There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks back about original novel of Bambi, by Felix Salten. The gist of the article was regarding how different the book was from the film, and in particular how the book had a strong theme of the experience of minority groups (Salten was an … Continue reading On Bad Analogies
Movies
Thought of the Day: Unbelievable Premises
Audiences will accept even the most ridiculous and unbelievable premises for a story, provided the storyteller knows what he's doing. For instance, the premise of Rear Window begins with "There's a man who doesn't want to marry Grace Kelly..."
Friday Flotsam: Team Building and ‘Bumblebee’
1. Another ‘digging in’ week. Mostly spent prepping a few projects for release. More on those in the coming days. 2. Had a teambuilding exercise at work today, and I never come away from teambuilding exercises without a greater appreciation for solitary endeavor. The trouble is that, with most team projects or team-building activities, my … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Team Building and ‘Bumblebee’
Sympathy for George Lucas
There are a lot of mixed feelings towards George Lucas these days after three poor prequels and the ill-judged efforts at a ‘special edition’, among other things. It’s trendy to hate him. Personally, I don’t. I feel sorry for him. This is all speculation, but the way I see it, Lucas created something great, the … Continue reading Sympathy for George Lucas
Sonic 2 Trailer
The first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has dropped at last (actually, I found it dropped back in December and I completely missed it). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5kzUpWAusI (By the way, why do internet trailers now do that little 'intro' these days? What is the point of that?) As you may recall, I was moderately pleased with … Continue reading Sonic 2 Trailer
Friday Flotsam: Depression, Thrawn, and Lady (and the Tramp)
1. This week was overall pretty miserable: I was strangely exhausted most of the time and my depression flared up badly. I want to say it’s some form of burnout, but you know what they say about self-diagnosis. In any case, I was able to get through by severely curtailing my activity and schedule to … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Depression, Thrawn, and Lady (and the Tramp)
Friday Flotsam: More Thrawn and Robin Hood
1. My neck of the woods was supposed to receive a snow storm, so I took some time off this week to avoid the hassle (I'm also currently in a borrowed car that doesn't do snow very well). Turned out to be not nearly as bad as advertised, but I got some time to think … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: More Thrawn and Robin Hood
‘Megamind’ at the Everyman
Got to do an essay on Megamind at last: There’s really a lot that could be said about this movie. I wouldn’t call it a great film: there are some gaps in the writing and not all the jokes land (though most of them do). But it is a very good film, with strong storytelling, … Continue reading ‘Megamind’ at the Everyman
Flotsam: Heir to the Empire and New Filmmaking
1. I'm dipping my toes into the 'Star Wars' expanded universe with Heir to the Empire. I'm about half-way through, and my impression so far is that it's a lot of fun and a genuinely pretty good extension of the story. There's a good sense that, yes, this is a logical scenario for 'what happens … Continue reading Flotsam: Heir to the Empire and New Filmmaking
How I Would Have Written ‘Captain Marvel’
So, if you read my Marvel recap, you remember that I had certain issues with 'Captain Marvel'. Said issues largely amount to 'It's an incredibly stupid film with a hateful protagonist'. Naturally, as with Black Panther, I thought about how I might have tackled the character, and the results are presented below (fair warning, this … Continue reading How I Would Have Written ‘Captain Marvel’
Serpent's Den 