Directed by David Yates / Written by Steve Kloves (based on a novel by J. K. Rowling)
Instead of focusing on the themes I consider the most improtant in the sixth book of the series (love, friendship, loyalty) the movie concentrated on one of the lighter themes: Teenage relationships. They did manage to make me laugh, though, as they were portrayed very entertainingly yet maintaining the bitterness that's involved in first love and such.
Since the books are dialogue-based and the biggest audience will run screaming out of the theatres if a movie consists mainly out of dialogue (booriing! I want explosions!), I know it's always been a challenge to put the story onto the screen. With the sixth book, the most essential part of which consists of Harry and Dumbledore discussing, the challenge has been even bigger. One thing I really missed was the examination of Tom Valedro's personality (as well as Dumbledore's), because understanding the "bad guys" is what makes the story even more interesting. Maybe the american black-and-white perspective is to blame: Bad is bad and good is good? Although this doesn't apply to Draco Malfoy's character, who is given some depth (which I think is mainly because the audience loves the character and it's actor Tom Felton so much).
However, this film did work as a movie. It didn't get caught in wanting to show every single event written in the book, but cut out and added things boldly to make this a movie, not an adaptation. In some scenes I still got the feeling a viewer not famailiar to the books might be left out, but considerably less than in the previous parts of the movie series.
And by the way: Alan Rickman and Tom Felton kick ass.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
A Serious Man (2009)
Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
I gotta love a movie that makes me want to see it again right away; This movie has got to be deciphered. I have a feeling the story will unravel properly when seeing it for the second time (or third). I also have a feeling I might have to study a bit of Jewish tradition to find all the hidden clues. Man, a movie that's a real challenge! Damn refreshing! Although the story with all its exotic details might also be just a shallow artistic scam, I don't really mind: Exploring it will still be intriguing. Apart from the interesting story, I really love the subtle humor this director duo fills its movies with. I find myself giggling all alone in a full audience! They have really found the essence of black comedy and a fine way to present it: It oozes out of evey character, every picture, every movement. The Coen brothers have a fantastic sense of rhythm when it comes to movies.
I gotta love a movie that makes me want to see it again right away; This movie has got to be deciphered. I have a feeling the story will unravel properly when seeing it for the second time (or third). I also have a feeling I might have to study a bit of Jewish tradition to find all the hidden clues. Man, a movie that's a real challenge! Damn refreshing! Although the story with all its exotic details might also be just a shallow artistic scam, I don't really mind: Exploring it will still be intriguing. Apart from the interesting story, I really love the subtle humor this director duo fills its movies with. I find myself giggling all alone in a full audience! They have really found the essence of black comedy and a fine way to present it: It oozes out of evey character, every picture, every movement. The Coen brothers have a fantastic sense of rhythm when it comes to movies.
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Directed by Spike Jonze / Written by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers (based on a book by Maurice Sendak)
I loved how this movie didn't follow the usual blockbuster drama pattern and instead tried to maintain some realism. If it would have followed the usual cycle of drama, Max would have magically found a way to make them all get along; Perhaps the very fact that he was an incompetent kid would have saved everyone from disaster? Luckily that's not how it went, as it would have screwed up the entire storyline. A little kid can't solve the social problems of a community, the members of which all behave like kids themselves - a kid can't be a parent. Games may cheer you up for a while but they won't fix anything. That's all I want to analyze: The better the movie, the less I have to say about it. The imagery was beautiful and I loved the score. Gotta find that soundtrack somewhere.
I loved how this movie didn't follow the usual blockbuster drama pattern and instead tried to maintain some realism. If it would have followed the usual cycle of drama, Max would have magically found a way to make them all get along; Perhaps the very fact that he was an incompetent kid would have saved everyone from disaster? Luckily that's not how it went, as it would have screwed up the entire storyline. A little kid can't solve the social problems of a community, the members of which all behave like kids themselves - a kid can't be a parent. Games may cheer you up for a while but they won't fix anything. That's all I want to analyze: The better the movie, the less I have to say about it. The imagery was beautiful and I loved the score. Gotta find that soundtrack somewhere.
