Beowulf - Slaying the Dragon - Spoilers
Incredibly under-rated film. I personally didn’t pay much attention to it when it first came out, I wasn’t a great big fan of motion capture for the sake of it. Even Avatar has real sets and real actors. I only realised how good it was when I got round to viewing it a couple of years ago. I didn’t expect to like it at all. However, when you watch it, you realise that this is a really great piece of cinema, capturing everything magical about the poem that inspired it. Filled with Norse mythology, I would recommend this to anyone who has a penchant for Skyrim or Lord of the Rings; this is the kind of material that has inspired that fantasy genre.
The soundtrack in particular is amazing. The main theme really hits home, you can hear it crop up all over the place, and is perfect for the setting. It is a strange mix of electronic noises and traditional orchestral overtures. A bit like the work Daft Punk made for Tron Legacy.
However, the scene above is really worth a watch. Spoilers, yes, but so damn cool. I think you will be able to recognise the bit I’m talking about, but in case you don’t it’s around 1:05 onwards. If I could change anything I would have liked to have seen it filmed traditionally. If it had the art department of the Lord of the Rings films, this could have been an instant hit, the ultimate Beowulf adaption.
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#beowulf
#film
#lord
#lord of the rings
#norse
#of
#poem
#ray winston
#review
#rings
#robert
#robert zemeckis
#scene
#skyrim
#spoiler
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#thoughts
#winston
#zemeckis
#slaying the dragon
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#the
#dragon
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
I need to start this by mentioning a lot of people jump on the band wagon to insult American remakes before they have even watched them, thinking it makes them superior for preferring a foreign language film. There is a lot of good Hollywood can bring to a production. It’s called money. I’m not saying it takes a ton of money to make a good film. I’m saying it bloody helps. Sometimes no matter how clever you are, if you don’t have the money you cannot pull some stuff off. This film in particular benefitted from having money and talent to produce it.
I never read the books, but I watched the European version in 1st year. I enjoyed it but wasn’t captivated by it. It felt that they recorded events, rather than giving any clear style to it. That is what money has bought them in the American version. Style. And it is dripping with it. It has become memorable. The story alone could not do this in my opinion. The new version suffers from the same limitations as the previous version. It feels like it has been lifted from a book, there seems like there should be more information. People are mentioned briefly, or named in a scene, but are never seen from again. It has been stream lined. The mystery is barely there. It takes an age for Lisbeth, the namesake of the film, to enter the main storyline. You cannot skip the rape scene, it’s too important, but all that background takes away time that the film could use to further the mystery of who killed Harriet. The problem is that you only spend time with one of the suspects, and you as the audience know it is going to be him, simply because he is the only person who regularly appears. But despite these limitations, it is still really good, and I expect the sequel to be even better now that we have established the characters.
One thing that I noticed was that a lot of people did not enjoy the rape scene. But I argue, you are not ment to enjoy it. Who really comes out of a cinema going “that rape scene was a great laugh!”. Rapists. That’s who. It was powerful, moving, and at points I had to turn away. At the end of the day it is all an illusion, but one so strong it made me feel sick. It’s like applauding a magician for fooling you with slight of hand.
My final thought is about the opening sequence. I had my jaw nearly on the ground. I thought it was a lot like the James Bond title sequences. Ironic that Daniel Craig was also in this movie. I personally really enjoy title sequences like this. It is a chance to really set in place the style of the film.
Anyway, really worth a watch. Not just anywhere though, but in the cinema.
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#the girl with the dragon tattoo
#the
#girl
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#the
#dragon
#tattoo
#tat
#review
#thought
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#music
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#immigrant
#song
#karen
#o
#trent
#reznor
#atticus
#ross
#daniel
#craig
#remake
#american
Teela - Masters of the Universe - Shoots two goons and says to camera “Woman at arms…”
Watched the He-man live action movie with Dolph Lundgren. Was surprisingly good. Don’t get me wrong, the end product was falling to bits, but you could tell that there was an attempt to pull off an epic without the necessary funds. I delved a little deeper into the film’s history and found out that there was some serious meddling from the producers and Mattel that also dicked it around. Despite the cringe worthy Star Wars inspiration in design, it had a real sense of character. Hell, the sets in Castle Greyskull, with their ominous statues of old heroes, looked far better than the green screen monstrosities of the Star Wars prequels.
All in all, worth a watch, even if just for a laugh, but could have been so much more.
#he
#man
#masters
#of
#the
#universe
#masters of the universe
#teela
#woman at arms
#he-man
The Talented Mr. Ripley
This was my first viewing of the film, and from the get go it had me hooked. The opening music was really eerie and the rest of the soundtrack kept up this initial tone. Brimming with suspense; everything Tom does to survive is so fragil, it could fall apart at any moment. When it seems that he has been caught suddenly the tide turns. I think it was not just a drama but borderline horror, especially with the open ending. My only complaint is that I would have liked to have seen Tom beginning to impersonate Dicky beforehe kills him, if only to add a creepy edge to it. Or even to drop the homosexual sub-plot and make it more that Tom wanted to be Dicky rather than to be his lover from the beginning. Regardless, excellent movie and I am glad I finally got to see it.
77 notes
#the
#talented
#mr
#mr.
#ripley
#movie
#review
#matt
#damon
#gwyneth paltrow
#jude law
The Ipcress File
Just finished watching The Ipcress file and what a movie! I got a hankering for a lot of cold war espionage after watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy not so long ago.
There are few movies in which I am genuinely unsure of what way they will go. So not to spoil the ending, but I was on the edge of my seat as to the fate of Harry Palmer. Truly one of the finer highlights Michael Caine’s career, which is pretty damn good.
Setting story aside, which is something that is really down to taste, the film stands on it’s own with visuals alone. Personally I thought it felt very similar to noir films in style of story and the way it was shot. So if you like that kind of thing then take a gander.
I think this was far better shot than that of the recent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Or at least the shots were more memorable. What really stands out when I think about it is that it was never afraid to have the camera on a tilt. Normally I hate movies that are constantly at a dutch angle, Battlefield Earth is a perfect example. Hell, even Thor, which is currently my favourite Marvel movie so far, had a few tilted shots that just seemed to get on my nerves and the movie might have been better without. However, in this case, it just seems to work beautifully. I think it is because a lot of care went into the composition of the shot. There’s a lot of lovely triangles and angles converging, so the tilted camera accentuates this planning. After watching The Ipcress File and seeing how well a tilted camera can perform, the other examples I gave come across amateurish.
Plus there are a lot of thick shadows (standard practice with any noir)! And who doesn’t love that? It just looks so gorgeous!
