Is anyone else excited about Snow White and the Huntsman opening this Friday?

...and Prometheus next week?

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I can't believe the season is already over! Although it went out with a triple-bill of brilliant episodes. ZOMG. *sits on hands to not spoil CERTAIN PEOPLE who mightn't yet have seen this* *though can't blame them for not wanting the season to end so quickly*

Community: best show on TV: y/y?

Also good: the too-short first season of Scandal that ended tonight. Shonda brings the good stuff. Speaking of which, I'll need to see the season finale of Grey's Anatomy online because I couldn't record another show while watching Community and recording Person of Interest.

Which thematically segues into...

Je sais pas trop quoi dire sur le projet de #Loi78, sauf qu'il est important de porter attention à la politique provinciale actuellement, parce que les répercussions risquent d'être importantes, et ça touche aux libertés civiles et à la communauté au Québec.

http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/Politique/2012/05/17/003-conflit-etudiant-loi-speciale-debats.shtml

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So at this point I've seen seven of the films I mentioned in my last entry about upcoming films, and pretty much caught up with the past two months' releases.

(Quick rundown of the films I didn't post about: Labyrinth -- really fun to see on a big screen, even though I know it almost by heart. John Carter -- entertaining, but I don't have much to say about it. The Moth Diaries -- bland, but I'm glad I saw it during the single frickin' week it played.)

The Deep Blue Sea is playing as a matinée now and I'd like to see it again, but I might not make it this week-end so I hope it'll stay on another week.

Coming up in the weeks ahead and of interest to me are:

in May...
Hysteria -- ...not sure if want, but it's directed by a woman, and I'll take free tickets if I win them.
Men in Black 3 -- I keep forgetting it's about to be released, so I don't feel especially drawn to it, except when I see footage of Emma Thompson.

in June...
Snow White and the Hunstman -- yes, please, evil queen Charlize! (oh, and Kristen Stewart and Thor, too, but mainly: Charlize!)
Prometheus -- Noomi! Charlize! Ridley Scott's return to science-fiction! Alien prequel horror! I am so psyched! (plus Michael Fassbender, if anyone's interested)

...seriously, is anyone else reading this psyched for Prometheus? I like your big superhero movies, but I'm not overly invested in them, fun as they are, and I WANT my bizarre SFnal horror heroines (WITHOUT Joss Whedon getting anywhere near them, TYVM).

Brave -- I'm not especially excited by it, but it could be cool.
People like Us -- I literally knew nothing about it before I saw Olivia Wilde and Elizabeth Banks in the description on the upcoming movies page, and the genre or the premise doesn't appeal, but Elizabeth Banks and Chris Pine seem really well cast as secret siblings.

in July...
The Amazing Spider-zzzz.... what? they made another one? -- will probably end up seeing this out of completism.
The Dark Knight Rises -- ditto. But I want The Hobbit to kick the superheroes' box-office butt this winter. (Prometheus getting an R rating means it's unlikely to.)

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Went to see this with emef. I recommend it.

It's a biographical crime drama about the Canadian WWII veteran turned notorious bank robber in the 50s, Edwin Alonzo Boyd, starring Scott Speedman (and his excellent mustache, as emef noted) as Boyd. Think along the lines of Johnny Depp as Dillinger, but nicer, and with facepaint -- which makes him look vaguely like Michael Fassbender.

I think it's really well done, showing Boyd's postwar dissatisfaction and love of his family, the early crimes that allow his theatrical side to express itself and familial happiness to flourish before the law catches up and things get more complicated, and what ensues.

The film has a deft touch weaving together period elements (including true archive footage from the CBC's first TV broadcast!), managing its production values on a modest budget, and balanced the criminal and familial sides of the story well enough to make me care about both. The film doesn't let Doreen Boyd's character get short shrift next to her husband's male accomplices, nor does it dwell on her hardships to the extend that I wished it would show less of them, and their relationship is central despite the obvious slash potential of the story.

