Apologies for the rambly nature of that paragraph. I'm a little sleepy, since it's almost my bed time...
Okay. First thing first - C choices:
Books:
Winkie by Clifford Chase
235 pages, final word - paradox
"Paradox" is a good last word for this story, because parts of it were great and right up my alley. And other parts were a complete and utter chore to get through.
The story is about a stuffed bear that comes to life and winds up being arrested after being mistaken for a terrorist and put on trial.
Sounds absurdly comical and just the type of thing I usually favor. And some of it was.
Sadly, it was completely uneven. And when it was bad, it was just mind-blankingly bad. Like I'd need to reread passages several times to have it sink in because my mind would be saying, "Go back to when it was interesting/funny/weird, please."
I finished the book, but wouldn't recommend it.
The 2nd C book is one I'm still finishing, and I wish I'd started it first. (I began reading it late Friday/early Saturday, when the week was mostly over.) It's Will Clarke's Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort Of). I'm about halfway finished with it now, and it's absurdly comical and weird and humorous. Bonus points for being (so far) consistently funny and engaging.
The novel is about a computer programmer who is semi-psychic, who winds up getting recruited by a CIA-offshoot to help them locate criminals via remote viewing. Good stuff thus far. I'll report back in a day or two when I finish it.
Music:
Delivery Man by Elvis Costello & The Imposters
I'd heard one of the tracks before (it's in our collection of mp3s, actually) - "Monkey to Man", and I enjoyed it, so I thought that this album would be a given [up].
Sadly, not the case. It's more of a [waves hand back and forth in a so-so manner]. I like "Monkey to Man", and the title track was good. I enjoyed "Bedlam" and "There's a Story in Your Voice" grew on me after a few listens (although I originally found it cringey) but the rest of the songs were just...okay. Not catchy enough or grabbing enough for me to bother downloading them. Sorry, Elvis!
Movies:
Capote was viewed by us today, right before we returned it to the library. My original feelings on the movie were that it was impossibly slow and boring. It did get somewhat better near the end, though. Steph and I talked about it for a while, and she did get me to see some of the better/more interesting aspects of the film (and of Capote's character). But I still didn't love the movie, and would probably not either rewatch it or recommend it.
So the C week turned out to be not so great overall, sadly. (Maybe I'm just tough to please?) The Ds, I think, are going to be better. I picked up:
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (which, surprisingly I've never seen), The Descent (which I've heard good things about. I think.), Beyond by Dinosaur Jr (I remembered liking them in the early 90s. Hope I still do!), We All Belong by Dr Dog (never heard of 'em, but the cover looks cool...and we've listened to it already, and it's a keeper), Good Night, Witness Light by Daphne Loves Derby (never heard of them, either, but with song titles such as: "Are Two Chords Enough, Dear?", "No One is Convinced", "Cue the Sun!", and "How's it Going to End?", I'm hoping they turn out okay.) and an incredibly short novel by Frank Darabont entitled, Walpuski's Typewriter. Hooray!
This weekend we also saw the final act of Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog (from here on out, Horrible) and The Dark Knight (from here on out, AWESOME BATMAN MOVIE).
I'm going to be talking spoilers for both - I'll whiten the AWESOME BATMAN spoilers, since that's going to be out for a while, but Horrible is no longer free online, and so it's fair game.
So. As previously stated, the first two acts of Dr Horrible were great. The Spish were all excited about seeing how it ended. In fact, Friday night/Saturday morning, I had a few Dr Horrible dreams, which just goes to show that it was truly on my mind, and had made an impact on me. [The dream involved a showdown between Dr Horrible & Captain Hammer in Hammer's cavern/fortress. Dr. Horrible had a real freeze-ray (like Johnny Snow) and so there was ice/snow everywhere. ...and then there was some part where Dr HOrrible had the ability to summon birds. Which would be pretty cool power for a villain to have.]
Anyway.
Act 3 was different from 1 & 2. Firstly, there were more people. Secondly, Captain Hammer's "Everyone's a Hero" song went on too long. Thirdly, it became a tragedy when Penny dies, Captain Hammer doesn't get his comeuppance, and Dr Horrible gets into the Evil League of Evil but doesn't really want to be there.
Here's the thing - the program was billed from the get-go as light-hearted and fun. Sure, Dr Horrible was a villain - but he was a good guy. He didn't want to harm children in his fight against Johnny Snow, even when Bad Horse told him to commit a murder, he had reservations. In fact, the only reason he wanted to kill Captain Hammer was because he was treating Penny so poorly.
When it came to the showdown between them, Dr Horrible couldn't kill his nemesis. He hesitated, because really, he was a good guy.
And as Steph and I discussed (angrily) after the series was done - if you're going to have a character commit an irrevocable crime, then, yes, they will be punished for it. That's just how things are done in stories.
But Dr Horrible didn't do anything wrong. He does not deserve to have an unhappy ending.
That sentence right there is what ruined the whole series for me. There were so many ways that the musical could've gone that would've been more satisfactory, but Joss Whedon is apparently too cynical and just couldn't have that happen. Which is a true pity. Because like I said, the first parts were great. I was all set to purchase the DVD when it came out. We won't be now.
Moving on. We will most definitely purchase the DVD of the AWESOME BATMAN MOVIE once it comes out, because, dude. One hell of a ride.
The Joker stole the show. (ha!)
Spoilers!
