Saturday, April 05, 2014

Noah, The Bible, and Finales

Watched Noah today. Wanted to watch this because it's banned in Indonesia, so I am pretty curious, though when I saw bits of the trailer, I was already kinda squirming because of the artistic license taken on the story. The movie did put that disclaimer at the start of the movie. After watching it, I can see why people may find this offensive. It's not like the bible story I know and I hate artistic license that goes too far away from the true story. Of course one can argue, what is the true story in this case? Who knows what actually went down with the story of Noah? I guess for me, watching it from a background of the bible lessons I had when I was young, this movie is not a good one. Why for the purpose of artistic license there are transformers like rock acting as the fallen angels? Why is there another person in the ark aside from Noah's family? Why the focus on one of the son's wanting to have a wife? I googled, the sons already had wives, they were in the ark too. Why the focus on the sexual tension between the oldest son and Emma Watson's character? Why made Noah to be rather insane? The oldest son said out loud what I was thinking, "Are you mad?". Then there are also small things that made me feel weird, like the costumes. They were pretty modern, they wore boots, boots with sole! Again who to say that there wasn't any boots before the flood? Seeing those costumes and the setting, it feels more like it's being set far into the future after the earth has been destroyed badly and humans have to start from the beginning as has been explored by many movies. Perhaps if this movie just say that it's inspired by the story of Noah and set it far into the future and change a few names, this could work. However when you present it as the story of Noah, well that's a rather sensitive issue. As purely entertainment, I don't think it's that amazing, it's not that exhilarating and at times felt like it's moving rather slowly, or perhaps it's just me getting quite annoyed from the many times I felt not that happy that the story moves that way. So as a movie it's not that amazing, the story is not that true to what people may know, but do these things warrant a ban in Indonesia? I don't think so. I don't think it's damaging to anyone's faith. Let the people watch it and let them form their own opinion of the movie. Darn over zealous muslims in Indonesia :(

So I don't fancy the movie much, but I have to say Logan Lerman was interesting in this. I only watched a bit of Percy Jackson from tv but I do love him a lot in The Perks of Being a Wallflower where he also worked with Emma Watson. Too bad his character in Noah is not that amazingly written, but at least he has more screen time than the elder brother. What's interesting for me is seeing this different side of him. Perhaps it's the haircut, but I feel like there's a bit of Paul Dano in the way he looks. There's a bit of creepyness in it, so it's interesting and it's nice to see him in a different look, to not be all soft and lovable :P

Since we're in the subject of bible story, I have started watching The Bible. I thought it's just gonna be a drama, but it's presented more like a historical reinterpretation with narration and all, I'm not sure how to explain it. Anyway, it is in the History channel after all. It's interesting but there's also some things that I didn't expect to be depicted the way they did it, for example the gladiators like angels in the Sodom and Gomorrah destruction. It was interesting though that they chose an Asian to portray one of the angels. I haven't finished watching the whole thing. I have to admit, I didn't enjoy it much because it's a bit boring for me, but since I've started, I think I will finish it. It made me dig into my brain about all those religion lessons in school. For example there was one part when I was thinking, I think Lot's wife looked back as they left and she was turned into salt and yes my memory served me right. A lesson there for people who look back when they're supposed to be moving forward, don't do it! Turning into salt is awful :P It's different learning all these stories as a child and then seeing them again as an adult. This maybe blasphemous of me to say, but really there's some insane things in the bible, burning bushes speaking to you, having to sacrifice your own son, a God that destroys everything and kills, they all make it kinda hard to be a believer. I mean if now someone says he hears God in whispers or dreams or perhaps burning bushes and God asks this person to sacrifice his son, we would think that this guy is crazy, no? I don't know, I guess my spiritual crisis is still lingering even though right now I am praying more to God to help me in life. Anyway, not sure if I'll watch the movie Son of God which is also part of this series. By the way, I read an interesting article in CNN about this movie, about why Jesus has to be sexy? Really though, the Jesus in this movie is hot :P

On other tv news, did you all watch the series finale of How I Met Your Mother? I hate it a lot! I don't like the last season, as the episode goes, I was thinking what a shame that this was the direction they chose for the last season. I would rather watch the friends being back in their apartment and bar rather than in a new different setting altogether and not even together in the early episodes with Marshall not being there. Then the finale was just like a stab stab to my heart. I'm not gonna give any spoiler here, but darn I was made to be Team Barney and to see that's what happened to him, damn it. I imagine Marshall and Lily rolling their eyes with all the stupidity their friends make in the years ahead. In the end, they are really the true couple. This is another example of how the ending of something can ruin all the good work that's been put - in the case of HIMYM, the work of many years :( I know the writers have planned it this way since from the beginning, but I guess the last season is what did them in. The additional season to tell a different story made it really really hard for people to buy the ending :( In contrast, I love the finale of this season of The Walking Dead, simply because no one died! The last episode started with Rick all bloody, looking dazed, sitting alone and I was like what, what happened? Where's Carl?!? I was pretty much preparing myself for major death as the story goes, even until the end I felt maybe it's really gonna be Carl, but no one died and that made me feel really happy :P

I finished reading Si Cacing dan Kotoran Kesayangannya by Ajahn Brahm. I think it's better in the original language, English. I can't say I am much inspired by the book. It has its moments but it also didn't really make a lasting impression. I think I've forgotten most of what I read. So that is the first book of this year. Got a new book today, Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. I chose it because the cover was interesting and also it won some award :P The author also wrote Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I didn't read the book, but the movie was very moving, I cried a lot. It's April and I am only in my second book, not sure if I get 5 by the end of the year. I need to try harder.

One last thing to get off my chest. I debated if I should write this down, but I need to vent. Told someone that I will do something, didn't even plan to, but then it just happened, so anyway I asked her to let me know if she's interested. She told me she'll let me know soon. It's been 3 weeks and no news. I feel so pissed off. I know you can say, why don't you just ask her? I just feel that if you say you're gonna do something, you should do it! If she wants in on the plan, the plan has to change and the deadline is coming soon and now I just feel I am left hanging and this is not the first time it happened with her. I just feel it's rather disrespectful. I guess I feel even more pissed because I often feel people don't appreciate and value me much. Things like this and like finding out big news from Facebook damages me because I feel people don't care about me and you have no idea how true I believe that to be :( So anyway, I gotta move forward and stick with my original plan. Hope all will be well.

:) eKa @ 10:25:00 PM •