Confession and Watchmen

After reading MJ, I have a confession of my own.

I actually didn’t read LOTR. I read the hobbit which got me interested and then bit of the Silmarillion.

The book that got me hooked on fantasy was The Magician by Raymond E. Feist. There are five books in the series, don’t remember all their names but, for me it was a true adventure to read them. I was able to completely loose myself in them.

There are a lot of similarities between Feist’s work and LOTR. When I first watched the movie LOTR, it was as if MY imagination of The Magician were being brought to life. Now some might say that Feist ripped off Tolkien, but I think it was more of an inspiration. I am still able to appreciate both of them for what they are. And LOTR movies is my favorite movies of ALL time.

It has occurred to me to that there is a greater movie vs. book debate…but for now…

Watchmen really did have too much nudity in it, and I could have so done without the sex scene. It was a movie that was made by boys for boys but I actually really liked it. It is not your conventional comic movie. I have to watch it again to be sure, but it has like different paces, its like when they started the movie that wanted to achieve something but as soon as they got to the middle they changed their minds. Fight scenes were good, and the shots and colours were very pretty, but the lesson from Max Payne was that just because something looks pretty doesn’t mean its going to be a worth watching. I really liked the clothes and the atmosphere they created. But my ever end was the naked blue man…and I didn’t realise until he was on Mars or wherever that his jiggly bits where out for like half the movie!!!

I like movies that bend my reality. And Watchmen does just that. It is unconventional and I am sure that reading it, is much better.

But it seems to me that the lesson here is to watch the movie for what it is. When we read we create the world our selves, we create expectations when we watch the movie, its our expectations that see the gallows.

No matter what movie makers do, they can never replace the human imagination. Because there, each person is the director, actor, gaffer, costume designer etc. There we can imagine it the way it was intended AND the way we want to and not focus on the bits that will sell movie tickets.

South African Lord of the Rings

“And what of the wizard?”
“I will break him”

On the walls that surrounds Gondor the Coloured Wizard watches, with white cavela’s on, and the side of robe tucked into his pocket of a three quarter pans and his hair in spikes with frosted tips

“Wie gaan jay breek? Ek steek jou nou in jou P*@# in!”

Retraction

I hereby wish to retract my previous blog about Twilight.

I believe that when you’re wrong…you admit it.

My blog about the movie twilight was totally kak (bull shit).

After reading the book again and then reading all the other books I realised that they left soooo much out of the movie. I seriously don’t know how they are going to make the other movies. I have seen some snippets of New Moon and looks very pretty but I don’t know how they going to pull off the story line. But then again that’s what happens when they turn books into movies right?

I finished breaking dawn about two days ago…and I am still all Edwardy! I need to get out of it now, I’ve got a Masters to type up and time is against me. But I can’t stop thinking about the books!

I really did like them BUT you can see it was written by a girl or more accurately a mother. Breaking Dawn had the perfect build-up to a fight and then when it came down to it…she just let it go. I was very disappointed at that. She could have at least had them fight for like two minutes. They are all tough they could have survived! But is sounded to me like the story is not quite over and that if she wanted to, she could continue with the series.

Anyway time to get back to reality…what ever that means.

One Word

Why?

Aaaah Love….

It has begun…the incessant sale of Love. Everywhere you go…shops/stores everywhere have some type of Valentines Day offer. And I don’t have to state how annoying the, get-two-for-one specials are. To me all they are really saying is ‘T…your pathetic, you don’t have anyone who loves you and you never will (and your mother does not count)’ please note that I type this with a sarcastic keyboard.

Maybe my opinion is a bit tainted because I never had a valentine. I was the only person in school buying stuff and sending it to myself. And I could only afford one balloon, rose etc…so I couldn’t even give myself a nice v-day…LOL

But what I really find interesting is how some people go crazy over something that cannot be measured, held, touched, felt. And more importantly, you cannot prove that it exists. (and please don’t make the argument that believing in love is like believe in God. Because it isn’t!! God is beyond anything your brain can ever comprehend)

If someone came up to you and said ‘I love you’. And you had no feelings for them, what difference would it make to your life? But if someone you profess to love says the same thing, oh my word…the sun, the moon and the stars all stop and gaze at you. For you are the most shinny thing in the universe at that moment in time. Yet, just by saying it, doesn’t necessarily make it true. But whether it is true or not, the only person love really affects is the giver. Nothing happens to the receiver unless Love takes the form of objects, in that case the receiver gets stuff.

Yet, people are obsessed with Love. It surprises me how many people are interested in your love life. Even on the blog…you will get twice as many people commenting on a blog about broken or fixed hearts than you would an intellectually stimulating topic. Am I the only one who thinks that’s weird? Don’t get me wrong, I do it too…when someone writes about their relationship I read it with childish enthusiasm. Why? Maybe its because just listening or reading about a happy love story fills you up with…Hope. That one day…one day it will happen. People tend to idealise the concept of love making it into something that it is not. And the lack of it…makes us feel that we are not worthy.

Peoples lives have been changed, destroyed almost. All in the name of love. And here we are dedicating a whole day of wearing red and white to honour it?? I think we spend too much time worrying, thinking about something that really in its essence…is nothing.

All love is really good for is making fools of us all.

Twilight

I think that movies should either bend my reality, by showing me things that I could never imagine, or stick to what they know and follow the norm especially when it comes to “fantasy”.

The thing with vampires is that they not only have their own folklore or legends, they have folklore or legends within the entertainment industry as well. There are certain characteristics that viewers and readers have come to expect from a vampire. Buffy and Angel was my favourite version of the vampire and quite good shows in my opinion. Each book, show, movie that is about vampires always tries to take a different spin on the story. And so did Twilight.

I read the book first before I watched the movie. And I was surprised at how much I liked the book and that I actually finished it. (Academics have somewhat destroyed my ability to do light reading, so I tend to start a book but never finish it). The author’s vampire is uncomplicated and beautiful. Which is a throwback to the original version of the vampire, I think. Dracula who was good looking, dark, mysterious and hypnotising. But the shimmering skin in the book and the movie was a bit hard for me to swallow.

I think they did a very good job of the movie. I do understand that the main audience is teenagers so it has its moments of ‘simplicity’. I was able to really enjoy it without thinking that it was corny. Everyone that was cast fit the roles perfectly. And Edward is very cute.

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series and for the next movies to come out.

Beard or Beer Bottle

Whether it is the beer bottle you hold
Or the Beard you grow
You will stand
For 500 000 years
You will stand
In blistering heat
Waiting for judgement

Whether you point a gun for freedom
Or enslavement
You will stand
For 500 000 years
You will stand

I am not saying do not believe in the Mercy of your Lord
I am saying that it does not matter
Whether you believe
Or if you don’t
Because we will stand
For 500 000 years
We will stand and wait for judgement

So do not judge your brother
Whether he holds a bear bottle
Or grows a beard

But do not think you can point a gun
For whatever reason
And not be accountable
For we will all stand
Side by side
Waiting for judgement
By the Creator of all things