So for a long time I've had a problem with stuff that's popular at the moment, even moreso if it's commercial and 'trendy' and so forth and so on. Well, yeah. Uh... here goes.

I don't even know where to start.

I'll start with the fact that

is on Finnish TV right now. They had (/are having) a major advertising campaign and everything. I don't know if anyone I know watches the show, but goddamnit if I don't.
I did watch the first two or so episodes a long time ago, but I wasn't too interested at that time - I wathced it, like I have most of the stuff I like, because of tvtropes.org. I was doing something else (surfing the net, drawing etc.) while watching these, though, so I wasn't concentrating on the show.
And then I watched episode 19 ("Dream On", the one guest starring Neil Patrick Harris, directed by Joss Whedon) when it aired, too, but watching it out of the context - well, it didn't all make that much sense.
And then one day I read that the show's coming to Finland and I'm like, huh, what am I supposed to think?
A show so popular in America that it was promised to have a second and third season way before the first one even had finished - this could be really good or really, really bad.

And time goes by...

So there I was. It was Sunday, the first episode had aired the previous evening and I'm thinking, 'What the hell, it won't kill me or anything; I'll watch it as well'. Only the broadcasting company here doesn't have the rights for putting the episodes up on the net. If they did, I would proably have just watched the first episode, and waited a week, and watched the next one and so on.
But guess what happened? Here I am, waiting for tomorrow (or, like, the day after, really) when I get to see the next one (which, by the way, is a Halloween episode and apparently features songs only from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which has me excited but some other fans not so much), American schedule. They're like a season and three episodes ahead of us.

...
So, a bit of background there, eh? I'm not one for short explanations.


Uh... I am deeply and utterly ashamed to say that I like Glee. It's not the awesomest TV-series ever, but it's better than most other stuf the put out. Wins every single reality show by far, if nothing else.
It's got good music (and bad music the show manages to turn good and make me ever further ashamed because of it. I mean, like, oh god can I admit it Lady Gaga) and dancing and drama and comedy.
And, uh, music.
Uhh... I'm not gonna tell you about the plot. And to be honest I don't know what else to talk about. Well I'll just say that there's kinda alot variation between different episodes - some are just plain ridiculous, but some others are actually really good.
The music's good. I even tweeted, when watching the first episode, that a show with background music like an a cappella version of Bach's Toccata and Fugue can't be bad.
Right now they're singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. The cast are kind of good singers, though there is a lot of autotuning as well, which of course isn't the best possible choice, but still. I actually know like half of the songs in one way or another, too. And there have been some seriously honestly outright good if not great songs too, like three pieces of Queen's music, two Beatles songs and other stuff.
A rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody got me crying, in fact. Well, it was the last episode of the first season, packed with emotion, and it was around one o'clock am when I watched it, so those facts might have had something to do with it, but still, it's such a powerful, strong song, and though the show's version was far away from the awesomeness of the original, it still was still emotional fro me.
And then. Favourite characters. Well, sure, there are characters one likes and then some one doesn't, but who would want to talk about the characters they don't like? Except of they're seriously horrible and you need to get your opinions on them out.
Though not my favourite character any time soon, the cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, in all her horribleness is kind of awesome. Something about her cruel honesty is just, well, uplifting.
My actual favourite character should so totally not come as a surprise to anyone who knows the show and characters, seriously, but still.



Also, just FYI, of the 55+ gifs I have of this show like 85% are of this character alone, so choosing one was nice.
Kurt Hummel is, from what I understand, the character best-liked by the great public (or, well, like, fans of the show), but also disliked in his clicheyness - apparently also disliked by fans of the great big main chracter Rachel with whom this character has, at least up until the end of episode 2x04 had some disagreements with.
I completely adore him, though. Not only is the actor, Chris Colfer, so cute it's horrible, he also sings very well (and gets to sing good songs too!) and acts good too, and the character actually has some development. The character is a bit like what I'd like to be like, really, 'cause he isn't really afraid of saying what he wants to say. I'd expect him to get even more development in the future, too - November ninth when the guy who plays HARRY POTTER in A Very Potter Musical, which everyone should know and have seen, enters the show.

And then what? Dunno.
Watch the show.
That's pretty much it.

The end, of course, would be a good place for a YT video. Or, like, twenty.
But I seriously don't think that anyone would watch that many, so I'll just put up this one.




Also, on a side not of real life, I wonder if this show would get more people interested in singing in choirs? Our school choir has like eight participants at best and we could use some more people.

Hurm hurm. Long-ish and image heavy-ish post, dare I say, with five or so embedded videos. Took my damn time writing this again.

First of all, take a minute (Seriously, this is 54 seconds long) to listen this piece of music. My love for film music lives on, and this one particular theme music is among my (current) favourites. Mind you, it's still proabay only #50 or so.

</tbody>

Internet:
I write like Douglas Adams I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!	I Write Like... So here's this one fun site that tells you which famous writer your texts resemble. The stuff I write here on LJ most often came out as 'Douglas Adams', and my fiction was quite evenly either 'PG Wodehouse' or 'James Joyce'. Just that... that James Joyce guy seems a bit... well.
What on earth has happened to IMDb? Everything's CHANGED!

Music:
	Red Hot Chili Peppers Okay so I've sort of been interested in this band for quite a while now, going so far back as like 2005-06. The first initial interest overlapped with that to Michael Jackson, and everyone knows that Jackson won that one back then. Since then I've been listening to them on and off - I had about four songs on my computer, and if I happenend to catch a video of theirs on a music channel, I would watch it. Now a week or so ago I borrowed the band's latest album, the double-disc Stadium Arcadium, from a friend, and I have been listning to it kind of intensely. Also, you know how some songs you hear, and at first you think they're crap/not that great/okay, and then the more you listen to them, the more you like them, yeah? And that then there are those rarer songs that you instantly fall completely in love with. Yeah, well, that's what happened to me with Disc 2/Mars opener Desecration Smile. There just was something in the melody of the chorus that made me go whooooah on the first listen. Here, you take a listen, too.
	The video's a bit, well, uh, blergh, I might say, but the song's what I'm talking about here.

