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sub_divideddue Wednesday, seven major assignments. Have started two. NOT THE TWO I NEEDED TO START. I am dead dead dead dead dead.
Full Metal Alchemist movie:
Part 1 (repost)
Part 2
Now that the whole thing's up here's my rant on it, copy-paste from comments elsewhere:
Five ways this movie bothered me
1. "Such a powerful bomb is not needed!" armor!Al says to the alchemist who has just discovered Uranium, and whose sea-fortress base he and Ed proceed to demolish in true anime style.
...okay, here's the thing. Even accepting the incongruency of nuclear science in Amestris, the way Ed COMPLETELY DISMISSES this man and everything he's discovered, as if there can not possibly be anything even remotely of interest or use in it, was awful. As a scientist I was offended. That's the foundation of modern physics you just sank, buddy! Will matter cease to be composed of energy, only because of your culturally-projected hang-ups? If we must have an anti-nuclear-weapons spokesman in this movie, please pick a different character.
2. Roy, a broken man with a broken heart, has retired from the new parliamentary government he helped create. Having foreswon alchemy in penance for his crimes, he spends every day in frozen misery at a backwater supply post. Liza refuses to vist, saying she "can't stand to see him like this."
Amen, sister! (Roy, pathetically angsting in self-imposed exile? If the scriptwriters are trying to increase the tension for his Big Dramatic Comeback, there are less gimicky ways to do it.)
3. I really like this world's Alphonse. He's kind and funny and kind, and he puts up with more crap from Ed than any one person should have to put up with. He deserves better than to be a permanently ill Nazi collaborator, I hope nothing bad happens to...
4. Hughes is a Nazi.
5. You! Yes you, random new character! For that matter, random old character! Why exactly are you sacrificing yourself for Ed and/or Al? What has either of them done for you lately? It's because they're the main characters, isn't it. Needs better motivation, plz. (This applies to: Winry, Pinako, German!Al, and especially Wrath. It was such a relief to see Noa scream at the end, I half expected her to calmly accept that Ed's goals were more important than hers because she was only a supporting character.)
I think in the end there are two levels of offense here: one to see complicated ethical issues reduced to good-guy-versus-bad-guy, which the series never did, and one to see character after character destroyed for the obvious agenda of the (Japanese) script-writers. I'm not sure how much more I should say on this, being a biased party. (Japanese WWII-referencing movies have always bothered me, but as far as I can tell no one who didn't grow up on Holocaust horror stories has had major problems with this one, not even the parts I thought were lousy characterization or writing rather than misplaced moralizing.)
So that I do not end this entry on a completely negative note, there are good points too: a certain character's Big Dramatic Comeback, the Gypsy sub-plot, the outfits, the way the Sins were worked into the plot, the ending. I also thought the premise was a pretty neat -- just not, you know, something I could comfortably get behind.
Full Metal Alchemist movie:
Part 1 (repost)
Part 2
Now that the whole thing's up here's my rant on it, copy-paste from comments elsewhere:
Five ways this movie bothered me
1. "Such a powerful bomb is not needed!" armor!Al says to the alchemist who has just discovered Uranium, and whose sea-fortress base he and Ed proceed to demolish in true anime style.
...okay, here's the thing. Even accepting the incongruency of nuclear science in Amestris, the way Ed COMPLETELY DISMISSES this man and everything he's discovered, as if there can not possibly be anything even remotely of interest or use in it, was awful. As a scientist I was offended. That's the foundation of modern physics you just sank, buddy! Will matter cease to be composed of energy, only because of your culturally-projected hang-ups? If we must have an anti-nuclear-weapons spokesman in this movie, please pick a different character.
2. Roy, a broken man with a broken heart, has retired from the new parliamentary government he helped create. Having foreswon alchemy in penance for his crimes, he spends every day in frozen misery at a backwater supply post. Liza refuses to vist, saying she "can't stand to see him like this."
Amen, sister! (Roy, pathetically angsting in self-imposed exile? If the scriptwriters are trying to increase the tension for his Big Dramatic Comeback, there are less gimicky ways to do it.)
3. I really like this world's Alphonse. He's kind and funny and kind, and he puts up with more crap from Ed than any one person should have to put up with. He deserves better than to be a permanently ill Nazi collaborator, I hope nothing bad happens to...
4. Hughes is a Nazi.
5. You! Yes you, random new character! For that matter, random old character! Why exactly are you sacrificing yourself for Ed and/or Al? What has either of them done for you lately? It's because they're the main characters, isn't it. Needs better motivation, plz. (This applies to: Winry, Pinako, German!Al, and especially Wrath. It was such a relief to see Noa scream at the end, I half expected her to calmly accept that Ed's goals were more important than hers because she was only a supporting character.)
I think in the end there are two levels of offense here: one to see complicated ethical issues reduced to good-guy-versus-bad-guy, which the series never did, and one to see character after character destroyed for the obvious agenda of the (Japanese) script-writers. I'm not sure how much more I should say on this, being a biased party. (Japanese WWII-referencing movies have always bothered me, but as far as I can tell no one who didn't grow up on Holocaust horror stories has had major problems with this one, not even the parts I thought were lousy characterization or writing rather than misplaced moralizing.)
So that I do not end this entry on a completely negative note, there are good points too: a certain character's Big Dramatic Comeback, the Gypsy sub-plot, the outfits, the way the Sins were worked into the plot, the ending. I also thought the premise was a pretty neat -- just not, you know, something I could comfortably get behind.