King Arthur

Yet another film I saw this week. This one is inredibly misunderstood and it saddens me to see people who I’m sure would really enjoy it turning their noses up based on the trailers.

This isn’t your typical King Arther tale. This is a Dark Ages King Arthur, a Roman soldier faced with fighting back an invading Saxon army while the might of Rome is leaving the people of Britain to fend for themselves. Arthur, who is actually half-British, can’t find it in his heart to leave the common folk to be slaughtered by the Saxons (who are killing and burning everything as they advance) so he stays to fight.

The knights are there against their will. Merlin is the leader of the Woads (the native people that have been driven north of Hadrian’s Wall by the romans) and there’s not a spot of magic or mention of a Holy Grail throughout the film.

It might be easier to ignore the title and just see it from the point of view of a Dark Ages period piece. Its a damned fine film and its a shame that its being overlooked by so many.

Spiderman 2

Finally got to see Spiderman 2 today. No big surprises…I loved it just as much as everyone else did. I hope there’s an extended or director’s cut version, and I’d love to see a ‘making of’ featurette too.

Toby Maguire is such an unlikely candidate to play Spiderman, and he pulls it off so damned well. Its amazing how authentic he can look as a nerd AND as Spiderman. The special effects were freaking AMAZING. I think I snagged one effect in the entire movie that ‘jarred’ by not looking like it fit in perfectly. Kirsten Dunst is still pulling off the ‘incredibly hot yet very wholesome’ thing, and the actress who played Aunt May looks like she stepped out of the pages of the comic book.

Some really funny scenes, some great cameos, lots of incredible action, some real tear-jerker moments…the movie just hadseverything you could ask for. It gets my vote for Movie of the Year so far!

Armitage: Dual Matrix

I watched Armitage: Dual Matrix the other day. It was pretty good if you’re an anime fan. It wasn’t good enough that I’d recomend it universally, as I would say Spirited Away or Grave of the Fireflies or even Princess Mononoke. But for anime fans, a decent movie.

Fairly typical plot. You have your earthers and your martians. The earthers hate robots and want to suppress robot rights, the martians like robots and need them to help the colony survive. Some evil dude sets up a massacre so that it looks like the robots killed a bunch of people. Armitage is a robot, a “type 3” and she has to fight the conspiracy while avoiding capture. Someone wants to take her apart to see what makes her tick since she’s done something no robot has ever done.

Lots of action, a decent if predictable plot. Good voice work on the English Dub. All in all, as I said, a decent movie for anime buffs.

Mary Oliver

I finally finished New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver and I have to say, I can’t really recommend it. I mean, her stuff is “nice” and if you’re a nature freak than you might enjoy it. But for me there was way too much wildlife and way too few people, which left the poems feeling a bit vapid to me.

Obviously poetry is a very personal thing, though, and she is wildly popular. I just think I’d prefer something a bit edgier…