Avatar (2009)
Written and directed by James Cameron
This movie reminded me of Pocahontas, Jurassic Park and Laputa - all of which I adore. Apparently mashing them up wasn't such a bad idea, since Avatar still succeeded in being an original story despite all the references. Avatar is clearly a product of its time: A judging finger pointing at the ones guilty for destroying our own environment just as full of wonders as the one on Pandora. As a treehugger to the bone I hope the message has reached the thousands of guilty ones sitting everywhere in the audience. Individuals may not have strength over authorities but masses do. I completely fell in love with Pandora and it's people, the culture of the na'vi's. It wasn't mind-blowing, as living inside huge trees and communicating with the nature was already introduced in, for example, Lord of the Rings (elves, anyone?) as well as in many other stories, but I did enjoy it nevertheless. I loved the design of the na'vi race as well as all the flora and fauna; The science-based point of view on mother nature was fascinating. I was suprised to find a reference to the war on terrorism as well. Near the end of the movie, where the evil commander (you know, the "Papa Dragon") holds a speech for his soldiers before the final battle, he says: "Fight terror with terror." These are the words that were used to justify the invasion to Iraq during the early decade and the words that still keep the military forces present. The situation is kind of comparable to the one in the movie: The natives simply try to defend their land from the ones exploiting and raping, and thus may seem aggressive and threatening. War is blind on both sides. The music was, in my case, disturbing, as it kept on reminding me of Titanic. I don't know why James Cameron wanted James Horner to write the score for this spectacle as well: He seems to use the same kind of elements whatever music he writes. I heard the same instruments, same rhythms, same themes even. The native music was the best part of the score, yet it too reminded me of the choral parts in Titanic. The worst parts of the movie were the well-known cliches of american blockbusters: Predictability, happy ending, romantic relationship on the main focus. - I hate predictability: I knew within the first five minutes how the movie was going to roll all the way to the end. Of course he'd stay with the na'vi's, he'd fall in love, learn their ways, betray everyone, be an outcast, boo-hoo, and of course they'd win the ultimate battle (and there is going to be an ultimate battle, of course, with a preceding smaller mid-battle). I would have loved some edge on the ending! The remaining humans all dead instead of exile, just to set an example. Now it was just too smooth to be interesting. - Romance is something people love to focus on, because it's sweet yet bitter and oh-so-familiar. It's easy for the large audience to pay attention to emotions; They don't require thinking since they run on primal instinct. I'm sick and tired of romance, at least in movies. Why must every story revolve around a romantic relationship between two people? Wake up: There's more to life than that! This story as many others would have worked fine, if not better, without the relationship courageously surviving in the middle of all the epic struggle. But all in all it was a good movie: Complete, influential and visually high quality. I wouldn't have noticed it's three hours long (whew) if the 3D-glasses hadn't started to hurt and my neck scream in agony. Most importantly it got me thinking: Even though in the movie they claimed our planet is dead, that we have killed our mother, I still believe the heart of the earth is beating somewhere, in places far from cities like mine. I will travel to those places one day, and when I do I might end up like Jake Sully: never wanting to leave again.
This movie reminded me of Pocahontas, Jurassic Park and Laputa - all of which I adore. Apparently mashing them up wasn't such a bad idea, since Avatar still succeeded in being an original story despite all the references. Avatar is clearly a product of its time: A judging finger pointing at the ones guilty for destroying our own environment just as full of wonders as the one on Pandora. As a treehugger to the bone I hope the message has reached the thousands of guilty ones sitting everywhere in the audience. Individuals may not have strength over authorities but masses do. I completely fell in love with Pandora and it's people, the culture of the na'vi's. It wasn't mind-blowing, as living inside huge trees and communicating with the nature was already introduced in, for example, Lord of the Rings (elves, anyone?) as well as in many other stories, but I did enjoy it nevertheless. I loved the design of the na'vi race as well as all the flora and fauna; The science-based point of view on mother nature was fascinating. I was suprised to find a reference to the war on terrorism as well. Near the end of the movie, where the evil commander (you know, the "Papa Dragon") holds a speech for his soldiers before the final battle, he says: "Fight terror with terror." These are the words that were used to justify the invasion to Iraq during the early decade and the words that still keep the military forces present. The situation is kind of comparable to the one in the movie: The natives simply try to defend their land from the ones exploiting and raping, and thus may seem aggressive and threatening. War is blind on both sides. The music was, in my case, disturbing, as it kept on reminding me of Titanic. I don't know why James Cameron wanted James Horner to write the score for this spectacle as well: He seems to use the same kind of elements whatever music he writes. I heard the same instruments, same rhythms, same themes even. The native music was the best part of the score, yet it too reminded me of the choral parts in Titanic. The worst parts of the movie were the well-known cliches of american blockbusters: Predictability, happy ending, romantic relationship on the main focus. - I hate predictability: I knew within the first five minutes how the movie was going to roll all the way to the end. Of course he'd stay with the na'vi's, he'd fall in love, learn their ways, betray everyone, be an outcast, boo-hoo, and of course they'd win the ultimate battle (and there is going to be an ultimate battle, of course, with a preceding smaller mid-battle). I would have loved some edge on the ending! The remaining humans all dead instead of exile, just to set an example. Now it was just too smooth to be interesting. - Romance is something people love to focus on, because it's sweet yet bitter and oh-so-familiar. It's easy for the large audience to pay attention to emotions; They don't require thinking since they run on primal instinct. I'm sick and tired of romance, at least in movies. Why must every story revolve around a romantic relationship between two people? Wake up: There's more to life than that! This story as many others would have worked fine, if not better, without the relationship courageously surviving in the middle of all the epic struggle. But all in all it was a good movie: Complete, influential and visually high quality. I wouldn't have noticed it's three hours long (whew) if the 3D-glasses hadn't started to hurt and my neck scream in agony. Most importantly it got me thinking: Even though in the movie they claimed our planet is dead, that we have killed our mother, I still believe the heart of the earth is beating somewhere, in places far from cities like mine. I will travel to those places one day, and when I do I might end up like Jake Sully: never wanting to leave again.
