media matters
Nov. 29th, 2014 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scarlettina, recent media stuff:
i remain skeptical about the new Star Wars movie.
my impressions of the teaser trailer:
looks like some editors' challenge to cut it as if it was a horror film. muzzle flash, shakycam, stupid gimmcky new lightsaber, MILLENIUM FALCON SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.
effects look great. other than the editing style, the design was all the Star Wars of my childhood - grubby and angular, occasionally ludicrous. then they got me with the Falcon paired with Luke's theme. i short-circuited. no lie, there were tears of joy. then i settled enough to hear the trailer end with the whisper-whoosh of a lightsaber powering down. squee!
the sense-memory experience of Star Wars is so strong for me. (i was reminded of how i responded to the trailers for the 2005 Doctor Who.) after the trailer, i rushed off and pulled out the DVD, and enjoyed its thumb-sucking goodness. (the trailer made C want to turn on Clone Wars, so clearly we got different things from it.)
still, i doubt. i think it will be like Star Trek - we won't know if this movie thing is a success until there are two films (The Motion Picure/Wrath of Khan, Generations/First Contact, Star Trek/Into Darkness). the first one is a transition, the second one tells us if we're building something new or toiling in the nostalgia mines. the JJ Abrams Star Trek is why i am profoundly skeptical about this venture. (moving away from Lucasfilm isn't an issue for me. i can rant extensively on how George Lucas is a visionary and not a writer/director. his work shines when he hires more talented people to execute.) the Abrams Star Trek was a great transitional film, where the universe was skilfully reset and our hands were held through the transition. Star Trek Into Darkness was a brain parasite activating our memories of Wrath of Khan - instead using the reset to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, yaddayadda.
tl;dr i will probably watch two new Star Wars movies. i will be forgiving of the first and judge their success or failure with the second.
***
finally saw Interstellar.
loved it. probably because it evoked old Heinlein, Known Space, A Wrinkle In Time, and Queen. and they kept dog-whistling classic sf films without doing full-on references; it was a balancing act that i found quite satisfying. Interstellar didn't care if you could keep up or not, the heroes were scientists, it didn't force a romance, and the family relationships were truthy. bonus points for seamlessly incorporating clips from The Dust Bowl. our future is in the stars - it's not that i think we should stop trying to take care of the earth, it's that i think it will heal much faster if there are less of us here to mess it up. i need to see Interstellar in the theater again.
***
as a reader of the books, i found Mockingjay: Part 1 to be pretty satisfying. (not sure how it would feel without that background.) the films have made the Katniss vs President Snow storyline particularly great. and damn, Elizabeth Banks, damn. Effie Trinket is still Effie Trinket, even without her makeup. looking forward to a third Hunger Games birthday next year.
scarlettina, recent media stuff:i remain skeptical about the new Star Wars movie.
my impressions of the teaser trailer:
looks like some editors' challenge to cut it as if it was a horror film. muzzle flash, shakycam, stupid gimmcky new lightsaber, MILLENIUM FALCON SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.
effects look great. other than the editing style, the design was all the Star Wars of my childhood - grubby and angular, occasionally ludicrous. then they got me with the Falcon paired with Luke's theme. i short-circuited. no lie, there were tears of joy. then i settled enough to hear the trailer end with the whisper-whoosh of a lightsaber powering down. squee!
the sense-memory experience of Star Wars is so strong for me. (i was reminded of how i responded to the trailers for the 2005 Doctor Who.) after the trailer, i rushed off and pulled out the DVD, and enjoyed its thumb-sucking goodness. (the trailer made C want to turn on Clone Wars, so clearly we got different things from it.)
still, i doubt. i think it will be like Star Trek - we won't know if this movie thing is a success until there are two films (The Motion Picure/Wrath of Khan, Generations/First Contact, Star Trek/Into Darkness). the first one is a transition, the second one tells us if we're building something new or toiling in the nostalgia mines. the JJ Abrams Star Trek is why i am profoundly skeptical about this venture. (moving away from Lucasfilm isn't an issue for me. i can rant extensively on how George Lucas is a visionary and not a writer/director. his work shines when he hires more talented people to execute.) the Abrams Star Trek was a great transitional film, where the universe was skilfully reset and our hands were held through the transition. Star Trek Into Darkness was a brain parasite activating our memories of Wrath of Khan - instead using the reset to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, yaddayadda.
tl;dr i will probably watch two new Star Wars movies. i will be forgiving of the first and judge their success or failure with the second.
***
finally saw Interstellar.
loved it. probably because it evoked old Heinlein, Known Space, A Wrinkle In Time, and Queen. and they kept dog-whistling classic sf films without doing full-on references; it was a balancing act that i found quite satisfying. Interstellar didn't care if you could keep up or not, the heroes were scientists, it didn't force a romance, and the family relationships were truthy. bonus points for seamlessly incorporating clips from The Dust Bowl. our future is in the stars - it's not that i think we should stop trying to take care of the earth, it's that i think it will heal much faster if there are less of us here to mess it up. i need to see Interstellar in the theater again.
***
as a reader of the books, i found Mockingjay: Part 1 to be pretty satisfying. (not sure how it would feel without that background.) the films have made the Katniss vs President Snow storyline particularly great. and damn, Elizabeth Banks, damn. Effie Trinket is still Effie Trinket, even without her makeup. looking forward to a third Hunger Games birthday next year.
