summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2013-12-28 10:05 pm
summercomfort) wrote2013-12-28 10:05 pm
Smaug, Katniss, and Ready Player One
I watched some movies recently! Brief thoughts follow. (If you've talked to me in the last week or so, you've already heard this.) I've tried to keep it generally spoiler-free, so it probably only makes sense if you've watched it.
Desolation of Smaug
- Dwarves seem better balanced on the cartoony-to-serious scale than in the first Hobbit movie. Same thing for Legolas -- he was more "two towers" and less "RotK".
- Smaug was very convincingly threatening and devious and arrogant.
- Wish Bilbo had more character development. Wish dwarves had more character development.
- Thorin is kinda a jerk and not that good at fighting/planning logistics. He also gives up too early and makes false/shallow promises. If I were a dwarf, I wouldn't follow him anywhere.
- WTF was going on between Killi and Tauriel? I'm... going to interpret it as overcoming general suspicion of the other race and reaching a point of mutual respect. Yup.
- Love love loved Tauriel -- her deviance of gender/race expectations in her community was pretty awesome. So many great points where she takes the lead and makes the choices. Legolas is demoted to being her sidekick.
- Elves throw the lamest parties. The Dwarven Forge was pretty awesome.
- Really liked Mirkwood. As Jono says, Tolkien's forests have more personality than his characters.
- The Necromancer was appropriately scary, except for the eyeball crotch zoom.
- Conclusion: Only worth watching with your friends.
Catching Fire
- Wow! Female characters showing different types of strength! Go Katniss, Prim, and Johanna!
- Snow and Plutarch and Cesar Flickerman and Finnick are so wonderfully cast! It was great to just go back to that world and see Effie and Cinna, too.
- Okay, I still think Peeta should have been cast with someone with softer features, but at least he's less wooden in this one, and at least his intelligence and showmanship shows through better this time. Also loved the beginning tensions.
- I didn't really like the 2nd book due to the lameness of the Quarter Quell and the endless Katniss cluelessness, but hey, the movie reduces a lot of that because it's not in the 1st person! I was better able to appreciate the structure of the games arena, as well as Katniss' anger/confusion when I didn't have to see it all through her perspective.
- I feel like this movie really brought Panem to life for me -- the oppression in the districts, the institution and how hard it is to stand up to it, the contrast of Capital technology and what the districts have, and most importantly, how Katniss is caught up in bigger things that she has no understanding of or control over.
- Um, what's with District 11 being the District of Brown People??? Why wasn't there more District 11 presence in the Games? I wanted a more diverse District presence in the games. (IIRC, District 11 and 3 didn't just die off willy nilly)
- That said, I felt like the movie kept all of the memorable parts of the book (Mags, the Jabberjays, etc)
- I plan to take Jono to go see it in the next few days -- we read book 1 on the road trip, and I feel like Catching Fire preserved enough of the important parts of Book 2 that he can watch it without having read the book.
Ready Player One
We just started reading this on the road trip home. I'm... not impressed. There's way too much 80s gamer/nerd culture nostalgia for me to stomach. If only there was a way to read about the dystopia and the social/technological ramifications of the OASIS without having to slog through the semi-ironic semi-smug nostalgia shit. Like, really, how many games and people do you need to namecheck? Also, unlike the Hunger Games, it seems like this challenge has far fewer societal ramifications. Jono's going to finish the book, but I might sit out on this one. (I've already spoiled myself silly in either case. :))
Desolation of Smaug
- Dwarves seem better balanced on the cartoony-to-serious scale than in the first Hobbit movie. Same thing for Legolas -- he was more "two towers" and less "RotK".
- Smaug was very convincingly threatening and devious and arrogant.
- Wish Bilbo had more character development. Wish dwarves had more character development.
- Thorin is kinda a jerk and not that good at fighting/planning logistics. He also gives up too early and makes false/shallow promises. If I were a dwarf, I wouldn't follow him anywhere.
- WTF was going on between Killi and Tauriel? I'm... going to interpret it as overcoming general suspicion of the other race and reaching a point of mutual respect. Yup.
- Love love loved Tauriel -- her deviance of gender/race expectations in her community was pretty awesome. So many great points where she takes the lead and makes the choices. Legolas is demoted to being her sidekick.
- Elves throw the lamest parties. The Dwarven Forge was pretty awesome.
- Really liked Mirkwood. As Jono says, Tolkien's forests have more personality than his characters.
- The Necromancer was appropriately scary, except for the eyeball crotch zoom.
- Conclusion: Only worth watching with your friends.
Catching Fire
- Wow! Female characters showing different types of strength! Go Katniss, Prim, and Johanna!
- Snow and Plutarch and Cesar Flickerman and Finnick are so wonderfully cast! It was great to just go back to that world and see Effie and Cinna, too.
- Okay, I still think Peeta should have been cast with someone with softer features, but at least he's less wooden in this one, and at least his intelligence and showmanship shows through better this time. Also loved the beginning tensions.
- I didn't really like the 2nd book due to the lameness of the Quarter Quell and the endless Katniss cluelessness, but hey, the movie reduces a lot of that because it's not in the 1st person! I was better able to appreciate the structure of the games arena, as well as Katniss' anger/confusion when I didn't have to see it all through her perspective.
- I feel like this movie really brought Panem to life for me -- the oppression in the districts, the institution and how hard it is to stand up to it, the contrast of Capital technology and what the districts have, and most importantly, how Katniss is caught up in bigger things that she has no understanding of or control over.
- Um, what's with District 11 being the District of Brown People??? Why wasn't there more District 11 presence in the Games? I wanted a more diverse District presence in the games. (IIRC, District 11 and 3 didn't just die off willy nilly)
- That said, I felt like the movie kept all of the memorable parts of the book (Mags, the Jabberjays, etc)
- I plan to take Jono to go see it in the next few days -- we read book 1 on the road trip, and I feel like Catching Fire preserved enough of the important parts of Book 2 that he can watch it without having read the book.
Ready Player One
We just started reading this on the road trip home. I'm... not impressed. There's way too much 80s gamer/nerd culture nostalgia for me to stomach. If only there was a way to read about the dystopia and the social/technological ramifications of the OASIS without having to slog through the semi-ironic semi-smug nostalgia shit. Like, really, how many games and people do you need to namecheck? Also, unlike the Hunger Games, it seems like this challenge has far fewer societal ramifications. Jono's going to finish the book, but I might sit out on this one. (I've already spoiled myself silly in either case. :))