Comics, and The Matrix
May. 10th, 2004 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carynb
Had a good weekend, really.
One kinda amusing thing that happened this weekend - walking out of my comic book store and realizing just what a gender-reversal Mike and I had in there. I'd been chatting with the store owner, asking about the new "Marvel Age" line (old stories, new art, in case you're wondering), and going "oh, cool" about various titles. Meanwhile, Mike was kind of hanging about the door, with this "what kinda place is this?" look on his face. Hee.
I picked up the new Gotham Knights while I was in there, even though I haven't quite caught up on the back issues yet. I find myself being pulled, kicking and screaming, into the Batman fandom. If it were one comic, no big deal. But to get all the adventures of the entire Batfamily? There's 5 straight Batman comics: Batman, Batman Adventures, Detective Comics, Gotham Knights and Legends of the Dark Knight. When you add in the other individual books - Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Catwoman and Birds of Prey and the "Batperson as a member of team" books like Teen Titans or JLA, not to mention the mini-series, one-offs and specials... well, even at my fairly liberal budget it start looking mighty expensive. How on earth do people keep up?
We spent most the day yesterday watching The Matrix: Reloaded and Revolutions. We'd seen Reloaded in the theatres when it was released a year ago, but I was pretty unimpressed at the time. I think I've figured out at least part of why. Besides the too-long chase scene (which didn't seem as bad on the second viewing), there's a sense in the whole production that "more is better", especially in the fight scenes. One of my favorite scenes in the original movie is the dojo fight/practice session, and I think the choreography for a one-on-one fight, or at least "small group-on-one" fight just works better. The big fight scene in the park in Reloaded just didn't work for me, and viewing it on a small screen pointed out why: it looks like video game graphics, rather than like a movie. So, when the special effects feel like effects rather than reality, and the pacing is stretched, the movie just didn't work.
The third movie in the trilogy had neither of these problems. The pacing was unbelievably tight, with only one moment that dragged for me - the last Trinity/Neo scene. But then, I never watched any of these movies for the Relationship moments. *g* The choreography for the fight scenes was a little more realistic, even for the final confrontation between Neo and Smith. Well, maybe realistic isn't the right word, but at least it didn't feel hokey. And, I liked the themes of sacrifice that ran through most of it. Self-sacrifice for the greater good is a pretty common theme for a war movie, granted, but I thought the choices were shown well, especially for Oracle. I wish I'd seen it on the big screen.
Maybe next weekend we'll finally make it to Kill Bill, Vol. 2.
One kinda amusing thing that happened this weekend - walking out of my comic book store and realizing just what a gender-reversal Mike and I had in there. I'd been chatting with the store owner, asking about the new "Marvel Age" line (old stories, new art, in case you're wondering), and going "oh, cool" about various titles. Meanwhile, Mike was kind of hanging about the door, with this "what kinda place is this?" look on his face. Hee.
I picked up the new Gotham Knights while I was in there, even though I haven't quite caught up on the back issues yet. I find myself being pulled, kicking and screaming, into the Batman fandom. If it were one comic, no big deal. But to get all the adventures of the entire Batfamily? There's 5 straight Batman comics: Batman, Batman Adventures, Detective Comics, Gotham Knights and Legends of the Dark Knight. When you add in the other individual books - Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Catwoman and Birds of Prey and the "Batperson as a member of team" books like Teen Titans or JLA, not to mention the mini-series, one-offs and specials... well, even at my fairly liberal budget it start looking mighty expensive. How on earth do people keep up?
We spent most the day yesterday watching The Matrix: Reloaded and Revolutions. We'd seen Reloaded in the theatres when it was released a year ago, but I was pretty unimpressed at the time. I think I've figured out at least part of why. Besides the too-long chase scene (which didn't seem as bad on the second viewing), there's a sense in the whole production that "more is better", especially in the fight scenes. One of my favorite scenes in the original movie is the dojo fight/practice session, and I think the choreography for a one-on-one fight, or at least "small group-on-one" fight just works better. The big fight scene in the park in Reloaded just didn't work for me, and viewing it on a small screen pointed out why: it looks like video game graphics, rather than like a movie. So, when the special effects feel like effects rather than reality, and the pacing is stretched, the movie just didn't work.
The third movie in the trilogy had neither of these problems. The pacing was unbelievably tight, with only one moment that dragged for me - the last Trinity/Neo scene. But then, I never watched any of these movies for the Relationship moments. *g* The choreography for the fight scenes was a little more realistic, even for the final confrontation between Neo and Smith. Well, maybe realistic isn't the right word, but at least it didn't feel hokey. And, I liked the themes of sacrifice that ran through most of it. Self-sacrifice for the greater good is a pretty common theme for a war movie, granted, but I thought the choices were shown well, especially for Oracle. I wish I'd seen it on the big screen.
Maybe next weekend we'll finally make it to Kill Bill, Vol. 2.
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Date: 2004-05-10 01:08 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure that if we ever get to Kill Bill (Mike's back was in spasms from physio, so going to a movie was out this weekend - he couldn't sit still that long), that'll be an action movie that succeeds both as "movie" (with things like emoting, and character development along with plot), and as "action". *g*