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Directed by Peter Jackson / Written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson (based on a novel by Alice Sebold)
I love the way this movie sounded: The voice editing was beautifully done and I really enjoyed the music. The story was good as well, even though it was unneccessarily heavily foreshadowed - despite that it still did manage to have some small yet signifigant surprises in the end. I liked what this movie had to say about family and loss and, like the title says, how they grow bones around that loss, creating new life around the shadow of a tragedy. This movie wasn't really about Susan Salmon, it was about her family and friends. What disturbed me was the occasional stiffness of the 3D-animation and -backgrounds: This was definately not the best CG I've seen. The imagery was fascinating, though, yet it's finest moment was not in any of the digital scenes but, in my opinion, in the scene where the murderer bathes himself clean. I was fascinated by that and some of the other visual ideas, for example the scene where Susie steps inside her murderers house and discovers the other victims. I love how it shows the whole house as a tomb or a memoir to all the killings he's committed. The beautiful Saoirse Ronan did a good job acting, and I think we'll be hearing more about her in the future. The actors did an all-around good job, but the deepness of the tragedy didn't show on all of them. Something about Mark Wahlberg disturbed me as insincere. Holly Golightly was plain annoying, stereotypic and seemed like a useless character. Why was she in this film at all?
I love the way this movie sounded: The voice editing was beautifully done and I really enjoyed the music. The story was good as well, even though it was unneccessarily heavily foreshadowed - despite that it still did manage to have some small yet signifigant surprises in the end. I liked what this movie had to say about family and loss and, like the title says, how they grow bones around that loss, creating new life around the shadow of a tragedy. This movie wasn't really about Susan Salmon, it was about her family and friends. What disturbed me was the occasional stiffness of the 3D-animation and -backgrounds: This was definately not the best CG I've seen. The imagery was fascinating, though, yet it's finest moment was not in any of the digital scenes but, in my opinion, in the scene where the murderer bathes himself clean. I was fascinated by that and some of the other visual ideas, for example the scene where Susie steps inside her murderers house and discovers the other victims. I love how it shows the whole house as a tomb or a memoir to all the killings he's committed. The beautiful Saoirse Ronan did a good job acting, and I think we'll be hearing more about her in the future. The actors did an all-around good job, but the deepness of the tragedy didn't show on all of them. Something about Mark Wahlberg disturbed me as insincere. Holly Golightly was plain annoying, stereotypic and seemed like a useless character. Why was she in this film at all?
