| Every time I watch an old move, all these pop culture references suddenly become illuminated. Jesse picking pretty tunnel rat Riley. Torin Kerr falling asleep while a pilot's trying to freak her out with his flying. Tonight we watched Aliens, which I thought I hadn't seen. Turns out watching movies in the middle of the night isn't actually conducive to remembering them (although I do remember deciding not to bother to stay awake for the third one).
Thanks to the aforementioned Torin Kerr novels, I also have some understanding of how rank works in the marines. I'd like to say 'who says sci-fi never teaches you anything', except the part where the knowledge is only useful re: other sci-fi kind of renders that moot. Oh well.
I want to be a badass when I grow up. Outside of sf, only girls named Veronica make me feel like that.
Anyway, we all stayed up past our bedtimes because I didn't realise how long the movie was. Movies these days are more compressed even when they're long, I'm sure. I don't usually have a lot of patience when it comes to things happening on screen, but I guess building suspense is half...the...point. It was totally epic, and I quite like the feeling of seeing things again and only remembering them as they go along.
Though I was still surprised when it turned out Michael Biehn's character wasn't going to die. Not that I'm complaining ♥ He was a babe. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| | Tags: | a: huff tanya, a: lee tanith, a: peake mervyn, a: rowling jk, a: sagara michelle, a: watson andi, a: wilce ysabeau, awesome: sentient buildings, books, genre: fantasy, genre: horror, genre: science fiction, movies, movies: the cube, movies: the labyrinth | | Subject: | Not quite a haunted house, but still out to get you. | | Time: | 10:58 pm |
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| I was going to write review of all the urban fantasy I've been reading this month, but when I started I got distracted by sentient buildings. Buildings that are always changing; buildings that want to trick you, want to test you. Buildings with a mind of their own.
Tanya Huff's Wizard of the Grove was a formative instance of this for me, as it was for so much else in the sf genre. It's what appealed to me so much in The Secret Garden: the idea of a house so large it can actually hold secrets. It probably dates back to The Labyrinth for me, to the geography of a place that wants to trick you, a place that is always changing, that has a mind of its own. You go into the house, maybe, or you go underground. Did the underworld Persephone wandered through change around her? Would the pomegranate tree be there for anyone else?
I was thinking about this as I finished Michelle Sagara's Cast in Courtlight (late) last night. Our hero Kaylin is called to the Barrani courts, where the building predates any civilisation still extant. The buildings the Barrani lords make their homes in have an inconstant geography, as we saw in the first book of this series, but Courtlight goes further with it.
We see the ways in which Barrani life is inseparable from these buildings, the ways in which they test themselves against the buildings, against the intelligence behind the buildings themselves. It is not necessarily a friendly one, and indeed there is a dark secret behind the tests the Barrani take. This is what kept me gripped through the long hours of the night.
Further instances of buildings that like to keep you on your toes:
- The house in Flora Segunda, Crackpot Hall. Which is also a boy, if it wants. The main reason I fell so badly for this book was the house - when oh when will Flora's Dare come out in paperback so I can at last buy a copy?
- Probably the best known, Hogwarts. What with the Room of Requirement, the near bountiless potential for exploration... The Philosopher's Stone is probably the most literal example of the test, but the geography of Hogwarts forms a key element in later books as well.
- Tanya Huff's The Better Part of Valor. In this one, instead of a building we have 'Big Yellow', a mysterious spaceship with rooms that shape themselves to the memories of those who come inside, which tests them, and which seems to have its own intelligence. To explain any further would be a spoiler for later books, but it's pretty awesome!
- The Tanya Huff book that started it all for me, Wizard of the Grove. Which was written as two books. In the second one, Crystal and her companions venture into the lair of a long dead wizard; but wizards love games, and time has not dulled its danger. Crystal has to pull some serious badass-ery to get them out of this, and personally, I think I'd rather the a less malevolent building.
- Chilblain Hall, the home of Glister in Andi Watson's comics for young girls. Chilblain Hall is always changing, always presenting Glister with something new and exciting, and, as we see in The House Hunt, it is a house that can get in a huff. The nicest house of the lot.
- In Tanith Lee's Claidi books, there are many large houses, and many secrets. That of Wolf Star Rise fits best in this category: the rooms physically, palpably move round. It's less old magic and more steampunk. This was my favourite of the Claidi books: the Rise is probably why.
- The icon for this post is particularly relevant, as it's taken from the Gormenghast miniseries. The rooms of Gormenghast might not move around, but castle is big enough that you could never know it all – and it definitely has a presence of its own.
