Movie Review Sunday--Two-Fer Post!
Alright, in lieu of Book Review Saturday, we are instead going to have Movie Review Sunday. Don't worry, I have a day off this week, so expect a review of the literary variety mid-week or so.
Shlepping on!
First on our plate is The Young Victoria.
It's no secret that I am an absolute sucker for period movies. It could have the most atrocious plot in the history of history but I would still sit through complete garbage just so long as it has pretty corsets and stays and complicated hair (See also: Marie Antoinette). However, I was very, very pleasantly surprised here: We have a somewhat true divulging of Queen Victoria in her formative years. Her quiet strength, her resilience, her capacity for love and compassion are all accounted for, as well as her stubbornness and pride. It all comes together in a really remarkable way to form a story that is still somewhat relevant.
Helping matters along is the absolutely delightful Emily Blunt; her face is a study in classical beauty, proving that a girl in stays and a bun can still be pretty and intriguing. Paul Bettany turns out a ripping good performance too, as is the norm for him. In all honesty though, Rupert Friend is what seals the deal for me--he's quiet but strong, charming, brave, and lawdy-lawd, he has an accent that makes me Europe-sick.
The downside to all of this is that for absolutely no discernible reason, I promptly burst into tears when it was roughly 7/8 of the way through. I'd like to be able to blame it on some horrible, tragic event, but the fact is that it ends on an upbeat note, really. Maybe it was just the idea that these people from two different places can face the odds and come out on the other side, while still maintaining this absolutely beautiful love and genuine affection for each other. It's...it's just great. Also, there's a line on the end about Victoria having Albert's clothes laid out everyday for the rest of her life following his death, and fuck you guys, I am gonna cry again if I think about it.
Maybe my hormones are whacked out? Let's go with that so I don't feel stupid.
Alrighty, now on to the meat and potatoes, what I've been promising for a solid week: Alice in Wonderland!
Now.
I know that it's probably trite and terribly cliched that I love Tim Burton and that I really like the story of Alice, but as I've said so many times before: Stamp my Gothcard. That being said, I went into this thing with relatively high expectations because if anyone, anyone, was made to bring this story to whacky life, it's Tim Fucking Burton, amirite? So maybe it isn't fair to the film to have had such extraordinarily high standards.
I apologize, Alice. I really do.
Firstly, the good: Mia Wasikowska is a very lovely Alice, looks almost like a Pre Raphaelite painting come to life, which is really a treat given that most heroines are touting overt sex appeal. Actually, the whole movie is cast wonderfully, not excluding in any way the oft-repeated combo of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. There was a lot of emphasis put on Mr. Depp during the promotion of this movie, and it's true that his psychotic Day-Glo-looking Mad Hatter that I would still fuck was, indeed, charismatic, but I think that Helena deserved a little more credit than she got. Anyone that can work behind that freaking huge head has got to be kinda awesome.
As for Anne Hathaway... Look, I just really like that girl, okay? She sings, she acts, she sits around and looks pretty. Her character, the White Queen, was completely overblown and ridiculous, and she also flailed her hands around like an outrageously gay man and I loved all of it. Here's another thing: Seeing her all whited out with a white wig made me so, so wistful for a live-action version of the Last Unicorn. Srsly, go look at the poster of her as the White Queen, and then go think about her as Amalthea. YEAH.
Also, the Mad Hatter recites the Jabberwhocky. It is worth the ticket price just for that.
As always with Burton movies, it was a joy to look at, and Danny Elfman went a tiny bit outside of his normal realm and delivered an extraordinary score. The costumes were just gorgeous; I enjoy the colors and textures and patterns so much it's ridiculous.
Now, the bad: Wtf was that random battle sequence? Part of me, the literature-geek part, hated it, because for God's sake, this is Alice in Wonderland, not the motherfucking Chronicles of Narnia, okay? The other part, the rabid-nonsensical-fangirl-part, just ate it up. The music, the checkerboard setting, the MAD FUCKING HATTER WITH A FUCKING HUGE SWORD, LOOKIT THAT SHIT.
However, Alice as a heroine? I don't know how I feel about that. The bit about her having been to Wonderland (Underland? Really Tim? Really?) before instead of it being a dream, as she was insisting, being this huge reveal was really annoying. It also wasn't really explained why it had to be Alice that slayed the Jabberwhocky--was it her curiosity, her resilience? Was it just because she was skinny enough to fit down the rabbit hole?
A very sexy Belgian perceptive acquaintance of mine also pointed out that the characters were all missing the depth that Burton is famous for. I think he made an attempt, and that was why the Hatter suddenly has a backstory. To be fair, it's hard to create a deep story out of something that started as a literary nonsense narrative.
All in all, it was really a decent piece of work, not Burton's best, but still not something that made me regret the money spent on a ticket by any means. I'll be eagerly anticipating buying this when it becomes available, and eagerly waiting for all the nifty shwag Hot Topic (DO NOT FUCKING JUDGE ME) to go on sale, but it's definitely not his swansong.
