California reviews - part one
Feb. 2nd, 2009 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI am currently looking out over a glorious California morning, while everyone else I know is leaving work early in London to get home through the heavy snow - looks like I chose the right week to go away!
Anyway, there are spoilers for Benjamin Button later on in this post - just warning people now...
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - this nicely filled the first three hours or so of my flight - solidly entertaining all the way through, with some very clever moments, and a nice structure. I wish I liked Gaiman's work more - I think he's an excellent writer, and I really enjoy seeing him speak, and reading his blog, but his books just don't really grab me for some reason.
An Officer and a Gentleman - the only film available on the plane that I had any interest in watching - and it turned out to be terrible! I'm guessing I might have appreciated it more fifteen years ago, but it left me completely cold on Saturday. I didn't really like any of the characters, it was very predictable and cliched, and didn't really have much scope, plotwise. And, as it turns out, I no longer have any interest whatsoever in a man in uniform coming to sweep me off my feet and take me away from my mundane existence. Good job, really... :o)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - when we came out of the cinema, Lindsay listed all the things that were wrong with this film: Daisy was unsympathetic, the Hurricane Katrina sections were unnecessary and pulled you out of the main narrative, the message was too obvious, the ages and timings seemed a little off in places, it was unrealistic that the connection between Daisy and Benjamin would stay so strong given so little contact - none of which I could disagree with. But I thought the film was utterly wonderful. The one thing I did disagree with (and something that Empire said as well as Lindsay) was that the character of Benjamin was unengaging - I was absolutely mesmerised by him throughout and it was him being so compelling that kept me riveted and made me not care about any of the flaws. The film was another thing telling me to get on and bloody write something, too - the signs seem to be converging on that at the moment, and I have no excuse, as there is a perfectly good story sitting in my head, waiting to be put down on paper.
Anyway, there are spoilers for Benjamin Button later on in this post - just warning people now...
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - this nicely filled the first three hours or so of my flight - solidly entertaining all the way through, with some very clever moments, and a nice structure. I wish I liked Gaiman's work more - I think he's an excellent writer, and I really enjoy seeing him speak, and reading his blog, but his books just don't really grab me for some reason.
An Officer and a Gentleman - the only film available on the plane that I had any interest in watching - and it turned out to be terrible! I'm guessing I might have appreciated it more fifteen years ago, but it left me completely cold on Saturday. I didn't really like any of the characters, it was very predictable and cliched, and didn't really have much scope, plotwise. And, as it turns out, I no longer have any interest whatsoever in a man in uniform coming to sweep me off my feet and take me away from my mundane existence. Good job, really... :o)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - when we came out of the cinema, Lindsay listed all the things that were wrong with this film: Daisy was unsympathetic, the Hurricane Katrina sections were unnecessary and pulled you out of the main narrative, the message was too obvious, the ages and timings seemed a little off in places, it was unrealistic that the connection between Daisy and Benjamin would stay so strong given so little contact - none of which I could disagree with. But I thought the film was utterly wonderful. The one thing I did disagree with (and something that Empire said as well as Lindsay) was that the character of Benjamin was unengaging - I was absolutely mesmerised by him throughout and it was him being so compelling that kept me riveted and made me not care about any of the flaws. The film was another thing telling me to get on and bloody write something, too - the signs seem to be converging on that at the moment, and I have no excuse, as there is a perfectly good story sitting in my head, waiting to be put down on paper.
