REVIEW: My Bloody Valentine 3D
I really have no appropriate icon for MBV3D, I'm using this one because they look a bit like nosy theatre ushers...
Review/Critique of My Bloody Valentine 3D; AKA "What they could have done better."
Again, spoilers. And loads of blithering.
Jensen Ackles
...because lets be honest, he's why I went and saw this.
I'm rather oddly thrilled that even when he's wearing full mining cover-alls a helmet and a gas mask, I can still recognize Jensen Ackles. I did in the commercials. One, the way he moves, two, combat style etc, reminded me of Skin, and three, holy crap you could land aircraft on those shoulders! And I'm not usually one to notice things like that. Spending his summer vacation chasing people around with a pickaxe may have had something to do with those shoulders.
He did fantastic things with the material, and the breakdown and takeover by Harry at the end was just exquisite. Gah, I cannot gush enough without repeating myself.
Jensen needs to do more conflicted evil characters. We need another shapeshifter or something on the show. Not so much a flashback to hell, because eeeeeek. Outside of the show, I really would love to see him do... well anything, really, but something with some meat, something with tight writing and good direction and framing/shot choices and the chance to do a layered, conflicted character somewhere where an audience other than us 3 million odd Supernatural watchers will see him. More people saw him in this, but it's not exactly great material, even though he did work in some excellent touches and rocked the hell out of what material there was, in my opinion.
This makes the second time I've gone on a road trip to watch a movie that I would never ordinarily watch in a theatre because Jensen Ackles is in it I went and saw "Ten Inch Hero" and I do not watch romantic comedies in the theatre or even rent them unless there are zombies involved.
What can I say except I really do think he's a fantastic actor, and as long as I can scrape together the time and money to do so, I will probably continue to do silly things like drive out of town at the last minute on a weeknight to catch the last show in the theatre and get home at 2AM and go to bed for work the next morning. Because it's Jensen, and it was something that needed to be seen in a theatre.
For Jared... I doubt I'll see Friday the 13th in the theatre for Jared, but if I do, I will need to practice my silent "rofl"ing. Because apparently slasher movies give me giggle fits. Or maybe it was just the 3D.
If, by some bizarre stretch of the imagination this goes into sequels? As long as Jensen's in them, I'm there. Personally, a sequel where he's recovered and living anonymously somewhere, and through taking himself away from the world and right clear of mines, has expunged/made dormant the Harry Warden entity/personality, but still comes off as a homicidal loony, so that everyone is dead set against him while all along the new murders are being done by another nutbag/Harry has hopped hosts, whatever. Or there's a revelation that it was a possession (or deep-dwelling mine spirit thingy or something) and not a dissociative psychotic thing.
3D FX
3D FX were very cool, I'm very glad the 3D glasses were designed so they could be worn over regular glasses. I loved the haloing and flare effects around light sources. However, I tried, I really tried not to laugh too loudly, but seriously. How can you NOT laugh at an eyeball being extruded out of the screen? Come on! And the pointy and pointing things that kept randomly showing up to point at the audience. All of which was cool, but a little too... posed?
Like for instance the tree branch through the truck cab. It went through the window, and then through the second window which kind of freaking rocked, (even though I was in cartoon mode and laughed) but then there was a longish time after were it kind of stayed there, like it was waiting for a round of applause or an excuse to curtsey or something before the movie continued on.
The 'trick' 3D elements were a little too self-aware like that, and I found it kind of disruptive to what flow the script had. If they had been a little more integrated with the movie, sort of 'yes something's being very cool in 3D right now, but it's there only to enhance the story so let's move on now' casual I'd have liked it a lot better.
I also realize that the whole real-D 3D thing is really new, and so will tend to be used in gimmicky ways for a while, but it would be cool to see it being integrated into the film-making process more fully, rather than having this tacked-on 'look what cool things we can do' feel. Used as an additional film-making technique, like set design, lighting, day-for-night filters, visual framing and chiaroscuro. Et cetera.
Script and Direction
I didn't find this movie scary. The jumps were easy to anticipate, and I'm not scared by gore. Actually, the gore was so over-the-top, I kept busting into snickers, actually. If there had been less dependence on 3d and splatter, more inter-character and situational tension this movie could have been a really great thriller. However, that's not what they were setting out to make in this case; they were setting out to make a slasher movie, which they did.
