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A Flare Grasped
Feb. 2nd, 2009 11:34 amAll right, it’s set. I have a pass to Comiccon to hang out with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
polianarchy while she’s doing her librarian rounds there on Friday. I’ll be there just to see if there’s anything cool to shoot while under engaging company. I know there are a few others going to be there, so if you want to find me, look for the asian guy shamelessly waving a camera around.
As for this weekend? Don’t get me started, it felt like it ended before it really got to begin. The weather was beautiful outside, but I didn’t want to go out since it was cold and there’s not much to see at this time of the year along the nature trails. I’ll have to change this way of thinking come end of February, but for now it’s what works.
At least I finished my three days of photos. Now it’s on to the more random stuff I’ve been learning and picking up on in terms of composition.
Cinema
Taken is, officially, the story of a retired covert ops agent who gave up his life of black ops to watch over the daughter he left in the name of his country, and his attempt to bring her back from being smuggled by a human slave market. What it actually is is Luc Besson doing what Luc Besson does best: angry one man army movies.
Appropriately, you can’t have a movie with a superhuman dad protagonist without having Liam Neeson. Sure, you could do Christopher Walken, but he doesn’t have as much of a desperate dad look as much as a vampire Clint Eastwood look. Anyway, the man who played Darkman, Bruce’s mentor, and even a metaphor for Jesus, kicks so much ass in the coolest way possible that you have to rewatch it just to savor more of the tastiest tidbits of man kicking ass. The plethora of action shots, from watching Liam pick up a dude, twist his body back, and then snap his neck; to seeing him grab the guy with a gun, pull him in, take his piece and shoot him in the face with it; to throwing himself off a bridge, landing onto a boat in a tumble, and grabbing the nearby guard and snapping his neck.
How can you pull shit like this off? Simple, you are Liam Neeson. You are like a less-charismatic, more rugged James Bond. You kill to get your daughter back and take out the scum. So with that said, I would see it again. In fact, I might see it tonight since it made for such great catharsis. I think what helps as well is that it wasn’t too over-the-top. The problem I have watching other big name action guys like Jason Stathem is that their action scenes feel tacked on. Luc Besson’s doesn’t seem to activate in particular areas, Liam’s intensity is always on and that makes him great.
Outside of Taken, there’s not much out there I would see. There’s still Outlander, which looks worth a viewover as well but is released in very small areas, and doesn’t even show anywhere in New York. It looks like I’m not the only one in demand for this film as well: http://outlanderthemovie.wordpress.com/
polianarchy while she’s doing her librarian rounds there on Friday. I’ll be there just to see if there’s anything cool to shoot while under engaging company. I know there are a few others going to be there, so if you want to find me, look for the asian guy shamelessly waving a camera around.As for this weekend? Don’t get me started, it felt like it ended before it really got to begin. The weather was beautiful outside, but I didn’t want to go out since it was cold and there’s not much to see at this time of the year along the nature trails. I’ll have to change this way of thinking come end of February, but for now it’s what works.
At least I finished my three days of photos. Now it’s on to the more random stuff I’ve been learning and picking up on in terms of composition.
Cinema
Taken is, officially, the story of a retired covert ops agent who gave up his life of black ops to watch over the daughter he left in the name of his country, and his attempt to bring her back from being smuggled by a human slave market. What it actually is is Luc Besson doing what Luc Besson does best: angry one man army movies.
Appropriately, you can’t have a movie with a superhuman dad protagonist without having Liam Neeson. Sure, you could do Christopher Walken, but he doesn’t have as much of a desperate dad look as much as a vampire Clint Eastwood look. Anyway, the man who played Darkman, Bruce’s mentor, and even a metaphor for Jesus, kicks so much ass in the coolest way possible that you have to rewatch it just to savor more of the tastiest tidbits of man kicking ass. The plethora of action shots, from watching Liam pick up a dude, twist his body back, and then snap his neck; to seeing him grab the guy with a gun, pull him in, take his piece and shoot him in the face with it; to throwing himself off a bridge, landing onto a boat in a tumble, and grabbing the nearby guard and snapping his neck.
How can you pull shit like this off? Simple, you are Liam Neeson. You are like a less-charismatic, more rugged James Bond. You kill to get your daughter back and take out the scum. So with that said, I would see it again. In fact, I might see it tonight since it made for such great catharsis. I think what helps as well is that it wasn’t too over-the-top. The problem I have watching other big name action guys like Jason Stathem is that their action scenes feel tacked on. Luc Besson’s doesn’t seem to activate in particular areas, Liam’s intensity is always on and that makes him great.
Outside of Taken, there’s not much out there I would see. There’s still Outlander, which looks worth a viewover as well but is released in very small areas, and doesn’t even show anywhere in New York. It looks like I’m not the only one in demand for this film as well: http://outlanderthemovie.wordpress.com/
