Saturday, April 7, 2012

Mirror Mirror

Hello all!  If anyone has come by since the first post you will have seen that not much has changed yet.  I'm working on navigating the Blogger website, and I may just have to set aside an afternoon or evening and just read up and play around until I learn my way around.  However, I don't think I'll have a large chunk of time for a little while yet, but I'll continue to plug away at this until I get the hang of it.

In entertainment news I just returned from seeing Mirror Mirror starring Julia Roberts and Lily Collins.  I must say that I am a big fan of Fairy Tale retellings and this one broke the mold.  I don't mean to sound too gushy, but this movie broke the typical retelling format.  Many retellings will follow the original Fairy Tale fairly closely.  Events happened in A B C order in the fairy tale and they tend to happen in A B C order when the tale is touched upon.  A good retelling often comes down to the character development, because the original is typically pretty flat and general. Therefore we become invested in the character and share their hopes and secret fears; we root for them even though we have a pretty good idea about what is coming down the road for them, and what the general outcome will be... or will it?  Yeah, it usually is the same outcome in a different style.

Mirror Mirror breaks this mold to a degree.  We get the story from a queen-centric viewpoint, even though we follow Snow White closely from an outside perspective.  The Queen is the only character who provides an internal narrative for the viewer, she is the only one whose inner monologue is heard.  Which, I admit, not entirely unusual in a retelling, but the style feels different, perhaps because of the unusual relationship between Robert's Queen and her Mirror.  If this aspect has been done before then I haven't seen it.  I don't want to describe specifics because I think you should be introduced to it in the theater... if they didn't include it in the trailer (which I didn't see).

The dwarves are not the Disney dwarves who are wholesome miners that whistle as they work.  Nor, are they throw away midgets that you wouldn't miss.  A completely new set of names and gripes.  They are each distinct individuals who work great together as a group and train Snow White to fight.  Yeah, I said it (and I think the trailer probably showed this), Snow White is a fighter. Snow White is capable of saving herself, her prince and her kingdom; mostly by herself, though we can always use a little help from our friends.

The Prince spends a fair amount of time half-naked, and I can't say that I was complaining.  Even the Queen demands that he be given a shirt so that she can concentrate.  The Queen and her court are adorned in quite garish attire that contrasts with the dreary tattered clothes of the people in who have been taxed nearly to death by the queen who is protecting them from some vague and undefinable evil that really pays for her expensive clothes and large parties.  Did I mention that it also serves as a political statement on the US economy?  You won't see it if you don't care to see it, but it totally works.

Lily Collins does a phenomenal job with Snow White.  I really appreciate that I did not know who Lily Collins was when I walked into the theater.  If she had a large following I would have had expectations of who the actress was, but since I didn't I was completely able to believe that she was Snow White.  I believed that she was a young girl who did not know her own strength until she was finally called upon to stand up for her kingdom.

The action was well put together.  The actions do not simply follow the basic outline from the original Fairy Tale, but rather some aspects are there, some are present in a token form only, and others are completely left out or especially created for this version.  The blend was done beautifully so that all aspects blended together to form a product that had a definitive Snow White feel, while being wonderfully original.

While I was watching the movie, I kept my hooks busy.  I made most of a black and red key chain wallet.  I still need to add snaps and I want to embroider the Deadpool logo on the front of it.  I need to purchase some more snaps and I want to add the snaps before I add the design since I want it to match up between the body of the wallet and the closing flap. Pictures are located below.





I think that is all for today since my cat, Trousers has decided that he wants to lay on top of the mouse, and sometimes you just can't fight him for control of it!

Post at you later,
         Super Hooker



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