Movie Reviews
I saw two movies last Friday, and now feel compelled to warn you of the horrors that await you at your local cinema.
First of all, the new Harry Potter film sucks. I seriously want my money back, and if I hadn’t sat through the whole thing, hoping beyond hope that it would somehow start picking up the pace, I would ask for it. If you’re the type who doesn’t want a spoiler because you haven’t seen the atrocity/read the book, then consider this your spoiler alert.
In what could have been the best film of the series thus far, this adaptation was, at best, a piss-poor tribute. From incredible gaps in story line and paradoxes that don’t mesh with the books on any level (Umbridge gaining access to the room of requirement), to generally poor directing and cinematography, this movie is a waste of the time spent to produce and view it as well as film. I simply cannot describe how embarrassing it was to watch what should have been an astounding fight scene between a dozen wizards (two of whom are the most powerful wizards probably ever), and it was remarkably quick and repetitive. I can’t believe they did the exact same special effect as the last movie, and while it does open up some interesting twists in the plot of the saga, it’s something that didn’t happen in the book and felt like a last minute addition. These two scenes should have been allowed to play out for more than 5 minutes. All in all, it was an incredibly slow build up to an immensely dull resolution that didn’t really resolve much. The entire scene in Dumbledore’s office where he explains everything to Harry (in the book), gets completely scrapped for a few sentences. Kinda like a parting quote and a handshake. Do yourself a favor, skip the movie and head to Barnes and Noble for your own copy of the book.
That’s all for spoilers. But now, I feel that it’s time to say that this director should not be hired back for any future movies. Warner Brothers should do the fans of Harry Potter, and, in fact, the world, a favor and bring back Alfonso Cuaron to direct the remainder of the series. As his was the most compelling film, and the only decent adaptation (the first two were almost facsimiles of the books, and were, at best, mediocre in their directing; the fourth was nearly as much a waste as the fifth), he seems to be the only person qualified to finish the series as it should. Warner Brothers would also do well to note that true fans would be more than willing to sit through a three hour movie. It would make sense to edit for time if the fanbase wasn’t there, but as there are nearly 100 million copies of Deathly Hollows on preorder around the world, it’s not as if there won’t be a large crowd at the midnight showings. But that’s just my two cents.
As for the good movie I saw: Transformers. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to like this movie. I figured it would just be a bunch of special effects linked together to make a 2.5 hour commercial. I wasn’t wrong, but it was just so damn cool I couldn’t help but love it. It is a very, very long GM commercial; but the special effects were so superbly executed, the action so up-front and frequent that I felt like the cartoon I watched with my brother when I was a kid was somehow brought to reality. There was never a minute where the effects got so fake (read: matrixy) it couldn’t be believed. It was an action-packed blockbuster with limited plot, decent acting, an astoundingly beautiful costar, and the film was just fun to watch.
So, anyone seen anything else recently? Looking forward to something coming out later this summer?