One More More Thing

And Skinner is in it! Man, I thought he was toast in the series finales-he just walk right out that door and Mytharc thug would shoot him or Alex Krycek would come back from the dead and strangle him...it did my heart good to see the bald guy in there and still with the FBI! Yay Skinner!

Okay, that's all, until it isn't.

One More Thing About That Movie

My first reaction to this movie was, oh my God it's so good! So I loved it, really.

The Movie I've Been Waiting For...

Is the new X-Files movie perfect? No. Is it the one I wanted to see? Yes. I would have liked better, maybe, a movie that dealt with the conspiracy and how Mulder and Scully are going to fight the colonization that's supposed to take place and instead got a two-hour monster of the week episode, but I still liked it. This was a movie made for the fans. You could watch it if you knew the show and you'd still like it and get it but if you knew the show, you'd get so much more from it. They chase after a scary monster, they argue about their relationship and they catch the monster. Bad things happen along the way, Scully looks like she might leave but she never does and (if you stayed through the credits) you saw that they got a happy ending, one of very few happy endings in the history of this show. And along the way we learned that they are actually living together (Mulder and Scully shown in bed together snuggling! That would NEVER have happened on the show), Scully actually says she has fallen in love with him! That would never have been said aloud on the show, even everyone in the room knew it. Okay, everyone in MY room knew it-I had more than a few arguments about this during the show's heyday and am proud to say that I have clearly won. Yes, it's a little late but I don't care.
Do you care about the creepy monster/serial killer? Or the pedophile priest who prays for deliverance?The performances by all concerned were good but the main thing is that it should be illegal to look as cute as Gillian does in bright blue scrubs. And David looked awful until they took that fake beard (only marginally better that the one on Matthew Fox in Lost), then he looked good.

That's all. I may have to see it again though...

The Dark Knight

This was a great movie-dark and disturbing. And yes, Heath Ledger was amazing. Rarely have I seen something that disturbing on film-I read a quote in which the critic said that the Joker as played by Ledger in this film was small, as if he had been reduced to just hate and chaos and I thought that was extremely accurate.
So yes, I liked it, despite the fact that it was 2 1/2 hours long.

But that's not the big news. The big news is that the X-Files movie opened today.
My friends, I have been waiting years for this movie. After all the years of teasing and the "yes, we're making it. No, we're not making it because we're suing each other and David and Gillian hate each other", I Want To Believe opened today. I know it did, because I read the kind of crappy reviews and I don't care. I bought my ticket and am seeing it on Saturday afternoon and I can't wait. And a funny thing happened on Gawker today, when we were asked to talk about our favorite episodes. Not only did I chime in several times, but I actually went into an old-school rant that would not have been out of place 10 years ago. I can't tell you how strange it was to write out that rant and realize that I had written something very much like it all those years ago. It felt both good and irritating, as i thought I had moved past all of that but I guess old irritations die hard.
So, I'll report later on how I felt but the excitement is building. Yes, of course I bought my ticket already. What's wrong with you?

Hellboy II But First An Issue

I want to talk about Hellboy II but first I'm going to discuss labeling, because for some reason I've been thinking about it lately and have two discussions about it in the two days-which is odd.
First up: Mommy Bloggers. This is a term that my friend D said was being used to describe Moms with kids who have blogs (the Moms have blogs, not the kids). This term falls into the same category as Soccer Moms, Career Girls and Cougars. These are all fairly shallow labels used to describe a group and it certainly doesn't allow for individuality. It terms each woman into a thing, a label without viewing her as a person. And here's the thing-when was the last time you heard a group of men referred to in this way? There seems to be a plethora of stay-at-home Dads, but there's no snappy two-word phrase to describe them. I have heard the term "confirmed bachelor" for a man who has never married, although I always thought that was a code term for gay. And "cougar"? Is that just a code for older woman who likes sex? What is that? Older men who like sex get no phrase because society views it as a normal state of affairs but an older woman-oooooh. And this bothers me because I AM an older woman, even though I don't feel like it. So please don't slap a label on anyone-we are all individuals. It sounds like a no-brainer, but it's much easier to use a label rather than dealing with each person on an individual basis-and a label keeps you from seeing the person as a person. Many people want that separation but it hurts us as a whole, I think.

