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Dec. 6th, 2007 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenFinally finished Tin Man last night.
I still don't get the title. The rest of it had it's take-it-or-leave-it aspects.
Take!
Cain: Loved him and his little angsty hotness. I like the actor. He's a bit player in lots of things, but he's ethereally pretty (his hair really is white blonde, and his eyes that blue, it's beautiful) so I tend to notice him. He also had a really lovely silhouette with his costuming; it was very character-appropriate and flattering. And everyone knows I am a slut for guys with guns strapped to their thighs (hello, John Crichton!).
But lest ye think I was only in it for the pretty, I am such a sucker for the terse, gruff, heart-of-gold diamond-in-the-rough characters. Add to that the obvious PTSD case who spent 10 some years in a tiny box being psychologically tortured with his failure to protect his family, and I turn into the biggest pile of mush over this guy. I can't help it. Every single one of my fandom-y character-love buttons got pushed. Like I said, I still don't get why the show is called Tin Man--since he made his scenes count but they played second to a lot of the DG shit--but I don't especially mind that they did.
Glitch/Ambrose: Speaking of sluts, Alan Cumming, everyone! Alan Cumming! This man is so effortlessly charming, I cannot begin to love him enough (and he's so seemingly rapacious, I doubt anyone could). I liked him better as the stupider version, but only because of the innocence of that character versus the other. Ambrose clearly dabbled in some dark shit without really ever thinking about what he was doing--he was like a less responsible Einstein, say, about his creations. I am pretty sure that he said he invented the tin prisons that Cain got thrown into. Of course, Glitch claimed to have created just about everything interesting they came across, but he was proven right about a few of them, so I believe he did make the prisons.
They didn't dwell on it precisely because Alan Cumming, though very capable of dramatically wounded portrayals (Nightcrawler!!!!), is much better at being very lad-ish. And when he's got a giant zipper on his head and is wearing a thrift-store HMS Pinafore costume that's seen better days, it makes more sense to go for the giggles than the angst. But Jesus--THE GUY GOT HIS BRAIN CUT OUT OF HIS HEAD FOR KNOWING TOO MUCH. I missed the part about why he let them, but the fact that it happened supercedes any need to know that. 'Cause eeeeeeeeeew.
But it's Alan Cumming. I was able to ignore it for the most part because he's got such a cute smile; he clearly wanted very badly to have sex with the guy playing Cain (and let's face it: everyone else, too); and he had the most fun with it. I appreciate his enthusiasm. The fact that some of his enthusiasm is directed at the guy I like doesn't hurt neither.
Of all the characters from the original story getting an update, I liked Glitch-as-Scarecrow best. Cain-as-Tin-Man was second only because they went overboard with the double justification of his character's connection to the classic one--Tin Man as nickname for policeman and the tin man-shaped prison he was in. There were also the constant references to his needing a heart, which really made me wish he'd just rip one out of someone's chest and give it to the other three so they'd leave him alone. HEART!
Azkadelia: Not hard to like her compared to DG when she's got better clothes, but I generally just liked her better. Even when evil. Maybe especially when evil since the actress had more trouble being good and mushy with DG at the end. I totally want the chain-mail thing she wore at the end. And the leather opera gloves. Gorgeousness. But no, I did enjoy her wickedness, even if it was ineffective. There was that totally inappropriate glow she got after sucking the life out of the one dude. And her name is just really, really pretty, too.
Leave!
DG: DEAR GOD. I hated her. I couldn't stand her. If you pretended that she was the MacGuffin and just followed the other characters, the story was fine. I even got pumped when they were all upset that she'd been taken away and was like, "Go! Go get her!" Which I then immediately regretted because she'd come back onscreen and I'd remembered why I disliked her so very much. Every time the rest of the cast had to just sit and stare simperingly at how totally beloved DG was, I wanted to puke. Made it very hard to watch the end, let me tell you.
But there's just no point to DG that was explored with any depth. It is, in fact, her fault that ALL OF HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY have suffered. That includes the robots who pretended to be her parents (whom she immediately throws over in favor of a queen she doesn't remember--and who is the reason she doesn't--and a mutton-chopped father whose name accuses him of not actually liking women). I swallowed bile when Cain said it wasn't her fault. Um, honey, Iove you from the fedora down through the trenchcoat and side holster, don't make me smack you. IT WAS HER FAULT. Basically, everything going wrong was because she was a coward. If Cain, Glitch, Raw, Toto, and everyone else just sat down and thought about it, they'd find plenty to be peeved about. Remember that family/brain/community/freedom/crops/not-totalitarian state you had? ::POINTS FINGER AT DG:: HER FAULT.
