I repeat. Do not watch Cloverfield. Go ahead, click that link and watch the trailer there. Feeling nauseated yet? For those who cannot stand FPS games or are prone to "digicam-motion sickness", do not watch this movie. Keep the contents of your wallet in your wallet, and you'll keep the contents of your stomach in your stomach.
I made another mistake of trusting the advertisement as shown on TV - never ever trust those on movies you don't really hear about much, at least not in Malaysia. According to this reviewer, a lot of hype has been generated by this movie, produced by J. J. "Lost" Abrams.
Too bad. The concept of a huge alien attacking New York (as usual, it's in the US - Malaysia is very safe) is nothing new but can certainly have a lot of potential if carried out right. Unfortunately, it sucks big time. It's a really obvious attempt to ape the Blair Witch Project (I didn't like that one too) but falls flat in terms of execution. First off, the Blair Witch Project is a known budget movie, so the less-than-stellar work is understandable. Cloverfield (the name is apparently a government code name) on the other hand, has a much bigger budget.
It's one thing to use the "digicam style" for effect. It's extremely unwise to use it throughout the whole movie, especially when the whole movie is more about monster effect than suspense (except that one tunnel scene where it was actually decent). What's worse? It took a whole 20 minutes or so for even a hint of a monster. What's in the first 20 minutes? A whole lot of silly and rather poorly executed "character development", which coupled with the dizzying effect, made me totally unable to empathize with the characters. The gist of it? A bunch of friends decides to tromp right into monster avenue to rescue another friend whom one of them had slept with... once apparently. Yes, it sounds silly. The dialogue doesn't even make it seem like it's a true love lost thing - felt much more like infatuation or fling rather.
And the monster? Yea, it's pretty interesting, and the monster kinda looked cool - the few glimpses I've had of it. Where did it come from? Apparently, nobody knows. Yep, I looked around for reviews to see what I missed but apparently, the monster is just an arbitrary monster who decided arbitrarily to stop at New York and arbitrarily start destroying things arbitrarily... even the Statue of Liberty headshot felt really weak - an effect for the sake of making an effect. It seems not to make sense for a monster to surface next to the Statue of Liberty, give it a thwack on the head, and then get back into the water and continue swimming towards the city proper... And oh, the monster likes to chase fleeing unarmed civilians even though soldiers nearby are emptying their ammunition and rockets into its body. *shrugs*
Perhaps refreshingly, unlike Transformers and the previous Americanised Godzilla, the US military portrayed in this movie appears to be quite useless, using rather "mundane" weaponry compared to all the high-tech equipment we've been seeing in many other recent movies.
Anyway, I've drubbed it enough. Enough ranting from me. Just read other reviews if you need more convincing that this is a "sucky" movie. Tolerable when not considering the digicam style; plainly sucks when taken together.
I'll end with one last kick: (SPOILER WARNING - for what it's worth) If I was a dull-witted man who isn't really familiar with a digicam in the first place, I wouldn't be holding it up and trying to film every single second of running around while scared silly. I most especially would not bother to when I'm walking along a very dark tunnel, or when trying to run from creepy crawly spider things, or when the woman I love is in danger, or when climbing tall crumbly buildings, or when the helicopter I'm in is about to drop out of the sky.
Showing posts with label movie review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie review. Show all posts
X-Men: The Last Stand
on Monday, 29 May 2006
I watched X-Men: The Last Stand yesterday at the new Cathay Cineplex in the new Cineleisure building at The Curve in Mutiara Damansara. This post is a two-part review. The first part reviews the cinema, the second part reviews the movie.
First, I love the new cinema, except for the cold. Buying tickets and getting in was a breeze, although the empty new Cineleisure building made it tedious to ride all the way to the top to get to the cinema. I'm sure that'll change when tenants start to move in. One reason it was easy to get tickets was probably because alot of people don't know about it yet, so we don't have a whole lot of idiotic kiasu people who book 6 tickets in every single timeslot, and possibly every single cinema for one whole day, just because they couldn't decide when and where they want to watch it. These inconsiderates just don't care how much this inconveniences those people who know when and where and what they want to watch. But I digress.
I really like the fact that Cathay chose to show all their old advertisements from the 80s and 90s. It brings nostalgia to me, remembering the good old days when my father would drive the whole family down to the nearest Cathay cinema for a weekend movie. And now Cathay is back! And with quality too. The sounds great, the screens great, the software and hardware used are pretty impressive. The only gripe I have is that it's bloody cold! I watched it in the middle of a hot afternoon. The hall was half-full. Couldn't they turn up the temperature to adjust for the lack of body heat? Everyone was freezing. Reminder to self: Bring a jacket next time; or two, or a thick one.
