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.