Kick-Ass (2010)
Directed by Matthew Vaughn / Written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn
On the way home after this movie I felt like a total super hero myself, being a tad more nimble than the character Kick-Ass. And that, I guess, is one of the things this movie was aiming to wake up in a viewer. I hate it when a promotion gone wrong ruins the market for a movie, and this is the case. Kick-Ass was marketed as one of those half-brained teen comedies that make fun of currently popular movies and subjects: Not Another Teen Movie, Disaster Movie, you know the likes. In reality Kick-Ass is way out of that league: It didn't really laugh about the super hero movies as much as I expected and actually embraces geeky lifestyle instead of mocking it. I daresay it's also probably made by the geeks for the geeks (I saw that Watchmen album! a-ha!). The other reason this movie stands out from the blockbuster crowd is its actual message, which is unlike any I've seen in movies in years ('just be yourself', 'love conquers all', 'let's protect the environment' etc): Don't close your eyes from the evil - do something about it. And this concerning us everyday joe's. Even though super heroes don't exist, the bad guys still do, and it's up to every one to do something about it. Especially those everyday bad guys. The violence in this movie was well-reasoned, and in a way I enjoyed its cruelty: Violence is not a joke and hurts people very easily very severely. I think it's good to amplify that message. I also actually found some grand beauty about a little girl slaying the entire evil on her own; It was like a triumph to the strength of a small individual. Which gets me to the actors: Hit Girl is my new idol. <3 The actress did a good job even though some of her lines didn't really fit her and seemed too written, but I'll excuse that. She's young, she'll learn. All of the other actors did a good job too, but I do have a complaint about that Kick-Ass-dudes girlfriend: I didn't buy that character. I'm all fine with pretty girls reading comics - I'm one too oh ho ho - but a comic geek girl who self-tans? No way. I'm not buying it until I see evidence of one existing. The music was totally groovy, made me wanna dance around the cinema. Gotta get this soundtrack yeah!
On the way home after this movie I felt like a total super hero myself, being a tad more nimble than the character Kick-Ass. And that, I guess, is one of the things this movie was aiming to wake up in a viewer. I hate it when a promotion gone wrong ruins the market for a movie, and this is the case. Kick-Ass was marketed as one of those half-brained teen comedies that make fun of currently popular movies and subjects: Not Another Teen Movie, Disaster Movie, you know the likes. In reality Kick-Ass is way out of that league: It didn't really laugh about the super hero movies as much as I expected and actually embraces geeky lifestyle instead of mocking it. I daresay it's also probably made by the geeks for the geeks (I saw that Watchmen album! a-ha!). The other reason this movie stands out from the blockbuster crowd is its actual message, which is unlike any I've seen in movies in years ('just be yourself', 'love conquers all', 'let's protect the environment' etc): Don't close your eyes from the evil - do something about it. And this concerning us everyday joe's. Even though super heroes don't exist, the bad guys still do, and it's up to every one to do something about it. Especially those everyday bad guys. The violence in this movie was well-reasoned, and in a way I enjoyed its cruelty: Violence is not a joke and hurts people very easily very severely. I think it's good to amplify that message. I also actually found some grand beauty about a little girl slaying the entire evil on her own; It was like a triumph to the strength of a small individual. Which gets me to the actors: Hit Girl is my new idol. <3 The actress did a good job even though some of her lines didn't really fit her and seemed too written, but I'll excuse that. She's young, she'll learn. All of the other actors did a good job too, but I do have a complaint about that Kick-Ass-dudes girlfriend: I didn't buy that character. I'm all fine with pretty girls reading comics - I'm one too oh ho ho - but a comic geek girl who self-tans? No way. I'm not buying it until I see evidence of one existing. The music was totally groovy, made me wanna dance around the cinema. Gotta get this soundtrack yeah!
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Directed by Tim Burton / Written by Linda Woolverton (based on the books by Lewis Carroll)
I saw this movie in a cinema in 2D and don't really feel I've missed anything essential. I guess that one extra dimension doesn't matter so much after all, at least not in this case. This movie bored me. The combination of the wacky original consept and Tim Burton could have been so much more, but the script was way too dull to make this film the magical reincarnation it could've been. Acting wasn't at all bad, it was quite good actually, but the limpness of the film itself didn't bring out the individual performances as well as it should have. Costume design was very successful. I really enjoyed all that well executed eye candy since it was the least boring thing about this overhyped flop of a movie. I don't blame Burton, though, my finger is pointed at the producers (who there were, I noticed, quite a few).
I saw this movie in a cinema in 2D and don't really feel I've missed anything essential. I guess that one extra dimension doesn't matter so much after all, at least not in this case. This movie bored me. The combination of the wacky original consept and Tim Burton could have been so much more, but the script was way too dull to make this film the magical reincarnation it could've been. Acting wasn't at all bad, it was quite good actually, but the limpness of the film itself didn't bring out the individual performances as well as it should have. Costume design was very successful. I really enjoyed all that well executed eye candy since it was the least boring thing about this overhyped flop of a movie. I don't blame Burton, though, my finger is pointed at the producers (who there were, I noticed, quite a few).
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