Linda Naughton's Blog: Self-Rescuing Princesses, page 10
September 23, 2017
Droughtlander Ends
After being absent from the air for over a year (leading distraught fans to label the silence Droughtlander), Outlander has finally returned to Starz.
SPOILER ALERT! This review contains spoilers for Outlander seasons 1-2.
I have mixed feelings on Outlander, as reflected in my earlier reviews from Season 1.
There are definitely high points - it's a rich costume drama with a time travel twist. The characters are great. The visuals are stunning. The music is flat-out awesome. The actors are all outstanding. Caitriona Balfe, as Claire, has rightfully received several accolades for her performance, including two Golden Globe nominations.
Claire herself is a great character. Smart, independent, sassy, courageous... all good things, but she's also allowed to be imperfect. She mouths off to the wrong people sometimes, makes some bad decisions, and sometimes forgets that the modern way isn't always the best way. Plus she's got a doozy of a moral dilemma when she's torn between the men she loves in two different time periods.
But although Outlander has a lot going for it, there's one big problem I have: the story.
Whose Story Is It Anyway?
It's not a bad story, exactly. It's just... not that great.
Entirely too many of the plotlines rely on contrivances that make my head hurt, and the pacing could really use some work.
My biggest beef, though, is the way the story uses Claire. She's supposed to be the protagonist, and pretty much all the episodes revolve around her. That should be a great thing. The problem is... she doesn't really do very much.
Let's recap season 1 briefly. Claire is:
Unwittingly teleported back in time.
Assaulted by Black Jack Randall. Rescued by Murtaugh.
Tries to escape. Captured by Jamie.
Tries at various points to use her wits to bluff Randall, Dougal and Collum with her cover story but fools absolutely no one.
Tries to escape again. Rescued by Jamie.
Gets put on trial for witchcraft. Rescued by Jamie.
Assaulted by Black Jack. Rescued by Dougal.
Captured by Black Jack. Rescued by Jamie.
Are we sensing a theme here?
And that doesn't even get into how many times she's nearly raped.
Season 2 was not much better. It was Claire's idea to try to sabotage the Jacobite rebellion by infiltrating Prince Charlie's court, but Jamie does all of the work. Then she spends the second half of the season just tagging along with the Scottish army playing wife/nurse.
I mean, sure, she heals some sick people. She comes up with some plans, which ultimately are usually executed by other people. She does kill that one redcoat who's, like, the 27th guy to try to assault her. But mostly she is in the odd position of being a protagonist with very little agency over her own story.
New Beginnings
To be fair, part of this is simply an artifact of the time period Claire finds herself in. It would be ridiculous if she were running around like an action hero, and that's really not what I'm looking for. I would just like to see more situations where Claire makes decisions and executes them for herself, without botching things horribly or needing to be rescued by a man.
Season 3 looks to be poised to improve that, with Claire becoming a doctor and heading back to the past in search of Jamie. There's her daughter's storyline as well. I only read the first book, so I don't know where things are headed, but there are enough good things in Outlander for me to hop along for the ride.
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Pass - Claire is technically the only main female character, but there are enough good relationships with other women in the story (Gelis, Mrs. Fitz, Jenny, Brianna) that I'm going to count it as a pass.
Learn about my Ratings System.
August 13, 2017
LEGO Star Wars: Freemaker Adventures Review
What if Emperor Palpatine was a bumbling Bond villain and Vader was his long-suffering henchman? What if the legends of the rebellion were larger-than-life heroes who just flitted through the story like celebrity guest stars? That's the hook behind LEGO Star Wars: Freemaker Adventures, the latest entry in Disney's Star Wars cartoon franchise.
Freemaker Adventures follows a family of scavengers (the Freemakers) who end up joining the rebellion. Kordi is the eldest, the de-facto leader of the gang and frugal businesswoman. Middle brother Xander a typical wise-cracking hot-shot pilot who doesn't think things through. Twelve-year-old Rowan is the star of the show, a fledgling Jedi and master builder. And finally there's RO-GR (Roger -- LOL!), utterly hilarious as the family's reprogrammed battle droid butler.
Kordi is awesome. My daughter loves her because, "She's a big sister like me and she's always looking out for her brothers." I love her because she's a great role model - smart, sensible and brave. She's the one who keeps the family business afloat.
