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Falling Skies
Jul. 26th, 2011 08:58 amI'm gonna talk a bit about Stephen Spielberg, or in Simpsons parlance: Senor Spielbergo.
When I was a kid, Jaws (or even the trailer for Jaws) was the scariest thing I'd ever seen. The ominous music, a dog and a little kid dying, and of course, sh sh sh SHAAAAARK!
As a wee Wednes, obviously I'm gonna dig stuff like E.T. Indiana Jones, Twilight Zone Movie (although the whole Vic Morrow thing was not cool) etc. He has a knack for casting and directing kids, which makes for movies kids love. As I got older, I realized that his "family" movies were incredibly predictable. Even other movies (with the notably exception of Saving Private Ryan) tended to not kill off the heroes. As a snooty film buff, I don't like it when I don't think there's even a chance of the hero dying. Jurassic Park, for example, was less suspenseful knowing that the kids, Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum were going to live. Even when he could have killed Hammond (he dies in the book), Spielberg chose to leave him alive--and to my mind, Hammon kinda had it coming. I'd also say that his War of the Worlds, which I mostly really liked, was destroyed by the son living at the end. People die in wars, even people we really love.
My friend wanted to see Super 8 recently. I was cool with that, since I dig the hell out of JJ Abrams. The movie itself had all the JJ Abrams of not knowing what the hell was going on, with all the Spielberg of everything working out just fine and in the sappiest way possible. Great kids, well-directed. But no doubt whatsoever as to what was going to actually happen.
H wanted to watch Falling Skies. Aliens, Noah Wylie, apocalypse. I agreed. The creature design on the "skitters" is quite good. Sadly, 5 eps in, it was terribly, terribly predictable. Same old war/survival/family drama we've all seen a gazillion times. H enjoyed it, and we didn't have another show to watch together, so I went with it. Yesterday (I'm manic right now) I was literally feeling resentful that I had to go home and watch it.
However...last nights ep was actually surprising--all the way through. We lost a good character, which opened us up for this other crazy thing to happen. I was really, super excited at the direction the show took. Now I'm pretty stoked to find out whats going to happen, because I literally have no idea.
When I was a kid, Jaws (or even the trailer for Jaws) was the scariest thing I'd ever seen. The ominous music, a dog and a little kid dying, and of course, sh sh sh SHAAAAARK!
As a wee Wednes, obviously I'm gonna dig stuff like E.T. Indiana Jones, Twilight Zone Movie (although the whole Vic Morrow thing was not cool) etc. He has a knack for casting and directing kids, which makes for movies kids love. As I got older, I realized that his "family" movies were incredibly predictable. Even other movies (with the notably exception of Saving Private Ryan) tended to not kill off the heroes. As a snooty film buff, I don't like it when I don't think there's even a chance of the hero dying. Jurassic Park, for example, was less suspenseful knowing that the kids, Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum were going to live. Even when he could have killed Hammond (he dies in the book), Spielberg chose to leave him alive--and to my mind, Hammon kinda had it coming. I'd also say that his War of the Worlds, which I mostly really liked, was destroyed by the son living at the end. People die in wars, even people we really love.
My friend wanted to see Super 8 recently. I was cool with that, since I dig the hell out of JJ Abrams. The movie itself had all the JJ Abrams of not knowing what the hell was going on, with all the Spielberg of everything working out just fine and in the sappiest way possible. Great kids, well-directed. But no doubt whatsoever as to what was going to actually happen.
H wanted to watch Falling Skies. Aliens, Noah Wylie, apocalypse. I agreed. The creature design on the "skitters" is quite good. Sadly, 5 eps in, it was terribly, terribly predictable. Same old war/survival/family drama we've all seen a gazillion times. H enjoyed it, and we didn't have another show to watch together, so I went with it. Yesterday (I'm manic right now) I was literally feeling resentful that I had to go home and watch it.
However...last nights ep was actually surprising--all the way through. We lost a good character, which opened us up for this other crazy thing to happen. I was really, super excited at the direction the show took. Now I'm pretty stoked to find out whats going to happen, because I literally have no idea.
