the beginning of the movie, and it took over an hour for that black stuff to make its move. Come on! It didn't help that Brock (the second guy to get infected by the black stuff) practically has the same voice as Peter Parker. Visually you couldn't confuse them, but if you only heard them talking it got a little bizarre.
Anyway, it was entertaining, and the plot moved forward reasonably quickly. I liked that they tried to resolve the Green Goblin plotline, but I could see the ending coming a mile away, and that sort of ruined it for me. Too bad.
Then, because I have no self-control whatsoever, I went to the premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean." It was much better than the second one, but still not as good as the first. It was also nearly three hours long. Gah. Someone needs to edit these things better. What child is going to be able to sit through three hours of movie in a cinema?
The movie begins much like the others: with a young child singing a pirate song. In this case, though, there's a twist: it's a pirate child, being led along with dozens of others to the gallows. One of the Stuffy Foppy British Navy Officers is reading out an edict that decrees punishment by death (hanging by the neck until dead) for all pirates, anyone aiding and abetting a pirate, and anyone remotely associated with someone convicted of piracy. The edict further goes on to restrict the right to assembly, the right to freedom of movement, the right to legal counsel, the right to a trial by a jury of peers, etc. From this we are meant to deduce that the British are Evil, because they're curtailing all these very-all-American rights, some of which didn't even exist at the time (but most audiences won't know that).
The pirate boy, instead of screaming and wailing and pissing himself because he's about to be hanged, instead sings a jaunty rebellious pirate song as he's lifted onto a barrel (since he's too short to reach the gallows by himself). He's holding a silver piece of eight, which resonates eerily to the song. The rest of the pirates begin to sing as well, the chorus being something along the lines of "Never more shall we die."
I never knew that pirates had a workers' movement. Arise, proletariat of the high seas!
One of the Stuffy Foppy British Navy Officers hurries over to his superior, Lord Beckett, to inform him, highly unnecessarily, that: "They have begun to sing, sir!"
Thank goodness, Beckett doesn't react with consternation. Unfortunately, his reaction is just as bad: "It's about time!" he exclaims, as though the whole process of hanging dozens if not hundreds of people was a charade orchestrated to turn them all into some sort of pirate choir.
The rest of the movie has ups and downs. Elizabeth Swann grows ever more insufferable as the movie progresses, until I wonder how no one tries to push her overboard or feed her to the Kraken (which is never so much as mentioned until almost the end of the movie). To add insult to injury, she somehow contrives to become the Captain of a Chinese pirate ship (don't ask) and by the end to be voted King of the Pirate Brethren Court (not unanimously, thank goodness, or even remotely by a majority: that would strain credulity to its limits). Oh, and she also delivers a rousing speech to the pirates just before the climactic battle. I rolled my eyes so much I thought they would fall through the back of my head.
Geoffrey Rush puts on an even more exaggerated performance, as does everyone else, actually. It's as though everyone got very thoroughly ensconced in the perceived role of their character and simply exaggerated everything they'd done before.
Jack Sparrow gets even madder than before, and swishes and sashays and hand-flaps his way through the movie. He also develops several alter egos (who all look like him) to whom he speaks regularly as the story progresses. The appearance by Keith Richards as his father is, by the franchise's standards, fairly understated. Not badly done, either. Not subtle, but not bad.
Orlando Bloom needs to be smacked, and so do the writers who wrote the Will Turner character this time around. I have never been so confused in my life. He wanders around looking very very earnest, but betrays everyone and their cousin, supposedly because he wants to save his father. He and Elizabeth spend the entire movie not communicating effectively. Of course, they end up married at the end. Honestly, I thought that they were already married, somewhere between the first and the second movie, but apparently I was mistaken.
Now that I've finished complaining about everything I didn't like, I will say that the plot held together much better than the second movie. There were no really extraneous fight scenes, except possibly one at the very beginning, and even that one wasn't overly long and went a ways to establishing some important plot points.
