Sunday, May 21, 2017

Alien: Covenant

Alien: Covenant is a tacit admission that the current cinema lacks imagination and courage to make a better sci-fi movie.

I am old so no doubt I will say I remember once upon a time in Aliens (1986), when the crew needs to seal the door, they actually do it like welding the doors shut with some big weld gun like with lots of muscle, grunting and urgency.  Now Alien: Covenant, the very miscast female protagonist Daniels played by Katherine Waterston just shouts out "Mother, close the door" as in calling out the space craft's omni present computer to just shut the door behind her.  That's convenient but where is the action, tension and urgency?  None really.  I try pretty hard to stay awake during the entire movie.  In the end, Ridley Scott jumps the shark and has this stupid shower scene.  I feel like that's it.  No doubt it's a bad movie.  Anytime you see a shower scene like in Hurt Locker (2008), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), it can't be any good, the scene if not the entire movie.  Shower scenes are just corny unless by Hitchcock or something.  And of course, this one is of no exception.

When you are old and becoming a curmudgeon, you wonder if you can ever enjoy a movie again.  Alien:  Covenant unfortunately confirms that you simply can't.

Anything new is just old, but not as good not even close.




Monday, May 08, 2017

Some deep thoughts

I like the combination of my D810 and the Nikkor 16-35 f/4, and together with my Sunpak 120J.  For some reason, I don't quite like the D810 with the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8.

I am still shooting with my D700.  I like the small file size.  But the lack of detail becomes quite apparent when compared to the D810 files.  I like it better with the 70-200 f/2.8

There are always people who take better pictures than you.

The only edge to have is you work harder and smarter.  And if you can't work smarter because of inherently stupid then you just need to work harder.



Civil War (2024)

This is basically a Dorothy yellow brick road kind of story.  Also, something to do with the new replaces the old, the circle of life thing....