- And for movies, what else was The Cube? Probably the closest of the books in terms of the nastiness of the tests is Wizard of the Grove, but unlike any of these books, The Cube is definitely horror. The tests aren't really to be overcome; you are pitted against your companions as much as against yourself. It is probably all a ginormous metaphor.
Buildings always change in dreams. A favourite of mine was when my brain took this to its logical conclusion and assumed I must be in some kind of alien construction where the house was out to get me; it didn't want me there, and it changed its best to kill my group off. Sarah's Labyrinth may not be real – its her own inner landscape she pits herself against, perhaps. The logic of these houses may be very much like dream logic; you cannot approach them rationally. You have to trust to your own wits and instincts that you can take what the building throws at you, that you can navigate through and not be forever lost. And if you stay still, you lose. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| We're watching 'Into the Wild', which is about this American boy who decides to hitchhike to Alaska. At one point he meets Kristen Stewart. Kristen Stewart comes onto him, and gets shut down. Admittedly, she's sixteen, and he's a college graduate.
But I can't help thinking, poor Kristen Stewart, none of the boys will have sex with her.
In every movie I have seen her in, she tries to have sex with a boy, and in none of these (three) movies does she get any. The closest she gets is in Fierce People, where she and Anton Yelchin rub paint all over each other. That was a really... disconcerting movie.
But apparently in more recent movies she gets to have affairs with married men and also be a teenager hooker. Which doesn't really seem satisfactory either.
God, why am I making a post about Kristen Stewart?
Probably because I'm not paying any attention to this movie. Young men on emotional journeys, so over it. Plz to be having more spaceships already... | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Mum got a whole bunch of movies out cheap from the video store this weekend, because our favourite TV shows have finished for the season and we have to fill our nights somehow. Mostly they are sci-fi movies, apart from one political thriller set in Russia for my sister.
Last night we watched The Man from Earth, which is probably the only sci-fi movie that takes place almost entirely in one room. It was adapted from a play, and as such consists mostly of the conversation between the characters. Their friend and collegue John Oldman is leaving town, and everyone's come over to throw him a surprise party. While they're there, he throws out an idea - what if you had a man, born 14,000 years ago, who simply stopped aging, and never died. What would he be like?
There's a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychiatrist, and so on, and they have fun playing with this idea until they realise he's being serious. Then they start to freak out. Either their friend is insane, or playing a cruel joke on them, or this incredible thing is actually true.
Also he was Jesus. And had studied under the Buddha. This movie is so sincere!
The characters aren't much, and their dialogue sometimes seems awkward, but the whole point is to play with the idea and its ramifications. It's science fiction, but there's no action, no explosions, no AIs or space ships or whatever genre tropes you're most fond of. Instead there's just a whole lot of dialogue. But that's okay! It's not boring! Even if it is kind of twee in parts, I am impressed because it held my attention.
I am reading people arguing about it on IMDB now and it is kind of hilarious. I am really not so invested as to argue that it was OMG the-best-thing-ever or OMG what-a-piece-of-shit. Uh - not that that's not what it's always like on IMDB.
Tonight we watched Cloverfield, which was also an entertaining way to spend an evening. Although I kept getting distracted by the hard cuts, which according to the conceit of the film, shouldn't have been there.
They think we won't notice, but I have been playing with vids!
I would talk about that properly but I got distracted by IMDB and now I have to go to bed. My computer is about to kick me off.
Next up: 2001: A Space Odyssey! I have never seen it. Mum is hoping maybe this time she will know what is up with the apes. Apes? I thought it was all about homocidal AIs...
Obviously I have much crazy to look forward to.
ETA: Mum has corrected me; it wasn't the apes she didn't get, it was the stuff at the end. The really weird stuff. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| When I watched Charlie Bartlett next week, I kept comparing it to other teen movies in my head, trying to figure out what it reminded me of. I decided it was Pump Up the Volume. In both, the protagonist is privy to the secrets of others, and helps instigate the rebellion of the student body. But Charlie Bartlett is a coming of age story - it ends with Charlie being interviewed for an internship after graduation, his chequered past inspiring him, not stopping him. In Pump Up the Volume, the last we see of Mark is his arrest, and the film ends with the voices of those who he has inspired, who have started up their own pirate radio stations and are continuing to speak out.
Pump Up the Volume, I decided, is the more satisfying movie.
