Third Draft

So I'm going into the third draft of my screenplay, Servants of God, which will hopefully change the nature of the central character, pack in some more action and improve the general quality of the material. I can but hope. It's been a while that I've been working on it and I'm not quite sick of it yet, so hopefully I won't be until the time I have to hand it in, in May.

You know, of all the essays and projects and assignments we've got for our third year, this one isn't worrying me. It probably should, since it's the biggest and most important one we've got, but I, for some reason, have faith in myself to pull it off. I have absolutely no justification for that faith, but then I suppose that's what faith is all about, eh?

I know that I'm way ahead of the pack with this script, some people still haven't decided what they're going to be writing about, but I know that I can't get too cocky, just have to keep chipping away at it and it'll all be okay. Ish. Maybe.

So in other news... actually, I'm struggling to think of any. I'm off to newbury later today, in about ten minutes I think, as soon as Idge arrives to drive me back and forth. She's a good mate to have like that, since I'm staying with her as well.

Better that than my previous place, that's for sure. Things were getting somewhat awkward there.

I'm working on getting me a copy of Rogue Trader, the third WH40K roleplay book, mainly because I think it has the most potential amongst the three games they've done for actual exploration and character development. But we'll see. Yeah, that really is it for the news, I really don't have much to discuss right now. I'll think of something for next time.

THE LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS:
----THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE----

Now you look at a title like that and you think, whutdafuggisat? That's the worst kind of fantasy title right there. All fantasy has to include weird sounding names for things that are normally possessed of at least one apostraphe (*cough* long live Quan'Kira'an *cough*), but putting them in the actual title? Oooh, not a good move.

So yes, this is a film that's one part Lord of the Rings, one part Star Wars, one part Lion King and seven parts CGI all mixed together with a hefty drizzle of Owls. Yes, almost all the characters are owls and they are voiced by a massive plethora of vocal talent, including Helen Mirren, Geoffry Rush, Sam Niell, David Wenham and Hugo Weaving, to name a few.

This film is nothing you haven't seen before.

All of the story elements are taken from somewhere else, all of the characters are standard fantasy archetypes and there's nothing original in this movie. That sounds a bit harsh, but we've got to remember that this is primarily a kids film, so lets look at it from that angle, since kids probably haven't seen Lord of the Rings or Star Wars (although they should definately see the Lion King) and won't for some time. So in that respect it should conjour up all the feelings that those films inspire in older audiances, in which case... okay then.

The only real problem with it being a kids film is that it's full of a sense of urgency that doesn't make sense to us oldies. They get captured RIGHT AWAY. They learn to fly RIGHT AWAY. They're chased out of the evil owl kingdom RIGHT AWAY. They make new friends RIGHT AWAY yadda yadda yadda. It gets a bit old how nobody seems to pause for breath every now and then, but again, it's a kids film (although I should make it clear that I don't like kids, in case you didn't know that already). The only really interesting part of this movie is who its director is.

Zack frickin' Snyder.

So yes, there is a ton of slow-motion, metal claw weilding, ariel owl-on-owl action and yes, it's almost as brutal as 300 and Watchmen. I mean, getting Zack to do a kids film... you might as well get Eli Roth, it's just surprising is all. But of course, because it's Snyder, the film is brilliantly choreographed and the graphics are flawless. That's not much in terms of making up for the rest, but it'll do.

After all, it's a kids film, right?

Next time: Skyline.