DVD logging - movies
May. 17th, 2017 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckArrival - I cried. I found the first contact part of things more interesting than the personal story. I think it’s because the personal story didn’t show the protagonist actually considering her decisions. Did she think that it was inevitable? Cordelia was annoyed that we watched this without her. I hadn’t realized that she wanted to see it.
Batman v. Superman - So we’ve seen it. This was at least one third longer than it needed to be, and the plot elements stuffed into it made it… kind of boring actually. There was a seed of an interesting story buried deep in there. I thought that things were more interesting before Lex Luthor showed up. Batman and Superman going pot-kettle at each other was more compelling because it involved characterization.
The Boxtrolls - Eh. Not a single plot surprise here. It’s also… kind of white saviory. The Boxtrolls need human children to do all the work of protecting them. It’s not that the Boxtrolls are stupid; they’re just hugely passive. None of us actually enjoyed this.
Design for Living - I watched this in small bits as I could find time when I could sit in the living room with neither Scott nor Cordelia around. Our library only has it on Blu-ray, so I couldn’t just stick it into my laptop and watch it wherever. The Blu-ray doesn’t have captioning, so I lost bits of what was going on. I think there were bits that were meant to be funny that just didn’t work for me. I also suspect that I’d have liked this much better if I hadn’t tried it at a point when I was dealing with a lot of pain and health related anxiety, but that’s only a guess. I didn’t enjoy it enough to try again later.
Doctor Strange - Even without migraine issues, this would have made me so very, very sick on a large screen. I got to the end of the movie and was pretty much ‘Eh, whatever.’ There wasn’t anything particularly terrible or particularly great.
Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec - I was more interested in the things that this movie slid past without much exploration. I think that part of it was that I found the title character kind of annoying. I know she’s from a comic, but I don’t know if it’s a long running thing. I suspect that I might have cared more if I were familiar with Adele and her goals ahead of time. I’m also not sure what the point of the last five minutes of the movie was. Is there meant to be a sequel?
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - I kind of felt like I was watching something that was peripheral to a story rather than the start of a story. I don’t know if that makes any sense. The only character whose future I was interested in at the end was the baker. The CGI creatures were neat, at least. I think my problem is that, if I poke much at the world building in general, both here and in the Harry Potter books, I start going, “But-- But-- What?” This movie had more spaces where I felt like something important was missing.
Hidden Figures - Wow. I thought I might find this to not be all that, but it was really amazing. All three of us teared up at various points. The folks who made the movie were really good at putting focus on the small things that really matter. It was very clear that those things hurt and added up to a huge burden for the main characters. Abuse adds up.
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV - I am obviously the wrong audience for this movie. I couldn’t tell most of the characters apart, and all I got of the plot was that there were explosions and monsters and people fighting.
La La Land - I never did figure out what was going on or why I should care. We watched the first hour then gave up because we hadn’t found anything to make us want to pay attention. Also, it doesn’t work so well when all of the songs are quieter than the dialogue. It just makes it sound like the actors can’t sing.
Long Way North - I think I got about a third of the way through this before I just got too annoyed with the main character. I might have pushed through that, but she was about to get on a ship, and that always makes things difficult for me due to my phobia of deep water. My main irritation with the main character was that the narrative was positioning her as Not Like Other Girls. I also couldn’t believe that she’d be that high up in the aristocracy and be that ignorant of how social and political games worked, not without someone noticing and taking steps to remedy it.
Miss Hokusai - I was expecting something more linear than this actually is. I kept wondering, as I watched, why those particular incidents were important enough to include and what was being left out. I’m not sure if it’s simply that I’m missing the historical and cultural knowledge to connect those events to each other. I’m pretty sure that I was supposed to know who the characters were, historically speaking, and, well, I’m ignorant. The main character was very reserved, and I often had trouble figuring out what events meant to her. I liked the animation a good bit.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children - I feel like twenty five minutes of setup and travel to get to the beginning of things happening is too much for a two hour movie. I didn’t get any sense of the main character from it. That might have justified it, but I ended up very, very bored and gave up at the twenty seven minute mark.
Moana - I adored this. Scott and Cordelia very much enjoyed it, too. I was particularly amused by the chicken. I’m glad that they ditched the idea of Moana having brothers; that would have been irritating and trite. I very much liked Moana’s grandmother, too. I’m buying this one.
The Tempest - With Helen Mirren as Prospera. I found Prospera less of an asshole than I always thought Prospero was, even though the words and actions were the same. I was uncomfortable with Caliban. I’ve never been happy with the character and his role in the story, but I think this was the combination of the plot and dialog and costuming (he couldn’t have worn less without being utterly naked) with the fact that he was the only character played by a black actor. It was just kind of ew ick and left me feeling like I needed some form of brain bleach. It’s one of those things that I look at and boggle that someone thought it was a good idea.