As for the movie, I'm giving it a 2 out of 5, despite CinemaOnline's user rating of 4 stars. Overall, the effects and dramatics were all there, boosting the rating brought down by continuity problems, bad character development, and some illogical scenes. And that's despite me putting aside the blatant and offensive inconsistencies with the comic characters. The pros:
The rant (Extreme Spoilers!!! Highlight to read):
First, I love the new cinema, except for the cold. Buying tickets and getting in was a breeze, although the empty new Cineleisure building made it tedious to ride all the way to the top to get to the cinema. I'm sure that'll change when tenants start to move in. One reason it was easy to get tickets was probably because alot of people don't know about it yet, so we don't have a whole lot of idiotic kiasu people who book 6 tickets in every single timeslot, and possibly every single cinema for one whole day, just because they couldn't decide when and where they want to watch it. These inconsiderates just don't care how much this inconveniences those people who know when and where and what they want to watch. But I digress.
I really like the fact that Cathay chose to show all their old advertisements from the 80s and 90s. It brings nostalgia to me, remembering the good old days when my father would drive the whole family down to the nearest Cathay cinema for a weekend movie. And now Cathay is back! And with quality too. The sounds great, the screens great, the software and hardware used are pretty impressive. The only gripe I have is that it's bloody cold! I watched it in the middle of a hot afternoon. The hall was half-full. Couldn't they turn up the temperature to adjust for the lack of body heat? Everyone was freezing. Reminder to self: Bring a jacket next time; or two, or a thick one.
As for the movie, I'm giving it a 2 out of 5, despite CinemaOnline's user rating of 4 stars. Overall, the effects and dramatics were all there, boosting the rating brought down by continuity problems, bad character development, and some illogical scenes. And that's despite me putting aside the blatant and offensive inconsistencies with the comic characters. The pros:
- They finally show off how powerful Storm can be, rather than the wimp she was in the first two episodes.
- The Beast was really quite nicely done.
- The whole plot idea was rather intriguing, and some scenes have a cool (though somewhat predictable) twists.
- A lot of good scenes with highly charged emotions, some reflecting real-life situations.
- Some of the special effects are very spectacular, if one does not consider the context in which it was placed.
- Rogue's subplot was realistically played out, but it could've been played down in favour of other characters, considering her minimal role.
- The Danger Room was a nice touch, although it could have been much better.
- Jean Grey's "evolution" was really badly done.
- Wolverine was a pale shadow of what he was in the first two episodes. I can't help but feel that some of his scenes weren't meant for him.
- A lot of cliched one-liners.
- Really really bad character development, even for characters already introduced previously. And for some obscure reason, the major characters were just killed off or sidelined only to put focus on underdeveloped and unused characters.
- Introducing so many new characters was a really bad idea when you don't have the time to properly portray them. It'll only offend the fans.
- What happened to Nightcrawler from the 2nd episode?
- Unimaginative and some rather stupid use of mutant powers.
- The music score was rather forgettable, and sometimes, inappropriate.
- Change of director was a really really bad idea.
- This was supposed to close the trilogy... not kill it.
- With so many characters and being a finale, I'm surprised the movie clocked in at only a 100 minutes or so...
The rant (Extreme Spoilers!!! Highlight to read):
- Storm does not have short hair. It just doesn't feel like Storm anymore.
- How can they kill off Cyclops! It's crazy! Professor X was acceptable for the drama, but Cyclops?! Just 10 minutes into the show?! And in such a lame manner. I really hope it isn't because of having to film Superman Returns. If it is, Superman Returns better be well above my expectations, or I'm going to rant on him.
- Jean Grey as Phoenix was incredibly horribly portrayed. Famke's a really good actress, but Phoenix feels more like a pouting supergirl who flings destruction when she has a tantrum.
- Someone apparently didn't know that the word 'Phoenix' very much implies fire. Jean Grey as the Phoenix? Not even a spark. She feels more possessed or an undead than a reborn goddess.
- Wolverine is so... tame. Totally unlike his feral namesake and the Wolverine in the earlier episodes. Sure there are action scenes, but he just feels more... mushy. Too many emotional scenes involving him that was so obviously meant for Cyclops.
- Angel was totally inconsequential as a character and pointlessly included. Why provide an interesting background to a character and then have him as a pointless afterthought in the show?
- Magneto is too ruthless. It's so unbelievable he would abandon Mystique the moment she lost her powers. Plus, it's bad judgment to leave her alive if you don't want her anymore.
- Magneto is too fake. What's the point of assembling an army of mutants only to use them as guinea pigs? All the while trying to get the audience to buy into the us vs. them beliefs.
- Magneto is too dumb. Why in the world did he team up with Pyro to launch flaming cars when he has the power to tear down the whole building by himself? He can move a whole bridge but can't do more than fling cars? Give me a break! Special effects potential does not justify stupid strategy.
