"Couldn't Ask for a Better Day..."

[psalm_onethirtyone]

I'm running MARC records at the library, and I just noticed that the summary for the film "Precious" includes the line "Precious Jones, an inner-city high school girl, is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant... again".

Can I just take a moment to be extremely offended that 'overweight' is apparently as much a problem as being illiterate or pregnant due to sexual abuse? Based on the cover, what they actually mean is 'obese', but I would argue that it is still not an issue on the magnitude of the other two.

Ffff people annoy me. Back to work.

EDIT: oh my GOD i HATE romantic comedies. BE more misogynistic, i DARE YOU. OR HOW ABOUT NOT. *fumes*

Comments

[brieboo.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I feel for you -- I had to watch the new Iron Man movie today. Halfway through, I started praying I would have to throw up so I could walk out without having to explain myself to my husband and brother.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Really? I liked Iron Man II, what about it turned you off? Just out of curiosity.

[brieboo.livejournal.com]

Well, I think probably a lot of my opinion had to do with the volume at which the theater apparently thought it was necessary to run the soundtrack, which was a good 3 dB more than strictly necessary, even accounting for the fact that we are speaking of a movie where things start exploding within the first minute and a half after the opening credits.

That said, well, I'll start with said first minute and a half after the opening credits -- you have fireworks, an irreverent corporate Jesus, scantily-clad dancing women, and the American flag. All it was missing was a Budweiser product placement. So it was just kind of icky to me.

Then there's the fact that they totally amped up Tony Stark's drunkenness, hedonism and egotism way beyond what it was in the first movie (in the first one, it played out like, "wow, what an unlikely hero!"; in this one it seemed to me like, "wow, what a jackass"), which got on my nerves enormously, to the point that I was rooting for the Russian guy to just destroy everyone else, find his bird and live happily ever after. I just kind of felt like Tony Stark was turned into a Mary Sue, in that he was allowed to smartmouth the US Senate, drink like a fish, open fire in a crowd, and generally hold no regard for anyone but himself, and still get all kinds of adulation from everyone because "OMG it's IRON MANZ!" Even Pepper Potts, whom he treats like shit just gives him more or less impotent exasperated looks (and forgives him in the end, because she realizes his job is so hard, nevermind that HE'S THE ONE MAKING IT HARD FOR HER!

Also, I couldn't help but thinking that even with models and CGI and such, they still had to have actually destroyed millions of dollars' worth of stuff. Tony Stark alone destroyed millions of dollars' worth of his own stuff. And if all those things had actually been destroyed (rather than the models and CGI), it'd amount to probably billions in property damage, which just struck me as hedonistic -- in that I just started to feel uncomfortable about the fact that the money spent making the movie was mostly spent destroying expensive things. And which nobody in the movie itself apparently cared about, because they never sent a bill, or even talked about it. So that both irked me on principle and strained my suspension of disbelief.

Then you have things like a team of 50 robots shooting at Iron Man with no regard to minimizing collateral damage, but that still manage to kill zero civilians; that Pepper Potts is smart enough to manage Tony Stark's personal affairs and his billion-dollar corporation (well, for a week, anyway, because only A MANZ, even a perpetually hungover, eccentric, chronically impulsive one with a mind for only three things -- women, booze, and SCIENCE -- can run Stark Industries!), but apparently not enough so to run away from, or even appear afraid of, the (albeit apparently felled) Evil Machine of Death that suddenly starts beeping; and, last but certainly not least, the just really awful chemistry.

So, I know I'm over-thinking it, but there you are. If anyone else can enjoy it on a "hey, awesome!" kind of level, more power to 'em, but I just can't resist the impulse to analyze every little speck and usually end up feeling like I wasted another ten bucks, lol.

[brieboo.livejournal.com]

Although, come to think of it, it does pass the Bechdel test.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

:D!

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

IA with the volume, this must be an action/superhero film thing, because the sound is ALWAYS too high. I have baby migraines that are triggered by sound loudyness, and I totally always get them after watching movie theatre films. >_>

Anyway, I thought the opening scene with the kickline and whatnot was supposed to be icky--I certainly found it icky. I thought it was supposed to show that Tony is really getting too self-important. In fact, I guess I felt like a whole pile of the stuff that was icky was supposed to show that Tony was totally out of control and basically ramping up his crazy and his assholery because he was scared of death and not dealing with it well, and that hopefully finding the unobtainium was going to make him get control again. But idk, that was just my interpretation.

Although I did kind of wish that Mickey Rourke and his bird could just go back to Russia and live happily ever after. >_> Also, they totally trivialise Tony's alcoholism, I agree. In the comic books it's a major issue and they actually, you know, DEAL WITH IT, but in the movies they tend to be like LOL TONY DRINKS A LOT instead of presenting it as the serious problem it is.

There were definitely problematic things about it. I just really enjoy superhero films and I really love Marvel and I really love Robert Downey Jr., so I overall had a good experience.

[brieboo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I probably would've enjoyed it more if I had been into the comics (I used to be into Marvel, but mostly X-Men). Coming at it with knowledge of the actual background and stuff, I can imagine getting more out of it.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Omg X-Men is my favourite. >_> I just splurged and bought the 2008 animated series (my sister and I have already collected the 1994 animated series), and we're waiting with bated breath for it to arrive. She also gave me an subscription to Uncanny X-Men for my birthday and I am so excited.

Basically, Marvel is my big sekrit ninja fandom, which I think does help with the films because I have background knowledge. It also allows me to be nitpicky and whiny, of course.