xkcd Tagged Articles at Cinematical
What Narratives Have Confused You the Most?
Filed under: Fandom », Images »
Slugging through the cold Monday morning, I took a moment to read the latest xkcd (a huge image through the link), and they've managed to boil some major cinematic experiences down into line charts. The latest installment of the web comic tackles Movie Narrative Charts; most specifically, the movie character interactions in Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (original trilogy), Jurassic Park, 12 Angry Men, and Primer.
The charts are actually a pretty intricate set of lines showing how each character progresses through the movie -- who they meet, and the main events and conflicts that take place. However, the big wow for me is in the overall look -- how that mass of lines evokes the same memories of confusion, or lack thereof, watching the films. There's the rolling but easy-to-follow storyline of Star Wars, the pure simplicity and ease of 12 Angry Men, and best of all -- the confusion of Lord of the Rings and Primer.
I could never get into the books, so watching Rings was an exercise in intrigued confusion -- trying to keep the characters straight, waiting for a slow moment to whisper a question, and trying to make sense of a thick storyline funneled into a film. And on the other end of the confusion spectrum, there's Primer -- the film that spins around and evokes stunned, hard-to-define confusion, the spiraling lines also mimicking a lot of the wide eyes of "what the f...?!" I saw after the film's screening at TIFF.
Sometimes it's terrible storytelling, sometimes it's confusion as an art form, and sometimes it's just the mind trying to deal with mass amounts of information. Xkcd managed to lay out some of the main moments of my cinematic confusion, but what are yours? What films leave you trying to follow and make sense of the narrative?
Is There Too Much Talking in Action Flicks?
Filed under: Action », Fandom », Images »
With a long weekend behind us and a big film festival ahead, things have been slow. When there's far from a plethora of news of deals and major casting info to share, we get to be even more fannish than usual (if that's even possible!). Funny enough, while I was writing up my Uber Cool & Quotable Gun-Toting Antiheroes, my friend sent me a comic -- one that gave love to the complete opposite kind of fighter -- the silent, butt-kicking hero. You might have heard of the site -- xkcd. While it is, by no means, an example of stellar art, their strips are damn funny and often movie-nerdy.Recently, they tackled action movies, ruing over the amount of conversation in them -- go read it here. As the disappointed stick figure rants: "Just once, I want a real action movie. 30 seconds of exposition followed by a perfect 90-minute action scene. One with a huge budget, a good choreographer, and a great director." Of course, there's probably no one better than River Tam to do that. You know -- the chick who wildly kicked arse with her ballet ways in Joss Whedon's Serenity (and we can't forget Firefly).
The strip is not only funny -- it also brings up an interesting point -- have action flicks gotten too talky? We're all suckers for a good, wonderfully-delivered line, but have we forgotten the allure of silent strength? Summer Glau's character didn't say much, but she made many fans with her slick fighting moves. District 13 would be another example -- David Belle talked, but it was his fluid parkour that made waves. I love a good quote as much as the next person, but there's just something to be said for the sweet, choreographed action on its own. And call me crazy, but I'd pay to see River Tam beat up everyone!
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