Holy shit, Chronicle is so fucking good, you guys. I thought all found-footage movies had to have thinly drawn characters, no discernible story beyond "run away from scary things," and large stretches of boring shit where nothing happens, but then Chronicle threw that all out the window.

It's a superpower story told from the POV of the villain, which makes it so deliciously disturbing and uncomfortable to watch at times, especially because he's actually a sympathetic character. Josh Trank comes up with a very clever tweaking of the found-footage conceit that lets him get away with all kinds of shots that make it feel more like a regular movie. The 10% that could be cheating is all at the end, although my favorite bit was having the cameras and cell phones circle Matt and Andrew in mid-air. And I didn't mind so much how the footage was shot, though I do wonder how the footage from the beginning of the movie was recovered since the camera was supposedly buried underground.

It's just so fucking good, and the finale is insane. There are great special effects and awesome action sequences, but in the end, it's a character-based story. The best thing I can say is that there is a scene where I honestly had to keep myself from bursting into tears, and that was totally unexpected.

I think part of the conceit isn't that the found footage was found--it was just that it was filmed by someone *in* the story, and then it was available. It was like the editor was omniscient, but the eye was third party.

Yeah, I saw one review take that interpretation, which works.

Finally saw Fincher's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was quite intrigued by the differences and the similarities to the Swedish film. I knew going in the film was right up Fincher's alley, and he kept a very similar visual feel without just making a shot for shot remake. I was very glad to see that he kept it a Swedish film - about Swedes and set in Sweden. I was also very impressed with Rooney Mara's Swedish accent. Having spent well over a decade in the company of Swedes, it sounded dead on to my ear.

Lucas claims that Han never shot first.

WTF is he trying to do? Does he want to ruin everyone's childhood?

Lucas claims that Han never shot first.

Huh. Is that related to thing where we have always been at war with Eastasia?

Lucas claims that Han never shot first.

Wow, that's... arrogant. Yup, arrogant.

Wow. Assy.

I wonder, is it possible for me to buy Star Wars: The Han Shot First Edition on DVD these days?

Are you implying that Han ever killed anyone? Give Georgie a couple more years, and all the good guys will be more pacifistic than Gandhi. (eta: Mahatma, not Indira or any others)