Terrible What Passes For a Ninja These Days

Wow, do I wish I saw Speed Racer on the IMAX. Seriously, this film got a bum rap for no good reason. It's visually inventive, kinetic, emotional, and exciting. There wasn't a minute I wasn't thoroughly entertained. Really, why this was panned is beyond me as it truly is a live action cartoon, with its layers of live action and CGI frames, along with a mature anti-corporate message. After the travesty that was Matrix Revolutions, the Wachowskis really made a comeback with this one. I have to thank Dennis Cozallio and his wonderful blog for convincing me to see this critically panned film, which is actually one of the best of 2008. Go Speed Racer Go!

Ms. Bronte...

Mike Leigh has always been one of those directors I have been meaning to catch up with, but after Career Girls, I can't say that I am too excited to see more.

I remember back when Secrets and Lies was up for Best Picture I just knew it was not for me. It looked like non-stylized melodrama, and while my tastes have grown and changed since then, I didn't get much out of Career Girls.

While Leigh's attempts at naturalism, and his ability to let scenes play despite not feeling like set pieces, but rather just an oppurtunity for his actors and characters to vamp and for us as an audience to get to know them, their quirks, their tics, and their facial rashes, it lead to me feeling dissatisfied by the lack of much of anything. I can see falling in love with a Leigh film if the characters are just right, because it seems to fall in love with his characters is to fall in love with his films , but this was not the one for me.

The Times They Are A-Changin

Despite yet another horrible audience at the Navy Pier IMAX, I have to say I fully enjoyed Zack Snyder's Watchmen. After reading almost every take on the film I can find, and probably not having much to add to the discussion, I have to say that the film is a success as an adaptation, and not entirely a success as a freestanding film.

My big question after viewing it is, will anyone that hasn't read the book be at all interested in this slavish adaptation? The entire structure of the film follows the book almost to a T (despite some cuts) with long flashback sequences and changing focuses and narrators in a way that made me feel like "wow, they're really pulling this off" but in a way that I have to imagine will make the unfamiliar wonder, "where is this all going anyway?"

The long asides built into the book, like how Jon became Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl II and The Comedian in Vietnam, and Rorschach's childhood all worked in adding depth to the characters, fleshing out the alternate history, and just as cool set pieces, but by the end of the film, the climax and resolution ends up feeling a little rushed. Unfortunately, the revelation that The Comedian is Laurie Jupiter's father seems to come out of nowhere rather than the emotional moment it should be.

At almost 3 hours, and I feel this actually speaks to the strengths of the film, it made me think that the director's cut with everything included will actually be stronger by making the film more sprawling and spacing things out, making the whole experience wash over someone, rather than making the end feel like some sort of rush to the finish line.

Doomsday

11 hours: 50 minutes

My thoughts to come.