The movie was amazing! There's just nothing like the feeling I get as the music starts and the star field scrolling text starts for a movie I've never seen before. It was a little long, one critic said they hadn't noticed how long it was, but I felt it. They did a good job keeping things moving, but after a while it's like what now? And the what now didn't disappoint, any time, but after so many the next one is fatigued. I don't know if that makes sense. It was hard to predict things, and not because they used b role film for the trailers. I'm still not happy they had done that with Rogue One. They mixed things up enough from the standard epic journey that being able to guess the next step wasn't easy. It's refreshing to have a story be different. At the same time, there's a reason the standard story works. There was just a lot for them to keep track of, and it made the movie feel like it could have been done over two movies if not for it all happening at the same time.
I am disappointed in their lack of travel time. I don't know how else they could do things, but it feels very unrealistic for so much travel to take place in so little time. That was something that bugged me in Rogue One too, particularly their ability to monitor something happening "parsecs" away in real time. There should be a delay between when it happens, and when the base finds out what happens. That tends to break my immersion.
All that being said, Rey was marvelous, Luke was a humanized legend, Poe was agonizingly familiar, and Finn was selfless and selfish at all the wrong times and just so lovely for it. I think I most identified with Rose out of them all, as much as I'd want to be Rey I think I'd be Rose. Carrie Fisher will be missed, but the next generation is finally ready to step out on their own. I can't wait for the next movie. For the Han Solo movie too, I am so curious as to what they plan to do with him.
Afterward we did go get dinner. Seems like I've been eating out a lot lately. I know Hal and I, and Max now too, have been getting dinner out once a week. But going out with Sam and Candace the other day, and getting lunch out with Candace before that, and before. This has gotten out of hand. It's been fun going out all the time, but I'm feeling the pinch. I don't think Hal has noticed considering his new "job" and Sam has never seemed to care about how much money he spends. Hal has been happy to cover our bills since we started officially dating, and that's been easier on me. But I can't help but feel a little bit like a freeloader. On the other hand, knowing he's getting paid by this secret society, I'm kinda happy to let him spend it. It is a lot of money to be spending though, and it's making me uncomfortable even if it's not my money. I think I'm going to have to start insisting on packing lunches and having dinner at home. Hell, if Hal is getting paid so well, maybe I can get him in the habit of cooking better. That might be a fun project, especially after next week with his finals.
Anyway, I'm going on about that, and not getting to our dinner conversation. Max and Robert told us about their adventures on Wednesday, which to be honest didn't seem like much. They drove up into the foothills and stopped at a rest stop. While there, whatever was making the noise must've come their way because they said they started hearing it. It got loud enough that they retreated into his car. It kept getting louder and caused his window to break and his windshield to crack. They had to cover their ears it was so painfully loud. Then just as fast as it came it moved on.
I think the most interesting thing though was that while it did sound like rushing wind, they both said there wasn't any wind. At least, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that would make that sound. They didn't see anything, though while they were huddled in Robert's car they weren't able to see much.
I was watching Robert the whole time, and while he seemed mildly interested in the event itself, he seemed confused as to why we were all so interested in it. Obviously Max hadn't filled him in on the larger context. And as Max loves to explain things, he just watched. Hal was asking questions and Max answered them as best she could, but Robert stayed quiet.
When Max and Hal finally allowed, I took the chance to ask Robert what he thought about the tree in LODO. Robert didn't hesitate to say that the city should hire some pest control to get rid of the crows and then cut the damn thing down. He was really hostile towards it, and I never did get a good answer as to why. He didn't seem like an overly religious person, but I did notice a little cross around his neck. I don't want to lump all Christians together on this, 'cause I know they fall on all sides of the spectrum. But it's hard not to when the only Christians who are vocal about it are so adamant that the tree should be destroyed.
I asked him why he felt the tree should be cut down, he mumbled some flimsy excuse about it being in the way of traffic and causing problems. So I asked him why we couldn't just put a roundabout around it. It's too much effort, or would cost too much money, and that's tax dollars out of our pockets. Even if it would create jobs building the roundabout, and hiring someone to make sure the tree was watered and cared for. I asked him if he was even curious about where it came from, how it got there. He just shrugged and said "no."
As hostile as he was toward the tree when the subject came up, he didn't have the same passion toward his reasons for cutting it down. I get the feeling he wasn't being honest with us about his motivations. But as I asked more questions, he just started getting hostile toward me. I don't think Hal noticed, guys don't seem to catch on to that stuff as easily, but Max noticed and changed the subject quickly asking about his next game. He plays soccer for the university.
We avoided the subject for the rest of the night, and once Robert was able to talk about his own interests he calmed down and got the familiar jock cockiness about him. I lost interest after that and just let the rest of the night happen. We eventually finished up and headed out. Max texted me later saying she probably wouldn't be bringing him to any of our dinners again.
Not the greatest ending to a great night. And I have work in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment