I really liked
Waking Life. Maybe because I also liked Richard Linklater's
Before Sunrise and
Before Sunset (which he gives a shout-out to by having Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy appear in a scene). Plus, I like movies that are dialogue-heavy. At any rate, the idea of the main character having conversations on the meaning of life and existence with a ton of different people, and then coming to the conclusion that he's in a dream he can't wake up from, and then suspecting he's dead, was pretty cool. I was tempted to critique the content of half the conversations, but then realized that would be moot -- the point of the movie wasn't to communicate a coherent and unified philosophy, it was partly to show that people's experiences dictate their behavior in different ways. And that maybe it all doesn't matter, if life and all its behavior is merely a "controlled" dream. The rotoscoping amplified this surrealism; it somehow stripped characters of their human fronts and left them with only their ideas.
And I finally watched
X-Men. It was entertaining. I liked the idea of mutants as the new "other" and attempting to parallel historically marginalized groups: Congress has hearings to consider segregating them, there's a U.N. summit, mutants are ostracized. It also follows the standard coming-of-age story: adolescents face the drama that accompanies their changing selves, know there's a larger, bigger society out there but have to learn how they fit into it without compromising their uniqueness. The characters are all mysteries at this point (who the heck are they? What are their stories? Why is Wolverine so immediately overprotective of Rogue? Why is such a smart woman like Dr. Jean Grey with an obvious putz like Cyclops?) Must now watch the rest of the trilogy to see if there are answers....
I really liked Waking Life. Maybe because I also liked Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (which he gives a shout-out to by having Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy appear in a scene). Plus, I like movies that are dialogue-heavy. At any rate, the idea of the main character having conversations on the meaning of life and existence with a ton of different people, and then coming to the conclusion that he's in a dream he can't wake up from, and then suspecting he's dead, was pretty cool. I was tempted to critique the content of half the conversations, but then realized that would be moot -- the point of the movie wasn't to communicate a coherent and unified philosophy, it was partly to show that people's experiences dictate their behavior in different ways. And that maybe it all doesn't matter, if life and all its behavior is merely a "controlled" dream. The rotoscoping amplified this surrealism; it somehow stripped characters of their human fronts and left them with only their ideas.
And I finally watched X-Men. It was entertaining. I liked the idea of mutants as the new "other" and attempting to parallel historically marginalized groups: Congress has hearings to consider segregating them, there's a U.N. summit, mutants are ostracized. It also follows the standard coming-of-age story: adolescents face the drama that accompanies their changing selves, know there's a larger, bigger society out there but have to learn how they fit into it without compromising their uniqueness. The characters are all mysteries at this point (who the heck are they? What are their stories? Why is Wolverine so immediately overprotective of Rogue? Why is such a smart woman like Dr. Jean Grey with an obvious putz like Cyclops?) Must now watch the rest of the trilogy to see if there are answers....
5 comments:
Ah, the whole "why Cyclops?" question. No one really knows. They're like the twelve year olds who grow up next door to each other, never date anyone else, get married at 18 and a half, have twins 12 months later, and then wake up five years later and wondering why they "settled". Inevitably, these relationships always end when she has an affair with the "bad" tennis instructor or he gets caught chained to a bed with a hooker.
Or rather the hooker chains him to the bed. It would make very little sense for them both to be chained to the bed. Also, the tennis instructor only acts bad. He is not a bad tennis instructor.
I see a lot of thought went into this analogy... so I take it this means she stays with Cyclops, and I don't need to watch Parts 2 and 3....
... not that I would watch the rest of the X-men series only to see whether or not Wolverine and Jean get it on...
No, no. By all means watch the rest. 2 is very good by summer blockbuster standards. 3, eh, not so much, but by then you have to see how it all ends.
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