movie reviews (mostly)
At some point, I really want to do something to this page that will allow me to subdivide posts along topic lines. Or something. So I can build up a database of things like restaurant reviews or movie reviews or whatever. I\'ve already got the link blog thing. This would kind of generalize and abstractify that idea. Make it more useful. I don\'t know. The one problem I\'m seeing is I\'m not very good at sticking to one topic.
I\'d also like to keep track of projects. Most of the projects I\'m thinking about right now are house related, but there might be others. It would be a thing where I could collect links and information and maybe sketch out plans.
Like I said, I\'m not very good at sticking to topic. This was supposed to be about movie reviews. I\'d better move on before I distract myself again.
Howl\'s Moving Castle
Although I didn\'t actually read his review, I was a bit disappointed when I heard Roger Ebert didn\'t like it very much. I love Miyazaki movies. While they\'re not always perfect, they have a level of quality I\'ve come to rely on. I had no reason to expect that that couldn\'t continue.
So it turned out that I was a little let down. I guess Ebert felt the same way.
I mean, it\'s not a bad movie. But I can\'t help but think Howl exists in the stratum of \"anime movie,\" like Steamboy or Ghost in the Shell, rather than the considerably higher \"Miyazaki movie\" level. It\'s on the \"okay, so it doesn\'t make a lot of sense and the characters ring a bit hollow, but doesn\'t it look nice?\" level. Miyazaki should be better than that.
Honestly, my complaint\'s really all about the ending. The ending where he basically goes \"Okay, that\'s the main plot done. We\'ve hit the two hour mark. Better wrap everything else up now.\" The \"wrap everything else up\" part is laughably trite. I won\'t spoil it by going into details, but honestly, there\'s no excuse for that. I\'d chock it up to maybe Miyazaki doesn\'t know how to adapt a novel, but Kiki\'s proves otherwise. I don\'t know. All I know is it seems uncharacteristic.
There were some genuine moments of humour which I wasn\'t expecting. And lots of charming little touches which I was. But none of that seems to make up for the crappy ending.
I\'m going to buy it when it comes out on DVD, of course. Maybe my opinion will soften a bit on repeated viewings. If not, even the worst Miyazaki movie isn\'t really all that bad. I just hope this isn\'t a trend.
Troy
After a shaky start, we watched this over at Eric and Alex\'s place on the weekend. Why? I\'m not sure. I\'m sure the hunky men in short skirts had something to do with it.
I haven\'t actually read the Ilyad. Or the Odyssey. (Not to mention Virgil\'s Aeneid, which got a knowing wink at the end of the movie). I keep meaning to. I know the stories pretty well. But the idea of slogging through ancient texts with lots of footnotes always creates a bit too much inertia. I like the idea of bringing these old stories to the masses, though.
The movie tries very hard to be an epic. A great big, sweeping, Kenneth Brannaugh sort of epic. You know, Shakespeare. I don\'t think it quite gets there. I do respect them for trying, though. It\'s a bit to easy to pick on this sort of pretension. Maybe they\'ll have more luck next time.
They removed pretty much all of the mythological elements from the story. I have pretty mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, suggesting that petty and manipulative gods actively influence the lives of these characters, directly or indirectly, probably wouldn\'t go over well with either Christian or secular humanist audiences. And that\'s nearly everybody around here. If they tried to put them in, it would start looking like silly fantasy. And while I think stuff like Clash of the Titans is pretty cool, I will concede that that\'s not the sort of Serious Epic these people are going for.
On the other hand, when I was a kid growing up, I thought it would be a very rebellious thing to go out and write a story about how the Virgin Mary was really just a normal pregnant teen who lied to her delusional boyfriend, thus creating legend. That, after all, seemed like a much more rational explanation for everything. But it later occured to me that the power of myth had nothing to do with rational explanations, and my earth-shattering idea had actually been done many times before. And it never actually turned into anything worthwhile.
It occured to me that the writers of Troy might have thought themselves equally clever. Fortunately they exercised their cleverness on a religion nobody cares about anymore. But it still seems naively adolescent, really.