Is This Really That Bad? #3 - Prometheus

I know, I know. I said that I would be doing Lulu for my next post in this series but I was only able to get through about a third of the album before I kind of got disinterested for the time being. Not in the sense of not liking in since I didn't get enough of it to really say how I thought about it. More of just I didn't feel like writing about it. That would explain why I have not really gotten any work done lately aside from trying to write more from a more fictional aspect with my own ideas. That too has gone by a little slow as I feel like I'm dragging the story I'm writing to a slow pace that might be considered a complete stop of any momentum. That's what the editing process is for, though. But onto the topic at hand, the last week or so, I have kind of gotten a little more trigger happy with purchasing stuff than I should be, since I got my hands on a bunch of blu-rays, one being a set of films by the Coen Brothers, another being season one of True Detective, and the last (and also the cheapest purchase by comparison) being the topic for today, Ridley Scott's 2012 film Prometheus. I had not seen the film partially due to the amount of criticism it had gotten from critics and the public alike, praising some of it while really being angered by some other parts. It still got me interested due to the fact that it was a Ridley Scott film and that it was science fiction, since he does make a lot of movies (12 since 2000) and most of them do span different genres yet sci-fi has not been that prevalent with him since Blade Runner came out 30 years prior to this film. I'm not really that much of a fanboy of Scott's since A. I haven't seen a whole lot of his work aside from some of the more obvious one and B. some I've seen I don't really like all that much. To be honest, looking back at his filmography, I think I've only seen five of his films all the way through, two of which I wasn't really a fan of (GI Jane and Gladiator), one I thought was okay but it really did benefit from a director's cut (Kingdom of Heaven, which I might bring up later on) and the obvious ones I should like that I do that don't really need to mention.

So what could you call Prometheus as a film, since it tries really hard to distance itself from the other sci-fi film Scott is known for, Alien, yet there is a lot it takes from that film. It it obvious that both of those films take place within the same universe but does that give Prometheus the footing to call itself a prequel to Alien or is that not the case? There are some aspects that do call back to Alien, such as the whole design of the interior of the ship such as the room where all of the stasis chambers are and the like along with the creatures that roam the planet they stay on, which have that relation to the xenomorphs and their whole reproductive system representing those themes of rape and phallic symbols coming back. There is also the android who might have some ulterior motives hidden behind that facade. The bigger difference between the two that I could call right away is the scope that is trying to be achieved. With Alien, there is a huge sense of claustrophobia with all of the tight spaces and darkness within not only the Nostromo but also the derelict ship that they investigate, bringing the feeling of dread out more prominently. With Prometheus, it is more open, larger, brighter even with the scale of everything trying to mesh with the concepts and ideas that the movie itself is trying to convey. It's easy to say that Scott can make a beautiful looking movie and this one is no exception. I can give all the praise in the world for Michael Fassbender's performance as the android David since everyone else does and for good reason. The other characters do suffer a lot from the lack of development due to Scott's usual desire of having the pacing being the most important thing even if it leads to things not making any sense like the scene with Millburn and Fifield being the way it is. There is some things as well left in questioning that maybe a sequel would answer but maybe they left too many loose threads hanging.

This could really benefit from having a different cut. Not necessarily adding things that could been seen as superfluous but I think that there could be more scenes of character development with the crew along with not making the movie more like Alien. As is, I still like the movie but I really do see it as a missed opportunity as well, something that can be expected from Scott as of late. I'm sorry this turned out to be shorter than I expected but I really got distracted even though that isn't really a good excuse. But it might bring some good though since I think I'll start working on something that I hope people will like and I hope can turn out as well as I think it will be. That will be discussing the ending of True Detective, mainly what happened with Rust since that has been a really polarizing topic that a lot of people think ruined the show. I'll start off by saying I think the ending was really great but I'll try to talk about why on a future post.

