Change Your Image
ureshinamida
Favorite movies: Signs, A Beautiful Mind, Amelie, Sin City
Three things I consider crucial to a good story: Heart, simplicity, originality
Reviews
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Not as bad as some people make it out to be
Almost everyone is in love with C.S. Lewis' Narnia series. I honestly was not sure if this movie would be too successful (Talking beavers? A villain whose sleigh is pulled by polar bears?) but when I saw it today the theater was packed with people of all ages.
It almost feels like the creators wanted to make another Lord of the Rings, but honestly I found myself cracking up during the battle scenes; I could only take the armies of polar bears and cheetahs so seriously. Sometimes I got the feeling that I should be enjoying the movie much more than I was. The sets and visual effects are spectacular, but then again what major movie *doesn't* have good effects with the technology and talent available in 2005? Aside from a few really fun and mesmerizing scenes, I never felt taken into Narnia.
Gilmore Girls (2000)
Ugh
I honestly cannot stand this series.
It has everything that I would like in a television show--critically acclaimed, a quirky setting, interesting characters, good actors... The main character is an artist for crying out loud; I should honestly love this show.
However, the constant talking is unbearable. For Christ's sake, real people do *not* yammer at a mile a minute 24/7! Two really outgoing, witty people can interact like that, but honestly episode after episode it gets extremely annoying.
Talk like real people!
Final Fantasy: Unlimited (2001)
Mediocre and a shame on the FF series
I couldn't wait to take a look at Final Fantasy Unlimited after reading the article in Newtype magazine. Silly me, I assumed that the games' great characters, interesting plots and beautiful art would be present in the anime. The number of positive reviews for Final Fantasy Unlimited on IMDb.com is mind-blowing. Granted I've only watched the first episode, but it was repulsive and filled with clichés. Normally I'm the type of person to stay with an anime long after it goes bad, but lately I've completely lost my patience. I guess my main disappointment is that I expected it to live up to the games.
In all fairness, it was brash of me to drop this series after the first episode. But you have to be one hell of an anime to make a person go through these stages in twenty minutes:
1. "Well, this is alright."
2. "What?"
3. "Ugh! Wait, maybe it's a comedy!" (And it worked alright as an unintentional comedy)
4. "Life is too short." *Fast-forward, peek at next episode, turn off TV*
*Shrug* And I'm no FF expert... But I notice that in the beginning of the FF games I've played, you usually see the main character doing *something* really *cool* or nice. Here, we just have a bunch of random people freaking out over a huge light in the sky. So what? Who cares? Then we meet our protagonists.
The characters are nothing new. The bad-ass of the series, whose name I didn't learn because he's *so* MYSTERIOUS, seemed like he was crammed with every trait a dark loner could ever want: He has a dark cloak, long matted hair, unusual tattoos, broken glasses that obscure one eye AND amnesia! The twins, who appear to be the protagonists, are annoying even for anime kids. Some of their lines seemed to be ripped out of a bad fan fiction: "You're the ghost here lady!" "Ai! Remember your manners! Sorry, my name is..." And last but not least is a large-busted female we meet in the first episode, who the girl twin hates for some reason. When we first meet her, she speaks a few cryptic lines into a cellphone. In retrospect, this could have made for an interesting character. But somehow I completely forgot about that. I never attached to the characters because nothing about them sticks out to me.
The animation was as mediocre as the characters. I mean, sure it's colorful and digital, but the designs just lack that spark. I know that every additional line adds up real quickly in animation and that a TV show could never have the detail of even the FF sketches, but this is *really* minimalist. I've heard comparisons to Digimon's animation; all I can say is that even that had more detail than this. And besides, the Digimon designs always struck me as full of energy; these just look... typical. Maybe the lion's share of the animation budget went to the crappy 3-D special effects?
I dunno. Maybe I have really bad taste and no patience. But I would only recommend watching it so you're familiar with what people might bring up in conversation.
Sin City (2005)
Great movie
I was a huge fan of the comics before the movie came out. I love the cinematography, the style, the characters, the wild situations... The acting is wonderful, especially from Marv.
As much as I love Sin City, the movie isn't perfect. I don't mind the violence and the movie's unique edge at all. However sometimes it was slow-paced. And, like all people who see a book-made-into-movie, I found myself questioning things that I just accepted as I read the book.
One thing about this movie is that people tend to love it or hate it. People who hate the movie can't follow the unusual plot, can't sympathize with the cast of hit men and prostitutes and abhor the violence.
I think a good metaphor for this is Hartigan's blood. In the movie, his blood is colored bright white just like in the black and white comics, with no shading at all. A normal viewer sees this white stuff like bird poop spewing out of him and thinks, "Wow, that's lame." But someone who takes an artistic point of view sees that weird blood and may feel puzzled, then decides "Well, maybe I'm not *supposed* to be looking at the blood." Then they move on and go with the movie. As much as fanboys criticize people who dislike the movie--and I used to be one of them--both points of view are valid.
So, if you have a strong stomach and can tolerate style, this should be great. :)
Schindler's List (1993)
Interesting characters but slow-paced
I rented this movie after hearing that it was a classic. I like that every character in this movie is interesting. You connect with them and recognize so many faces that you wouldn't in another film.
However, I would not call the film perfect. Moving, heartbreaking, yes. However, I feel that it should have focused more on Schindler's factory. We all know the historical facts about the holocaust, but Schindler's heroism is a unique story, one that has not been told.
Some scenes, like when Schindler witnesses a raid while horseback riding, were necessary and I would not have cut them out. However, scenes like when the Nazi officer searches for a maid or when a Jewish engineer insists that a foundation be re-poured were repetitive and stretched out the movie.
However, it is still worth seeing for the gorgeous cinematography and Schindler's final words in the film.
Parumu no ki (2002)
Mindboggling
The teasers for Tree of Palme try to pass it off as a sort of allegory for a fairy tale with actual meaning, then immediately start raving about the animation. I should have known what that meant.
The main character, Palme, is a good example of the whole movie's problem. One minute, Palme is a humble hero in search of himself, the next a violent psycho with an unhealthy fixation on a girl he once took care of.
Like all of the characters in the movie, Palme is poorly defined. You do not bond with the characters at all, although Shatta has acquired a couple of fan girls. It seems that the writer was more interested in cramming all the drama and complexity he could into this movie than actually exploring his characters' motivations and personalities.
New, useless story lines were being introduced in the last fifteen minutes of the movie. The writer seriously needed to streamline his story. Perhaps he was trying to be epic, but it was simply too much information for a two-hour movie. However I can't help but wonder if a plot with so many dimensions and characters would have been better suited for a TV series or graphic novel.
In the last five minutes of the movie, I simply could not endure the sheer lack of quality any longer and began laughing at how contrived the characters, the relationships, and the whole plot was. I touched my companion and he started cracking up too, as did a young man seated behind us. We tried so hard to control ourselves, but we simply could not take the terrible quality of this movie.
On the bright side, the animation is incredible and viewers will find themselves admiring the lush backgrounds and charming character designs. The animation almost guides you; when you don't care about the characters, it tells you how to feel.