There are individuals and there are individuals and then there's Hellboy. Hellboy, the demon spawn who may bring around the end of the world as we know it but is fighting for the good guys in the meantime. Bright red, with the remnants of his horns on his forehead and a right hand of doom that can pound though brick walls, no one would ever label him. The thing is, the last movie really showcased Hellboy as a character. He was funny, sarcastic, intelligent. He was like an old-time noir detective who was also red and fire-proof.
So where's that character? This movie has has advanced Hellboy and Liz Sherman's relationship but at the sacrifice of their characters. These two could now be interchangeable with any other reasonably intelligent couple on the big screen. That's not saying much as there are not many reasonably intelligent couples in the movies these days, but these two used to be special. They were funny and witty. Now Hellboy is singing a Barry Manilow song with Abe Sapien. this movie looks amazing. The monsters, elves and trolls are very cool and you can see where every cent of the budget went, but I feel like Del Toro (and I love him) decided that he would spend all of money on the cool monsters and not care so much about the characters. What happened to the people of Pan's Labyrinth? Each role in that movie was a real person, a sharply delineated part, whereas the parts could almost be interchangeable.
So I was disappointed. The actors made the most of what they had and all the performances were good (and thank God for Jeffrey Tambor and Seth Macfarlane, who voices Johan Krauss) but it would have been nice to have a little of the old swagger and humor in there. The Barry Manilow wasn't enough to make up for the lack of it.

My Trip Home

My trip home to MI was actually very good. Everyone got along (no real fights and in my family this is akin to a small miracle) and there was a lot of shopping. But there was one day...so my friend M had driven back to MI with his dog-they stopped while we were shopping at DSW and we (my Mom, sister and I) had a nice visit. He was headed up north, so I didn't think I'd see him again. And my fried D was in town for a family funeral and she was headed up north for week. I hadn't heard from her but knew it was difficult so I thought if I heard from her it would be good but otherwise we would just talk later.
Friday night M called and said he would be at my parents house in 90 minutes and could he spend the night? My Mom loves M (and D as well) so of course it was okay-she even made him his favorite dinner. He arrived at 11:30PM and we went to sleep around 1:00 or so. So when my phone rang at 9:00, I was confused. And it was D, telling me this was the only time she could see me and to come pick her up-and I "didn't have to be pretty", which was good because I was NOT. I didn't shower, I washed my face, put on some powder and eyeliner (and two pimples, thank you very much), did something to my hair, got dressed and went to get her. And apparently her week had been difficult. Her Mom had been difficult, there had been much eating of ice cream (not in a good way) and they were now going to spend another week togther in a big cottage on Lake Michigan (which is usually good but not in this case). It was lovely to see her, as it always is, but she was NOT happy. Her imitation of her Mom was pretty funny though (a cross between a rooster and the teacher on the Charlie Brown specials). So we went for a bit of shopping and then we went to my parents house to say hi (M had gotten up and gone roller-blading), then I took her home and visited a bit with her sister and the nieces and nephews. They left and I went home to see M eating all cereal, it was a good thing there were two boxes of it. We talked for awhile and then fell asleep on the patio furniture-and then he left. And my sister came over so we could get our nails done.We came back and I thought I could clean up then-but Mom had made dinner so we had to sit down and eat-so I spent the whole day dirty and gross, with my two pimples-it wasn't pretty.
However, I wouldn't change anything. It was busy and fun and it was great that I got to see both M and D-this was just a more extreme version of what they do to me on the phone, when one calls and then the other calls and then the other calls while I'm talking to the other one-it was like that, only in person.

More Books and an Aplogy to Alastair Reynolds

So, as I said earlier, I was reading Redemption Ark, seemingly against my will as I had so many other books I wanted to read instead. But I found myself liking it more and more. Reynolds tied all the various plot lines together very well and built to a very interesting point...and then let it stop so he could write the sequel. But the thing is that I found myself getting more and more interested in each story line-each story of each character who wants to get their hands on the hell-class weapons is really good-that means I didn't have a hard time remembering who was who and what happened to them each time Reynolds cut back to them-and he does it regularly as it's the basis of the structure of the book. It was very well-written and more engaging than I thought it would be-and the characters were far more interesting than the cast of Revelation Space-and each written so well and so specifically that seemed as if you knew them-although some you really don't want to know.
So, I'm sorry, Reynolds. This turned out to be far better than I thought it would-and yes, I've ordered the third book of the trilogy.

