(no subject)

[mipeltaja]

Okay, so basically, if any of you have seen the animated movie Howl's Moving Castle but have not read the book? You ought to read the book. The movie just doesn't compare, not to mention that it only contains like one-fifth of the plot of the book. And what it does contain it distorts almost beyond recognition.

Oh, and I watched Sweeney Todd yesterday. It was kinda underwhelming.
Throughout the movie, I couldn't help but marvel at the odd colouring of the blood. It looked kind of... milky I think is the word I'm looking for. Too opaque and oddly light in shade, considering the high-contrast, low-saturation quality of the picture in most of the movie. The sideplot with Johanna and What's-His-Face felt half-hearted and faintly creepy. Most of the songs sounded pretty much the same and, well, neither Johnny Depp nor Alan Rickman sings half as well as they act (granted, both still sing way better than I do). Helena Bonham-Carter was pretty amazing, though.
Then again, this could just be that I haven't been able to take any sort of scary movies seriously for years. Perhaps I'm interrogating the ngenre from the wrong perspective.


Ps. jadeile, Palauttelen tuon kirjan sulle varmaan tän viikon aikana. Joko oot Good Omensin lukenut? Jos et, en tuputa sulle enempää luettavaksi vielä, mutta jos olet... mwahahaha. >:D

Comments

[muura.livejournal.com]

Yah, the book's better. But neither were really THAT good in my opinion, Sophie and Howl got together out of nowhere in the end if I remember right. It was really too short, would've needed more fleshing out overall? But if I remember correctly the whole story has two parts, I just can't remember was Moving Castle the sequel or not.

I love the movie's design of the castle though, oh so gorgeous <3

Sweeney Todd was SO boring, geez. I just skipped most of it and drooled at Todd whenever his face wasn't visible. What he really would've needed was some more cheekbone and nose, not some flabby Johnny Depp /shakes fist
I loved the songs though, I want to see a real musical of this now.

[mipeltaja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Sophie/Howl did come out of nowhere. For the majority of the book, Sophie's annoyed at Howl for being out to break Lettie's heart, then that one guy goes "I came to make sure you don't fall for him but looks like I'm too late" and then she suddenly realizes that she actually did fall for him.
As for the rest of the book, it's not amazing, no, but I've read far worse.


I liked the song the crazy beggar-woman sang outside the pie shop, but that's about the only one I can remember 24 hours later. That, and "Worst Pies in London" or whatever it's called.

[stalkerbunny.livejournal.com]

Have you read any other books by Diana Wynne Jones? I used to be quite a fan some years ago, and while nowadays I'm not sure I think they are the best books ever...they're entertaining enough, at least some. Hexwood might be one of my favorites. Or Archer's Goon. (Kyylän Kyydissä in Finnish)
Anyway, I do agree on the movie being...well, I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say it's not as good, but it's not really the same story at all.

[mipeltaja.livejournal.com]

I can't be sure if I've read her other books, as I can't remember the author of most books I've read. "Kyylän kyydissä" does sound awfully familiar, but I've no idea if I've read it. If I have, though, it must've been years ago.

I guess the movie was always a bit of a disappointment for me. It's not on par with most other Hayao Miyazaki movies n my eyes, and the even the animation isn't as amazing as, say, Spirited Away. Well, at least it's not "Kissojen valtakunta" or whatever the English title of that movie is (have you heard the Finnish dub of that one? Yeowch).

[jadeile.livejournal.com]

En ole lukenut, mutta olen sentään aloittanut XD Heh, kiva kun heti parilla ekalla sivulla olin ihan "... huh? O.o ?? What? Siis häh? Ketasa? o.O ?"
Mutta joo, pikku vikoja. Kyllä se siitä XD

[mipeltaja.livejournal.com]

:D No sit tuon vaan ton Howlin. Pokemoneja pitäis koulutella että kehtais show you them.

[darlingfox.livejournal.com]

Finally someone else who didn't love Sweeney Todd!

I downloaded used totally legal ways to get and watch it some time ago, and my opinion could be summed up as "meh". The colouring (blood and over-all) was really odd and I just couldn't take it seriously at all. I usually have the latter problem with musicals and scary movies, and it really isn't helped be the fact that the so called plot twists can be seen miles away. :/ For example, I totally saw Sleepy Hollow and Fight Club's upcoming twist(s) and/or guilty persons unlike, oh, everyone else in the room.

[mipeltaja.livejournal.com]

I suppose it did nothing to help the willing suspension of disbelief that the two main characters looked like they'd just been involved in a cartoon explosion and hadn't slept for at least a month...
And yes, it was predictable as anything. Whenever we could shut up about the things that didn't make sense or looked stupid, we would default to discussing what would happen next. We were usually right.

[darlingfox.livejournal.com]

Hah, yes. It's a bit difficult to take the blood and gore seriously when the killers look like that.

[runic-binary.livejournal.com]

I felt the same way. And I'm a sucker for musicals and horror movies.

[darlingfox.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to know I wasn't the only one. Everyone else seems to love it and I just don't get why.

[runic-binary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a friend of mine made me watch it because he's in love with it, and I don't want to ask him why he thinks it's so great because I don't want him to be sad that I didn't like it that much. XD Helena Bonham Carter was pretty great in it, though, I think.