Review - "John Carter"

This one will be shorter since it's late, I already wrote one review and it's been a week or so since I've seen it.

Let me start out by saying that I've not read the books, so I'm just looking at this as a film person. Let me also remind you that Andrew Stanton, the director, is a big time Pixar guy, and that Michael Giacchino, the composer, won an Oscar for Pixar's "Up" (he also did "The Incredibles," "Super 8," and a bunch of other good stuff).

I like the movie. It has MASSIVE issues, but I like it and I want them to do more.

I like the cast. I like the characters. They are all of them likable. Plus, both sides get their eye candy. I like the dog thing--A-freaking-DORABLE. Sure, the lead isn't...you know, the best thing since sliced bread, but he does a good, likable job. The girl is basically Leia from "Star Wars." I liked Leia. She was cool. My only two complaints in this area are the fact that the minor baddie, the one who wanted to marry the princess, looked EXACTLY like the aid to the princess' father. Seriously. Confusing. Also, Mark Strong (one of the few names I remembered because he's amazing) as the main villain was severely underutilized. I didn't get to know his motivations or anything.

Lets see, special effects? AWESOME. Really brilliant.

The universe? Sick. Loved it. It why I want more movies.

The green aliens? Brutal society. Loved that bit. A bit annoying, but not so annoying as the Gungans.

The tech? Cool stuff. Not explained as well as I'd like, but good.

Costumes? Swell.

I just like the place they created on screen and the characters. It's enough to make me want to see more films. but they do have some serious issues.

Marketing. It had none. Big ol' problem there.

Music. So. Much. Fail. And I like Giacchino. I love his stuff. It just sucked. It was flat, thin, devoid of all epicness, boring, not stirring enough, not...big enough, dramatic enough, emotional enough. The scene where Carter gets buried by the other green aliens after they discover the tech? Bad. Very bad music. Totally disappointed.

Pacing and structure. I got confused in the film. I got confused 5 minutes in. The very opening was great. But once they got  to modern day--I got lost. I don't get lost in films. Not if I'm paying attention, and I was paying attention. I paid for a ticket--I was paying attention and got confused. They jumped around a lot. They took too much time with a lot of stuff. They neglected the villains in order to talk a lot about the green aliens or his back story. They spent too much time on his back story and then resolved it rather lamely emotionally. They jumped around geographically without telling us. Characters did things without them explaining or setting it up. They didn't explain stuff. The pacing and structure was rubbish. Stanton should know better. He DOES know better. Pixar makes sure everything is 100% perfect before any animation. They edit the film BEFORE they animate. Why? Because it's so expensive to animate. This film was poorly written.

It's really annoying, because I like the cast, the story itself, and the universe. It was just really badly executed. It gets a C+/B.

good night.

Review - "The Hunger Games"

Saturday, March 24th, about 4:30 in the afternoon--I finished the book on Wednesday, was considering going to see it on midnight, but had an internship in the morning and didn’t have the money to see it opening night with a friend in Santa Barbara, so I was waiting at food court in front of the theater, my eye on the spot where the line was supposed to form for the 8:30 showing, writing my own little novel, texting excitedly with friends about the film I was waiting four hours alone to see. I was first in line, first in the theater, and I guarded seven seats including my own from the hordes of people who wanted the best--and I do mean the very best--seats in the house, ready to go all Tribute on them to keep them.

My stomach was doing butterflies for a solid 50 minutes before the previews started. I wanted to like this film. I had heard GREAT things about it. Some said it was okay, but most loved it. They said the casting was great, the music was great--they loved it. I wanted to like this film. I think I even had a wonky dream about it the night before. I REALLY wanted to like this film. But--

But--

But...

It has some deep seated issues that I really can’t get over. Well, really only one.

And I really, REALLY did want to love this film.

I mean, come on! It has a brilliant story, with more potential to be an awesome film than I can being to say. What makes this problem I have worse is that as a film, it SHOULD have been great. Let me explain.

