Pop culture
Sep. 18th, 2011 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vr_trakowskiI've seen several films lately.
At the risk of offending some of my flist, Thor was a complete waste of celluloid, or whatever they're storing it on these days. I do hope this does not screw up The Avengers. Coulson was the only decent part of that film, and I don't even like him much.
I have now, in rapid succession, seen all the Harry Potter movies. I maintain that the first few are inevitably silly, given the framework of the books, but I enjoyed bits of Goblet of Fire and was unexpectedly--and inexplicably--fascinated by the first Deathly Hallows. Perhaps because the trio is finally starting to act like budding adults--perhaps because it breaks out of the Hogwarts pattern.
But they are clearly made for fans of the books. Way too much was left out (I've read only one or two, and not in years) and characters popped up, were seen briefly, and disappeared without history being given, which makes no sense in the context of the films alone. Who is this Tonks person, for instance?* Or the weaselly little fellow who pinched the locket?
Which isn't to say they're not enjoyable. I was interested enough to see the final one in the theater, after all. The soundtracks are magnificent, the special effects mostly seamless (dragon!), and a lot of the acting is quite good. I'm particularly impressed with the main three, who do a terrific job of carrying the characters through so much and through such a changing time of their own, and I'm deeply amused by Gred and Forge, though Ginny can't express an emotion to save her life.
I also ended up feeling sorry for Draco Malfoy, who managed to miss being either a hero or a decent villain and ended up a sort of wimp. Not that he didn't behave decently in some places, and in fact his back-and-forthing is in a way much more realistic than everybody else's determination, but from the beginning he felt set up to be a solid enemy and instead just became an annoyance.
My favorite moment is evenly divided between Snape setting his cuffs to smack the boys and Harry hopped up on luck serum. The runner-up is Harry backed into a tree by Hermione in a rage--the most powerful wizard around clearly knows his superior when he sees her. *snerk*
On a completely different note, why doesn't soda go bad once the bottle is opened? Seems to me it should at least ferment.
*Don't bother answering, the questions are rhetorical. Wikipedia can be quite useful.
At the risk of offending some of my flist, Thor was a complete waste of celluloid, or whatever they're storing it on these days. I do hope this does not screw up The Avengers. Coulson was the only decent part of that film, and I don't even like him much.
I have now, in rapid succession, seen all the Harry Potter movies. I maintain that the first few are inevitably silly, given the framework of the books, but I enjoyed bits of Goblet of Fire and was unexpectedly--and inexplicably--fascinated by the first Deathly Hallows. Perhaps because the trio is finally starting to act like budding adults--perhaps because it breaks out of the Hogwarts pattern.
But they are clearly made for fans of the books. Way too much was left out (I've read only one or two, and not in years) and characters popped up, were seen briefly, and disappeared without history being given, which makes no sense in the context of the films alone. Who is this Tonks person, for instance?* Or the weaselly little fellow who pinched the locket?
Which isn't to say they're not enjoyable. I was interested enough to see the final one in the theater, after all. The soundtracks are magnificent, the special effects mostly seamless (dragon!), and a lot of the acting is quite good. I'm particularly impressed with the main three, who do a terrific job of carrying the characters through so much and through such a changing time of their own, and I'm deeply amused by Gred and Forge, though Ginny can't express an emotion to save her life.
I also ended up feeling sorry for Draco Malfoy, who managed to miss being either a hero or a decent villain and ended up a sort of wimp. Not that he didn't behave decently in some places, and in fact his back-and-forthing is in a way much more realistic than everybody else's determination, but from the beginning he felt set up to be a solid enemy and instead just became an annoyance.
My favorite moment is evenly divided between Snape setting his cuffs to smack the boys and Harry hopped up on luck serum. The runner-up is Harry backed into a tree by Hermione in a rage--the most powerful wizard around clearly knows his superior when he sees her. *snerk*
On a completely different note, why doesn't soda go bad once the bottle is opened? Seems to me it should at least ferment.
*Don't bother answering, the questions are rhetorical. Wikipedia can be quite useful.