Criticizing this movie for not being a top-notch psychological thriller would be like going out to get a cheeseburger, with the intention and full expectation of receiving a cheeseburger, and then complaining that it wasn't filet mignon. But it still could have been tighter.
The movie could have stood a good solid rewrite to bring together the story elements and add tension in the 'did he or didn't he' department. There were a few things they could have done to ramp up suspicion on the sheriff, add weight to the possibility of it being one of the old miners, etc. I don't know whether I'm glad they didn't emphasise or use in any way the likelyhood that Sarah's kid was actually Tom's, since the age was about right and the casting director has quite obviously seen the baby photos of Jensen Ackles that are floating around.
There wasn't a lot of tension from the town towards Tom. If there had been more underlying tension beforehand, and more of a slow simmer and rejection, that would have been more tense. The bar fight was cool, but allowing it to flare to an actual fight right then bled off the accrued tension to that point. However, this is a slasher flick, and I'm not that familiar with the conventions of the genre. Maybe it's less of a tension build thing, and more of a "random jumps, gore and violence strung together with a few plot molecules" thing. This was better than that at least though, there was a plot, it just wasn't as crafted as it could have been.
There were also more than a few 'holy crap, you characters are idiots' moments, particularly the not hitting the panic button first thing in the store office, but when in a panic, people get stupid. So that's fine, as is the 'victim trips and falls and gets splatted' thing, which I'm certain is a genre convention, and refreshing to see the boys doing it as often as the girls. The women were also, generally speaking, not helpless screaming ninnies flailing around waiting for a man to save them and doing nothing to save themselves. There were a few doomed-to-die characters, and most of them went out fighting and taking an active role in their own attempts to be rescued.
Some of the extraneous potential side plots could have been trimmed down, or utilized more as either misdirection or building tension. The "Child-Of-Tom" potential was never hinted at, which, as I said, is probably a good thing, but it was there and distracting. There was little to solidly hint at it being anyone but Tom in the end. There was a vague implication that the killer might be one of the old miners or the old mining foreman, or something, but there was no supporting material for that implication as far as I could tell. Some of this side-plot/misdirection stuff could have been communicated or communicated better with the way a scene is shot, or an exchange of looks. Some of the shot choices seemed rushed, like they could have taken the time to set up the shot in a way that would enhance the effectiveness of the scene, but didn't. This may have been due to the necessity of the 3D equipment and it taking up more space and being less flexible in terms of shots than regular cameras, so that may not have been something that could be helped.
One thing watching this movie made me realize is how lucky we are (mostly) with scripts and direction on Supernatural. While it's not perfect, there is some good tight writing and snappy dialog in our show, and very few egregious dialog clunkers like the ones that popped up in this movie here and there. "I'm going to get him."/"Not if he gets you first."/"Or you."/*odd pause*. Which, really, could have worked if directed better.
Also, the built-in natural fear effect of the setting seemed under-utilized. Maybe we were just sitting in the wrong spot, but I am by nature a bit claustrophobic. All the stuff in the mines should have had me crawling up the walls regardless of anyone being murdered or chased with pickaxes. It didn't, not even a bit, and it would have been so much more intense if it had.
For example, the scene near the end where Tom-Harry is walking along the hallway, busting the light bulbs. That was awesome, but would have been so much more awesome if I'd gotten a really claustrophobic feeling from the mine. Darkness is slowly closing in, the killer is coming, the walls are creeping in with every bulb burst because when the darkness comes, it's like that part of the mine is just a solid wall, closed off, trapped... See what I mean?
There's an old film called "Das Boot". It's about a submarine that gets stuck underwater and the claustrophobia and tension in that is off the charts. Some of the techniques used to establish that have been around since the dawn of film-making and could have been used to increase the tension-building effect of the setting.
Summary/In closing/Holy crap is she ever going to shut up???
All that said, on the whole, I... I think I kind of love this movie. It's utter cheese, it could have been so much better with a solid re-write, and I giggled at damn near every jump or gore scene. But I kind of love it like the runty, half-bald, mismatch-eyed puppy, possibly diseased puppy that, taken on the first glance, could be considered rather fugly, but it tries so hard and falls all over its own feet trying to be impressive (and sometimes succeeding) and as a result ends up being adorable despite itself. But that's coming from me, a person who voluntarily watched Devour more than once, so large grain of salt there, perhaps. ;-)
Review/Critique of My Bloody Valentine 3D; AKA "What they could have done better."
