stars of wonder

[eiviiaru]

Season's greetings, y'all.

It has, for the record, been a good day -- gifts, cinnamon rolls, and a movie. I'm probably not going to do a swag report, but rest assured that I received from my parents two oddly thoughtful gifts: a flying alarm clock* and a car GPS system, "so you won't get lost wherever you end up."

The movie was National

Comments

[insanepurin]

I'm glad you had a wonderful Christmas~~~ ♥

Puri got candy, coal, and a Shaymin~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[kouaidou]

I really think people are too hard on the National Treasure movies. I mean yeah, it's far-fetched, but when you get right down to it, are they actually bastardizing the history significantly more than your average Indiana Jones or Da Vinci Code (which is seriously way less light-hearted about it)? Just because more people in this country happen to know the history in question to begin with...

(And y'know. God forbid a movie try to use an adventure concept to get kids interested in their own country's history. Or to admire heroes whose primary skills come from their brains.)

(Apologies for ranting on your journal. I'm not ranting at you, I've just been thinking about this for the past few days. I will take it back to my own journal eventually!)

[eiviiaru]

No, no, I get you entirely. I think the National Treasure movies are very silly, but they're silly in a way that's so stereotypical it's archetypal and has often been done more dumbly by other sources. (Like the pulp serials -- come on, can you honestly tell me that those were more intellectually rigorous than National Treasure?)

The thing I think a lot of people don't appreciate about the National Treasure films is that they have a respect for their characters and situations that a lot of similar films don't. I love the fact that there's never some stupid deus ex machina to destroy the treasure/knowledge -- that the discoveries always end up actually being beneficial to the world! -- and the fact that most of the original cast recurred in Book of Secrets. It creates the feeling that the protagonist's personal relationships are actually of value to him, and the fact that Benjamin Gates is a dude of integrity even when he shouldn't be is one of the things I appreciate about the films.

[kouaidou]

Also: the plucky comic relief character is also fucking useful.

(Yes, it's in a *tappatappatappa* "I'm in" kind of way, but it's better than the way that role is usually done.)

And the other characters actually seem to like having him around, and banter with him as an equal or at least respected member of the group. Words cannot express how much I appreciated this.

[eiviiaru]

Definitely. Riley's hacking isn't exactly done well, but it's not done any worse than in most movies, and the fact that he has a substantive role to play (above and beyond the "Comic Relief Saves the Day" moment now required by law in every film containing a comic-relief character) and is diagetically treated all right is very nice, yes. It's satisfying in a way that no "comic-relief character realizes he's a comic-relief character and bitches about it" schtick could be.

[pedroluchini]

* When the alarm goes off, it releases a little whirligig, and the alarm won't go off until you put the whirligig back. Ingenious, and also a family joke for some months.

...I need one of these.

[entropicangel]

ewww, National Treasure *makes shielding cross with fingers*