The cast is near perfect. Gale--spot on. Katniss-spot on (I mean, she not thin enough to be Katniss, but that’s not Jennifer Lawrence (who was amazing and who is gorgeous) so much as it is how Collins described Katniss, but I don’t even care because she was perfect). Peeta-more spot on than I can begin to say. Caesar-spot on. Snow-spot on. (Keep in mind, I’ve not read past book one, but he just felt perfect from how I understand how the next two book go.) Seneca-spot on. Effie-spot on. Cato-he does just fine, thank you. Prim-she’ll do fine, I hope. Rue-great (the audience didn’t get time to connect with her, but she was great). The only two casting “problems” I have are Cinna who I just didn’t connect with like I did in the book and Haymitch who I imagined older, drunker, and scragelier. But you know what?  They were fine. They both played and Haymitch and Effie worked smashingly together. The cast was brilliant.

The costumes are, I think, probably Oscar nod worthy. Really brilliant.

The location of the arena is not what I pictured, but it plays really well. It’s plays fantastically. I just imagined more pines and west coast wilderness, but I don’t really care because it worked.

The sets are great. Again, not how I saw them, but they played perfectly. Good job. Great job.

The suspense was fantastic when it needed to be. Picking Prim’s name? Near perfect. The wasps? Terrifying. I hated them. It was PERFECT. The mutts? I wanted to die. It was PERFECT.

Why then, do you ask, do I have such a serious problem with the film? Well, I have one major one and  three minor ones.

Rue’s death. It ties into the middleish one, but my issue with the death scene itself is that it was SO much better in the book, amazingly more effective in every way. Most of the changes they made from the books--actually, all of the major ones except this one and one other one were excellent. Caesar’s commenting? Seeing the game makers? Both played brilliantly. The stuff with Snow in the middle would have worked better if they had shot it better, but I’ll talk about THAT issue, later. Seriously though--Rue’s death was ineffective. When she died in the book, I stopped. When she died in the film, I didn’t really care.

That brings me to my next point--pacing. They took too much time before they got into the arena. Not drastic amounts, but a minute here, thirty seconds there--the breathing room they gave for the scenes in the set up were needed elsewhere. Like for setting up the Rue/Katniss relationship. Or even dealing with Katniss and Peeta (maybe. They handled that...mostly well). Or for the transition from the arena back to the Capitol. Most awkward cut. Goodness.

The music. Now, I like James Newton Howard. I really do. But...see, one of my friends said it was great. His dad said it should have been more epic. It should have been more epic. The piano in the cave with Peeta and Katniss? Great. The rest of it? Meh. I see this as a major problem for a few reasons. One, I’m a musician who really enjoys film scores. So I’m totally biased and you should take this bit with a grain of salt. Two, there were bits when the music was triumphant...and it shouldn’t have been. At all. Whatever. This is not my real issue.

My real issue is the cinematography, or camera work. Do you remember seeing JJ Abrams’ “Star Trek”? Well, the two problems most people had, aside from some of the gaping plot holes (details, details (heh)), were the lighting flares--I think they were artistic, but, yeah, a bit overused--and the camera shaking. Sure. It worked when Kirk, Sulu, and the red-shirt were plummeting from space onto the drilling platform, but not when Kirk was talking with Pike in the bar. THAT is my real, deep-seated issue. It worked when Prim’s name was called. It really did. I mean, I loved that. It sent chills down my spine, but for 95% of the film, it was jarring, distracting, and highly annoying. The framing was rubbish. That was all I could think of for the first....20 minutes or so  of the film. I wanted to leave the theater until they got to the Capitol, it annoyed me so much. So you have to understand--part of this is stylistic. As someone who wants to go into film as a director or editor, I am MORE than willing to admit that a fair amount of this is a style thing on my part and that when I read the book, I saw it differently than the director. So some of this is artistic, but some of it isn’t. It really was plum annoying.

It was frustrating because the film had so much, and I really mean SO much potential to be so great, with the cast, the locations, the sets, the costumes, the story (oh, the story!), and so for the visual execution to be so annoying really kills me. It was disappointing because it should have been better.

I waited alone for four hours, fended off angry people to keep seats, and I wanted, I REALLY wanted to like the film. I mean, Peeta walked on screen, I just fell in love with him, but...but...BUT...the visual execution of the film was so...frustrating that while I LOVE the story, the acting, the people, the sets, Peeta, Katniss, Snow, Effie, Ceasar, the amazing story (seriously, I LOVE the story)--I also am very mad and disappointed. I can only give it a B or so. Shame. I really do like it, I do--I do, I do, I do--I just can't get past the camera work. It should have been great. It could have beeen great, but...it literally fell just a few inches short of greatness.