Literature:
	Good Omens Oh, this book! I can't remember if I've written about this earlier, but no worries. I will now. So, a book written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, when they still were just two writers, not those great, well loved icons of the literature world we know today. And this book! This book! It should be apparent that I'm rather kind of speechless here. So what we have, here, this Saturday, on Earth, is an angel and a demon more friends than enemies; the 11-year-old Son of Satan and his human friends; a witch and a witchfinder; and the Four Horsemenpersons of the Apocalypse, plus other eccentric characters. Waiting for the Armageddon to happen. Or, you know, bringing about the Armageddon. Or trying to prevent it from happening. All depends oh who you are, really. This is most likey the funniest book I have ever read. Just perfectly hilarious. (Granted, I have not read anything else touched by Pratchett, but I will. Rest assured.) This is a book with many characters an many plots and just ah really. Very exciting, too, with all the characters. It usually bothers me when there are great and many changes in the point of view, but not with this book (though what there was was quite enough, one could have hoped for more Aziraphale and Crowley). I no really I have no words. It's impossible. All I can say is that I recommend this book to everyone. Every. One. And, well, then there's the fanfiction, some of which is very great. I mention Manchester Lost, which I actually dubbed as my favourite fanfic ever the last time I read it (Yes, I've read it more than once. Must mean it's good, eh?)
	The Sandman Most certainly has spoilers. I finished reading this one day here before schools started. I did sort of know what was going to happen, but it still came as a surprise. Luckily it was all taken very calmly and because there was rather little (though quite a lot, I imagine, if you are Morpheus) any emotional talk I was able to avoid the waterworks as well. Something I think worth mentioning is the artwork of The Kindly Ones. Simple (though not necessarily beautiful) it did work, and the way it stayed consistent throughout the whole book was good too. I also liked how all the characters we had gotten to know earlier were there, how all the previous, seemingly random (how nice it is to get to use that word like it should be, for once) occurrences came all more or less together in the end. Aside from Dream, the raven Matthew has risen to be a favourite character of mine. Daniel is a different thing, altogether, too, so no mentioning him. I'm fighting an internal battle here, too: who has cooler clothes, Dream or Daniel? After finishing the series I felt terribly empty for a while, of course. The next day I began reading it all the way from the beginning again.

Television:
Doctor Who I feel that there hasn't been a post without this category for a while, but who cares? Doctor Who is so awesome it deserves it. There hasn't been any new episodes yet, of course, as the next one will be the Christmas special, and if it weren't for one particiular post on twitter one day by a certain person, I wouldn't be writing this here now. I'm actually kind of lacking words, so I'll let this link speak for itself:	Gaiman's Journal: Turned Up to Eleven I AM EXCITED BEYOND WORDS. Also WIN for Eleventh Doctor/Spinal Tap reference.
	Avatar: The Last Airbender On my last post, all that time ago, I mentioned that I was going to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. I did, too, and I was going to write about it, but I didn't. I'll just say that it was most probably the awesomest western animation ever. There will be another series, too, which is nice, and it would seem to be good: the picture of the left is the promo pic for Avatar: The Legend of Korra.
	SyFy's Alice This. Was. Beautiful. Beautiful and INTELLIGENT, I am telling you, and way better than Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, though it grieves me to say so. Especially I loved the costumes, which were just perfect. Also the main idea of how the Wonderland would have evolved and changed in 150 or so years was great, and the Oysters/people providing drugs for the citizens of the Wonderland was great. Also, I loved Charlie and I loved the Hatter and Alice was great too, because she wasn't a wimpy little girl but a cool young woman perfectly capable of taking care of herself, often better than the male characters. The cast was great, with the main characters played by a little less known people and the supporting cast by more famous ones.
	BBC's Sherlock So, yeah. This was awesome as well. My first reaction to reading about this (from tvtropes, nowhere else) was 'no that is just wrong how could that ever work'. Then I read that this three-episode series was conceived and written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. Well, I have written about Steven Moffat earlier, too, so you can just imagine what it was I did next. And it was good. I did tweet, when watching the beginning of the very first episode, that Holmes looks emo and that Watson is Arthur Dent, but it got better. Nearly immediately. Holmes' intellect was transferred to the 21st century very well, in my opinion, and he was all tech savvy and everything. The feeling and atmosphere of the books and stories was not lost, and the cases were nice modern versions (though very changed, they were mostly based on some of the stories) of Doyle's writings. What was fun was that in the series the two main characters were actually Sherlock and John in stead of Holmes and Watson. I still prefer to use the surnames, but it kind of made sense. These days you'd think people'd call their friends colleagues/flatmates by their first names. And I'll add that Mycroft was awesome. As was Moriarty. Also, Benedict Cumberbatch, most unfortunate guy as to what comes to names, in my opinion, who plays Holmes, has a beautiful voice.
	Star Trek So my awesome uncle borrowed this for me from the library, and this is what we've been watching for a couple of days now. It's the first season, but when my buddies were here we watched some S02 episodes. Mirror, Mirror, at least, and some others.My cousin, a year younger than me, told me she didn't like the series at all. She said she can understand why people like Star Wars, but seemingly Star Trek is way too much. I tried to tell her that she should get over the old sixties sets and acting and look beyond, to the ideas, but she said that the surface, the plain datedness of it is too loud for her. Poor girl.