The fascism of the school system, and the student's rebellion against the above, is the main story in Pump Up the Volume, where in Charlie Bartlett it is simply a subplot to the stories of Charlie and his girlfriend's dad, Principal Nathan Gardner. As a result it seems kind of extranuous - the students riot, but we don't know whether or not anything comes of this. The principal gets fired, but unlike in Pump Up the Volume, he's clearly not the bad guy (he actually seemed like a pretty good principal to me). It's better for his sake, but it doesn't make anything better for the students.
But that's okay, because they're all too busy directing their energy into the school play to kick it against the pricks.
Charlie Barlett is also comparitively a fantasy - I find it hard to believe in the school's adoration of Charlie, their opening up to him as school 'psychiatrist'. The fascination with the character of Hard Harry, and the anonymity of the late night radio program seem far more likely to me. Plus, you know, Mark isn't dealing drugs and getting away with it.
In fact, Charlie gets away with a lot more. He gets arrested, but it doesn't impede his life in anyway, as opposed to the finality of Mark's arrest, where it actually seems like he pays for breaking the law. Charlie doesn't. Unlike with Charlie, the suicidal kid who confides in Hard Harry actually succeeds in killing himself; Mark never gets to make that right.
Also, Mark and Nora hooking up is way hotter than Charlie and Susan. Just saying.
I would like to write an epic proper comparision of the two movies (I even started taking notes) but I think I might scare myself if I did. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, Star Trek was awesome. I'm so glad I went and saw it on the big screen.
There was a point, about two thirds of the way through, when I thought the pacing of the movie was off. Then I remembered I was watching a movie. I watch so much science fiction, but I watch TV shows. Movies are so short, and there's not the breadth of character development I'm used to. That doesn't mean they can't be lots of fun though!
( Read more... )
I'm actually tempted to go see it again. I haven't seen a movie multiple times at the theatre since Lord of the Rings! It was just that much fun. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| My two favourite teen movies are Heathers (1989) and Pump up the Volume (1990). No, it's not just that they've both got a teenage Christian Slater in them. (Although it helps!)
I use to look at Heathers at the video store as a high schooler, but I was too scared to ask Mum to get it out for me - I guess because of the whole teenagers killing each other thing? Considering what I used to read, it was really a very odd thing to get shy about.
So, I went for many years before I saw it. In the end, I picked it out for a movie marathon. And boy, was I not disappointed. Heathers blew me away. Veronica was so awesome. The whole thing was awesome. I had to go out and buy it on DVD straight away.
The attraction is not popular people getting killed off. It's not just Veronica and JD making such a sexy pair of renegades. In the end, it's just that Veronica wins. She is not bet down; JD might succumb to death-as-the-only way-to-mean-anything, but Veronica lives, she fights, she survives. She's my idol.
Pump up the Volume is a more subtle love. I first saw when I was a lot younger, at intermediate still. I think it was the first movie I ever saw with boobies. The appeal of this one is harder to explain - there were no murders faked as suicides for one thing, no boys blowing themselves up. Yet given the slightest chance to inflict it upon someone, I do.
Maybe it's because the characters are so awkward, the whole thing is so awkward; about how little things become big, and resistance, about reaching out and connecting. (It clearly inspires me to be wankier than Heathers does.) The fact that the main character is actually shy - he might talk big on the radio, but confront him with a face and he's off like a rabbit - it's very appealing to me. We are not who we appear to be.
And anyway, how can one not love a movie where the teen radio dj puts on Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows? | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| So, last night me and a group of unsuspecting friends went along to the Death Note movies at the film festival. Two movies: four and a half hours of awesome.
I think we all enjoyed ourselves, despite the perils off sitting still that long (though there was an interval). I ate a lot of candy, and now I wonder how L can eat so much without constantly having mouth ulsers? But I suppose that's the least of his worries.
Oh, L. It's easier to forget in the comic just how much of a bastard Light is, really. He might be worse in the movies, if you can have worse. The first movie was pretty close to the plot of the comics - Naomi's involvement differs, and Light has an actual girlfriend (this is where the utter bastard part comes in). It basically covers up till when Misa is introduced.
The first film takes a while to get moving - the first half hour is pretty much dramatic heart attacks and people texting each other about Kira. Which I does think illustrates better the Kira phenomenen. Once Light is actually introduced, you're on the edge of your seat. It's hella exciting, and also, hilarious.
I don't know if it was meant to be so funny? But it was funny. It's quite over the top sometimes. Some of the reaction was from the people who were familiar with the comics, some of it was to the sheer awesomeness. I don't think the first movie could have existed as it did if it wasn't an adaption, because you get to the end of it and it's only just getting started.
