Sunday, September 12, 2010

Resident Kickass

John surprised me with this a few days ago -



- which we'd talked about, but hadn't yet committed to. I'd wanted one to read Lightspeed slush on, and stay more updated on all the online (genre) fiction I can, and this was one way I thought I could do better at it. We'd agreed awhile back to think about it, because they're just far too much money. Plus, first edition/version/whatever that's called. Model? Generation, that's what it is. First generation. Any kinks would be worked in the second.

But a few days ago, I woke up to the sweetest note on my desk, which led to another note on the bookshelf, which led to one in the kitchen and then one behind the television, along with a gift-wrapped box and my very own Ipad. I can't stop playing with it. It's way better than my phone.

We saw the new Resident Evil movie today in the theater - in 3d, naturally, and even on the Imax screen. I liked that they didn't overdo it; that every single effect wasn't in your face. (As of right now, the best 3d I've seen yet was Beowulf, back when it was used less frequently.) And Milla Jovavich is just so kickass that it was a blast, despite the fact that nothing was logical. I remember how frightened I was in the first two, which I watched back at 1350 N. Kedzie on a night when Malia was gone, and I was so convinced that scary things were going to jump out at me after I went to bed. The third one was mostly fun, too - nothing like a good post-apocalyptic/zombie thriller in the deserts of Nevada. But this one...there was no longer any Alice fighting the evil Umbrella corporation for no reason - there was Alice fighting a single dude from the Umbrella corporation for no reason, which just didn't have the same appeal. He must have been a guy from the other movies, although I didn't recognize him (it's been awhile - I was hoping some cable channel would play them all pre-release of this movie, but that was a no-go), and they just didn't have any heroine/villain chemistry. Plus, a little bit of explanation - even some bs - would have gone a long way in justifying why every single new bad guy had sucking tentacle things shooting out of his mouth. Evolution, fine. But come on - at least pretend for us. And there was this scary giant guy, too, but nope, no one in the movie questioned him at all. And there was only one.

????

Or maybe it's a good thing that the creators didn't bother pretending to explain things - that's not what it was about, anyway. And while I didn't appreciate the Matrix moves everyone seemed to suddenly have - the freshness of these movies was lost when Alice suddenly got special powers from the T-virus - her slow motion scenes were pretty neat (an obscene amount of footage shot in slow motion - a lot of dodging bullets for all). She makes some great faces in her fight scenes.