Couple of random pop culture musings this evening.

The first is that I recently spent some time watching “District 9,” on my iPhone no less (via Netflix). After getting about a quarter of the way through the movie, I gave up on it. I thought the flick started out really strong, but then some things started to bother me. For one, the evil corporation portrayed in the movie was just way too evil. I’ve got nothing against the corporation as antagonist, but when you have corporate types ordering human vivisection (of their colleague’s son-in-law, who is conscious and strapped to a table right in front of them) to make “hundreds of millions of dollars,” that seems like BS. I turned it off.

Second item was that I watched the extended trailer for “Game of Thrones,” coming to HBO this April. I’m excited for this one, having read all 4,000 pages of series in relatively short order. I have to say, though, I was slightly bummed to see that Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister, is sporting an English accent for the role. I guess that’s because everyone else in the series seems to have one (particularly Tyrion’s brother)? It’s too bad – I find it distracting, same way I did watching the Yanks (playing Aragorn, Frodo, etc.) in “Lord of the Rings” try their best to sound British. If I were directing, I would have let everyone keep their native accents. As the author and the directors say in the Game of Thrones video below, the fantasy genre allows flexibility. So why can’t Tyrion just talk like an American? It also looks like Sean Bean ditches his Irish accent. Ah well. I’m still going to watch show, or at least the first episode or two.