We decided that WALL-E was a good choice for Hayden’s first movie theater outing. Because Kris is more of a geek than I am, we decided I would be on Gabe duty while they went.
They went to the 1:30 showing on Saturday. Due to a technical glitch, they had to see a showing an hour later than planned… but that gave us two free tickets to the theater.
Hayden and I went to see it this morning. It turns out that purchasing tickets from an actual person (and not the internet) has its advantages, at least to a preschooler. The powers-that-be of the movie, which is based on the premise that humans destroy the earth with their material greed, decided that cheap plastic watches were a good choice for a free opening-weekend gift. I have to assume that at least a few of the powers are parents, as Hayden loves it…
Which brings me to my favorite three-and-a-half year old line of the day:
Playing monsters vs. superheroes
Hayden (superhero) to Kris (monster): *looks at wrist watch* “Time to kill you.”
** To the readers who might be gasping: Yes, we play monsters and superheroes and allow the word “kill.” We don’t have any actual toy guns in the house, though Hayden is good at creating them with legos. (He then calls them “Bwuem-bweums.” His sound effects are classic.) He’s a preschool boy, with a terrific sense of imaginary play. He prefers to play the good guy, and he knows it’s pretend. I call that a winning scenario.
This is the first time I have ever gone to a movie theater by myself, but I have to admit, I liked it.
Going to the 11:10 showing on a Sunday probably helped. I wasn’t competing for seats with massive amounts of couples or teens.
Thank you, Kris, for my escape from the home and the boys to Narnia for two and a half hours.
The movie was beautifully shot and well paced. (Not so much for the younger crowd, but for fans of the books and the overall arch of the story it was perfect.)
I loved Reepicheep (perhaps my favorite Narnian character in the series) as much as I loved Lucy (a very close second).
There is some debate about one of the primary characters (Susan) of which I was unaware until Kris and I discussed it a few days ago. It seems that Susan is absent from the final book of the series, and there is talk of this being a sign that Lewis is a sexist. ( I am hugely generalizing my understanding of Kris’ understanding of this debate… I haven’t done my own research yet.) I argued (unsucessfully) that Lewis’ inclusion of the knowledge of her absence as well as the lack of other details regarding her absence was not a downfall of the arch (and rather it was a strong element of themes of adherence to faith).
In the movie, there were moments I felt as though Susan was being set up to be completely absent from The Last Battle. I appreciated them and realized they didn’t feel out of place as snips like this often do when they don’t come from the original story.
I can’t wait to start reading the series again, to see if those clues are also in Lewis’ original works.
I haven’t been posting much because I’ve been distracted by dad related activities and poorly managing my time, but I’ve saved a variety of geek related tidbits to talk about.
First, check out this wonderful poster created by Scott Johnson to display many of the varied geek types. Overall I fit in about 17 of the different categories in some form or another. How many do you fit in? Let’s see how many of these archetypes I can hit in this post!
I’d like to give a shout out to my former roomate and fellow geek Mike Ringenbach for working on bringing back online text games and getting noticed for it.
Also, a very geeky thank you to Coach for giving me my new favorite shirt (see below) and for lending me one of my new favorite comic series; Star Wars Legacy. If you like Star Wars or comics you should check out Cade Skywalker’s story.
Elsewhere in geekery The Hobbit is going to be made into two movies with Peter Jackson as the producer. He won’t be directing, but let’s hope that his presence brings about the quality seen in The Lord of The Rings. Hayden and I read The Hobbit for bedtime and eventually Gabe and I will as well. By the time the movies are done the boys will likely be 5 and 8 years old. Hopefully the resulting films will be something we can enjoy together.
Duke Nukem Forever, the longest running gag in video games (10 years in development and still no release date in sight) has released its first teaser since 2001.
Is this game/genre still relevant? The entire series revolved around shooting aliens with ridiculously oversized/Freudian guns, one liners ripped from They Live and the Evil Dead movies, and paying strippers to jiggle their various money makers. Duke Nukem is an archive of the days when the average gamer was still in pimples and tighty-whities who’s only interaction with girls was paper or virtual.
Now the average gamers age is 33. Most of us have grown up, met a few girls, discovered them to be rich deep individuals to be interacted with on multiple levels. Now we have games like Portal which is not only unique, beautifully designed, hilarious and well written, but also contains an all female cast with ZERO characters cast as one-dimensional sex objects.
Duke’s been outgrown, it’s time for him to lay down and go the way of the Atari; cheaply and overused.
