Reality? What's that then?
Nov. 27th, 2006 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
As part of my ongoing "Pretend reality isn't" campaign, I went to see two filums this weekend (and I get to include today in the weekend, hurrah). Spoilers within, and more similarities than I'd have expected.
I'd only seen this advertised as a dark fairy tale, so was a little surprised that the Real World story took up more screen time than Ofelia's.
The fairies were amazing, from the little flitty things to the faun and the Thing with the eyes in his hands. To be honest though (and I suspect this was intentional), the Captain's sadism was more horrifying than the fantastic monsters. I didn't expect to see someone get his face pulped by a wine bottle, or the total lack of feeling for shooting the wrong men, or his enjoyment of torturing the prisoners. Little touches like the mouthful of whisky seeping out through the hole oin his cheek were perfect, and (in a way) I'm glad that Ofelia died at the end. It would have been too tidy in comparison to the rest of the film if it had all been happy and shiny. My only real complaint is that the Captain was more stupid than he should have been; I doubt he could have achieved the things he had without being intelligent enough to have come out on top in the end.
aka "Never Trust An Accountant".
I have to say it: Oh my god, they killed the DBS. The Bastards.
Nice to see solid Ford sponsorship throughout, from Bond's Mondeo through Jaguars, Land Rovers, Range Rovers and Astons. I think a couple of Volcos sneaked in there, but The Blue Oval definietely got a good bit of advertising in for anyone with a couple of billion spare who likes the sexiest car marque ever.
Daniel Craig was fantastic. Bond *is* a hired gun and a killer, adn it was nice to see that put across. I liked the character development (in a Bond film! Wonders will never cease) and how he admitted that working as a Double 0 agent had changed him; once he'd killed enough people, he could never go back.
Seeing it again to check the password he *actually* entered would be bad, right? Because I'm *sure* the last two digits were "47" and not "37", which would have been necessary for it to be "Vesper".
Although would that be less bad than loving every bit of the torture sequence? The scriptwriters did an amazing job there :) Except that, coming so soon after the Pan's Labyrinth equivalent, I have to disagree; "just" pain isn't half as frightening as seeing a tray of implements laid out and letting your imagination join in as well.
As far as the story went, it seemed to drag. The set action pieces were spectacular, but went on rather too long. Still; it's Bond, the new dirty take on him works for me, and it provided 3 hours of escapism :)
I'd only seen this advertised as a dark fairy tale, so was a little surprised that the Real World story took up more screen time than Ofelia's.
The fairies were amazing, from the little flitty things to the faun and the Thing with the eyes in his hands. To be honest though (and I suspect this was intentional), the Captain's sadism was more horrifying than the fantastic monsters. I didn't expect to see someone get his face pulped by a wine bottle, or the total lack of feeling for shooting the wrong men, or his enjoyment of torturing the prisoners. Little touches like the mouthful of whisky seeping out through the hole oin his cheek were perfect, and (in a way) I'm glad that Ofelia died at the end. It would have been too tidy in comparison to the rest of the film if it had all been happy and shiny. My only real complaint is that the Captain was more stupid than he should have been; I doubt he could have achieved the things he had without being intelligent enough to have come out on top in the end.
aka "Never Trust An Accountant".
I have to say it: Oh my god, they killed the DBS. The Bastards.
Nice to see solid Ford sponsorship throughout, from Bond's Mondeo through Jaguars, Land Rovers, Range Rovers and Astons. I think a couple of Volcos sneaked in there, but The Blue Oval definietely got a good bit of advertising in for anyone with a couple of billion spare who likes the sexiest car marque ever.
Daniel Craig was fantastic. Bond *is* a hired gun and a killer, adn it was nice to see that put across. I liked the character development (in a Bond film! Wonders will never cease) and how he admitted that working as a Double 0 agent had changed him; once he'd killed enough people, he could never go back.
Seeing it again to check the password he *actually* entered would be bad, right? Because I'm *sure* the last two digits were "47" and not "37", which would have been necessary for it to be "Vesper".
Although would that be less bad than loving every bit of the torture sequence? The scriptwriters did an amazing job there :) Except that, coming so soon after the Pan's Labyrinth equivalent, I have to disagree; "just" pain isn't half as frightening as seeing a tray of implements laid out and letting your imagination join in as well.
As far as the story went, it seemed to drag. The set action pieces were spectacular, but went on rather too long. Still; it's Bond, the new dirty take on him works for me, and it provided 3 hours of escapism :)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 04:45 pm (UTC)I know what you mean about the torture scene. There was a certain amount of squirming and crossing of legs in my area of the cinema, let me tell you.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 05:25 pm (UTC)When they were getting on with Plot, it was good.
If the chair scene made you wince, see Pan's Labyrinth. That hd *me* wincing, and I tend to cackle at such things before pointing out how it could have been done better.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 08:35 pm (UTC)I liked the way Mercedes followed the convention about goodies vs. baddies; she didn't prat about with Showing of Implements, maniacal cackling or describing her evil plans, she just went ahead and stabbed him and got out of there. Top stuff.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-28 02:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-28 12:19 pm (UTC)And Pan's Labyrinth was just wonderful.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-28 02:32 pm (UTC)Sure I have priorities. They're just in a slightly different place from most people's...