Sweet, sweet contact lenses
Aug. 13th, 2006 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedNEVER LEAVE ME.
Now that I can look at a computer screen without pain, some non-book media blogging:
One Piece
I had a lot of trouble with the manga (first volume at least). But I marathoned the anime with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
falxumbra and it was OMG LOVE. The appeal of this series is hard to explain -- there's the character designs (endearing or out-there), the relationships (squee-ful? is that a word?), the attention to detail (phenomenal even as an anime), and the consistency (mind-blowing). The world-building makes no sense, but that's not the point. Watching the first few arcs, it felt like everything was planned in advance. Like Flame of Recca, but less rigid, with better characters, and a million times more imagination.
On the other hand I picked up the manga from where the anime left off and I'm still having problems. Manga Luffy is SUCH A FREAK, and not in the way that all shounen heroes are freaks either. These are WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM levels of freakishness. The other characters aren't as bad, thank God, but. There's still a sense of disconnect. The dialogue is direct, meaning it's straightforward and functional (this includes things like establishing character) but not natural. Emotionally charged scenes are the same. It's disconcerting. Probably the easiest way to describe what's happening is to say that reading, I get the impression that Oda has some kind of personality disorder. Which isn't to say he's not brilliant, because he totally is. I'm torn between being fascinated and unsettled.
Luckily there is a simple logical solution!
GIVEN: One Piece is a brilliant and I am in love with all of the characters.
GIVEN: The manga is seriously freaky.
SOLUTION: Watch the anime instead.
Lady in the Water
Speaking of other people's mental spaces. This is the M. Night Shyamalan film about an appartment supervisor who finds a mermaid in his swimming pool. IT IS AWESOME OMG. I can't believe there aren't more people talking about how awesome it is! It's been getting uniformly bad reviews, and in a way it's a bad movie. But. I recommend it whole-hearedly -- with one condition. Check your cynicism at the door.
There are moments of this movie that are so transparently taken from Shyamalan's own creative hang-ups it's embarassing. And there are parts that are so straightforwardly ernest it's embarassing. There is meta oozing up from the bottom of that swimming pool. But this is a movie with a heart. Shyamalan plays himself and he does it really well. It helps that he's good-looking. But really it's that he's so sincere, it's adorable.
To spoil things a bit, the mermaid is only the beginning. Paul Giamatti is overseeing a building full of crazy-memorable characters. There's five large Latina sisters with a tiny, tiny father; a man who sits in an armchair watching the news all day; a man who is only working out one half of his body; a loudly-dressed six-foot Chinese college student; and more writers than you can shake a stick at. In fact it is one of the movie's jokes that when the mermaid tells Giamatti she needs to meet and inspire an author who will change the world, and he goes from door to door asking if anyone writes, about half of them do. (The other joke is that no one likes the film critic, who has an exaggerated view of his own importance. Aha.)
To spoil a bit more, this is a what-if movie: what if fairytales were real?
Miami Vice
Worst movie since Underworld:Evolution. No, scratch that: it's worse than U:E. At least tht movie was trying. I was so bored by this movie, I fell asleep three times. Character A mumbles obscure cop jargon at Character B, random sex occurs, more mumbo-jumbo, sex scene number two, Miami does not make an appearance, Havana is not Havana. This could have been filmed on any random sound stage anywhere. Though the cop talk is not difficult to follow, I had no reason to care, as none of the characters are at all interesting. Jamie Foxx is only in it for the paycheck. Colin Farell -- who is not hot in a mullet, by the way -- can't act. The most amusing thing about this movie was catching all the times he slips back into an Irish accent. There is a love-story sub-plot; it's not convincing.
I doubt anyone reading this blog was in danger of seeing this movie, but in case you were: stay far, far away.
Chrono Crusade vol 8
WHAT A GREAT ENDING. So many things got brought together. At the reunion, I cried. Rosette and Joshua's backstory was perfect. Pandemonium's backstory was perfect--but confusing. Someone who's read this, please comment? I can't quite work out what happened. I also can't quite imagine Rosette saying "Waiting is a kind of fighting." And towards the end it got a little too shippy...but I'm quibbling, this really was a fantastic ending. Lots of great, emotional moments, the kind that don't need words.
V: I can't make the 22nd after all. Are you and Gina free any earlier than that? Even one day earlier is fine. Later is no good -- I'll be on the road to Burlington (and from there, Montreal).