The show has a pretty good blend of male and female characters. Besides Kordi, favorites like Leia, Hera and Mon Mothma pop up frequently. There's also an original character, kick-butt pilot Lt. Valeria (aka Blue Leader). Season One's villain was the duplicitous Naare, a Sith posing as Rowan's teacher.
One of my favorite moments was in The Embersteel Blade. Kordi, captured by Graballa the Hutt, uses her business savvy to win her freedom and the ship they needed. Just as she's about to leave, her well-meaning brothers charge in all "We're here to rescue you!" Kordi just sighs. Self-rescuing princess indeed.
The show mixes the comedic genius and pop culture references of the LEGO franchise with the rich lore and epic adventures of Star Wars. With just the right amount of cartoon peril and LEGO violence, it's perfect for both little kids and long-time fans. It's become appointment TV in our house, which is saying a lot for a couple of kids who are growing up in the streaming generation. Definitely a winner.
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Fail, although some episodes individually pass
Learn about my Ratings System.
July 17, 2017
Welcoming the Time Lady
At a time when sci-fi TV shows with decent female characters were few and far between, Doctor Who was my sanctuary. Sarah Jane. Nyssa. Leela. Romana. Ace. These were the characters I followed through my pre-teen and teen years, watching re-runs on PBS and devouring the novelizations. Yeah, they got rescued a lot and always played second fiddle to the Doctor, but they were nevertheless smart, brave and independent.
I drifted away from Doctor Who eventually, but I still have a soft spot for the show. It tickled me to hear yesterday that they'd cast Broadchurch's Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor.
The outcry was immediate - rabid fans taking to social media to vent their outrage. Skeptical disapproval of an incoming Doctor is nothing new. This guy's too young, that guy's too serious ... it comes with the territory. But the vitriol leveled at Whittaker over her gender is disheartening.
To an extent, I can sympathize with those who aren't thrilled with the switch. I was a little disappointed that they made Starbuck a woman in the reimagined Battlestar instead of reinventing Athena or Sheba. Rather than seeing a woman cast as James Bond or Han Solo, I'd prefer a brand new franchise centered around a female super-spy or space pirate. But at the end of the day, I respect the creative choices of the show-runners. If they want to explore a female Starbuck, or have a woman pick up Captain America's shield, that's their prerogative.
And let's be real. The Doctor is a centuries-old time-traveling alien with two hearts who regenerates into a new form instead of dying. It's been well-established in canon that Time Lords can switch genders when regenerating (see The Corsair and The Master). If ever there was a character tailor-made for a gender swap, it's The Doctor. Having one female Doctor in fifty-four freaking years is not going to rip apart the time-space continuum.
Amid the furor, there have been some bright spots. In an interview with BBC, Whittaker said about taking on the role, "It feels completely overwhelming; as a feminist, as a woman, as an actor, as a human, as someone who wants to continually push themselves and challenge themselves, and not be boxed in by what you’re told you can and can’t be. It feels incredible."
Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor, tweeted his support, saying, "...the BBC really did do the right thing and let the Doctor be in touch with her feminine side. As a father of daughters - result! ... Change my dears and not a moment too soon - she IS the Doctor whether you like it or not!"
But I have to say my favorite reaction comes from my friend's son, a young Who fan. After watching the reveal, he was puzzled. "I didn't see him." His mom told him to watch again and then he got it. "OH! Is the Doctor a girl? I thought that was his companion. That's cool." He gave his mom a thumb's up.
Maybe there's hope for the future after all. And maybe I just might have to tune in again for the first time in quite awhile.
June 12, 2017
Wonder Woman Review
SPOILER ALERT! This review contains spoilers for Wonder Woman.
I adored Wonder Woman when I was a kid. I watched the TV series, I had the action figures, I practically lived in my Wonder Woman Underoos for longer than I'd care to admit.
Somewhere along the way, Wonder Woman lost me. The goofy superpowers (A lasso of truth? Really?), the whole Amazon thing, and most of all that ridiculous costume - I just couldn't get into it. Neither could my daughter. Reading one of the LEGO Superhero books, she wrinkled her nose at Wonder Woman and asked, "Why is she fighting in a bathing suit? Isn't she cold?"
