Now Playing: Monster Movies

In the last two days, I watched two monster movies: Cloverfield and I Am Legend. Not only is this a serious detour from normal movie-going behaviour (I tend to save scary movies for Halloween marathons) but to watch TWO in as many days. Well. It does lead to inevitable comparisons, so why even try to avoid it? Here's what I had to say about the movies on Flixter:

Cloverfield:
okay acting (Hud was hilarious) and nice special effects (when you can actually focus on it, which isn't often) but overall too short and a little too reminiscent of Blair Witch. Still: fun :) 2.5 stars out of 5.

I Am Legend:
Who knew? I had originally passed on this movie because I didn't want to watch another "zombie" movie. I was wrong. First of all, Will Smith is a phenom in it: it's basically just him and his dog for most of the movie (flashbacks and CGI zombies can't really count) and he did so well. The directing was tight: I haven't watched a movie that both scared the holy hell out of me AND moved me to tears. Fabulous - you gotta check it out. 4 stars out of 5.

...in direct comparison, though, I Am Legend makes Cloverfield look bad. Yeah, Cloverfield was fun and stuff, but for pure suspense and emotional investment, Legend is untouchable. Both Nish and I were dropped down as far as we could go in our IMAX seats, cursing each other for agreeing to see this movie and whimpering along with Sam. It was stellar. Cloverfield would have been a perfect marathon movie (short, shallow and easily dismissed); Legend would have killed a party mood totally. Where Legend leaves lots to talk about when it ends (the Fred incident is a good example), Cloverfield goes for a cheap end-of-credits trick. If you have a craving for a scary movie: check out I Am Legend and leave Cloverfield for another time.

Now Playing: District 9

My first exposure to District 9 was walking by a bus shelter that had one of those great posters in it. I remember thinking, "well, isn't that neat... I wonder what it's all about." I even called the phone number - which is the most awesome advertising since the Blair Witch project. Anyway, on to the movie.

What can I say? It was just this side of brilliant. The pseudo-doc feel is really reinforced by the unknown actors, the handcam filming and the wonderful just-enough use of special effects. Seriously, those aliens looked extremely believable. Everything Cloverfield wanted to accomplish in look and feel, but didn't.

Many critics - including the Famous magazine article - talk about how the aliens were deliberately made to be unappealing and gross, that audiences would have a hard time relating to the "prawns"... perhaps I'm a big softie, but from the moment the camera crews entered their mother ship and filmed those pathetic creatures living in squalor, obviously diseased or starving or both, I was rooting for them. And as if I needed to feel more empathy, they not only show the callous treatment of the aliens' spawn but show a little prawn who is completely adorable and not at at all saccharine.

The allusions to holocaust, apartheid and segregation are obvious: Wikus van de Merwe (very ably played by newcomer Sharlto Copley) refers to the districts as "concentration camps" to his alien counterpart, Christopher Johnson. I won't bore you with a plot overview, but I will say that it's the many layers of the film that make it most interesting. I love that they decided it would be shot in South Africa, for its obvious connections to apartheid and its implicit thumbing-of-the-nose at Manhattan-centred Hollywood action movies. I like that the typical movie hero moment (marine walking through the wreckage, having amazingly survived when all his comrades are dead) is reserved for the slightly psychotic and obvious speciesist, Koobus Venter (played like any other movie monster who just won't die by David James).

There are some plot hiccups: why did the aliens choose Earth? why didn't the aliens leave earlier? How do the humans know how to speak to the aliens? Why haven't they ask the aliens how they can expedite the alien's departure? Add to this, the ending is very... abrupt. I mean, I couldn't have been the only one who needed a "three years later" clip. It's perfectly set up for a sequel, but I think a sequel will ruin the integrity of the movie.

I really the film overall. While it isn't perfect, it's the most thought-provoking sci-fi flick we've gotten in a long while. If nothing else, it generates lots of discussion. I think you should go watch it - it's excellent movie fare. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Now Playing: Pacific Rim

Have to admit: I was pretty excited about Pacific Rim.  Not only did it have Guillermo del Toro at the helm (whose work in Pan's Labyrinth and El Orfanato was pretty stellar), but it also involved giants robots and Idris Elba!  It's like the perfect setup for a decent popcorn-muncher.

So, let's cover the good stuff: the special effects were great.  Very believable, excellent physics integration, not cheesy at all.  For both Robot and Kaiju.  Also, love the bringing back of the term "kaiju", which I haven't heard in some time and I think is the perfect shorthand for this sort of monster.  Cloverfield should have referenced it, but didn't (then, that movie wasn't very good).  Also, also: kinda loved the interaction between the two scientists ...and, that's about it.

Frankly, the movie had too many issues.

First, the cast members really looked alike.  I mean, don't they  have brunet(te)s that can kick ass?  They even bottle-blonded the two huge (and obviously dark-haired) Russians.  It was ridiculous.

And then there's the running time: 132 minutes.  That's really long for an action flick.  Fast-paced movies need to keep up a good clip so you don't mired in details (why didn't they detonate nukes on these creatures? why did they think a WALL would stop them? wait, what's that about dinosaurs?)  Somewhere along the line, I got a little, well, bored.

Finally, if they wanted us to care about the characters, they needed to give us more time to identify with them.  The only one that I would have been sad to lose was Miss Mori, but most of that was due to the totally adorable Mana Ashida, with her blue coat and little red shoe.  the rest?  Expendable. 

So, what to rate this?  Well, I wouldn't recommend watching it in theatres (waste of money) and I think watching it at home would actually detract from the movie's best parts: the special effects.  That alone is a 50% fail.  But coupled with its inability to live up to its own hype and for giving away all the best lines in the trailer: 2 out of 5 stars.

Now Playing: The Descendants / Chronicle

I am not doing very well in my pursuit to watch all nine nominations…

We were supposed to see War Horse and The Artist; then I chickened out due to impending snow and we went closer to home instead catching The Descendants and Chronicle.