Friday, February 22, 2013

There Won't Be Purpose Apr 23, 2008 12:17AM PST

There Will Be Blood



Ok, so I'll bite, I actually thought how far the guy went to get his damn oil was pretty shocking, and maybe it does represent human greed and just pure evil but at the end of the movie all I could ask myself was "so the point is he's a cunt?"

Seriously, the things this guy does/says to his deaf son (though he was good to him at first) and holy men (who actually I don't much care for either).

It's one of those movies that's well acted, excellently directed etc. but still one that's so sordid I just want to watch a Disney flick and forget how this movie reminded me how terrible the world is sometimes. And not in the cool "OMG that movie was scary, need Lion King NOW" kind of way.

And as much as I like the idea of psychopath killers, don't get me wrong, and I still felt this was a better movie, this

No Country For Old Men



had a similarly "world kinda sucks sometimes" effect. But at least in this film's case, it stylized its main character a bit what with that effing coin taking it enough out of reality for me to enjoy it more.

Oddly enough though, my favorite 2007 Oscar film so far has been the one with the least action

Michael Clayton



Why? Because it has the most intricate plot from a viewpoint I can understand. It's the one film of the three where I root for the main character, not just think his creepiness is oddly cool or that his greed and violence are astonishing and depressing.

And it's not as though Clayton isn't greedy, as explained in the last few scenes he's "the guy you buy, not the guy you kill". But his perspective on things are quite a bit less sordid, he actually cares about others, and the film manages to not only excite me more with its plot than the others could with gruesome violence, but without very much physical action at all.

This coming from someone who usually can't stand Clooney.

It's not that I hate either of the first two films, I'm just not into this drowning-in-darkness direction being taken by today's Oscar worthy dramas. Call me crazy, but I like to like the characters in my movies.

Games have taken somewhat similar paths lately what with Grand Theft Auto and of course everyone opting for the dark path in RPGs, and to me it's getting old not because I don't like the anti-hero concept, but because the new anti-heros just aren't dynamic enough.

Take the film A Clockwork Orange for example. Stanley Kubrick decided to adapt the AMERICAN EDIT of the novel which seemed to say "look at how evil the lil fucker is. Art I say!". And to that film I say no, the art of that novel was in Burgess' questioning of moral choice within Alex. Without that, the story loses its original purpose, crumbling into nothing but a cosplay reference for punk rockers that like violent imagery.

I want to view things from the perspective of a villan, but give me a villan with at least some reasonable purpose for his actions, comment on something socially relevant, but don't just see how evil someone can get for pure entertainment value because to me it's anything but.

All this has inspired me to write a short story for you all next blog from the perspective of a villan, in the the "if you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself" spirit.

Anyway, I just rented Sweeney Todd for me, Juno for the 'rents (and me), and Hitman for my older bro (and my morbid curiosity).

Man, I'm going through a lot of movies lately.

Mandatory Game status: I'm searching for owl statues with the Dominion Rod. 36 hours into Twilight Princess

Edit: Please not my writing this at 2:00 AM on a school night. I know my writing sucks.

I'm also very aware of the fact Sweeney Todd might just be that "look how evil" kinda movie, so I should explain that I enjoy stylized violence very much. Heavily stylized violence that doesn't take itself with much weight.

... which is kind of what ACO's movie did and I do like it, but I stand by the novel's vast superiority

No comments:

Post a Comment