New Years Update: Happy 2015 to all

So for any of you that have stuck through this long period of nothing written by me at all, I shall say thank you and an even bigger thank you to any of you that consider yourselves fans of my work. I know there are some there and even if there aren't, I'll at least try to write more quality work  in the near future. But onto the update, I am really sorry I never finished that nightmare fuel week for the Depths of Pretension series but that will come soon, hopefully by the end of the month and I'll try to make that a bimonthly series from now on. I have thought of what to do with my other series of articles as well so I thought I might enlighten you guys as well as to what will happen with those in the near future as well as a new addition as well. For my William Friedkin retrospective series, The Friedkin Connection, I have one that I'm working on for To Live and Die in LA at the moment which should be followed by The Hunted but that might go into a small hiatus soon since there are the pre- French Connection films that I am unsure how to get access to but I'll at least get to Jade and The French Connection before then. Next is another series I have been neglecting for longer than Depths of Pretension and that is the Adaptation Complaints, the one where I talk about adapting other media to film. And I have a plan for that as well for the next two posts at least, those being on Dune and The Crow, both of which I love the films and the source material they came from. I plan on buying a book copy of Dune soon since I haven't read it since high school though. The Crow though does bring me to the new series idea I have though, and that is talking about movie soundtracks. More specifically, movie soundtracks that are filled with songs rather than a score although not always. The first one I will do for that one I plan on being the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever and maybe I'll get to The Crow's soundtrack as well even though I'm covering the movie in another post but I already talked about The Exorcist more than once and plan on talking about it again at some point, especially since I know at some point Legion/Exorcist III will be a topic for A. C. I don't have a name for the music soundtrack one yet but hopefully it'll be a good one. The last real series I have, Is This Really That Bad?, is one that'll be tough to talk about since it's hard to pick things that people don't like that I can defend without some sort of bias. I'll get to Lulu though for sure but after that it might be a question mark. I do have a plan though for some sort of fun with my fans, if they're interested. I started covering new releases as well and I thought it would be fun if people would be interested in me seeing specific films if they are available, good or bad. That probably won't happen though. Hopefully, this will lead to a more productive year for this blog and random topics will happen as well since I like doing those. So hope you all have a good year and maybe I'll get some work done.

Parents (Mainly My Mom).... They Confuse Me

So a while ago (I don't remember how long ago) my brother told my mom about how this kid in his school was wearing a shirt that had something to do with Grand Theft Auto V and she said something that I thought was kind of weird, and that was something along the lines of that because his mom lets him play games like that, he's a naughty kid. Now I have no idea whether or not that is true since I don't know the kid myself, but part of the problem is that playing games like that would make a kid misbehave, which I do not believe to be true unless there is something wrong with them mentally to begin with and that is another story but I kind of had to go "Really?" because this was the same person who got me San Andreas when I was my brother's age. I should also mention that it'll always be dependent on how well the kid can process things like that and some can handle it at earlier ages than others. She has also been hypocritical at times or thinking that one thing was bad while another thing that was objectively worse was fine; example being comparing the sangs Get Lucky to Blurred Lines, which I could get into why I think that argument in incredibly flawed, I'll let it slide this time. The sad thing is that most people acquire their taste in films and music from their parents, either directly or indirectly and I like to think that I got most of my film tastes from my mom while my musical tastes comes from my dad (a little from the others on both) and when it comes to having a difference of opinion when it comes to those things, I like to consider it that they did a good job parenting me, having exposed me to things that they thought were good as long as they were sure I could handle it (which I could for the most part) and I have them to thank for my taste in things, even if it leads me to dislike a lot of theirs in the process. It would be easy to say that, "Oh this has too much swearing or too much violence" and etc., without actually considering the context of things, which is another thing I learned from them. The context of why things happen is important to explain to kids about movies and video games, why one is more inappropriate than the other. This was also part of something the other day when I was watching an episode of Trigun when everybody had to come to the living room to eat and it was episode seven (it was difficult to listen with people being loud and no subtitles) and there was a scene where the kid in the episode who was with the people hijacking the sand crawler had a gun held to his mouth and my mom thought it was a bit much even though nothing happened to him. Now I think she didn't get the context which I could understand if she wasn't paying attention but I wish she would have just let it continue on since it's not like the kids haven't seen that kind of stuff before. But what is the point I'm making here? I'm just here to say that I do love my parents even though it may not seem like it most of the time since they made me the person I am today. I just find it weird that my mom who exposed me to a lot of things as a kid that most would have frowned upon (and I turned out okay for the most part) has turned into kind of a prude similar to that DVD-R Hell episode Brad Jones did on Deception of a Generation. Maybe it is my duty to be the purveyor of that kind of stuff now that my mom no longer wants to do that, to make sure that my brother turns out okay before it is too late.