Movies:
	(500) Days of Summer Dude. My best friend like told me this was a good film back when it was in the theatres, and it wasn't until now (with even further encouragegement from her, sorta, as well as a visit to tvtropes) that I managed to watch it. And man, was it good! I have loved films with non-chronological order of events since I don't remember when. With films like that you have at least one good reason to watch them again. And with this particular one, watching the film again gives you a whole new perspective, sort of, to what's happening. The plot was nice. Like the narrator said in the beginning, this is not a love story, which to me is always good news because I kind of dislike films reling completely and only on romance. The film was funny (hilarious, even, on occasion), and a little sad and maybe even a little angering, what with the ending. There was one random though uplifting scene with musical-like singing and dancing, feeling sort of out of place. There were other cinematographical devices used as well, like what was made to look like interview clippings and others. The film had okay musics - I sort of prefer instrumental/unlyriced stuff in movies, but theproper songs did fit with the mood and idea of this film. Also something worth mentioning was the thing with architechture. Zooey Deschanel as Summer was like she is in most films (she should break out of the mold that's been cast around her, you know), happy and singsongy and big-eyed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who really actually kind of was the reason for my finally watching this, really, was good and likeable and you could identify with him (I identified with Tom rather than Summer. I have theories as to why [Mind you, I have a theory of nearly everything. Of most things, I have multiple.]). The best character, by far, though, was Tom's little sister, totally the most adult-like of the characters, though probably barely 12.
	The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Well this was one weird film. (Includes spoilers.) Though it was to be expected, now, wasn't it? I have only seen a couple of Terry Gilliam films (and those are the more commercially succesful ones, too), but I can tell that there most certainly is something about the stuff he does that just goes beyone the borders of the normal. This one was... well, weird, but in a (mostly) good way. Though I watched twice in a period of 12 hours some things were left a little blurred to me, but it didn't matter (I did have a reason not to pay full attention to it, mind). I liked (though I can imagine that most people would find it weird and/or discomforting) how the main character wasn't really revealed until the very end of the movie: at first we think it's Anton, then Tony, and then in the end we realise it's been Parnassus all the time. The film wasn't as magnificently beautiful as you'd get from Burton or whoever, and the way the Imaginarium was a bit, well, not that well made, was a bit sad, might I say. I should imagine, though, that it was meant to be not that realitic-looking. The actors and actresses were good. Heath Ledger, in his final (this time for real) role was very good, and watching the film was a bit sad, knowing that, well, he died (to be absolutely blunt). The way he changed in the Imaginaruim was taken care of very well though, and incorporated to the story. I read, when this film was hitting the theatres here, that people in the States and wherever had walked out during the film. Well, I wouldn't really wonder about that - it was a little bit confusing and not evertyhing was explicitly explained in the film: it sort of seemed to rely on that the audience thought about it and understood the hints and stuff. It wasn't a bad film, but it wasn't one I would buy as a DVD, or really want to watch again before I'd totally forgotten all about it. It was an interesting film, one that made you think. And a bizarre film, too; I don't think that can be stressed enough.
	Inception Yeah, I saved the best for last, even though this was the first thing I wrote. So. Whoah is all. (Prepare for a great big 'loved this and this and this' now. Might be spoilers.) I went to see it with my cousin a week prior to the schools beginning. So I'm not the world's greates Leonardo DiCaprio fan, but he did pull it off in this film. He's always been a bit of a baby-face in my opinion, and then blam, here he is, all older and adult and proper and actually good and believeable. So DiCaprio was okay. Whom I absolutely loved - and I totally know I'm not alone with this - was Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur. As Nathan Fillion put it, on his twitter account: 'Inception. Corridor scence. A long way from 3rd Rock from the Sun.' Also the character of Eames, played by a Tom Hardy (yeah I had to look it up), was great. Most of the other characters were very good too, but Ellen Page's Ariadne was a bit dull; I didn't really get a grasp of her personality, hers was the role of rather observant an audience surrogate. The plot itself was okay, nothing extraordinary. What made the film a fantastic piece of cinema was the originality of the setting and how well it was handled. Dreams are very dear to me, and I love the way the film worked with the multiple layers of dreams. The concepts of projections and the architechture of dreams were great as well and oh god I loved the idea of the totems and the kick. The way how the time spent in a dream increased the deeper you went worked very well for me, too; minutes would stretch to hours would stretch to decades, and should you go too deep your brain might be in danger of frying because of the intensity and sheer speed it had to work with there. Also, how epic was the music? Hans Zimmer apparently composed everything so that it fit around one central piece (Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien), going so far as making the 'main theme' music only a little more than a sped down version of the song. There was a lot of hype on the film. Another particular tweet I remember was by Russel Brand, saying 'Went to see Inception with Katy Perry. Or did I?' Well, that is the question, now, isn''t it? With all those dreams going on, on multiple levels, you never know when - if at all - the dream ends. Now, my refecrence pools are kind of shallow, but three things were brought to my miind when I pondered about the film. Ocean's Eleven, except with a more manageable amount of people working mostly in the same space, Gardeners in general, what with all the planting and growing, and - and this is the one I think I should have a better idea about - Total Recall. Total Recall came to me from the ending mostly: though handled better in Inception, in both films it was a little unsure as to whether we're still dreaming. So yeah, all in all, a really good film. So good that I would like to go and see it again in the theatres, too, in stead of the more usual second-time-viewing procedure via the Internet - the wobbly low-quality videocam versions would not do justice to this. Also, now that I've had time to think about it, not only is this film my current top favourite movie, but also ranking higher than, say, the Matrix, in my all time favourite movies list, at least for now. <--- Watch these. Note the BWOOOOOONG, by the way. It's become quite epic. Also note that I wrote this text prior to seeing the 5 seconds one - apparently someone had somewhat similar ideas to mine. Also, I am terribly excited about Batman three, right now, but Nolan definitely has great expectations to meet with it.

Too much stuff today. Also my internet's down (curse the damn thing), so I might as well be writing something.

I haven't updated. At all. I've effectifely skipped the whole of June. I'm terrible, but so is Twitter. Really, that's where everything goes, and the 140 letter limit makes my messages sometimes a bit confuddling. It's good to get some of that stuff properly out for once.
This'll be long. Seriously. Long. Lotsa stuff I need to talk about. (Hopefully I can post this all in one part.)

Internet:
Two new favourite sites of mine, which will be addresserd later in the post.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
http://www.chaoticshiny.com/

Television:

• Battlestar Galactica:
  So I finished watching the third (and penultimate) season last week. I was left somewhat... well, dazed. Among other things. I'm telling you, it's amazing.
  I'm sitting here again, thinking of what to write. Nothing comes to my mind - I've praised this show here already. Not enough, maybe, but still.
  Now recently I loved it how it's changed. In the first season there was a lot of fightning in space and what does the third season end with? A trial. Juridical stuff. And it doesn't make it any less good. I mean, someone'd proabably be all this is not what I want from a sci-fi show, but no. It all fits, because it has to. This is a show with a proper beginning and probably a proper ending (I've only very slightly spoiled myself - I'm kind of proud how I've been able to keep the spoilers away. Like, I haven't read the tvropes.org page for this show [I'm waiting till I finish it, then I can go read it. I do this with DW episodes too.].), and one has to know what happens inbetween, be it the spacefights or the character relationships.
  Something I also loved here is how we got to see the cylons work, their ships and the hybrids and everything. In the beginning the cylons were the root of all evil, to be hated by viewers and everything, but right now I'm not so sure anymore. Six and Eight, especially, have my sympathies.