How the hell did they think they could write a story of any heft when the main character is a lifeless doll just meant to be adored who, when it is revealed that she's actually horribly flawed and responsible, gets a pass on that? Sheesh. If DG had really been acted well, maybe the actress in question could have shown her to be destroyed by the knowledge and then rally in anger at herself and determination to right the wrongs she unleashed, MAYBE then it wouldn't have been so bad.
But they got Zooey Daschenal instead. The most emoting she managed was crying when she was locked in a tomb, and I'm not impressed. I'd cry too if I were buried alive. She spent the rest of the miniseries as literally a blank canvas. She squeaked and droned all her lines. I get that she might have been attempting bewilderment, and, later, stoicism, but it just read as flatline nothing. Which is why I still get creeped out by whenever she would move because I wasn't expecting the dummy to do that. It's such a disconnect from her barely-there zombified persona to the skipping about (she did do very childish body acting). I've seen better acting on the Sci-Fi Channel's Saturday Night Movie (which, dear lord, did they advertise for all the friggin' time).
Plot: What plot? And not in the good, smutty way like fanfic neither. I just didn't even notice one enough to say it was good or bad. There was just endless chase and recall, kind of like a video game where, if you make a wrong turn, you get sent back to the start position and have to try over. That's what it was. They'd get so far, then Azkadelia would show up and take them all back to the tower. I'm suprised she never found the emerald herself since it clearly was within a few days' walking distance of her tower. It had to have been as they foursome got to it within the time left before the eclipse when they started out in Azkadelia's stronghold. They only had horses for the journey back not the one out. Redonkulous. Then again, I'm thinking of my sister who can't find anything in a room that isn't literally under her nose, so maybe Azkadelia's just not good at finding shit.
And the rest I was indifferent to--Toto, "the cowardly lion" character, Callum Keith Rennie. Yes, I was able to be indifferent to Callum Keith Rennie, which I guess should rightly go into the negative column about this miniseries. Mostly, "indifferent" is how I would label this miniseries. I think there were some really keen ideas and themes, but they weren't realized in a story that made any sense or had any dramatic weight or motivation. Which is sad. As I said to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ivy03, this is one that I think could be improved by fanfic because some fanfic writers would pick up on the really good themes and run with them. Any direction would be better than the one in which the miniseries went.
I still don't get the title. The rest of it had it's take-it-or-leave-it aspects.
Take!
Cain: Loved him and his little angsty hotness. I like the actor. He's a bit player in lots of things, but he's ethereally pretty (his hair really is white blonde, and his eyes that blue, it's beautiful) so I tend to notice him. He also had a really lovely silhouette with his costuming; it was very character-appropriate and flattering. And everyone knows I am a slut for guys with guns strapped to their thighs (hello, John Crichton!).
But lest ye think I was only in it for the pretty, I am such a sucker for the terse, gruff, heart-of-gold diamond-in-the-rough characters. Add to that the obvious PTSD case who spent 10 some years in a tiny box being psychologically tortured with his failure to protect his family, and I turn into the biggest pile of mush over this guy. I can't help it. Every single one of my fandom-y character-love buttons got pushed. Like I said, I still don't get why the show is called Tin Man--since he made his scenes count but they played second to a lot of the DG shit--but I don't especially mind that they did.
Glitch/Ambrose: Speaking of sluts, Alan Cumming, everyone! Alan Cumming! This man is so effortlessly charming, I cannot begin to love him enough (and he's so seemingly rapacious, I doubt anyone could). I liked him better as the stupider version, but only because of the innocence of that character versus the other. Ambrose clearly dabbled in some dark shit without really ever thinking about what he was doing--he was like a less responsible Einstein, say, about his creations. I am pretty sure that he said he invented the tin prisons that Cain got thrown into. Of course, Glitch claimed to have created just about everything interesting they came across, but he was proven right about a few of them, so I believe he did make the prisons.
They didn't dwell on it precisely because Alan Cumming, though very capable of dramatically wounded portrayals (Nightcrawler!!!!), is much better at being very lad-ish. And when he's got a giant zipper on his head and is wearing a thrift-store HMS Pinafore costume that's seen better days, it makes more sense to go for the giggles than the angst. But Jesus--THE GUY GOT HIS BRAIN CUT OUT OF HIS HEAD FOR KNOWING TOO MUCH. I missed the part about why he let them, but the fact that it happened supercedes any need to know that. 'Cause eeeeeeeeeew.
