I think I'm going to try updating this thing more often. While large life changing things don't happen everyday, I'll try and find other things to share, especially in an attempt to brighten this place up.
So Chelsea and I went to see Underworld 3 the other night. We both knew it wasn't going to be great, given the other two weren't exactly masterpieces, but they were fun in their own right. But holy crap was this one awful. The dramatic scenes (while unnecessary since the story was already told in flashbacks in the other films) were well done, and it was fun to see Michael Sheen running around shirtless fighting monsters and chewing the scenery with an over the top dramatic intensity not seen since Christopher Lee took on the Sarumon role in LOTR, the fight scenes were some of the worst I've ever seen.
I'm going to go on record here and say that I'm one of the few who hates (ok maybe just 'kind of dislikes') the Bourne films for their awful approach to editing fight scenes. It wasn't so awful in the Bourne films because at least there was light, in in UW3 however, the fight scenes took place exclusively at night in dark interiors. You literally couldn't tell what was happening the entire time. There would be swishes of swords, some close ups of fake blood flying from peoples necks, and that was it. It was so brutal.
What ever happened to wide angles, and long, continuous shots?
Anyways, I've got a midterm of Wednesday I forgot about until last night, which isn't so bad, since it's only a pysch midterm and it's all multiple choice.
Also, I'm trying to think of ideas for my politics paper, which needs a rough outline by March 12. The ideas given were 'compare and contrast two different political thinkers' or 'are so-and-so's ideas (ie. Marx) still relevant in todays time, and how so, or why not'.
While that's all well and good, and I could do that for marks, I want to do something I'll really get jazzed about, so I'm thinking something along the lines of totalitarianism in films, and relating it to Orwell, Marx and some of the other thinkers we'll talk about in class.
Things that easily came to mind while I was in the shower yesterday were; Metropolis, V for Vendetta, Dark City (I think, it's been a while since I've seen it), Minority Report, Clockwork Orange (to a degree), Blade Runner, The Wall (mmm music too), Gattaca, The Island, Equilibrium, Brazil, Soylent Green.
Clearly some work better than others, but it's good to draw from a large pool, especially if I don't know if I'll be picking 1 film, or 5 films, or 12 films to discuss.
I might go back to original source material for some works, like V, MR and Do Androids Dream... if they're used, just to get the full picture.
So if anyone has any ideas on films with oppressive societies/governments, pass 'em along.
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3 comments:
You could also bring in representations of historical totalitarianism in film as. Nazism in Indiana Jones, or Communism in Reds. Compare and contrast those with the strictly fictional examples you listed? Maybe, somehow?
Re: Underworld 3 & fight scenes... good fight scenes seem to be hard to come by. And I recently found the shaky cam particularly problematic in Quantum of Solace. The opening sequence was barely intelligible (there were cars, and guns, and Bond won somehow?).
Yeah those are good ideas too. My dad suggested Battleship Potemkin and I guess I need to decide whether or not I want to focus on 'real life' issues in films, or fake futuristic stuff in films.
Hell, a thesis or idea of what I want to argue would also be nice to start off with. Hell, I also need to run my thoughts by my TA to figure out if my idea is doable or not. I'll keep you/people updated when I know.
And yeah, fight scenes suck, more on that when I'm not in class.
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