Facelift and Master of the Revels

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well, I finally watched Facelift the whole way through, and

there are almost-spoilers for it (not the ending)(and maybe Master of the Revels) down below...

Okay - ohmigod, weird film! It's set in the year 2074, and our MS plays Zax, a magician who really can do magic to entertain the "names" - the scruffy - but at least interesting and human! - proles of the future. They are generally ignored by the "numbers", the elite - and incredibly boring - upper class, who are born in laboratories, exist in a sterile computer-generated world and rarely venture out of it. One of their guilty pleasures, however, is to visit Zax's magical theatre and when F-number female insists on going with M-number male, Zax spots her in the audience and is enraptured. But she returns to being the guinea-pig in the numbers' experiments to isolate the human soul, and he returns to his dressing room where he treats his girlfriend and magician's assistant appallingly, and starts work on a replicant of the F-number female. Of course when he finds out about the numbers' experiment - from his friend Ojuka (Peter Clarke) no less! (Oh alright, his friend Bob) - he realises what he needs to do...

But I'm really not going to spoiler the end too badly. *g* It's actually got lots of potential to be quite interesting, in an eighties, humanity-is-doomed-unless-we-save-ourselves kind of science fiction-y way. The bit that should be the crises is totally gory and made me go ewwwww very effectively, but then it just copped out and made that the penultimate scene instead - with a sort of see-why-you-shouldn't-meddle sort of final message... Ewwwww.

Master of the Revels, on the other hand, which I've started with only the first half in my hand until next month - ack! - not only brings in Bodie and Cowley (okay, Galen and the Controller, but they so are Bodie and Cowley), but it's started to flesh out the world of names and numbers and Regulators a bit more, and I stayed up way too late last night reading it when I meant to go straight to sleep... And Zax in the film just has no personality that I can see, so I can totally believe that he might yet turn out to be Doyle in a he's-been-terribly-traumatised kind of way. Which means that it really is an AU, and as we know I've gone from hating them to adoring them over the last eighteen months or so... Usually I hate it when AUs use names other than Bodie/Doyle too, but maybe because I've seen the film now I can deal with it in this one.

I know lots of people don't seem to like it, and I was wondering - do you think it might be because you've not seen the film? Might that help? ('cos, honestly, anything's got to be good after that..!) Or is there something else about the zine (without spoilering me too much, cos I'm barely a third into it!) that puts you off? And there are people out there who liked it, right? Apart from the gorgeous art?

Oh, and credit for the wallpaper up above to Bri's Professionals Wallpapers!

Comments

[shaw012145.livejournal.com]

Bodie'd take the piss, unmercifully

definitely!

Reminds me of Harry Potter 4 ... when Ron is dancing with Prof McGonigal (probably spelt that wrong) and he says to the Weasley twins ... you are not going to let me forget this ...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Not sure if I've seen that one... and I'm a bit disturbed by trying to think of Harry Potter and Pros in the same breath actually! Just seems... wrong somehow!

[shaw012145.livejournal.com]

Not wrong for me as I love both. And there are PROS people in Harry Potter ... RAMOS was in Goblet of Fire ... so Pros is in my mind when I watch ;)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - it's just a weird mix for me! I tend to think of Ramos more as Trigger, from Only Fools and Horses, tbh... *g* I got all giggly when I realised that Trigger was Ramos!

[shaw012145.livejournal.com]

Robert Hardy (Death In Holy Orders) and David Tennant (Dr Who) are also in Harry 4 ... so I get more of my favourites. Never seen Only Fools and Horses.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I think my thing about HP is that I got bored trying to keep up while the books were still being written. I generally do with series, no matter how good - I end up waiting until they're all published. *g*

Only Fools and Horses is brilliantly funny - Del Boy Trotter and his brother Rodney, a couple of wide boys from London... *g* They even mentioned Pros in one ep, apparently. Del Boy is always ducking and diving the wrong side of the law - sells the sort of thing that falls off the back of a lorry, you know? At one point Del Boy tells Rodney that they have to be professionals, and Rodney says summat like "What, jumping over the bonnet of the car and driving really fast?"... or something... *g* Anyway, "Ramos" plays one of their very dim (and really funny) mates, Trigger. Ooh - he's even got his own page on wiki: here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_%28Only_Fools_and_Horses%29). There are links to sites with pics of him if you're interested...

[shaw012145.livejournal.com]

Have bookmarked your link and will look later (named it RAMOS).

Looking forward to the next Harry movie ... and then the final book ... who lives, who dies ... I may stop at film 5 as I so do not want Harry to die.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

But... if you know that he dies in the book/movie (Wait, he dies? Did you just totally spoiler me?), then you know that he dies - whether you read/watch it or not! See, this is a thing I don't get, I guess I read/watch stories in a completely different way...

[shaw012145.livejournal.com]

NO SPOILERS given ... just stating my own opinion.

I have no idea what is going to happen ... last book is not out yet.

All I believe happens ... 2 will die, 1 gets a reprieve and the last word is going to be SCAR.

Some are saying that for Voldemort to die, Harry must die too ... but I don't want to believe that as I am one for good triumphing over evil. And yes, sometimes good has to be sacrificed, but not Harry. Malfoy was supposed to kill Dumbledore in Book 6, but couldn't and Snape did the kill ... so many variables and we will soon know.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

NO SPOILERS given ... just stating my own opinion.
Oh good - phew - and at the same time:

*puts fingers ostentatiously in ears, closes eyes, and sings lalalalalalalallalalalalalala very loudly*

I don't really want to get that deeply into HP (or any other programme/book) before I've read/watched it. I end up reading/watching something with all the speculation in mind rather than just enjoying it for the gorgeous story, which is what I love about reading/watching in the first place! So - please no more! *g*

*g*

[shaw012145.livejournal.com]

Do not talk HP, do not talk HP, do not talk HP ...

Will be hard in LJ land soon, so will have to remember, IF I do, to put HP SPOILER first, and then you know NOT to look.

For us HP fans, it is getting very exciting ...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh I love HP, and it is exciting that the last one's nearly out - means I can go back to the start and read the whole series at last! - I just don't go and hang out at HP forums, or read discussion about it etc. I'm usually pretty safe in Pros-world! *g*

[shaw012145.livejournal.com]

pretty safe

Yes, and you know my loves (see my icon). Dr Who last night, Life on Mars tonight ... Professionals ... every day ;)