The Dotted Logline

Just got back from seeing Revenge of the Sith.

I think I might have outgrown Star Wars. This makes me very sad.

I just didn’t feel it. Maybe I was expecting too much. Maybe I knew too much. But I didn’t really know more than the average Star Wars fan, and probably a good bit less than the average fanatic. But overall it felt like a routine rearranging of chess pieces until they are at their positions for the start of the game (aka A New Hope.) I had trouble buying just how fast Anakin fell from grace. The lightsaber fights weren’t even that exciting because, more often than not, the outcome was already established. For me, it was just a movie just going through the motions. With really, really bad dialogue.

Is this what it means to be a screenwriter? That I’m unable to enjoy the summer blockbusters I was raised on? Even though that’s the sort of thing I’ve been trying to write, for the most part? Granted, I never thought the Star Wars movies were exceptionally GOOD, but I LIKED them.

Ah well, maybe I’ll like it more the second time around.

I was able to catch the full run of Clone Wars tonight on Cartoon Network. I think Star Wars was meant to be animated. The Jedi powers just look more impressive when taken out of a live-action setting. Even when the effects are done in flawless CG, violating the physics still looks just a bit silly.

But what really impressed me was General Grievous. Imagine a creepy badass horror movie monster stalking terrified helpless kids and slaughtering them one by one. Now take out the terrified helpless kids and replace them with Jedi.

I can’t wait to see Episode III now.

Hulk was an awful, awful, painfully bad movie. Not even fun bad, just bad bad. And I can’t even blame script or the Hulk Poodle. The transitions were just evil and jarring and totally unnecessary.

The Hulk Poodle was almost funny.

At the local grocery store, there is a massive Star Wars/Lays Chips display that plays tracks from the movies. I should be disgusted at the commercialism, but John Williams just makes grocery shopping so much more… epic.

I finally saw Sideways tonight, and was reminded just how much I enjoy stories about writers, even writers who are failures in their own eyes, and (judging by the semi drunken description of his novel) not necessarily good.

There was one scene that really struck me, when Miles and Maya were talking in the back of Stephanie’s place. The way the camera framed Maya as she talked about wine, slightly off center, perfectly still, somehow perfectly captures the feeling of talking to the person you have a crush on at the tail end of a party and being completely focused on whatever they happen to be talking about because you have a crush on them. That’s something I remember from my college days… I can relate to that almost as much as the writer thing.

One thing I forgot to mention that struck me while watching Sin City was a certain bit of product placement. There were two character in the large cast who wore Converse Chuck Taylor high tops, one good and one evil. I was a bit surprised a shoe company would be willing to be associated with a homicidal cannibal like Kevin, but there were three factors that made this bit of product placement make sense.

1) There was an emphasis on how fast and silent Kevin moved. Obviously this was because of his excellent footwear.

2) At one point, Kevin gets his legs chopped off. He misused the power of Converse and thus had them taken away by force.

3) Dwight, the Converse-wearing hero, had a red pair, one of the few colored elements in the film. Thus, they stood out much more than the black pair worn by Kevin.

I probably only noticed this because I got a pair myself recently and read up on the history of Converse, but it is interesting in any case (at least to me, but I’ve always been fascinated by this sort of thing.)

My dad took me to see Sin City as a belated birthday gift. It isn’t really a good father-daughter bonding movie. I’m not exceptionally squeamish but I’m not a big fan of extreme violence either. And it is very uncomfortable watching Bruce Willis rip the balls off another guy with his bare hands, even if the other guy REALLY deserves it.

Other than that, I was really impressed with the style of the film. I haven’t read any of the graphic novels, but I have had a reasonable sampling of Frank Miller’s work and the movie really had the feel. I’d be really interested to see what the director could do with The Dark Knight Returns.

I’ve said before that adaptation is a real art. To make a story work sucessfully in another medium is one of the hardest things I’ve encountered to date. Especially adapting your own work. That said, I have so far made some good progress on the film treatment for Goodbye Dolly. Still not sure how the second and third acts are going to work (or where the first ends) but I do feel I’ve gotten a very good grasp on the movie versions of most of the characters.

But I do have to say that Monsters Inc was NEVER NEVER NEVER meant to be a Disney on Ice show. My mom won tickets, and while the costumes were interesting, it just didn’t work. I’m surprised no one was killed skating in those things.

I’m not quite sure why The Terminal wasn’t a big hit. A-list director and leads, a story that was heart-warming but not really sappy, fairly formula but not overly. And frankly, I find being stuck in an airport lounge more interesting than being stuck on an island a la Cast Away (but maybe just because I always wondered how people would survive having to live in a department store/mall)

I do have to say that The Terminal probably beats out my screenplay for Most Entertaining Janitor. Though hopefully I still hold the record for Most Entertaining Crazy Female Janitor.

Caught the Scooby Doo movie on Nickelodeon. Aside from being very well cast, the true identity of the villain was brilliant. I love a property that isn’t afraid to make fun of its weaker moments.

During my daily perusal of Done Deal, I found out that Joss Whedon is slated to write and direct a new Wonder Woman movie. Now THAT should be really interesting. Curious as to who will be cast as Wonder Woman, seeing as how Linda Carter is still such an icon in that role. Totally random first thought for me: Victoria Pratt with a dye job.

Read an interesting profile in the latest New Yorker about the president of the William Morris Agency. Apparently, not everyone was pleased with the story, though.