• Doctor Who:
  So last Saturday this season ended. (has spoilers [not that you care])
  For me, it ended with tears.
  So I've told you how awesome Steven Moffat and Matt Smith and the Elevent Doctor and Amy (and Rory, now that I think of it [really, the boyfriends up until now have been the dullest people you can imagine, but Rory's funny and you can relate to his human mind and emotions. Also he has a nice, big, straight nose].) are all frakking awesome, so I'll leave that out today. However...
  I managed to cry - really cry with wet cheeks and proper tears rolling down (I kind of frequently have these tearing-ups, but it's momentary) - twice this season, which is actually a new record for me. Episodes 10 and 13 manged to do this.
  In S31/05/01/Fnarg (Yeah, this is what the season is called) E10 we had a regular Monster-of-the-Week episode, except with Vincent Van Gogh, which pretty much creates a whole new level of Awesome. The monster of the episode was a bit blah, yeah, but the character interaction was superb and the character of Vincent was amazing and just beautiful in all his madness and sadness (*must.not.remark.rhyming.words.pant.pant.*). And the ending? I cried.
  Vincent, whining on his sofa, muttering something, then, brings us to episodes 12 and 13, the season finale.
  ...
  Just. Wow.
  Nothing more on that matter, really.
  No, well, in these past five years of New Who we've had many kinds of near-apocalypses, but this one was the death of the whole universe. Massive scale is what we're talking about, yeah?
  Well it all ended well, no one died and actually new characters were 'born' (and brought back from the dead), and we had a wedding. One thing was missing though, and it took Amy some reminding done by River to remember what.
  Now whenever I hear 'Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue', I can't help but think about the TARDIS. Nice one, Moffat.
  And the Doctor comes out - totally unprepared, really - in a tuxedo and top hat.
  
  ...
  
  Then there is dancing. Eccentric dancing to the guitar solo of Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love. (I can now see Amy and The Doctor (and Rory) going back to the 80s and to a Queen concert and the Doctor dancing like that and Amy being all 'Oh, God.'. Sadly I write no fanfiction.)
  I need to share. Here:
  
  
  The next time we get to see the Doctor is Christmas, which is years away. But when Christmas is over, we'll be getting the new season  AND EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT THAT MEANS, RIGHT?
  Yeah, I'm excited. But just a little.
  Come on, you can't possible blame me - it's my favourite living author and my favourite british scifi TV series.



• Avatar: The Last Airbender (also the film here):
  You could call it peer pressure, except it's noting like that. I just want to know what it is that people are talking about (not that anyone I know knows this, but...) - this pops up on every second tvtropes.org page I visit, and from what I've gathered it's pretty good too. 
  I haven't yet watched it, but I actually have the first two episodes waiting and I'll watch them once I finish writing this (which, actually, could be a long time. Maybe even tomorrow.)
  Now, I know this is th TV section, but let's not waste space and letters. So at first I kind of was like 'I could see that film.' Not really thinking that anymore - has to do with Hollywood's racism and... well, the terrible reviews it's gotten. 6% - that's six percent at Rotten Tomatoes. Come on.
  

Films:

• Iron Man:
  Both the first and second ones were good, and I loved the quick overlappind dialogue. I can see why some people like Robert Downey Jr. Also now I want to see The Incredible Hulk and am waiting for the other Avengers-related films, The Avengers itself not being the least (it'll be directed by Joss Whedon. You can expect all your beloved characters to die and not come back.)
  /short



• Harry Potter (Deathly Hallows):
  At around 18.00 today 4, that is four Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows related words/phrases were trending on Twitter, on spots 1, 2, 3, and 10. That's pretty freaking popular, let me tell you.
  I watched the trailer yesterday. I'm kind of not sure as to what to think. No, really, I haven't even seen the last film, unless you count a low-quality camcording I half- watched almost right after it was released.
  But the next film - the last film, the one in two parts, I might as well go and see in the cinema. Even if our main characters have stubble.
  
  And really... these boys ------>
  
  To be honest...
  I'm not really looking forward to anything else in the film (well Fred's death, maybe) other than this. I hear they were on set for only one day, so I'm not thinkin there'll be too much of them, which is sad.



• The Hobbit:
  So apparently it just might be that Jackson himself will direct the films (no sources, because I am lazy). I think he did say he didn't want to do it, but I sure hope he does - that way the Middle Earth saga will all be continuous in that aspect. (At least till someone decides to take up on Silmarillion or something)
  I'm also wondering if The Hobbit will be as different from the LotR as the books were - The Hobbit was so much lighter and funnier and more child-like.



• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World:
  The trailer:
  
  Directed by Edgar Wright.
  
  I rest my case.

Music:

• Come to decide (just yesterday, in fact) that I can listen to women artists as well and not feel somehow weird about it. Yes, I have strange problems.

Manga, Comics:

• CLAMP (as always, right?) - - - X (/1999) and other unfinished business:
  Well yeah. I finished read X - what there is to read, anyway and now I hate CLAMP just a little bit more for not getting it finished.
  I had, in fact, been putting off reading the rest of X, because I knew I'd be angry for there not being more. And boy, am I!
  
  I'm sure that if I now read from a reliable source that they will finish it, say, after finishing xxxHOLiC and Kobato. and the Gate 7-thing (however long that took), I'd just fall down on my chair and cry for about half an hour, out of sheer happiness.
  Obsessed?
  No. Not me. Think about the people who read it when it was serialised. Think about the people who've waited for seven years for it to continue.
  
  This is how it ended:
  
  Yeah, that's Kamui being killed by Fuuma Kamui. There's even blood splatters in the last panel.
  
  And then there's Legal Drug, the third tankôbon of which ends with 'To Be Continued...?' Damn well I'd like it to be. It has at least some hope, unlike CLOVER, which probably will never get the two more books they planned - with Clover it doesn't matter, though, because all we'd get is probably just more backstory. Not that I wouldn't mind knowing more about Gingetsu.


And what more? HOLiC was moved over to a different magazine. Not only had we a 1.5 month wait between the last chapter and the one before that, the new magazine is monthly. Monthly! It's horrible.


• One Piece:
  Well, yeah. With HOLiC coming out only once a month One Piece is all I have left now. Not that I'm complaining - just last week we got back to the present time and this week (today! Thursday is OP-day!) we got the decision from Luffy to go and find his crew, who we haven't seen for some (like, 50 or something equally stunning) chapters.



• Internet comics:
  Everyone knows xkcd. Don't they?
  And most people know Scandinavia and the World, too.
  Both are good.
  Simply drawn (xkcd especially), funny and witty. I've been reading both of them for a good while now.
  
  My newest webcomic favourite is a bit different, though.
  The art is stylized and interesting. The colours are expressive. The panels are positioned in imaginative ways that express the atmosphere of the story. The story itself tells the story of a boy 24-year old man, pretty normal (as long as he keeps his shirt on. Dude.) man, who deals with such things as vampires, werewolves and selkies. It is narrated by a zombie an undead guy.
  What I'm talking about is of course Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name.
  
