Toren Atkinson

Today I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We underestimated the demand for this movie last night (crowds are the reason I rarely see movies on opening night), so we got tickets for the first show this morning. I was afraid there were going to be screaming children but it worked out fine. I was actually more annoyed by the adult “squee” (as Marlo would say) fans who were to my left. Every time something would happen or a new character would appear on the screen there would be gasps. The movie itself is pretty good. I wouldn’t say it was the best, having had a few hours now to digest it. I still think Azkaban is the best. I’ll add some spoilers in the next paragraph. Chamber of Secrets is actually on in 6 minutes and I’ll watch it while I draw. I am really looking forward to King Kong. I am even more looking forward to Deep Sea 3D, which is a 3D imax pic that comes out next Spring. I saw the trailer in 3D and it looked amazing. We saw a bunch of trailers in front of Goblet of Fire but none of them really interested me (they didn’t show much of Superman), especially not the hiphop-dancing CG penguins.

One thing I’ve noticed about Harry Potter movies (books as well I assume) is that there’s all this stuff that happens, but quite often you don’t know what or why until the very end of the film, and the payoff usually isn’t that great. I would have liked to have seen what the villains were doing behind the scenes. I don’t need all the mysteries handed to me, by any means, but you seem to experience everything through Harry’s eyes and sometimes that can be frustrating. Maybe it’s different in the books. This is exacerbated by the fact that magic is everywhere and basically can negate reality and common sense, so that quite literally anything could be going on despite your best guesses given the clues. Sorcery is the ultimate deus ex machina.

Oddly, in Goblet of Fire, the parts I was most looking forward to were the least interesting, and the bits that sounded the least interesting before seeing the film were in fact the most interesting. For example: you would think a duel with a dragon would make a great transition to the screen, but it was a dull, predictable, and senseless display*. On the other hand, everything leading up to and including the ball was well-done and entertaining, and really gave something (finally) to the characters to display emotion towards that wasn’t Ron making a scared face and whimpering.

*Plus it bugs me how great fierce monsters that look like they’d strike like lightning with millenia-tested predatory instincts are always portrayed as bumbling and ineffectual. They always take forever to size up their opponents and can’t hit the broad side of a barn when they do lash out. Put a mouse in a basket with a snake, or a cricket in a terrarium with a frog, and the prey would be in the predator’s mouth in seconds. Put Harry Potter in a ring with a dragon and he dodges blow after blow and hides in a crevice as the dragon tries to figure out what the hell it’s doing. Yes I know it had a chain on it – but still. If Harry had outsmarted it, that would be one thing, but defeating it with speed and reaction, that just makes this supposedly nasty and terrible dragon look like a pussy.

I almost went into work today. I got up at 7:22 as normal but my email wasn’t working, so that was the last straw. If I can’t email Marlo to tell her why I wasn’t home when she called last night, then I’ll just have to stay home until the internet starts working. I called in sick (which was no lie) and slept for 11 hours (total). It hurts to swallow. But I did manage to play D&D tonight – although now I am paying for it.

On the weekend I met with a gal with whom I had a meeting with about a year and a half ago. She was going to Vancouver Film School and was interested in doing a documentary short film on D&D for her project. Trouble was, her partner in the project was very Christian and vetoed the idea. But now she’s out of school and still wants to do it. So we met at Max’s and had a good long discussion. I brought her back to grab my copy of Mazes & Monsters and Word Wars and she ended up helping me paint some miniatures. It will be pretty cool if this movie turns out – basically I would be the producer. So – who wants to be in a D&D movie?

I’m starting to look for art agents in earnest. I spent several lunch hours (half hours really) at work poring over my Illustrator’s Market book and decided which reps might suit me, and today I started browsing their websites and sending emails. I need to start looking for a better day job too, if I’m to save up for moving in with Marlo, and beyond. So please – any leads please send them my way!

Kodos and Zuul are pretty funny. They love the teenie bouncer and if I huck it down the hall they’ll both chase it and usually Kodos will get it and Zuul will just sit there almost as if to say “well I was going to get that.” They don’t really get too cozy with one another (although Zuul often smells Kodos’ bum as he walks by) but they play together sometimes and both sleep on the same bed. They were both even sitting on the big black chair as I was DMing tonight. So, that’s the kitty update.

I almost had a total party kill in D&D tonight. So that’s the dungeons AND the dragons update.

I am enjoying the Real Ghostbusters weekend.

Tonight is the night of the big show. And I hope to heck the costumes are ready and that they fit.

Last night I got to see The Veil in its truncated version at Cinemuerte. There were 19 films shown altogether, about 3 or 4 of which were good. Many were so-so. A few were awful. One was worse than awful. Our film probably had the least blood of all of them, which I think says something about staying true to our given subgenre: Lovecraftian. I kind of wish that they didn’t give out the mandatory phrases and weapons. Ours were “This place is driving me batty” and “air.” Almost every film had to include pancakes as well, which made viewing over a dozen films with pancakes in them drudgery. Some of the other weapons were acid/chemicals or power tools. The SFU film club film was about four guys stuck in the woods, who resorted to cannibalism rather than eat the pancakes they had. They also just happened to have a jug of acid for some unexplained reason.

Anyway, we didn’t win any awards (of which I think there were 3 or 4), and I didn’t expect that we would given that there were two very funny films (their subgenre was “after school special”) and as Mike says, comedy often wins. Ours was the only period piece and I think it was among the most evocative and moody. I am really looking forward to seeing it expanded into a length that more suits the subject matter, which Mike says will take at least a couple weeks.

There was a Hallowe’en party at Mike’s later in the evening that Stewie reminded me about, and we brought Carina with us. Mike showed The Veil there and it went over well. Carina had lots of questions for him, and we all (Mike, Carina, Stewie, me) talked about our super secret Ghostbusters fan film project. I ate candy.