Second Time Around Movies

Remember when you watched a movie more than once because it was so good? I still do. Every time Indiana Jones or Goonies or The African Queen come on television, I’ll watch them. Never mind I have all on DVDs and could watch anytime.

But sometimes I have to watch a movie because either I missed things the first time around or got hopelessly lost. People on the ‘net will talk about a movie I’d just seen and mentioned things I missed. One reason is that I have tunnel vision. Seriously. Not in everyday seeing—like when I’m driving, but while watching a movie. I concentrate so much on the main character that I miss all the stuff on the periphery. Another reason for not getting everything is the sound in theaters. Sometimes the music and sound effects drown out the dialogue. Thank goodness for closed captioning on the DVD or television. Am I showing my age or what?

A movie I had to watch three times before I really got it was Inception. Holy smoke! How many dream levels were there? And what was with that ending? Reality or a dream? Talk about complicated. Now Interstellar was pretty straight-forward. Search for an alternate planet because Earth’s food supplies were running out. But then someone in a Facebook group mentioned the tesseract scene. Say what? Where was that? I thought I knew what a tesseract was from A Wrinkle in Time. So I had to watch the movie again to find it. Oh, yeah. They even mentioned the word tesseract in the movie. Totally missed it first time around.

This weekend, I watched Jupiter Ascending. First, it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I knew it was sci-fi, but somehow I missed reading about the premise. I had to watch it a second time to figure out what was what and who was who. It would have helped if I hadn’t been reading email the first time around. I have to say the graphics were great, the space scenes terrific, and I enjoyed watching the relationship between Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. I caught a few send ups to The Matrix trilogy (same producers) and Star Wars. I’m sure there were others that I missed even the second time around. I’m glad I didn’t see it at the theater, though. Either the mix was poor on the DVD or they cranked up the music and effects in the space scenes while the dialogue was so quiet. Eddie Redmayne’s character practically whispered. Very annoying.

I’m not saying I don’t like complicated plots. I like movies (and television shows) that make me think, that have several layers. Shows that can be enjoyed on different levels. But mainly I watch to be entertained. On Saturday, my monthly post on Paranormal Romantics was about Science Fiction Friday and the new shows on the Syfy channel. I think I OD’d on sci-fi this weekend. As if movies and TV weren’t enough, we had our grandson overnight and had to watch three episodes of Star Wars Rebels and read stories from the show to him. Good thing I like sci-fi.

What do you think of movies? Do you rewatch or is once enough?

Who Are You?

Have you ever taken those personality tests on Facebook? You know, which character in Firefly, Downton Abbey, etc. are you? What did they tell you about yourself?

photo from wikia.com

I’m guilty of doing them. I say guilty because I should be writing instead of playing games. That means I shouldn’t be playing solitaire either. But I digress. 

I only play if I know the show/movie/book. Like Firefly. I wanted to be Kaylee. I love her. She’s such a free spirit. According to the game, I’m Zoe. That was a surprise. Zoe is a leader. She’s strong, loyal, and she carries a big gun. Most importantly, she always has the captain’s back. I wouldn’t mind having Captain Mal’s back. But Zoe is so serious. I want to be a free spirit. Oh, well…

Why do we play those games? Sure they’re fun, but do they really tell us anything we don’t know about ourselves?

Sometimes I think we know the characters in our books better than we know ourselves. For our hero and heroine, we do character charts, we know their background (all the way back to childhood), we know their faults, their weaknesses, their strengths. Readers think we make up all that stuff. To some extent, yes. My characters “tell” me more than I make up. When I get stuck, I “interview” the character. As the “reporter” I type the questions then answer as the character. Oh, my. The things I learn.

With the characters we make up, we can examine their lives objectively. With our own? We know who we want to be, the traits we want the world to see. But really, who are we?

By the way, I’m The Chosen One. According to the game “What’s Your Patronus?” mine is a stag, the same as Harry Potter’s. Now I can’t wait to find a game for The Matrix. Will I be Neo?