Again, sorry for no full anime review on Monday, I've been swamped again and having terrible luck finding some things I really want to review free, legally online without going through a hassle like I don't know, verifying whoever the heck is my cable provider these days.
So I'm a bit late getting around to this movie but when it did come out I saw reviews from reviewers I liked and realized that if most of them were negative about this movie that I was unlikely to love it either, possibly not even like it. But I'm hardly going to turn down seeing a movie for free so why not, I was sure it wasn't going to be absolutely terrible!
I've been dying to see this film ever since it came out but, due to an error in communications on my part, I didn't have a chance to watch it over the summer and was holding off until I could get over to redbox or such. And then one week I jokingly said "oh maybe the film that [my step-sister] is bringing this week is Pacific Rim!" and I was right! Clearly I need to tempt fate more often, this is so much easier than putting my name on the holds list in the library, as far down as I am for some of the 2013 films currently I'm not sure I'll have a chance to see them before the next New Years.
Pacific Rim
A bit of book-keeping first, as people have probably seen I have finally gotten the ads working on the site, wohoo! So yes they're supposed to be there, nothing to be alarmed about. And I'm experimenting with the formatting of the reviews a little bit, I was never happy with how far you had to scroll down on the main page so I'm going to experiment around and see if I can find something I'm more happy with.
Alright down to the review, even thought I was rather grumpy with the first Hobbit film I was still a bit excited for this one, guess all of Peter Jackson's conditioning to make the world get overly excited whenever their's a new Tolkien film has worked. Funny enough I did hear recently that the extended edition of the first film actually works a lot better than the theatrical cut, explains a few things and the mood shifts work a little better. I'm not sure the same is going to happen to this film but I have to admit I am curious about rewatching the first one now.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Initially I had no intention of seeing this movie and my list of reasons why was pretty long. From the fact that, in retrospect, the marketing was terrible (someone has to reassure me, and I had to do it in turn afterwards, that the snowman actually wasn't this terrible character who ruined the movie), compared to the original story (a girl saves a boy and goes on an adventure to do it!) the summary for it (a girl must save her sister from becoming evil and a guy helps her do it!) sounded rather, uninspired. The character designs also rubbed me a bit the wrong way, both the fact that Anna and Elsa looked like they were Rapunzel's sisters (especially once again compared to the original designs, plus there was a comment from one of the staff about having to constantly make the girls look pretty which didn't sit well with many) and the reminder of how many stories we get about cute, young white characters and so few about non-white ones (the This Could Have Been Frozen tumblr both has some really cool art and for me was a reminder of how rarely you see non-white characters as leads in traditional American media). So why did I try it after all? Because at the heart it's a, non-romantic, story about a relationship between two sisters and that's a kind of story I want to see and I was hoping that the story was strong enough to make up for all of the things I just listed.
Frozen
Summary: Anna and Elsa are sisters in the kingdom of Arendelle and while Anna is a happy, outgoing child Elsa is a bit more withdrawn and quiet, terrified that she'll hurt someone with her strange ice creating powers. When she ascends to the throne her secret slips out and she accidentally turns their sunny, summer land into a winter wonderland and Anna has to set out to apologize to her sister and bring her back so that everything can be set right again.
The Good: That was a way better story than I was expecting, hurray! Unlike what I predicted Elsa has not turned evil and it's up to Anna to use the power of love to restore her heart, nope Elsa is just a combination of scared and embracing the new freedom of not being where she can harm people (and as many people have pointed out, this is one of the rare times where a Disney film has shown that the parents, while well-meaning, were certainly wrong). The movie questions the idea of love at first sight, makes it clear that familial love is just as important and great as romantic love, and actually has a plot twist that caught my theater by surprise (I figured it out once the movie started but Disney waited just late enough that I had started doubting myself so kudos to them). I liked Anna and Elsa's character arcs and felt like the story stayed true to itself by the end, this wasn't supposed to be some very very silly comedic story, it's a fun story with plenty of funny moments but at it's heart it's about two sisters and it remembers this all the way to the end.
The Bad: Really, whoever was in charge of the marketing (in the US anyway) did a terrible job at getting across the real mood of the film, if I hadn't looked up reviews and heard some good word of mouth I never would have seen it this soon. As for the movie itself, I felt like it dragged on in one or two points in the last third/half (especially since this was when there was a time-specific plot point) and there were times when Anna/Kristoff felt like a little too anachronistic compared to the rest of the cast (as much as I like Anna and I'm sure tons of little girls feel like she's just like them she feels a bit like they were trying really hard to inject bits of a "modern teen/pre-teen" into her).
