redfiona99 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
redfiona99) wrote2025-06-13 08:58 pm
redfiona99) wrote2025-06-13 08:58 pmEntry tags:
Ghost in the Shell (2017 film)
Catching up on film reviews
Wiser heads than me have written about how weird, wrong and bad it is to have Scarlett Johansson as Major Kusanagi, so I shan't be writing about that.
The thing that freaked me out was how things that the Major did in the animated film version became things that happened to her in this.
Obviously it's not a shot for shot remake but there's several scenes that are blocked to look and play out in really similar ways.
The example I'm going to use is from towards the end, so there's slight spoilers.
In the big end fight, in the animated film, already injured and knowing that interfacing with the wild killer robot guards will do her further damage, the Major chooses to plug herself in to solve the mystery.
In the equivalent scene in the live-action film, the robot plugs the Major into itself.
It's not the only example, but it's probably the clearest because of how similarly the two scenes are shot.
It gives the film (and the Major) a very different vibe than in the animated version, and I do not approve.
Batou is my favourite, but if Batou isn't my favourite in any version, that's probably a signal that I'm trying to tell you I've been kidnapped and am being held against my will.
Wiser heads than me have written about how weird, wrong and bad it is to have Scarlett Johansson as Major Kusanagi, so I shan't be writing about that.
The thing that freaked me out was how things that the Major did in the animated film version became things that happened to her in this.
Obviously it's not a shot for shot remake but there's several scenes that are blocked to look and play out in really similar ways.
The example I'm going to use is from towards the end, so there's slight spoilers.
In the big end fight, in the animated film, already injured and knowing that interfacing with the wild killer robot guards will do her further damage, the Major chooses to plug herself in to solve the mystery.
In the equivalent scene in the live-action film, the robot plugs the Major into itself.
It's not the only example, but it's probably the clearest because of how similarly the two scenes are shot.
It gives the film (and the Major) a very different vibe than in the animated version, and I do not approve.
Batou is my favourite, but if Batou isn't my favourite in any version, that's probably a signal that I'm trying to tell you I've been kidnapped and am being held against my will.
queen_ypolita (queen_ypolita) wrote2025-06-11 05:44 pm
queen_ypolita) wrote2025-06-11 05:44 pmWednesday reading
Finished since the last reading post
Heaven on Earth, with lots of beautiful photos and other illustrations, and a brief history of the construction process of each cathedral included. Short chapters made it easy to read one chapter at a time, but on the whole, it was a bit bulky and heavy to hold.
Embers by Sándor Márai in Carol Brown Janeway's English translation of the German translation (the translator's name not included in the English edition) of the Hungarian original. That was something of a surprise to me, for the English edition to be a translation of a translation rather than of the original text. For about the first half, I rather enjoyed what seemed to be a slow build-up to a significant moment, but for the second half, I was getting increasingly irritated by what seemed to be a life wasted on getting hung up on something he was pretty sure had happened but he wasn't going to discuss, until now, but not really even now. The title did seem rather appropriate.
Currently reading
Nothing, so I obviously need to pick up something new.
Reading next
As above, at least I've got a few options on my shelves. I'm not sure how much reading I'll do over the next few days as my mum and sister are coming to visit.
Heaven on Earth, with lots of beautiful photos and other illustrations, and a brief history of the construction process of each cathedral included. Short chapters made it easy to read one chapter at a time, but on the whole, it was a bit bulky and heavy to hold.
Embers by Sándor Márai in Carol Brown Janeway's English translation of the German translation (the translator's name not included in the English edition) of the Hungarian original. That was something of a surprise to me, for the English edition to be a translation of a translation rather than of the original text. For about the first half, I rather enjoyed what seemed to be a slow build-up to a significant moment, but for the second half, I was getting increasingly irritated by what seemed to be a life wasted on getting hung up on something he was pretty sure had happened but he wasn't going to discuss, until now, but not really even now. The title did seem rather appropriate.
Currently reading
Nothing, so I obviously need to pick up something new.
