Movie Reviews

[ickaimp]

Right. So I've been doing a lot of movie watching lately. DVDs, mostly.

Thanksgiving was mostly spent watching James Bond Movies. Specifically, 'Tomorrow Never Dies' and 'The World is not Enough'.
Kinda got distracted watching Bond drive the BMV around with the mobile phone with the idea of what if his car was a Transformer? Think about how much MORE property damage he could cause!
Then started giggling over the thought of some poor Autobot goes out and trans-scans the hottest and most expensive car around, then ends up with James frikkin' Bond mistaking it for the original car and driving off with it.
... somehow this mental image keeps ending up with a HAL-like voice: "I'm sorry, I can't do that James."

-Somehow, it's very easy to cross Transformers over with anything that has a car. Or a motorcycle. Kamen Rider Kabuto, m'lookin' at you and your transforming motorcycles.

-Stardust-
Okay! This was sweet. Pretty good movie adaptation of the Neil Gaiman story, even if they did cut out my favourite line it. "Have been unavoidably detained by the world. Expect us when you see us."
Still, good job over all and I enjoyed it immensely. Especially the ghost brothers. Undead Hijinks FTW!

-MirrorMask-
Figured I'd continue the Neil Gaiman kick. Was kinda bored with the story towards the beginning, but once the movie started rolling it was good. Especially the visuals and the sheer amount of layers in the various scenes of the dream world. The costuming and the mix of puppetry and CGI was just amazing.
The ending line is also wonderful. "What?"

-Tales from EarthSea-
Okay. I like most of what Studio Ghibli has done. This? Not so much. I kinda understand Ursula Le Guin's comment upon seeing the movie: "It is not my book. It is your film. It is a good film."
Which makes me kinda wanna read the book just TO UNDERSTAND THE DAMN PLOT.
King is worried about clamity striking his kingdom. Prince goes missing. Prince kills King, runs off with sword. And then it makes no sense from there. And hey, PEOPLE RANDOMLY TURN INTO DRAGONS.
Honestly? Was kinda disappointed with Howl's Moving Castle too, starting to think that maybe Ghibli should stick with their original stories instead of adapting Western novels, no matter how much more exotic they might be.

-Nausicaa of the Wind (manga vol 1-4)-
After the disappointment of EarthSea, curled up with the Nausicaa manga, since I'd never read past the first volume.
Wow. The is so much more complex than the movie. Think I liked it better in a lot of ways, since characters had more of a chance to grow and develop. Ended up liking Charuka, a commander of a rival army and a monk a lot. Such as the scene where he asks the kid, Chikuku, to get the bullets out of an unconscious Nausicaa's breast pockets, because it doesn't matter if the world is falling apart, his country in ruins, his religion a cover-up for an older one whose prophecies are coming true, he's still a Monk and therefore cannot touch a young woman.
... it was just kinda random. XD

-Kung Fu Panda-
Okay, went into this not expecting much from the plot and wasn't disappointed. It was funny, the art was cute, I liked the fact that the Furious Five fight in the martial arts style related to their animal and was bemused by the fact that everyone in the village were all animals that are commonly food. (duck, rabbit, pig)
But it might be because I'm used to watching a boat load of anime, but the whole message seemed rather... Western thinking. You're special because you think you're special. yes you are! yes you are! you're a special little snowflake!
Would have liked to see Master Shifu bond with his OTHER students, y'know, the ones he's been pushing around and disparaging to their faces despite their prowess all these years instead of just hanging out and laughing with the new guy.
Can we say 'instant sibling rivalry'? Or 'Recipe for Jealousy'? Ye-ah. That's trouble in the making.

Iron Man.
Still awesome.
Evidently they're turning Iron Man into a NickToon with Tony Start as a teenager.
... Right.

Comments

[darthanne.livejournal.com]

They did Tales of Earthsea? *twitches* *curious* What did they do....exactly?

[windtear.livejournal.com]

They took the framework of the story of The Farthest Shore and its point (that endings may not be nice but they are needed and often are better than the alternative) and wove it into one of Miyazaki's own stories, blending all the characters. I liked it, but it sure wasn't LeGuin's story or world.

