it's plain to me why can't you see I don't need any therapy for this

[enthusiastick]

I am totally in a movie mode lately. A couple from the 3-day weekend:

• Cloverfield -- 3 stars -- I'm in rollick's camp on this one. I found it an engrossing and enjoyable movie. There's one scene in particular, in the subway tunnels, that got to me pretty thoroughly squirming in my seat and crawling up the walls. I'm glad I sat towards the back; though I didn't experience any problems with the whole movie being shaky-cam, I can easily see how others did. I really liked that the movie had the balls to do certain things, and I was ambivalent about others, but on the whole there was nothing I really disliked. Apparently my opinion is not shared universally, however.


• Sunshine -- 3 stars -- I caught this one due to the good taste of dippy423, who enjoyed it in theaters and snapped it up on DVD as soon as it came out. Danny Boyle continues to impress me. Cillian Murphy, too. Also, once again with the "alternate ending" that was not so much. This is one of those interesting "soft" science fiction movies that asks you to accept 2 conceits without any real science to back them up (the first being that the sun is for some reason going out prematurely, and the second that staring at the sun makes you crazy.) thablueguy pointed out that you could use this movie as an example to teach Story, and he's not wrong, but in this case that's a strength rather than a weakness. It doesn't overreach and it executes extremely well on its premise.

Comments

[playinggodagain.livejournal.com]

You talk up both of these movies pretty well but only give them 3 stars. What's up with that?

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

My star ratings are kind of arbitrary. 3 stars is a good rating, as far as I'm concerned; to do any better than that you have to be at least tinged with greatness, and I don't feel that either of these movies were.

[playinggodagain.livejournal.com]

I see.

[manslayerliz.livejournal.com]

It was interesting to read about all the people complaining after the show. Why, the last time I remember hearing people complain after a movie was actually Garden State, where everyone in the entire theatre stood up and and belligerently demanded that their money be refunded. ... ... Ok, so my sisters and I were the only people in the theatre, but still.

[damarie.livejournal.com]

I ranted a bit about Sunshine when I went to see it in the theater. Apparently, the cause of the sun going out is called a Q-Ball. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.Q_ball)

I didn't get the impression that it was staring at the sun that made people crazy, just the usual isolation and vastness of space exacerbating any underlying mental illness. Staring at the sun just vaporizes you. :P

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

Really? I got the distinct impression that too much staring at the sun up close (through the non-vaporization filter, that is) would make you sunburned and mentally unhinged.

[damarie.livejournal.com]

Maybe I need to see it again; it's been a few months, after all. I did enjoy the movie a bit.

(mental note: add to movie night list...)

[king-biscuit.livejournal.com]

I thought Cloverfield WAS great. It capitalized on all the promises that Blair Witch failed to deliver and I thought was very relevant to certain modern day aspects.

Sunshine, I'm still not sure whether I liked it or not, but it really got under my skin and was one of the most intense movies I've ever seen.

SPOILERS BLAH BLAH

My tack on the insanity in Sunshine was that it was the enormity of their mission and the individuals' inability to reconcile that with their human problems that drove some of them insane. In the case of the psychologist, he kept staring at the sun to see some sort of greater cause, some sort of religious thing that was not there... and that's what started to make him go batty, not exposure to UV rays.

My only scientific quibble with Sunshine was with the other captain. Being exposed to massive amounts of solar radiation and then abandoned in a spaceship with all your skin burned off... is not going to make you super strong. It is going to give you melanoma and make you vomit and die.