Since I brought up Portal I want to point out this merchandise which I know want more than anything else in the world today:
Of course, if you haven’t played Portal, then you can’t understand my affection for the Weighted Companion Cube, but you should know that it loves me and speaks to me.
Gabriel and I enjoyed the movie at a babies and mommy showing at a nearby theater. While there might be crying babies in the theater with you, being able to enjoy a new release on the big screen without having to shell out for a pricey ticket and a babysitter is completely worth it. Pair that with the actual cost of the ticket, a mere $5… and I’m in love. Too bad the Tuesday at 10 showing conflicts with a work day, which will start again all too soon.
Anyway… the movie…
It is similar to other movies, most definitely (rename Molly to Charlie), but I believe that this movie can stand on its own. No, the acting isn’t superb, but it isn’t a B movie either. No, the special effects aren’t brilliant, but the movie isn’t about the special effects. There are moments in the dialogue that feel forced, but not enough to pull me out of the magic of the movie. It might not get any awards, but I want it in our home library of movies.
The messages were strong, but not overpowering. It helped that Hoffman was able to pull off the character of Magorium as well as he did. The little quips don’t seem as maudlin as they might despite the sheer number of them. I loved the character of Eric, the hat collector, and his role in getting magic into the life of the mutant (the counting mutant - the accountant) played by Jason Bateman.
Portman’s character, the pianist who is lost, was the only part of the movie that I would have changed. Her dichotomy of happy store manager and distraught grown-up looking for her lost path was too much a see-saw for my liking. I believe that Portman played the role better than most women would have, but I had had enough of her by the ending.
Perhaps this back and forth was nauseating for the producers of the movie, and they decided that it needed to hurry up and end. That might explain the speed with which the movie closes. Or they realized they were billing it as a kids’ movie, and an hour and a half is where that billing can top out.
Kris and I are large fans of the B style of horror movies. It has been a while since we’ve seen a good one, but Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane finally broke our bad bad streak.
***SPOILER ALERT***
It had many of the genre specific characteristics we have come to love. The pilot was on his last flight before retirement. There were two couples who were in the midst of a triangle. There was a nun. Ah, timing, infidelity and faith… your horror movie trinity has been missed. If there is a character who would be safe if only this happened tomorrow, a woman with a short skirt and too much makeup, and a firm believer of how things should happen you are in for a treat. A bad horror movie can still be good with a less than complete matchup, but all three makes the chances of enjoying the movie a la MST3K that much better.
Add to the cut-out character list the fact that there is a completely unnecessary subtitle for the movie and some amazing one-liners, and you have me.
An old woman zombie attacks a living passenger. She bites his arm, but an astonishing lack of blood splatter is present. “She’s gumming me to death!”
The action kept up; the makers didn’t attempt to make this a movie about anything other than a zombie outbreak at 30,000 feet. There was plenty of fake blood and bad acting. The movie made me want to see a new type of film, though.
The movie explains some rogue CIA agents are attempting to move an experiment out of the country. The box holding the zombie infection is stored in the cargo section of the plane. At one point, a pilot and two rogue CIA agents have to go into the cargo hold to check something out. CIA agents are turned, and the pilot escapes. At this point in the movie, Kris looks at me and says the most beautiful idea for a movie I’ve ever heard. “And he shuts up the entrance properly, zombies are contained, and we get to spend the next hour and fifteen minutes with some fantastic character development.”
Sell it as a horror film. Get a big name or two in it… preferrably one who is known for her breasts and one who is known for acting ability. Kill off the actor and teach the breasts to shine. I bet it would sweep the Oscars.
The new Transformers movie is suprisingly badass.
The plot is simple but not absent and the pacing is handled well. There are a few technology WTF moments, but not many.
The majority of the actors (there were way more actors than I expected) carried their parts well.
The majority of the comedy integrated well, though there are a few jokes that are absurdly childish or too long.
Mostly the movie captures the original spirit of the Transformers. The visuals are different and there are a number of style changes, but the heart of it is still there.
Optimus Prime is Optimus fucking Prime and Bay does not miss the mark on the iconic Prime vs Megatron fight.
Also, the special effects were amazing. I never noticed them once in the movie. Not once did I think to myself, “That’s obviously an actor in front of a green screen”. I’m not sure I can say that about any other heavy SFX movie.
There’s plenty of room left for a sequel and I’m actually looking forward to it.
Tonight I noticed that parenthood has added a new layer of creepyness to Stephen King movies. There’s almost always a child who’s special, creepy, or creepy special.
Tonight Hayden made a make believe prince with his fingers and flew him around before bedtime. After he was asleep we watched The Shining. Now if we can just get him a tricycle to ride we can complete the whole feel.
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