Shlepping on!
First on our plate is The Young Victoria.
It's no secret that I am an absolute sucker for period movies. It could have the most atrocious plot in the history of history but I would still sit through complete garbage just so long as it has pretty corsets and stays and complicated hair (See also: Marie Antoinette). However, I was very, very pleasantly surprised here: We have a somewhat true divulging of Queen Victoria in her formative years. Her quiet strength, her resilience, her capacity for love and compassion are all accounted for, as well as her stubbornness and pride. It all comes together in a really remarkable way to form a story that is still somewhat relevant.
Helping matters along is the absolutely delightful Emily Blunt; her face is a study in classical beauty, proving that a girl in stays and a bun can still be pretty and intriguing. Paul Bettany turns out a ripping good performance too, as is the norm for him. In all honesty though, Rupert Friend is what seals the deal for me--he's quiet but strong, charming, brave, and lawdy-lawd, he has an accent that makes me Europe-sick.
The downside to all of this is that for absolutely no discernible reason, I promptly burst into tears when it was roughly 7/8 of the way through. I'd like to be able to blame it on some horrible, tragic event, but the fact is that it ends on an upbeat note, really. Maybe it was just the idea that these people from two different places can face the odds and come out on the other side, while still maintaining this absolutely beautiful love and genuine affection for each other. It's...it's just great. Also, there's a line on the end about Victoria having Albert's clothes laid out everyday for the rest of her life following his death, and fuck you guys, I am gonna cry again if I think about it.
Maybe my hormones are whacked out? Let's go with that so I don't feel stupid.
Alrighty, now on to the meat and potatoes, what I've been promising for a solid week: Alice in Wonderland!
Now.
I know that it's probably trite and terribly cliched that I love Tim Burton and that I really like the story of Alice, but as I've said so many times before: Stamp my Gothcard. That being said, I went into this thing with relatively high expectations because if anyone, anyone, was made to bring this story to whacky life, it's Tim Fucking Burton, amirite? So maybe it isn't fair to the film to have had such extraordinarily high standards.
I apologize, Alice. I really do.
Firstly, the good: Mia Wasikowska is a very lovely Alice, looks almost like a Pre Raphaelite painting come to life, which is really a treat given that most heroines are touting overt sex appeal. Actually, the whole movie is cast wonderfully, not excluding in any way the oft-repeated combo of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. There was a lot of emphasis put on Mr. Depp during the promotion of this movie, and it's true that his psychotic Day-Glo-looking Mad Hatter that I would still fuck was, indeed, charismatic, but I think that Helena deserved a little more credit than she got. Anyone that can work behind that freaking huge head has got to be kinda awesome.
As for Anne Hathaway... Look, I just really like that girl, okay? She sings, she acts, she sits around and looks pretty. Her character, the White Queen, was completely overblown and ridiculous, and she also flailed her hands around like an outrageously gay man and I loved all of it. Here's another thing: Seeing her all whited out with a white wig made me so, so wistful for a live-action version of the Last Unicorn. Srsly, go look at the poster of her as the White Queen, and then go think about her as Amalthea. YEAH.
Also, the Mad Hatter recites the Jabberwhocky. It is worth the ticket price just for that.
As always with Burton movies, it was a joy to look at, and Danny Elfman went a tiny bit outside of his normal realm and delivered an extraordinary score. The costumes were just gorgeous; I enjoy the colors and textures and patterns so much it's ridiculous.
Now, the bad: Wtf was that random battle sequence? Part of me, the literature-geek part, hated it, because for God's sake, this is Alice in Wonderland, not the motherfucking Chronicles of Narnia, okay? The other part, the rabid-nonsensical-fangirl-part, just ate it up. The music, the checkerboard setting, the MAD FUCKING HATTER WITH A FUCKING HUGE SWORD, LOOKIT THAT SHIT.
However, Alice as a heroine? I don't know how I feel about that. The bit about her having been to Wonderland (Underland? Really Tim? Really?) before instead of it being a dream, as she was insisting, being this huge reveal was really annoying. It also wasn't really explained why it had to be Alice that slayed the Jabberwhocky--was it her curiosity, her resilience? Was it just because she was skinny enough to fit down the rabbit hole?
A very sexy Belgian perceptive acquaintance of mine also pointed out that the characters were all missing the depth that Burton is famous for. I think he made an attempt, and that was why the Hatter suddenly has a backstory. To be fair, it's hard to create a deep story out of something that started as a literary nonsense narrative.
All in all, it was really a decent piece of work, not Burton's best, but still not something that made me regret the money spent on a ticket by any means. I'll be eagerly anticipating buying this when it becomes available, and eagerly waiting for all the nifty shwag Hot Topic (DO NOT FUCKING JUDGE ME) to go on sale, but it's definitely not his swansong.