Gorecki's Symphony No.3: Lento e largo - tranquillissimo

This piece evokes such exquisite pain, any soul alive should not be immune to this.

The second movement opens with a sudden swaying melody that seems to rock one to sleeping, but the sudden change in the key throws the listener off-balance, and finds himself in darkness. A voice mutters two syllable any person on earth would recognise: 'ma-mo' that sounds pretty much like 'ma-ma'.

The voice, as if supported by the aurally ever-changing orchestra, then continues rising. Then the swaying, rocking melody, suddenly enters, gently yet firmly, reminding us that the entire piece is not about sadness. It is about reassurance in the darkest hour, hope in the worst moments, freedom where freedom seems impossible. It is about reconciliation with fate and faith, but above all, it is about unconditional love within the worst of moments.

It always has been the music that heals me and tears me apart. It is the music that means everything to me and nothing at all. Don't follow that? That's okay. Neither do I. Good music needs no words.

Hawkeye and Escapism

Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye in Marvel's The Avengers

For Hawkeye's character bios and more, please head to this site. 

Yeah. That fellow on top. Jeremy Renner plays Hawkeye in the latest Marvel Studios movie offering, The Avengers.

Now, I confess I am not an avid fan of the Avengers. Never paid much attention to Hawkeye, even when he was mentioned in passing. I am more of the X-Men reader. However, seeing the movie made me realise Clint Barton aka Hawkeye is more broken than the rest of the team. In the comic book, he is almost always a loner, being a sniper. He most certainly had his share of dark dealings and underworld due to his abilities. In the latest The Avengers movie, he is shown to be extremely vulnerable to suggestions and Loki exploited that weakness to bring down a hi-tech ship and his friends.

Now, let's take a step back. 

In the movie. In the comic book.

These phrases should be enough for any reader to realise that Hawkeye is a fictional character, in a fictional world about fictional events. 

In one take, it was shown clearly one of his arrows actually turned to follow its target. I was pretty sure the arrow was no heat-seeking sort, nor was it GPS-tagged to its target. In another instance, he sighted a target, looked away, loosed his arrow and calmly picked up another while the loosed arrow hit not one, but two targets.

Impossible? Yes, clearly. Erroneous? Of course.

How many errors did Hawkeye made? Somebody, somewhere in the internet, pointed out not one, not two, but an astounding - wait, I'm not gonna count, because I am not an expert and I don't want to be taken out on that point. It is also written in the same site that a young amateur could do better than what Hawkeye showed in the movie. And that Hawkeye could have made better effort to get it right - the posture, the arm, the bow, the string, the whole nine yards. (I get it if the writer wants to come across as funny, but reading through it, it feels more of a blatant criticism and less funny. Scratch that. The writer IS NOT FUNNY AT ALL.)

Gosh, it sounds like Hawkeye's about to play Bach's Partita No 2: Chaconne instead of shooting an invading alien army. And that requires even less precision and more readiness.

This is a movie. Gods and aliens fight in it. Ships disappear and fly. A black hole appears in the middle of the New York skies. A Thunder God commands a hammer that calls out endless lightning. A man becomes a meaner, greener and bigger version of himself and yet, somehow, his pants doesn't tear up at the most critical junctures. Another man, who should have been on life support years ago, instead is alive and flying with a new element that keeps the deadly stuff away from his heart. 

(There, bad science! But I don't hear a physicist complain!) 

An amazingly beautiful but lethal assassin kills aliens with her bare hands. A 70-year-old man who looks like a twenty-year-old and impossibly handsome, fights like a tank with the help of a shield that will never tarnish nor break, ever. 

And the so-called bothersome finale: an archer who, as the experts say, doesn't shoot like a real archer should, and must, shoot.

Final word again: this is a movie. If you want real accurate descriptions on how to handle bows, arrows, and the differences between shortbows, longbows, compound bows, combat archery, Olympic archery, practice shots, whatnot - watch a documentary.

The myth of Hawkeye is more important than all the technicalities put together to disclaim his ability. Click this link to read another favourite blog of mine that further illustrates the simple distinction of being human in a team full of heroes with superpowers.

One petite point: Hawkeye was self-taught. So all those technicalities are for naught.

Marvel's The Avengers: The Review

By now, everyone must've heard the news: The Avengers have broken the billion mark worldwide. Congratulations, Mr Whedon, for making it in big in a very treacherous territory that is the superhero/comic book movies.

Not many can claim to such accolades, not even the other Marvel or DC comic book movies which I also adore. For example: X-Men (2000) directed by Bryan Singer. Mr Singer probably was the first to give this genre a slight reboot by not focusing overtly on the fights and more on the psyches of the characters.

Sam Raimi polished it a bit more with Spiderman (2002) and Christopher Nolan expanded on the entire premise of psychological drama with a reboot in Batman Begins (2005). Since then, it looked as if nobody could combine the affecting storytelling, comedy and drama we comic book readers often find within those pages, and make it work on the big screen.

The guys are great,
but she is so much more.
Don't tie her onto a chair.

It was with an open mind - as I have with anything else - that I approached the latest Marvel offering. The first few moments opens with a loss on the human side: Loki steals the tesseract, an item filled with supposed endless energy. Normally, that was where everything began to slide downhill. But then we are introduced to men and woman who are to be part of Fury's team that will at first attempt to recover the stolen tesseract. Things however go awfully wrong, and before they all realised what actually is happening, Loki gets the upper hand again.

It sounds very simple when I write it like that. But Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed this movie, has been working with ensemble casts most of his career. Weaving stories around characters, making one action affect the others, carefully tying the loose ends (or at this point, probably intentionally leaving a few untied) are his fore. Nothing in this movie is done without a reason, and where no reason is provided, it is sure to mean something else is coming out of it later.

Captain, when he thinks no one
is looking.

The character interactions in this movie are brilliantly written - the comic book gist is acted out in the real world, making it akin to a tennis-match watcher's delight, watching and listening to their banter. Even the villains are given ample time to remind the viewers they have valid reasons to exist in the story, not to simply become the opposition.

Therein lies the attraction to Whedon's version of Marvel universe. Every character has a moment to shine, even the villains. The backstory of each character is shown briefly but ample for future expansions. Newbies and hardcore fans both will be delighted because in this manner, the newbies will learn a little about a character, while the hardcore fans can reaffirm their memories and move on with the storyline.

The action scenes, while not groundbreaking, are a feast for the senses. You are taken within Iron Man's suit during the fights, and treated with bird's eye view of the battlefield as seen by the sniper, Hawkeye. The scenes are shot with closeness that sometimes tend to overwhelm, but in a good way.

So yes, I was deeply satisfied, and very happy with the movie. Whedon has done what I thought nigh impossible: a stellar ensemble cast with an actually interesting story, and have each character enough time in the limelight but not overshadowing each other. In an interview, that was the reason why, Whedon had said, he wanted to do this project: the seeming 'impossibility of it' (errors are mine, I am writing from memory).

In the end, I guess the deceptively simple premise paid off in the end. Like over 1 billion dollars worldwide.