The Absent Minded Professor

Dear Geeks: We’re Still Not the Popular Kids

// August 16th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Movies

Dear Geeks,

We need to talk. I just don’t know if I can take it any more. You’re so wrapped in yourselves, it’s like you can’t even hear the deafening silence from everyone else. Yes, I am, of course, talking about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and it’s low box-office bucks. If I have to read one more tweet or blog bemoaning “What is wrong” with our world that The Expendables beat out Scott Pilgrim, I may just have to Hulk out on you guys.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a geek. In fact, I’m a geek in a place where being one is still the kind of thing that gets you stared at out on the street. I live in the Midwest. All my geek buddies are back in California. I am, effectively, isolated from geek culture (except when I wander by the local comic book shop). I’m not saying there aren’t geeks in the Midwest, just that I haven’t been hanging out with them. And this is where my chance to throw a little perspective on things comes in. You listening?

People who aren’t geeks aren’t talking about Scott Pilgrim.

There, I said it. I’m sorry, guys, but it’s true. Where I live, step outside the local geek havens like the comic book shop and mention Scott Pilgrim and you’ll get blank stares. Which is fine (in fact, I prefer it that way): except when you want big numbers opening weekend at the box office.

The success of Scott Pilgrim isn’t going to occur opening weekend, it’s going to occur if we (the geeks) who champion this movie (and the comics) can win people over to come see it that are outside the Geek community. No matter what, geeks will always be the minority, and just because we’ve become less marginalized, doesn’t change that. Scott Pilgrim is not your every-day action flick, so it’s not drawing your every-day action flick movie goers. The testament to its quality (and to the grassroots style movement that is the Scott Pilgrim fan base) will be if geeks of all stripes can convince non-geeks to step outside their comfort zone to go see it, because it is just THAT good. That’s how mostly fan-supported, community specific film explodes onto the everyday movie goers stage.

That said, I encourage you to take a non-geek to see Scott Pilgrim with you. Because it really is that good.

Much Geeky Love,
Dawson

Inception: Last Night’s Adventure

// July 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Movies, Musings

The Trailer:

This is my story of the adventure of going to see it. Click here to jump straight to my review:

I went and saw Inception last night. It was a bit of an adventure. The first theater I went to was sold out of tickets for the last showing they had at 8:45pm. After staring contemplatively at the clock in my car I decided I would brave the crowds at the Moolah (the local "cool" movie theater) in an effort to see the 10:00pm showing that I had originally planned to avoid due to the length of the film. Hey, you only live once, right?

I arrived near the Moolah at 9:00pm, hunted down some parking (I had to beat up a little old lady, but I got a space) and was in line by 9:15pm. Commence my thirty minute wait in a sweltering hot stairwell in order to get a seat to this movie. Luckily, people watching is a favorite activity of mine and I didn’t lack for entertainment. Did you know, you can pick out the couples who are having problems by how they orient themselves around each other? It’s all about angles when analyzing people’s lives from afar…but I digress. Thirty minutes of fascinatedly analyzing people later, the doors finally opened and with a gusty sigh of relief the crowd, as one, filed into the theatre which was blessedly cooler than the oven the stairwell had become.

I was fortunate to sit next to a chatterer. She wasn’t one of those annoying people who yammer your ear off, but chill and with her own bit of wit about her. Don’t know how her date felt about our few minutes of banter, but I had fun while waiting for the movie to start. And then, the lights dimmed and I prepared to give myself over to the ever enjoyable task of watching a new movie.

[insert two and a half hours of time here]

As the credits rolled, my brain was pumping (preparing, believe it or not, to write this very post) and the witty buddy I had made turned to me and said: "What did you think?" After a moment of thought, I replied, "Y’know, it was good, but I like a little more mind-fuck in my mind-fuck movies."

That pretty much sums up my reaction to Inception. All told I found it…well, a little average. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but to be honest, I was anticipating more of a complex mind-warping experience and this movie just didn’t quite live up to it. There weren’t really any twists that I couldn’t anticipate coming, and Leo’s performance was a bit flat for my tastes. A man who is living tortured with guilt and pain should be more…overwrought, in my opinion. Sad just doesn’t quite cut it, if you ask me.

Truthfully, I would have preferred a little less action and a little more emotion in a film about dreams and ideas. Not that I don’t like action as much as the next guy, but I think if they had spent as much time on developing the characters stories as they did on the bad-ass fight scenes (particularly the ones with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, great stuff in the second level of the dream) they’d have ended up with a much more well-rounded movie.

Now, for the best part of the film: Ellen Page was absolutely stellar as the architect Ariadne (oh, be still my geeky heart…an architect named Ariande…does it get any better? She builds MAZES!). Besides wit, charm, and dry humor she always manages to bring just the right amount of innocent vulnerability to a role, and this one was no exception. In the midst of a plethora of jaded, cold characters (and even in the face of DiCaprio’s flat affect) Ariadne is the warm, beating heart behind it all. It was also indisputably appropriate that she is the Architect of the dreams…literally building the structure which people are filling up with their subconscious "projections".

I rate the movie an overall B-Plus for a brilliant premise and some great work by the supporting cast. Go see it, but don’t set your sights too high.

Highlights:

Best Acting Goes To: Ellen Page (obviously)

Best Fight Goes To: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, fighting some guards as gravity goes wonky on him (nice to see a guy generally styled as a geek being a hard-core badass).

Best Over All Scene Goes To: Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt:
   Arthur: "Quick, kiss me." (they kiss)
    Ariadne: "They’re still staring at us."
    Arthur: (shrugs) "Well, it was worth a shot."
    They exchange a look that speaks volumes, and smile.

That’s all from me on Inception. Have you seen it? Did you like? Tell us in the comments!