  
  
  The funny thing is, when I type something to the address bar Chrome finishes the words for me and gives additional words, just like Google (sometimes) and Youtube. When I type in 'Hanna is not a ' the suggestions are as follows:
  Hanna is not a boy's name
  Hanna is not a boy's name wallpaper
  Hanna is not a boy's name slash
  
  I swear I have had nothing to do with the third one. It's automatic! I don't know if I could read such stuff, either, not yet anyway. I would need to get used to the idea (not that it should prove too hard for me).
  

Other:

• The Dead Dutchess:
  Oh yes. This is one you don't know.
  I mentioned these two websites in the beginning of the post. Now, if you took a look, you noticed that they are generator sites for writers and gamers and the like.
  It is, in fact, thanks to SeventhSanctum that for the past three weeks I've been working on a sci-fi world and a bunch of awesome badass characters. Currently my character sheets, solar system and religion desriptions and other additional stuff span well over twenty Word pages.
  I know that due to my general inableness to come up with any kind of sensible/interesting/action-filled/not-concentrating-solely-on-romance plot I probably won't get a story going, but I love my characters and I love my world and I'm expanding it all the time, creating new minor characters (I happen to have nine main characters. I staterd with five, but decided that wasn't enough. More tha nine would be difficult to handle, though, so I'm sticking to that number. The characters themselves have gone through changes - some bigger than others.) and everything.
  
  

AN: Sorry the more-or-less pixely images.

Also: I didn't know I had a tag for ninjas. That's nice.

I've been drawing (so full of inspiration - no ideas that much though) and obsessing over One Piece (I'm so grateful I actually really got into this fandom, even if a bit late - thanks go to my beautiful friends aho were intelligent enough to pick it up before me~).
Nothing else has been going on in my life.
Films:
Today I watched three (and counting) One Piece movies (4 through 6 (and 7) - someone here said that the first three weren't really that good so I skipped them) - I even left yesterday's Doctor Who episode unchecked, because it honestly didn't look that good in last week's preview.

But get this: The sixth One Piece movie is so good. Terrifying, yeah, but good.
Compared to 4 and 5 it's just genius - the others were pretty much what you'd expect from an anime movie, not too violent or dark and full of adventure and laughs. This one? This one was a proper film to me. Theart style was a bit different form the other films, too,but not in a bad way. In fact, I quite enjoyed it.
Now I had read prior to watching it that it was the most depressing and dark one, but 11 minutes into the film I couldn't see why on earth anyone would say that - the beginning of the film was the funniset thing I'd seen so far, and I even tweeted about that (oh yes I did).
But that's the thing, isn't it now? Cause you know, the film started out really happy, really really funny, bright coloured, hilarious, everything.
And then?
Then it gets dark.
And I mean dark. Even by my standards.
But that's what's so genius about it, yeah? - The contrast created between the bright happiness of the beginning and then what follows is really stark (and oh is that a word I find extremely funny to use) and because of the character dynamics you won't necessarily notice what's happening at first (except if you're observant, heh), cause what later develops into the worst fights the crew has ever had at first looks like their everyday little quarrels. And that little happy cute yellow flower we see cheer for the Straw Hat crew in the beginning will have transformed into something hideous and terrible and people-devouring by the end. And the end? The big bad dies. Dies.
Cue the Sun, as observed by Usopp.

...
I'm positively terrified of those round liquorice roll things now.

Journal & Real Life:

So the last time I posted anything was 22nd of April, which means ages ago (nearly a month, whoooah). This post will be a longer one again, of course.
For my lack of writing I totally blame Twitter - it's so easy to update there, just these short things, and because of this I haven't been writing anything here.
My twitter account is (somewhat unimaginatively) http://twitter.com/miryak - there'll be stuff both in Finnish and English, updated more or less frequently (there are longer gaps, and then there are days when I just have to tweet every five minutes).

Television:

So, I remember talking about the New Docor Who in my last posts. The latest two-parter, with the angels and River Song, was really good, and though Ten is still my Doctor, Eleven's creepyinlgy awesome (-crazy) as well, and I'm kind of afraid that I might start to like him best. Amy, the new companion, is by far my favourite companion so far - she's really witty, she's Scottish and there's something wrong with her. Steven Moffat's writing is as wonderful as ever, but I have been a bit disappointed with the other writers so far. I am eagerly waiting (as well as fearing, sort of; I'll have nothing to watch) for this season's ending, of course, and the 2011 series WITH AN EPISODE penned by NONE OTHER that our magnificent NEIL GAIMAN. Yes, I am excited.

I'm also seriously reconsidering trying to watch The Fourth Doctor's era, mainly because of tvtropes.

I also introduced my dear friend T to Doctor Who, we watched six episodes of the 2005-> series, and all of them were Steven Moffat's episodes - two from every new Doctor, too.

I borrowed the third season of Battlestar Galactica from dad, and it's still good. (spoilers be here, of course) I think the time of occupation of New Caprica was the worst time of the show thus far - I like to see them in space!
Also, I realized only during watching thid DVD set that Three is Xena. I was all like 'she seems somehow familiar' and then it hit me.

Literature (well...):

One Piece. I've got these two friends who are somewhat into it, and after some time of pondering and seeing some great fanart (and none of that at /cm, really.), I decided to start reading it as well. Reading it online, I finished the latest of the 584 chapters today, after some couple of weeks' reading (and my reaction to discovering that was pretty much 'Fuck, what?').
The character designs are very possibly the best part of the whole series. I also have grown very fond of Oda's drawing style (for one that grew up with CLAMP, accepting a more shounen style was at first rather... let's say interesting), and especially I like the movement he has in his characters. He also uses different angles very well, especially in fight scenes. I also love the way Oda makes his characters cry (and how he makes their snot flow at the same time).
The one thing I feel like complaining about, though, is the length (something I believe I'm not alone with) - some arcs are way way too long, and I feel that the numerous flashbacks could sometimes be a little shorter.
You see, I had strated reading One Piece earlier - at the same time this friend of mine did, when it first started to get published in Finland (in Finnish too, but the translation, from what I remember, was actually really good [copared to the terrible work they did on some other series]), and I got stuck at the restaurant ship, because I thought it just went on for too long. Now having read nearly 6-effing-hundred chapters of this, I've fallen completely in love, and just can't wait for the next chapter.
I'm not one hundred percent certain who I should name as my favourite character, as almost all of them have good qualities (and bad ones). I do like Zoro very much though (his sense of direction is almost as terrible as mine, and he's a bit lazy; likes sleeping) - I can relate to his not-really-that-enthusiastic-over-every-little-thing personality. Sogeking is just awesome and Chopper is really cute.