Reading next
As above, at least I've got a few options on my shelves. I'm not sure how much reading I'll do over the next few days as my mum and sister are coming to visit.
selenak (selenak) wrote2025-06-10 03:56 pm
selenak) wrote2025-06-10 03:56 pm
Entry tags:
Doctor Who: The War Doctor
About a month ago, I bought the Big Finish episodes around the War Doctor in which the late John Hurt reprises his role. They're basically three episode storyarcs - "Only the Monstrous", "Infernal Devices", "Agents of Chaos" and "Casualties of War" - all set during the Time War. Now, because of the setting, the usual Doctor-Companion combinations are out, though the Doctor meets a likeable idealistic person in each of these three episode adventures (and can save some though not all). But the great charm of any Doctor Who tale are those relationships. So what did Big Finish do? It had the inspired idea of pairing up John Hurt with Jacqueline Pearce, playing, no, not Servalan, but a ruthless female politiician nonetheless, a member of the Gallifreyan War Council named Cardinal Ollista. She and the Doctor are the sole characters in all the four story arcs I've listened to, and the way their relationship develops was probably my favourite aspect in these stories.
Because this is the Time War, and this regeneration of the Doctor specifically is on a self loathing maximum while fighting it, Ollista is initially a good foil because she, who really does only prioritize Gallifrey and initially sees everyone not a Time Lord as expendable, shows that despite what he's telling himself, he is still the Doctor, he still has ethics and lines he won't cross and will fight for and have another way. But Ollista isn't simply an Evil McEvil megalomaniac, either, hence me saying "Gallifrey" and not "her personal power", and so the Doctor in the course of those stories develops a grudging respect for her while she while denying she does so finds herself defending, in the last story arc, precisely the kind of (non-Gallifreyan) people she in the first story arc would have dismissed as necessary casualties of war. Whether they argue or work together, all the Doctor-Ollista scenes are golden, and with both John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce now gone, I am really glad they had the chance to work together near the end of their lives and create two more remarkable characters for us to appreciate.
Because this is the Time War, and this regeneration of the Doctor specifically is on a self loathing maximum while fighting it, Ollista is initially a good foil because she, who really does only prioritize Gallifrey and initially sees everyone not a Time Lord as expendable, shows that despite what he's telling himself, he is still the Doctor, he still has ethics and lines he won't cross and will fight for and have another way. But Ollista isn't simply an Evil McEvil megalomaniac, either, hence me saying "Gallifrey" and not "her personal power", and so the Doctor in the course of those stories develops a grudging respect for her while she while denying she does so finds herself defending, in the last story arc, precisely the kind of (non-Gallifreyan) people she in the first story arc would have dismissed as necessary casualties of war. Whether they argue or work together, all the Doctor-Ollista scenes are golden, and with both John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce now gone, I am really glad they had the chance to work together near the end of their lives and create two more remarkable characters for us to appreciate.
redfiona99 (redfiona99) wrote2025-06-09 08:26 pm
redfiona99) wrote2025-06-09 08:26 pmEntry tags:
Fic - Don't Look Back (1/1, Captain America gen)
Title: Don't Look Back
Fandom: Marvelverse
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, they themselves do. This is not fiction. No money being made from this.
Series: Soldier of Tomorrow
Characters: Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers
Rating/Warnings: Gen fic, spoilers for Avengers: Endgame
Notes: The third part of my Allegiance swap AU. The original prompt say bad guys as good guys and vice versa. I have decided to have fun. The first part is Out of the Ice and the second part is Price Willing Paid
Summary: It might feel like someone's punched a hole straight through him, but Bucky will support Steve in this.
( Bucky looked at Steve and knew exactly what he was planning. )
End notes: In much the same way as the second part was my favourite scene of Civil War, I really liked the way it felt that Steve and Bucky had a whole conversation in a glance when Steve went through the portal (I am on team "Bucky knew what he was going to do") which is why Bucky isn't shocked at the end. So this is my take on how that scene would go in this AU.
Fandom: Marvelverse
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, they themselves do. This is not fiction. No money being made from this.
Series: Soldier of Tomorrow
Characters: Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers
Rating/Warnings: Gen fic, spoilers for Avengers: Endgame
Notes: The third part of my Allegiance swap AU. The original prompt say bad guys as good guys and vice versa. I have decided to have fun. The first part is Out of the Ice and the second part is Price Willing Paid
Summary: It might feel like someone's punched a hole straight through him, but Bucky will support Steve in this.
( Bucky looked at Steve and knew exactly what he was planning. )
End notes: In much the same way as the second part was my favourite scene of Civil War, I really liked the way it felt that Steve and Bucky had a whole conversation in a glance when Steve went through the portal (I am on team "Bucky knew what he was going to do") which is why Bucky isn't shocked at the end. So this is my take on how that scene would go in this AU.