Dec. 26th, 2004

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Well, finished all the DVD's finally by watching King Arthur this morning. Sigh. It probably did not help that I'd watched parts of Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia recently. Two superb action epics. But King Arthur is a bad movie. Really bad. Not even laughably bad like Day After Tomorrow...just well sadly so. Course this may be purely subjective - but, what I felt was lacking in the tale was the same thing lacking in Day After Tomorrow - rich character development. And no this was not the fault of the actors, who did their best to bring something to a underwritten, poorly developed role - it was the fault of the screen-writer and director. Proving once again that like it or not, film is a "director's" medium, not an actors. Good acting can't save a bad movie. It can occassionally save a bad play, but not a movie.

Most of the negative reviews I'd read about King Arthur spent a lot of time mentioning how the story bore no resemblance to the legend. I didn't really mind that so much. I've read the King Arthur tales, studied them, but
to be honest? I can take or leave them. Also I did not go into this movie with high expectations - I did not expect it to be a great twist on an old tale, all I expected was to be reasonably entertained. And hey, I happen to adore Clive Owen, Stellan Starksgard (sp?) and Ion Gruffyd(sp?). But this story was just boring. It drug. Lots and lots of gory battle sequences. Lots of sappy dialogue here and there. But I didn't care who died. Because I didn't know them. The information I'm given - is given either too late to build my sympathy or is shown in a fleeting manner. We never quite understand Lancelot's relationship with Arthur or Gwuinvere. spoilers from the film )

They have an alternate ending on the DVD, which I watched and the filmmakers preferred to the original. Is it better than the wedding sequence? Well it makes more sense then the wedding sequence did, but not a lot. Both endings suffer from the same problem - they are built around Lance, Guin, and Arthur and this kid. In order for them to work- the audience has to be invested in those characters - I wasn't. I was just bored.

The story doesn't really track - it skips and jags all over the place, and it's a simple story, not complicated like Delovely or even the Day After Tomorrow. Yet somehow the filmmakers lose the emotional resonance...because they are more interested in duplicating very realistic and very gory battle sequences. And these battle sequences are realistic. Much time is spent researching and acting them out. I'm thinking from watching the Extras and the Film - all the time was spent on them. So if you are in to battle scenes, you know where you can *really* feel the violence, and could care less about character development - then this baby is for you. If however, you are like me and find long drawn-out gorey battle sequences somewhat dull and a little nauseating - skip it. Clive Owen is much more entertaining in Closer, possibly not the best movie in the world, but in comparison to King Arthur? Fantastic.

Was thinking about this last night - of the movies I've seen this year, and it hasn't been that many to be honest, only about five come to mind as being memorable:

1. Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind
2. Sideways
3. Spiderman2
4. The Incredibles
5. Hero

And maybe Bourne Supremacy. I must have seen more, I just can't remember them.

(As an aside - my mother is funny. She spent the last month gearing me up to visit them for these three days, telling me how great it would be. Now that I was *not* able to get down to Hilton Head for the holidays, and for the first time in 37 years, unable to be with my family, she's telling me that I'm not missing anything. It's gray and raining down there. And I'd only have gotten stuck and I'm much better where I am. Plus, just think - I can look forward to getting their gifts for the next two months. I do know two of the gifts they got me: Firefly DVDS (Mom wisely realized I'd want them more than the BTVS, because there's three episodes only available on the DVD's, plus the extras and commentary are better than on the BTVS DVD's. More energetic.)and
a sweater. So I got stuff coming in the mail - just have to worry about the delivery. Now that the initial shock and disappointment have worn off, I'm sort of okay with it. Not looking forward to spending New Year's alone too though - which I was prepared for prior to this, but now, ugh. What I wouldn't give for a significant other. Sometimes it just sucks to be single.)
shadowkat: (Default)
Somewhat numbed tonight on wine and bailey's irish cream. I've been drinking far more than usual this weekend. Actually I think I've drunk more this weekend than I have in an entire year. Haven't gotten drunk. Just spaced it out a bit - keeping myself comfortably numb. Of course a lot of drinking for me, to some is barely a taste. Not a huge drinker. My addictions don't tend to be of the oral variety. Which may explain why I've also posted more these past few days than usual or than I had planned. My family wishes I'd stop writing my thoughts on livejournal and write them in a story instead. They feel, perhaps correctly, that livejournal may be absorbing my creative energy.
Why not write my job woes and airport woes in a series of short stories, my mother suggests, you could make them witty a la Bridget Jones' Diary. When I attempt to inform her how the writing process doesn't exactly work that way, she gets really hurt and defensive, so I back down and think - okay maybe I should give it shot sometime this week. Might be cathartic.

Someone posted how wonderful it was that I'd faced my anxiety and fear and discovered it didn't amount to much. Heh. Apparently I'm doing a lovely job of putting on a brave front in my livejournal, ain't I? Making light of something that ain't light at all. In actuality - as I'm sure 30,000 other stranded travelers and passengers who were separated from their families this weekend can attest to - it amounted to quite a lot. It was not a tiny fear demon, but more like the swirling tempest of the hellmouth. I'm certainly not looking forward to entering an airport again any time soon, and if I was stressed this round, my stress next time around will be about quadruple that. I fear being stuck somewhere and yep this year I got reminded of why. And was paralyzed by it. No slaying of demons I fear. I only wish that were the case. I dealt with this situation *very* badly, I'm afraid. But to my credit - I will state that in all my years of traveling and I've had some horrendous travel experiences, never in my life did I encounter a scenario as bad as the one I did on Friday.
Over 600 planes were cancelled this weekend. Over 1000 people were stranded at the airport. And it was Xmas Eve - which to most of the people traveling is a beloved holiday to be spent with family and friends.

But hey, we got off lucky. Over 10,000 lives were lost this same weekend in the Far East - India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia...it was the worste earthquake in history. My heart goes out to those poor souls.

So this was NOT a merry xmas for so many people. At least 40,000. It was in my humble opinion a difficult one. I did not celebrate it. It passed me by. (And for many people reading this, that may not seem all that important, after all what is one more holiday? Big whoop? Right? But this happens to be my favorite - it was since I was a small child. I enjoy it more than birthdays or 4th of july or New Years or Thanksgiving - because it felt warm to me as a child. The lights, the tree, the pies (apple as opposed to pumpkin, prefer apple), no football on tv. Just presents and holiday carols. And my family. As I've grown older, it's changed a bit, but I always got the smells of my favorite foods in the kitchen, my mother's home baked fudge, lasagne, the taste of fruite cake soaked in peach brandy for a month, the Nutcracker suite on the stereo, a fire in the fire place. Things I realize now I took for granted. My Dad reading the New Yorker, sometimes alloud. And of course the story about the family that got stranded in that manger long ago. If you aren't Christian you may not get it - but it is an important holiday to those of us who were raised Catholic and a warm one. Missing it did teach me something...that we cannot plan our lives and that things that happen elsewhere do affect us. We do affect one another's lives for good or ill. A snowstorm in Cinncinatti does affect people in Philadelphia. An earthquake in the Pacific does affect people in Thailand. And when someone dies, we all experience that loss in ways we'll never know.

Tonight my thoughts and prayers are with those who did not have a merry Xmas, who are suffering either emotionally or physically in some way. They have the flu or just got over it. They had a nightmare travel episode and barely got home or are still trying to get home, which is worse. Or their loved ones were washed out to sea in a tidal wave/tsumani in the Pacific. Or dead from cold in
Indiana. Here's hoping next year is better for us all.

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