Despite all that, I was really looking forward to the new Wonder Woman movie. The trailers looked great, I love movies set during WWI, and it was about dang time that they gave a female superhero her own movie. Oh how I hoped it didn't suck, because there was an enormous amount of pressure on it. Too much, actually, as the Daily Show's Michelle Wolf eloquently pointed out:
Exceeding Expectations
As evidenced by the box office returns ($206.53 million in ten days according to Forbes) and reviews (93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing) - clearly the movie didn't suck. And while I may not gush as much as some of the people who were moved to tears or calling it the best superhero movie ever, I did really enjoy it.
The things I liked best:
Diana is not "Wonder Woman", she's just "Diana". Little moments - like sneaking out to watch the warriors as a child or enjoying ice cream for the first time - make her more than just her superhero identity; she's a fully fleshed-out character. Her empathy and innocence is her weakness as well as her strength.
The diversity of the cast. Robin Wright is freaking awesome as the fierce Amazon general who's also Diana's aunt. She smashes Hollywood's age barrier as easily as she does the German troops. The band of sidekicks that helps Diana in her quest is also refreshingly diverse, and there's even a female villain for good measure.
The No Man's Land scene. So. Awesome. It was the perfect way to showcase Diana's true purpose, which is not really about defeating the Big Bad but about saving the innocents. It reminded me of some of the random-do-good scenes in the old Superman movies. And the symbolism of her taking on "No Man's" Land hearkened back to another big literary moment in Lord of the Rings, when Eowyn vanquishes the baddie while declaring, "I am no man." It's truly the best moment in the movie, which makes it absolutely baffling that director Patty Jenkins had to fight to keep it.
The humor. It provided some much-needed levity, and Chris Pine proved to be a great straight-man in Diana's fish-out-of-water scenes.
Rough Patches
Even with all the awesome, there were a few things that didn't work for me.
After a first half that worked so hard to not be like all the other superhero movies out there, the final battle felt like the same "unstoppable force meets immovable object" fight we've seen a million times before. It wasn't interesting, and it dragged on far too long.
I also think the movie underutilized Steve Trevors. He had his moments, but honestly - if we swapped gender roles he wouldn't get a very high Princess Power rating. He's little more than a "damsel in distress" love interest who gets fridged to give the hero(ine) purpose. As amusing as it was to see Diana tell him, "Stay here," while she went charging off to kick butt, it was a guilty pleasure. If we complain when women are given those roles in movies starring men, why should we turn around and do the thing we hate? I think the movies are better when the two leads are more like equals, like in Huntsman: Winter's War.
I still can't get past all the issues that turned me off Wonder Woman all those years ago, but holding that against the movie feels kind of like saying, "You know, Spiderman wouldn't be so bad if he weren't a teenager." She is who she is, love it or leave it.
Hopefully it won't take another seventy years for Wonder Woman to return to the big screen in a film of her own. And in the mean time, could we please get an Agent Carter or Black Widow movie? Pretty please?
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Pass
Learn about my Ratings System.
May 29, 2017
Women in War Movies Revisited
Last Memorial Day, I lamented the lack of good movies featuring women in wartime. "Our women heroes deserve better than this sub-par Hollywood fare," I wrote.
A year hasn't changed much in the overall Hollywood landscape, but I did stumble across a few good foreign ones.
Battle for Sevastopol
One of the real-life heroes I wrote about last year was Major Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a Russian sniper.
Considered one of the deadliest snipers of all time, her 309 confirmed kills dwarf the 225 amassed by Zaytsev (the hero of the film Enemy at the Gates). She was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union (Russia's Medal of Honor equivalent). Where's her movie? Dang.
Turns out she actually does have a movie, though it's not a Hollywood one. Battle for Sevastopol is a joint Russian-Ukranian production set against the backdrop of one of the Eastern Front's lesser-known battles.
We meet Lyudmila (played by Yulia Peresild) as a mild-mannered university student who learns marksmanship just to prove she can do anything the boys can do. The university scenes drag a bit, but are important to humanize the woman who would later go on to earn the nickname "Lady of Death". When war breaks out and she decides to enlist, her boyfriend chides, "War is no place for a woman." But Lyudmila points out that she is a marksman. Her duty is at the front.
When Lyudmila makes it to the front, we see the sort of traditional war story that is usually reserved for men: the initial baptism by fire, the hardships of the front, the reluctant rise to heroism. There are entirely too many love interests in the movie, but it's hard to quibble too much since that also seems to be based on history (at least according to some sources).
Far more interesting is Lyudmila's relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, whom she met while touring the US to drum up support for America joining the war. Their unlikely friendship shows the impact the war had on Lyudmila, and contrasts their struggles to be recognized both as women and as political figures.
