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marinessAlas, although I was at the Transformers opening, I cannot tell you much about the flick. This is more or less what happened:
1. People sat in line (or in our cases, on benches.)
2. We went into the theatre.
3. The managers announced that for contractual reasons and Warner Bros not thinking things through, Harry Potter in Imax will be released two weeks after the release of the regular Harry Potter, an announcement that was greeted by a chorus of boos and cheers. (That was not an audience of Harry Potter fans.) They also announced that some people had arrived at 6:30 am for the film, which struck us as mildly insane.
4. The movie started. Robots blew things up. I left the theatre and spent some quality time lying on the floor waiting for the planet to stop shifting, which it did not actually do for a solid 48 hours. I will say that the theatre manager was very kind and refunded my ticket without being asked and brought me some water. (Regal Orlando Pointe Cinema, to credit a business for doing the right thing.)
So instead of Transformers snark (since I never want to see this again) you get:
Merlin snark!
Most of you probably saw this months ago, but it just arrived at NBC and I just got around to seeing it earlier this week. If you missed it, Merlin is a retelling of the Arthur legend, making various changes to the more familiar story. Merlin and Arthur are the same age; Morgana is the ward of Arthur's father, no actual relation (although I expect this will be changed later in some revelation or other); Guinevere is a maid called Gwen; magic is completely illegal and Merlin must practice it in secret. (In an inexplicable change from the first episode to the second, he originally can do magic in utter silence; in the second episode he must mutter Latin before anything can happen.)
Now, here's the thing: I have no problem (mostly) with violating legend, particularly a legend as flexible as the Arthur tales, as long as something cool results. The question, "What would have happened if Arthur and Merlin had been the same age?" aside from completely eliminating the whole creepy Igraine/Uther wearing someone else's face to sleep with her/lots of fog story, could have been extremely interesting. Or, if you want to keep that story, turning "Merlin" into a title only and having one Merlin help out Uther and a second, younger Merlin advising Arthur, has been fun too.
But so far, at least, the show hasn't done anything interesting with violating legends, which leads vaguely to a "what's the point?" feeling – specifically, what's the point of making Guinevere into a maid if you aren't going to do anything with that, and saying kindly supportive things to Merlin does not count as doing anything with that. She could be saying the same kindly supportive things if she, too, were a ward of the court. In fact, as a ward of the court, she could pretty much be doing the exact same thing that she is doing on the show – occasionally tossing dresses to Morgana, standing next to her at court, sitting next to her at tournaments and so on. So, what's the point?
The show is set in a very vague "medieval" time, meaning that the costumes and sets are, frankly, a mess, and include some lanterns that look as if they were imported directly from Pier One, and also includes some vaguely irritating anachronistic bits – tomatoes, 17th century stocks, and so on. The special effects, and by this, I mean the dragon, are dreadful, although the dragon's cave looks pretty cool. Although why the dragon would be at all interested in helping Merlin help the son of the guy who imprisoned him is, well, inexplicable, and why Merlin would think that he could get any straightforward answers from an irritated dragon is also...well, Merlin's not too bright.
The show has some potential for cheesy fun, and I've heard that it improves, but my hopes aren't high.
1. People sat in line (or in our cases, on benches.)
2. We went into the theatre.
3. The managers announced that for contractual reasons and Warner Bros not thinking things through, Harry Potter in Imax will be released two weeks after the release of the regular Harry Potter, an announcement that was greeted by a chorus of boos and cheers. (That was not an audience of Harry Potter fans.) They also announced that some people had arrived at 6:30 am for the film, which struck us as mildly insane.
4. The movie started. Robots blew things up. I left the theatre and spent some quality time lying on the floor waiting for the planet to stop shifting, which it did not actually do for a solid 48 hours. I will say that the theatre manager was very kind and refunded my ticket without being asked and brought me some water. (Regal Orlando Pointe Cinema, to credit a business for doing the right thing.)
So instead of Transformers snark (since I never want to see this again) you get:
Merlin snark!
Most of you probably saw this months ago, but it just arrived at NBC and I just got around to seeing it earlier this week. If you missed it, Merlin is a retelling of the Arthur legend, making various changes to the more familiar story. Merlin and Arthur are the same age; Morgana is the ward of Arthur's father, no actual relation (although I expect this will be changed later in some revelation or other); Guinevere is a maid called Gwen; magic is completely illegal and Merlin must practice it in secret. (In an inexplicable change from the first episode to the second, he originally can do magic in utter silence; in the second episode he must mutter Latin before anything can happen.)
Now, here's the thing: I have no problem (mostly) with violating legend, particularly a legend as flexible as the Arthur tales, as long as something cool results. The question, "What would have happened if Arthur and Merlin had been the same age?" aside from completely eliminating the whole creepy Igraine/Uther wearing someone else's face to sleep with her/lots of fog story, could have been extremely interesting. Or, if you want to keep that story, turning "Merlin" into a title only and having one Merlin help out Uther and a second, younger Merlin advising Arthur, has been fun too.
But so far, at least, the show hasn't done anything interesting with violating legends, which leads vaguely to a "what's the point?" feeling – specifically, what's the point of making Guinevere into a maid if you aren't going to do anything with that, and saying kindly supportive things to Merlin does not count as doing anything with that. She could be saying the same kindly supportive things if she, too, were a ward of the court. In fact, as a ward of the court, she could pretty much be doing the exact same thing that she is doing on the show – occasionally tossing dresses to Morgana, standing next to her at court, sitting next to her at tournaments and so on. So, what's the point?
The show is set in a very vague "medieval" time, meaning that the costumes and sets are, frankly, a mess, and include some lanterns that look as if they were imported directly from Pier One, and also includes some vaguely irritating anachronistic bits – tomatoes, 17th century stocks, and so on. The special effects, and by this, I mean the dragon, are dreadful, although the dragon's cave looks pretty cool. Although why the dragon would be at all interested in helping Merlin help the son of the guy who imprisoned him is, well, inexplicable, and why Merlin would think that he could get any straightforward answers from an irritated dragon is also...well, Merlin's not too bright.
The show has some potential for cheesy fun, and I've heard that it improves, but my hopes aren't high.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-26 07:44 pm (UTC)Maybe it'd be good if made fun of? I don't know.