Massive Movie Dump Post
Happy New Year LJ. Your interface sucks a lot and what's why I haven't been posting.
Anyway, it's that time again where I talk about the movies I've been to see recently. Or, well... less recently at this point. Whatever.
Massive spoilers abound! So tread carefully peeps. Also, this entry will be really long. Gotta lot to cover.
1. Trailers:
Holy cow there were some stupid-looking kids' flicks advertised in front of this movie. Some idiotic thing called Dino Time which... looked like it had barely any plot. Smurfs 2. WHY? Some other live-action movie that I don't remember.
Fortunately though we got trailers for Dreamworks' new animated film Rise of the Guardians and a fascinating-looking caveman family drama/adventure calle The Croods.
Hello Jack Frost, you delicious piece of fangirl bait you.
2. Cinematography.
HSFLAKSFHALSKFHAF!
AHSFLAKHFAFS!
SO FREAKING AMAZING.
THE 8-BIT VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS MOVED LIKE 8-BIT CHARACTERS, WITH JERKY AWKWARD TWITCHES AND SHIT AND IT WAS AMAZING. THE WORLDS WERE SO CREATIVE AND COOL. SUGAR RUSH LOOKED INTENSELY DELICIOUS AND I WANTED TO EAT EVERYTHING LIKE SERIOUSLY.
3. Music:
Decent enough. Nothing really memorable stands out to me, besides the two ending songs. One by Owl City, which was heartwarming and charming, as his work usually is. And also the Sugar Rush theme, sung by J-Pop band AKB48.
Congratulations, that song will now be stuck in your head all day. You're welcome.
4. Characters:
AHFLAKHFLASKFHA.
Okay okay, let's go down the list.
Ralph: Ralph you adorable well-meaning dork you. He had quite a lot of pathos and his character arc was easily the best part of the film. So terribly sweet! So full of such hidden inner goodness! Accepting his role as a punch-clock villain and gaining the acceptance and love he needed... ahslfkahsflafkshas.
Vanellope Von Schweetz: Oh hey look, a cute funny adorable kid character whom I absolutely love with all my heart and LET ME HUG YOU YOU POOR SWEET HEARTBROKEN WOOBIE GLITCH! Like, literally the minute she started to get bullied for being a glitch my heart started breaking and it just continued to get broke by her developing friendship and camaraderie with Ralph and she is perfect forever and I love her.
Sgt. Tamora Calhoun: BADASS BAMF IS BADASS. LITERALLY NO COMPLAINTS ABOUT MISS "MAKE YOUR MAMAS PROUD" COOL LADY OF WAR HERE. ENDLESS HILARITY AND SADNESS FOR HER PROGRAMMED IN TRAGIC BACKSTORY. (Fiance eaten by Cy-bugs on her wedding day, at the altar, because she didn't perform a perimeter check. OUCH.)
ALSO SHE AHD FELIX ARE MY NEW OTP FOREVER. I EXPECT LOADS OF ADORABLE FEM!DOM FANART AND FICS PEOPLE. DON'T DISAPPOINT ME.
Felix: Not much to say. He was just a sweetie. And he and Calhoun were precious, and are adorable cuties to just need to have endless fluffy fic. THE HEIGHT DIFFERENCE. HE "FIXED" HER BROKEN HEART. THEY ARE SO CUTE ASFLAKSHFLA!
King Candy/Turbo: I think I sort of guessed this one but! Very good twist anyway. What a jerkface. Wonderful flamboyant attention-whore villain.
5. The Story:
Oh my gosh this was so precious and cute and I can't even find words to describe my squee.
No really. I cannot even find the words. It was just adorable and heartwarming.
Conclusion:
I went to see the movie on my birthday, and it was a very welcome birthday present indeed.
On to Breaking Dawn then!
1. Midnight Showing Experience:
Well, ten-twenty experience at any rate. We were so hardcore we went for the early showing. Which was scheduled very well in relation to the actual midnight showing due to certain twists. The midnighters were out of line and inside their theaters when we got out so we couldn't spoil them. WELL PLAYED THEATER.
Anyway, it was awesome, as per usual. I love being in an enthusiastic crowd full of people cheering and laughing and squealing at all the appropriate parts. And crying out in horror at the part of the movie that I'll get to describing later.
2. Trailers:
Nothing much to report here. We saw a trailer for Beautiful Creatures think, and The Mortal Instruments. Things of that nature.
