Wednesday 7 September 2011

I went to the cinema and stuff

some cinema film reviews:

Cars 2
Typical soulless Disney drivel. Okay, I laughed at all the country/racial stereotyping - oh those crazy Japanese with their crazy toilets! Oh those Italians who are all mobsters but worship their "mama"! And so on. Well that got pretty old towards the end of the film. I also wonder how many people will actually get the plot. My 4-year old cousin considered the Italian F1 car as the "bad guy". Also, is it just me, or where some scenes just real-life pictures, just overpainted in some way to look like a cartoon? If not, some backgrounds actually looked real, if it's all computer-generated it's quite impressive.
But compared to the first one, it definitely lacks "soul". I actually liked the first one (an animated Disney film I like, I know, shocking), it was simple and charming. This one is flashy, fast, and other things that don't even matter if we're talking about quality.
Well anyway, at least my cousin was entertained, and I didn't fall asleep.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
I didn't really follow the hype and only saw one short trailer, and as usual it was for the best. The tv ad falsely advertises it as an action film though, and it's really not. Well, not for the first 80 minutes or so.
It's a good summer blockbuster, and it has a really nice - if predictable - build up. Caesar/Andy Serkis was awesome, just as the relationships between the apes, but the humans were rather boring. Although I always like seeing John Lithgow. And whats-his-name, Draco Malfoy, got to say the "get your stinking paws off me" line, awesome. It made me laugh out loud in the cinema. I was the only one with that reaction. Awkward.
Anyway, really liked it, and there's obviously a sequel incoming.

Captain America
Yet another Marvel film. And guess what? It's great. Of all the recent Marvel films I think I slightly prefer Thor, but this and X-Men First Class are easily 8/10 films, really fun to watch.
I can't say I really enjoyed Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, his accent was too Hollywood-german, should've just kept his native accent, with the backstory being that he can fluently speak 12 languages or something. I thought the Erskine guy had a more convincing accent. Oh, and as cheesy as it sounded, I do approve of that "people forget that the first country the nazis invaded was their own" statement.
Small spoiler next I suppose: I thought it was pretty obvious that...some dude isn't really dead, but was transported into another universe...it certainly looked like one of those transporter thingies from Thor, and a similar constellation. But maybe I've seen too many Marvel films recently heh.
Oh, a little Tem Trivia: in the scene at Times Square at the end, you can see some Roland Garros footage on one of the screens!! True story.
Anyway, I look forward to The Avengers film. 3 great Marvel films in a row, I wonder if they can make an even better one.

Cowboys & Aliens
Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde in one film! MUST SEE!!!
...It's a shame the film doesn't live up to the 'star' cast though. It's entertaining enough, but looking back at it, I could've waited until it came on tv. Also, as with most films nowadays, I tend to avoid trailers and such, and I thought the film would be action-comedy like (why so serious?). I mean, Cowboys, and aliens, what a silly combination! I really feel like this was a missed opportunity to make something like Men in Black, or Ghostbusters, there really aren't enough scifi-action-comedies out there.
So I guess part of why I didn't think it was awesome is because it wasn't what I wanted. Ignoring that, there are other smaller things that didn't agree with me. The aliens themselves look far too cartoony, or even like LOTR troll rejects, only with stupid pointless extra arms. I found it really hard to take them seriously, instead of scary evil aliens they looked more like something you find as a toy in a Happy Meal. It contrasts with the seriousness (and occasional brutal violence) of the film.
And while Daniel Craig is pretty good in this, both Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde were rather replaceable. Harrison Ford's character only has about one good scene at the end, if not for that the whole character could've just been left out. I thought the backstroy of Olivia Wilde's character was pretty predictable - plus it's also the most plothole-y part of the film if you start thinking about it. But you shouldn't, I guess, it's just a summer film right?
Overall, the flow of the film is a bit weird at times, it's definitely half an hour too long for what it really is. I still enjoyed it, but I'm not going to recommend it, especially not if they still play Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Captain America in your cinema.


Okay, that's it for the cinema reviews, I'll do some non-cinema film review next!

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