The movie is reasonably accurate (at least by Hollywood standards), making it all the more remarkable because it's true.
The real Lyudmila Pavlichenko
Random aside - I loved this comment from the real-life Lyudmila on her experiences with the American press corps:
I am amazed at the kind of questions put to me by the women press correspondents in Washington. Don’t they know there is a war? They asked me silly questions such as do I use powder and rouge and nail polish and do I curl my hair? ... This made me angry. I wear my uniform with honor. It has the Order of Lenin on it. It has been covered with blood in battle. It is plain to see that with American women what is important is whether they wear silk underwear under their uniforms. What the uniform stands for, they have yet to learn.
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Pass
Testament of Youth
Based on the landmark memoir by Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth is a BBC Films production chronicling Vera's experiences as an auxiliary nurse during World War I.
Like Sevastapol, the story starts before the war, introducing us to Vera (played by Alicia Vikander), her brother (Taron Egerton), and their two friends (Game of Thrones' Kit Harington and Colin Morgan).
Although a great deal of the movie does center around her relationships with the men in her life, so does the memoir. It's also refreshing how those men support her progressive ideas. Her brother argues that she should have a chance to attend Oxford, even offering to give up some of his allowance to enable her. Her beau Roland encourages her to pursue a career as a writer. Even her father eventually comes around. "Why was I ever disappointed you weren't a boy?" he says - a back-handed compliment by today's standards, but not bad for 1917.
The movie is more than half over by the time Vera makes it to the war, but the war scenes are powerful. In a field hospital in France, she tends to wounded under deplorable conditions. Initially, she's assigned to a hut of German soldiers, where her knowledge of German makes her realize that the enemy soldiers are not so different from her own. She remarks on the irony that she's working hard to save the men that her brother is trying to kill just a few miles away at the front.
It's easy to see how these experiences, coupled with personal tragedy, turned Vera into a pacifist and anti-war advocate following the war. Testament of Youth may not be an action movie, but it gives a valuable glimpse into the experiences of the Lost Generation and the women who went to war with them.
The real Vera Brittain
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Pass
Megan Leavey
I haven't seen anything from Hollywood that compares to the two films on this list. I had high hopes for Allied, based on the trailers, but I didn't really like it. Meghan Leavey, about a K-9 handler's quest to reunite with her dog after being injured by an IED, looks promising. It's being released June 9th.
Hopefully it will do well and Hollywood will catch on that there's a market for these sorts of films. There are plenty of heroines whose stories are waiting to be told, and I can't imagine I'm the only one who wants to see them.
Learn about my Ratings System.
May 13, 2017
Timeless: Back from the Brink
Despite it's vocal fan base and being the top pick in USA TODAY's Save Our Shows, Timeless was cancelled by NBC last week. But then, in a surprise move, NBC gave the show another chance. Executive producer Eric Kripke confirmed the announcement on Twitter:
The #TimeTeam went back 3 days, and changed history. @nbc picked us up for 10 episodes. Seriously. Airs next summer. #TimelessRenewed pic.twitter.com/SDkeShlByL
— Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) May 13, 2017
Sci-fi shows often struggle to find an audience, leading to frustratingly-short runs on network TV (Firefly, Star Trek, the list goes on...). It's awesome to see a network going out on a limb a little bit to give a show like Timeless a chance.
Striking a Balance
In my earlier review of Timeless, I felt that the show struggled a little bit with tone: serious, but not too serious.
In the second half of the season, Timeless took a more serious turn and was the better for it. It's still not overly dark (making it solid family fare for teens), but toning down the zany antics and ratcheting up the drama gave the show the extra emotional heft it had been missing.
The episode where Wyatt and Rufus took a trip back to the 80's was a perfect example of of how the show, at its best, blends lighthearted adventure (Rufus' 80's glee) with thorny moral dilemmas (Wyatt may have stopped a serial killer, but accidentally killed an innocent man and ultimately failed to save his wife).
Another standout episode saw the Time Team heading back to the Wild West. Not only did that adventure add another time traveler to the mix (a great, unexpected twist!), it gave Lucy surprising depth with her choice to kill Jesse James to preserve the course of history.