3. Breaking Dawn Titlecard:
Beautiful scenery that gets iced over with red filters. Pretty neat if I do say so myself, though it got a tad repetitive.
4. Overall Adaptation:
I can't really remember any issues. A few things changed here and there I think? Someone mentioned the Bella getting Alice's passports for Jacob and Nessie being slightly altered that it made it seem like Bella wasn't doing that out of selfless love for her daughter but thinking her whole family were going to survive? Or something? IDK it's been a while since I read the book so my memory of how things progress is a little fuzzy.
Overall, it's pretty solid. I got no complaints.
5. Minor Things:
Garrett and Kate- My precious babies! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. With what little time they were given the two had a good rapport and established their attraction to each other pretty quickly and oh my gosh they are so pretty together. Go be wild adventurers together you two.
The Other Vampires- I love the clans. All of them. All. Of. Them. They were all so perfect. I wanted more screentime with them though. Because I love them so much that I just need to have more of them. Especially Benjamin. And the Amazons. And everyone.
Carlisle- That scene where Carlisle is talking with Edward, about how he shouldn't feel guilty for bringing the danger of the Volturi down on them all because love is worth it and they have something really worth fighting for, as he gazes across the way to Esme and his other children?
Yeah. Good scene. Carlisle is still the most decent and honestly good guy around.
Jacob and Renesmee- Very understated, which I suppose is the way to do it to cut down on the potential creepiness. Honestly it felt way more like he was her protective older brother. Which actually ties in neatly with all my headcanons about imprinting, namely, that the attachment is purely platonic until the imprintee wants a romantic relationship with the imprinter, and otherwise it's just a malleable Whatever-She-Needs-Me-To-Be relationship, whatever that may entail.
Renesmee, by the way, was completely adorable. She's so pretty and cute and tiny. I want her hair. Like holy cow how am I jealous of a nine-year-old's hair?
The Volturi- They made Alec's power visible. That was creepy. Obviously it's hard to show something like that in a visible format but the shifty sandy fog stuff? That reminded me entirely too much of the Smoke Monster in LOST.
Aro was hysterical sometimes. His little girly laugh at Renesmee's showing him her birth. That actor was seriously hamming it up and having way too much fun with his role.
6. Major Things:
The Battle- Holy shit that battle.
Okay so like... Ally and Rachael and I had heard that there had been a minor change to the ending. We figured it wasn't anything major. And seeing the trailers we knew there'd be a bit of an action scene at the end. I figured it'd be really quick and then Alice would turn up with the half-vampire in tow. But then Alice showed up before the battle. Okay. She did her thing where she showed Aro the truth. Okay. She suddenly turns around and loudly proclaims that his mind is already made up and it doesn't matter what she shows him. Um... okay. That's a little different from what happened in the book. The Volturi hold back Alice and Carlisle gets hissy and charges. Aro leaps into the air and they clash. Then land. Then show that Aro is holding Carlisle's disembodied head.
The theater I was in FREAKED OUT. Ally was like, "WHAT THE HELL?!" and I was like, "THAT'S NOT A SMALL CHANGE! THAT'S NOT SMALL!"
And as things continued and all hell broke loose with people getting into this mesmerizingly epic violent battle the theater continued to freak out because THEN JASPER GOT KILLED. AND THEN SETH. AND THEN LEAH. AND WE WERE ALL LIKE, "NOOOOOOOO WHAT IS THIS?! THIS IS NOT OKAY! NOTHING IS OKAY!" and then we stopped losing our people and we started killing Volturi and the crowd got really really into it cheering and whooping whenever we lost a head.
I was... actually really surprised that this movie scraped by with a PG-13. A DUDE'S FACE GETS RIPPED OPEN FROM THE MOUTH. THAT AIN'T TAME.
Anyway, Jane and Alec and Marcus and Caius all go and then Aro's the only one left and Edward and Bella tag-team him like an awesome Battle Couple and he's down and the fire's coming towards his head and the reflection is in his eyes...
...Aaaaaand then we cut out and it was all one of Alice's visions of the future. OH THANK X'HAL. The theater sighed in abject relief, shuddering collectively.
I felt legitimately trolled. And Ally and Rachael and I did not calm down for at least an hour.
Edward and Bella- Dat vampire sex. UNF. Vampire Bella was ridic pretty and she and Edward got to be amazing Battle Couple. I approve.
Also that montage at the end with "A Thousand Years" as a duet playing in the background STOP MY FEELS I CAN'T TAKE IT.
Conclusion: ...I think Part One is still my favorite. The battle was just a little too traumatizing for me.