The visuals were fabulous, much better than the second movie. The background and set design people were obviously very high on something when they did it, but the overall effect was impressive and imaginative, if not especially credible. I suspect that Singapore has never, ever looked the way it did in that movie, at any point in time. "Shipwreck City" (located at Shipwreck Harbour in Shipwreck Cove) is comprised entirely of wrecked ships piled one on top of the other. Structurally unsound, to say the least. Also a feat of engineering that I'm not sure they could have accomplished at the time.
I kept thinking to myself, the entire time: "Thank God the laws of physics don't apply in this universe!"
There's also a very dubious plotline involving Tia Dalma and Davy Jones. Turns out that she's really the goddess Calypso trapped in human form. She and Davy Jones were lovers way back when and that she granted him immortality. It's the usual bargain: he spends ten years at sea ferrying the souls of those who died at sea over to the Other Side. One day every ten years he can come ashore and spend with his lady love. Only, being Calypso, she stood him up after ten years. Understandably pissed off, Davy Jones instructs the first Brethren Court on how to imprison her in human flesh, and thus condemns himself to an eternity of being a monster and her to an eternity of being separated from the sea.
The general idea, according to Barbossa, is to free Calypso and hope she's not too pissed off to help them.
I was really intrigued by this particular plot at first. There's a fantastic scene between Davy Jones (played with Scottish flair by Bill Nighy, and Tia Dalma (Calypso) played by Naomie Harris) in which there's actual depth and emotion and... yeah. Naomie Harris does wonders with what is essentially a very stereotypical role of a Cajun necromancer. Unfortunately, the writers never bother to come back to it except in an offhanded reference. It was too bad.
I must take my hat off to the writers, however, for coming up with an ending that is not completely happily-ever-after. They forced the issue, which was unfortunate, but I understand why they did it. For a Disney movie, it's controversial enough. The guy doesn't quite get the girl, and not everyone lives happily to the end of their days.
So all in all it was a fun, vaguely geeky afternoon and evening for me. No instant classics in the making, but fun nonetheless.
It had been a while since I did that: just wander around and do stuff on my own. It was a refreshing change.
Speaking of quantum mechanics, my disorientation with regards to the date and time continues thanks to the wacky schedule.
Yesterday was spent quietly. I spent the better part of the morning catching up on Skywatch, and then headed out. I wandered around outside for a couple of hours, which was lovely as the day was gorgeous and warm. It's bordering on uncomfortable for me, but not so bad that I can't enjoy the weather these days. I expect this to change any day now. I wilt in the heat.
I renewed my iRewards card and treated myself to some new books. I finally stopped hemming and hawing about trying Laurie R. King's other series (the ones not about Mary Russel and Sherlock Holmes), and and bought "A Grave Talent," after hesitating for years. I began reading it over a waffle with fruit and crème anglaise at Chez Cora. I accidentally dipped the corner of the book in the whipped cream, but I rescued it quickly and it seems to have come out none the worse for wear. I am a klutz. The banana-and-strawberry smoothie was delicious as well.
I finished the novel this morning. It's quite good. It's her first novel, if I'm not mistaken, and as such lacks the finesse and the character development of the Mary Russel novels, which are lovely, subtle pieces of fiction. However, the story and characters were very compelling, and the writing was quite good, more than good enough for me to overlook the slight problems with the plot in places. I can definitely spot where her style has matured since this first novel attempt, and I think I'll pick up more Kate Martinelli books in future.
owldaughter, if you want to borrow it, you're welcome to it.There's a new Charles Todd out, but it's in hardcover. Argh, gnash. I shall just have to wait.
Since the last movie I saw was James Bond, back in December as I recall, I treated myself to a double-bill yesterday.