Top Five - This Movie Is Actually Funny? Awesome.

It is rather hard to say whether or not Chris Rock has had a good career in film, yet there was always this assumption that Rock was a funny person, either from his days as a comedian, his stint on Saturday Night Live, or when he got his own show. I find him to be funny in things like that although aside from a few roles in movies, that humor never really translated. I can never say that I have seen all that much to judge him wholeheartedly, I have enjoyed some of his roles, such as Rufus in Dogma or as JB/Daddy Tang in Pootie Tang, but there are also things like the Grown Ups movies which I don't like at all for being such as black hole of talent or as mentioned from the Penguins of Madagascar review, that series is not something I really like to watch regularly. There was also the unnecessary remake of Death at a Funeral, the original being one of my favorite movies. So it can be said that lately his film career has not been that good, although maybe financially successful. So when trailers for this movie came out, I was kind of intrigued but also cautious due to said track record. Then one of the internet reviews I trust a lot gave it a good review and some others have said good things about it so I thought I'd give it a watch. And what I got could easily be one of the best things that Chris Rock has done in his career so far.

Top Five, which was also written and directed by Rock, follows a day in the life of Andre Allen, a former comedian turned comedy film star who has to juggle many things going on all the while being followed by a reporter almost the entire time, who he begins to open up to about his life. The two of them do start to develop a sort of a connection with one another over the course of the film yet it never devolves into a romantic comedy which I rather liked and I'm glad for. That said, the chemistry between Rock and Chelsea Brown, played by Rosario Dawson, is really good as they are able to switch from the comedic moments to the more serious beats of the story in a rather believable way. The rest of the cast comes in and out, mainly just appearing in a few scenes before fading away, such as Kevin Hart's character as Allen's agent whom I thought would have been more prominent in the film which did kind of make me worry. Not because I don't like him (I don't have enough of a gauge of that to really say) but more due to the prominence he has had in comedic films over the past few years I though it would be overexposure. His time in the movie was funny though, I'll give him that. The only character who does appear in the film a significant amount of time other than the leads would be Silk, Andre's assistant played by JB Smoove, who does get some laughs in the movie. 

A prominent source of jokes in the film comes from the movie that Andre is promoting called Uprize, his first attempt at more serious work where he plays a prominent member of the Haitian slave revolution. Part of it is poking fun at how miscast Allen appears to be in the movie, where the best way to describe it is to pretend that Chris Rock was cast in the lead of Django Unchained and you can get how miscast he would be in that. A sight gag I found funny was that at one of the promotions there was a pamphlet called the Uprize Fitness Kit but I might be one of the few who gets a laugh at that. I should also give some credit for the movie not giving away all of the good jokes in the trailer, at least the one that I saw being the case since there were a lot that were really good. My favorite though might be during Andre's bachelor party where there is a cameo by Jerry Seinfeld and saying too much might ruin it but if the prospect of seeing Seinfeld "makin' it rain" sounds funny to you, then this movie is for you. If you're hesitant about this movie, I'd say give it a chance since it is easily one of the best things Chris Rock has done in years and hopefully it'll be a better movie than you expect it to be. 

