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We watched Oliver Stone’s W. tonight.

Those of you who know me know I’m no fan of our former president, but come on. I felt like I was watching a something that a high school student had written. I am by no means a scholar on George W. Bush, but the telling of his life seemed very one-dimensional and sophomoric.

There was, for example, an over-stressing of W.’s inability to accomplish anything on his own. While this may be a valid characteristic of the man, and while I don’t put him on my “list of smartest individuals,” there are many people in the world who receive just as much fed to them on a silver platter as W. did, who never amount to anything. Let’s not forget that he has accomplished far more than most people will ever dream of, even if it’s not a dreamy legacy.

There were things I did know about Bush’s life that the movie completely misrepresented, eg. many of the Bushisms from the movie were given at completely different points than when they occurred in his real life/career. I realize Stone may have just wanted to take some easy jabs at the ex-president, but in my mind, it merely served to weaken the truthfulness of the overall story. “If Stone is changing little things like that, what else is he changing?”

And last of all, the span of the movie just seemed to be too much. It covered most of W.’s life, which also included his involvement with his father and his father’s presidency. It also tried to cover several key individuals who were involved in both presidencies, like Colin Powell and Dick Cheney. The result of it covering so much material is that several main characters were also presented in a very one-dimensional way: Dick Cheney is the conniving oil baron; Karl Rove is all about political expediency, no matter the cost; Colin Powell is the voice of reason amongst a reasonless committee; and so on.

Anyway, bad movie. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Tonight, Ashley and I went to see a special showing of the live action Death Note. Death Note is an anime/manga in Japan, but they recently made a “real” movie with real live actors. I guess it’s popular enough that they dubbed it in English and brought it here, as well, but only for two nights in select theaters. The theater we went to, by the way, was completely full. Anyway, on to my review…

The story is about a smart kid named Light who happens upon a notebook which gives its owner power to kill anyone whose name they write on its pages. Initially, upset by the poor enforcement of justice by the police, Light uses it to kill criminals and other shady characters. But then as the police begin to investigate the “criminal murderer”… Light starts killing off cops.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. But before I say why, I have to tell some of the weaknesses.

Negatives:

• Although not a flaw of the movie per se, the audience was completely retarded. This was definitely the worst part about the whole experience tonight. I am one of those people who likes to go to movies at midnight on opening night to enjoy the film with other people who are crazy enough to lose hours of sleep on it. These types of audiences are usually the most fun, the most enthusiastic about what’s going on, etc. The people tonight were just morons. They shouted out random, stupid, unfunny things almost on a minute-by-minute basis. I wanted to shoot someone, or myself. So yes, not a true flaw of the movie… except that indirectly it is, as it seemed to only draw dolts (myself and Ashley excluded).
• Voice acting was… not that great. The guys weren’t too bad, but the girls sounded completely fake… like they were reading a script for a Disney Channel show. But this was supposed to be a real adult flick, not some kid show. Had it been rated, I’m sure the multiple F-bomb droppage would’ve invariably garnered it an R-rating.
• The Death God (go to the above site to see pictures of him in anime-form) was terribly animated. I mean, he looked like a computer-rendered version of what you’ll see if you look at his picture on the anime site. They really skimped on the budget here, evidentally. It made what would have otherwise been a pretty serious story kind of cheesy.
• Did I mention the audience was retarded?

Now for the cool. I don’t have a specific listing of items, just some general thoughts.

Light is a very likeable character. Even when he starts killing off completely innocent people, you still like him.  The way Light alluded the police and was able to pull off his shennanigans, especially during the last part of the story, were very fluid, original, and interesting. I generally felt the story was well thought out and holes in the story were hard to be found. It keeps you guessing up til the end. And most of all, the ruthlessness of Light (even though I’m not usually into that kind of thing) is just fantastic. Supporting characters (like the top “detective” L) were also very likeable. Lastly, the music was pretty good.

Though not the best movie or story I’ve ever seen, it was definitely enjoyable and I’d recommend it to anyone.