Movie and Bookblogging
Dec. 28th, 2005 03:26 amYou know what sucks? The cartoon based on Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks. I am still looking for that elusive thing, a cartoon based on a syndicated comic strip that does not suck. (Baby Blues is okay. Dogbert, however, sucks.)
( Syriana )
That took too long, so I’ll keep the rest short.
The Island
AKJSDH Why hadn’t I heard of this movie before? It’s out on DVD folks, go rent it. Adults in white tracksuits in a futuristic enclosed facility, living responsibility-free lives; their only purpose is to bide time until chosen to live on “The Island,” the last pollutant-free place on Earth. But is it really 2019? Is the planet really contaminated? Why is every aspect of life in the facility monitored? Most importantly, why are all of these adults acting like five year olds?
The technology driving this movie exists, sort of. But the second half forgets all that stuff in favor of being a disappointingly dumb action movie (lol guyz I think there weren’t enuf explosions, ½ of LA is still standing!). The Island is still worth seeing for Ewan McGreggor pretending to be a genius five-year-old, though. XDXD
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.
It took me two chapters to realize that I’d already read this book – in middle school, before I was keeping track of authors. My reaction is the same: aw, fluffy colonialists! That was the kindest, most “we’re good people at heart, even our prejudices are endearing” look at English people I have ever seen! (Homelanders. Whatever.)
The heroine, who is too tall and too independent and too poor to marry well despite her obvious intelligence and good sense, is sent to an outpost, where she falls in love with 1) the desert, and 2) a psychic desert prince who has gold eyes and is taller than her. A fun book. Vivian Vande Velde does teen fantasy kink romance better, though.
Wicked
The story of Elphalba, the Wicked Witch of the West. I liked it but had a strange niggling sensation of not-rightness. The Land of Oz was never meant to be given the realistic political treatment. Look at the map! A desert on the west side of a mountain range, when the wind blows east? Draining a swamp leads to water shortages at higher elevations? Not Right. It was strange beyond words to read about Animal Oppression as a political distraction from reduced farm yields. (Pretty funny to see Elphalba crusade for Animals on the one hand, hate Tiktok creatures on the other, though. *g* everyone has a blind spot.)
By the end of the book the author had gotten so far away from Wicked Witch’s normal characterization that when Dorothy finally showed up, he could only get Elphalba to follow the script by making her temporarily insomniac and delusional. XD
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler.
I don’t want to finish this book. It’s pretty squick – ten year old girl vampire sleeps with man in his twenties, numerous others – but more than that it’s...too rational. A fantasy story forced to be a sci fi story. There are two problems with this:
1) like in Wicked, there are certain things that make more sense when they are not explained.
2) The writing style. Basically it consists of pages and pages and pages of ten-year-old amnesiac vampire protagonist working things out in her head. This is quintessential Octavia E. Butler; but in a story without aliens or cults or dystopian future societies, it is also more than I can take.
( Syriana )
That took too long, so I’ll keep the rest short.
The Island
AKJSDH Why hadn’t I heard of this movie before? It’s out on DVD folks, go rent it. Adults in white tracksuits in a futuristic enclosed facility, living responsibility-free lives; their only purpose is to bide time until chosen to live on “The Island,” the last pollutant-free place on Earth. But is it really 2019? Is the planet really contaminated? Why is every aspect of life in the facility monitored? Most importantly, why are all of these adults acting like five year olds?
The technology driving this movie exists, sort of. But the second half forgets all that stuff in favor of being a disappointingly dumb action movie (lol guyz I think there weren’t enuf explosions, ½ of LA is still standing!). The Island is still worth seeing for Ewan McGreggor pretending to be a genius five-year-old, though. XDXD
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.
It took me two chapters to realize that I’d already read this book – in middle school, before I was keeping track of authors. My reaction is the same: aw, fluffy colonialists! That was the kindest, most “we’re good people at heart, even our prejudices are endearing” look at English people I have ever seen! (Homelanders. Whatever.)
The heroine, who is too tall and too independent and too poor to marry well despite her obvious intelligence and good sense, is sent to an outpost, where she falls in love with 1) the desert, and 2) a psychic desert prince who has gold eyes and is taller than her. A fun book. Vivian Vande Velde does teen fantasy kink romance better, though.
Wicked
The story of Elphalba, the Wicked Witch of the West. I liked it but had a strange niggling sensation of not-rightness. The Land of Oz was never meant to be given the realistic political treatment. Look at the map! A desert on the west side of a mountain range, when the wind blows east? Draining a swamp leads to water shortages at higher elevations? Not Right. It was strange beyond words to read about Animal Oppression as a political distraction from reduced farm yields. (Pretty funny to see Elphalba crusade for Animals on the one hand, hate Tiktok creatures on the other, though. *g* everyone has a blind spot.)
By the end of the book the author had gotten so far away from Wicked Witch’s normal characterization that when Dorothy finally showed up, he could only get Elphalba to follow the script by making her temporarily insomniac and delusional. XD
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler.
I don’t want to finish this book. It’s pretty squick – ten year old girl vampire sleeps with man in his twenties, numerous others – but more than that it’s...too rational. A fantasy story forced to be a sci fi story. There are two problems with this:
1) like in Wicked, there are certain things that make more sense when they are not explained.
2) The writing style. Basically it consists of pages and pages and pages of ten-year-old amnesiac vampire protagonist working things out in her head. This is quintessential Octavia E. Butler; but in a story without aliens or cults or dystopian future societies, it is also more than I can take.