On a brighter note, today my company started training on the software system that my team has been developing for the last 20 months. It went off with very few glitches, and no major problems. While there is still work to be done on the system over the next few weeks, including the inevitable bugs that always manage to appear, the important thing is that I finally have something to show for the past two years of my career (not to mention the untold amounts of capital that I've burned through in that time).
So, next time I drink, it will be to celebrate, not to attempt to cope with stress. I wonder if anyone will be able to tell the difference.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Raping my childhood memories
Recently on television (which I generally only watch between 1AM and 3AM) I have seen commercials for a new children's fantasy movie, The Seeker, which is based on a novel called The Dark is Rising. Now, there are a lot of bad fantasy movies out there, but this one looks like it's going to be up there among the worst. The previews have contained terrible dialog, terrible acting, and terrible special effects. The Dark is Rising also happens to be one of my favorite books from adolescence, and seeing it blasphemed in this manner is nearly enough to bring me to tears.
What really gets me is the complete senselessness of the whole thing. I doubt that this movie will bring in more than $10 million over its lifetime, which can't possibly recoup all the money sunk into it. I mean, who's the target audience? Mentally disabled children who read complex morality tales, yet are willing to sit through dialog not quite good enough for a George Lucas flick (one such brilliant line: "I'm supposed to save the world? I don't even know how to talk to a girl!")? I can't imagine anyone else who has read the books and would not feel like emptying their stomachs upon the briefest glimpse on this abomination. Granted, there aren't a lot of kids' movies in the theaters, and there are parents out there who will feel the need to drop off their spawn for some peace, quiet, and illicit activity, but most people I know don't actually hate their children enough to subject them to this.
But, of course, the movie industry is nothing if not filled with talentless, uncreative hacks whose sole purpose in life is to try to emulate the success of others' art without the capacity to understand what made that art great. So with the success of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, the assumption is that "children's books = money", thus we get crap like Eragon and The Seeker. Unfortunately, Eragon actually made money, despite being one of the worst adaptations I've ever seen, but it's a much more recent and popular series than The Dark is Rising. I just really wish that someone had the decency to say "This is a terrible movie, and there's no way that we will cover our costs if we continue. Let's kill this whole thing right now, never speak of it again, and be glad that none of us will be associated with this."
What really gets me is the complete senselessness of the whole thing. I doubt that this movie will bring in more than $10 million over its lifetime, which can't possibly recoup all the money sunk into it. I mean, who's the target audience? Mentally disabled children who read complex morality tales, yet are willing to sit through dialog not quite good enough for a George Lucas flick (one such brilliant line: "I'm supposed to save the world? I don't even know how to talk to a girl!")? I can't imagine anyone else who has read the books and would not feel like emptying their stomachs upon the briefest glimpse on this abomination. Granted, there aren't a lot of kids' movies in the theaters, and there are parents out there who will feel the need to drop off their spawn for some peace, quiet, and illicit activity, but most people I know don't actually hate their children enough to subject them to this.
But, of course, the movie industry is nothing if not filled with talentless, uncreative hacks whose sole purpose in life is to try to emulate the success of others' art without the capacity to understand what made that art great. So with the success of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, the assumption is that "children's books = money", thus we get crap like Eragon and The Seeker. Unfortunately, Eragon actually made money, despite being one of the worst adaptations I've ever seen, but it's a much more recent and popular series than The Dark is Rising. I just really wish that someone had the decency to say "This is a terrible movie, and there's no way that we will cover our costs if we continue. Let's kill this whole thing right now, never speak of it again, and be glad that none of us will be associated with this."
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