I've concluded a week of training at my new externship, and good God I'm tired. Because I'm deeply intelligent, I paired each 9-5ish day of intensive training with testing administration each evening, making for four successive 12+ hour days this week. It's been a really productive and interesting few days, but I'm ultimately just not built for that kind of endurance. Sleeping in today hasn't taken the edge off the exhaustion, but that's what Sunday's for, right?
During periods in which I have successfully fended off my sleepiness with adequate amounts of caffeine (oh my goodness that free coffee is a godsend!), I'm feeling really excited about my new placement. My colleagues (professionals and fellow trainees alike) seem so awesome, I kind of can't believe my luck. The training is so cutting-edge I feel like I should wear body armor. I got to participate in a day-long group intervention for a rare anxiety disorder and then observe a totally badass family intervention session on Thursday, and to top it all off, one of my fellow trainees totally discovered some beautiful little outdoor plazas where we can hang out when/if we have downtime, because we're actually in a part of the city where we can walk places that aren't just other people's houses.
One of the plazas has this chunk of the Berlin Wall in it.
AMAZING.
AND. My commute is barely, barely 30 minutes. My new externship is four subway stops away. I can't tolerate how much of my life I just stole back from public transit. I CAN'T.
So that makes for some promising developments.
That aside, on to movies!
Funny thing: I've been acutely aware of the impact of expectations on the films I've seen this month. It's kind of amazing how your anticipated enjoyment of a movie can affect how much you actually enjoy the actual movie. It's an odd and sometimes frustrating experience when your preconceptions of a film don't match the thing itself. In the past four weeks I've experienced several iterations of this phenomenon. In due time, I will tell you about two of them.
Perhaps strangely, a small selection of movies for which I had exceedingly low expectations have turned out to be some of my most beloved favorites. I didn't even want to see "Legally Blonde" (2001), but whatever I was trying to see in the theater that day was sold out. If I'm remembering correctly, the same applied to "Drop Dead Gorgeous" (1999). Both films are now some of my all-time favorite comedies. I got dragged kicking and screaming to "28 Days Later" (2002), and we all know how that worked out.
However, expectations can also work against a movie. For me, this was very much the case with this summer's "Prometheus" (2012).
Expectations: 5+++ Actual Rating: 3
...I need a moment. I'm SO SAD about this movie.
To take a step back: this is the first summer movie season I've been REALLY REALLY excited about in a long time, and "Prometheus" is the first in this year's line-up that I was dying to see. (See also: "The Dark Knight Rises" and, I'll admit it, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter".)
I mean, come on: the formidable, dark and brilliant director Ridley Scott updates one of the most terrifying and important science fiction movies of all time, with everyone's favorite badass Noomi Rapace as the lead and the gorgeous Charlize Theron thrown in as if we needed extra incentive.
And have you SEEN that trailer??
How could this movie NOT be spectacular???
How indeed. There were so many plot holes and so little payoff for a film whose pieces should've have coalesced into an astonishing, frightening, and transporting whole. Yes, the effects were pretty awesome and I can't get enough of Ms. Rapace, but at the end of the day this stupid movie seemed like nothing but a giant chapter one to a story that will take several other movies to complete. It could have been so much better.
It felt kind of like this:
"So there!!"
Expectations: 1 Actual Rating: 3
THAT'S RIGHT. I gave it the EXACT SAME RATING as "Prometheus". You'd think that (arguably generous) rating was just out of spite, but it wasn't. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually genuinely kind of enjoyed "Alien vs. Predator". It was respectably executed and featured an awesome black heroine (played quite well by Sanaa Lathan), which still annoyingly doesn't happen all that often and is therefore an appreciated touch. Overall, it was a perfectly fun if stupid movie.
But you know what? At least I knew it was going to be stupid. I felt like I was being had by "Prometheus", and we all know I don't like that feeling. I can respect a stupid movie that embraces its stupidity fully and still delivers something perfectly entertaining, but lacking in self-importance. There's a place for that kind of movie.
...Apparently that place is in my living room the day after watching "Prometheus".
In any case, my low expectations were completely to the movie's advantage.
With that: I have some assessment reports to write. So, in the spirit of fully embracing stupidity, I leave you with the following humorous dog meme thing:
You're welcome.
<3
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