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Although I *swore* not to buy any new DVDs for a while, I just got ensnarled in the supermarket again. They had the "Martian Chronicles" trilogy (with Rock Hudson) on sale. I still had a few gift boons from last year, so I came up with the fake excuse that I won't actually give out any money for them - and bought them.
Well... it was an interesting experience. One that reassured me in my bone-deep belief that you don't need spectacular CGI to make a really good film. I especially loved the first part, with the expedition and stuff... and I loved the fact that the Martians were shown as people - as bald people with glowing eyes and golden fingernails, but otherwise rather humanoid. I liked their culture, too, the complete harmony with nature how they lived and stuff. The sand-sleighs (or ships) were fantastic!
Of course, the fact that now we know there isn't life on Mars - at least not *that* kind of intelligent life, the best we can hope for are some microbes - does dampen the experience a bit. That and the fact that the morale of the story was virtually hammered home with a sledgehammer, or worse. Still it was a great story, and I'll eventually re-watch it.
I red the "Martian Chronicles" when I was a teenager and remember loving them. I never thought one could make such a stunning movie out of them, even though it's likely that they kneaded the individual novellas into one big, perahps even different storyline.
Now that I'm working on the Toshiko-as-the-9th-Doctor's-companion story, which actually includes an adventure on Mars, I'm wondering whether I could come up with a likely, although not completely similar culture, something that has died out, oh, 300 million or so years ago. I'm actually good at recycling. And the parallels between what we know about the current conditions on Mars could build an interesting mirror image to what once might have been.
In other news, school's started again. No kids yet, just us, but the holidays are over. *sniff*
Well... it was an interesting experience. One that reassured me in my bone-deep belief that you don't need spectacular CGI to make a really good film. I especially loved the first part, with the expedition and stuff... and I loved the fact that the Martians were shown as people - as bald people with glowing eyes and golden fingernails, but otherwise rather humanoid. I liked their culture, too, the complete harmony with nature how they lived and stuff. The sand-sleighs (or ships) were fantastic!
Of course, the fact that now we know there isn't life on Mars - at least not *that* kind of intelligent life, the best we can hope for are some microbes - does dampen the experience a bit. That and the fact that the morale of the story was virtually hammered home with a sledgehammer, or worse. Still it was a great story, and I'll eventually re-watch it.
I red the "Martian Chronicles" when I was a teenager and remember loving them. I never thought one could make such a stunning movie out of them, even though it's likely that they kneaded the individual novellas into one big, perahps even different storyline.
Now that I'm working on the Toshiko-as-the-9th-Doctor's-companion story, which actually includes an adventure on Mars, I'm wondering whether I could come up with a likely, although not completely similar culture, something that has died out, oh, 300 million or so years ago. I'm actually good at recycling. And the parallels between what we know about the current conditions on Mars could build an interesting mirror image to what once might have been.
In other news, school's started again. No kids yet, just us, but the holidays are over. *sniff*
