beowulf: computer graphic…ness

Finally had the chance to watch Beowulf with a friend of mine tonight (yes, I was looking forward to it, and yes, I am a huge dork). CG animation has come a long way, my friends – the detail they put into every little stitch of clothing or in some scenes, a lack thereof, was absolutely amazing.

The story, however, was only so-so, and I certainly didn’t like the ending… Or rather, how they animated it. I was somehow able to stomach the sexified shots of CG Sean Penn and the gory scenes with minimal cringing (although I admit I wasn’t expecting things to be so anatomically accurate in their graphic…ness) and I liked the subtle twist it brought about as the movie was coming to a close, but to watch that last scene… Well, it was slow. And I mean sloooow. It’s hard to describe here, but if you’ve seen it, you should know what I mean.

Anyway, if you’re a lover of medieval or fantasy-type things, or if you simply accept your inner geek like I do, then I say go watch Beowulf. Or at least see it on dvd when it comes out.

more than meets the eye

I just watched the latest Harry Potter movie. And I Hated it. Hate with a capital “H”.

Okay, perhaps that was a bit harsh, it ‘looked’ good, but I really did not like it. Granted, the fifth book was not as full of adventure and excitement as the ones before it (and after). It was more focused on Harry’s development as a teenage boy, and how he dealt with his peers and other wizarding folk that were trying to stop him from telling the world about Voldemort’s return. That sort of teen-drama is not very exciting; even if Harry is The Boy Who Lived, he has his ‘normal’ moments too. Moments which will consume all but 10% of the movie. 

So the director didn’t have much action to work with, and unfortunately all of the subplots and backstories that were so interesting in the book were either barely glossed over on film or not shown at all. I’d really recommend just reading the book over watching this installment in the Potter movies, it doesn’t do it justice in any way at all.

Now Transformers on the other hand… I saw that movie the week before and it was amazing. Sometimes the humor was a little over the top (the scene where the Autobots are all hiding in the backyard comes to mind), but everything else – the cars, the voice-acting, the epic inter-city robot battles - it was stellar. My only complaint was that they didn’t actually play the Transformers theme at all during the movie. I was really looking forward to a new, jazzified version of that 80’s classic.

In summary: No to Order of the Phoenix on film (yes to the book, however). And a big YES to Transformers. Yes, yes, yes.

my first western experience

So, I just watched Tombstone with a friend of mine. It was an… educational experience, if you could even call it that (if you didn’t know, don’t worry, I didn’t either: it’s a movie about Wyatt Earp and the showdown at the O.K Corral). Before seeing this, I’ve generally steered clear from anything classified as a “Western”, which is a shame because this wasn’t as horrendously bad as I imagined it would be. I know, I know. I shouldn’t fall prey to Hollywood stereotypes, but for whatever reason that shoot-em-up-cowboy style has never appealed to me.

Those Western stereotypes  staples are unavoidable, however, but with the exception of a couple gratuitous lovey-dovey scenes with a particularly unattractive actress, and once you get used to that southern drawl (for some of the actors it took much longer than others) Tombstone is actually kinda fun to watch. The shootout scenes seemed a little… bland and unexciting though. But perhaps that was just me and my lowered expectations. I mean, we’re talking about the O.K Corral here, I thought that there would be some more embellishment - a little more blood, some drawn out scenes – but it was over pretty quickly in my opinion. A couple people got shot, some of them died, and that was that. Not bad. The film was also rife with cliche, but this is apparently the way Hollywood does Westerns, according to The Friend. I just thought that there would be more shooting involved.

In short, I didn’t hate watching Tombstone, but I didn’t like it all that much either. It didn’t change the way I view the Western genre, although I admit I may be more open to watching similar films in the future. Maybe. I did, however, get to see Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer in really neat suits. So 0.5 thumbs up from me.