But! An excellent end to the series nonetheless.
ROTG!
This was one of the movies I was looking forward to the most. Dreamworks has not been disappointing me at all lately. I already look forward to The Croods.
1. Trailers:
Which was really the only trailer that was interesting to me, natch. Just... look at it.
Yeah. I want this.
2. Cinematography.
PRETTY. PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY SO FRIGGING PRETTY.
The animation was gorgeous. The set design was amazing. The Tooth Fairy's character design holy cow she's so pretty. Basically, everything was really really gorgeous and eye-pleasing and thematically moody.
3. Music:
I... honestly didn't really actually notice it. There was a pretty good cue when the children's lights were going out, except for Jaime's. But other than that I don't think anything stands out to me. Darn.
Didn't really recognize the composer either.
4. Characters:
Let's go through them one by one shall we?
Jack Frost. Mmm dat boy. Such blatant fangirl bait. White-haired and pretty. Angsty. Mischievous. A little damaged. Yep, it's safe to say I fell for the bait hook, line, and sinker. He was the main protagonist and he had a pretty compelling character arc. Full of endless hurt. Ow.
Toothiana is my favorite because she's so enthusiastic and cute and busy and full-speed ahead and sweet and caring. Oh and she has a total crush on Jack Frost and I ship them completely. But her attraction was really quite subtle actually. We didn't even get a kiss or talking about feelings or anything. Just a cute little hug and some dreamy eyes. I actually like it that way. Anyway, she was adorable and precious and pretty and I love her.
North, AKA Russian tattooed Santa Claus, was hilarious. Best version of Santa like ever. (Except maybe Father Christmas in Narnia.)
Bunnymund was also hilarious. I just loved his little line about, "Easter is about new beginnings... it's about hope... and now it's gone." Very thematically appropriate and it just tugged at my heart.
Sandman was cute. We actually didn't see terrible much of him.
Pitch was... creepy. And that's about all I can say of him. Just creepy and personal space invading (especially towards Jack) and ick go away and leave my babies alone.
The kids! There was Jaime of course but I actually want to talk about Cupcake because she was ADORABLE. She looks like a total complete tomboy with her wild hair and pudgy face but she's actually a total girly girl who likes ballet and unicorns and wearing tutus and YES DEFY THOSE EXPECTATIONS GIRL. Lol, it actually looks like they reused her character design for Eep of The Croods. I guess they loved her so much they were like, "WE NEED TO MAKE A MOVIE ALL ABOUT HER." Cupcake deserves her own movie.
5. The Story:
It actually wasn't quite as strong as I was expecting/hoping. Which isn't to say it wasn't good, just that there was a little bit of meandering and a little too many comedic shenanigans and we needed a little tighter focus on character development and world-building. I think the best part was actually the last third, when things got super SRS. Jack regained his memories, Pitch seemed to win, all that good stuff.
Conclusion:
Well, my favorite Dreamworks picture is still Kung Fu Panda 2 but this one is definitely up there. I think solidly right under How To Train Your Dragon. So pretty entertaining and definitely worth several watches.
1. Trailers:
Action flicks for the most part. Nothing terrible interesting to me.
2. Cinematography.
We had a little shakey cam here and there that made it hard to see things occasionally. Other than that I don't think I had any problems. Some of the shots were excellently framed and composited. Everything else was pretty basic.
3.Music:
Actually we had some really good cues in here. I kind of want the soundtrack.
4. Characters:
Lol I don't remember anyone's names. I just referred to them as Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Maddie, Peeta (Josh Hucherson), Love Interest, etc. It wasn't actually a good idea to get attached to people. Especially minority characters. (*SIGH!*) Hispanic Couple both died, though not at the same time. Mayor's Son died. Peeta's Black Best Friend had to wind up staying behind to sacrifice himself 'cause the Russians put a tracker in him.
Hell, THOR died. In a swerve shock death that only my foreboding sense of unease could vaguely anticipate.
Peeta made it through though. Go Peeta.
5. The Story:
Apparently a lot more idealistic and hopeful than the original Red Dawn. I don't mind. I like happy. Anyway, pretty solidly constructed, apart from the issues with knocking off their minority characters (including one of the competent females). I had no complaints and I enjoyed myself, even if I wouldn't rank the movie up there with my favorites.
Conclusion:
I guess it was a pretty decent watch. Not terrible. Not super-amazing. Maybe if it had embraced a little more bombast and cheese like Battleship I would have enjoyed it a little more.