I started with "Spiderman 3," which was... not bad. I remember rolling my eyes a few times, and the dialogue wasn't stellar. I don't recall the dialogue being brilliant in any of the Spiderman movies, though. I very much enjoyed the title sequence, I must say, and Kirsten Dunst is still yummy. She wasn't given much to work with, which was very sad because she's a very talented actress and, given the right material, she will always deliver a stunning performance. As it was, her performance was lackluster, but that was all the writers' fault.
Many people have criticized the movie for taking on too many plotlines at once, and while I disagree with that, I agree that the Sandman storyline was not properly dealt with. For one thing, it was never properly resolved. I for one would like to know what happened to the family of the poor man who just got in way over his head, but that's really unimportant according to those who wrote the script. Meh.
The black parasite plotline was also not especially convincing. I mean, the meteorite happens to fall at the precise location where Peter Parker and Mary Jane are watching the stars? Sheesh. Willing suspension of disbelief only goes so far. Also, that happens *right* at the beginning of the movie, and it took over an hour for that black stuff to make its move. Come on! It didn't help that Brock (the second guy to get infected by the black stuff) practically has the same voice as Peter Parker. Visually you couldn't confuse them, but if you only heard them talking it got a little bizarre.
Anyway, it was entertaining, and the plot moved forward reasonably quickly. I liked that they tried to resolve the Green Goblin plotline, but I could see the ending coming a mile away, and that sort of ruined it for me. Too bad.
Then, because I have no self-control whatsoever, I went to the premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean." It was much better than the second one, but still not as good as the first. It was also nearly three hours long. Gah. Someone needs to edit these things better. What child is going to be able to sit through three hours of movie in a cinema?
The movie begins much like the others: with a young child singing a pirate song. In this case, though, there's a twist: it's a pirate child, being led along with dozens of others to the gallows. One of the Stuffy Foppy British Navy Officers is reading out an edict that decrees punishment by death (hanging by the neck until dead) for all pirates, anyone aiding and abetting a pirate, and anyone remotely associated with someone convicted of piracy. The edict further goes on to restrict the right to assembly, the right to freedom of movement, the right to legal counsel, the right to a trial by a jury of peers, etc. From this we are meant to deduce that the British are Evil, because they're curtailing all these very-all-American rights, some of which didn't even exist at the time (but most audiences won't know that).
The pirate boy, instead of screaming and wailing and pissing himself because he's about to be hanged, instead sings a jaunty rebellious pirate song as he's lifted onto a barrel (since he's too short to reach the gallows by himself). He's holding a silver piece of eight, which resonates eerily to the song. The rest of the pirates begin to sing as well, the chorus being something along the lines of "Never more shall we die."
I never knew that pirates had a workers' movement. Arise, proletariat of the high seas!
One of the Stuffy Foppy British Navy Officers hurries over to his superior, Lord Beckett, to inform him, highly unnecessarily, that: "They have begun to sing, sir!"
Thank goodness, Beckett doesn't react with consternation. Unfortunately, his reaction is just as bad: "It's about time!" he exclaims, as though the whole process of hanging dozens if not hundreds of people was a charade orchestrated to turn them all into some sort of pirate choir.
The rest of the movie has ups and downs. Elizabeth Swann grows ever more insufferable as the movie progresses, until I wonder how no one tries to push her overboard or feed her to the Kraken (which is never so much as mentioned until almost the end of the movie). To add insult to injury, she somehow contrives to become the Captain of a Chinese pirate ship (don't ask) and by the end to be voted King of the Pirate Brethren Court (not unanimously, thank goodness, or even remotely by a majority: that would strain credulity to its limits). Oh, and she also delivers a rousing speech to the pirates just before the climactic battle. I rolled my eyes so much I thought they would fall through the back of my head.
Geoffrey Rush puts on an even more exaggerated performance, as does everyone else, actually. It's as though everyone got very thoroughly ensconced in the perceived role of their character and simply exaggerated everything they'd done before.
Jack Sparrow gets even madder than before, and swishes and sashays and hand-flaps his way through the movie. He also develops several alter egos (who all look like him) to whom he speaks regularly as the story progresses. The appearance by Keith Richards as his father is, by the franchise's standards, fairly understated. Not badly done, either. Not subtle, but not bad.
