Random thoughts on stories that could have been better:
The Office (USofA-style/post-BBC): Huge kudos to
Steve Carrell for the writing in the final episode this year. Continued strong characters & solid dialog. Excellent fake-out making us think the cool guy was going to hook up with the spurned woman, and instead actually kisses his engaged love. Conflict! Wonderful to see someone writing non-stereotypical plotlines on American TV. I suppose NBC deserves a kudo too for supporting his seeming belief that viewers aren't as dumb as other shows indicate.
X-Men 3: Where to start? This movie gets worse the more I think about it. Total summer popcorn-movie ... but not in the semi-acceptable Independence Day sort of way. Various issues in it:
- weak CGI quality: from the shattering of the protective sunglasses to the dull finale.
- unacceptable continuity flaws: trivial, but clear example -- the headlight-lit cars on the Golden Gate bridge at the finale weren't "on" during the daylight scene when the bridge was moved, and the people fled their cars before nightfall.
- weak finale: huge story build-up about Famke's new power, perhaps for a fight between Wolverine and Famke, but ... major fizzle, both visually & emotionally.
- Ian McCullen: his "What have I done" line is almost laughable, but sadly, it isn't actually. Doesn't he have enough clout yet to say "no" to bad lines? While that reaction might have had a place in this movie ... it needed to occur after we've seen significant effect from Famke's long-delayed rage.
- I can't help but wonder if Brian Singer coulda done a better job with the same script. Having left X3 for the new Superman, it'll be interesting to see if the new Superman is better. Side-note: I'm more intriged than I expected to be after seeing the previews; the actor looks so much like Christopher Reeve, it almost seems like an homage.
Constantine: Better than I expected, which isn't saying all that much. Solid characters (Constantine and Rachel Wiesz's), good acting by Rachel (hubba), as usual, and decent acting by Keanu, given the limited requirements of the role. However an hour into the movie, there's no real goal to make us care about a resolution, and the conflict is episodic. Throw in plot holes and logic flaws (like killing someone one way, but not the hero), and it could have been much better. But ... if you enjoyed the style of
Sin City and wish Mickey Rourke's part was bigger, you may enjoy watching Keanu in another devil movie.
I heart Huckabees: Better than I'd heard, but so esoteric that it left me wishing the story had been written by Charlie Kaufman because then it would have had
some continuity.
Sopranos: Hurt by the power of Broadway? Edie Falco must have negotiated a helluva contract for the presumed final year of the Sopranos. I think she's talented, but I'm doubtful that people watch Sopranos for her character to explore emotions that aren't related to Tony Soprano.
First there was her boring-yet-dramatic-attempt-at-an-Emmy episode when Tony was in the hospital, and then the recent episode where she's given half of the show to visit Paris. It's horribly boring and does little to advance any character-arcs or storylines.
(Is it a last-hurrah so the crew can go to Paris on the company dime?) Plus, consider her final shot in that episode where she's doing laundry ... I'm open to the possible symbolism of her having returned from Europe to life as a wife, but I swear she must have negotiated for near-equal screen-minutes to whatever James Gandolfini gets, no matter how it happens. Or, is HBO so very concerned about the end of Sex And The City and the loss of female viewers? Or, is this a talented actor exerting power on a show ... to the show's detriment?
Did somebody say "random"? Oh yeah, me.
Did you know that duck quacks don't echo?
