No skating this week as I was resting my feet on Saturday (my blister has finally healed! My toenail has finally shuffled off this mortal coil!) and then in Exeter for work Monday-Wednesday. That was not remotely thrilling. Sitting in a by turns too hot and too cold room, being ignored for three days and missing out on tea when it was served, and also not selling very many books at all. It’s amazing how tiring sitting doing nothing all day can be, as every evening I would conk out at around 10pm trying to read A Game of Thrones.
I am totally addicted to GoT by the way. I loved the tv series muchly and was waiting until it was done to read the first book. I’m now onto the second and still loving it. I contemplated not reading it so as not to spoil the series when it airs next year, but who was I kidding, I couldn’t possibly wait that long to find out what happens. I am in love with the Khaleesi, and feisty Arya, and Tyrion and Jon. But I am worried about where it is going because George R.R. Martin is not afraid to kill off his characters, oh no. It’s wonderful writing and an amazing world that is so full of detail and so well realised I can only assume Martin is a genius. How does he keep track of everyone and everything he has created? It’s so vast. If you’re not reading or watching you should give it a go.
Something worth avoiding though is X Men: First Class. I didn’t have high hopes for this based on the truly awful film posters and so-so trailer, but I went to see it anyway, hoping it would take away the bad taste left by X Men 3. It didn’t and I think I shall have to go on pretending only two X Men films exist. For the first half I really truly could have walked out and not felt like I was missing anything. The child actors in the beginning were so earnest and cute it was impossible to take them seriously (and just seeing the revisited Magneto-as-a-boy moment showed you the difference in direction skills). In fact there was much eye-rolling all round as Kevin Bacon acted the villain and I felt like I was watching The Spy Who Shagged Me. It was just too cheesy. It got better as it went along, but still didn’t have nearly enough character development to make me give a crap about any of them. The teen mutants get a cursory montage of what their powers are, and that’s it. And I’m supposed to relate to them how? Root for them? Care when one of them double crosses the others? You’ve done nothing to show me what kind of people they are, so why should it come as a surprise? I’m supposed to care because I’m supposed to care, and that is just not good enough. It’s lazy and makes it impossible for an audience to engage. Also, James McAvoy was a terrible Professor X. I just about hated him in every scene he was in, and usually I quite like him. He’s no Patrick Stewart. Michael Fassbender fared better and I’d have probably preferred if they’d just concentrated on Magneto, at least I knew what he was about, and where his rage came from. I am also slightly worried about The Hunger Games film if that’s Jennifer Lawrence’s best acting. She was so good in Winter’s Bone, and so bad/pointless here. I couldn’t see anything of the Mystique to come.
And my one big peeve about the whole thing was Charles putting a finger to his temple every time he did anything with his mental powers. I understand that someone thought it necessary to telegraph to the audience with a big sign saying ‘MUTANT POWER GO’ but it was distracting and stupid. What does the finger do exactly, flick a switch? Did Stewart do this in the other films and I just didn’t notice? Gah. Hated it.
Back to skating on Saturday, with only two more practices left before I find out whether I can fully join the Rec League or have to start Fresh Meat again. Fingers crossed people!
