at LAST, snow!
Feb. 17th, 2015 12:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imwaldeSnow day tomorrow, whoooo! I know parts north are totally sick of the snow, but after being passed over by storm after storm, I am delighted we finally got some snow. And I know the DC area gets crap for freaking out and overreacting about snow, but here is what people who don't live here don't understand: on a perfectly ordinary day, roads are gridlock for the am and pm rush hours. We have THE WORST TRAFFIC IN THE COUNTRY. Add something like snow to the mix, and forget it. The whole regional road network is crippled, because it's only barely above crippled on a normal day (and often gets crippled by normal road accidents). With people here not knowing how to drive in the snow and having no snow tires, etc, there are of course lots of accidents, and then all the other cars are stuck because of the accidents, and the plows can't plow, so the roads remain terrible, so it's a really vicious cycle. This is why is makes more sense, certainly from a public safety standpoint, to shut everything down, so the road crews can work. Drivers would only be in the way anyway.
It's Peeps diorama time! Too bad I couldn't find what I needed before the snow, or I could work on it tomorrow. It'll have to be next weekend.
This weekend I saw three movies: Kingsmen, 50 Shades of Grey, and Jupiter Ascending.
Kingsmen: Very fun, I enjoyed it. Completely over the top, but I was very entertained. Its mission statement (if not the feel) was very like Edgar Wright movies -- both a tribute to and loving send up of a certain kind of movie. (Also, hello, Mark Hamill, nice to see you getting work!) Did not expect Norrington to bite it so early! But that was before the movie killed hundreds of others, granted. We did laugh at the fireworks scene -- it was all we could do, and it was half out of gratefulness that the alternative did not present itself. We also laughed at Free Bird, because DUDE. Gazelle made for some pretty cool fight scenes, they felt pretty original.
50 Shades of Grey: I went in expecting a train wreck, but it was less terrible than I expected? Still can't call it good, but not nearly as unwatchablely terrible as you might have thought. Dakota Johnson was really quite good, but Jamie Dornan was very stiff (in a way that I don't think was deliberate). I think it might have been fighting the accent took up all his actorly energy, and he had none left to emote. The sex scenes were really not much more explicit than your average R movie, although there were perhaps more of them. I am told they took out or toned down some of the more tedious/painful part of the book (the dialogue, the inner goddess) but the story still is the story, though, so if that's a deal breaker, stay away.
Jupiter Ascecnding: I basically loved it. It's like big budget id fic on screen, straight to my fan girl heart. I was more or less delighted with most things that happened. It is the scenario the word ridonculous was invented for, and I don't mean that as a criticism, per se. The plot is a bit of a confusing mess, but honestly, that did not make me enjoy it any less. It is no more or less incoherent than the Transformers movies, but 1000% less cynical and more sincere, so I wish it were going to do as well as those. This movie was a story someone really loved and wanted to tell. A balls-out crazy story, told with love and a huge budget, that's the best way I know how to describe it. It looks fantastic on screen, whatever else anyone might say. If any of that sounds appealing, I recommend it. (OMG YOU GUYS, IT IS BASICALLY WING FIC!!! I CACKLED, **CACKLED**, WHEN IT GOT TO THAT POINT.) ♥♥♥♥♥♥
In television news, come ON, Originals!! Not even an explosion is a reason for Elijah to be shirtless, what, his shirts are BOMBPROOF now? CW, you usually excel at giving me what I want, why must you deny me this??? I am basically loving this season, though. Lots to keep me happy, intrigued, and guessing.
And Sleepy Hollow, damn, way to up your game. ABBY BACK IN TIME, DUDE. That is quite the twist. This show has been floundering all season, but it did manage to surprise me this time. I remember thinking partway through the episode, that if it were TVD or the Originals, they would fail and the bell would make all those people witches and they'd have to deal with that for a long time. And although they didn't do that, killing Henry, turning Katrina evil, and sending Abby back in time in a way that will likely change the future? Well done, show, I am hooked again.
The show I am most looking forward to week to week at the moment is Agent Carter. I love it so much, I am squeeful. But when I was talking to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
niennah about why it wasn't working for her quite as much as it was for me, I started thinking about it, because the show isn't doing very well in the ratings, so why is that?
I think the main issue could be that the show does not actually make a case for why, MCU-wise, it matters if you watch. It's a prequel, so the outcome is already basically known, at least in broad strokes. And while Gotham's success proves prequel status alone need not be a deal breaker, Gotham's prequelness has a hook: you want to see how these people become these supervillains/Batman etc. (How well Gotham is doing on that front is another matter, but it's a solid hook, whatever the execution.) With Agent Carter though, Peggy is already who she is, so the only thing known that will be developing is SHIELD, and maybe that could be of interest, but the MCU already blew that out of the water. So while I find it fun and enjoyable, not even I can argue that it's really *necessary* to watch. And in a franchise empire based on interconnected parts adding up to a greater whole, I think that's a big structural weakness that has nothing to do with the gender of the lead character. What's the hook making viewing feel mandatory? It's a weakness that Agents of SHIELD faced, too, that really only got helped with a story bone from the MCU, with all the post-Winter Soldier fallout.
