Sabriel + Mission Impossible

[lunabee34]

I just finished reading Sabriel, the first novel in the Abhorsen trilogy. I liked it well enough. It's an interesting universe, great world building, the way the magic works is interesting. But it left me emotionally uninvested. I mean, I'll read the next two novels, but it's curious to me the way that this first book didn't move me at all. I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud while reading Fionavar or how many times I put my hand on my chest and gasped when I was reading Ancillary Sword or how many times I cried while reading both. But nary a tear or a giggle or an OMG for Sabriel. I hope that changes in the next books.

Josh and I rewatched the first Mission Impossible movie last night. It came out in 1996. I watched it in the theater but remember almost nothing about it. I remember really liking it twenty years ago but not so much on this watch. I think it's just dated in a way that's not appealing to me now which possibly makes me shallow. LOL A movie like that now would be shot in shades of blue and grey and everything would be black and shiny and slick and fast paced. All the characters would be impossibly beautiful, and there would be a decent amount of humor and quippage, definitely a focus on snappy dialogue. Instead, everything moved really slowly, there wasn't a great deal of dialogue that seemed to matter, and I didn't feel super emotionally invested.

Even so, Ving Rhames and Vanessa Redgraves were awesome. Tom Cruise is always good; he's a phenomenal actor. I also liked the reveal of the villain(s).

What are y'all up to?

Comments

[archersangel]

i liked the first mission impossible better than second or the third, both of which i've seen only once. and i haven't even seen any that came after.
if i recall, one of the critics (siskel or ebert) asked people to explain what the plot of the first movie, an no one really could.

random trivia about MI2; dougray scott was supposed to be wolverine in the first x-men movie, but MI2 went a week or so over schedule & the x-men production couldn't wait so they went with hugh jackman. basically hugh jackman owes his career to a schedule conflict.

[lunabee34]

I did not know that about X-Men!

I think we will watch all of them so we can watch the latest; I'm interested to see how I feel about the next ones.

[umadoshi]

basically hugh jackman owes his career to a schedule conflict.

! I didn't know that, and I'm glad to know it now. ^_^

[the_rck]

I think that it's pretty hard to get emotionally involved in most of Nix's stories (at least those that I've read). I think part of it is that he doesn't dig very far into his character's emotions, not in ways that engage readers, at least. So you kind of know, for example, that a character is probably frightened because what's going on is clearly described as terrifying, but the character doesn't react with any depth to show how that particular person responds to fear and to make the reader feel empathetic fear.

In a way, that was a good thing for me because I'm not sure I could have faced the Dead in these books if Nix had managed something viscerally powerful. I suspect, though, that it's a weakness in Nix's writing that distances people from his work. His plots are well constructed, and I always want to know what happens, but I don't always relate to his characters as people.

That said, Lirael introduces one of my favorite characters in the series, and there is a setting that I wish we'd gotten to see more of.

[lunabee34]

This is a great way of thinking about how he approaches character. Thank you!

Who's your favorite character? I would guess it's either Lirael herself or the Disreputable Dog.

What's the setting? Is it the library? I think we got woefully little of the library.

[the_rck]

I wanted a vast amount more about the library. The details Nix gives hint at some fascinating things, and I particularly like the idea that nobody knows or has visited all that there is to the library.

And I'm very attached to the Disreputable Dog. I'm not generally very enthusiastic about dogs, but she really appeals to me.

I was not so enthusiastic about Sameth (though he definitely improves as things go on).

[lunabee34]

There's two pages of fic on AO3 for this series (you have to look it up under Garth Nix Old Kingdom), and on the second page is a story all about the library. I haven't read it (or any of the other stories) yet.