'High arts':

My class went to see The Jungle Book at the Finnish National Theatre one day here (Thursday [the 6th, that is], it was), and it was quite good. I was very excited of this, not only because of my love for theatre, but also because a classmate of mine had seen it earlier, and talked about it at that time, saying that it was good (the same person said that his time the play wasn't as good as it had been at the first time).
As we lost two classes of English for this, we have to write some sort of reviews of it, and I'll use this rant as a base for that.
As the play began at twevle o'clock, it was highly populated by school groups. Seeing the 10-year-olds and younger people there [would've] made me feel uneasy [if I cared about such things], as there was quite a lot of swearing and some violence in the play - not that these things made it bad, no.
The play was transferred to a jungle that, at some point in the future, will have grown in the place of the Helsinki Railway Station (they even referred to 'the Cholera basin(?)' in the play) and in my opinion the set was really good. What I found a bit - well, not boring, but maybe annoying, was the almost forced use of video in the play. Sure, there were a couple of newscasts and the video clips worked as a part of the background on a couple of occasions, but I personally didn't like it that much.
The story in itself was quite plain - a story of Mowgli growing up, accepting what he is, and so on, like always. I, unlike the rest of my class, had not been there the week before when the Disney version of the book was watched during a Finnish lesson, but I vaguely remembered the main events. Because of the many characters and a few subplot-kind-of-things the play shifted from one place to another, and I'm sure that had I not been more or less familiar with the story and characters, I wouldn't have known who was who and what they were doing.
Probably the best part in the play (if not the diverse and colourful characters) was the costumes. The different animals of the jungle had the looks of different urban subcultures of today - the wolves were leather-clad knife-carrying heavy rockers, the monkeys seemed very japan-influenced, the vultures resembled me of the modern hipsters, one of the two snakes that appeared in the play had this yellow Kill Bill costume on (she wielded a katana too) - the other snake was in a white kimono (Lucy Liu in KB, anyone?) and so on.
By far the best character, in both my and most likely many others' opinion, was another one of the main character Mowgli's caretakers - Bagheera the Black Panther, this awesome, freakishly tall guy in (almost) all-black drag and probably 20 centimeters long spike heels. His entrée (or... something. You know) was really good too - very glam. Also he sang (!~).
Another character I liked was this not evil, not good (always following the strongest) Jackal, who for some reason reminded me of Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice - his hair and voice were somhow familiar. Most of the other actors and actresses were very good too, but these two I probably will remember longer than the others.
To conclude: really worth a watch. And this girl wouldn't mind seeing it again, so filled with interesting details and tones it was.

Art (as in Drawing):

I've regained my inspiration to draw. Just informing everyone.
It's just that a couple most of the things I'm currently working on are a bit time-consumng, as I'm colouring them with the darling computer, and because of that there hasn't been anything great up recently on deviantART.

Music:

I recently got back into two old favourites: KWAN, my first Finnish favourite band, which I listenend when I was 12 or 13 - ages ago, music-wise, at least, and Gackt, my first ever 'idol' and great love, which I started listening to even earlier.
I've been suffering a kind of 'nothing new to listen' -dilemma for some time now, though. I've been listening to Oingo Boingo rather excessively, but now I can't (be bothered to) find any new band to check out.
Except, now that I think of it, I've been meaning to have a listen at the Alan Parsons Project. I'll see where that goes.

Internet:

Just, this.
Well, it's one of my favourite sites.
Really, my new-tab-page (which only opens when you open a new blank tab, as opposed to the home page which opens when you open the browser) has all the major and minor social interaction sites, incuding deviantART, YouTube and last.fm, plus two additional pages: main pages forThe Internet Movie Database and tvtropes.org.

Tvtropes is a site that will slowly drain away your life. This is the truth - it was referred to in xckd, too.
I myself have not contributed there (well, some minor detail corrections don't count, do they?), and have therefore spared myself of the terrible urges to further edit it all the time I'd probably have had I done so. Confusing setence prize goes right here.

Now, to read the main page for a series(/book/film/anything) that you happen to like and that also just happens to be Trope Overdosed, will take you some time. Now if you also read (well, at least eye through) the related pages/tropes you've opened in new tabs, add to that the Wild Mass Guessing and It Just Bugs Me sections of hte series, you will nicely have spent a whole day doing absolutely nothing.

And you just can't stop.

Journal:

Been some time since the last update. And this isn't a long update, either. Somehow I've had very little to say these past days.

Shopping & Music:

So twice a year Stockmann has a big sale on everything, and that's where I buy my music.

This time I bought six albums (for just over 40 euros):

Wildlife by The Crash
Spinal Tap by Spinal Tap
Want One by Rufus Wainwright
My Generation - The Bery Best of The Who
The Very Best of Prince
and
Never Mind the Bollocks by Sex Pistols

Movies:

Watched Fight Club. It was good. I kind of like Edward Norton (and kind of dislike Brad Pitt).
Not that I didn't know the 'twist' - it's general knowledge (for a film geek, at least), isn't it, like with Citizen Kane and Soylent Green (both film's I've yet to watch, mind).

I don't think I mentioned Identity in my last post. Did I?

Internet:

I did post a link to the 8-bit Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, didn't I?
What the heck, even if I did, here it is again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_9x9m8F1b4
Mind you, it'd probably do good to watch the original first...

Random fact: IMDb is the best, because these are the first four 'Plot Keywords' they have on the Dr. Horrible page:


& 'Real Life':

Sometimes I love people. (Often I don't.)
http://io9.com/5471898/jedi-flash-mob-liberates-mall-from-the-british-empire

Television:

Not only is a Finnish channel going to start Castle, but there are three other series I'm currently following *ahem* a little less formally. Basically.
It's just that everything happens so quickly I always remember to check for the new episodes a day or three of they've been broadcast, and by that time the next series is on the TV (of faraway countries) too so it's, you know, confusing.
What I'm watching, as you clearly insist on knowing is
Doctor Who (Sat)
Mythbusters (Wed)
and How I Met Your Mother (Mon)

Castle will be on on Wednesday starting April 28th and the first season of Dollhouse is on right now on Wed, and House is currently on on Thursday, but here in Finland we're in the 4th season only, and I wathced that ages ago (mind you the last two or so episodes are very good indeed, all that stuff with Amber and everything).

Internet:

Original text:

"And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted - nevermore"

...54 translations later we get:

"Because the color change in your life - time"

Bad Translator is fun.
( One other. )

TvTropes, I think, is missing a page. You know that line 'How do you know my name?', yes? There's none for it there. It's been annoying me for a while now.

