Fury Road

The latest Mad Max movie is fantastic. Great acting. Great practical effects. Great music. Literal non-stop action. Cool camera and filming techniques. And also not the misogynistic type that most action movies tend to be. It was actually pretty much not a Mad Max film and more of a Furiousa film. Charlize Theron is fantastic.

I wanted to see it anyway, but I wanted to see it way more after reading that some "men's rights advocates" were upset about it. It lived up to their fears and was amazing. There is nothing romantic between the lead characters. There is only give and take equally. Furiousa is strong more than just physically. And Max recognizes this without even having it test it. And the Vuvalini. I don't think I've ever seen badass older women in a movie before.

It still retains the trademark of Mad Max films. It's odd. It doesn't have a whole lot of dialogue and what it does have often doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There's a lot of death and disease and general bleakness. Characters, places and events aren't really explained fully or fleshed out. This leaves a lot to the imagination which is occasionally frustrating, but mostly makes it a bit more realistic.

There is really nothing about the movie I don't love. I need to see it again in 3D.

Trailrun Tuesday (again, finally!)

I had a really nice run today. It was rough for many reasons though. One is that I'm not in shape, so like several before it, it was half hike half run. Another was that it was wet and muddy in a lot of places and that caused some complications. Also it was very humid today. Ew. This was the longest "run" I've ever done and I really started to peter out after mile 8 or so of the 10.

The good news was that it was beautiful, even if the day was cloudy and smoggy. Also, I ran/hiked 10 miles in two and a half hours. Not so bad at all.

I went to someplace new today, Green Mountain aka William F. Hayden Park. I don't know why I've never been, it's actually closer than the ones I generally go to. It's also huge, with many interconnecting trails. There weren't many  people for about 3/4ths of the run. Toward the end, I came upon more trail heads and quite a few people. But there was plenty of room to spread out.

see what I mean about the water on the trail?

You might- might- be able to make out Denver's skyline under the smog.

bumble be doin' his thing. 

pretty, no?

There's a prairie dog yelling at me in this one.

beautiful single track for miles.

this one was result/solution to the muddy trails. It was nice to train barefoot.

of course.

Avengers (Spoilers maybe)

I watched Age of Ultron today. I liked it well enough. Interestingly, I don’t actually like superhero movies all that much and I generally wait until they are on DVD. However, I do watch Agents of SHIELD, so I needed to see the film to tie it all together. Also Joss Whedon is a sort of hero.

Anyhow, I liked the film well enough. It was a fun surprise to see Andy Serkis and Paul Bettany. I really dislike Tony Stark. I really love Natasha Romanov. I also like Clint, but I really dislike the actor, so it’s sort of hard to reconcile that. I really enjoyed his little family twist.

The film and Whedon have been getting some criticism (rightly so) for Stark’s primae noctis line. My theory on that is that it isn’t so much just a cheap rape joke put into the script for fun. It’s Stark. His character is real. I mean, it’s horrible of course, but it’s his character. And it’s also something that comes up in real life. What was upsetting perhaps more than the joke itself, was that no one called him out on it.

That’s what Joss Whedon’s strength is: making real people. These characters aren’t just archetypes, they are more real than any of the other superheroes I’ve seen, including the other Marvel ones with the same characters. They all have weaknesses. And they all have strengths other than the obvious. I think the main reason I love Natasha is that she doesn’t have super powers. She’s just bad ass. And that’s why I like SHIELD as well. Real people. Humanity. And Joss does that so well.

So yeah, no real spoilers I guess, just my thoughts. Now I can go back to watching SHIELD and wishing for a Black Widow movie.

Lucy

I’ve had “Lucy” on my list of movies to watch for some time now. It didn’t do so well with ratings and all, so I decided it was a drinking movie: one I wouldn’t have to pay too much attention to.

I actually liked it. It was strange to be sure. The premise was unreasonable (we actually don’t use only 10% of our brains. We just don’t use it all at once). ScarJo was great of course. As was Morgan Freeman. I really enjoyed the style. Flashing back and all, delving into human evolution. (Seeing the writing/direction credit - Luc Besson - explained it all.)

I do feel that it lacked real impact, though. But the potential was there. She mentions that she feels less human as the human emotions melt away.

I think that that bit should have been the focus. Because- as I’ve stated before- humanity is the real subject of sci/fi. So if I were writing the film, I’d say she learns everything she can. Everything there is. She unlocks it all, but ultimately chooses to remain human, understanding that knowledge and power aren’t the goals of life. It’s the raw, experienced, emotions that make us who we are.