But it's Alan Cumming. I was able to ignore it for the most part because he's got such a cute smile; he clearly wanted very badly to have sex with the guy playing Cain (and let's face it: everyone else, too); and he had the most fun with it. I appreciate his enthusiasm. The fact that some of his enthusiasm is directed at the guy I like doesn't hurt neither.
Of all the characters from the original story getting an update, I liked Glitch-as-Scarecrow best. Cain-as-Tin-Man was second only because they went overboard with the double justification of his character's connection to the classic one--Tin Man as nickname for policeman and the tin man-shaped prison he was in. There were also the constant references to his needing a heart, which really made me wish he'd just rip one out of someone's chest and give it to the other three so they'd leave him alone. HEART!
Azkadelia: Not hard to like her compared to DG when she's got better clothes, but I generally just liked her better. Even when evil. Maybe especially when evil since the actress had more trouble being good and mushy with DG at the end. I totally want the chain-mail thing she wore at the end. And the leather opera gloves. Gorgeousness. But no, I did enjoy her wickedness, even if it was ineffective. There was that totally inappropriate glow she got after sucking the life out of the one dude. And her name is just really, really pretty, too.
Leave!
DG: DEAR GOD. I hated her. I couldn't stand her. If you pretended that she was the MacGuffin and just followed the other characters, the story was fine. I even got pumped when they were all upset that she'd been taken away and was like, "Go! Go get her!" Which I then immediately regretted because she'd come back onscreen and I'd remembered why I disliked her so very much. Every time the rest of the cast had to just sit and stare simperingly at how totally beloved DG was, I wanted to puke. Made it very hard to watch the end, let me tell you.
But there's just no point to DG that was explored with any depth. It is, in fact, her fault that ALL OF HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY have suffered. That includes the robots who pretended to be her parents (whom she immediately throws over in favor of a queen she doesn't remember--and who is the reason she doesn't--and a mutton-chopped father whose name accuses him of not actually liking women). I swallowed bile when Cain said it wasn't her fault. Um, honey, Iove you from the fedora down through the trenchcoat and side holster, don't make me smack you. IT WAS HER FAULT. Basically, everything going wrong was because she was a coward. If Cain, Glitch, Raw, Toto, and everyone else just sat down and thought about it, they'd find plenty to be peeved about. Remember that family/brain/community/freedom/crops/not-totalitarian state you had? ::POINTS FINGER AT DG:: HER FAULT.
How the hell did they think they could write a story of any heft when the main character is a lifeless doll just meant to be adored who, when it is revealed that she's actually horribly flawed and responsible, gets a pass on that? Sheesh. If DG had really been acted well, maybe the actress in question could have shown her to be destroyed by the knowledge and then rally in anger at herself and determination to right the wrongs she unleashed, MAYBE then it wouldn't have been so bad.
But they got Zooey Daschenal instead. The most emoting she managed was crying when she was locked in a tomb, and I'm not impressed. I'd cry too if I were buried alive. She spent the rest of the miniseries as literally a blank canvas. She squeaked and droned all her lines. I get that she might have been attempting bewilderment, and, later, stoicism, but it just read as flatline nothing. Which is why I still get creeped out by whenever she would move because I wasn't expecting the dummy to do that. It's such a disconnect from her barely-there zombified persona to the skipping about (she did do very childish body acting). I've seen better acting on the Sci-Fi Channel's Saturday Night Movie (which, dear lord, did they advertise for all the friggin' time).
Plot: What plot? And not in the good, smutty way like fanfic neither. I just didn't even notice one enough to say it was good or bad. There was just endless chase and recall, kind of like a video game where, if you make a wrong turn, you get sent back to the start position and have to try over. That's what it was. They'd get so far, then Azkadelia would show up and take them all back to the tower. I'm suprised she never found the emerald herself since it clearly was within a few days' walking distance of her tower. It had to have been as they foursome got to it within the time left before the eclipse when they started out in Azkadelia's stronghold. They only had horses for the journey back not the one out. Redonkulous. Then again, I'm thinking of my sister who can't find anything in a room that isn't literally under her nose, so maybe Azkadelia's just not good at finding shit.
