oneiriad | Movies of april

37. Fringe season 2.
I actually liked this season more than the first, (well, apart from Charlie's death) because we're finally getting to where the plot begins - well, not so much thicken as make sense. Also, loved the noir/surreal/borderline-steampunk episode and the 80's episodes, and loved the alternate world. I find it interesting how the alternate world - before Walter's breaking of the wall, anyway, and to some degree even after - seems to, well, the luckier world I suppose. I mean, it's technologically ahead of us (and seems to have had more luck with it - I mean, airships?), dead people aren't dead, people in general seem - well, less fucked up. Not that it seems perfect, just - luckier, some of the time. Anyway...

38. Atonement
You know, I really hate the story lines where a brat causes great misery through his/her thoughtless and/or nasty actions and never seems to pay for it - the actions of Robin against Gisbourne in the flashback in season 3 is an excellent case in point. So, I like that the storyline here is all about paying for it, and it's nasty - a very nasty movie (and I watched it mostly because of Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays a slimy, pedophile-and/or-rapist character, which was a bit of mistake, I'm sure you see). I suppose I should have liked it better than I did, for it's lazy summer day impending doom atmosphere in the first part, but really, apart from the sheer surreal horror of the soldiers waiting for ships never coming on the beach front, it never really managed to truly catch my interest.

39. Sucker Punch
Visually stunning - there's no doubt about that. The story troubles me a bit, though - the shown parts with tough chicks kicking ass and taking names is good, the fact that those sequences are just Baby Doll escaping into her own mind and away from the brothel is - less so, the fact that the brothel is a fantasy on top of an insane asylem, the entire story eventually aparently being Sweat Pea working through her trauma with a psychologist, the rest possible just figments of her imaginations/aspects of herself - better. But seriously, the ending with the busdriver undermines even that, because that means that a story that could be interpreted as about a young woman finding her own power - becomes a story about her being given power by a man. For all the ass-kicking in this movie, the power lies with men - the father, the orderly, the busdriver. Which is - less fortunate than it could be. But visually - visually it's stunning.

40. Arn - Tempelriddaren
Decent enough medieval tale in and of itself. That said, this movie is the sort of middle ages I was visualizing when I read A Game of Thrones - dirty, primitive, dark. The more high medieval look the series has so far is just fine, but this was the kind of world I was imagining.

41. Arn - Riket vid vägens slut
Too long or not long enough - to many battles and not enough story. Oh well...

42. Agora
This is a visually lovely movie, though I can't help but feel that Hypatia deserves - well, a more engaging movie. That said, I love the way the tradition love triangle plot is treated, with neither man ever getting her, because quite frankly, she's far more into science/philosophy than into either of them - though I quite like the friendship she develops with one of her suitors, Orestes - laidback and sensible and not stuck in a love-affair that never was. Actually, I grew to like Orestes after a rocky start, while Davus - the former slave turned Christian fanatic - kind of went the opposite way.

43. Olsen-banden over alle bjerge
I've never seemed to actually develop a liking for Egon and his gang - heresy, I know. It's alright, this movie, but, well...

44. My own worst enemy
While not anywhere near as awesome as Jekyll, then Christian Slater plays the double parts of Henry and Edward quite well, though the excuse for the double personalities is sort of out there. I mean, yes, good civilian covers are important, but these seem almost too much trouble. (I wonder if this takes place in the same universe as Dollhouse - the tech idea seems similar).

45. Chuck season 3.
Sadly, this season isn't half as fun as the two previous. Casey is still awesome, though while I like learning more about his background and I like seeing him being the one to actually take care of Chuck when needed, then I miss his proper gruff and growling attitude. He's far too - friendly, now. As for the rest - alas, a lot of the focus is on the Chuck&Sarah lovefest, which, alas, I still think is a fundamentally fucked-up relationship. I like that Chuck's friends and family finally learn about his spy work, though I quite agree with his sister that it's extremely unfortunate that everybody knew before she did (considering the mess her not knowing causes - extremely unfortunate) - though it does annoy me that they, particularly Morgan, have pretty much taken over the role of untrained civilians in the spy world. It annoys me in part because quite frankly, I find the whole Intersect 2.0 annoying - I find it annoying because I feel like it undermines Chuck's competence. It used to be that Chuck would demonstrate his brains, nerd-expertice and capability of thinking on his feet by coming up with more or less plausible plans to save the day - now a computer does the saving for him. Don't get me wrong - I have been wondering why Casey didn't drag Chuck off for spy 101 bootcamp during the very start of season 1, and I'd have been pretty annoyed if by now he hadn't acquired some expertice as a spy (and would have bitched about that - in case you haven't noticed, one of the ways I relate to fiction is to bitch about it - doesn't mean I don't like it, if I didn't I wouldn't watch/read/consume/whatever it - I just find it easier to find things to bitch about than things to praise or at least to formulate it (which is an unfortunate approach to have when you read a really good fanfic and the best you can think of to write is something along the lines of "love this!", but oh well...). Anyway, it would seem strange if Chuck hadn't learned at least some spying by now, but the way they chose to do it, completely undermines one of the best things about the character, IMHO :-(

46. Thirst
Boring... seriously, how do you make vampires boring. And the emotional conflicts? All seen before... (also, there ought to be warning system for nails - as in falling off, getting pulled out, that sort of thing - because ewww)

47. The Saga of Biorn
Well, that's certainly a new explanation for the phrase bjørnetjeneste - poor Biorn, just trying to die in battle and get to Valhal - you'd think it wouldn't be so difficult :-) An excellent animated short film.

48. The Ballad of Little Jo
Oh, this is a very good movie, and I definitely recommend it. Set in the wild west, a place where it's definitely not safe to be a single woman - so Josephine Monaghan cuts her hair short, dresses in men's clothing and settles in a mining camp under the name of Little Jo. Many years later, the undertaker gets to be the third person ever to discover her true gender. I loved that this was a dirty sort of western (not as dirty as Deadwood, but then, the movie's nearly 20 years old), I loved the exploration of Jo's gender identity and her relationship with a broken-down Chinese former railway-worker, turning things upside down, and I absolutely love, that when her gender is revealed to all and sundry, I love that the men stand dumb-founded, but the saloon keeper's wife, she laughs. I love that. If it had been made now, I suppose it might have added something more queer - either explored the interest the saloon keeper's daughter shows in Little Jo, or explored Little Jo's interest in a man who hasn't guessed that she's a woman, or maybe explored a man's interest in Little Jo as Jo. I suppose fandom could explore those. But truthfully, it doesn't really need it. It's a lovely movie and you should totally see it.

49. How to Train Your Dragon
Awwww. I wholeheartedly subscribe to the school of pseudo-zoology which claims that dragons = cats. Big, cuddly cats. Just saying.