- Magneto is not that charismatic. It just doesn't make sense for him to free two captured and convicted mutants (Juggernaut and Multiple Man) and have them join him as-a-matter-of-fact and no questions asked...
- Juggernaut looks like a walking trash can. His "armor" is hopelessly ridiculous. Whoever designed it needs to be blinded.
- The way Mystique is killed is really lame. Killing off a memorable character in such a manner and then just dumping her as inconsequential really kills the trilogy.
- There's not a single line of script in that movie that mentions the names of Shadowcat, Colossus, Psylocke, Angel, Beast, or Multiple Man. And I'm not sure if I got all of them. It must be really offensive to comic fans when the comic characters they're so familiar with aren't even named.
- I probably have some more rants but I'll stop. :P
Bruce Almighty!
on Thursday, 31 July 2003
For those who don't know yet, after the banning of Daredevil and the ICT debacle, we now have the proposed banning of Bruce Almighty.
Muzammil Daud's letter shows how poor his understanding of other religions is. I don't know about Hinduism or Sikhism, but the Chinese version of Buddhism has no problems with deities or fairies assuming human form, or giving us mortals the power of divinity. Yes, you shouldn't make fun of the divine, but the movie isn't about making fun of God! It's making fun out of a man with god-like powers!
Tunasing's suggestion on having two new categories for movies is brilliant. When we can have food outlets marked halal (edible by Muslims), why can't we have movies and TV shows deemed haram (illegal) for Muslims? It's time we become more open-minded and tolerant of other views. And here we are trying to be a developed nation, but incurring such views.
The worst part is that while Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin, minister in the prime minister's department, claims that the show is inappropriate, he didn't bother consulting anybody about it. It was just what he thought. It's people like him and those on the censorship who think that they have a right to become our moral guardians and judge what we should and should not watch. If you say it's un-Islamic, then by all means, ban it to Muslims. This is being so insensitive to non-Muslims and free-thinkers who are denied the right to watch simply because half the population should not watch. And speaking of being un-Islamic, shows like Bedazzled, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Arabian Nights, Tomb Raider, The Mummy, and countless others should've been banned as well, simply for introducing elements of magic, the fey, and the divine. Another fine example of selective persecution; which, as I suspect, is due to something as simple as the word 'Almighty', similar to the word 'devil' in Daredevil.
If it's offensive to you, then don't watch it. I for one, want to, since I think it's a novel idea and the trailer is incredibly funny. So does my girlfriend (and she's a Christian!!). It's all about being open-minded and letting us judge the right and wrong of things by ourselves. Once I've watched it, I'll decide if it's insulting, offensive or blasphemous. Not some older, 'wiser' people closeted in small projector rooms who are likely with 'small' (narrow) minds. The piracy problem is already very bad, try not to encourage the populace into getting pirated but original (uncut) versions of movies or tempt them to download off the internet.
Muzammil Daud's letter shows how poor his understanding of other religions is. I don't know about Hinduism or Sikhism, but the Chinese version of Buddhism has no problems with deities or fairies assuming human form, or giving us mortals the power of divinity. Yes, you shouldn't make fun of the divine, but the movie isn't about making fun of God! It's making fun out of a man with god-like powers!
Tunasing's suggestion on having two new categories for movies is brilliant. When we can have food outlets marked halal (edible by Muslims), why can't we have movies and TV shows deemed haram (illegal) for Muslims? It's time we become more open-minded and tolerant of other views. And here we are trying to be a developed nation, but incurring such views.
The worst part is that while Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin, minister in the prime minister's department, claims that the show is inappropriate, he didn't bother consulting anybody about it. It was just what he thought. It's people like him and those on the censorship who think that they have a right to become our moral guardians and judge what we should and should not watch. If you say it's un-Islamic, then by all means, ban it to Muslims. This is being so insensitive to non-Muslims and free-thinkers who are denied the right to watch simply because half the population should not watch. And speaking of being un-Islamic, shows like Bedazzled, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Arabian Nights, Tomb Raider, The Mummy, and countless others should've been banned as well, simply for introducing elements of magic, the fey, and the divine. Another fine example of selective persecution; which, as I suspect, is due to something as simple as the word 'Almighty', similar to the word 'devil' in Daredevil.
If it's offensive to you, then don't watch it. I for one, want to, since I think it's a novel idea and the trailer is incredibly funny. So does my girlfriend (and she's a Christian!!). It's all about being open-minded and letting us judge the right and wrong of things by ourselves. Once I've watched it, I'll decide if it's insulting, offensive or blasphemous. Not some older, 'wiser' people closeted in small projector rooms who are likely with 'small' (narrow) minds. The piracy problem is already very bad, try not to encourage the populace into getting pirated but original (uncut) versions of movies or tempt them to download off the internet.
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