Nano, elections, Dr. Strange, and Hacksaw Ridge

[evila_elf]

Doing NaNoWriMo this year, and for once in what feels like a long time, I had no vacations or anything else to mess with my momentum. It is about two bull riders who eventually fall in love. Juuuust starting to get to the good stuff....

....Then the election went down and my word count is slipping. So hard to concentrate. I have a small handful of celebrities that I follow on Youtube and Facebook. This whole shitstorm has reminded me why I loved them in the first place. They all started out begging people to do the right thing with voting. Then the shocked disbelief when our nightmares came true. They lashed out. And then finally they apologized and and are ready to forgive and move on.

I don't know the general feelings of my flist, since I haven't been on here in a week or so. I do think we need anger, but put that anger to a good use. Don't attack people. I don't want US to become like THEM.

Enough political shit for now, moving on....

Wednesday I saw Dr. Strange, and Thursday I saw Hacksaw Ridge. I originally wanted to see them back to back, but I couldn't get the time off work Wednesday to do both. There will be some spoilers in my reviews, but not a ton.


I had been looking forward to seeing Dr. Strange for a while because, duh, Cumberbatch! I went to see the 3D version because that was the one showing at the time I was free, at 3pm. There was only 1 other person in the theater and he laughed at all the right places, so that was good lol.

I am not a huge fan of 3D movies. Avatar and My Bloody Valentine were the only two I have seen that were freaking amazing in 3D. Not sure if it is just me, but the backgrounds tend to be unfocused and blurry. I can't see expressions. I get distracted by a tree or something that passes in front of people because of the 3D effect. Special effects are amazing and they looked really cool. And I had a weird reflection with my 3D glasses. I had to push my hair around to block out a little light creeping in on the sides so I wouldn't have to see myself. It was weird.

Okay, on to the movie.
The acting was awesome. The story/plot....left a lot to be desired. I talked to a coworker and we both agreed that it felt like it was made for the fans only, unlike the other Marvel movies where you can jump on from any point and still follow things okay.

The visuals felt like a rip off of Inception (I loved that movie), and what really annoyed me was that there was no rhyme or reason for why things looked like that. Why does creating a third dimension look like that? It seems like a whole lot of work just to make the audience go "ooooohhh pretty". And it felt like the characters were constantly having to explain things to keep the audience from getting confused.

The 'training' montage didn't feel complete. We didn't see him learn enough to save his ass. This would have been a good opportunity to let the audience in on a few things.

I did have a few moments that I loved. The Groundhog Day scene. And the exchange that went something like this:
"Mr...?"
"Doctor."
"Mr. Doctor?"
"Strange."
"Yes, that is quite strange."

And yes, daasgrrl, Cumberbatch was very nice to look at. And his accent wasn't too distracting :)

So...yeah. I do plan to see this again when it comes out. It will probably be much better the second time around.



Hacksaw Ridge wasn't really on my radar until I caught Andrew Garfield on James Corden and saw a clip of the movie. I was fascinated and drawn in by that and the trailer. So I went at 5pm Thursday to see it. Decent crowd. Maybe 20 people.

I picked a seat off to the side. Two guys came in, a father in his 70s and a son in his 30s. They checked to make sure I could see before they sat down and we briefly chatted. I listened to them talking and joking a little through the trailers. Not in an annoying way, but they were entertaining.

The movie was amazing and I liked it better than Dr. Strange. The cast blew me away. The expressions....I knew what everyone was feeling by expression alone. Hugo Weaving (I didn't know he was in this!) was great. I really don't want to give any spoilers. Even after watching the trailer a few times, it didn't give key scenes away, like so many others do.

I didn't look up anything about the movie before I saw it aside from the trailer. I didn't want to be spoiled by who lived or died, and I encourage those of you who might go see it to do the same. This is based on actual events.

It is very violent when it gets to the war scenes. And I did get a little tired of seeing bullets go straight through heads that were wearing helmets. There was also tons of gore. More than even I was expecting, but it didn't cheapen the experience for me.

There were three scenes that scared the crap out of me. One was someone peering out of a foxhole and coming face to face with the enemy. And another was a quiet scene where someone is trying to be real quiet and all of a sudden a gunshot went off. Felt like I had been shot for a moment. uugh.

There were a couple people a few rows in front of me with the most annoying laugh ever. Or at least one of them did. She sounded like a smoker who had no control over her laughter, and was a touch senile. Thank god this wasn't a comedy! It did have some nice humorous bits to break up the doom and gloom.

At the end, there are some interviews with survivors and it was a perfect way to end things.

After, the father and son stood up. The father commented on how real everything was and they asked me how I survived. Told them barely and that the movie was really good. The son said the only thing the movie was missing was Brad Pitt in a tank and I commented on how it was a shame and a missed opportunity. He cracked up. We wished each other good evenings and the end.

I really want to see this again, but I already spent too much of my extra money on comfort chocolate after the election.

Comments

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hee - so his accent wasn't distracting, does that mean you thought it was okay?

I mostly skipped your review on Hacksaw Ridge, but thrilled you posted about it and liked it because I too had no interest until I saw someone talk about it (may have been Jeremy Jahns) and now I'm moderately keen if I can get cheap tickets. Sounds like a great story.

[evila-elf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, accent not bad. It didn't really sound like too much of anything, which I think has been his problem in other movies where he is someone other than a Brit.

Jeremy Jahns was the deciding factor for me to go see Hacksaw. I think I have told you before, but I agree 90% with his reviews, and he had some high praise for it. Have you seen the trailer? It didn't spoil too much and gives a good feel for the movie.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yep, watched the trailer after his review, and I agree, I like his reviews - I don't always agree, but I get where he's coming from so he's a good base.