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Sunday, May 22, 2005
SITH
It didn't suck.
Admittedly, I wasn't holding the film to the highest standards, and I wasn't even sure if I'd see it opening weekend. After all, I thought Episode 2, "Anakin's Creek," was an abortion of biblical proportions. So I openly admit that Episode 3 did't have to go far to make me happy.
Still, I found myself entertained. I shut off my higher brain functions, sat back, and watched Lucas put the pieces together, and goddamn if it didn't start to reel me in. The scenes between Hayden Christianson and Natalie Portman were still uniformly dull and contrived; why Lucas was never able or interested in using Portman's talents to their fullest is a mystery we'll never solve. Christianson's whiny petulance scaled back to just petulance, and at this stage of his life, he actually looks like he could be related to Mark Hamill. But the true star is Ewan McGregor, who looks like he's finally having fun in one of these things. He looked flat-out embarrassed in Episode Two, but SITH finds him gleefully channelling a young Alec Guinness and livening up his every scene with elan and verve.
I may even go back to the theatre and see this one again. It isn't often that you can say that watching a bad guy get his legs and arm chopped off and then catch fire is exhilarating, but then again, why wouldn't it be? That's just what turns out to have entertained people a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
4:53 PM
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Sunday, May 01, 2005
BACK AGAIN
I took the month of April off by accident.
Well, that’s dishonest. It was accidental at first. But halfway through the month, I found myself in the throes of a terrifying burnout, and I realized that I needed to put something to the side. It wound up being HAPPY NONSENSE.
Between my column at Movie Poop Shoot, The Comics Waiting Room, and my efforts at pitching some graphic novels and comics to publishers, all my energy has been invested elsewhere.
That isn’t to say I’ve been away from pop culture. Far from it. I saw three movies in the theatre in the month of April, which is about as many as I saw in the theatre in the calendar year of 2004. SIN CITY was amazing. KUNG FU HUSTLE was awesome. And HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY was spiritually faithful enough to Douglas Adams’ novel that I found myself enjoying it from start to finish.
On television, I found myself surprisingly drawn to John Stamos’ return to the tube, JAKE IN PROGRESS. I’ve never been even remotely a fan of the guy, but he displayed a very charming screen presence, and he was generous in giving his co-workers material to shine with. The odds of renewal don’t look great, but that’s be a damned shame. It deserves another chance. And a better time slot.
ABC is burying another great show, EYES, in a different shitty time slot. Tim Daly, another guy who has always left me flat, is turning in a great performance as the morally challenged Harlan Judd, and the show takes its amoral point of view much farther than I would normally expect from network TV. The one misstep the show has made- reneging on the death of a major character at the end of episode one- is a big one, but it hasn’t hampered my ability to enjoy the show.
Musically, I’ve found myself really getting into some new and interesting bands. The Mars Volta. Interpol. Snow Patrol. Great stuff. I remain relentlessly devoted to listening to Alt-Nation 21 on Sirius satellite radio, as it plays a mix of alternative music much to my tastes.
May brings “sweeps” to the networks, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the amazing LOST concludes its season. There’s also the prospect of changes on SCRUBS, which disturbs me greatly, but I’ll be watching and waiting to see what happens.
I’ll also be trying to post here more frequently. Wish me luck on that.
7:18 PM
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