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[personal profile] toosuto
While the new jobs are great they aren't so bad either. My work studies in the morning are mostly competent (some are lacking a little training but that's not their fault) and pretty funny. It'll be nice to get them on their feet and actually doing stuff in the office because the woman before couldn't be bothered to train or trust them. The afternoons are relaxing (even if I'd really like to browse the interwebs) I'm getting a fair amount of reading done and I found the needed third person to play D&D eventually.

Saw Clolverfield twice this weekend (once with Sara and then on Sunday with friend Mike). For the record, if you missed the creature splashing into the ocean in the last shot you didn't miss much, it's just one of those things where it is kind of cool to know it's there, I was looking for it and found it barely noticeable. I'd like to see a second film made (one without all the first person film making) as I am now curious to what came after? Did the creature win mostly? Did it go on to graze across North America? On the other hand perhaps J.J. Abrams is best at creating mystery and we should let it go at that (Lost is awful). I was happy that the second time around I jumped just as much and spent the movie nearly as tense as I spent the first.

What I don't get is the 9/11 garbage that seems to have been appended to the analysis of the film. I just don't get it. I can see where there a few things that have entered the public consciousness as scary things (buildings falling down etc.) but I don't see how having a giant space creature causing the collapse of a building automatically makes any sort of 9/11 statement. I haven't looked to hard because mostly I don't want to find that any "post 9/11..." statements were actually uttered by anyone attached to it.

I'm mailing off bought prints this week (yay! someone who is not my family wants some art of mine) and MS project is going pretty smoothly. Even better I don't even feel like I am shouting fire in a crowded theater. That's mostly because I think safety messages should be "Don't be stupid" rather than "If you make one mistake on the interwebs someone will steal your identity, drain your bank accounts, stalk you and kidnap your children." I mean really people, let's all just be cool ok?

Oh also: the first episode of Torchwood series two had it's moments but the show is still feeling a little uneven to me like it can't decide what it wants to be. Hopefully there will be a stronger over all series arc this time. Although we're not likely to stop watching anytime soon though...

Date: 21 Jan 2008 20:05 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] k8cre8.livejournal.com
The 9/11 stuff comes from a couple of places. The biggest thing is the SPOILER [dust cloud that washes over the group as they take shelter in the pharmacy.] This is very like some footage that was taken by someone on 9/11 at the time one of the towers fell, I remember seeing it... somewhere, and it's almost like they used *that* footage in the movie (which they didn't, but, it's that similar). Next, it's a movie of destruction in NY, esp. that SPOILER [Beth's building has sorta fallen and is leaning on the second. (i.e. twin towers)

And, it does remind me of some of the survivor stories I've read, most notably, this one, which is probably the one that really describes the situation from the perspective of someone that was in the crowd, as it were.

Anyway.

Date: 21 Jan 2008 23:52 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] toosuto.livejournal.com
I see how anyone could make the argument but I also think it's all coincidental more than anything. I didn't find anything truly parallel to 9/11 in anyway except some buildings fell down, which seems a pretty weak argument. It all feels a lot like saying Shrooms is a commentary on the War on Drugs because the plot involves illegal narcotics. Sure there is stuff that is in the public consciousness but that's something we're bringing to the table as an audience, or at least some people are, I certainly didn't...

Date: 22 Jan 2008 16:58 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] k8cre8.livejournal.com
I'll agree with most of that, but, I'd say the drug store scene is not coincidental. However, even being deliberate, I'm still not quite sure why they did it, since the movie isn't really a commentary or parallel to anything. I think it's something of a picture of what people might do in a "monstrous" situation, over which they have no control. The first things many people think about in such situations is things left undone, and the safety of the people they care about, even if it's antithetical to their own survival. Inasmuch as 9/11 was something like that, and, also in NY, well, people will make comparisions.

Date: 22 Jan 2008 02:26 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thedragonweaver.livejournal.com
Unfortunately, 9/11 is the easiest comparison for any people to make, expecially people who were directly traumatized by the event. I say "unfortunately" because really, there's only so many ways a building can be destroyed, and most of them will have bits reminiscent of 9/11.

Tad Williams actually had an apology in the front of his novel "War of the Flowers" in which he mentions that a particular scene had to be rewritten after 2001, but he couldn't make it too different because it was a pivotal moment. He doesn't want anyone to be upset with 9/11 comparisons, and yet... somebody picks up that book in ten or twenty years and they'll wonder what the heck he is on about. It's like having to apologize for an assassination scene in a novel or movie because people from Dallas might get upset.

The only connection that I might see is that 9/11 gave filmmakers a very clear idea of what actually happens when a ginormous building collapses. Look at New York disaster movies prior to 2001 and you'll see what I mean.

Date: 22 Jan 2008 07:54 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] octantis.livejournal.com
Saw it and liked it too... it's not King Lear, and I mostly hated the characters, but it was entertaining. I'd also like something that went a little more in-depth into the monster. I know why they can't do it in this movie, but I was curious. Like what whether the bite caused some kind of parasite, or something like fast onset ebola or what.

The 9-11 comparisons are weird. Godzilla knocks down buildings. This thing knocks down buildings. We're getting too sensitive with our sacred cows here.

Date: 30 Jan 2008 00:45 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] toosuto.livejournal.com
Hey, you should forward me contact info (or put it in a screened comment here or whatever) so I can call ou the next time Carroll, Stephanie and I make a plan to go get beers...

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