Monday, March 27, 2000

OK, my apologies for not updating lately. I sort of fell out of the habit. Don’t really know why.

Before I go into a full update, let me get something off my chest.

Ain’t It Cool News, one of the few movie news and reviews sites that actually offers sane and realistic reviews, is running an article from its European news reporter. I quote: “‘The Fifth Element’, one of Europe’s biggest productions and a hugely underrated movie abroad (a lot of people claim this is better than [Star Wars Episode IV:] A New Hope). Not highly original, but original enough to have created a small landmark in sci-fi movie history.”

“Original”?

Now, I liked The Fifth Element. It wasn’t incredibly deep or thought-provoking, but it didn’t have to be; it was a fun sci-fi action-adventure flick. A classic Saturday afternoon adventure.

But where is this originality? The underlying conflict (getting the Chosen One to the final destination, where s/he can save the universe) is highly cliched, as is the basic plot (unsuspecting hero is thrown in over his head, and muddles along as best he can). The ending wasn’t just cliched (The universe is worth saving, because of love), it was rather weak in my opinion (the genetically-engineered savior of the universe refuses to save it because people aren’t always nice to each other?). Even the weapons and alien make-up were pretty much standard fare.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that Star Wars was more original than The Fifth Element; it wasn’t. In fact, Star Wars was probably less original. And I still consider The Fifth Element to be a fun, enjoyable film. But I can’t think of one element in The Fifth Element that was original. It gets even worse when I compare it to anime; were The Fifth Element to be made into an anime film, it would slide into obscurity next to many, many other anime films that are just like it.

Sorry; had to get that out of me.

In other news, I’ve managed to squash a few major bugs in Informant. It’s now much more stable, which is of course a good thing. I should be releasing Preview Release 3 tonight or tomorrow night.

I’ve also been working on my side garden. I have a little strip of yard and woods, approximately 59 feet long and 36 to 49 feet wide. I plan to upload a site describing the garden in some detail, including what I’m going to plant there, and nice pictures of the plants and the garden, as time goes by.