movies on the road

[calimac]

I had some awkwardly-timed downtime during my trip; I had some new movies I wanted to see; so I went.

The Martian. Which I saw mostly because I couldn't maintain my credentials as an SF fan without it. But it was pretty good as a movie, particularly in telling a story that basically consists of two years of waiting without being tedious about it. But I had some grumbles: 3) After a while it tends to drop interest in the stranded astronaut in favor of the events back in NASA. 2) The astronauts are way too snarky with each other. 1) I've seen this movie described as "competence porn" and it is. Repeated sequence: Character proposes something daring and audacious; authority emphatically forbids it because it's too dangerous and risky; character goes ahead and does it anyway; it works like a charm, even when that strains credulity. The only time a plan doesn't work, it's not because it's risky but because they cut corners to save time.

Steve Jobs. I think this is a movie for people who worship Apple products, who need to have the cult of Jobs taken down a peg. I don't like Apple products, so I'm not really the audience. The structure built on the pre-game shows for three product launches over 15 years is ingenious, but requires packing in too much backstory that doesn't fit. The same half-dozen people show up each time and say the same things, like ghosts haunting Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Jobs in this movie rather resembles. And if it's hard on Jobs, it's even worse on Woz, who is presented as an obsessive moron. (In the previous Jobs movie dramatization, Woz was Jobs's conscience, like Jiminy Cricket.) The one who comes off unexpectedly well is Sculley, possibly because the real guy talked to the screenwriter after having kept silent for over 20 years.

What I enjoyed seeing in this movie was the settings: three halls, all played by their real-life equivalents, each of which I've attended dozens, at least, of concerts in. It was amusing to see them on the big screen. Judging from the buildings surrounding it, the San Francisco parking garage featured near the end must be at least half a mile from Davies Symphony Hall, but artistic license.

Bridge of Birds, no, Sighs, no, Spies, that was it: Bridge of Spies. Nowhere near as good as the trailer had made me hope. Rather tedious, despite the action-packed plot. I think the director had trouble figuring out where the focus of the story was. And Tom Hanks dialed down the gravitas of his character way too far.

Comments

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Good reviews. I enjoyed The Martian too, but I can relate to complaint #2. I thought the sarcastic sense of humor was a little over-done. And I like sarcasm! I can also relate to complaint #1, although it didn't really bother me while I was watching the movie. It's a movie that celebrates a can-do, problem-solving attitude, and I don't have any problem with that, even though I think it makes the movie more of a thought experiment or demonstration than a normal story. I actually preferred that aspect of it to the more "spiritual" approach of Gravity, where the character is redeemed by her struggle to survive.

I have pretty much no interest in Steve Jobs, man or movie.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like a can-do, problem-solving attitude. But for the difference between that and competence porn, see the difference between Apollo 13 and The Martian. Apollo 13 had expostulations on the difficulty of what they were doing, but no orders not to do things because they were too risky or impossible. And when they did things, there was a tired, frazzled, slapdash approach unlike the cool insouciance of The Martian. Particularly compare the LM course correction burn in Apollo 13 with the "dig a hole in my spacesuit glove" jet in The Martian, which shouldn't have worked, for the reasons the commander gave in ordering him not to do it.

The course correction burn also helped avoid complaint #3, by giving the astronauts something new to do in the slack period late in the movie. But come to think of it, the astronaut in The Martian had new things to do at that point too, like set off on his long journey to the other ship's landing point, but the movie was much less interested in showing him doing it.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that hole in the spacesuit glove was a bit of a stretch. I think I've read it's not in the book.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

My interest in Steve Jobs is almost entirely a function of his having come from my neighborhood and doing all his work in this area. It's a local history story that got big.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

I read The Martian and based on your review, the movie is faithful to the book. Same issues. Still pretty good.