I fear that people will draw all the wrong lessons from it -- that women-led Marvel projects don't work -- if it doesn't get renewed. I am not even necessarily arguing that it needs to have something interconnecting that makes it mandatory viewing, because I love it as is, but I hope when people judge its performance against things that do interconnect, they realize the difference and how that might have impacted its viewership, and don't chalk up the low ratings just to having a woman as the main character.
It's Peeps diorama time! Too bad I couldn't find what I needed before the snow, or I could work on it tomorrow. It'll have to be next weekend.
This weekend I saw three movies: Kingsmen, 50 Shades of Grey, and Jupiter Ascending.
Kingsmen: Very fun, I enjoyed it. Completely over the top, but I was very entertained. Its mission statement (if not the feel) was very like Edgar Wright movies -- both a tribute to and loving send up of a certain kind of movie. (Also, hello, Mark Hamill, nice to see you getting work!) Did not expect Norrington to bite it so early! But that was before the movie killed hundreds of others, granted. We did laugh at the fireworks scene -- it was all we could do, and it was half out of gratefulness that the alternative did not present itself. We also laughed at Free Bird, because DUDE. Gazelle made for some pretty cool fight scenes, they felt pretty original.
50 Shades of Grey: I went in expecting a train wreck, but it was less terrible than I expected? Still can't call it good, but not nearly as unwatchablely terrible as you might have thought. Dakota Johnson was really quite good, but Jamie Dornan was very stiff (in a way that I don't think was deliberate). I think it might have been fighting the accent took up all his actorly energy, and he had none left to emote. The sex scenes were really not much more explicit than your average R movie, although there were perhaps more of them. I am told they took out or toned down some of the more tedious/painful part of the book (the dialogue, the inner goddess) but the story still is the story, though, so if that's a deal breaker, stay away.
Jupiter Ascecnding: I basically loved it. It's like big budget id fic on screen, straight to my fan girl heart. I was more or less delighted with most things that happened. It is the scenario the word ridonculous was invented for, and I don't mean that as a criticism, per se. The plot is a bit of a confusing mess, but honestly, that did not make me enjoy it any less. It is no more or less incoherent than the Transformers movies, but 1000% less cynical and more sincere, so I wish it were going to do as well as those. This movie was a story someone really loved and wanted to tell. A balls-out crazy story, told with love and a huge budget, that's the best way I know how to describe it. It looks fantastic on screen, whatever else anyone might say. If any of that sounds appealing, I recommend it. (OMG YOU GUYS, IT IS BASICALLY WING FIC!!! I CACKLED, **CACKLED**, WHEN IT GOT TO THAT POINT.) ♥♥♥♥♥♥
In television news, come ON, Originals!! Not even an explosion is a reason for Elijah to be shirtless, what, his shirts are BOMBPROOF now? CW, you usually excel at giving me what I want, why must you deny me this??? I am basically loving this season, though. Lots to keep me happy, intrigued, and guessing.
And Sleepy Hollow, damn, way to up your game. ABBY BACK IN TIME, DUDE. That is quite the twist. This show has been floundering all season, but it did manage to surprise me this time. I remember thinking partway through the episode, that if it were TVD or the Originals, they would fail and the bell would make all those people witches and they'd have to deal with that for a long time. And although they didn't do that, killing Henry, turning Katrina evil, and sending Abby back in time in a way that will likely change the future? Well done, show, I am hooked again.
The show I am most looking forward to week to week at the moment is Agent Carter. I love it so much, I am squeeful. But when I was talking to
niennah about why it wasn't working for her quite as much as it was for me, I started thinking about it, because the show isn't doing very well in the ratings, so why is that? I think the main issue could be that the show does not actually make a case for why, MCU-wise, it matters if you watch. It's a prequel, so the outcome is already basically known, at least in broad strokes. And while Gotham's success proves prequel status alone need not be a deal breaker, Gotham's prequelness has a hook: you want to see how these people become these supervillains/Batman etc. (How well Gotham is doing on that front is another matter, but it's a solid hook, whatever the execution.) With Agent Carter though, Peggy is already who she is, so the only thing known that will be developing is SHIELD, and maybe that could be of interest, but the MCU already blew that out of the water. So while I find it fun and enjoyable, not even I can argue that it's really *necessary* to watch. And in a franchise empire based on interconnected parts adding up to a greater whole, I think that's a big structural weakness that has nothing to do with the gender of the lead character. What's the hook making viewing feel mandatory? It's a weakness that Agents of SHIELD faced, too, that really only got helped with a story bone from the MCU, with all the post-Winter Soldier fallout.
I fear that people will draw all the wrong lessons from it -- that women-led Marvel projects don't work -- if it doesn't get renewed. I am not even necessarily arguing that it needs to have something interconnecting that makes it mandatory viewing, because I love it as is, but I hope when people judge its performance against things that do interconnect, they realize the difference and how that might have impacted its viewership, and don't chalk up the low ratings just to having a woman as the main character.
