Thoughts on two movies...

[fajrdrako]

I saw a good part of Beowulf with maaboroshi today. Don't know what I think. It's a movie in which real actors were used... sort of... but done over in animation, so that it's a realistic kind of animation, but animation nonetheless.

Reminded me of Final Fantasy, but in Final Fantasy I knew I loved the art. Here... it was so close to real actors that it made me uncomfortable: instead of thinking of them as pictures I was thinking of them as photos, but they felt 'wrong', plastic, not quite real.... It wasn't good enough if it were real actors, but it didn't look enough like drawings to be visual art. A strange dichotomy. Sometimes the swooping of the camera angles - as in video-games - made me vaguely nauseous.

The pseudo-sets were lovely. There's one scene where we see a wall-hanging behind Beowulf, that looks in the classic Anglo-Saxon style.

On the other hand, I never pictured Heorot as being built of stone. Isn't that anachronistic?

Pretty armour, though. And somehow my discomfort with the art didn't extend to Beowulf's physical beauty.

Angelina Jolie's lips didn't seem to move enough when she talked. I mentioned this, and maaseru said that had nothing to do with the animation, and more to do with botox.

The blood-and-gore bits were two much for me.

~ ~ ~

Before Beowulf on the DVD there was a trailer for the upcoming movie Iron Man. Hoo boy, that looks good. It looks - I hope I'm not being misled here - as if they have exactly the right touch on the character of Tony Stark, both the sleaze and the heroism. I can hardly wait. Since I've been mostly unexcited by the movies coming out lately, how nice to see one advertised that I'm getting excited over!

I might add that in that trailer, Robert Downey, Jr., reminded me of Edward James Olmos. That's a good omen.

Comments

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

Here... it was so close to real actors that it made me uncomfortable: instead of thinking of them as pictures I was thinking of them as photos, but they felt 'wrong', plastic, not quite real.... It wasn't good enough if it were real actors, but it didn't look enough like drawings to be visual art. A strange dichotomy.

This is why I didn't go to see it -- from the posters alone I could see it'd drag me straight into the Uncanny Valley (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UncannyValley).

Iron Man is going to kick ass. When he's racing the jets! Eeee! I've seen that trailer at least half a dozen times, and that bit always makes my heart leap.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What an interesting link - thank you! Yes, this is exactly the phenomenon I was reacting to. It bothered me least with Beowulf - who looked most human, and more detailed in body and facial details - and most with the women, who seemed more sketchy. If "sketchy" can be said to be the right word. More doll-like - though most of the men were doll-like too.

maaboroshi seems to have a high tolerance for that; she's into video-games a lot.

When he's racing the jets! Eeee!

Yes - isn't that terrific? He has that Rocketeer posture, and there's such energy in that moment.

[mommimus-prime.livejournal.com]

When we saw a preview of Beowulf in IMAX, my family's reaction was..."That's just creepy." Those weird, lifeless eyes and such just made me squick.

As for Ironman, I hated the trailer I saw. So I have no hope for it at all.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

When we saw a preview of Beowulf in IMAX, my family's reaction was..."That's just creepy." Those weird, lifeless eyes and such just made me squick.

And it must have been all the worse on IMAX! Yes, there's just somethig missing from those images - as if the soul is sucked out of the characters. Or the energy. It's ... yes, creepy.

As for Ironman, I hated the trailer I saw.

Oh, that's too bad! We shall see. As you know, I am usually unimpressed with movie version of comic books. And really, it's to the movie's advantage that I am not a big fan of Iron Man, though I do rather like him as the conflicted semi-fascist Director of SHIELD.

I don't know what I think about Wolverine. So far, in the X-Men movies, I think Hugh Jackman is very good at capturing the character, even if he is too tall, too pretty, and too nice. But the scripts? Just not up to the comic, even a mediocre issue of the comic. So - do I want to see a bowdlerized inadequate version of Logan on the screen? Or will it be worthy of the character?

We shall see - that it, I'll see, if I have the courage to spend money on seeing it.

[mommimus-prime.livejournal.com]

I'm so old fashioned that even the current comic book depictions of Ironman and others makes my skin crawl. I just cannot read the comcs at all. And the current depictions are what're in the movies.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Art in comics certainly has been changing, and seems to be all over the map now - in principle at least, I like it better than the period when everyone was trying to draw like Curt Swan or Jack Kirby or, heaven forbid, a mixture of the two.

Some comics look good to me, others look unreadable. So I go on a case to case basis. Haven't been reading Iron Man of late, just seeing the character in other comics, in his SHIELD capacity. Which amuses me.

(And aaah, where are the Nick Furys of yesteryear?)

[mommimus-prime.livejournal.com]

I really wasn't thinking of the art. I was thinking of the grim, dark, gritty stories and character interpretations that are so prevalent in comics these days. Comics just aren't fun anymore.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm having fun with a lot of comics - though I confess I'm not reading anything at all from DC now, not since Jeph Loeb stopped writing Superman/Batman, and not since I felt rather gypped or offended by "52". Otherwise I find that the tone of comics is all over the map, depending on the title and the style of the writer. And, I suppose, the editors, though that's harder to track.

I used to pick what comics I'd read by choosing by character - going for titles with characters I liked. I don't do that any more, I follow writers I like and trust. That too is tricky when it comes to (a) anticipating what's coming up and (b) changing my subscriptions a lot.

[filkferengi]

Did you ever read tammypierce & timeliebe's _White Tiger_ miniseries? It's excellent.

I'm looking forward to the Iron Man movie, too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

White Tiger? No, I didn't read it.

I hope, hope, hope, the Iron Man movie is good. I'm just craving a good comic book-based movie.

[filkferengi]

The 6-issue trade compilation is available here, starting at 8.52 in brand-new condition: http://product.half.ebay.com/_W0QQcpidZ1379425896QQprZ60188901

If you want to support a local comic shop, it just came out last year, so they should still have it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll ask at the Silver Snail next time I'm in. Maybe tomorrow. And I was looking for an excuse to go to the Comic Booke Shoppe...