July 5, 2005
Faces, Links, WotW
The picture on the right is part of an exhibit Mooney Faces, based on the work of psychologist Craig Mooney. It's part of a larger gallery produced from Princeton University's "Art of Science" competition. There's some pretty interesting stuff there.
***
A supervillan called Mensa? Cross-country croquet? Photo-comics? These seem to be all good things. Also, copier monkeys!
In other random linkage, I'm not sure why this simulation of ragdoll physics is so morbidly compelling.
Oh yeah, and the Kong trailer is out, so we're already getting analyses of Kong's expressions.
***
Saw War of the Worlds, which overall I liked - especially, as others have said, Dakota Fanning's performance. Very mild spoilers below.
Things that other people have complained about, like the camcorder that worked after all electrical devices failed, didn't bother me - I figured it was simply a effective filmic conceit. And I was happy to say that explanations that didn't make any sense (like the machines being already buried) were the result of the people speaking not knowing what they're talking about. ;) And having aliens be advanced in materials science and energy manipulation, but not that great at biology, did not bother me either - after all, we can create viruses from scratch from mail-order chemicals, but have no flying cars. ;) And I thought that the looting of the airplane food was excellent. :)
However... something felt wrong, and I'm not sure what it was. I mean, I don't think it was the fact that Tim Robbins got a laugh when he first appeared - I initially thought it would have been better if he'd been a less recognisable "face", but I thought the creepiness of his interaction with Fanning's character was really well done. I think that it might have something to do with the same thing that led the top review on IMDB to call it "a cross between Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow" - it's essentially a Disaster Movie, but it keeps wanting to be an Action Movie. Compare the ferry scene to the grenade scene, for example - I felt much more affected by the first than the second.
Anyway - good movie, and the effects were pretty stunning. I'd certainly pick it over Revenge of the Sith for the Effects Oscar, and it's set a good standard to aim for.
***
I'll be putting up my festival programme soon - no Nine Songs, but a fair few documentaries.
Posted by svend at July 5, 2005 1:52 AM