AHSFLAKSFHALSFKH HOOOBIIIIIIIIIT!
TOLKIEN-Y GOODNESS EVERYWHERE.
FEELS.
1. Trailers:
We got two pretty cool-looking sci-fi films in front here. The one I'm most interested in is Pacific Rim.
Oh HELL yes Idris Elba fighting Godzilla monsters in a giant robot mecha. Gimme.
2. Cinematography.
ASLFKAHSFLAKSFHALSFK.
If there's one thing I can count on with Peter Jackson, it's that the movie will look REALLY RIDICULOUSLY PRETTY. With plentiful amounts of scenery porn.
SCENERY POOOOOOOORN. OH NEW ZEALAND HOW I WOULD LOVE TO LIVE THERE.
Costumes gorgeous, of course. We had a different designer than Ngila Dickenson this round, which I was a little sad about at first but the new girl seems to have stepped into Ngila's shoes very well. She and WETA made the dwarves all look very individual, with their own unique looks so you could tell them apart. Galadriel's dress was immaculate, naturally. And I really ridiculously loved Radagast's design, bird poo in the hair and all. He reminded me of the wizard Fenworth from the Dragonkeeper Chronicles. More on that later.
I didn't actually notice any issues with the framerate, except in this one part where we had a pan over shot that blurred really badly unexpectedly. I guess it looked better in the 48fps. (I think our theater showed it in the standard 24fps?) And I could tell the film would look really amazing in 3D. Picture quality was top notch.
So really, I have nothing but gushing and flailing here.
3.Music:
AND HERE.
HOWARD SHORE MY LOOOOOOOOOOOVE.
Every familiar theme was nostalgia incarnate. And then our new themes? EPIC. My favorite of course was the dwarf song Misty Mountains, especially the really epic version that played over their traveling scenes.
JUST TAKE A LISTEN:
IT MAKES ME FEEL AWESOME JUST SITTING HERE AND LISTENING TO IT.
Did I mention the best Christmas present I got this year was the soundtrack? Two disc special edition? I love my family.
4. Characters:
Martin Freeman captured Bilbo... pretty well actually. 'Course it's the type of role he plays all the time so it wasn't really that hard. I liked that there was something very hobbit-y about the way he walked and moved. Though, to be perfectly honest I'd actually attribute that to good directing from Peter. I dunno I can just see PJ demonstrating that sneaking and strolling very vividly in my head. There were good tidbits of hobbit peril in the film, to my pleasure, though I would've liked them more if they'd happened to a more attractive hobbit. Namely Frodo.
SPEAKING OF. Oh my gosh those five minutes with him in the beginning just made the whole movie for me. No seriously. I would watch the whole film again and again just to see that bit where he walks in and is a cute happy smiley adorable innocent. Elijah definitely looked and sounded older than he did in Fellowship though so... that kind of jarred with my brain a little. It was ever-so-slightly-distracting. Nevertheless, the more Frodo there is in the next films, the better they will be.
I loved Radagast. As I said, he reminds me of a Bog Wizard named Fenworth from this other book series. Fenworth was just about as spacey and flighty and constantly had beetles and birds flying out from his hair and clothes and beard and stuff too. I adored Radagast the moment he called the hedgehog's name and tried to nurse the poor thing back to health.
The dwarves! Thorin, Kili, and Fili got the most screentime, followed by Balin and Dwalin. They were all pretty entertaining to watch though. Thorin was cantankerous and grumpy. Kili and Fili were hot. Bombur looked cuddly. Ori was cute.
Gandalf was a lot more fun this round, probably because he got to be way more funtiems and way less Doom and Gloom Exposition guy. Also I got weird tingly feelings whenever he and Galadriel interacted? They weren't exactly I Ship This tingles but I just really enjoyed watching their interaction.
Gollum was perfection as usual. Funny and creepy and tragic.
5. The Story:
Peter Jackson decided to adapt The Hobbit much the same way he did The Lord of the Rings: add, expand, and adjust to create the required dramatic narrative points of a film. This resulted in a lot more material than actually covered by the book. We added the whole Dol Gulder and Necromancer plotline for example, to explain what Gandalf kept popping out to do. We gave glossed-over battles more screentime. We gave Thorin a more personal antagonist that he needed to face down (and somehow we made the Nazgul theme into a badass theme for Thorin!). We added female characters. (Galadriel, looking fabulous as ever.)