The Production Values: I heard the song "Let It Go" before the movie and wasn't sold on it but somehow when it played in the movie it just worked. That was easily my favorite song of the film but I thought that everything sounded fine. I know some people on tumblr have been up in arms about some moments of shoddy animation but even when I stared at the cam-rif-gifs of the scene in question I still couldn't spot it so I feel like I can say that the movie looked pretty good too. Still not thrilled that Anna and Elsa have easily the most boring faces in the entire film (as I mentioned earlier that just felt like, well, a cop out considering what's previously been done in animation) but the rest of the designs (character, clothing, and setting wise) were rather pretty.
For being actually a really good movie and having the kind of plot I've wanted in a story for years I'm giving this film a 4 out of 5 and just hope that Disney A) Actually changes the faces for the female characters in their next film and B) Realizes that just because you have one black/Middle Eastern/Asian female lead of a film doesn't mean you should wait another five, eight, or more years to make the next film (and for god's sake you can put them in the backgrounds too, non-white people appeared in the background in just ONE scene!)
I haven't been able to see many films this year since I was so busy with my last semester of college and once I graduated boom, no more $1 movies and tickets around here are about $12 each, ew. However my aunt found a unused giftcard recently to a local theater and I discovered that the morning movies are $10 instead of 12 so I'm going to have a chance to see just a few movies before the year ends after all! Part of the reason I wanted to see this one was not only because it was an Avengers film but because one of the recent episodes of SHIELD tied into it and I was curious about what happened in the film. I was able to watch the episode and understand it perfectly fine without having seen the film but it did make me even more eager to see the film, hurray for cross-marketing!
Thor: The Dark World
Summary: Sometime after the Battle of New York (and presumably Iron Man 3), Jane Foster is still looking for Thor and her search has lead her to London where she's finding strange things (including her former science partner, now not being over-shadowed by Loki, to be crazy-pants, or crazy-pants-less most of the time). And it seems she's chosen the right, or possibly wrong, time to be looking for Thor, strange events are happening and with the villains plotting how to use them and it's going to take Jane and Thor and all of their friends from Midegard and Asgard to keep the world's safe.
The Good: I had fun with this film, like the first Thor film there's just something about it that doesn't quite hang together in the end but there's also something about the way it's done that keeps it amusing anyway. I did feel like the climax worked well though, everyone had an important part to play and while the first film felt like Thor's story, with Jane as a side character, this story really felt like Jane and Thor's story which I enjoyed (and also find interesting, Marvel was already courting the female fanbase a bit more with the first film and I wonder if this is them continuing it by having a superhero movie with a female co-lead).
The Bad: I feel like for the first film everyone was talking about how Jane was a rather flat character and then suddenly before the start of this film she was everyone's darling when really, she still is a bit oddly flat. I feel like the writers were going more for "eccentric" (since that's probably how I would have read a male version of the character) but she just feels a little off to me (but at least I can see why the fandom likes her, after this film I just have no idea why they like Loki, but I say that about every villain). I also found it a bit odd that Sif was being set up as a potential romantic rival in the first film and then here they shoot down that idea in what seemed like the first five minutes of the story, it seemed like the writers realized they had to scrap one sub-plot for the sake of time and just couldn't think of a better way to have it disappear.
The Production Values: This film looked and sounded like what a big budget superhero movie should and I was satisfied with it. I didn't see it in 3D, didn't want to spend the extra money, although I am curious what they did in the 3D movie to make it, well, 3D since I don't see how that would have added much. I did have a moment in the theater however where I thought "Dear god they've done it, they've convinced Americans, people everywhere actually, to turn out in droves multiple times a year for big budget fantasy/sci-fi films, yesssssss" which made me rather happy. I'd of course love to see more big budget fantasy and sci-fi films and tv shows (adapted and original properties) but for the moment this satisfies that itch for me quite nicely.
So I'm giving this a 3.5 out of 5 for being fun, would watch again with friends but I'm unlikely to buy. Oh and I'll warn people now, there are two after the credits scenes! The first one is during the credits (and according to other nerds is helping to set up the Guardians of the Galaxy film that's coming out in the next couple of years) and then the second one is actually after them, make sure to catch both!
