Wood Pulp and Blood
Nov. 5th, 2006 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
subplotkudzu
I took the DVD of the TNT original movie The Librarian: Quest for the Spear out of the library because it looked like good cheesy fun, and it was indeed good cheesy fun, with an extra helping of silly on the side.
Noah Wylie plays the latest person to hold the post of The Librarian, who oversees the secret library that, like GURPS' Warehouse 23, holds the Arc of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, Excalibur, etc. Naturally villains break in and steal something (1/3 of the Spear of Destiny, natch) and Wylie has to go on a big quest to beat them to the other two parts and prevent the end of the world and suchlike.
As plots go, it's as generic pulp as they come. The fight scenes are laughable - but that's OK, they're supposed to be, as this marks Bob Newhart's first fight scene ever. There's a cheesy moral message about the need to connect with people and explore life - or in this case explore Sonya Walger, who fills the Buffy/Lara Croft meme of 'the outfit isn't exist if the person wearing it can kick your ass'. The villain's master plan, well, seems to lack an endgame, and its execution was pure Feng Shui 'string together action scenes with some exposition and investigation'. But the tongue in cheek aspect made it more palatable to me than the second Tomb Raider movie, with its extended death scenes to show how bad the bad guy is. Maybe I'm getting old, but my pointless gore factor is dropping.
Best of all, the central character celebrated knowledge and the worth of acquiring it. Sure, it's presented in an over the top, Sherlock Holmes way, but he got this job because he was not just smart but well read and well studied. Everyone who keeps telling him he should get out more miss the point that without his erudition they'd be lost, if not dead. It reminded me of the second nested story in Byatt's Babel Tower, in which the young prince who read is more useful to the quest than the one who rides, runs and fights - written by a character who wanted to show her children that there is value in acquiring learning.
Probably still a little too much for really young kids, it's still good fun for the 6+ year old crowd (hey![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kriz1818!), or those who don't mind some silly on their cheddar and gouda souffle.
Noah Wylie plays the latest person to hold the post of The Librarian, who oversees the secret library that, like GURPS' Warehouse 23, holds the Arc of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, Excalibur, etc. Naturally villains break in and steal something (1/3 of the Spear of Destiny, natch) and Wylie has to go on a big quest to beat them to the other two parts and prevent the end of the world and suchlike.
As plots go, it's as generic pulp as they come. The fight scenes are laughable - but that's OK, they're supposed to be, as this marks Bob Newhart's first fight scene ever. There's a cheesy moral message about the need to connect with people and explore life - or in this case explore Sonya Walger, who fills the Buffy/Lara Croft meme of 'the outfit isn't exist if the person wearing it can kick your ass'. The villain's master plan, well, seems to lack an endgame, and its execution was pure Feng Shui 'string together action scenes with some exposition and investigation'. But the tongue in cheek aspect made it more palatable to me than the second Tomb Raider movie, with its extended death scenes to show how bad the bad guy is. Maybe I'm getting old, but my pointless gore factor is dropping.
Best of all, the central character celebrated knowledge and the worth of acquiring it. Sure, it's presented in an over the top, Sherlock Holmes way, but he got this job because he was not just smart but well read and well studied. Everyone who keeps telling him he should get out more miss the point that without his erudition they'd be lost, if not dead. It reminded me of the second nested story in Byatt's Babel Tower, in which the young prince who read is more useful to the quest than the one who rides, runs and fights - written by a character who wanted to show her children that there is value in acquiring learning.
Probably still a little too much for really young kids, it's still good fun for the 6+ year old crowd (hey
kriz1818!), or those who don't mind some silly on their cheddar and gouda souffle.
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Date: 2006-11-06 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 10:53 pm (UTC)