I get why LeGuin was disappointed but heck, I wouldn't ask Ghibli to do any of her stuff. Her novels are all deeply philosophical and do not have that much physical action. I don't think any of them would translate well to screen at all, no matter who did them.

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

I look at most movie adaptations of novels with some skepticism, particularly after Terry Pratchett described talking with a big Hollywood studio about a movie adaptation of Mort, in which the exec started out his pitch ok, then said something along the line of 'but this DEATH character, isn't that a bit depressing, we'd probably leave him out'...Animated interpretations aside, what they did to Le Guin's work in the 2004 movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407384/) was just brutal.

[jougetsu.livejournal.com]

I just read the Nausicaa manga for the first time this year and was blown away by how much richer the story and characterizations were. Part of me thinks that a Nausicaa television series would have been better than just a movie, but that's because I'm greedy and would have loved to see the rest of the story animated as well.

I think the Stardust movie adaptation was adorable, although I would have liked them to imply that the two went off adventuring at the end before settling down to rule.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

I think you're right, a 13 or possibly 26 episode series would have worked a lot better, there'd be more time to flesh things out.

Was highly amused by the note at the end of the manga, about how she either paired up with the other boy like her, or waited for the small boy with telepathy to grow up, but no mention of the guy she ended up with in the movie. XD

To me that was one of the funniest parts of the Stardust book... the fact that they go through all this, discover that they're King and Queen, then ditch it and leave his mom to rule. (which she wouldn't have been able to do otherwise)
It made perfect sense, yet was just outside of the norm enough to be amusing.

[windtear.livejournal.com]

I liked Tales From Earthsea, but it sure wasn't LeGuin's novels. The main story was actually based on a short story Hayao Miyazaki wrote forty years ago and it was directed by his son. Who Miyazaki doesn't want to do directing. It's conflicting on a number of levels, really.

(For me, the problem with Howl's Moving Castle was the fact that Miyazaki literally cannot bear to make a movie that neither glorifies flight nor opposes war, while in the book Sophie is scared of heights and Howl makes magic weaponry for the army without a qualm. Turning Howl into a pacifist and Sophie into a pilot requires radical surgery on their characters and it alters everything else too.)

And I thought the message behind Kung Fu Panda was more along the lines of 'There is no secret key to the universe, just what you make of it'. (Just as a question, did you think the scroll was blank? Because I'm one-hundred percent certain that the fact that the inside was made of polished silk so it was in effect a mirror it was no accident, but the friends I saw it with are adamant, it's just blank.)

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

*nods* Sounds very conflicting, yeah. I didn't know anything about the movie going in except that it was based on the EarthSea books and it was Ghibli, so the background information is interesting.

Howl's to me was annoying because you're right, those aren't the same characters. I also missed the story arcs with Sophie's sisters, because that made the ending a lot more fun.
... but Winged Howl is still the smex. >D

As far as the scroll in Kung Fu panda, I was waiting for him to show the reflection in the pool, or the scroll needed to be wet to see the words. Why else would the dragon be hanging above the pool instead of the centre of the building?
The message Po figured out worked for him, (not to mention his natural body shape removed Tai Lung's best attack) so yay, happy ending.

[joisbishmyoga.livejournal.com]

After reading Transformers fanfic (WHICH IS ALL YOUR FAULT), I couldn't get rid of the mental image of Transformers meet Knight Rider. Poor KITT can't transform! Are we sure he has a spark? Where did Knight Industries get/create an/the Allspark and do they still have it? Or is KITT some sort of Cybertronian ghost/zombie story come to life, wah scary run away I want my Priiiime!

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

*LAUGHS*

Have some more fic (http://delicious.com/ickaimp/transformers). MWuahahahahahaaaaa

[swordmage.livejournal.com]

The lovely thing about Stardust was that in the end, it still felt like a Neil thing. The bits they cut, and what they added overall worked and I was pleased.

Then again - he pleased. Which IMO, is always a good sign.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they did take stuff out, but it didn't FEEL like they took anything out. The whole story flowed together very well.

Wow. Hadn't heard about that. HUZZAH!!!

[swordmage.livejournal.com]

I can't remember where I saw that he liked it, probably on his blog, but I'm pretty sure I remember him saying something along those lines...