Lauren K. Moody (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anthimeria) wrote2011-07-22 10:56 pm
anthimeria) wrote2011-07-22 10:56 pm
Entry tags:
3 quick movie reviews of escalating happiness
So, I saw Green Lantern . . . some time ago, Harry Potter in the midnight showing, and just this afternoon I kicked on over to Captain America.
SPOILERS BEWARE! Though nothing big or unexpected, really.
--Green Lantern
Deeply lackluster. I was pretty sure the only thing that could fix this cliche-ridden movie was a new main character. Really, why did they do a Hal Jordan GL movie when most of the kid/YA generation knows John Stewart, and he has a much better character for a new superhero movie? Hal was deeply boring. Not to mention it had the expected racefail and genderfail. And a painfully predictable and boring storyline. It was actually a lot like Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice . . . nothing new, but nothing unexpectedly or terribly bad.
It was worth the price of admission for three characters: Carol Ferris, who was kickass when she wasn't being written as "typical superhero girlfriend", Sinestro, who was interesting and had depth and whom I enjoyed immensely, and, most importantly, AMANDA WALLER. I was SO EXCITED to see her onscreen! She is one of my favorite DCU characters in that she's a heavyset, smart, no-nonsense black woman with a lot of power in every incarnation. She was awesome.
I also hope this means DC is thinking about following Marvel's example and pulling all their movieverse superheroes into a combined universe, because AS MARVEL HAS PROVED, it works. Heck, Marvel did it first back in the 60s with their comics, too, and it annoys me that DC--which does SO WELL with cartoons in a combined universe (The Batman Animated Series-Superman Animated Series-JLU-Batman Beyond 'verse, aka the Timmverse, is one of the best storytelling creations of the last 2 decades, as far as I'm concerned)--would CATCH ON.
--Harry Potter
Going to see a midnight showing is always fun. I enjoyed this last installment about as much as I expected to, with some unexpected moments of heartbreak and some expected moments of "Gah, Rowling!"
Unexpected heartbreak: SNAPE. I never liked him or had much empathy for him in the books, but there's this shot toward the beginning of the movie that is about ten seconds long, with no dialogue, and MADE ME CRY. Oh, man. I had such heartbreak and empathy for this Snape! I kept whimpering and going, "Severus!"
Totally expected moment of grr-argh: The epilogue. Oh, man. It's one of two bits of HP:DH that makes me foam at the mouth, because it falls right in line with the whole "do as I say, not as I do" morality of the books. The first one is when Harry casts an Imperius curse in Gringotts, which is UNFORGIVABLE, with no ramifications. Apparently it doesn't count as war crimes if the victim dies and your side wins.
The other is--okay, I have to quote (or paraphrase, rather, since I doubt I remember it verbatim, so corrections are welcomed!):
"Albus Severus, you are named after two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin, and he was the bravest man I've ever known."
Good, right? Very much in the spirit of let's-all-get-along, right?
EXCEPT. There are no good Slytherins, in the books or movies. The closest we come are the Malfoys and Snape, who both recant rather than being good from the beginning. There IS value in redemption, and I won't argue about that, because I'm making a different point--namely, that Slytherins have to learn to be good, if they can, whereas the other houses (in the movies explicitly Gryffindor) are good from the beginning and only might be led astray.
The worst example of this in the movie was when Minerva McGongall, after regaining control of Hogwarts, asks for ALL OF SLYTHERIN HOUSE to be sent to the dungeons! I flipped out. It doesn't happen because they get interrupted, but geez, movie. Slytherin=bad in the movies, and the books don't make much effort to contradict.
ANYWAY. Harry says it's okay if little Albus Severus is a Slytherin, so all is good, right? EXCEPT. Let's parse that sentence a little farther, shall we? "One of them was a Slytherin, and he was the bravest man I've ever known."
This implies that the axis upon which one should be judged is bravery--a Gryffindor trait. So Slytherins are only good when they're brave, which aligns them with Harry's own house and the putative good house. Bravery is the only virtue that matters.
