Went to the theatre earlier for the first time in a long while. Well, I didn't decide to go myself; rather, my sister noticed my boredom and decided to bring me along. Yes, I have a sister, yes, she is of the age of consent, and no, you are not having her name or picture, you sick internet sods.
But I digress. Stressful meatspace interferences aside, the two of us grew up on the Belgian comic series The Adventures of Tintin, which you might have heard of. Wait, scratch that - which you have heard of. If you hadn't then, well, then you have now. What. You still don't know what it is? Wicked child. Labour as your forerunners have and Google the illegal scans, so as to not have to save as we did. Or, well, go to the nearest bookstore and behave like a proper law-abiding citizen. Your call.
Anyway, any self-respecting nerd is surely aware of Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg, both of whom are grammatical science socks from upper Mars. Both names were good enough signs when the film was first announced, yes, but we've long associated mocap animation with the uncanny valley. Avatar, which Weta did work on, was decidedly better, but we preferred our respective mental images of the young Belgian reporter to be in his original hue, so our expectation wasn't the highest, to say the least.
'TIS LE ART, DEAR CHILDREN. LET YOURSELF BE LOST WITHIN ITS MOTION-CAPTURED EMBRACE, AND INDULGE IN THE ENSUING JOY. :D
Hamming aside, there are a few points of contention: the movie is a bit too dense - action scenes upon action scenes, all fast-paced and expansive, with little pause and contemplation in between. Yet it still manages to stay true to the source material in spirit, and for that I tip my imaginary peaked cap and wish the best for the sequel, which Steven Moffat will be absent in.
Also managed to soft-boil an egg myself this morning, which was quite nice. Walked around the new neighbourhood while lamenting the lack of remaining memory space in my camera. All of my nearby friends were away, but there were a little bookstore with a few nice interns, a middle-aged lawyer with a goatee, a few people at the nearby park and a nice elderly couple whose tastes are curiously similar to mine. Forgot to ask the latter's names, and this I shall inquire later. ^_^;
And last but in no way least, well, it's been quite a year, hasn't it? 2011 is when Japan and many others rose from the ashes of despair. 2011 is when empires fell and freedom saw light. 2011 is when the Euro crumbled, when the people stood, when flooding rains came down and hope persevered all the way through. And here we are, at the end of the year, maybe not intact, maybe worse for wear, but definitely not without having learned an important thing or two. Belated Merry Christmas, and have a good year everyone!
