Another Pair Of Eyes

Avatar

Wow. Prepare for a nauseating splurge of positivity.

Words fail me, really. That was the most beautiful, mesmerising, thunderously awesome piece of cinema I’ve seen for years. Yes, the film is merely ‘good’ but as an experience I think it is fantastic. I don’t know whether it’s an artefact of 3D providing increased immersion or whether it was just well thought out characters, but I really found myself rooting for the Na’vi, and actually caring whether they lived or died. At one point I even caught myself think ‘please don’t die.’, which is probably a first for me.*

Did I mention that it was actually beautiful? As in heartstoppingly beautiful? Everything in it has been lovingly rendered, and it shows. ‘Polished’ is inadequate. The Na’vi are brilliantly done, and at times it’s hard to believe there is are any humans behind them at all and that the whole thing isn’t just CGI. In fact, the whole world has been incredibly well thought out; the animals and plants are all believable and ‘fit’ in a way which very much implies that they are of the same ecosystem.

It’s a long film, but it doesn’t feel like one. Even those of you who aren’t fussed should go and take a look, because I truly believe that this is a game-changer for cinema. The world of film is notably different now, which sounds dramatic but having watched the flagship of 3D I think that the end of 2D cinema is in sight, and I’d imagine you’ll be hard-pressed to find a 2D cinema screen near you inside of the next 5 years.

*Although, I do generally find it quite easy to get very involved in films, so take that at face value.

Defying Gravity

I’ll be honest, I’m a bit of  TV show/film whore. I like nearly everything, even the things I know are complete trash. There are plenty of things which I’ve watched and enjoyed while simultaneously cringing at the shocking horror of the acting or the shallower-than-puddles scriptwriting.* However, this doesn’t mean that I can’t see higher quality bits and pieces when I see them. I don’t recommend bad films, I just watch them. Films I recommend are things like V for Vendetta, Spy Game, Pan’s Labyrinth, and notably not The Core, xXx (the second version of which doesn’t even deserve the title of ‘film’) or War, Inc.**

Defying Gravity is different. I’ve not finished it yet, it might still turn into a shocking set of terrible clichés, or do that US thing of turning into a great big piece of we-love-god-and-he-loves-us evangelistic crap.*** So far though, I’m hopeful. Its intriguing and strange. You have to follow the story from reasonably close to the start, and even though sometimes it seems a bit like they put a bunch of lunatics on a spaceship it does make sense. It’s based around mankinds first mission to Venus on a ship which is set to travel a six-year tour of the solar system, and its a bit about dealing with being in space and being separated from husbands and wives and etc. But mainly, its about the crew coping in space, and specifically with something other which has been put on the ship and is referred to only as ‘beta’.

Irritatingly, as with many shows which I liked, it’s been cancelled after the first series. I guess it just didn’t have enough vampires or martial arts in it or something. If you can, get ahold of it from the beginning and watch it. Skipping to halfway through will ruin the grand suspensey theme running through the first half of the series!

*there are also exceptions. Notable amongst these is ‘The Marksman” which is one of the most awful things I’ve ever seen. Really.

**Three notable ones, the latter two of which were SO bad I couldn’t even like them.

***Knowing, anyone?

The Time Traveler’s Wife

I read The Time Traveler’s Wife a few years ago, while on holiday in Iceland. I read it in the tent over a couple of days, and I’ve not been able to face it again in the intervening time. I don’t think any other book has managed to cause me such emotional trauma before or since. It now stays on the shelf, a heavy presence, and I’ve not been able to muster the will to once more open it up.

The other day I went to see the film – it was as good as it could have been, I think. It was brilliantly cast, well done and the omissions would not have been too obvious to those who’d not read the book (mainly the darker aspects – the father, the fighting, the other side of Gomez). On the plus side, sections including Alba were actually better in the film than in the book. Overall, it was up and down and it reflected the theme of the book, and that was good. It was still pretty melancholy, but it was manageable.