I want to live in Gotham. Holy crap, man. Sure, that city is full of psychopathic murderers and a police force that is apparently 85% corrupt, but it's got a vigilante superhero out there who looks really freaking cool flying through the night skies.
The Joker was a freaking force of nature, man. Everywhere he went, chaos followed. And even though he was truly crazy, he sure could make you laugh.
And poor Harvey Dent (aka Two-Face). He only wanted to do good, and wound up pushed over the edge by The Joker (who was, of course, a reaction to the presence of Batman to begin with)... I was surpsised to see him die at the end, though. (Unless he didn't? If Batman could survive the fall, maybe Dent could too, and they simply told the press that Dent perished?)
...This has taken a lot longer than expected. So I'll wrap it up by saying that The Dark Knight truly lived up to the hype, and Joss could learn a thing or two from him on what heroes (and villains) deserve.
14 comments:
I have to disagree with you about Capote...I thought it was awesome. But I don't know if you've read In Cold Blood or not, but that makes the movie make more sense with its brooding darkness. Of course, ultimately Capote was a brooding dark little man though he pretended otherwise. He died fairly young of alcoholism.
Oh and here's my story:
The teacher Capote and Harper Lee interviewed in regards to the Kansas murders later moved from Kansas to my neighborhood in Georgia. His wife was from my hometown and his daughter and I rode the bus together and were in band together, but he was friggin nuts. Someone later said, he was never the same after the murder of that family. And, I'm not sure, but I don't think he held a job. I know he wasn't a teacher anymore.
I wondered, but forgot to ask, if that was the Elvis Costello album you were getting. I'm sorry it was not too good. Dear Mr. Costello: Needs more monkeys.
Which is true of so many things, actually.
I felt like I was the only person who didn't love Dr. Horrible, so I'm glad of your review. Neil Patrick Harris is awesome, and it cannot be denied. However, I wasn't crazy about Nathan Fillion, and I run hot and cold on Felicia Day. So, basically, whenever the focus was on NPH, I thought it was awesome, and when it wasn't, I didn't.
Also, the happy ---> dead transition would be so totally edgy and shocking if ... y'know, Joss Whedon didn't do that in every f'ing project he does. Too much "This will be so cool!" and not enough "Does this serve the story?"
Perhaps Dr Horrible would've been improved with monkeys...
Dark Knight could've used them as well, but was certainly okay without them. :)
Amy, I totally agree except that in this case it DID serve the story (if the story is "supervillain origin") but was cheapened by so many instances of "Ha ha, I did it because I can" that came before. I thought the ending of Dr. Horrible was perfect, though totally depressing, but it made me mad about the other stories that didn't need to end that way.
I read that term at some point in the past few days (origin story) and as soon as I heard the term, I realized that yes, Dr. Horrible works absolutely perfectly as such. But I would have felt a thousand times better if I had known that was what it was from the beginning. A person ought to know what they're getting into. And the first two acts don't say to the average viewer "I am a supervillian origin story" so I think it's pretty hard not to be disappointed.
Annika - that's a very good point. But here's something that I thought up in the shower that basically means that I agree with Stephanie: Dr. Horrible is fundamentally changed as a character at the end (i.e. a supervillain, as you say). The problem for me is that I was interested in the character he was, but I don't think I'm interested in the character he has now become. Like, if this were the premiere of "Dr. Horrible The Series" - I don't think I'd watch it, because I'm not that interested in this version of him.
Amy! I agree with you AGAIN! We should totally hang out. The SPISH too.
We totally should.
GREAT!!!! How about 1pm-ish?
Joss Whedon needs to get kicked in the nards. NPH was frickin' AMAZING in that. A made a half-joking comment that the character was written like Spike -which, invariably, some mouth-breather on some other website I frequent complained about: 'The show would be so much better if Spike played Dr. Horrible' pls note, they did not say James Marsters, and either way, they are WRONG- Harris took a mediocre piece of self-indulgent writing and some pretty flat music and made it come alive with a real, reactive, living performance. Fillion did what he could with what he was given, Day was fine- but overall the series belonged to Harris, who elevated it from being a "so what?" internet thing, to something worth watching.
As for the ending- I have no problem with a sort of "careful what you wish for" ending, nor do I mind the tonal shift- I DO mind that Whedon is just treading water and repeating himself at this point. Someone needs a Code 3 to the nards, as said before.
Annika is pretty dead on with her insight that Dr Horrible was a Spike-like character. I did find it some amusing that there was even a meta-message about that, when, after he's become full-on evil, the fans of Captain Hammer switch allegiances and become devoted to their Platinum Baby...
And, yeah, Doogie was absolutely the best thing about the entire production.
I have a big long post, but someone's already written it for me:
http://karjack.livejournal.com/656327.html?format=light
Ack! Forgot tags.
I loved Dr. Horrible (as you might have guessed if you've read my blog recently *sigh*), and although, yes, Joss couldn't resist going for the hurt, this one IS different to the others in that it ended on such a downbeat note. For all their woes, BtVS, Serenity ended with a feeling of hope and that life will go on. There's nothing like that here. And although Capt.Hammer got a well-deserved dressing-down, the story's ultimately a tragedy: a relatively moral character's slide into villainy, ultimately through the actions of others. (I liked the way he hesitated to kill Hammer even after all his posturing, yet Hammer had no problem pulling the trigger.) It's very sad. Also an interesting look into how supervillains are made. Nothing new, but yeah. I loved it, even though it made my pants very sad.
(Also, the set for Dr.Horrible's lair? Actually someone's house. Awesome.)
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