The Demolished Man did not turn out as well as I had expected. having liked The Stars My Destination so much, I had high hopes for The Demolished Man. Maybe if I had read this first, instead of The Stars, I would have liked it more. It's a story of a future where no one has thought of murder in centuries-and everyone is policed by espers, people with mind-reading capabilities. They help keep people in line, so no one does anything really awful-and if they do, they're pretty easy to find. Unfortunately, Ben Reich has murder on his mind. He is determined to do it and just as determined not to get caught. He commits the murder-and is mistaken in his reason for it, he did not need to do it to attain what he wanted-but I thought he really wanted to do it anyway and that his reason was really an excuse. And do he is pursued by an esper determined to capture him. Much of the book after the murder is a cat and mouse game-will Ben outwit the smart esper? Will the esper see through the game? How smart is he? Ben has a worthy adversary in the esper, Lincoln Powell so the outcome is in doubt and the reader is never sure who will win the game until the end. And as for the love story-I'm still slightly offended by it. Powell has to help the murdered man's daughter, who has regressed to childhood after seeing his death. He watches and oversees her as she ages (only in the mind because her body is still that of a grown woman but he can read her mind) and then falls in love with her. It's just weird and very close to incest, uncomfortably so.
Next up was Starfish by Peter Watts. I read this on the recommendation of my friend Y, who loves the author and I can see why. Starfish is about a group of people sent to watch over and do regular maintenance on a geothermal plant, which in one the deepest spots of the Pacific Ocean, the Juan de Fuca Rift, off Canada's Northwest corner. This group of people are maimed-both Psychologically and physically. In order to survive at the depth, they have physically altered-and they are already damaged mentally. A child molester, a victim of rape and incest, an assassin and a felon are the ones chosen to go below to monitor the plant. Some go by choice but others go because it's a better choice than prison. There are many things I liked about this book and just one thing I didn't. The characters a very good-it's interesting to see how a group of damaged people all get along (the answer is that they don't, really and all keep to themselves) and how they change under the pressure of their circumstances, both physical and psychological. Some deal with it too well and end up living outside their living quarters while others break under the strain and have to go home. There are monsters both inside and outside and even more monsters than the inhabitants of the Beebe (as they call their living quarters) can even guess-the worst one is one they can't even see. The transformations in this book are very interesting-it's fascinating to watch the characters to go from human (sort of) to fish (sort of) and to see how they behave under pressure from both the ocean and their job-some don't deal well at all with having to face huge sea monsters every day. But there is something even worse lurking on the ocean floor-and it's something that the company who owns the plant are willing to set off a nuclear bomb to destroy. There are are three books that follow this one, so that may give hint as to what follows but I'm still not sure I'll read them, even though I liked this boo and I'm not sure why I don't care about reading them. Do I not want to read about the destruction of life? I don't know, sometimes I enjoy that. Do I not like the characters? (by the end there's only one left). Something put me off and I'm not sure what it was-I only know that when I finished it, I didn't run to order the sequels like I did with Redemption Ark.

I also read Blindsight, also by Peter Watts. Watts is very good at depicting damaged people-how they act and how their behavior affects other people (usually damaged in some way as well) and how a pressure-filled mission affects all of them. The main character here (I hesitate to use the word hero) is a man who had half his temporal lobe cut out as a child, in order to stop his seizures. Unfortunately it also had the effect of making him semi-autistic. He's a man who doesn't really enjoy life and doesn't seem to have real emotions. When is ex-girlfriend is dying of an awful disease, he never returns her calls or responds to her and it's not because he doesn't know what to say in the usual sense-he really has no idea what to say. He doesn't know how to say he's sorry or anything else-he needs an algorithm to tell him and he just can't find the right one. There's a reason she gave him a nickname that referred to a black hole.
But he is very good at observing. He can read what a person is thinking a mile away because he sees everything on the surface-and because of this he gets chosen for a mission for first contact with aliens. The mission is lead by a vampire who can out-think any of his crew mates, a soldier (just in case), a scientist/doctor and a female linguist with four different personalities. The whole mission is bust from the moment they meet the aliens-and the story is far more about the crew than what happens when they meet the aliens. Who stands up and does their job and who cracks under pressure? In a book where I can honestly say I didn't like anyone in it, I still liked the book itself. It was interesting when the linguist can't do her job because just contacting the aliens is viewed as hostile-and she cracks under it. The soldier has to sacrifice herself so others may live and the end result is that everyone except the man who can only observe is the only one left and unfortunately for him (and unfortunate is word used a lot in describing Watts's books) he now seems to have emotions. He has changed for the better, for all the good it does him.