Watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes (RotPotA?) tonight, and it was pretty good. Pacing was decent, the animated stuff was pretty smooth, and aside from the occasional “More Brains Also Makes You A Superhero” problems, it held together nicely. Not the best movie I’ve ever seen or anything, but certainly one of the best prequels 20+ years after the fact.
Not like Your Highness. Holy crap. What were they even trying for? I’m not sure I’d even want to see what it was trying to borrow against. I’m pretty sure we got 18 minutes into the movie before we bailed out. As Arwen put it, “This sounds like it was written by a fifteen year-old.” With some stupid special effects and a Zooey Deschanel that seemed like even she was tired of being in the movie after the first ten minutes. Usually we’re pretty forgiving of just about any movie, no matter how vapid or silly. Last time we dumped out of a movie that wasn’t aimed at kids under the age of ten was… I think I have to go back to 15 Minutes back in the 90s.
Also heard a couple of tracks by Azealia Banks tonight, and the song “212” is as catchy as it is profane. The swearing is so fast, so furious, and so catchy it’s almost subliminal. Your brain hears that there’s swearing going on, but can barely keep up. Think Missy Elliot at 20 from Harlem combined with Amanda Palmer also at 20, with crunchier percussion, grittier recording and some PIPES. Can’t wait to see her break into the scene over the next year or so. Looks like she’s had a few singles out since last year, but I think 212’s only been out for about two months, and is just getting picked up now, as the video has about 250,000 views and that’s 30,000 more than it was two hours ago.
Also, was having lunch with a friend, and we realized that we both navigate the compass points in Vancouver based on things like the Mountains (North) the Ocean (West) the Airport (South) and Burnaby (East). Does everyone do that, or is it just us? I mean, I know everyone SAYS NorthWest corner, but are they all thinking some form of MountainOcean corner? What do people in cities without humongous horizon-filling landmarks do?