tired, but good. and quick thoughts about Alexander

[hafital]

Had a pretty good Thanksgiving. There was no yelling or fighting, which I'm thankful for. On the whole, I have a great family, and growing up with them, as wacky as they are, was wonderful. But in recent years there have been some big fights between my mom and her sister and my mom and my younger cousin (and it doesn't help that my Dad hates company of any kind), and so now I'm just always worried when my extended family comes together. It all went well, though. Mostly.

My sister and I cooked the Thanksgiving dinner, which is a first. Never done that! I'm so not a cook. :) And it came out well, which is surprising. heh.

On Saturday I made my cousins take me to see Alexander. Other people are really all jazzed by it, and the A/H stuff in it, and there was definitely a lot of elements of this film I thought were great. I LOVED the scenery, especially Babylon. It was really quite breathtaking, especially for someone who is an Ancient Near East archeology geek like myself. I liked how he contrasted the Greeks with the Persians, in terms of costume and color, etc etc. I really liked Jared, and I thought Colin did great (and I even got used to his hair!), although I think I would have preferred someone else as Alexander. I was fascinated by Kassander. Although that actor is really too pretty. I'm always mesmerized by his prettiness in every film he's in. But I kinda like that... *g*


But in the end, I didn't like the film. *shrug* I don't know. I love the story of Alexander, but I didn't love it in this movie. It lacked something, like love or beauty, or something. It felt like it lacked true hero-ness. It was all jagged edges and snakes. I blame Oliver Stone and his heavy handed style of movie making. ;) Anyhoo, it did go places I didn't think it would, with the gayness and things, so that's cool.

Comments

[killabeez.livejournal.com]

We just got back from seeing it. We kinda thought... huh, not so great, overall -- really uneven, in fact, and I suspect the three credited writers is a clue why. I never did get used to Colin Farrell (or his hair!) or Val Kilmer (or his hair!) and I think it was utterly confusing for someone who didn't already know the story. It perpetuated a few historical assumptions I don't agree with, and the pacing and choice of focus was at times very strange. I had other small issues, too (and what was with the Irish and Scottish accents??) but OTOH, I found that every time Jared Leto was on the screen, even for a moment, I so did not care about any of these things. *g* Oh, my god, the hotness of Jared, in eyeliner, and his beautiful sexy devotion -- gah! *head explodes*

And what was with the looks and the UST between Alexander and Cassander???? Wow, that was just bizarre, if hot.

I'm so glad your holiday was mostly good. {{{{hugs you}}}}

[hafital.livejournal.com]

eeee! Love you. :)

I have to agree, re Jared. I mean. Really. Eyeliner! on men is one of my favorite things, and he really did a great job. The two or three intimate scenes they had together were my favorite.

My cousin, who doesn't know a thing about Alexander or anything of the time period, could follow the story pretty well, but I agree with you, entirely. My problem with the narrative was that they spend *ages* in Macedonia and then rushed through the end, but not without going *back* to Macedonia. For a long time! I had other problems, too, but that was the main one. I was actually surprised he didn't take more liberties with the historical events. It was pretty textbook Alexander, I thought.

The thing with Kassander is I don't think that actor can look at anybody *without* looking like he's all UST and secretly undressing you with his eyes. I always get a thrill when I see he's in a film, because he just oozes somewhat bisexual/gay sensuality. Even in Bend it Like Beckam and he's great in Velvet Goldmine. :)

[killabeez.livejournal.com]

It was pretty textbook Alexander, I thought.

Yes, that was kinda cool. Except for some murkiness there in India, and the order/conflation of events there, it was pretty straightforward. I wish they had spent a lot more time in Persia and India and that we'd gotten to see him go to Egypt -- the choices of where to spend the three hours seemed mostly bizarre to me. Also, the big drama of Alexander's banishment by Philip was confused even more by the fact that they showed Philip's death like an hour later in flashback. If you didn't know about all the events in between, how weird was the stuff about Darius paying people to murder his father? They hate each other! No, wait...

I'm sad we didn't get to see the siege of Tyre, or any of the sieges for that matter. Ah, well.

[hafital.livejournal.com]

*nodnod*

Exactly. *g* *smooch*