Hidden Figures
The Jesse James episode is also a great example of the way the show spotlights marginalized historical figures like Katherine Johnson, Nonhelema and Bass Reeves. Rufus' reaction to Reeves, "The Lone Ranger is black? Awesome!" was priceless. (Side note: It is awesome, as was the way the show made a dig at the name "Tonto" by having Reeves' partner turn the insult back on Rufus.)
Later episodes also introduced a new female character (Flynn's new partner, former time pilot Emma) and expanded the roles of Jiya and Agent Christopher (see - I even learned their names).
Second Chances
Timeless may have scored a second season, but it has some work to do if it wants to make it to a third. The show is at its best when focusing on its characters and giving them meaty storylines. Hopefully season two brings more of that and less of the Rittenhouse 'secret society' nonsense.
Ratings
I'm sticking to the ratings from my original review:
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Pass
Learn about my Ratings System.
March 26, 2017
Beauty and the Beast Review
I presume I saw the old Disney princess movies when I was a kid, but they didn't leave much of an impression. The whole 'damsel in distress waiting for prince charming' thing never resonated with me. It wasn't until I saw the original Beauty and the Beast in college with my younger cousins that I finally found a Disney princess I could relate to. She read books and dreamed of adventure. She was smart and brave. With an amazing score and a well-plotted 'tale as old as time', Beauty and the Beast swiftly became my favorite Disney movie.
Needless to say, the remake had a lot to live up to.
Belle 2.0
Emma Watson is perfectly cast as Belle, capturing both her dreamy imagination and her determined independence. And she can sing, doing justice to the classic songs. Watson reportedly campaigned to have her Belle be an inventor in her own right - not just "the inventor's daughter" - a welcome change. (Maurice is an artist/watchmaker-type this time around.)
Belle's reading is much more of a subplot, with the townsfolk up in arms about her trying to teach another young girl to read. Not only does it better frame Belle's issues with this "poor provincial town", it helps to show why hanging out in an enchanted castle with a library bigger than her house would be a marked improvement.
The new film also smooths out some of the rough patches in the original storyline. My biggest quibble with the original was wondering why on earth Belle felt obliged to stay the prisoner of a fearsome Beast who had locked her up for no darn reason.
The remake sets this right by having Belle tell her father from the get-go, "I'll escape, I promise." She begins hatching plans to do just that. From the point where Beast rescues Belle from the wolves, it's clear that she's there of her own volition. She likes it, and she expresses a desire to help the cursed servants. When Beast tells her to go to her ailing father, the gesture is even sweeter because we know she didn't really need his permission.
All in all, the changes serve to give Belle more agency and tone down the troubling Stockholm Syndrome aspects of the original story.
No One Fights Like Gaston
The supporting characters in the remake receive a similarly-welcome makeover. Kevin Kline's Maruice is given an extra backstory (and a little song) that make him less of a buffoon and more of a doting and protective father. It's easy to see why these two would take turns making sacrifices for each other.
Josh Gad's Le Fou is so much more than comic relief, stealing scenes as Gaston's trusty companion. And Gaston himself (Luke Evans) is equally fleshed out with a backstory as a bored war hero. While still impossibly vain and unable to take 'no' for an answer from Belle, he's nowhere near as repulsive as the original version. This makes his transformation into mustache-twirling cartoon villain later in the movie a bit puzzling, though.
Lumiere, Cogsworth and the other castle servants felt a little stiff and lifeless, but I don't know how they possibly could have compared to their expressive cartoon counterparts. I think they did as well as could be expected, but it was a little underwhelming. I did appreciate the improved diversity of the supporting cast, with several prominent roles going to people of color.
Beauty and the Beast did the improbable, bringing one of my favorite movies to live-action life while improving on the original.
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Fail
Learn about my Ratings System.
March 13, 2017
Kong: Skull Island Review
Monster movies aren't really my thing, but the trailer for Kong: Skull Island looked really cool. And it's hard to pass up a movie with Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson.
Kong is King
The human characters each get their moment in the spotlight, but there's no doubt that Kong himself is the real star of this movie. Whether towering over the jungle in the iconic movie poster shot, swatting down Huey helicopters like flies, or peering through a haze of napalm, he dominates every scene he's in.
But unlike the previous Peter Jackson Kong, this one isn't fully developed. He's given an elaborate backstory, but the characters don't interact with him in a way that really brings him to life. When ex-SAS soldier Conrad (Hiddleson) and war photographer Weaver (Larson) decide to help Kong, it feels weirdly abrupt.
