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The other night the hubby and I curled up to watch a movie. We picked “City of Lost Children” which is a French sci-fi/fantasy film. The description sounded interesting and I didn’t think I’d have any problem with it. But I absolutley could not watch the whole thing. In short, there’s an inventor who cannot have dreams himself and so he kidnaps children and steals their dreams, but in return, the children have only nightmares. A strongman and an orphan girl team up together to save the strongman’s little brother.
It made me very sad to see the children put into these little pods with wires poked into their heads and then to see them all screaming and crying. I was just heartbroken.
Instead we flipped over to “Confessions of a Superhero” which was infinitely more interesting. It is a documentary on the people who dress up as superheroes and offer photo op’s for tourists on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. They center their focus on Superman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk and Batman. I thought it interesting how two of them seemed sno normal and were just doing it for the money now and to get noticed. Two of them were…well, they felt incredibly unbalanced. Some of the stories they told during their interviews felt so full of B.S.
After looking on IMDB to see if any of them actually got into movies (one of them did a movie, the other was in a couple of TV shows as a bit part), I saw that there was a sort of sequel to “Confessions…” It might be interesting to see it if it isn’t simply a replay on the stories already told.
Last night during knitting, my girlfriend and I watched “Elizabeth”, the one with Cate Blanchett. I’m not much of a history buff, so any of the inconsistencies completely flew over my head. And even with some (quick) research today, I’m still oblivious to the inconsistencies.
I was impressed with the movie. I like how strong Elizabeth was portrayed and Cate Blanchett did a great job. Of course, I think that Cate Blanchett is a spectacular actress anyway. She comes off as one of those actresses that just fully becomes every character she takes on. I knew that Elizabeth was either a) having an affair or just involved in a b) extremely close relationship with Robert Dudley. But in the movie I never see his wife or her scandal causing death. I only heard mention of her very slightly and this causes Elizabeth to shun him. I confess that I spent much of the first half of the movie trying to figure out where I had seen Geoffrey Rush before. Then it clicked after studying his nose. He’s Barbossa! After I solved that mystery, I invested much more of my time in watching the film.
The one thing I was slightly disappointed in is that I read the back of the movie and expected all kinds of thrills and adventure. Then the movie, while it provided thrills & adventure, didn’t seem to live up to the blurb on the back. But I suppose you have to edit some things out because if you were to do a full story of any monarch, it would take a lot of film. That’s probably why they made “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”.
So tonight I think I’m going to rent “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” while I’ve got Elizabeth’s monarchy on the brain, and then since I’m admiring Cate Blanchett’s work, I might pick up “The Aviator”.
It’s been awhile since I last blogged. This last month has been pretty crazy with all the traveling and different projects I’ve started. The good news is that I’ve mastered some beginning knitting and have been reacclimating myself to being a stay at home mom.
When my son was first born I was in the habit of reading to him while he was breastfeeding. We managed our way through many good books and a few bad ones in the process. Then as he grew, we shifted into simple lullabies before bedtime. His interest wavered in books and for awhile we didn’t read many. But now we’ve gotten back into the swing of things. His personal favorites are “I love you through and through” (this is how he learned where his toes, nose, ears, hair, eyes, and fingers are) and “Harold and the Purple Crayon”. While we still read these, I thought it would be a better bedtime ritual to read to him for 15-30 minutes out of an actual book. So far it’s been working marvelously. Forever ago we bought “His Dark Materials” because my husband fancied himself reading it. Never started it. Instead, we’ve begun reading it to our son. My only problem with this, is that I will read him a chunk (usually a chapter) and then in the evening for bedtime, my husband will read a chunk and we both miss out on what’s going on.
I know that somehow this trilogy has anti-Christian themes and whatnot. But nothing has seemed overly obvious in the few chapters we’ve covered so far. I feel bad for Lyra who is being used as a pawn by her uncle, Mrs. Coulter and the Master. Lyra learns through gossip that Mrs. Coulter wants to use her to help lure other children into her servitude. Lord Asriel has used Lyra as a spy in the college and the Master at Oxford College wants to protect her from whatever he believes Lord Asriel is doing, but hands her over to Mrs. Coulter. What I perceive is the relationship between the daemons and their human is that they are the embodiment of their emotions and can take a corporeal form. Other than that, I’m not sure what their importance is.
To start off our summer movie kicks, we saw “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. I’ve heard many good and bad reviews of the movie, each with equally good points. Now, to be fair, the movie is set in the 1950’s and Area 51 and aliens were becoming a phenomenon. So the concept of aliens and psychic forces is not beyond the imagination. I was impressed that Steven Spielberg did not make Indiana Jones be as youthful as the previous movies. They played to his age and yet kept the action appropriate. What I most did not like about the movie is the concept of aliens itself. At least at the end. It seemd so overplayed and so overdramatic. Plus I felt that Cate Blanchett’s character (Irina Spalko) could have been fleshed out a lot more. The only thing we really know about her is that she is a psychic looking for all-knowing power/knowledge via the skulls. But what I find silly, is that she claims to be psychic and all with the mind games, but the only time she really uses it is when she’s probing the minds of Professor Oxley and Indy using the skull. Other than that, how does she prove her abilities? My other kind of gripe about the movie is that I didn’t feel that they used the Indiana Jones theme music nearly enough during the movie. We’ve been re-watching the other ones and it feels as if the theme is used in every other scene. I know that when this 4th installment comes out on DVD we’ll get it, and I know that one weekend we will sit down and watch all of them in succession. Then it might be easier to grasp if it truly fits into the Indiana Jones world or not.
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