Near Semester's End and Movie Reviews

[davetheanalyzer]

Near the end of my second semester at Albertus Magnus. Got feedback on my Writing Portfolio excerpt but still unsatisfied, I’m putting it aside and write ahead. Maybe with more material around it, I could make more accurate edits. For Readings in Fiction, I’m writing and editing an imitation exercise that I combined with an original idea I kicked around in my head for awhile. I fell behind and had to pause my fic writing to make time for it, but I’m happy so far. I’m interested in how the teacher will react. This might be a bit weird for a writing class. Then again, there has been a lot of fantastic stories among my fellow students, so maybe it wouldn’t be that far afield.

Anyway, I saw many movies this month to catch up on those I missed in March, starting with A Wrinkle in Time. I’ve read the reviews weren’t flattering, criticizing the story. Unfortunately, I could see some of why. The pacing felt weird. I don’t know if it had to do with some choices with how the book (Which I haven’t read) was adapted, but I had trouble connecting with it. I couldn’t tell the quality of Charles Wallace’s acting, but I did find some of his dialogue hard to understand with his squeaky voice. When he got possessed, he did have a decent, enjoyable creepy menace. I did feel Meg’s reaction to her father deciding to leave her brother behind to save them was under-addressed. I don’t think she shouldn’t forgive him but there should be some reaction to him deciding to sacrifice her brother that could’ve lead to some interesting character and story beats.

Still, there are some moments I enjoyed. As others mentioned, Meg’s conflict with self-hate and the gender and racial subtext of it was good, and I liked the moment in the finale where she learns to accept herself. She was interesting and relatable. The struggles she has with a missing parent at school, with her peers taunting her and Principal Jenkins telling her it’s time to move on, are wince-inducing but sadly feel like things that could happen. I like Charles Wallace is a kid genius but isn’t a jerk. The scenes where we see the IT’s effects on humans are powerful, with resentment toward Jenkins for being chosen principal and Veronica struggling over her weight being the standouts for me. The muted dialogue only extenuated them. Calvin’s had dialogue but it was brief and enough to show his issues and make him interesting. The three astral travelers and the other mystical characters were okay, but I had trouble connecting with them.

The film was very colorful and pretty, especially the three astral travelers with their costumes and makeup. They wouldn’t look out of place in a magical girl show, especially with the flowers and one of the traveler’s true form. I like this trend of films embracing color after so many years of serious drab. This film didn’t do well financially but I hope this doesn’t sink the director Ava DuVernay and that it’s more of an indication all directors make mistakes and the rest of her work would be fine. We’ll just have to see with her New Gods movie.

I saw Tomb Raider next. Flawed and basic but I enjoyed it. This version of Lara Croft was likeable and charming, understandable in her longing for her father but still enjoying hopping and keeping up training like boxing. They developed her and her bond with her father well, who was fine. Pretty basic but I liked he was messed up by his years of hiding alone. With her thrill-seeking attitude, when she got to the island I thought she would come to enjoy the many dangerous scrapes she had to get out of but nope, she was terrified through most of them. A lot of them did have a video game feel, which I surmise is appropriate for a video game adaptation, but if you’re going to have action scenes, they should advance the character in some way. Maybe they do it in that she gets used to that sort of danger.

At least she cares enough about others to rescue the enslaved shipwrecked survivors. I liked what little we saw of her friend Lu Ren and their chemistry. He kind of had his own little arc helping them and I wouldn’t mind seeing him again, maybe in a game. He could have been a woman though, Lara’s pretty much the only female character once the ball gets rolling. I don’t think it would’ve changed much. I like the human bad guy has sympathetic motives, stranded on the island and wanting to reunite with his daughters, and that could twist someone into being horrible to others and not care about long term consequences with the disease. I wonder what became of his daughters, if Lara quietly compensated them and other victim families or if they’ll become vengeful villains in a probable sequel.

I did roll my eyes about Queen Himiko being evil, cliché women leader, so I was pleasantly surprised with the twist that she wasn’t actually evil but sacrificed herself and made this whole deathtrap isolated tomb to prevent a plague from spreading to the world. Speaking of tomb, it was like the video games, unrealistic but with fun traps and puzzles. It kind of sucked she had to say goodbye to her father the same few days she reunited with him but she seemed she could recover. I did find it ironic that Lara ignoring her father’s orders not to investigate nearly endangered the world several times and gave the big bad what they wanted with the family business. Whoops! Then again, maybe Lara contained their ability to take and somehow spread the disease, so that was a lesser evil. Anyway, look forward to any probably future entries.

