Dept of Scattershot
Wednesday, 13 March 2019 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_rShort Takes
"Captain Marvel"
I had worried that I'd find this bland - blonde white hero after the strength of Black Panther - so I was happy to truly like the movie. I'm not familiar with Brie Larson's work, but I found her an excellent Captain Marvel, and certainly not "wooden," which I believe was one of the shots aimed at her. I thought the plot did a fine job of weaving the various Captain Marvel histories together, and I loved the twist at the end, which I should have seen coming, as likable as the putative villain and his buddies were. (Also, every time I saw Jude Law in this film, I had to fight the suspicion that he deserved nothing so much as a punch in the nose.) There were a few threads dangling here and there, which is almost to be expected at this, the end of this generation of MCU stories. They've all gotten so dense, multifaceted, and connected to each other that the general quality of the story telling and pacing is a bit of a minor cinematic miracle. Samuel Jackson was a joy to watch, as always, and I think that the MCU finally has a heavy hitter that can take on Thanos.
"Logopolis"
Tonight BB and I and a friend took in the special showing of the final Tom Baker Fourth Doctor adventure in the theater. It was digitally remastered, so that the bad quality I've seen when television gets transferred to the big screen wasn't a problem. Before and after the actual story (which flowed pretty well as a movie) we got to enjoy bits of banter between Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton, and separate conversations between Baker, John Leeson, and others. At the end of the story, they showed a brief little featurette in which Fielding and Sutton visited the Lovell Telescope in Cheshire, England, which was the model for the Pharos Project radio telescope in Logopolis. I was struck by a few things. 1) I'd forgotten that Baker could be a very good actor. This reminded me of that. 2) After watching Ainley's performance I wonder why anyone complained about Simm or Gomez being too hammy. I seem to remember that he came off better in some of his later appearances; perhaps it was the direction? 3) I adored the horrible production values - you can see the paint spatters around the lower half of the TARDIS console, and the paint doesn't hide the fact that the console is knocked together out of some unseemly blend of two-by-fours and balsa wood. I love the classics .... 4) I had expected the theater to be quite full; we're in a big urban area, full of fans of the show ... but there might have been 30 people in the theater. BB noticed that they were older, like us, so perhaps even a famous story about the end of the most famous Old Who Doctor couldn't coax younger fans out. It disappointed me.
Vincent
He has now been fostered out, and Opie is gradually returning to whatever is his version of stability. I miss Vincent; I wish it had worked. But I comfort myself with the knowledge that the group that took him (Precious Pets Almost Home, for those in the Chicago area who are curious) will find a good home for him, and that I will no longer have to pull a large, furry, rugby ball out of the lower reaches of my refrigerator every time I open its door.
"Captain Marvel"
I had worried that I'd find this bland - blonde white hero after the strength of Black Panther - so I was happy to truly like the movie. I'm not familiar with Brie Larson's work, but I found her an excellent Captain Marvel, and certainly not "wooden," which I believe was one of the shots aimed at her. I thought the plot did a fine job of weaving the various Captain Marvel histories together, and I loved the twist at the end, which I should have seen coming, as likable as the putative villain and his buddies were. (Also, every time I saw Jude Law in this film, I had to fight the suspicion that he deserved nothing so much as a punch in the nose.) There were a few threads dangling here and there, which is almost to be expected at this, the end of this generation of MCU stories. They've all gotten so dense, multifaceted, and connected to each other that the general quality of the story telling and pacing is a bit of a minor cinematic miracle. Samuel Jackson was a joy to watch, as always, and I think that the MCU finally has a heavy hitter that can take on Thanos.
"Logopolis"
Tonight BB and I and a friend took in the special showing of the final Tom Baker Fourth Doctor adventure in the theater. It was digitally remastered, so that the bad quality I've seen when television gets transferred to the big screen wasn't a problem. Before and after the actual story (which flowed pretty well as a movie) we got to enjoy bits of banter between Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton, and separate conversations between Baker, John Leeson, and others. At the end of the story, they showed a brief little featurette in which Fielding and Sutton visited the Lovell Telescope in Cheshire, England, which was the model for the Pharos Project radio telescope in Logopolis. I was struck by a few things. 1) I'd forgotten that Baker could be a very good actor. This reminded me of that. 2) After watching Ainley's performance I wonder why anyone complained about Simm or Gomez being too hammy. I seem to remember that he came off better in some of his later appearances; perhaps it was the direction? 3) I adored the horrible production values - you can see the paint spatters around the lower half of the TARDIS console, and the paint doesn't hide the fact that the console is knocked together out of some unseemly blend of two-by-fours and balsa wood. I love the classics .... 4) I had expected the theater to be quite full; we're in a big urban area, full of fans of the show ... but there might have been 30 people in the theater. BB noticed that they were older, like us, so perhaps even a famous story about the end of the most famous Old Who Doctor couldn't coax younger fans out. It disappointed me.
Vincent
He has now been fostered out, and Opie is gradually returning to whatever is his version of stability. I miss Vincent; I wish it had worked. But I comfort myself with the knowledge that the group that took him (Precious Pets Almost Home, for those in the Chicago area who are curious) will find a good home for him, and that I will no longer have to pull a large, furry, rugby ball out of the lower reaches of my refrigerator every time I open its door.
no subject
Date: Sunday, 17 March 2019 08:28 pm (UTC)Anyway, I don't have the energy to re-create it, so I'll just state my love for Ainley!Master. I've recently been watching Seven, Six and Five, and every. single. the Master turned up it made my day. All the disguises and the OTT evilness and ♥
no subject
Date: Monday, 18 March 2019 07:53 pm (UTC)Ainley was a good actor; even in Logopolis you could see that. And I will say that his performances were part of what led me to the belief that each iteration of the Master was a peeling back of the sophistication and actual pro-Doctor affection of Delgado, to layers of succeeding insanity and brutality that the "younger" Master had better control of. Ainley exhibited the first sign of the breakdown, (which was probably caused when he entered the decayed state between Delgado and Ainley), and each subsequent Master was more unhinged, their inability to control urges and tendencies toward brutality and viciousness more and more apparent. In some ways, Missy seems to have been clinging desperately to the one solid thing with a set of ethics - and a mind she could respect as much as she loved her own - that she'd had in her long life; the Doctor. Can I tell you how much I want to write (or read) a story of how Missy survived?
no subject
Date: Tuesday, 19 March 2019 06:45 pm (UTC)Very good point! (Also Survival is a great episode. <3)
Ainley exhibited the first sign of the breakdown, (which was probably caused when he entered the decayed state between Delgado and Ainley)
Promethia and I have been talking about this too! And how being in constant pain and barely existing is bound to make anyone less than sane, but with the Master way more so.
In some ways, Missy seems to have been clinging desperately to the one solid thing with a set of ethics - and a mind she could respect as much as she loved her own - that she'd had in her long life; the Doctor.
Oooh, I like that.
Can I tell you how much I want to write (or read) a story of how Missy survived?
I refuse to believe that hasn't been written.
Anyway, the long comment that DW ate was about Logopolis being good, but how new fans (unfamiliar with the old show) would be unlikely to show up for it (no matter its reputation). Plus, it strikes me a little like watching Sound of Drums without Utopia & Last of the Time Lords. (Of course watching Keeper of Traken AND Logopolis AND Castrovalva all in one would take a long, long time. But the point stands.)