That poster needs more exclamation marks.
Firstly, let's get this out of the way:
Oh, I don't know. I'm a pretty indecisive person, I don't know if anyone's noticed, and I like different TV shows for different reasons (the humour, the actors, the characters, etc. etc. You get the point). Right now I'm loving Sherlock (BBC) and South Park, but they're by no means the only ones.
Okay, so now that that's done with, let's get onto the real reason behind this post.
This past week I've seen three new movies (well, new to me. Not necessarily new to paying audiences). They were, in order, Clash of the Titans (the 2009 remake), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Terminator Salvation.
Clash of the Titans was ... well. I like big epic fantasy adventures and I love mythology of all kinds, so I was looking forward to watching it. Suffice to say, I was somewhat disappointed. It's not only Sam Worthington's dull surprise delivery of most of his lines (he's a hit-or-miss actor at best, but damn if he isn't pretty), or the fact that the movie was basically an excuse to create epic monster battles and that the plot was basically an afterthought. It's the fact that they got the mythology completely wrong.
Now, I know what you're going to say. I'm a Harry Potter fan, I know all about disappointment, believe me, but really? Not only did they have the wrong person as the 'villain' (as far as it's possible to tell with Greek mythology, anyway), they included a character from a different myth entirely. Sure, sometimes stories don't translate to screen well (or at all, in some cases), and you need to add other characters for plot reasons, or whatever, but seriously, this was beyond the pale.
Io, as far as I can remember, was a woman pursued by Zeus ('cause she was so pretty or some shit, Zeus was a philandering bastard and didn't need much of an excuse), and then turned into a heifer (or a cow, if you're like me and wouldn't know the back end of a cow from a car) because Hera got (understandably) jealous and started hunting her down. She was not, ever, a woman cursed to remain ageless by the gods because she refused Zeus' advances. So, my question is, why the fuck would you add her to a story she had absolutely no business being in? Was it simply an excuse to have Gemma Arterton in your movie, because if so that's a pretty shitty excuse. The only thing less incomprehensible than having Io as a main character, is calling the movie Clash of the Titans and then not including the actual titans. Or including monsters and other creatures from Norse mythology (the Kraken) and Arabic folklore (the Djinn). Or making Hades the big bad when he was actually an ally in the original myth. I can accept a little divergence from 'canon', but this? This was a completely different fucking story.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, however, was awesome.
I've never seen the comic books the movie's based on, and if I'm honest, I went to the cinema expecting a decent movie (from the director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, two of my all-time favourite films, by the way), but nothing exceptional.
I was wrong.
Michael Cera was inexplicably adorable (but I find nerds of all shapes and sizes adorable, so that's not unusual), and even the characters you're probably supposed to hate, I kind of liked (but I like villains, too, so). It was two hours of pure, condensed awesomeness, geeky humour and 80s references (Sex Bob-Omb? Yeah, I'm enough of a gamer to recognise that one, guys). I laughed so hard, I really regretted drinking that large Pepsi, and I was still grinning about twenty minutes after watching it (which caused a lot of weird looks in TGI's, by the way).
And then, last night, there was Terminator Salvation.
I've seen the first three Terminator films, and they were watchable enough. This one was ... meh. There were lots of explosions and attractive men being all dirty and rugged (Sam Worthington again, damn him!), and Chekov being kind of stupidly adorable and badass at the same time (I never thought it was possible, but Anton Yelchin proved me wrong, people). It didn't really make any sense, but that's okay, because as far as I can tell, no one else has been able to make sense of it either. There was a hastily interjected love interest (who, amazingly, was pretty badass and whom I didn't hate, although I feel bad for her being delegated to Token Love Interest), and Christian Bale's Batman voice, which I feel should be an entity in its own right. And I was kind of half-heartedly shipping Marcus (Worthington) and Kyle Reese (Yelchin) because - well, they made it so damn easy, desperately shouting each other's names and clinging to each other and Marcus being all determined to find Kyle no matter what *happy sigh*. It was beautiful :D. Otherwise, I was pretty underwhelmed.
On the other hand, I have just thought of an awesome new original fic idea. The week's not a total waste :).