And the second movie is bam into it and has the whole damn rest of the story packed in. And by the whole, I mean many characters are cut and plotlines erased, but it works, because it's a movie, not a serialisation. No Mello, no Near, which is a pity but actually I really liked that meant L got to win. That made me happy, although in fact the whole thing's a bit of a tragedy. Very much loved L through it all. With his eyeliner. He he.
I can't go through everything that was amazing and made me so happy - but it was there. I do recommend watching the two movies together, just because it is such as experience! You really have to make an event of it. I wanna do it again sometime.
It was also nice seeing all the fankids and the general geeky environment. Because everyone's there to enjoy it (even if it's just as their crazy friends dragged them along). So I had a very good birthday, thank you. Up the geekdom! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, this evening me and my workmates at the bookshop had an expedition to the Earthsea movie, which is the latest thing from Ghibli. There's been a lot said about, in terms of an adaptation of the books, and its direction by Miyazaki Goro. The books it is most loosely based around, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu happen to be the Earthsea novels I have yet to read, so that doesn't bother me much - except that Le Guin's moralism is subtler than that found in this movie. And I'm not interested in comparing son to father in terms of direction... it is what it is. I wasn't disappointed because it wasn't as good as something else.
( It just wasn't that good straight. ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Things I did instead of reading the last Harry Potter book:
- sold the last Harry Potter book. We got to dress up. I wore a snake around my neck. It was good because I actually got excited about it. Otherwise I was kind of just, pfft, who cares any more?
- read the last Death Note. It is a sign of the 'pfft' that I was more excited about this having come in than the Potter book. Oh my gosh the exposition! But Obata's art is amazing enough I will forgive. Ee, Mello! "I guess I'll have to do it," he says. Eee. And Matsuda! Matsuda, you rule! Very satisfying. The death scene was freaking amazing.
- read the Listener. Which is a bit said really, but there was an interesting article on male vs female brains. I would love to read more about that in an actual science journal. Rather than a current events magazine. I did not do my kakuro and sudoko before reading the tome.
- watched The Science of Sleep with my family, including baby who was not interested in sleep. Weird movie - it was hard trying to keep track of what was real and what wasn't, which I suppose was the point. But there was lots of cuteness and inanity and intriguing-ness. So now I can tick it off the list of movies Isobel has told me to watch. Next is The Edukators, which I'll probably watch on one of my days off this week. As Tonya was telling me to watch it too. Sheeh.
Things I did whilst eating dinner/lying in bed:
- read Harry Potter. Ha ha.
Of course I could go and talk about it now, but I've gone and spoilt that by inviting a friend over. So I will just say that I did enjoy reading it - far more so than the sixth, and I felt like it had it's worldbuilding magic back. I will leave getting spoilerific and picky for another day. It will probably be quite fun, actually. Hopefully my workmates who are reading it will have this evening, and we can discuss.
( ETA: notes on DH ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Someone picked up a copy of the programme for the Wellington International Film Festival today, so I was looking through that earlier. There wasn't anything too exciting - which is just as well, because I can't afford to go to much anyway - though there was the Leonard Cohen documentary I'm Your Man which I pointed out to my mother, and she marked the dates.
...until, with five pages to go (in the weird movie section), I don't so much point out as squeal. Because. They're showing the Death Note movies. Ee!
In fact I was so busy squeeing it was left to my mother to point out the one showing is on my birthday!
Anyway, I'm excited. Is it sad that I want to ring people up to tell them this? Though it will mean very little to them? He he. I imagine Kim rolling her eyes at me already. Too bad. I'm looking forward to forcing people to come with me. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| !!!
I'm reading a Tokyopop press release. This may not sound that exciting, but it seriously is. It's to do with 'manga' adaptions of a certain three films, and I'm just sitting here squealing. But I can't believe I didn't know already. I would've thought that Neil Gaiman would have mentioned it on his blog - because the three films are The Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and Mirrormask. That's two of my favourite films and one that, though I haven't yet seen it, I know will be.
The Labyrinth one is a sequel, dealing with the topic I always thought would be the best for a sequel: Toby. It always seemed obvious to me, although of course it depends on how you interpret the film - because if it was all in Sarah's head, it's not going to affect Toby at all. But if Toby did actually spend that time in The Labyrinth, then it's got to have affected him. And it would be interesting to see how. So I'm very excited about that, not just because it's The Labyrinth, but because it's what I wanted to see explored in a sequel.
