beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2009-06-29 07:51 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2009-06-29 07:51 pm
win!
Jobs achieved today: All those planned! And a bonus job!
Bonus job was sort and rotate my clothes so I got out of the rut of wearing the same two outfits all the time. I wore shiny on purple today.
I took the books back to the UEA library, paid the fine, and renewed the two I'm still reading. I don't got to take those back until September.
I got a bit confused because I didn't think things had renewed, cause it came up red crosses, but they were renewed extra well instead. But librarians are helpful.
I think getting overheated makes me stupid long before I notice I'm too hot. Bit of a problem really.
Then I spent an hour in the library under an open window writing my script. Still needs lots more work.
Got the bus back into the town center. Apparently my stutter hasn't gone away, it's just been waiting for being hot and tired. S-s-s-s-st stephens street remains my least favourite place name.
Then I went to the Television and Movie Store and bought the new Doctor Who audio exclusive.
I'd listened to one whole Big Finish audio on buses by then, the whole of Faith Stealer.
And then I went to the Vue cinema to watch Terminator Salvation.
... you know how cinemas sell drinks? And it's really hot? So you go in and you're really thirsty and think 'I know, large drink!'
... when they say large, they really mean it.
I cannot pick it up in one hand. Two hands drink. Drink of hugeness.
And then of course 30 minutes before the end the drink had completed its journey, and was letting me know. Persistently.
So its fair to say I was a little distracted before the ending.
But I didn't really like it from way earlier than that.
Bechdel test fail. Two women talk, about a man.
The whole film is about two men and, in some minutes, what women will do for them.
I spent most of the film wishing that Marcus was instead Mary, with nobody else recast and not a line changed. Well, maybe the kissing girls bit, because mainstream films are weird about that. But huddling for warmth is sometimes just huddling for warmth. Mostly though... I read a mock review of summer movies that says something about women being there to make men feel good about themselves, and its so true its not funny. I don't know what the pregnant woman's name was. I don't remember what the pilot woman's name was. But John Connor, Kyle Reese, and Marcus Wright, they got their names all over the place. In supporting characters we got a maiden mother crone setup, little kid who never talked being the creepiest one (taking a character's voice always creeps me out.) (Er, see 'stutter' in paragraphs above - this may be more personal frustration and projection going on than any fancy film theory). There's also Kick Arse Chick. I usually like strong warrior women, but there's an important difference in the definition of 'strong' coming up here. She is a skilled pilot, good thing. She got stuck on a pylon and needed cutting down, bad thing. (No that's not inevitable. What if she'd started out pointing a gun at him? Plenty good first meeting.) She gets left alone and immediately, instead of being skilled resistance fighter woman from later in the film, is lonely vulnerable woman with her weapons already taken. And, yeah, she got to fight back. But in that scene, one person is at risk of violence, probably rape, and the other charges to their rescue. Is this the only way men and women interact in movies??? She was just never set up to be skillful and successful, always the other thing. Once they get to the base she is *severely stupid*. She betrays everyone she's been fighting alongside to save a guy who only saved her life once. Doesn't track. Bloody stupid. And he's a machine! Yeah, okay, point of the film is some bullshit about following your heart so being irrational wins, but argh. Would it make teh same sense if it was gendered the other way around? Would it make the same sense if they were the same gender? No. So I no likes it.
I likes the stuff playing with the line between man and machine, him turning out not to be a terminator per se, that all works out fine. But if he's a man then why cut his heart out to heal Connor? Of the two of them, who can kick more arse? If the whole point of the movie is he's really human, how is okay to kill him? If he is less human than everyone else, what's the point of the movie? Bloody stupid.
Not to mention, WTF basic biology TRANSPLANT ORGANS WHEN ANTIBIOTICS ARE SCARCE, anti rejection drugs are just on tap somewhere??? They did tissue matching when we weren't looking??? Organs are not plug and play!
Tis the only bit that wouldn't be improved by Marcus->Mary. I'd be pissed that a woman gave her heart to a man for reals. As it is it's just the tiny sliver of slashy goodness in an otherwise overly macho film.
I like Skynet outsmarting the humans. I dislike how Skynet apparently couldn't track Connor down from his signal. I very much dislike how Skynet kept everyone alive in a cell. Where's the need? Kill Kyle Reese, you've got him right there! They want video of him? Fake it! We saw them fake it! So frankly the grand plan is balls and Skynet should have won.
The machines and wars and action stuff had a lot of kaboom involved. They'd really gone all out on those bits.
I like stories that work with minimal FX and are simply improved by kabooms. This is not that.
And I think whoever decided on their resources hadn't considered the logistics of it *at all*, and resistance fighting don't work that way. But then I can't figure out what post apocalyptic nuclear winter-ed survivors were eating even in the first version. No more farms. Maybe the tinned stuff just lasts real well.
Reasons I love The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Strong female characters, not just kick arse but with their own motivations filled in and their own development, strong storylines, plots that reckon their viewers have a brain and are paying attention.
Reasons I had trouble sitting through Terminator Salvation (not drink related): Weak female characters who exist to relate to the two men, emotional through line I had to think about all the way home to notice it (it's about killing being a bad thing and how to not be a machine. it's there. it's just under the kabooms), plot that doesn't actually work.
