(no subject)

[ebonlock]

Great weekend to report, lots of dance time, some lovely tea time with friends, some good down time, and even time for a movie. Can't ask for better than that!

It was nice having a Saturday night that required nothing more taxing from me than reading some comics. Though I must say it felt decidedly odd to have nothing pressing to work on. Nice, but odd.

Sunday I could no longer resist the lure of "Nightwatch" and got to see it with cyranocyrano. That almost never happens as his schedule is so wacky. I'll keep this as non-spoilery as possible, but will say that this movie is not a horror film in any way, shape, or form. For some reason Fox Searchlight seems to want to bill it as one, but if you go in looking for "The Ring" you're going to be sorely disappointed.

If I had to compare it to anything I'd say more "The Matrix" or "Underworld", only not sucky. The universe created in this trilogy is engaging, and left me and C- discussing the questions we were left with the entire way home. Basically the war between Light(Nightwatch) and Darkness (Daywatch) is treated much like the Cold War, with a sufficient amount of moral ambiguity and the constant underlying threat that if the truce is violated it will mean utter annihilation for both sides.

The main character, Anton, is deeply flawed and seems to be uncertain if he made the right choice by joining the forces of Light when he awakened as an Other. And the other agents he works with (a couple of shapeshifters and a seer) are certainly angels with dirty faces as well. Nobody's hands are clean among the Nightwatch, not even their stoic leader/healer. The only downside of the film is that so much time and energy is spent on the Anton character and his journey that many other intriguing characters get rather short shrift. It was especially sad that his new partner, Olga, had so little to do.

And the end was a little too Stephen King-y for my taste, but I want to watch it again and see if maybe I missed something the first time through. I've also pre-ordered the translated novel to see if most of this stuff is better fleshed out in it.

In all, two big thumbs up, and C- and I both agreed we'd totally role play in this universe. I'm also thinking it'd be all too easy to do crossovers between that series and HP. Too damn easy.

Edit: Forgot to mention how great BSG was this week. Best. Swerve. EVER. Ron Moore nearly made my head explode in the first ten minutes of the episode, but in a good way. I actually forgot to breathe and Aelf actually screamed. People may respond with some spoilery stuff in comments so if you haven't seen the episode yet you may want to avoid them. Just a head's up.

Comments

[eilonwey.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Based on your comments and some other comments I've heard, I'm becoming more and more tempted to see Nightwatch. I hate horror movies, but it sounds like this one doesn't exactly qualify as a horror movie. And the plot sounds really interesting.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I think you really might enjoy it, it's a dark fantasy, but definitely fantasy not horror.

[esmerel.livejournal.com]

All I can say:
1) The president's decision is so going to bite them in the ass. I can totally see her reasoning, but O, the ass biting.
2) Doc is a bad liar. I love him for it.
3) What the the hell are they going to do in 36 hours??

[ebongreen.livejournal.com]

Best. TV. Mindfuck. In Years.

Then there's the whole issue of, "Hmm, I wonder if the new babymomma is One of Them?" There's lots of Cylon models out there they haven't IDed yet, and one might even suspect that one of the properties/problems the Humlons are having is radically high infant mortality.

There's also the entire "keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer" aspect that seems to have been lost in the decision to foster. You can watch the kid better under constant surveillance on the Galactica than you can if she's under theoretical wraps as a civilian and being raised as a normal human.

And here's to CapricaSix and Sharon leading a Cylon reformation. (Do the Eights - "Sharons" - do anything but roadtrip on Caprica?) The implied biting satire on religious fundamentalism was fully intentional, I'm sure.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

The last several of Laura's decisions are biting her in the ass, but yeah this one's going to quite possibly doom her completely. Love, love, love the Doc and am beginning to wish he were in charge as he seems to have the strongest moral compass at the moment.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I have to say that newly well Laura is making a lot of decisions that have me wishing for the good old half-dead but profoundly liberal model we used to have. At least Gaius spanked her soundly after her abortion decision which was just wrong, wrong, wrong. I was commenting to Aelf that every time one of these characters does what they know to be wrong but for what they think are the right reasons, the universe smacks them for it. I like that that particular universe doesn't seem too keen on the ends justify the means style thinking.

[silkblade.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's why it's billed that way. Hollywood/movie people in general may not understand that 'dark fantasy' does not equal 'horror/fantasy'.

[esmerel.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing re: another model, but I think that would be just -too- cheesy. I suspect they'll be keeping a close eye on the development; with the 'all of them can be trusted', I would suspect they've all been highly vetted. And Roslyn made it clear she would be looking in on things. Which still made me go 'er. You're the president of the colonies. Kinda obvious when you go looking in on a random baby'

Re: BSG

[mallen.livejournal.com]

Can I just say, *Squee!!!*

I can? Ok. I just did.

Um, also re: BSG

[mallen.livejournal.com]

I love how Gaius "haunts" CapricaSix just like Six haunts Gaius on Galactica.

Re: BSG

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

You can be such a flaming fanboy sometimes :)

Re: Um, also re: BSG

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Only the influence seems to be the reverse, you know? With Ghost Gaius being the "angel" to Ghost Six's "devil". He leads her towards the light while she leads him towards destruction and madness. It's beautiful.

Re: Um, also re: BSG

[mallen.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to hear the podcast for the last two episodes.

Re: Um, also re: BSG

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I'm iPod-less so if there's anything particularly cool please share with the less fortunate ;)

[ebongreen.livejournal.com]

er. You're the president of the colonies. Kinda obvious when you go looking in on a random baby

Yeah, I had that thought too. Tactics, woman, tactics; ya may as well set off flares over the kid's head and fireworks saying, "I'm the Cylon Messiah! Kidnap me!" [headdesk]