And the rest I was indifferent to--Toto, "the cowardly lion" character, Callum Keith Rennie. Yes, I was able to be indifferent to Callum Keith Rennie, which I guess should rightly go into the negative column about this miniseries. Mostly, "indifferent" is how I would label this miniseries. I think there were some really keen ideas and themes, but they weren't realized in a story that made any sense or had any dramatic weight or motivation. Which is sad. As I said to
ivy03, this is one that I think could be improved by fanfic because some fanfic writers would pick up on the really good themes and run with them. Any direction would be better than the one in which the miniseries went.
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 07:03 pm (UTC)You have put your problem on why I've never liked Dorothy Gale in the Judy Garland movie either: she's a Mary Sue. Everyone loves her. She's the most important thing to ever happen to Oz. Why? Because her house landed on a witch, not because of anything she did herself. Same problem with DG here. I didn't expect them to give her death, but I do appreciate making her nominally culpable. I still would have liked it better if she'd been the key simple because of her birthright as a plausible pretender to the throne, not because of her special light magic, but I can't have everything.
Not starting anything, just saying...
Date: 2007-12-06 07:52 pm (UTC)As for Toto........ I was chanting "shoot the damn dog already!" WAY too much. Love the actor, hate the character. Even in his most useful moment on screen, he ended up not being of much use at all. Casting Lassie as Lassie would have come across better.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 08:04 pm (UTC)That's a good point, though I doubt most fic centered on this would be so heavily researched as anything like what you put into the Constantine stories you wrote. I still say people should write this fanfic so that I can enjoy the parts I liked and the have the parts I didn't fixed. Then again, I can't be arsed to write fanfic for fandoms I love, let alone ones I hardly care about, so I can't really make demands here.
You have put your problem on why I've never liked Dorothy Gale in the Judy Garland movie either: she's a Mary Sue.
You're completely right of course, I just never thought about it that way. I think that might explain a lot of why I dislike the Oz story as I know it (only from the Judy Garland movie, really). The other thing I dislike, as a rule, is people with no specifically great characteristics who dream of better, newer, zanier worlds having their dreams come true. For one thing, that's just annoying that anyone who steps out of their relative normality is instantly king/queen of another. Secondly, it's not like they earn that right ever or had anything really going for them to begin with to justify it. Lastly, if I can't have that happen to me, damn it, nobody should!
Re: Not starting anything, just saying...
Date: 2007-12-06 08:14 pm (UTC)What character was there to be disappointed with, really? It's disappointing for the fact that the Cowardly Lion, moreso than the other two in the original, had the most to overcome. The Tin Man's lack of heart didn't stop him caring, and the Scarecrow wasn't all that stupid for not having a brain. The Cowardly Lion, on the other hand, really was a total chicken and he needed to stop that shit. Oh well, this wasn't his venue. Maybe when the sequel comes around?
As for Toto, where do I know the actor from? I thought the "toto-tutor" thing was way too cutesy. I appreciated them leaving out such monikers when they could or at least justifying them better (I still think Tin Man, aesthetically, worked because it made sense for the profession of the character). Plus, there was really so very little he was needed for. Azkadelia could have tracked DG and co. easily with her winged monkeys and had them be discreet. By the time the guys caught up with DG she'd managed to get out of the tomb. There really wasn't much that Toto, specifically, did that couldn't have been otherwise plotted around.
Re: Not starting anything, just saying...
Date: 2007-12-06 08:52 pm (UTC)I think on some level they even put more work into Toto than into Raw. Rather than let our Cowardly Lion evolve in any organic fashion they instead went with a last moment of bravery as a moment of redemption. They did mention (when Raw was captured in the beginning of the 2nd part) that the reason his people didn't like him was because he ran at some important moment that they chose not to go into. The one thing he was asked before the older "lion" died was to look after the kid (hello set up for part 3). The whole reason (as stated in one of the interviews with the director) Raw was a coward was because his ability allow him to see all the bad things coming (LAME!!!). Really what I saw was that they felt compelled to put in the lion character, but only did so at face value. Clearly the focus was on DG, Glitch, and our Tin Man.
Re: Not starting anything, just saying...
Date: 2007-12-06 09:35 pm (UTC)I like the idea of the cowardly lion being a psychic and therefore being messed up. That is an archetype character that has a long, proud history, and it makes sense. If you weren't able to control what imagery you got from people when they touched you (a la Matthew Lillard in Thirteen Ghosts), you'd be a bit of a scaredy freak, too. Alas, they didn't bother making that clear enough. Like Toto, Raw was pretty redundant; he did have a function, but it was more to establish how awesome or smart or caring (Cain, Glitch, DG, respectively) the other three were. Sad, really.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-07 04:37 am (UTC)