Is this like the best thing ever?:


More Youtube stuff:

Found via http://unrealitymag.com

Random interjection:

When I first watched Batman Begins, my appreciation for Batman rose to heights unknown because of one simple thing: Batman is a ninja.
I hadn't been that much of a Batman person before these new films (which reminds me...), you know.

Furhermore (and this has nothing to do with anything), when you flatten a pyramid (you know, to calculate it's area or whatever), it kind of looks like a throwing star.

Art (films, comics, literature):

Dave McKean. Amazing, amazing. Slightly Very, very scary, dark, twisted, dream-like and brilliant. Worked with Master Gaiman on several occasions (Sandman, book illustrations. MirrorMask [and dude if that wasn't a strange film! Loved the sphinx...es? Sphinxum? Sphinxae? though.]). Illustrated Arkham Asylum:A Serious House on a Serious Earth.


Entering my top-something favourite artists-list.


Films:

Just saying that Gary Oldman is fantastic.

Also, wathced Primal Fear. Good. Yeesh.

Television:

Now I admit that I wasn't quite that excited about the fifth (or sixth, or first, or whatever) season of Doctor Who, mainly because I wasn't quite sure I'd like the new Doctor (though, green eyes?) [both 9 and 10 hold a dear place in my heart, you know].
I will watch it though, if not for the actors, then for the writing.
Cause, you know, Steven Moffat. We'll be getting more weeping angels and other amazing and scary stuff, I expect.
I'm not that keen on seeing River what'shername again though, but it most probably is inevitable.

...

So okay. Watched E01. Music was good. Doctor was okay. Companion could've been worse. Story... not that bad. New TARDIS nice as well. New sonic screwdriver - green? Nice. The new logo though? Love it!
ALSO YOU KNOW I'm dying because of the fact that SOME DAY THE'LL BE NEIL GAIMAN! *squeeing* Okay yeah, I know that's like next year, which equals like a lifetime away, but still.

So okay, now watching E02 and dude, does this remind you af anything?:


It's a mix of a Gentleman (the large one), from Buffy, and a Weeping Angel, and a clown. Fucking shit, Moffat, scaring us (I actually first typoed that as 'scarring us' - yeah, lifelong mental scars).

So okay, I admit, Matt Smith isn't that bad. The writing's all great, too.

Real Life:
America is fucking sick. And that's not said in a good way.

Films:

I've always found mindfucking films to be the best. So what I'll be watching this week. It's just that so many of them are horror films and till lately I've been avoiding them. But not anymore!

• So I watched Saw. Eternally disturbed now.
  Reasons are many, mainly that, well, you know, I hadn't seen it earlier and other people had and anyway, you have to have seen these things [and our old friend listverse helped here, too.] (also remember the time I posted the 'final theme' music (it's so good~!)? Well, now there's a film, plot and faces to connect to it).
  
  With a film so well known it's of course impossible to not spoil oneself, but it doesn't matter (actually, it just made it easier, as it'd been way scarier if I hadn't known what was to happen, and it was quite scary enough knowing it all too, thank you very much). The thing is, during the whole film I was kind of confused as to if I should take sides and if so, who I should root for (I'm not that sick though that I'd root for Jigsaw, god no, [though he did have that genius strike going for him, a bit like Hannibal Lecter {except Lecter I actually liked}] but) of the two guys in the toilet.
  
  I also watched Saws II and III, just because. Not that they're that awesome (the first one, on the other hand, might just as well be going to my favourite films list), really.
  The first one was good because you didn't really know what was going on, and okay, yeah, these films had 'big revelations' (thoough nothing you couldn't have guessed [and anyway I had been spoiled]) as well and so on but blah. Oh and because we get to know more of Jigsaw he becomes a more likeable character (if that's something you can actually say).
  Also I still fraking love that one piece of music.
  
  And I have to say that I found Billy the Puppet way scarier before I watched the films than now. Weird?
  



• Moon was very good and I most certainly am waiting to see Mr. Jones's upcoming films as well.
  Uh. Nothing one could actually say, I think. It was something of a confusing thing and there were oh so many 'what?' moments, but everything was revealed in the end (or, you know, along the film). Also the film being very much like the middle parts of 2001 one was all the time expecting that the AI robot guy would turn out evil (spoiler: actually he turned out to be really sweet and he totally was on the protagonist's side). Also the fact that the film had just aout ten actors, and that two of them were featured 90% of the time, the rest of them maybe 15%. That way you don't need to be keeping so much track of who's who and so on, you can just focus on this one character and his story.
  The protagonist was played by Zaphod Beeblebrox Sam Rockwell, by the way, and man if he wasn't good.
  



• Oh, dudes. Watership Down (Ruohometsän kansa for our Finnish friends) is something that greatly traumatized me as a kid. Picture this: You're some five years old, sitting on a sofa at your home, watching taped episodes of Tales of Moomin Valley, when this comes on.
  And it gets worse.
  



• This film seems seriously awesome with what it comes to writers and actors. I am not a great fan of Tintin, never was, but damn, I am so looking forward to this movie.

Music:

Doesn't The Lord of the Rings -trilogy of films just have the most beautifl music?


Literature:

I just discovered a new favourite book: Good Omens. I'm somewhere around pg. 70 and it's just amazing.
I'll have to check out Terry Pratchett once I'm finished with this (mind you, the only full length novels of Gaiman's that I've read are Coraline and The Graveyard Book [and I only have the five first books of Sandman. Man, I need to go and buy the next one, it's been so long..], so I need to get more of his stuff as well).

Lord of the Rings. I think it was 2002 when I was first read the books, and man, this does not get old.
I just decided today that it's my all-time favourite book (I've had some problems admitting that I indeed favour one book above others, but I made my mind about it just today. This is the one.). I mean, for real. Is there anything so beautiful, so carefully constructed and just simply brilliant?
This is a book you can read over and over and over again and not get tired - there is always something new to discover. Lord of the Rings is the ultimate Desert Island book, yeah?
I mean, for real. This book is awesomeness squared.
//sorry. It's just that I've been reading it again and... you know.
Mind you, my favourite character has changed. I find it rather peculiar, in fact. Earlier Gandalf and Pippin were the greatest guys ever, but now I think Aragorn is the man. Funny thing.


Art:

Dave McKean is awesome and really talented, but also slightly scary. I admire him.


Computers & Internet:

I've been using Chrome (mainly 'cause it's a bit faster than Firefox), and guess what's just the most annoying thing ever? When you Ctrl+C the url, it automatically gives you <a href=""></a> around the url, so when I first type that in in here, then copy the url and paste it, I have way too many <a href="">'s.