Now, though, I have a problem. Watching the film has awoken the echoes of the book, and I don’t think I can hold off reading it anymore. It’s on my mind again, daily, and I know that dusting off the battered cover is the only way to resolve the matter. And I don’t want to, because it left such an impression before. I don’t know whether I’m trying to avoid the pain it caused last time, or whether I’m afraid it won’t do the same this time around.

Here we go again.

Twilight

A couple of nights ago I watched the film ‘Twilight’ with my sister, and it wasn’t at all what I expected. In fact, it’s positively odd – I’d’ve said, on arrival from my desert island which I’d inhabited for the duration of the twilight hype, that it was a niche, cult film rather than anything else. The start of it is actually very well done – the hues in blue, the sense of the unknown and the surreality of it all really jumps out at you. I’d also argue that knowing the whole plot in advance kind of ruins the film a little – the dialogue in the second quarter of the film is SO uninspiring that only the intrigue of what was really going on could save it (and this was absent for me, and likely everyone else, so…hmm). On the other hand, without having read the book I’m not certain to what extent the film would have held together. Compromise, I suppose.

In the end, it’s actually quite a human film. Sure, it’s aimed at an age group which makes me look a touch on the elderly side, and its a little simplistic, but the director (I didn’t look up his name) didn’t go for the easy route and I can respect them for that.

Odd little thing. Good enough to eat?* Possibly not, but I’m glad I’ve seen it.

*yum yum yum. Delicious Bella. Drinks on you?**
**shame on me. Bad vampire jokes = slightly worse than bad normal jokes.

Slumdog Millionaire

I just finished watching this, and it has got to be one of the best films I’ve seen in a while. Quite a while.

Don’t listen to me, go watch it if you haven’t already. That’s all I have to say. Fantastic.

Cloverfield

Last night, as you may well have sumrised from the title of this post, I watched Cloverfield. I was a bit dubious before I watched it as I was told it was a horror film (of which I am not a fan), but that was soon laid to rest. It also took it’s time to get started, but once it did I really enjoyed it.

It is all recorded on handheld camcorders – I’ve been told that people got seasick in the cinemas – and even though it patently isn’t all filmed on handheld camcorders it does a pretty good job. The premise is that New York is attacked by something, and the camcorder tells the story of a few friends who start the night at a party. through until the next morning, interspersed with ‘flashbacks’ of a recording over which the ‘new’ film is recorded.

I always find it’s difficult to convey a film to people, especially without giving anything about the plot away. Cloverfield is as real as it could have been considering the subject matter, and a bit gritty, a bit tragic. It plays emotions very well and the actors do an excellent job of reconciling how people would be feeling with how they appear on-screen. It’s dark, but you’d only hide behind the sofa were you of an incredibly nervous disposition.

I’d go watch it, if you haven’t already. If you have seen it, what did you think?

(also, who saw the new Wallace and Gromit, and what did you think of that?)

Skins

Prior to my essay deadline, I had never seen an episode (or even a glimpse of) the much-mentioned Skins. I’d not seen it on TV, what with me hardly ever watching any and all, and what sketchy premise of the programme I’d picked up didn’t really appeal. Lo! and behold, the first episode was indeed filled with innuendo, sex driven adolescents and questionably hilarious antics involving stealing a car and crashing a house party. So so, I thought, and I almost didn’t watch the next episode.

“Cassie”, episode 2, series 1 of skins is a masterpiece. It’s touching, and human, and even though it’s still got the sex and the innuendo and the outright nudity (there’s a lot of it) it is just really, really good. It took a character who from the first episode was a vacuous, spaced-out nymphomaniac and put her whole life into perspective, through her eyes explaining what she is going through and what is important in her life.

And that is how skins works. Each episode another person’s life, and from the bunch of shallow personas in the first episode develops a complex set of people. Some episodes are better than others, and “Effy” is just bizarre (although her silence is magnetic – they’ve done a great job of creating this mysterious character about whom no-one knows. She speaks twice in the entire series), but overall it’s well worth watching. I’ve not seen the second series, so not sure how good that is although I’ve heard negative reports of it.

Still, colour me impressed.