Kelly Reilly (Mary Morstan-Watson from the Downey/Law Sherlock Holmes movies!) co-stars as Doreen; Kevin Durand (Keamy from Lost) and Brendan Fletcher (& other Canadian Actor Bingo players) as Boyd's eventual accomplices; with Brian Cox as his father, and Camille Sullivan (from Rookie Blue!) as one of the Boyd gang's entourage. (I don't think it passed the Bechdel test, and there are no characters of colour, but the film does include characters with disabilities in a matter-of-fact way that ties into the postwar wounds it refers to in its opening quotation.)

I'd happily rewatch it.

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...this is one of the things I've wanted to write about, though I'm no expert historian, so I'm probably not going to be as good at contextualising the things I want to analyse as some of my favourite bloggers would be in this matter. (I'm thinking of selenak and Abigail Nussbaum in particular.)

There are several mixed messages in The Avengers, and here I want to outline what I see as some of them, particularly as they relate to war and subjugation.

( spoilers for The Avengers ahead, also using some RTD-era Doctor Who comparisons )

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I love several bits of The Avengers. I'm looking forward to owning it on DVD to rewatch those bits on repeat. I really wish some other bits weren't in it*, wish the script had had an editor able to cut out Joss's darling one-liners where they weren't appropriate**, and overall I feel that the whole doesn't hold together particularly well, even if it does manage to do a lot of things right. I should write a proper review, or at least analyse some of the things that didn't work for me. Something better than my rambly notes and scattered comments on that failure that is The Cabin in the Woods, if I can manage it.

* and no, not necessarily those bits that are breaking other fen's hearts and leading them to curse Joss. I'm not in that kind of relationship with the text.

**Does Black Widow quip much in the comics?

***

Unlike with Thor, for which I didn't want fic, didn't want anybody else's characterisation messing too much with my perception of the film, and didn't feel the film begged for fic to complete it, I do feel The Avengers is just ripe for rewriting, but based on the points of departure and my relative lack of interest in the extended canon, I'd probably do better to shunt this inspiration off into original fiction. If only I could bottle that inspiration and take hits off it later, to keep me going where discipline will fail, where there's no fandom at my back to give me the sense I'm not writing into the wind. Bouncing ideas off of myself the entropy increases until thermalisation.

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Sorta spoilery for Freddy's character? It's not a very spoiler-sensitive movie.

But these are really neat GIFs of Tom Hiddleston angrily explaining a word.

Here: http://bambistark.tumblr.com/post/22572812668

...if The Deep Blue Sea is still in theatres next week I might go see it again.


ETA: oh, hey, Loki'd GIFs!

http://doodlingbreaktime.tumblr.com/post/22277069972/lokid-x

Not spoilery for the Avengers -- these are from a goofy clip / sketch thing Tom did.

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Okay, there was a particular scene in The Avengers when I flashed back to ( spoiler for The Avengers )

I liked the movie, mostly; laughed a lot, but that went over-the-top goofy.

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Tried to go to sleep early so I'd have a full night's rest for this afternoon, ended up waking around the hour I usually go to sleep and can't find sleep again.

Going to see The Avengers this afternoon.

En attendant, j'ai le temps de faire du pain doré.

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What other movies feature tropes that The Cabin in the Woods borrows itself?

These references spoil The Cabin in the Woods, but also to some extent the other films I'm referencing -- albeit vaguely

( extra-spoilery ranty ramble ahead, poorly structured because I'm tired and just want to get as much out now while the screening's fresh in my memory )

I mean... it'll probably be a cult classic overnight, and I'd rewatch it at some point just to catch all the references, but I didn't like it, is what I'm saying.

It's not boding well for Whedon's cinematic treatment of The Avengers to stack this as a precedent on his resume, either.

The Cabin in the Woods shows that its makers know a lot of major movie tropes, but they don't understand how to use them except in very shallow, cynical ways.

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