Orlando Bloom needs to be smacked, and so do the writers who wrote the Will Turner character this time around. I have never been so confused in my life. He wanders around looking very very earnest, but betrays everyone and their cousin, supposedly because he wants to save his father. He and Elizabeth spend the entire movie not communicating effectively. Of course, they end up married at the end. Honestly, I thought that they were already married, somewhere between the first and the second movie, but apparently I was mistaken.
Now that I've finished complaining about everything I didn't like, I will say that the plot held together much better than the second movie. There were no really extraneous fight scenes, except possibly one at the very beginning, and even that one wasn't overly long and went a ways to establishing some important plot points.
The visuals were fabulous, much better than the second movie. The background and set design people were obviously very high on something when they did it, but the overall effect was impressive and imaginative, if not especially credible. I suspect that Singapore has never, ever looked the way it did in that movie, at any point in time. "Shipwreck City" (located at Shipwreck Harbour in Shipwreck Cove) is comprised entirely of wrecked ships piled one on top of the other. Structurally unsound, to say the least. Also a feat of engineering that I'm not sure they could have accomplished at the time.
I kept thinking to myself, the entire time: "Thank God the laws of physics don't apply in this universe!"
There's also a very dubious plotline involving Tia Dalma and Davy Jones. Turns out that she's really the goddess Calypso trapped in human form. She and Davy Jones were lovers way back when and that she granted him immortality. It's the usual bargain: he spends ten years at sea ferrying the souls of those who died at sea over to the Other Side. One day every ten years he can come ashore and spend with his lady love. Only, being Calypso, she stood him up after ten years. Understandably pissed off, Davy Jones instructs the first Brethren Court on how to imprison her in human flesh, and thus condemns himself to an eternity of being a monster and her to an eternity of being separated from the sea.
The general idea, according to Barbossa, is to free Calypso and hope she's not too pissed off to help them.
I was really intrigued by this particular plot at first. There's a fantastic scene between Davy Jones (played with Scottish flair by Bill Nighy, and Tia Dalma (Calypso) played by Naomie Harris) in which there's actual depth and emotion and... yeah. Naomie Harris does wonders with what is essentially a very stereotypical role of a Cajun necromancer. Unfortunately, the writers never bother to come back to it except in an offhanded reference. It was too bad.
I must take my hat off to the writers, however, for coming up with an ending that is not completely happily-ever-after. They forced the issue, which was unfortunate, but I understand why they did it. For a Disney movie, it's controversial enough. The guy doesn't quite get the girl, and not everyone lives happily to the end of their days.
So all in all it was a fun, vaguely geeky afternoon and evening for me. No instant classics in the making, but fun nonetheless.
It had been a while since I did that: just wander around and do stuff on my own. It was a refreshing change.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 05:38 pm (UTC)Curse you, now I shall *have* to see this movie.
PS: Singapore didn't exist before roughly 1819 (when the British decided to set up a trading post at this sleepy fishing village on an obscure Malayan island) and 1823 (when the British and Dutch sort of resolved their differences over who really owned said obscure Malayan island). I was under the impression that, all other anachronisms aside, the Pirates movies were set in the 1700s.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 05:41 pm (UTC)You just can't put a date on PotC. It is unpossible.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 08:03 pm (UTC)Fun fact I stole from someone else, the pirate flags flown at the end all have a historical significance.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 08:05 pm (UTC)It can't be explained otherwise.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 09:47 pm (UTC)But that still doesn't tell me if this might be "Singapore", "Singapore only much more so" or "some cool place that we just decided to call 'Singapore'".
no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 01:14 pm (UTC)The whole movie was pretty surreal. Not bad, as
no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 05:47 pm (UTC)Arise, proletariat of the high seas!
*dies*
no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-25 08:44 pm (UTC)