The other two are prequels, and Neil Gaiman is plotting the Mirrormask one, which is why I'm surprised I didn't already know, but I got distracted with The Dark Crystal when it mentioned they're making a sequel. It's being directed by Brian Henson, and it's just like... finding all this out at once... I'm surprised my brain's not exploding. I'm not worried about any of them being messed up, because it's just too exciting! | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| So, I'm back now from my adventures in Christchurch. My quite expensive adventures in Christchurch - ie why it's probably a bad thing for Borders to come to Wellington. Well, they had buy two get one free on all their manga, so of course I was going to take advantage of it, wasn't I? So now I have Paradise Kiss in its entirity, yay! This is my favourite manga. And I have a lot more Ceres now - and that damn 7th Eva that I tried ordering in from two places and never came in. Grr. Um. Not that you probably need to hear me talk about the manga I bought. Let's just say shopping in Christchurch was a very fulfilling experience.
I have sand in my hair from going to the beach when it was windy. It was a boring beach - no rocks to speak of. Akaroa, on the other hand, was all rocks, which is no good either. You have to get that happy medium. In Akaroa, I bought a $5 bag of possum pieces. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with these. But they're soft and fuzzy, so you know, that's cool. I love having pieces of dead animal lying around. Please, someone tell me what's wrong with me.
I'm all excited to see people again, except half of them are still away! I was scared maybe everyone would have jobs now, and that all this free time I have now would be useless. I don't know if that's going to be a problem though - the problem will be waiting for people to get back. I'm looking at Logan in particular, who is in nearly the same place as I was to start off with. I got him a present, and can someone please explain the Ring movies to me? See, because the book is Spiral, which there is a movie of - I know this because Logan will not let us watch it. Apparantly I won't be scared enough. So I read it (yes, I read Logan's present) and it's a sequal to Ring, right? And this confuses me because, with the movies, there is Ring 2 as well as Spiral. How does this work? What happens in Ring 2? Is the Spiral movie in the same 'verse as the Ring movie? Why oh why must this be so confusing!
It was a good book actually, more a thriller than a horror, so maybe I can tell Logan that and he will let me watch it, because if it's not a horror then I don't have to be scared, right? It was very engaging, and I actually felt like I understood it all, which wasn't so much the case watching Ring. I mean, it was wacky, but it was consistant. Although I do fail to understand why anyone would think humanity would be improved by removing individuality.
Today I am going to see another movie that is an adaption of a book - I am going to see Howl's Moving Castle! This is very exciting for me, especially because The Paramount is showing in subtitled. My sister went to see it dubbed... blasphemer. I understand it makes it easier to watch... but once, at Logan's, we watching Kiki's Delivery Service, and we watched it subbed - and then we watched parts of it with the dub, and, well, you'd never want to watch a dub after that either.
I haven't read the book of Howl's Moving Castle... which I have heard may be a good thing. I never got into Diana Wynne Jones. I read one of her books once, but it was quite weird and not in a way that appealed to me. I can't really remember anything about it now, so it can't have done that much for me. I couldn't even tell you what the book was.
I'm sure last night I'd come up with all these meaningful, maybe even interesting things that I could say, but they've all fled now. You'll just have to make do. | | comments: 11 comments or Leave a comment |
| Oh, joy of joys, Madman is going to be released Whisper of the Heart come March next year. This pleases me immensely. Whisper of the Heart is a Ghibli film about a girl who wants to be a writer, and also a snarky boy who wants to make violins, and I was thinking through out the whole thing that they should totally get married and have babies, and at the end he asks her to marry him! You know, when they're older. They're about 14. It was very sweet and exciting, although I think the boys who saw it found it slightly more disturbing. Which is understandable. But anyway, I'm very very happy it's going to come out on DVD.
Also:
Ha ha! | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| My sister and I went to Harry Potter today. Seperately. But it was still nice, because we got to talk about it when we got home. It was so good! It was better than the sixth book, god damn it. It made me want to be a Harry Potter fan again.
( So, let's just cut the ranting... )
My family went out for dinner without me. They are treating Talia to Indian for being so good at studying for her exams, but that would be like torture for me, so I stayed home and ate potatoes instead. Mmm, potatoes. Note I do not get taken out for dinner for studying. Mum made a pointed remark to Anya about it, and Anya said, "Yeah, well, maybe she needs to study. I didn't need to study." You can tell she is a highly modest person, and also hard-working.
(That wasn't very nice, I don't mean it like that, I'm just being snipey.)
In other news, I am being published in Re-draft again. Take that! Now I have to ring Selina and see if she was also. It's strange, I didn't even squeal reading the letter. (I did squeal watching Harry Potter. But only once.) I don't get taken out for dinner, which is fine by me, but maybe I will get chocolate. That would be something. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
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