Movie Review: Stormbreaker

(Or, as they called it in the US, “Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker. That seemed long.)

Explanation:
Okay, there was a reason why this ended up in my dvd player. After we watched I Am Number Four, I wiki’d the movie [and through a series of events that doesn't need exploring at this juncture] and found out that Alex Pettyfer was in both movies. (My reaction to the Netflix description for Stormbreaker: “That sounds terrible! I should watch it.”)

Quote:
“Don’t touch that!”
“Why, is it dangerous?”
“No, it’s very annoying!”
-gadget guy, Alex

Reaction:
Sooo….. I think I can make a guess at why this movie wasn’t popular enough to get sequels. It reminded me a lot of Eragon, actually (fun fact: Alex Pettyfer turned down the role of Eragon to be in Stormbreaker) — since they were based on books, there was a whole world-building thing they were trying to do, and allude to, which really just meant that people who know the books and people who don’t ended up having a completely different movie experience.

(In other words, whatever was going on between Alex and Gregorovich? It was pretty weird. See below.)

I’m not sure it’s a good thing when the foreshadowing is obvious, but it could be predicting 1) Gregorovich and Alex are going to end up secret lovers on the lam; 2) Gregorovich and Ian were secret lovers but not on the lam; 3) Gregorovich is secretly Alex’s dad.

(Or 4) (my personal favorite) Gregorovich and Ian had a secret pact to escape and save their families from their respective organizations, which started with Ian’s supposed death, but neither of them thought MI-6 would make a move on Alex so quickly, and now they have to get him out too, and what with all the lying and the killing, it’s just an awkward situation all around.)

Questions:
1. The dvd has a picture of a dog on it. The movie did not seem to have a dog in it. What’s up with that?

2. Why was the bad guy’s plan so stupid? Releasing a virus to kill millions of people — that makes no sense. It’s not targeted, it’s not profitable, and there’s no endgame — what would he have gained from it? Nothing, that’s what. Except probably death by virus, which is just… really, really dumb.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

“this is going on the internet”

It’s Saturday, right? One of my days off. There are certain things I’m willing to be disturbed for by my workplace on my days off, and they are as follows:

1. The store is on fire.
2. Someone’s died.

That’s really it. So you can imagine my consternation when work called me this morning. I was in my pajamas. ‘Shoot,’ I thought. ‘I’ll have to get dressed quick if it’s a fire.’

Here is the conversation I had with one of my coworkers:

Me: “Hi, it’s me.”
Coworker: “Hi.” [long pause] “I just don’t know what to do.” [long pause] “So and so left their coat on the chair again.”

(Note: This is part of a ridiculous conflict that I am continuously baffled by. Anyway, the coat is a thing; I don’t even know.)

Me: [facepalm] “Okay.”
Coworker: “What should I do?”
Me: “Well, if you feel comfortable with it, what I would probably do is to move the coat onto a hook.”
Coworker: “Oh.”
Me: “That way you avoid a confrontation — the coat is moved, but you don’t have to exchange any angry words.”
Coworker: “I guess I can do that.”
Me: “Okay.”

Then we hung up. WHAT WAS THAT EVEN??? It’s been explained to both these people that if they start hashing it out at work again, with the shouting and stuff, they’ll both be asked to go home. I assume that’s what led to the furtive phone call for advice, but really? Really?

In a potentially ominous development, I did not receive a status update via email like usual this evening from the Saturday manager.

Note to self: get to work early tomorrow. Bring fire blankets. And coffee.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.