May 12 - May 16
Instead of talking about this week's tepid release list, I feel compelled to instead take this opportunity to complain about the film The Mist which I watched last night. Yes, this week's release list is that bad. If you'd prefer to remain The Mist spoiler free, then give this a pass, because I'm going to talk about the abomination that is the film's ending. Now, I'm as forgiving as anyone about the necessity of making changes to a story to adapt it to the screen, and largely I can recognize that a film adaptation is in many ways a new telling of a familiar story. And through 97% of The Mist I was enthralled as writer/director Frank Darabont, whose work I mostly respect, caught the sharp tension of the novella and eventually was able to capably make the horror that erupts inside a Maine supermarket more terrifying than the tentacled creatures looming in the fog outside. I mean, it's a hard sell to convince a viewer that leaving safe haven and striking off into the uncertain and monster filled titular Mist is a good idea, but he pulled it off. I was amazed.
And, then the bastard completely botched the entire point of the story. Last chance to leave before spoilers! In King's novella our heroes strike off in their vehicle away from the terror of the supermarket, latching their hopes onto one word heard briefly over the radio "Hartford", and there we are left with their fates unresolved but hopeful. Darabont, instead decides to have the five refugees eventually run out of gas, whereupon in the throes of absolute hopelessness the protagonist uses the last four bullets in the gun to kill his companions including his own son. BUT THEN! Shock of shocks, twist of twists! Moments later, the fog lifts and the army comes along, and oh how our hero wails and gnashes his teeth. If only he had waited, oh let's say nineteen seconds, after running out of gas to plug his son whom he's protected vigorously against all odds for two days, they would have all been saved. Not only is this a cliche so predictable that it makes a sunrise look like an iffy proposition, but after two hours of taut suspense it completely torpedoes the entire story and is an absolute disservice to the careful pacing of the entire film. Abominable.
Oh, and the game of the week is some schlocky movie tie-in for Prince Caspian. Please don't take it as some endorsement of the game, but it's so pervasive this week that I feel like I must be under some kind of obligation to name it GotW.
This week's DVD releases aren't much better. Untraceable starring Diane Lane and some new Indiana Jones special editions. More here.
PC:
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
- Ford Racing Offroad
- Baseball Mogul 2009
PS2:
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
DS:
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
- Myst
- Drone Tactics
Xbox 360
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
PS3:
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Wii:
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
- Castle of Shikigami III
- Deca Sports
- We Ski
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Get Lost Winds off WiiWare instead
I agree on the Mist front.
Why didn't the army guys go "hey, who's firing a gun? I assume they need assistance and will go help them!"
I mean, its very implausible. Also, the Mist makes me scared of religion. Even mine.
*Legion* wrote:
Taut.
I say it with love, fellow English major.
edit: And I feel EXACTLY the same way about The Mist.
Your silence will not save you.
-Audre Lorde
Again, I feel compelled to ask. Game distributors do realize I get paid throughout the year and not just in the months of October through December, right?
At this point, I'm starting to run out of old games to try.
Unfettered Blather - Daily updated nonsense
X-Box Live Gamertag - CrazedJava
Less chatter more splatter!
Damn homophones!
- Elysium
The ending was an absolute blast. I loved it completely.
As for that, if I remember correctly, a tank was taking point, so with the rumbling engine and the masks every soldier was using, I believe it was quite hard to hear any gunshots inside a closed van.
But what I loved the most was it's ugliness. It gave me such a jolt. Such a hard decision. And for what?
Universe is chaos. There is no pre-determined result. Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you don't, instead you are driven into absolute and utter despair, give up hope, and shoot your kid in the head.
Hey, that's great, but if we're going to go all out nihilism then you gotta build the character that way. I'm not against the concept, but it was such a total out-of-character response just for some stupid silly jolt? That's just lazy storytelling.
- Elysium
There's already a whole thread on Mist and roughly 3/4 of it is discussing the ending.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
Bully pulpit FTW!
- Elysium
I know, The Mist was great. I loved the novella, but that ending to the movie was completely LAME. Why don't they just drive off into the mist, like the book? Big disappointment there.
I didn't think it was out of character at all. The raid on the pharmacy sure caused some deep impact in all who participated. The escape through the parking lot. And seeing his wife caught up in the webs also misplaced something inside him, imho. He was always valliant and courageous, but he also stood up for a respectable, proper way of dying. Serving as a cocoon for some extraplanar creatures doesn't strike me as particularly respectable. He was brave to the point of giving everybody but him some sort of "decent departure". If anything, he was too brave, for he didn't fear killing those he liked/loved in order to spare them some twisted and out-of-this-world fate.
But I haven't read the book yet, so my perspective on the main character might be a bit different.
At the risk of being argumentative, those are all inferences you make (and, if it works for you, that's great!) but none of it is supported by the storytelling or the film. You're left at the end having to try and make excuses for what was never actually set up in the narrative. There is no foundation for the ending in the actual movie.
- Elysium
I think the problem with the ending is that it's so abrupt. If they had a few scenes before, maybe 5 or 6, with fades in between and every time we see them they're a little more ragged and the Land Rover a little more beat up. Then once they run out of gas and maybe the creatures are closing in around the SUV that he makes the decision to shoot everyone.
As the ending stands they just seem so bored with the process of continuing instead of in genuine danger or even slightly scared. Good movie, bad ending.