Batman v. Superman - So we’ve seen it. This was at least one third longer than it needed to be, and the plot elements stuffed into it made it… kind of boring actually. There was a seed of an interesting story buried deep in there. I thought that things were more interesting before Lex Luthor showed up. Batman and Superman going pot-kettle at each other was more compelling because it involved characterization.
The Boxtrolls - Eh. Not a single plot surprise here. It’s also… kind of white saviory. The Boxtrolls need human children to do all the work of protecting them. It’s not that the Boxtrolls are stupid; they’re just hugely passive. None of us actually enjoyed this.
Design for Living - I watched this in small bits as I could find time when I could sit in the living room with neither Scott nor Cordelia around. Our library only has it on Blu-ray, so I couldn’t just stick it into my laptop and watch it wherever. The Blu-ray doesn’t have captioning, so I lost bits of what was going on. I think there were bits that were meant to be funny that just didn’t work for me. I also suspect that I’d have liked this much better if I hadn’t tried it at a point when I was dealing with a lot of pain and health related anxiety, but that’s only a guess. I didn’t enjoy it enough to try again later.
Doctor Strange - Even without migraine issues, this would have made me so very, very sick on a large screen. I got to the end of the movie and was pretty much ‘Eh, whatever.’ There wasn’t anything particularly terrible or particularly great.
Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec - I was more interested in the things that this movie slid past without much exploration. I think that part of it was that I found the title character kind of annoying. I know she’s from a comic, but I don’t know if it’s a long running thing. I suspect that I might have cared more if I were familiar with Adele and her goals ahead of time. I’m also not sure what the point of the last five minutes of the movie was. Is there meant to be a sequel?
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - I kind of felt like I was watching something that was peripheral to a story rather than the start of a story. I don’t know if that makes any sense. The only character whose future I was interested in at the end was the baker. The CGI creatures were neat, at least. I think my problem is that, if I poke much at the world building in general, both here and in the Harry Potter books, I start going, “But-- But-- What?” This movie had more spaces where I felt like something important was missing.
Hidden Figures - Wow. I thought I might find this to not be all that, but it was really amazing. All three of us teared up at various points. The folks who made the movie were really good at putting focus on the small things that really matter. It was very clear that those things hurt and added up to a huge burden for the main characters. Abuse adds up.
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV - I am obviously the wrong audience for this movie. I couldn’t tell most of the characters apart, and all I got of the plot was that there were explosions and monsters and people fighting.
La La Land - I never did figure out what was going on or why I should care. We watched the first hour then gave up because we hadn’t found anything to make us want to pay attention. Also, it doesn’t work so well when all of the songs are quieter than the dialogue. It just makes it sound like the actors can’t sing.
Long Way North - I think I got about a third of the way through this before I just got too annoyed with the main character. I might have pushed through that, but she was about to get on a ship, and that always makes things difficult for me due to my phobia of deep water. My main irritation with the main character was that the narrative was positioning her as Not Like Other Girls. I also couldn’t believe that she’d be that high up in the aristocracy and be that ignorant of how social and political games worked, not without someone noticing and taking steps to remedy it.
Miss Hokusai - I was expecting something more linear than this actually is. I kept wondering, as I watched, why those particular incidents were important enough to include and what was being left out. I’m not sure if it’s simply that I’m missing the historical and cultural knowledge to connect those events to each other. I’m pretty sure that I was supposed to know who the characters were, historically speaking, and, well, I’m ignorant. The main character was very reserved, and I often had trouble figuring out what events meant to her. I liked the animation a good bit.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children - I feel like twenty five minutes of setup and travel to get to the beginning of things happening is too much for a two hour movie. I didn’t get any sense of the main character from it. That might have justified it, but I ended up very, very bored and gave up at the twenty seven minute mark.
Moana - I adored this. Scott and Cordelia very much enjoyed it, too. I was particularly amused by the chicken. I’m glad that they ditched the idea of Moana having brothers; that would have been irritating and trite. I very much liked Moana’s grandmother, too. I’m buying this one.
The Tempest - With Helen Mirren as Prospera. I found Prospera less of an asshole than I always thought Prospero was, even though the words and actions were the same. I was uncomfortable with Caliban. I’ve never been happy with the character and his role in the story, but I think this was the combination of the plot and dialog and costuming (he couldn’t have worn less without being utterly naked) with the fact that he was the only character played by a black actor. It was just kind of ew ick and left me feeling like I needed some form of brain bleach. It’s one of those things that I look at and boggle that someone thought it was a good idea.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-17 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-17 07:57 pm (UTC)Newt had a goal, but the movie hid it from us so that it could surprise us at the end. We had pretty much nothing in terms of information about his world. It's hard to sympathize with a fish out of water character when their 'water' isn't at all defined except as different from where the character is now.
I can't even remember the names of the two lead female characters, and I don't feel as if we got much context for them, either. My sense of the Muggle/No-Maj world around them was equally disconnected. I kept thinking that there were things wrong with it without quite putting my finger on what (possibly that it was made of cardboard...).