Oh, I don't know. I'm a pretty indecisive person, I don't know if anyone's noticed, and I like different TV shows for different reasons (the humour, the actors, the characters, etc. etc. You get the point). Right now I'm loving Sherlock (BBC) and South Park, but they're by no means the only ones.
Okay, so now that that's done with, let's get onto the real reason behind this post.
This past week I've seen three new movies (well, new to me. Not necessarily new to paying audiences). They were, in order, Clash of the Titans (the 2009 remake), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Terminator Salvation.
Clash of the Titans was ... well. I like big epic fantasy adventures and I love mythology of all kinds, so I was looking forward to watching it. Suffice to say, I was somewhat disappointed. It's not only Sam Worthington's dull surprise delivery of most of his lines (he's a hit-or-miss actor at best, but damn if he isn't pretty), or the fact that the movie was basically an excuse to create epic monster battles and that the plot was basically an afterthought. It's the fact that they got the mythology completely wrong.
Now, I know what you're going to say. I'm a Harry Potter fan, I know all about disappointment, believe me, but really? Not only did they have the wrong person as the 'villain' (as far as it's possible to tell with Greek mythology, anyway), they included a character from a different myth entirely. Sure, sometimes stories don't translate to screen well (or at all, in some cases), and you need to add other characters for plot reasons, or whatever, but seriously, this was beyond the pale.
Io, as far as I can remember, was a woman pursued by Zeus ('cause she was so pretty or some shit, Zeus was a philandering bastard and didn't need much of an excuse), and then turned into a heifer (or a cow, if you're like me and wouldn't know the back end of a cow from a car) because Hera got (understandably) jealous and started hunting her down. She was not, ever, a woman cursed to remain ageless by the gods because she refused Zeus' advances. So, my question is, why the fuck would you add her to a story she had absolutely no business being in? Was it simply an excuse to have Gemma Arterton in your movie, because if so that's a pretty shitty excuse. The only thing less incomprehensible than having Io as a main character, is calling the movie Clash of the Titans and then not including the actual titans. Or including monsters and other creatures from Norse mythology (the Kraken) and Arabic folklore (the Djinn). Or making Hades the big bad when he was actually an ally in the original myth. I can accept a little divergence from 'canon', but this? This was a completely different fucking story.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, however, was awesome.
I've never seen the comic books the movie's based on, and if I'm honest, I went to the cinema expecting a decent movie (from the director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, two of my all-time favourite films, by the way), but nothing exceptional.
I was wrong.
Michael Cera was inexplicably adorable (but I find nerds of all shapes and sizes adorable, so that's not unusual), and even the characters you're probably supposed to hate, I kind of liked (but I like villains, too, so). It was two hours of pure, condensed awesomeness, geeky humour and 80s references (Sex Bob-Omb? Yeah, I'm enough of a gamer to recognise that one, guys). I laughed so hard, I really regretted drinking that large Pepsi, and I was still grinning about twenty minutes after watching it (which caused a lot of weird looks in TGI's, by the way).
And then, last night, there was Terminator Salvation.
I've seen the first three Terminator films, and they were watchable enough. This one was ... meh. There were lots of explosions and attractive men being all dirty and rugged (Sam Worthington again, damn him!), and Chekov being kind of stupidly adorable and badass at the same time (I never thought it was possible, but Anton Yelchin proved me wrong, people). It didn't really make any sense, but that's okay, because as far as I can tell, no one else has been able to make sense of it either. There was a hastily interjected love interest (who, amazingly, was pretty badass and whom I didn't hate, although I feel bad for her being delegated to Token Love Interest), and Christian Bale's Batman voice, which I feel should be an entity in its own right. And I was kind of half-heartedly shipping Marcus (Worthington) and Kyle Reese (Yelchin) because - well, they made it so damn easy, desperately shouting each other's names and clinging to each other and Marcus being all determined to find Kyle no matter what *happy sigh*. It was beautiful :D. Otherwise, I was pretty underwhelmed.
On the other hand, I have just thought of an awesome new original fic idea. The week's not a total waste :).