Again, spoilers. And loads of blithering.
Jensen Ackles
...because lets be honest, he's why I went and saw this.
I'm rather oddly thrilled that even when he's wearing full mining cover-alls a helmet and a gas mask, I can still recognize Jensen Ackles. I did in the commercials. One, the way he moves, two, combat style etc, reminded me of Skin, and three, holy crap you could land aircraft on those shoulders! And I'm not usually one to notice things like that. Spending his summer vacation chasing people around with a pickaxe may have had something to do with those shoulders.
He did fantastic things with the material, and the breakdown and takeover by Harry at the end was just exquisite. Gah, I cannot gush enough without repeating myself.
Jensen needs to do more conflicted evil characters. We need another shapeshifter or something on the show. Not so much a flashback to hell, because eeeeeek. Outside of the show, I really would love to see him do... well anything, really, but something with some meat, something with tight writing and good direction and framing/shot choices and the chance to do a layered, conflicted character somewhere where an audience other than us 3 million odd Supernatural watchers will see him. More people saw him in this, but it's not exactly great material, even though he did work in some excellent touches and rocked the hell out of what material there was, in my opinion.
This makes the second time I've gone on a road trip to watch a movie that I would never ordinarily watch in a theatre because Jensen Ackles is in it I went and saw "Ten Inch Hero" and I do not watch romantic comedies in the theatre or even rent them unless there are zombies involved.
What can I say except I really do think he's a fantastic actor, and as long as I can scrape together the time and money to do so, I will probably continue to do silly things like drive out of town at the last minute on a weeknight to catch the last show in the theatre and get home at 2AM and go to bed for work the next morning. Because it's Jensen, and it was something that needed to be seen in a theatre.
For Jared... I doubt I'll see Friday the 13th in the theatre for Jared, but if I do, I will need to practice my silent "rofl"ing. Because apparently slasher movies give me giggle fits. Or maybe it was just the 3D.
If, by some bizarre stretch of the imagination this goes into sequels? As long as Jensen's in them, I'm there. Personally, a sequel where he's recovered and living anonymously somewhere, and through taking himself away from the world and right clear of mines, has expunged/made dormant the Harry Warden entity/personality, but still comes off as a homicidal loony, so that everyone is dead set against him while all along the new murders are being done by another nutbag/Harry has hopped hosts, whatever. Or there's a revelation that it was a possession (or deep-dwelling mine spirit thingy or something) and not a dissociative psychotic thing.
3D FX
3D FX were very cool, I'm very glad the 3D glasses were designed so they could be worn over regular glasses. I loved the haloing and flare effects around light sources. However, I tried, I really tried not to laugh too loudly, but seriously. How can you NOT laugh at an eyeball being extruded out of the screen? Come on! And the pointy and pointing things that kept randomly showing up to point at the audience. All of which was cool, but a little too... posed?
Like for instance the tree branch through the truck cab. It went through the window, and then through the second window which kind of freaking rocked, (even though I was in cartoon mode and laughed) but then there was a longish time after were it kind of stayed there, like it was waiting for a round of applause or an excuse to curtsey or something before the movie continued on.
The 'trick' 3D elements were a little too self-aware like that, and I found it kind of disruptive to what flow the script had. If they had been a little more integrated with the movie, sort of 'yes something's being very cool in 3D right now, but it's there only to enhance the story so let's move on now' casual I'd have liked it a lot better.
I also realize that the whole real-D 3D thing is really new, and so will tend to be used in gimmicky ways for a while, but it would be cool to see it being integrated into the film-making process more fully, rather than having this tacked-on 'look what cool things we can do' feel. Used as an additional film-making technique, like set design, lighting, day-for-night filters, visual framing and chiaroscuro. Et cetera.
Script and Direction
I didn't find this movie scary. The jumps were easy to anticipate, and I'm not scared by gore. Actually, the gore was so over-the-top, I kept busting into snickers, actually. If there had been less dependence on 3d and splatter, more inter-character and situational tension this movie could have been a really great thriller. However, that's not what they were setting out to make in this case; they were setting out to make a slasher movie, which they did.
