Gnomeo and the Swan Go Back
Jan. 26th, 2011 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinI have seen three movies in the past week. Three! Positively decadent. They get a paragraph each – not just because I am a lazy bum (the type who sees three movies in a week! three!) but I just can't seem to dredge up more to say.
GNOMEO AND JULIET
Like everyone else I know, I was not inspired to see it on my own, but I know someone who worked on it, and he invited me to the LA crew screening. I ended up reluctantly enjoying it. It's an entirely competent movie – as a loose childrens' adaptation of Romeo and Juliet it's not that bad, and for any adults in the audience there's a good sprinkling of actual Shakespeare references to catch and enjoy. Actually it managed to maintain an admirable amount of presence of mind, something that has been absent from many animated films lately, in my opinion. I was terribly impressed with the animation; not only was it all clear and appealing but they actually managed to get chemistry out of the leads, which is no small feat when they're garden gnomes in a kids' movie. And it was done by a studio in Toronto! Way to show 'em, Canada! You can do feature quality stuff when you're given the chance! The way they were rigged and ... surfaced, I guess (I'm not so sure of most of that end of CG production) was very clever; of course the basic premise of your characters being ceramic eliminates the need for complicated and problematic hair and cloth simulation, but they weren't just cheap CG ceramic, they actually had the texture and flaws of mass-produced lawn ornaments, even down to their eyes being painted and not over-rendered luminous limpid pools like you usually get in CG.
The moral of the story: Brush up your Shakespeare so it does not happen to you!
THE WAY BACK
I have been looking forward to this movie since 2005, before I even knew it existed, simply because it was Peter Weir's Next and that was good enough for me. I'd heard mixed reviews of it before I finally managed to see it, but you know what? It was exactly what I wanted it to be: Interesting characters battle the elements, the unseen foe, and themselves, across an epic landscape. The end. It has its faults,* but I liked it anyway. (And it's probably as close as I'm ever going to get to Peter Weir's Worst Journey in the World, as he has said he won't do a direct historical adaptation. Le sigh.) If I were to pick on anything it would be the occasional awkward edit ... It felt like important scenes/transitions were missing, and while I'd like to believe they were cut for length and will end up on a Director's Cut DVD, the fact that it was not a 'studio' movie leads me to suspect this was the 'director's cut,' which makes me a little bit sad inside. But not too much.
*I disagree with the LA Times' reviewer, though: I didn't think the sentimental scenes were out of place at all. These guys are going through hell together, man! You think there's not going to be some soul-baring? I am witness to awkward moments of sentimentality in real life all the time and I'm not even dying of thirst in the Gobi desert. Sheesh.
The moral of the story: Never complain about anything ever again. Ever.
BLACK SWAN
All in all a good concept and very well-executed (I particularly liked the relatively subtle use of effects) but I couldn't help feeling it was rather transparent at times; then again it might only be transparent because I've been taking film and screenwriting classes, haha. And I couldn't shake the feeling through most of the middle of the movie that Mr Aronofsky really wanted to nail a ballerina. Really really bad. I think I was feeling some permutation of what some guys feel watching Twilight, like I'm watching the sexual fantasies of someone of the opposite sex and it is a strange alien experience ...
Anyway, everything else I have to say about it is this:
Which leads on to this, if you're interested. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen all of Perfect Blue but what I can remember of what I did see had me going 'um?' all through Black Swan.
The moral of the story: The Arts! They makes ya crazy!
GNOMEO AND JULIET
Like everyone else I know, I was not inspired to see it on my own, but I know someone who worked on it, and he invited me to the LA crew screening. I ended up reluctantly enjoying it. It's an entirely competent movie – as a loose childrens' adaptation of Romeo and Juliet it's not that bad, and for any adults in the audience there's a good sprinkling of actual Shakespeare references to catch and enjoy. Actually it managed to maintain an admirable amount of presence of mind, something that has been absent from many animated films lately, in my opinion. I was terribly impressed with the animation; not only was it all clear and appealing but they actually managed to get chemistry out of the leads, which is no small feat when they're garden gnomes in a kids' movie. And it was done by a studio in Toronto! Way to show 'em, Canada! You can do feature quality stuff when you're given the chance! The way they were rigged and ... surfaced, I guess (I'm not so sure of most of that end of CG production) was very clever; of course the basic premise of your characters being ceramic eliminates the need for complicated and problematic hair and cloth simulation, but they weren't just cheap CG ceramic, they actually had the texture and flaws of mass-produced lawn ornaments, even down to their eyes being painted and not over-rendered luminous limpid pools like you usually get in CG.
The moral of the story: Brush up your Shakespeare so it does not happen to you!
THE WAY BACK
I have been looking forward to this movie since 2005, before I even knew it existed, simply because it was Peter Weir's Next and that was good enough for me. I'd heard mixed reviews of it before I finally managed to see it, but you know what? It was exactly what I wanted it to be: Interesting characters battle the elements, the unseen foe, and themselves, across an epic landscape. The end. It has its faults,* but I liked it anyway. (And it's probably as close as I'm ever going to get to Peter Weir's Worst Journey in the World, as he has said he won't do a direct historical adaptation. Le sigh.) If I were to pick on anything it would be the occasional awkward edit ... It felt like important scenes/transitions were missing, and while I'd like to believe they were cut for length and will end up on a Director's Cut DVD, the fact that it was not a 'studio' movie leads me to suspect this was the 'director's cut,' which makes me a little bit sad inside. But not too much.
*I disagree with the LA Times' reviewer, though: I didn't think the sentimental scenes were out of place at all. These guys are going through hell together, man! You think there's not going to be some soul-baring? I am witness to awkward moments of sentimentality in real life all the time and I'm not even dying of thirst in the Gobi desert. Sheesh.
The moral of the story: Never complain about anything ever again. Ever.
BLACK SWAN
All in all a good concept and very well-executed (I particularly liked the relatively subtle use of effects) but I couldn't help feeling it was rather transparent at times; then again it might only be transparent because I've been taking film and screenwriting classes, haha. And I couldn't shake the feeling through most of the middle of the movie that Mr Aronofsky really wanted to nail a ballerina. Really really bad. I think I was feeling some permutation of what some guys feel watching Twilight, like I'm watching the sexual fantasies of someone of the opposite sex and it is a strange alien experience ...
Anyway, everything else I have to say about it is this:
Which leads on to this, if you're interested. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen all of Perfect Blue but what I can remember of what I did see had me going 'um?' all through Black Swan.
The moral of the story: The Arts! They makes ya crazy!
