Ten hours transit at Doha airport. Sleeping is always an option, though with these time differences I’m not sure it’s a good idea. The airport is crowded (and of course about half the people don’t care about the mask requirement) so finding an open seat near a power outlet was a challenge. But at least there’s this weird yellow lamp-bear thing.
I read some of the Dune books back in high school. I enjoyed the setting of the world, the vast desert of Arrakis, the ruthless political scheming, the cool tech – but at the same time I really disliked the idea of genetic memory and all the plot devices that arise from it, and I felt that the use of gholas is a very cheap writing trick. I was still looking forward to the new Dune movie directed by Villeneuve, mostly because I was impressed by the trailer and also because I loved his Arrival.
I’ve rewatched the Arrival movie from 2016 a bunch of times, though most of the times skipping here and there, just “kinda” rewatching the parts that tickle my brain the right way, out of order as fitting to the movie.
I won’t pretend to understand the dilemma of the heroine or why her choice resulted in what it did. I haven’t been married or had a child, so the gravity of those just goes right above my head. I just assume “probably pretty bad.”
Today at work the topic of flashbombs came up. Now the only thing I know about flashbombs is that Inara uses one in Serenity when Mal fights the Alliance agent at the training house. I suggested that I’ll bring the movie to use as a reference, so when I got home I ended up rewatching it. Again.
There aren’t many movies that I saw more than one time. There are plenty that were memorable (like Cloverfield for example), but I can only think of two from “recent years” that I watched more than once: Serenity and the 2009 Star Trek movie.
Of course there is a good bunch of movies that I grew up on, watching them over and over again, such as Mary Poppins, Home Alone 3, Beauty and the Beast, Die Hard or Little Nemo (the Slumberland one, not the fish)… However, I watched these before I’d consciously start to look for and watch movies.
Yesterday i watched another Alice in Wonderland movie, this time the Tim Burton one. Or i might as well say “the good one”. In this movie there were only a few lines out of place, in general the whole thing was as awesome as it can get. Especially the Cheshire cat. I don’t know why, but the whole character, with it’s mad grin, way of talking and popping up at random places feels so familiar (chances are, from the legendary hungarian movie Cat City). The story is original for the latter half, gives the original a bit of a Jeanne d’Arc touch, and it works out well. The madness of certain (all) characters fits in with the whole environment, though the movie uses it for humor very sparingly–there could’ve been lots more of puns–though i don’t know if that’s a problem at all. Good movie, as expected from Tim Burton.
Going to the gym and running every day (or going for a fifty-k bike trip) is tiring. Playing StarCraft 2 in 1v1 on Battle.net for hours is fun, even if out of a dozen games i could only win like three. Translating stuff is fun, just when you have like 15 episodes to catch up to urgently, it gets significantly harder to get started with it.
Going to the movies with a friend to watch Harry Potter 7/2 is fun, so is annoying the hell out of the few japanese who came to watch the subtitled english version with our constant laughing and sarcastic comments. Hey, we’re in the Chamber of Secrets. Ron, i’m so wet. Insert lamest kiss scene of the year here. And though they put in the “crappy fanart” grade “19 years later” part in the movie, they left out the only appreciable dialog from it (our Teddy Lupin?!), bleh.
It just struck me that it’s already september, which means it’s already been a year since i visited Okinawa and China, and honestly i feel like i’ve done nothing in this one year. Then i realize that i had the toughest exams in my life so far and also (on the side note) translated like… I don’t know, a lot of anime. Really a lot. (I haven’t counted it yet, but it’s at least 100 episodes just to english.) And i read some books, not as much as i’d have liked, but still plenty, and some in japanese. And i’ve (more or less) learnt how to play the bass.
Also, i started creating a world.
I think i’ve seen the trailer of this movie once quite long ago, not sure where, might’ve been on a flight back/to Japan, anyway, i decided i should check this out. I liked the old Independence Day movie, and this seemed just the same.
It is.
“World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles” is its full title, and the movie is just as original as its title shows (no matter the Original Film logo at the beginning). In the very first scenes an army guy uses the phrase “textbook military invasion”. Well, this movie is a “textbook military movie”.
There are invading aliens, there are the heroic marines who fight them, there are the poor civilians caught up inbetween (and of course the marines are trying to save them), there’s even the standard flashback to the day before the action starts so that the viewers will get attached to the characters (not happened), there’s the usual officer with a failure in his past that cost many lives…
It’s really a textbook military movie, but at least it doesn’t claim anything else. It was good enough.
I checked the 2009 Alice movie, because why not, but after watching it i can tell you why not: it’s bad. Sad but true. It looks cool, but the only characters who had any kind of character to them were the (Mad) Hatter and the Knight, everyone else was either annoying, plain and/or stupid.
The movie’s a Hollywood touch on the Alice in Wonderland theme, set god knows how long after the “Alice of legends” set foot in Wonderland and stirred some trouble. Most characters show up again, but only in name, so even if there’s a Caterpillar, even if there’s a cat with the grin, they don’t play any role and are there just for being there.
The story is dumb, all the running around and trying to do something totally different every ten minutes doesn’t help either. It’s just the C-grade Hollywood stock and of course there’s a kissing scene too, telling the world again that the ideal American girl is a slut.
You shouldn’t watch this movie unless you have your girl (replace as fitting for your sexual preferences) beside you and you wouldn’t be watching the movie anyway.
After a long time i went to watch a movie in cinema again. The long awaited seventh (but not final) Harry Potter movie was most definitely not bad, but i don’t know how good it was.
Years ago i bought the Eragon book as a present for my Cousin Itt Senmaiel. I myself didn’t get to read it, but it seemed interesting with dragonriders and stuff. Of course they made a movie out of it, but i fear we’d’ve been better off without it.