The third film I saw was Pacific Rim Uprising. I watched the first one but didn’t become passionate about it like others did. I do find I connected and enjoyed this one a lot more, even if it wasn’t as good. John Boyega as Jake Pentecost was great, infusing charm into everything he did. He was rough around the edges but good-hearted. Nate Lambert didn’t leave me with much of a progression but he had a great dynamic with Jake, and the implied love triangle between them and Jules Reyes was amusing. Jake’s “Well, that was confusing” comment is a highlight. Amara Namani was sweet, tough and cool while still being a teenager with her traumas and delights. I liked her sibling-like bond with Jake and that she’s so technical with piloting and building Jeagers.

There are a lot of technical female characters here, with Amara, Jules, and Liwen Shao. She seems like the main villain, a driven weapons CEO, but I’m glad she wasn’t. Her actress handled her scenes magnificently. I like she helped repair the Jeagers and rescued Jake and Amara. I wouldn’t mind more of her. Of the other Shatterdone Cadets, only three get any focus. Amara’s rivalry with Viktoriya entertaining, Jinhai nice and quick to befriend Amara, and poor Suresh is nervous but brave, making his death sad. They and a few other characters are underdeveloped; this film can’t give in-depth characterization to everyone and that’s not always the priority but there is potential that a sequel or spinoff could take advantage of and from what I heard of some spinoff novels/comics, that’s exactly what happened. The film apparently didn’t do well, so hopefully they can continue fleshing out the story in other mediums.

There are some controversial choices. I agree with the outcry over Mako’s death. After all she accomplished and represented, it felt cheap she got killed off for the pain of Jake and the others. Not seeing a body, I sort of hoped she got teleported elsewhere. Maybe they could use that in a continuation or fanfic writers can take advantage of that. The other controversial choice is Newt becoming a villain via Precursor possession. I actually think it works. Mind you, I’ve seen few complaints in my browsing, but Newt’s Kaiju love getting turned against him feels like a natural progression. The twist was genuinely shocking and led to some nice character struggle and drama. I wonder where they plan to take this.

The giant robots and monsters were fine, I can’t comment on design. The battles were entertaining. I couldn’t judge much from the Kaiju to determine personality but here I wasn’t as fixed on them as I am on other Godzilla-like media. Amara’s robot and how it came to be important was pretty sweet. I like the rumblings from one of the Super Robot Wars people they want to do art involving these movies. Knowing Del Toro, he’d want to get them involved in that franchise but I have no idea of what legal entanglements if any that might prevent that.

Finally, I saw Love, Simon on its final day. I watched it with my mother. It was the first major queer-centered film we saw in theaters and we were pretty engaged with it. The many characters were well-characterized, especially the main foursome. Simon’s warm but awkward connections with his family and his flops as a teenager feel natural. His struggle with his gay identity leading him to confide in someone online feels realistic for this Internet age. That he compromises his friends to keep himself from being outed is wince-inducing but understandable. The judgement and abuse that comes from being public must be terrifying. I like his struggle to find out Blue’s identity and his disappointments when those he builds up in his mind reveal their heterosexuality.

I did like his struggles after Martin outs him, mending with his family, and trying to makeup for the manipulations to his friends. I was happy he got together with Bram in the end and that they are a couple at least for their remaining high school year. His friends were also good. Childhood friend Leah having to accept her crush on Simon isn’t possible is a nice conflict that I could see happening and her forgiveness of him was good. Nick’s chemistry with Abby was engaging, and he was a nice friend. Abby was great, with her conflict about being the new girl in school and her wavering between being revolted by Martin and finding things to like about him. Her acceptance of Simon coming out and her suggestions for fit guys was sweet and amusing. Her outrage about what Simon got up to is even more understandable since she was the target of Martin’s blackmail. I’m glad she and Nick manage to make up with them.

As for other characters, Martin was socially awkward but he was a selfish dick about it. He was the definition of a “nice guy,” though him attempting to make up by giving Simon one last ride on the ferris wheel seemed human. Ethan was a standout, with glorious snark for his bullies and yet some heartfelt struggles about his family accepting his sexuality. That no one intervened in his bullying but did with Simon’s is sad but realistic. The principal was the usual adult who cringingly tried to relate to the youth but at least he was well-meaning. I liked the families various reactions, the father being remorseful over the gay jokes while the others were more supportive and the mother only had a vague idea of what was happening.

Finally, there’s Bram Greenfield. He’s a nice kid, into sports and teen partying while being mild-mannered. The emails were informative about his mindset and life (Though now I can barely remember them). I like that he deleted his email address after their emails go public, fearing the same outing Simon got. I also like he still liked Simon and came to be brave enough to come out and get together with him. Now they’re out and happy among their friends and school. I have doubts their romance will last beyond senior year, since that seems the usual for high school romances whatever the orientation, but I hope they can enjoy their time together and the experience makes them more comfortable with their identities.

That’s all I can talk about for now. I’m so tired because my sleep schedule went out of my whack as I caught up with my writing, so I tried to right itby walking up at eight, getting only four hours of sleep. I can’t wait to get back to my fic writing. Until May’s end, see you!