Quaggy's Year of Movies Part 1
So I've been seeing a surprising number of films since I moved over here, both as a social activity with the others in my program and on my own as a break from writing and general PhD stuff. I've already put this off long enough that I have to break these into two parts! So let's start with the movie I saw in January and work our way forward...
The Artist
What can I say about this film? (Yes, there's a slight pun in there, considering it's about a silent film star.) The only thing that really sort of threw me out of it was that the lead actress too thin for a popular 1920s era flapper. But I totally get why she was cast. She was totally wonderful and you have to have a lot of charisma if you're going to be playing opposite Jean Dujardin, who definitely deserved that Oscar! So even that gets a pass in my book. The cast (including the dog!) was fabulous, but the real star was sound itself. There are three times when the introduction of sound actually made me jump. It shows you how powerful sound really is and why the talkies did take over.
Ponya
Finally sat down to watch this after having the DVD for 2 years. You think I would be first in line for a new Studio Ghibli film, but the mixed reviews cooled my enthusiasm. Honestly, I see where they are coming from. A dear friend called Ponya "Little Mermaid with five year olds" which is really the main problem with this movie. Not because the target audience is five... But because a five year old boy is asked to love someone forever, with complete wedding overtones. I think there's an age cut-off for being able to make true love declarations. I think 10-year-old Chihiro from Spirited Away *points to icon* is just about as young as you can reasonably get... And even then it helped that she wasn't the one making the True Love declarations. It was the adults who identified her actions as such. Though, I suppose to a parent it might feel like their 25 year old has shed two decades when they talk about walk down the aisle *cue the classic clip from Steve Martin's Father of the Bride* but it's just wrong when you see it happening in a non-metaphorical sense. Seriously, even if they made them both 8, I could have probably tolerated it. Been weird, but I could have tolerated it. That said, it wasn't a bad film. But not one I plan on watching again unless/until I have a five year old of my own!
MirrorMask
It probably took me even longer to see this film than it did to see Ponya, but I had a totally different reaction when I was through. Namely that I am an idiot for not watching this film sooner!! So apparently Jim Henson Studios realized that Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, so twenty years later they decided to create another fantasy film. Normally this would be a recipe for disaster... except they did everything right. They got Neil freakin' Gaiman to write the script and his long-time collaborator Dave McKean directed. The plot was tight and the actors were wonderful. They even hit the prefect amount of shippy-ness, which the other two movies cannot claim, in my opinion. It was a little strange to see a Jim Henson Studio production that CGI instead of puppetry, but I got over it. In many ways the computer animation is completely dated... but a lot of it feels deliberate.They even said on the commentary track that they were trying to make it look like you had stepped into one of Dave McKean (or rather the main character Helena's) drawings. So that works actually very well. It's definitely become one of my favorite movies.
Now there's one movie I have yet to give an opinion on, but I didn't see it this year. I actually saw it last summer, so normally I'd say that I've past the statute of limitation to post about it. But since I've talked about each and every movie in the series since I've created this LJ, I think I need to say something. I'm, of course, taking about....
Harry Potter
So the series has finally come to an end. My brother was in 8th grade when we started seeing the films together. He's now getting a master's in architecture. He's now older than I was when movie 1 was released! By a couple of years!! It truly is the end of an era. It's hard to even look at the film as independent from all of that, because there's no way it can be. Heck, it's a Part 2 film, so it's not even like it carries it's own story arch!! But let's give it a go, okay?
If you know me, I bet you can guess what I didn't like. The last scene was useless. Unless you liked the Epilogue to begin with and then I'm sure it was fantastic, but for the rest of us, it was just a pointless exercise. That was actually the major complaint that my brother, who you might remember has stopped reading the books early on, had when he left the theater. (Reason 60500937 why I love my brother.) It's because the scene on the bridge feels like the true and proper end to the films. All in all, I'm taking my Avatar: Last Airbender solution and applying it to this by pretending that the Epilogue is really just Harry imagining what the future might be like. What actually happens is up to us. 'Cause you all know who I think he should have ended up with. :-P
But seriously, went into this knowing this was Ron/Hermione's film and that I was going to have to be happy with the Harry/Hermione moments in movies past. But then there was Hermione's "I'll go with you", perfect and heartbreaking all at the same time. But, even with that unexpected bonus, my favorite movie ship was actually overshadowed by another absolutely-unexpected-totally-wonderful-even-if-it's-ONLY-in-the-movies ship. Even though JK Rowling later said that Neville and Luna marry other people, I love that the movie series said "Okay, enough. It's not in the books, but it's not NOT int the books. This one is ours!" And it was fabulous! I can't say I was a Neville/Luna shipper in the books. (Or even in the movies, because while the actress who played Ginny didn't have any chemistry with Dan Rupert, I always thought she did with the actor who played Neville.) But a couple years ago, unoriginal_liz asked me for a Neville/Luna drabble and the pairing suddenly grew on me. So, by the time the movie happened, I was a big bundle of goo when I actually got to see them happen! So thank you, Liz!! It was such a wonderful scene too, with both of them sitting on the stairs together. It's impossible for me to now picture Neville or Luna with other people.
As for the non-shippy stuff, I have to say, I really think the did an excellent job all the way around. The action sequences were both fun and exciting, with Neville being a large reason to why. Actually, Neville was pretty grand in most of this movie, full stop. And Maggie Smith as McGonagall was stellar as always. Frankly, it's hard imagining the fact that there won't be able more moments with McGonagall, Hagrid, Dumbledore and all the rest. It's hard to believe this train has finally come to an end.
So, goodbye, Harry (and Hermione and Ron and everyone else)! I'm going to miss you!
So that's it. Or rather (ignoring Harry Potter) those were only the movies I saw the first two months of the year. Stay tuned for Part 2 when I bring things up to date. :-)