AND THEN Harry goes on to say, "But if you really don't want it, you can ask to be put in Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."
WAY TO UNDERMINE YOUR ALREADY SHAKY ENDORSEMENT OF SLYTHERIN, HARRY.
Argh!
But. I had a good time at the movie, and would say it tops off the series nicely. Oh! And on a positive note, I really liked how much nonverbal communication there was--the characters do a lot of communication via body language, and there are a number of scenes or long parts of scenes without dialogue. Loved that a lot.
Now, wait ten years and see what the remakes look like, now that we know the shape of the series and have some time to look back and see where the first movies went wrong. I'm REALLY looking forward to those, because if they're done well they'll have a lot to say about the nature of the series as a whole, and how the overall arc works, and how we as an audience have changed in our reception of the books and movies. Those should be a fun ride, and I can't wait.
--Captain America: The First Avenger
WOW, y'all. Just WOW. I LOVED it. I had a ton of fun, and totally wasn't expecting to. Steve is PERFECT. He's compassionate and genuine and brave and smart and an artist and a little stammery and he doesn't like bullies. Oh, man.
And and and! Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos! And Bucky! And HOWARD STARK!
(I might've spent a significant portion of Howard's scenes going, "Your son is going to be smarter than you.")
The dialogue was great, the action scenes were fantastic, the characters were three-dimensional and relatable and fascinating, and while I did have a number of "Guys? Did you forget this is supposed to be the 1940s?" moments re: the setting/background, I just kept telling myself it was the Marvel Universe in the 1940s, and things were weird even then.
I'll probably have to see it again so I can notice its flaws (Iron Man was like that for me--I still love it, but it took me like four watchings to get past that to the, "All right, yes, I see what you object to, and it's totally there" part.), but right now I'm riding the high. Also! Stay till the end, there's an awesome Avengers preview after all the credits. I can't believe I have to wait till next summer!
And those are the movies I've seen lately. Sadly, the only one that passed the Bechdel test was Harry Potter, but at least Captain America had a period-relevant excuse. I was pleased to at least have a female main character; asking for two from a period superhero flick might've been too much. Though it would've been nice. Green Lantern has no such excuse.
In short: GL=dull, HP=okay, Cap=YAY.
SPOILERS BEWARE! Though nothing big or unexpected, really.
--Green Lantern
Deeply lackluster. I was pretty sure the only thing that could fix this cliche-ridden movie was a new main character. Really, why did they do a Hal Jordan GL movie when most of the kid/YA generation knows John Stewart, and he has a much better character for a new superhero movie? Hal was deeply boring. Not to mention it had the expected racefail and genderfail. And a painfully predictable and boring storyline. It was actually a lot like Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice . . . nothing new, but nothing unexpectedly or terribly bad.
It was worth the price of admission for three characters: Carol Ferris, who was kickass when she wasn't being written as "typical superhero girlfriend", Sinestro, who was interesting and had depth and whom I enjoyed immensely, and, most importantly, AMANDA WALLER. I was SO EXCITED to see her onscreen! She is one of my favorite DCU characters in that she's a heavyset, smart, no-nonsense black woman with a lot of power in every incarnation. She was awesome.
I also hope this means DC is thinking about following Marvel's example and pulling all their movieverse superheroes into a combined universe, because AS MARVEL HAS PROVED, it works. Heck, Marvel did it first back in the 60s with their comics, too, and it annoys me that DC--which does SO WELL with cartoons in a combined universe (The Batman Animated Series-Superman Animated Series-JLU-Batman Beyond 'verse, aka the Timmverse, is one of the best storytelling creations of the last 2 decades, as far as I'm concerned)--would CATCH ON.
--Harry Potter
Going to see a midnight showing is always fun. I enjoyed this last installment about as much as I expected to, with some unexpected moments of heartbreak and some expected moments of "Gah, Rowling!"
Unexpected heartbreak: SNAPE. I never liked him or had much empathy for him in the books, but there's this shot toward the beginning of the movie that is about ten seconds long, with no dialogue, and MADE ME CRY. Oh, man. I had such heartbreak and empathy for this Snape! I kept whimpering and going, "Severus!"