In other news: I'm totally hooked to Twitter. You get to read what all the awesome people are doing and everything.
...
Twitter is amazing. So is Simon Pegg. And Jet Bike Steve. I don't know how long the Wikipedia entry will last (might be long gone by the time I get to posting this thing), so here's a sceengrab:

Some write's block questions and more or less short answers.


Easily films, music and television. Just like in here.


Lord of the Rings, no doubt. It's just filled with so many details and everything - there's always something new to discover.


Well, the desciption to the current status of my life would probably change on a daily basis, but to describe the whole of my life only after big changes.
"Never could choose; happy or depressed?"


Rock - with that single word covering so many subcategories, I would not need anything else.


Well, mayonnaise-shrimp-cold smoked salmon toast with a lot of lemon and maybe some dill is what I love.


Somehow I feel that I answered this already, but maybe not.
I admire the writing style of Edgar Allan Poe and wouldn't mind being able to write like that as well, but in today's world I'd say the amazing way Neil Gaiman writes is what I'd love to possess. I'm not sure if I'd stick with that srtyle though...


The first thing that spings to my mind is Sparrowhawk's little creature from the Wizard of Earthsea. And actually I can't think of anything else not created by man (I mean, who wouldn't love a little R2 droid?).


A hard question, in fact, as I'd love both. The thing is, I have very little respect tomany of the mainstream female artists (writers a couple of actresses aside) of today, and I wouldn't like to become something I don't respect myself. I also see that with especially with entertainers it's not necessarily the skills that get you forward as a woman.
Now, women in the sciences are way smaller in numbers and way more badass than artsy women, so that'll be my answer - also, I feel that artists have way less privacy than geniuses, so there you go.


Well, if everything purchased just disappeared, it would make sense to do something that left something permanent for you too - I'm thinking travelling (and the experiences and memories'll stay with you). Around the world in fourteen days, perhaps?


These are all adjectives. I could've use words like 'computer', 'iPod', 'chocolate' and so on, but maybe this is a better list:
Intelligent
Self-Conscious
Artistic
Independent
Adaptative
Lazy
Shy
Pessimistic
Antisocial
...Geeky

I think my friends would agree on the intelligent, artistic, antisocial and geeky ones and, depending on the friend, lazy, shy and pessimistic might come up as well.
What I think some of them might add to the list are arrogant, self-centered, cold, sarcastic, weird and so on.


I have several things I'd hate to lose. We kind of come back to question one - a life without movies, for example, would be terrible. As would one without a computer. And music? don't get me started on that. But if we think broaderly (that even a word?), losing the ability to hear or see would probably depress me to death - and Idon't think any amount of mney in the world would help in that case.

Film: Might contain spoilers for Alice in Wonderland.



I saw Alice in Wonderland on Friday and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The thing is, of course, that I actually expected to be let down by the film, you see, with all the hype and excitement and my previous bad experiences with 3D and so on.
The first thing in the film that caught my attention was - not that surprisingly - the opening theme music. I of course held high expectations of Elfman's music, and to be truthful I wasn't really that amazed - it was good, but it wasn't extraordinary (unlike, for example Edward Scissorhands). To jump to the end, the ending titles had (I suppose) Avril Lavigne's song playing during them, and that didn't quite work for me, but I'm just happy they didn't use that it the film itself. (I'm actually listening to the score while writing this.)
Now, Burton is and has for a long time been one of my favourite directors, and a great nice part of my admiring of him is because his films are so beautiful. Not necessarily what the general audience sees as 'beautiful', but from the black-white-red colour scheme of Sleepy Hollow to the colourfulness of CatCF, I find Burton's films very pleasing to the eye, and this was just the case with Alice. The Wonderland with it's colourful mushroom forests and red and white castles was, dare I say it, wonderful.
Then there's the 3D. I don't think it's something really great, really. Alice was way less confusing (/migraine inducing) than Avatar, but still I think the film would've worked just as well as a regular 2D thing as well. Also, (though not jumping from place to place every now and then) yellow subtitles? Only on fan-subbed anime, thank you.
Burton said he wanted to create a version of Alice in which the main character is actually concerned with what happens around her (and not just a string of random things happening to her), and though he did succeed with the first one (well, to a degree), I still think the plot wasn't something one would hail as great - in the end it was just a battle between good and evil (and really, there was no grey [or maybe pink in this case with the opposing sides being Red and White] ground in between), and not one too spectacularly written one at that either.



The characters, on the other hand, were great and plentiful, both on the sides good and evil we had interesting people (and animals and other things). They were all different levels of mad (save the protagonist, maybe), which of course isn't that rare in Burton films. Alice, as the protagonist, was maybe the least interesting character, but while a bit dully written, most certainly not overshadowed by the other actors and actresses - Mia Wasikowska was very good indeed.
Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts were good - not something I'd consider dull, but not extraordinary in ant way either.
Now you could assume the brightest star was Johnny Depp, and while personally maybe disagreeing, I know that he was very much the number one main attraction (well, aside from '3D' and 'Burton') of the film. I'm not saying that he did a poor job, no way, but (sadly, as much as I love the man) I think that someone else could've pulled the role just as well. What I found a bit confusing (among other things) The Hatter's accent - sometimes like normal English with a problem with the letter 'S', sometimes sounding heavily Scottish. Also, what I found distracting was how his eyes changed colour - did it have something to do with his moods, or was it just a randomly occurring thing?
Maybe the most interesting character was Anne Hathaway's White Queen. None the less crazy than any of the other characters, this insanely beautiful lady had way too little on-screen time (sadly her biggest scene - the one with making a magical potion - was actually kind of poor).
Then there were the amazing Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat and Alan Rickman as The Blue Catepillar - and the other animal characters (the March Hare was amazing!). The animated characters worked very well with the 'real people', in my opinion, as did the CG backgrounds and landscapes of Wonderland.



In spite of my doubts, Burton once again succeeded at offering us a film filled with gorgeous scenery and colourful characters played by great actors and actresses - even if the plot was missing. Maybe seven or eight out of ten stars - by far a lesser thing when compared to Burton's earlier masterpieces, but beautiful and entertaining and worth a watch anyway.

. . . I seriously didn't intend to write such a long thing.

//
And I just have to mention this: before the film started they showed their normal commercials and trailers for other movies, and I kind of died a little when I saw the one of the trailers. 'Cause, you know, TRON sequel. How did I not know of this?