Ahm... Well, in movies I tend to make inferences, since it's harder in film than in books to transmit the psychological state of the characters, their intentions and their moral compasses.
Some movies manage to do that more explicitly, but they tend to get a bit surreal.
That's why not knowing the novella beforehand allowed me to make inferences without being biased from what I already knew.
Heck!, how do you manage to "get" a David Lynch movie without inferences? Lo and behold! For they are our lifeboat sir!
Not going there about the movie - I got roped into seeing Speed Racer. Judging by what you're saying, I may have actually had the better of the deal.
As far as the game, I hope it doesn't heave chunks as badly as the one that came out with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. That thing sucked so badly it unbalanced the air conditioning. I don't think my Xbox or my computer ever forgave me for making them run it.
Duoae wrote:
Wait! There are people who "get" Lynch? You have blown my mind, sir.
- Elysium
Heheh! Well, that's what I like so much about him. You "get" what you can apply of you to it.
I get Lynch. I totally understand he's !@#$ crazy.
Unfortunately, if I slash my wrist with my lightsaber it cauterizes instantly. - PurEvil on emo Star Wars plots.
Myst, dude. Myst. You passed over Myst for a movie game.
Turn in your gamer badge and your Nintendo zapper at the door.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
BF2142 Stats
I'm still considering making a less crappy ending for The Mist on Youtube when my anger about the ending subsides enough to make me give a frak about the film again.
I'll agree that the ending could have been edited better, but I still think that it was a good ending (King likes it better than the one he wrote). The director did a poor job of showing that they all thought that the sounds being made by the military were being made by more creatures. The father didn't want the last thing his son sees to be the monsters coming to kill him, so he did it as peacefully as he could. As I said in the other thread, I'd like to think that I would have waited to actually see a creature before doing what he did, but I can understand why he made the decision he did.
Duoae wrote:
Stengah's Steam ID
ICO: Stengah
I don't understand how Stephen King allows his work to be shat upon over and over in cinema form. I think you can count the good adaptations of his works on one hand. Not counting the running man, no matter how you feel about that movie they went way wide on that one.
Everyone I know who had read the book, hated the ending of the movie. And everyone who hadnt read it, found it great if really uncomfortable. I havent read it and thought it was completely in character and believable. I mean - you are left in a world full of hostile alien life forms, slightest sting of which would make your kid bloat and die an agonizing death. And there is no proof, none at all, that there is an end to the mist and you`re out of gas in the middle of nowhere. Although I`d sure appreciate if I had never had to make choice like that, it`s possible I`d do the same given the circumstances.
Also, I`ll never watch the movie again just because I wouldnt be able to watch that ending again.
I`m Artsy Partsy Gun For Hire
Teeheehee!
Seriously?
King is a more prolific hack than Clancy and Grisham put together. He's making a buttload of money and I have to giggle(at the very least) any time I see anyone suggesting he's much more than a prolific writer with an amazing agent. (Note: I do like reading King, but that doesn't make it Literature with a big L. I do like reading it, though.)
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
To be fair, there are a number of good adaptations out there. Of course, the Lawnmower Man itself negates the greatness of all the others, though I'm not sure I would want to see a movie based on the actual Lawnmower Man short story...
Off the top of my head, I really enjoyed the following Stephen King movies:
-Stand By Me
-The Stand
-The Shining
-Children of the Corn
-Carrie
-Christine
-Pet Sematary
-Needful Things
-Misery
-The Shawshank Redemption
-The Green Mile
-1408
-The Mist
I'm sure I'm forgetting some... and there are others, like Firestarter, that I loved as a kid but didn't stand up to the test of time.
-- My Biking Team --
I'm surprised any studio exec thought that kind of an ending would sell a lot of tickets. Dudes killing their own children? Not the ending most people are looking for. I've seen some sad endings that worked, but that's just vicious. If I want to find out the world is a cruel place, all I've got to do is watch the news. No movie needed.
Yea, we are just not going to agree on this. I'll let posterity take care of this one. He has some good and some bad but his short stories are excellent.
The catalyst for me to take an IT opportunity was when a family was brought into the jail I was working at. They had packed into the car near the Mexican border loaded to the gills with booze and started drinking. They finally crashed when they got to Austin. An infant in the car was not restrained properly even though they were in the car seat. The mother and child were both thrown from the car. When police arrived on the scene they found the mother trying to hide the infant's body in the bushes. The news didn't bother to report that one of the beer bottles had been lodged in the infant's skull.
I know horrible things happen to children, and the implication is often there in horror movies. I really don't need to be shown it. I know it's probably happening. I know there are children in the town the mist is surrounding and I know horrible things must have happened to them. I don't need to see it on the screen.
What Ely is describing is pure shock value, a jolt to the audience. It's something so tired and overused that I'm sure it was seen a mile away.
Overall, I agree, I don't need to see it. I've seen and experienced enough horror in the real world. There are some things I don't need to be reminded of.
Unfettered Blather - Daily updated nonsense
X-Box Live Gamertag - CrazedJava
Less chatter more splatter!
Um, back on the GoTW topic?
I think you should have put the WiiWare releases somewhere on that list. Don't know if I'm picking any of them up, but they're fairly significant in the 'What happened this week' scheme of things.
We seem to have a compulsion to bury time capsules..... I have placed some large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like.
-- Alfred Hitchcock