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up, catching: thanksgiving, arrival
Nov. 27th, 2016 03:08 pmmy usual every-other-year economic analysis thanksgiving dinner attendance has been derailed. as a result of the improving economy and/or my own lateness, we couldn't get reservations to the fancy buffet we've been going to for many years.
we did get a regular sit-down dinner at the same place (for a vastly higher price) and the buffet seemed pretty busy when we walked past. our dinner seemed pretty well attended as well.
we saw arrival, an OK first-contact movie. it's adapted from ted chiang's "the story of your life", which we both reread after seeing the movie. arrival is an adaptation of "the story of your life" (tSoYL) in about the same way blade runner is an adaptation of do androids dream of electric sheep is: there's clear similarities between the two -- and even a couple of things that are identical -- but the stories aren't entirely the same.
it's not an adaptation the same way that 2001 is an adaptation of "the sentinel". the problem is that it seems to want to be.
tSoYL is a gadget story. there's a mcguffin -- an unusual one, an alien language -- and its effects on the human condition -- or one human's condition -- are explored. it's a pretty good story. not one of my favorites, but it's an ok tale pretty well told.
arrival takes that straightforward gadget story and pastes on a lot of plot complications in order to make a feature-length movie. the plot complications don't quite work; in one scene, the plot is hurried along in a ham-handed way very much like one character asking "why do we need to hurry?" and another character handing them a plot coupon offering a buy-one get-one-for-free deal on crises.
tSoYL has only two characters: Our Heroine, a linguist, and her interlocutor, a physicist. his job is pretty simple: hand her domain knowledge that explains parts of the story and give her somebody to talk to. arrival struggles with the first part. it seems the writers really didn't know how to write science, even though a key scientific point in tSoYL is really easy to present. so, he seems to be reduced to the love interest.
( but they did do some things right (moderate spoilers) )
on balance, i don't think arrival is worth the price of admission, even for a cheap show. it's probably worth seeing on DVD/streaming tho. or you may like reading tSoYL better. i'm going to oppose the consensus opinion on them and say read tSoYL first. it's a novella, so it's a quick read. if you like it, rent some visuals to go with it.
we did get a regular sit-down dinner at the same place (for a vastly higher price) and the buffet seemed pretty busy when we walked past. our dinner seemed pretty well attended as well.
we saw arrival, an OK first-contact movie. it's adapted from ted chiang's "the story of your life", which we both reread after seeing the movie. arrival is an adaptation of "the story of your life" (tSoYL) in about the same way blade runner is an adaptation of do androids dream of electric sheep is: there's clear similarities between the two -- and even a couple of things that are identical -- but the stories aren't entirely the same.
it's not an adaptation the same way that 2001 is an adaptation of "the sentinel". the problem is that it seems to want to be.
tSoYL is a gadget story. there's a mcguffin -- an unusual one, an alien language -- and its effects on the human condition -- or one human's condition -- are explored. it's a pretty good story. not one of my favorites, but it's an ok tale pretty well told.
arrival takes that straightforward gadget story and pastes on a lot of plot complications in order to make a feature-length movie. the plot complications don't quite work; in one scene, the plot is hurried along in a ham-handed way very much like one character asking "why do we need to hurry?" and another character handing them a plot coupon offering a buy-one get-one-for-free deal on crises.
tSoYL has only two characters: Our Heroine, a linguist, and her interlocutor, a physicist. his job is pretty simple: hand her domain knowledge that explains parts of the story and give her somebody to talk to. arrival struggles with the first part. it seems the writers really didn't know how to write science, even though a key scientific point in tSoYL is really easy to present. so, he seems to be reduced to the love interest.
( but they did do some things right (moderate spoilers) )
on balance, i don't think arrival is worth the price of admission, even for a cheap show. it's probably worth seeing on DVD/streaming tho. or you may like reading tSoYL better. i'm going to oppose the consensus opinion on them and say read tSoYL first. it's a novella, so it's a quick read. if you like it, rent some visuals to go with it.