Criticizing this movie for not being a top-notch psychological thriller would be like going out to get a cheeseburger, with the intention and full expectation of receiving a cheeseburger, and then complaining that it wasn't filet mignon. But it still could have been tighter.
The movie could have stood a good solid rewrite to bring together the story elements and add tension in the 'did he or didn't he' department. There were a few things they could have done to ramp up suspicion on the sheriff, add weight to the possibility of it being one of the old miners, etc. I don't know whether I'm glad they didn't emphasise or use in any way the likelyhood that Sarah's kid was actually Tom's, since the age was about right and the casting director has quite obviously seen the baby photos of Jensen Ackles that are floating around.
There wasn't a lot of tension from the town towards Tom. If there had been more underlying tension beforehand, and more of a slow simmer and rejection, that would have been more tense. The bar fight was cool, but allowing it to flare to an actual fight right then bled off the accrued tension to that point. However, this is a slasher flick, and I'm not that familiar with the conventions of the genre. Maybe it's less of a tension build thing, and more of a "random jumps, gore and violence strung together with a few plot molecules" thing. This was better than that at least though, there was a plot, it just wasn't as crafted as it could have been.
There were also more than a few 'holy crap, you characters are idiots' moments, particularly the not hitting the panic button first thing in the store office, but when in a panic, people get stupid. So that's fine, as is the 'victim trips and falls and gets splatted' thing, which I'm certain is a genre convention, and refreshing to see the boys doing it as often as the girls. The women were also, generally speaking, not helpless screaming ninnies flailing around waiting for a man to save them and doing nothing to save themselves. There were a few doomed-to-die characters, and most of them went out fighting and taking an active role in their own attempts to be rescued.
Some of the extraneous potential side plots could have been trimmed down, or utilized more as either misdirection or building tension. The "Child-Of-Tom" potential was never hinted at, which, as I said, is probably a good thing, but it was there and distracting. There was little to solidly hint at it being anyone but Tom in the end. There was a vague implication that the killer might be one of the old miners or the old mining foreman, or something, but there was no supporting material for that implication as far as I could tell. Some of this side-plot/misdirection stuff could have been communicated or communicated better with the way a scene is shot, or an exchange of looks. Some of the shot choices seemed rushed, like they could have taken the time to set up the shot in a way that would enhance the effectiveness of the scene, but didn't. This may have been due to the necessity of the 3D equipment and it taking up more space and being less flexible in terms of shots than regular cameras, so that may not have been something that could be helped.
One thing watching this movie made me realize is how lucky we are (mostly) with scripts and direction on Supernatural. While it's not perfect, there is some good tight writing and snappy dialog in our show, and very few egregious dialog clunkers like the ones that popped up in this movie here and there. "I'm going to get him."/"Not if he gets you first."/"Or you."/*odd pause*. Which, really, could have worked if directed better.
Also, the built-in natural fear effect of the setting seemed under-utilized. Maybe we were just sitting in the wrong spot, but I am by nature a bit claustrophobic. All the stuff in the mines should have had me crawling up the walls regardless of anyone being murdered or chased with pickaxes. It didn't, not even a bit, and it would have been so much more intense if it had.
For example, the scene near the end where Tom-Harry is walking along the hallway, busting the light bulbs. That was awesome, but would have been so much more awesome if I'd gotten a really claustrophobic feeling from the mine. Darkness is slowly closing in, the killer is coming, the walls are creeping in with every bulb burst because when the darkness comes, it's like that part of the mine is just a solid wall, closed off, trapped... See what I mean?
There's an old film called "Das Boot". It's about a submarine that gets stuck underwater and the claustrophobia and tension in that is off the charts. Some of the techniques used to establish that have been around since the dawn of film-making and could have been used to increase the tension-building effect of the setting.
Summary/In closing/Holy crap is she ever going to shut up???
All that said, on the whole, I... I think I kind of love this movie. It's utter cheese, it could have been so much better with a solid re-write, and I giggled at damn near every jump or gore scene. But I kind of love it like the runty, half-bald, mismatch-eyed puppy, possibly diseased puppy that, taken on the first glance, could be considered rather fugly, but it tries so hard and falls all over its own feet trying to be impressive (and sometimes succeeding) and as a result ends up being adorable despite itself. But that's coming from me, a person who voluntarily watched Devour more than once, so large grain of salt there, perhaps. ;-)