2003-05-07

blufive: (Default)
2003-05-07 07:50 pm

Just seen: X2

[imdb]
Following an attack on the US president by a mutant, a General with an anti-mutant agenda is given free rein to investigate the "mutant problem", and pressure for a mutant registration act is stepped up. But General Stryker's plans are more complex than they appear, and some of the mutants won't stand idly by.

Like the first X-Men movie, X2 is unusually intelligent for a blockbuster action flick, and makes several points about bigotry ("Have you ever tried not being a mutant?")

Logan/Wolverine is still the closest thing to a lead character, but many more of the other mutants get decent amounts of screen time this around, notably Mystique, Storm and Nightcrawler.

As [livejournal.com profile] greengolux has already commented, the visual effect for Nightcrawler's teleportation is particularly cool (and the audience is left to work out for themselves why there's a bang when he goes...)

Once again Mystique gets to deliver one of the most politically charged lines of the whole film - asked by Nightcrawler why, if she can imitate anyone, doesn't she stay in disguise all the time and look like everyone else - "Because we shouldn't have to."

So, a rip-roaring summer blockbuster movie. A politically-aware one which doesn't patronise its audience, too. Will wonders never cease?
blufive: (Default)
2003-05-07 07:55 pm

Damn music industry

So I buy the new Placebo album, and when it arrives, I discover that is has some cack-handed copy-protection included which requires me to install software to play it on a PC. Anyone on Linux is screwed, as is anyone who can't install software for some reason (like me, at work, due to IS security requirements). I suspect I would also be screwed once the march of technology has taken its toll and left present flavours of Windows useless (like I'd keep a spare PC around just to play CDs). Once I have installed the damn software, it plays a cruddy 48kbps MP3 (or something) at me. It won't give me a tracklisting that includes track times. I can't move it around the screen. It has little squitty text that many users won't be able to read. In short, it's a pile of poo.

This one's going back. With prejudice.