On the way home I listened to more Doctor Who. I'm going to go do that some more.
Bonus job was sort and rotate my clothes so I got out of the rut of wearing the same two outfits all the time. I wore shiny on purple today.
I took the books back to the UEA library, paid the fine, and renewed the two I'm still reading. I don't got to take those back until September.
I got a bit confused because I didn't think things had renewed, cause it came up red crosses, but they were renewed extra well instead. But librarians are helpful.
I think getting overheated makes me stupid long before I notice I'm too hot. Bit of a problem really.
Then I spent an hour in the library under an open window writing my script. Still needs lots more work.
Got the bus back into the town center. Apparently my stutter hasn't gone away, it's just been waiting for being hot and tired. S-s-s-s-st stephens street remains my least favourite place name.
Then I went to the Television and Movie Store and bought the new Doctor Who audio exclusive.
I'd listened to one whole Big Finish audio on buses by then, the whole of Faith Stealer.
And then I went to the Vue cinema to watch Terminator Salvation.
... you know how cinemas sell drinks? And it's really hot? So you go in and you're really thirsty and think 'I know, large drink!'
... when they say large, they really mean it.
I cannot pick it up in one hand. Two hands drink. Drink of hugeness.
And then of course 30 minutes before the end the drink had completed its journey, and was letting me know. Persistently.
So its fair to say I was a little distracted before the ending.
But I didn't really like it from way earlier than that.
Bechdel test fail. Two women talk, about a man.
The whole film is about two men and, in some minutes, what women will do for them.
I spent most of the film wishing that Marcus was instead Mary, with nobody else recast and not a line changed. Well, maybe the kissing girls bit, because mainstream films are weird about that. But huddling for warmth is sometimes just huddling for warmth. Mostly though... I read a mock review of summer movies that says something about women being there to make men feel good about themselves, and its so true its not funny. I don't know what the pregnant woman's name was. I don't remember what the pilot woman's name was. But John Connor, Kyle Reese, and Marcus Wright, they got their names all over the place. In supporting characters we got a maiden mother crone setup, little kid who never talked being the creepiest one (taking a character's voice always creeps me out.) (Er, see 'stutter' in paragraphs above - this may be more personal frustration and projection going on than any fancy film theory). There's also Kick Arse Chick. I usually like strong warrior women, but there's an important difference in the definition of 'strong' coming up here. She is a skilled pilot, good thing. She got stuck on a pylon and needed cutting down, bad thing. (No that's not inevitable. What if she'd started out pointing a gun at him? Plenty good first meeting.) She gets left alone and immediately, instead of being skilled resistance fighter woman from later in the film, is lonely vulnerable woman with her weapons already taken. And, yeah, she got to fight back. But in that scene, one person is at risk of violence, probably rape, and the other charges to their rescue. Is this the only way men and women interact in movies??? She was just never set up to be skillful and successful, always the other thing. Once they get to the base she is *severely stupid*. She betrays everyone she's been fighting alongside to save a guy who only saved her life once. Doesn't track. Bloody stupid. And he's a machine! Yeah, okay, point of the film is some bullshit about following your heart so being irrational wins, but argh. Would it make teh same sense if it was gendered the other way around? Would it make the same sense if they were the same gender? No. So I no likes it.
I likes the stuff playing with the line between man and machine, him turning out not to be a terminator per se, that all works out fine. But if he's a man then why cut his heart out to heal Connor? Of the two of them, who can kick more arse? If the whole point of the movie is he's really human, how is okay to kill him? If he is less human than everyone else, what's the point of the movie? Bloody stupid.
Not to mention, WTF basic biology TRANSPLANT ORGANS WHEN ANTIBIOTICS ARE SCARCE, anti rejection drugs are just on tap somewhere??? They did tissue matching when we weren't looking??? Organs are not plug and play!
Tis the only bit that wouldn't be improved by Marcus->Mary. I'd be pissed that a woman gave her heart to a man for reals. As it is it's just the tiny sliver of slashy goodness in an otherwise overly macho film.
I like Skynet outsmarting the humans. I dislike how Skynet apparently couldn't track Connor down from his signal. I very much dislike how Skynet kept everyone alive in a cell. Where's the need? Kill Kyle Reese, you've got him right there! They want video of him? Fake it! We saw them fake it! So frankly the grand plan is balls and Skynet should have won.
The machines and wars and action stuff had a lot of kaboom involved. They'd really gone all out on those bits.
I like stories that work with minimal FX and are simply improved by kabooms. This is not that.
And I think whoever decided on their resources hadn't considered the logistics of it *at all*, and resistance fighting don't work that way. But then I can't figure out what post apocalyptic nuclear winter-ed survivors were eating even in the first version. No more farms. Maybe the tinned stuff just lasts real well.
Reasons I love The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Strong female characters, not just kick arse but with their own motivations filled in and their own development, strong storylines, plots that reckon their viewers have a brain and are paying attention.
Reasons I had trouble sitting through Terminator Salvation (not drink related): Weak female characters who exist to relate to the two men, emotional through line I had to think about all the way home to notice it (it's about killing being a bad thing and how to not be a machine. it's there. it's just under the kabooms), plot that doesn't actually work.
On the way home I listened to more Doctor Who. I'm going to go do that some more.