That said, the filmmakers sure know how to choreograph a monster smackdown. Kong's fight scenes were clever and impressive.
Run Through the Jungle
The middle of the movie had an interesting "Apocalypse Now" meets "Land of the Lost" vibe as the separated heroes trekked through a jungle filled with spiders as tall as trees, wooly-mammoth-sized water buffalo and dinosaur-like baddies.
Several of the secondary characters stood out enough that you didn't want them to become monster chow, but John C. Reilly and Jackson really stole the show as a marooned WWII pilot and the Captain Ahab-like commander of the helicopter squadron.
My main quibble with the film was just how many staggeringly-bad decisions the characters made along the way. The film acknowledges this to an extent, with exchanges like this one:
Conrad: "You get to tell me this is a bad idea."
Weaver: "This is a bad idea."
Spoiler alert (not really): It was a bad idea. The whole movie is one big bad idea after another.
Weaver was a little bland, and spent most of the movie just gawking with a camera in her hand. Still, a competent war photographer is a step up from a genre known for blonde bombshells shrieking helplessly in Kong's hand. I appreciated that the film didn't throw her at Conrad five minutes into the movie in a forced romance plotline. They were too busy trying to survive.
All in all, it was a decently-entertaining romp through the jungle.
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Fail
Learn about my Ratings System.
February 25, 2017
Arrival Review
SPOILER ALERT! This review contains minor spoilers for Arrival.
When many people think of sci-fi movies, the ones that spring to mind are probably the epic franchises and the big-budget blockbusters. But what I've always loved about sci-fi is how it can span genres: action/adventure (Star Wars), disaster (Armageddon), romance (Passengers), apocalyptic (Mad Max) and more.
Arrival is the latest in a series of sci-fi films (Interstellar, The Martian) that take the "science" part seriously. It's intended to make you think and feel, not make your eyes bug out with explosions and special effects.
Also refreshing is the way the movie portrays scientists. The two main characters are linguistics professor Louise (Amy Adams) and theoretical physicist Ian (Jeremy Renner), and they are both awesome. Super-smart and competent, but also relatable and grounded - far from the usual Hollywood stereotype of socially-inept geeks wearing pocket protectors.
A Tale of Two Movies
I absolutely loved the first half of Arrival. Every beat - from the non-stop news coverage to the undercurrent of near-panic around the globe - felt like, "Yeah, that's totally how an alien arrival would play out." Science vs Cinema examined the science of the movie, and it's clear from interviews with the cast and crew that they really did their homework.
When Louise and Ian start trying to converse with the aliens, their approach is awesomely realistic. The impatient military commander (Forest Whitaker) wants to jump right into important questions like, "What is your purpose here?" But in a wonderful scene, Louise explains how such a question requires a lot of ground work: Individual you ("Bob the alien") versus collective you ("your race"). Do they even understand what a question is? How you do convey an abstract concept like "purpose" to an alien? It's a really great moment that illustrates the impossible challenge they face.
But then... Hollywood takes over. We snap our fingers, wave our hands, and they've figured out enough for some simple chats with our aliens. While I can understand and respect that two hours of linguistics dissection would probably not appeal to modern audiences, the transition from "oh man, that's really hard... how in the world are they going to figure that out?" to "oh, okay, never mind then" was pretty jarring.
Then the movie takes a complete 90 degree turn into a mind-bendy deep philosophical arc that's impossible to explain without major spoilers. Actually it's pretty hard to explain even with spoilers. Just watch it.
In Good Company
Arrival reminded me of both Contact and Interstellar, two superb sci-fi films. Like the former, it focused on a strong female scientist who was on a personal journey as much as a scientific quest. Like the latter, it was an intriguing blend of hard science and "who cares - it's Hollywood" drama.
Amy Adams gave a stellar performance. The initial contact with aliens had the perfect mix of fear, determination and awe-struck wonder. And throughout it all was an undercurrent of sadness set up by the movie's first few minutes. I think the "grieving parent" thing is getting to be a bit overdone in sci-fi, but it's a minor quibble considering that in Arrival it wasn't quite what it seemed.
I could've done with some more science and less twists in the second half, but it was still enjoyable overall. I'm not sure I think it deserves Best Picture, but it's always nice for the genre when sci-fi films get nominated. Maybe one of these years one of them will actually win!
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Fail
Learn about my Ratings System.
Self-Rescuing Princesses
- Linda Naughton's profile
- 77 followers
