Film standards
Aug. 23rd, 2011 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoI was beginning to worry that I was getting too picky about my films. This summer's offerings (with the notable exception of X-Men: First Class) have been distinctly underwhelming, and it seemed like every week after coming out of the cinema the best I could say was, "That was okay." Thankfully over the past three weeks the films I've seen have been very good indeed.
First up was Arrietty, another great offering from Studio Ghibli. Based loosely on The Borrowers, the title character is a young Borrower who, against all the rules, befriends Sho, a seriously ill human boy. Meanwhile, the housekeeper calls the pest exterminators in... As you might expect, the film is gorgeous to look at with an incredible level of detail on screen. It'll take a couple of repeat viewings to spot all the human artifacts the Borrowers have put to their own use. The characters are likeable and the story (occasionally a weak spot in Ghibli films) is very good too.
Next was Super 8, which I can't say a great deal about without spoiling it. A bunch of geeky kids are filming a home-made zombie movie when they witness (and capture on film) a horrific train crash. But the crash was no accident, and before long weird stuff is happening and the army are in town. This is a joint offering from JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg, and it comes across as a mix of the best of both of them. The setting feels reminiscent of ET (no doubt helped by being set c. 1980), there are definite touches of other Spielberg films, and the weirdness is clearly from the mind behind Season 1 of Lost (when it was still good). In many ways this is a good old-fashioned suspense film - you don't find out or see too much too early on, and the action is based more around the tension of what might happen rather than an overdose of CGI. It also has one of the best credit cookies ever.
Yesterday I saw a double-bill, starting with Rise of the Prequel of the Remake of the Planet of the Apes, which I was very pleasantly surprised by. It tells a much more character-based and intelligent story than I expected (Mass ape rampages only occur in the last 20 minutes). And it has scientist characters who are neither evil nor oblivious! Will (James Franco) is researching a cure for Alzheimer's. He has personal reasons for wanting to find one, but struggles with corporate opposition from his employers. Through a chain of events he ends up unofficially adopting Caesar, a young chimp who has developed human-level intelligence through testing the new drug. But the human world just isn't designed for chimps to live in, even super-intelligent ones, and Will and Caesar's stories diverge with terrible consequences. A great cast (including Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis and - entertainingly - Draco Malfoy) and a strong script. It also has one of the most ominously chilling credit cookies ever.
Sadly, Cowboys & Aliens was a bit of a return to mediocrity. I shouldn't really have expected much I suppose. It does exactly what it says on the tin: It has Cowboys and Indians and badass Aliens and a nasty(ish)-but-with-a-good-heart James Bond and a nasty(ish)-but-with-a-good-heart Han Solo and lots of explosions and sound effects. It's enjoyable enough, but it could have been more fun if it wasn't quite so po-faced and had revelled in its own silliness a little bit more.
Speaking of silliness, Leprechaun 4: In Space isn't a current film and isn't exactly in the same league, but I did watch it at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bonedancer's bad movie night on Saturday and it was dementedly brilliant in its own way. Special mention for Guy Siner from 'Allo 'Allo as the mad cyborg scientist who turns into a giant spider at the end. Seriously.
First up was Arrietty, another great offering from Studio Ghibli. Based loosely on The Borrowers, the title character is a young Borrower who, against all the rules, befriends Sho, a seriously ill human boy. Meanwhile, the housekeeper calls the pest exterminators in... As you might expect, the film is gorgeous to look at with an incredible level of detail on screen. It'll take a couple of repeat viewings to spot all the human artifacts the Borrowers have put to their own use. The characters are likeable and the story (occasionally a weak spot in Ghibli films) is very good too.
Next was Super 8, which I can't say a great deal about without spoiling it. A bunch of geeky kids are filming a home-made zombie movie when they witness (and capture on film) a horrific train crash. But the crash was no accident, and before long weird stuff is happening and the army are in town. This is a joint offering from JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg, and it comes across as a mix of the best of both of them. The setting feels reminiscent of ET (no doubt helped by being set c. 1980), there are definite touches of other Spielberg films, and the weirdness is clearly from the mind behind Season 1 of Lost (when it was still good). In many ways this is a good old-fashioned suspense film - you don't find out or see too much too early on, and the action is based more around the tension of what might happen rather than an overdose of CGI. It also has one of the best credit cookies ever.
Yesterday I saw a double-bill, starting with Rise of the Prequel of the Remake of the Planet of the Apes, which I was very pleasantly surprised by. It tells a much more character-based and intelligent story than I expected (Mass ape rampages only occur in the last 20 minutes). And it has scientist characters who are neither evil nor oblivious! Will (James Franco) is researching a cure for Alzheimer's. He has personal reasons for wanting to find one, but struggles with corporate opposition from his employers. Through a chain of events he ends up unofficially adopting Caesar, a young chimp who has developed human-level intelligence through testing the new drug. But the human world just isn't designed for chimps to live in, even super-intelligent ones, and Will and Caesar's stories diverge with terrible consequences. A great cast (including Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis and - entertainingly - Draco Malfoy) and a strong script. It also has one of the most ominously chilling credit cookies ever.
Sadly, Cowboys & Aliens was a bit of a return to mediocrity. I shouldn't really have expected much I suppose. It does exactly what it says on the tin: It has Cowboys and Indians and badass Aliens and a nasty(ish)-but-with-a-good-heart James Bond and a nasty(ish)-but-with-a-good-heart Han Solo and lots of explosions and sound effects. It's enjoyable enough, but it could have been more fun if it wasn't quite so po-faced and had revelled in its own silliness a little bit more.
Speaking of silliness, Leprechaun 4: In Space isn't a current film and isn't exactly in the same league, but I did watch it at
bonedancer's bad movie night on Saturday and it was dementedly brilliant in its own way. Special mention for Guy Siner from 'Allo 'Allo as the mad cyborg scientist who turns into a giant spider at the end. Seriously.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-24 03:09 pm (UTC)Go see First Class. It's awesome :o)
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Date: 2011-08-23 04:20 pm (UTC):D
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Date: 2011-08-24 04:19 pm (UTC)An intriguing reversal of the "We've seen your breasts, now you must die!" card in Grave Robbers from Outer Space...
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Date: 2011-08-24 08:31 am (UTC)