So I went to see Eragon today, after reading the book about a year or so ago.

This is visually a very impressive movie. The dragon is easily the most realistic looking and beautiful creature that I have seen recently. There are some really amazing scenes with regards to special effects (the fights with the dragons is wonderful, for instnace).

There are several problems with this movie, every now and then a character says something that is cliche that I cringe ("We can do it, together!", etc), or acting in a completely stupid way (but he is 17, he is allowed).

The bigger problem is that there is about an hour of missing scenes in the movies. The hero goes from being a hubmle farm boy to a dragon rider in a matter of 10 minutes or so, and the dragons grows from the size of a dog to the size of your house in a matter of seconds. There is very little character development, and there is a lot of plot missing.

I really like this post, asking for clarification to file copy operation.

I just watched The Witch, The Lion and The Wardrobe, the mini seria from the 80s.
It is far more primitive, but it has a certain charm.
The children actually looks like real children. When they needed to show a pegasus, they actually used animation.
The England that is shown is more in line with my excpectations of the time (a map of the war's progress on the wall, for instance), and the English accent is a delight.
I think I may have seen this as a child, there are some things that rings a bell, visually. but it is hard to know since I seen the new movie and read the books several times.
The White Witch looks far more like I thought it would be from the description in the book, and not like something out of a Muscle Woman magazine.
I really liked the proffesor's attidute in this movie.

The annimation is not on the level of Who Killed Roger Rabbit, but it leaves enough for imagination to fill, so I don't have a problem with this.
I just saw a unicorn in this movie that looked more real than any other. Aslan itself is both a surprise and a disappointment. It looks more or less like I imagines, a big lion, but his roar is not something that would frighten a kitten.
The White Witch is really a caricature, I think. Considerring the way she is portrayed in the book, I'm not surprised by how she is acting. It's all in line with the character, the problem is that the character is not believable.
First time I have ever seen a flying lion anywhere, but it is in this movie. Doesn't look very real, but it gives them a chance to show some country side, I guess.
The battle scene, which I really like in the recent movie, is the part that really can't compare, it is laughably bad in all regards.
The end was better, I think.

Here is one more case where an open compiler architecture is a huge plus.

At Mario has created an addin to Boo that gives you the ability to generate from insdie the lagnauge, this one has huge implications. I can see it as a cool way to create mixins. You code use it like this:

The result of this operation is that the Blog class would implement the ITaggable interface, and all the methods and properties that are specified in the mixin files will be enetered into the Blog class during the compilation process.

This mean that you can (even fromt he Blog class, to treat it as if it implemented ITaggable.

Now that is cool

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the movie I wanted to see on Wendsday (we ended up going to Wallace & Gromit), so we went to see it today. And it was a delight. I read the book a long time ago, and while the movie doesn't try to stick to the book (Willi Wonka was not neurotic in the book), it does a very good job in keeping the general of the shape in order and amusing me.

The movie is just hilarious, it's funny in the ordinary sense, and Jhonny Depp has some great quotes that truly flattened me. Beyond that, it's also a delight to the eyes, which colors and sights everywhere. It has some very sticky parts (Charlie & his familiy, Wonka & his dad) that I didn't really like, but I guess that they were a must in such a movie.

I was thoroughfully entertained, to the displeasure of some people there. I'm a pretty big guy, and I've a... big laugh, apperantly. Along with an uncommon sense of humor (I laugh at places others do not, that is), it seems to bother some people.

We ended up seeing Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in Cinema City. It is a gret movie, there are all sorts of little things that makes it really funny. The dog is just the funniest character in a whole set of ridiculous characters. It look like a children movie, but it was one of the few movies that I actually liked this year.

To celebrate my newfound freedom I've had a two days marathon of the six Star Wars movies. I've never seen the recent batch, and the last time I saw the old Star Wars movies was when I was ~11.

I was certainly entertained, but I don't understand all the big noise around it. The plot normal SciFi one, designed to show off as many special effects as possible. Some of the things in the movies that really bothered me are:

• Blatant disregard of the laws of physics - I'm not talking about what they are doing with the Force, I'm talking about ignoring such things as gravity and failing to explain how this is done.
• Being a Jedi sucks -  You get a cool weapon, a sucky job and you are not allowed to form attachments. Sorry, this doesn't work on a large scale if you are dealing with sentient beings. In addition to that, considering that the Force is supposed to be inherited trait, forbidding the Jedi from marrying & having children would cull the ability out.
• Androids are just plain weird - I can accept a robot that has emotions, Asimov did it very successfully. What I can't accept is a robot that show fear of pain, can't create a decent backup to save its life and in general acts like a human in a steel skin.
• Anakin's virgin birth - Yuck! Did they have to put that stuff there?
• Holes in the plot you can drive the Entreprise through.

The special effects are spectaculars, and the way the renewed the original movies is amazing, the only visible difference is that the battles' choreography, which is much reduced in the original movies.

All in all, what was all that noise about?

12 Angry Men

I just this (1957) movie for the third or forth time (MGM re-runs), and was captivated by the power of the story. Here is a movie that takes place in a single room, with the most impressive special effect being a lamp being lighted and some rain, and it's much better than most recent multi millions movies.

It has a lot of emotional punch, and in its day probably caused a bit of a stir, as it explore the ease with which every day people can decide the life or death of a fellow man. Now it's merely a good movie (at least to someone who doesn't live in a judicial*system that employs a jury) that manages to keep the viewer stuck to the screen the third times he sees it. Rent the movie, it's a good use of an afternoon.

* I live with the Judaical's Judicial, now figure that one out :-)

 

Great movie, I couldnt' stop laughing all the way. Highly recommended.

[Listening to: Lammas Night - Heather Alexander - Magic, Moondust & Melancholy(08:16)]