shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2023-11-03 05:16 pm
shallowness) wrote2023-11-03 05:16 pm
Entry tags:
A sci-fi movie and fantasy TV
I have been to the cinema again! (It’s still a bit of a novelty.) I went to see The Creator by Gareth Edwards, who I know from Monsters, which I love, and this shares the CGI meets real locations DNA of that film, although it’s not as good. (The movie, I mean, the FX are great.) It kind of worked for me emotionally, eventually, but the more you think about it, the more it falls apart. Even while watching it, I was side-eyeing the hero and the male POV, quibbling about scientific parameters, finding where it eventually landed with its ‘goodies’ and baddies’ snarkworthy. Much has been made of it being original (i.e. not an adaptation or part of a franchise), but there’s a long list of clear influences. The acting is good – John David Washington sounding like his father, Gemma ‘Humans was an audition’ Chan, Allison Janney! Young Madeline Yuna Voyles is terrific. I was glad I experienced it on the big screen, though.
The Wheel of Time - 1.6 The Flame of Tar Valon
Lots to chew over here. We met young Siuan and her lovely dad in the opening sequence, which might have been a little too short, but I inferred that their house got burned down because she’d been seen channelling, the neighbours didn’t like it, and she had to leave for the Tower. Sympathy gained! (Which I suppose was the main point.)
I saw Sophie Okenedo’s name in the credits and literally hooted (in a good way, because she’s such a great actress.) No surprise that she was both the Seat everyone had been talking about and grown Siuan. (Also, there was an unexpected casting crossover with Sanditon, with Sandy ‘Miss Hankins’ McDade playing Maigan, the head of the blues.) I was pleased that the focus was on the Aes Sedai after it had been on the warders in the previous ep, so we got more politics, power plays and intrigues. Okenedo made an immediate impact as The Boss Lady. Also, epic dressing up – there was something Asian about Moiraine’s equivalent of dress uniform. (The production design for the throne room was gorgeous.)
I found the timing a bit odd for when Moiraine kept changing clothes and popping in and out of the Tower, i.e. she met the Two Rivers gang of potentials in the order that suited the story, not logical chronology, maybe. I was glad that Moiraine did have effective spies (but so did everyone else in the Tower), noted that she didn’t tell the two groups from Two Rivers about each other, but did use all the tools at her disposal to get the outcome she needed.
So, Moiraine and Siuan are lovers and have been working together to save the world from the Dark One, they hope? (Also Lan knows – the first bit, definitely, and surely quite a lot of the second.) Moiraine was wavering a bit from all the prophecies she’d come across, but the Dragon reborn seems more likely to be one of the five than all of them. I was trying to sort out what we do know, the main thing was that Mat (stupid boy, yes, indeed) was strong enough to fight the dark magic, but it was feeding off his darkness. Also, Moiraine knows what Perrin is thanks to his wolf mastery (he looked fetching in his red trousers). I hope she tells him sooner rather than later.
I found myself really liking Egwenne for her very human reaction upon learning that Nynaeve was super powerful and she…wasn’t (although she’d totally done the right thing in giving Moiraine her dead sisters’ rings.)
Siuan shared her ‘attack now, the Dark One is weak’ dream, though I doubt it’ll be all that successful given that we’re clearly not quite at The End yet. I was relieved that she left a major loophole in the banishing of Moiraine, because it seemed stupid to stop her from returning to the Tower for always given what they might face. On the one hand, the acting was great, the emotion palpable, but so palpable that the other Aes Sedai might have noticed – especially because birth names and titles were exchanged. (Ooh, Moiraine was high born?) And we’d had the reveal that Liandrin wasn’t the misandrist we’d thought.
After the brief reunion, Rand and Nynaeve, despite their chopsiness, went with Moiraine along the super dangerous magical way, but Mat, despite and because of everything, didn’t. Uh-oh. In the moment, I was most exercised by why Loial the not!Ogre is going along. My best guess is it’s plot related as he seems to know lots.
The Wheel of Time - 1.6 The Flame of Tar Valon
Lots to chew over here. We met young Siuan and her lovely dad in the opening sequence, which might have been a little too short, but I inferred that their house got burned down because she’d been seen channelling, the neighbours didn’t like it, and she had to leave for the Tower. Sympathy gained! (Which I suppose was the main point.)
I saw Sophie Okenedo’s name in the credits and literally hooted (in a good way, because she’s such a great actress.) No surprise that she was both the Seat everyone had been talking about and grown Siuan. (Also, there was an unexpected casting crossover with Sanditon, with Sandy ‘Miss Hankins’ McDade playing Maigan, the head of the blues.) I was pleased that the focus was on the Aes Sedai after it had been on the warders in the previous ep, so we got more politics, power plays and intrigues. Okenedo made an immediate impact as The Boss Lady. Also, epic dressing up – there was something Asian about Moiraine’s equivalent of dress uniform. (The production design for the throne room was gorgeous.)
I found the timing a bit odd for when Moiraine kept changing clothes and popping in and out of the Tower, i.e. she met the Two Rivers gang of potentials in the order that suited the story, not logical chronology, maybe. I was glad that Moiraine did have effective spies (but so did everyone else in the Tower), noted that she didn’t tell the two groups from Two Rivers about each other, but did use all the tools at her disposal to get the outcome she needed.
So, Moiraine and Siuan are lovers and have been working together to save the world from the Dark One, they hope? (Also Lan knows – the first bit, definitely, and surely quite a lot of the second.) Moiraine was wavering a bit from all the prophecies she’d come across, but the Dragon reborn seems more likely to be one of the five than all of them. I was trying to sort out what we do know, the main thing was that Mat (stupid boy, yes, indeed) was strong enough to fight the dark magic, but it was feeding off his darkness. Also, Moiraine knows what Perrin is thanks to his wolf mastery (he looked fetching in his red trousers). I hope she tells him sooner rather than later.
I found myself really liking Egwenne for her very human reaction upon learning that Nynaeve was super powerful and she…wasn’t (although she’d totally done the right thing in giving Moiraine her dead sisters’ rings.)
Siuan shared her ‘attack now, the Dark One is weak’ dream, though I doubt it’ll be all that successful given that we’re clearly not quite at The End yet. I was relieved that she left a major loophole in the banishing of Moiraine, because it seemed stupid to stop her from returning to the Tower for always given what they might face. On the one hand, the acting was great, the emotion palpable, but so palpable that the other Aes Sedai might have noticed – especially because birth names and titles were exchanged. (Ooh, Moiraine was high born?) And we’d had the reveal that Liandrin wasn’t the misandrist we’d thought.
After the brief reunion, Rand and Nynaeve, despite their chopsiness, went with Moiraine along the super dangerous magical way, but Mat, despite and because of everything, didn’t. Uh-oh. In the moment, I was most exercised by why Loial the not!Ogre is going along. My best guess is it’s plot related as he seems to know lots.