Epilogue: I did consider calling this a more conventional version of Birdman since there are some similar themes in it but I was unsure whether or not that is true. 

Penguins of Madagascar - And yes, I saw this movie by myself, by the way

From the title, I admit that was the situation going into the theater this week. I hadn't gone in a while since Nightcrawler and Birdman no longer being in the theater meant that there really wasn't anything I wanted to watch aside from Interstellar again (maybe Big Hero 6), which I had planned to see but missed a reasonable screening time so my mind came back to a recent midnight screening episode on thecinemasnob.com where Brad saw the movie by himself as well and enjoyed it. He also talked about how ridiculous the first two thirds was and how schizophrenic the story was in that period of time, which sometimes would not work but from what was going on I thought it would be nice to give it a shot. I mean he had me sold at animated Werner Herzog, so how was I not going to see this movie?

Another point I should bring up is that the movie series that Penguins of Madagascar comes from is one that I think is kind of okay, but not really worth watching multiple times. Then again, I have only seen the first and third one all of the way through. I'm not sure why I haven't seen the second one all the way yet but it just hasn't happened. It's not like there isn't anything good in those movies, since there really is some good things in them, mainly the penguins. I have also had no exposure to the show The Penguins of Madagascar but from what I've heard, the movie doesn't take place in the same continuity and is pretty much a direct sequel to the third film. That sequence when the penguins decide to leave the circus due to the constant listening of that fucking annoying as hell Circus Afro song (which I can relate to obviously) was a good sign that this movie was going to be a lot of fun. That came after the origin opening sequence, which is where the Werner Herzog thing comes into play. It has the first three penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico as young penguins going to rescue a lone egg, that ends up becoming their fourth member Private, that strayed from the pack, which has them planning their rescue at the edge of the cliff, where Herzog is watching them with a documentary crew, and Herzog has the guy with the boom mic push the penguins off the cliff for dramatic effect. That had me sold on the movie right then and there.

The plot is rather simple with the penguins having to stop the nefarious scheme of the octopus Dave, voiced by John Malkovich, who you can tell from the way he delivers most of his lines that he is having so much fun in the role. Dave is a really fun villain right from the introduction when he kidnaps the penguins with the help of a vending machine and his plan is to turn all of the penguins in the world into monsters after being outshined by them at the zoo for years. The plot itself is rather simple but it goes into a lot of tangents, which can come off as stupid and pointless in other movies but this one seems to at least keep some form of stability with the off the wall stuff as well, such as the penguins breaking into Fort Knox, the whole North Wind task force that they always run into with Skipper and Agent Classified always at odd with one another, and Private being the cutest one of them all plays into the ending. My favorite part though mainly just for one line being really hilarious is when the penguins end up in Shanghai and end up mistaking it for Dublin, which in itself is a rather amusing scene, and they realize that they have to go to Shanghai since that's where Dave is going, so they ship themselves there and I wish I could remember the line exactly after Skipper pops out and remarks but it has the phrase Shanghai's little Dublin district in it which for some reason made me laugh a lot.

It can be weird to be at a movie aimed at kids by yourself just because it was the only thing there that sounded fine, but to be honest I think this is a really fun movie that a lot of people can enjoy. Is every adult going to like it? No. I liked it though even though it was more amusing that laugh out loud funny. I had a laugh out loud time watching The Wolf of Wall Street yesterday and I knew that I was never going to get that with Penguins of Madagascar. It's a movie that is a spinoff with a group of secondary characters and usually, movies like that don't work all that well but the penguins are entertaining and this one is worth seeing at a matinee or with kids if you have them. It's worth a rental for sure when it comes to digital. I'll probably give this a second thought if I catch Big Hero 6 next Tuesday since I think if it's there, I'll see that or I'll go see The Hobbit film that's coming out.