300: Rise of an Empire

This weekend was just as it promised to be - pleasant, quiet and slightly cheaper than the last few weekends of copious drinking have turned out to be.

Thursday and Friday night were chill time movie nights.  Thursday we watched The Social Network which was actually a far better film than I expected it to be; the amazing work of Trent Reznor's soundtrack did help it along a little though.  I was pleasantly surprised by it to be honest. 
Friday night's film I have already forgotten so it can't have been that good. It might have been one called Ghostship, which was just averagely dull in every possible way.

Saturday night however, was what I had been looking forward to as I went to see 300: Rise of an Empire.

I had set my expectations fairly low as 300 is one of my all time favourite films and the sequel couldn't possibly match the skill or impact of the first.  It didn't.  However I was surprised to find it wasn't at all as bad as I had anticipated.

In 300, the Spartan warriors wear red robes; Red, the colour of blood, lust, passion.  This is set apart by the golden tones of the film signifying gold, honour, sunlight and warmth.  In 300 ROAE the main character Themistocles and his counterparts adorn blue robes reflecting the cooler tone of this film and echoing both the oceans and stormy weather in the film.  This, for me, summarises it perfectly because on the whole the film is just that- less warming then the first.  It's stormy, and for me, the characters lack any capacity to evoke empathy in the viewer.  Themistocles is a cool and unemotional character lacking any real depth.  He failed to arouse the same kind of passion that Leonidas did in the first film; having no family or a lover to protect.  He is cold and almost robotic and the unnecessary border-line rape scene simply left me losing even more respect for him.  You fought with Leonidas, you wanted him to return to his Queen and sons; but Themistocles, you just kind of watched as he carried out his business with little reason.  I possibly felt more for Artemisia than I did for Themistocles; she had a story, a history and she had passion. Their power struggle was awkward instead of firey and I did feel glad that Themistocles was still left needing the help of a strong, powerful woman in the way of Queen Gorgo who proved she had far more balls than he did.

Visually, it lacked the punch that 300 made.  This was a new area though when 300 was first released, there had only been Sin City which had been filmed under the same concept.  There were still some nice sequences and shots, but the attention to detail that 300 had wasn't there.  Every shot in 300 is carefully composed, and in ROAE it's more of a general feel than that of careful consideration of compositions and cinematography.  Still, some nice work and nice effects which were made more impressive by the three dimensional aspect.

Ah. I now await some other good films to fill the void - Transcendence is looking interesting so that will be my next movie target for April.

Sunday morning I was treated to pancakes for breakfast. I've washed little Franko, been to the gym; been to Mum's for a slap up, post-workout roast dinner and I've also been up in their loft to retrieve lots of props for the party next weekend.

It's going to be GOOOOOD. :)

Laters!

A Film in the Sunshine.

Last night my friend H and I went to Brum to catch an outdoor film showing of Breakfast At Tiffany's. It was a free event in the lovely Brindley Place and the organisers handed out bean bags, free popcorn and blankets to the crowd.  It was a different way to spend the evening, sitting on the steps in the shade watching a film, especially one I haven't seen in years!

I have another fairly busy weekend coming up with my Boss's leaving do on Friday and some drinks in Brum with H on Saturday, starting off at Marco Pierre Whites for some cocktails.

I've also finally been back to the gym this week after a few weeks off due to my inner ear problems which thankfully seem to have cleared up.  Good times! :-)

Happy Stuff.

So here is my beautiful little neice Natalie at 8 months! She can't crawl yet but it looks like her leg muscles are starting to get stronger as she's standing up (with support) so I don't think it will be long until she's mobile!

Last night I went to the cinema to see Lincoln.  At the risk of sounding highly ignorant, I'm not knowledgable in the field of American political history so a lot of the political details in the film went over my head and I found parts of it hard to follow being unfamilair with the terminology used.  However, the human aspect of the film, I thought was brilliantly conveyed.  Daniel Day-Lewis' performance is completely Oscar-worthy with most of his monolouges just drawing you in as if it's just you and Mr Lincoln himself in a room.  Really, quite stunning.

(not) Miserable.

Busy week at work this week as we're moving a few miles up the road to a new station.  It's ACTUALLY got double glazing!!! WOOOOT.  It means a longer commute and about two weeks of chaos while everything gets moved/lost/put in the wrong place and sorted out again but ultimately it'll be worth it for the warmth! For the last eight months I've been a little block of ice working away in front of our draughty two way glass windows.  Ah... two way glass- I will miss you lulling all those vain passers by into your shallow reflective surface while we laugh at them from the other side.

I went to see Les Mis (the film) at the weekend.  There are actual FILMS on in the cinema.  I've been so relieved that the age of the crappy-masses film seems to have mostly passed and we're starting to see proper film makers return to the fold.  I saw the Hobbit a few weeks ago- and for the most part thought it was a good offering although I felt it was padded out too much.  Some of the scenes were too long and Martin Freeman lacked the warmth and happiness that we'd got used to from Ian Holme's Bilbo in the LOTR trilogy.  I also found the dwarves a bit inconsistent and not styled enough.

Les Mis was very good. Superb, emotive performances from most of the main characters with Hugh Jackman and Ann Hathaway being fantastic.  Russel Crowe does an average job but I never really like his acting style.  He fails to draw me in to any of his characters and I rarely care for them or feel sorry for them.  We, the viewers, should have felt some sympathy for Javere during his suicide song.  A scene of a tormented soul, his direction lost, his world and ideals turned upside down by the compassion of the man he's devoted his life to catching- and yet, Crowe showed no agony and remained mostly expressionless.  Russell Crowe's eyes are just steely and cold and it deadens most of his characters. I'm not a fan.
The other thing that ruined the film for me, not knowing the story, was the complete turnaround and two-facedness of Marius, the flighty, young socialist who was just a flakey, spineless drip! His friends die for the cause, and he sods off to get married to his splendily dressed fiance in his fuck-off Mansion! So much for Socialism and equality you Toff!
It's one of the few films I've seen at the cinema that people have applauded at the end and, despite being warned, at no point did I find myself reaching for the tissues.  I don't tend to cry at films. Moving documentaries perhaps- but not films.  The only film that even had me close to crying was Wall-E. I welled up when he gets rebuilt at the end and his little eyes remain as cold and empty as Russell Crowes; your heart is just willing them to show life and personality once again... Emotive stuff.  

In other news I have been taking on a DIRE Amazon Marketplace seller to get a refund/replacement for a faulty item.  I won.  I have now escalated to a formal complaint about the fact that this seller removed my negative feedback which makes a mockery of the whole system.  Freedom of speech and all that.  If I fail in my mission to get it reinstated, I will be taking to twitter instead.  Never let it be said I don't stick up for the little people.

I have also found a problem with my new Cowon.  I'm still investigating into fixes for an issue with my player reading ID3 tags from shite-tunes where most of my music is imported or bought legally- yet Apple, being up their own arses as they are, have kindly made sure you can only use their shite-pods for file transfer with comfort and ease.  I'll get round it.  Or buy a Sony instead which use a slightly different transfer format.  Again, I won't be bullied by some snotty corporation and brainwashed into buying substandard products.

I'm totally on a roll lately.  I feel strong.  Justice is being done all over the place.  Good things are happening.