Totally expected moment of grr-argh: The epilogue. Oh, man. It's one of two bits of HP:DH that makes me foam at the mouth, because it falls right in line with the whole "do as I say, not as I do" morality of the books. The first one is when Harry casts an Imperius curse in Gringotts, which is UNFORGIVABLE, with no ramifications. Apparently it doesn't count as war crimes if the victim dies and your side wins.
The other is--okay, I have to quote (or paraphrase, rather, since I doubt I remember it verbatim, so corrections are welcomed!):
"Albus Severus, you are named after two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin, and he was the bravest man I've ever known."
Good, right? Very much in the spirit of let's-all-get-along, right?
EXCEPT. There are no good Slytherins, in the books or movies. The closest we come are the Malfoys and Snape, who both recant rather than being good from the beginning. There IS value in redemption, and I won't argue about that, because I'm making a different point--namely, that Slytherins have to learn to be good, if they can, whereas the other houses (in the movies explicitly Gryffindor) are good from the beginning and only might be led astray.
The worst example of this in the movie was when Minerva McGongall, after regaining control of Hogwarts, asks for ALL OF SLYTHERIN HOUSE to be sent to the dungeons! I flipped out. It doesn't happen because they get interrupted, but geez, movie. Slytherin=bad in the movies, and the books don't make much effort to contradict.
ANYWAY. Harry says it's okay if little Albus Severus is a Slytherin, so all is good, right? EXCEPT. Let's parse that sentence a little farther, shall we? "One of them was a Slytherin, and he was the bravest man I've ever known."
This implies that the axis upon which one should be judged is bravery--a Gryffindor trait. So Slytherins are only good when they're brave, which aligns them with Harry's own house and the putative good house. Bravery is the only virtue that matters.
AND THEN Harry goes on to say, "But if you really don't want it, you can ask to be put in Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."
WAY TO UNDERMINE YOUR ALREADY SHAKY ENDORSEMENT OF SLYTHERIN, HARRY.
Argh!
But. I had a good time at the movie, and would say it tops off the series nicely. Oh! And on a positive note, I really liked how much nonverbal communication there was--the characters do a lot of communication via body language, and there are a number of scenes or long parts of scenes without dialogue. Loved that a lot.
Now, wait ten years and see what the remakes look like, now that we know the shape of the series and have some time to look back and see where the first movies went wrong. I'm REALLY looking forward to those, because if they're done well they'll have a lot to say about the nature of the series as a whole, and how the overall arc works, and how we as an audience have changed in our reception of the books and movies. Those should be a fun ride, and I can't wait.
--Captain America: The First Avenger
WOW, y'all. Just WOW. I LOVED it. I had a ton of fun, and totally wasn't expecting to. Steve is PERFECT. He's compassionate and genuine and brave and smart and an artist and a little stammery and he doesn't like bullies. Oh, man.
And and and! Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos! And Bucky! And HOWARD STARK!
(I might've spent a significant portion of Howard's scenes going, "Your son is going to be smarter than you.")
The dialogue was great, the action scenes were fantastic, the characters were three-dimensional and relatable and fascinating, and while I did have a number of "Guys? Did you forget this is supposed to be the 1940s?" moments re: the setting/background, I just kept telling myself it was the Marvel Universe in the 1940s, and things were weird even then.
I'll probably have to see it again so I can notice its flaws (Iron Man was like that for me--I still love it, but it took me like four watchings to get past that to the, "All right, yes, I see what you object to, and it's totally there" part.), but right now I'm riding the high. Also! Stay till the end, there's an awesome Avengers preview after all the credits. I can't believe I have to wait till next summer!
And those are the movies I've seen lately. Sadly, the only one that passed the Bechdel test was Harry Potter, but at least Captain America had a period-relevant excuse. I was pleased to at least have a female main character; asking for two from a period superhero flick might've been too much. Though it would've been nice. Green Lantern has no such excuse.
In short: GL=dull, HP=okay, Cap=YAY.