Now that I can look at a computer screen without pain, some non-book media blogging:
One Piece
I had a lot of trouble with the manga (first volume at least). But I marathoned the anime with
falxumbra and it was OMG LOVE. The appeal of this series is hard to explain -- there's the character designs (endearing or out-there), the relationships (squee-ful? is that a word?), the attention to detail (phenomenal even as an anime), and the consistency (mind-blowing). The world-building makes no sense, but that's not the point. Watching the first few arcs, it felt like everything was planned in advance. Like Flame of Recca, but less rigid, with better characters, and a million times more imagination. On the other hand I picked up the manga from where the anime left off and I'm still having problems. Manga Luffy is SUCH A FREAK, and not in the way that all shounen heroes are freaks either. These are WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM levels of freakishness. The other characters aren't as bad, thank God, but. There's still a sense of disconnect. The dialogue is direct, meaning it's straightforward and functional (this includes things like establishing character) but not natural. Emotionally charged scenes are the same. It's disconcerting. Probably the easiest way to describe what's happening is to say that reading, I get the impression that Oda has some kind of personality disorder. Which isn't to say he's not brilliant, because he totally is. I'm torn between being fascinated and unsettled.
Luckily there is a simple logical solution!
GIVEN: One Piece is a brilliant and I am in love with all of the characters.
GIVEN: The manga is seriously freaky.
SOLUTION: Watch the anime instead.
Lady in the Water
Speaking of other people's mental spaces. This is the M. Night Shyamalan film about an appartment supervisor who finds a mermaid in his swimming pool. IT IS AWESOME OMG. I can't believe there aren't more people talking about how awesome it is! It's been getting uniformly bad reviews, and in a way it's a bad movie. But. I recommend it whole-hearedly -- with one condition. Check your cynicism at the door.
There are moments of this movie that are so transparently taken from Shyamalan's own creative hang-ups it's embarassing. And there are parts that are so straightforwardly ernest it's embarassing. There is meta oozing up from the bottom of that swimming pool. But this is a movie with a heart. Shyamalan plays himself and he does it really well. It helps that he's good-looking. But really it's that he's so sincere, it's adorable.
To spoil things a bit, the mermaid is only the beginning. Paul Giamatti is overseeing a building full of crazy-memorable characters. There's five large Latina sisters with a tiny, tiny father; a man who sits in an armchair watching the news all day; a man who is only working out one half of his body; a loudly-dressed six-foot Chinese college student; and more writers than you can shake a stick at. In fact it is one of the movie's jokes that when the mermaid tells Giamatti she needs to meet and inspire an author who will change the world, and he goes from door to door asking if anyone writes, about half of them do. (The other joke is that no one likes the film critic, who has an exaggerated view of his own importance. Aha.)
To spoil a bit more, this is a what-if movie: what if fairytales were real?
Miami Vice
Worst movie since Underworld:Evolution. No, scratch that: it's worse than U:E. At least tht movie was trying. I was so bored by this movie, I fell asleep three times. Character A mumbles obscure cop jargon at Character B, random sex occurs, more mumbo-jumbo, sex scene number two, Miami does not make an appearance, Havana is not Havana. This could have been filmed on any random sound stage anywhere. Though the cop talk is not difficult to follow, I had no reason to care, as none of the characters are at all interesting. Jamie Foxx is only in it for the paycheck. Colin Farell -- who is not hot in a mullet, by the way -- can't act. The most amusing thing about this movie was catching all the times he slips back into an Irish accent. There is a love-story sub-plot; it's not convincing.
I doubt anyone reading this blog was in danger of seeing this movie, but in case you were: stay far, far away.
Chrono Crusade vol 8
WHAT A GREAT ENDING. So many things got brought together. At the reunion, I cried. Rosette and Joshua's backstory was perfect. Pandemonium's backstory was perfect--but confusing. Someone who's read this, please comment? I can't quite work out what happened. I also can't quite imagine Rosette saying "Waiting is a kind of fighting." And towards the end it got a little too shippy...but I'm quibbling, this really was a fantastic ending. Lots of great, emotional moments, the kind that don't need words.
V: I can't make the 22nd after all. Are you and Gina free any earlier than that? Even one day earlier is fine. Later is no good -- I'll be on the road to Burlington (and from there, Montreal).