My expectations going into this movie for the first time were high, to say the least. (Seriously, my brother and I went to a matinee showing, and I woke up several times the night before because I was too excited to sleep. I was like a little kid on Christmas Eve; it was ridiculous.) And then The Winter Soldier surpassed pretty much all of my expectations.

Very spoilery spoilers beneath the cut )
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I recently read an Entertainment Weekly article on Why 'Pacific Rim' is a good movie for geek girls (contains major spoilers for the film). The article's conclusion is that Pacific Rim is mostly a terrible movie for women, except for the fact that it contains a bunch of hot guys. I...disagree. Hence this post on "Ten Reasons Why Pacific Rim Is a Great Movie for Geek Girls."

Disclaimer: In the following list, I make a lot of gendered generalizations. Obviously, there are exceptions to every generalization; there are men whose favorite thing is Jane Austen adaptations and women whose favorite thing is action movies that are 95% mindless violence and 5% toilet humor.

There's also room for a ton of overlap in people's tastes. Maybe you love emotional complexity as well as kickass fight scenes, or strong interrelationships as well as stunning special effects. Nevertheless, I think that all of the following items highlight elements of Pacific Rim that make it particularly appealing to female viewers (even if many of the elements might improve the viewing experiences of male viewers, as well).

Additional disclaimer: While this list was initially conceived of as a response to the above-linked EW article, I've read 50+ reviews of Pacific Rim at this point--both professional and fannish--and the list draws upon and responds to common themes in many of these reviews.

Additional additional disclaimer: I've avoided major spoilers in this post, but minor spoilers abound. Caveat lector.

Ten Reasons Why Pacific Rim Is a Great Movie for Geek Girls )
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I saw Pacific Rim today: excellent film, will see in the theaters again.

If you don't like mecha and/or alien dinosaurs, you probably won't love this movie. It's a lot (a lot) more homage than it is subversion. It's skillfully done homage, though, that draws not only on the obvious anime, Godzilla, Power Rangers, etc. antecedents but on Independence Day and H. P. Lovecraft and Hokusai. At the same time, it's not derivative (though the Independence Day parallels in particular are strong enough that I wouldn't recommend watching the two films back-to-back). This isn't a Godzilla/Power Rangers mash-up; it's a film that both is a love song to these genres and that also has its own story to tell.

And though I don't think you can love this movie without appreciating one or both of the aforementioned tropes, I think you could still enjoy it a lot if you love any of the following: 1) action movies with heart, 2) stories about families, both born and chosen, 3) stories about damaged people learning how to heal, 4) visually beautiful films, 5) Idris Elba.

P.S. Needs more fic!
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In which I discuss illogic; James's absence; Sirius and Remus, both individually and together; three-ninths of the Weasleys; and stoats.

My excessively spoilery thoughts )
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jain: (nick reaching)
( Jun. 6th, 2003 05:55 am)
For the first hour or so of Maurice I was fairly unimpressed, to the point that I considered not watching the rest. (The book really is much better; so much of the action of the movie makes no sense without the accompaniment of Maurice's thoughts.) But then came the...well, post-sex scenes is really the most accurate term for them. And, apparently, even mediocre movies can be entirely redeemed by the inclusion of a naked Rupert Graves. In fact, I think I'm just going to have to watch it again before returning it to the library.
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jain: (nick reaching)
( May. 12th, 2003 03:50 am)
So, I finally watched X-Men--after being inspired to do so by Pablo's lovely new story, Acquiesce. For the most part, I thought the movie really quite good. It was much funnier than I'd been expecting, for one; that was a nice surprise.

More babble about the movie )

So...does anyone have slash recs to volunteer? I recently reread Coming Home by Saraid, a nice Xavier/Logan story, but it and the aforementioned Pablo story are the extent of my foray into the movieverse fandom. (Logan/Cyclops, Logan/Bobby, and Jean/Storm recs would be especially wonderful.)
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It's been an eventful week. I'm finally moved out of my parent's house and into my girlfriend's apartment. It only occurred to me after I'd actually moved that this might not have been the best time to relocate, considering that I have to buy holiday presents and a bus ticket this month. Adding rent on top of that is not making me comfortable. On the plus side, though: I'm really living in Philadelphia now, rather than one of its lesser-known and more insular suburban towns. I've never been a city-dweller before--with the exception of a one month stay in Budapest, where my grandmother barely let me out the door alone.

As one example of the manifold delights to be found here, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman are going to be at Giovanni's Room this Saturday to promote The Fall of Kings! (7:30 pm-9 pm, if anyone else in the area is interested.)

Shakira and Harry Potter )
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