And I ate it up. None of the changes really bothered me. I mean, I had some nitpicks and, "Oh, that wasn't in the book." but I was just having so much fun I could ignore all that. I really, honestly don't mind stretching the book out into three film adaptations. Peter Jackson is giving me more Middle-Earth goodness. I will gladly hand over all my money to him.
The film was much lighter in tone than LOTR. The battles were a lot less bloody. There were shenanigans. They were hilarious.
AND I LOVED EVERY BIT.
The whole prologue was my favorite part, because of Frodo of course. The Riddles in the Dark sequence was perfectly well done. The final battle was nail-biting. I couldn't believe how much dramatic tension PJ wrung from a bit in the book that was like... eight pages? The mini-character arcs were engaging and I could have watched Balin and Thorin interact forever. Old bros yo.
So I really have nothing more to say that is not keysmash.
ALSKFHALS.
ALSFJBASLFJAB.
FKASJFBAKFS!
Conclusion:
I WANT MORE. I WANT TO GO SEE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND I WANT THERE TO BE A SPECIAL EXTENDED EDITION LIKE FOR LORD OF THE RINGS AND GIVE ME MOOOOOOOOOORE!
So very satisfied.
Anyway, it's that time again where I talk about the movies I've been to see recently. Or, well... less recently at this point. Whatever.
Massive spoilers abound! So tread carefully peeps. Also, this entry will be really long. Gotta lot to cover.
1. Trailers:
Holy cow there were some stupid-looking kids' flicks advertised in front of this movie. Some idiotic thing called Dino Time which... looked like it had barely any plot. Smurfs 2. WHY? Some other live-action movie that I don't remember.
Fortunately though we got trailers for Dreamworks' new animated film Rise of the Guardians and a fascinating-looking caveman family drama/adventure calle The Croods.
Click to viewHello Jack Frost, you delicious piece of fangirl bait you.
2. Cinematography.
HSFLAKSFHALSKFHAF!
AHSFLAKHFAFS!
SO FREAKING AMAZING.
THE 8-BIT VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS MOVED LIKE 8-BIT CHARACTERS, WITH JERKY AWKWARD TWITCHES AND SHIT AND IT WAS AMAZING. THE WORLDS WERE SO CREATIVE AND COOL. SUGAR RUSH LOOKED INTENSELY DELICIOUS AND I WANTED TO EAT EVERYTHING LIKE SERIOUSLY.
3. Music:
Decent enough. Nothing really memorable stands out to me, besides the two ending songs. One by Owl City, which was heartwarming and charming, as his work usually is. And also the Sugar Rush theme, sung by J-Pop band AKB48.
Congratulations, that song will now be stuck in your head all day. You're welcome.
4. Characters:
AHFLAKHFLASKFHA.
Okay okay, let's go down the list.
Ralph: Ralph you adorable well-meaning dork you. He had quite a lot of pathos and his character arc was easily the best part of the film. So terribly sweet! So full of such hidden inner goodness! Accepting his role as a punch-clock villain and gaining the acceptance and love he needed... ahslfkahsflafkshas.
Vanellope Von Schweetz: Oh hey look, a cute funny adorable kid character whom I absolutely love with all my heart and LET ME HUG YOU YOU POOR SWEET HEARTBROKEN WOOBIE GLITCH! Like, literally the minute she started to get bullied for being a glitch my heart started breaking and it just continued to get broke by her developing friendship and camaraderie with Ralph and she is perfect forever and I love her.
Sgt. Tamora Calhoun: BADASS BAMF IS BADASS. LITERALLY NO COMPLAINTS ABOUT MISS "MAKE YOUR MAMAS PROUD" COOL LADY OF WAR HERE. ENDLESS HILARITY AND SADNESS FOR HER PROGRAMMED IN TRAGIC BACKSTORY. (Fiance eaten by Cy-bugs on her wedding day, at the altar, because she didn't perform a perimeter check. OUCH.)
ALSO SHE AHD FELIX ARE MY NEW OTP FOREVER. I EXPECT LOADS OF ADORABLE FEM!DOM FANART AND FICS PEOPLE. DON'T DISAPPOINT ME.
Felix: Not much to say. He was just a sweetie. And he and Calhoun were precious, and are adorable cuties to just need to have endless fluffy fic. THE HEIGHT DIFFERENCE. HE "FIXED" HER BROKEN HEART. THEY ARE SO CUTE ASFLAKSHFLA!
King Candy/Turbo: I think I sort of guessed this one but! Very good twist anyway. What a jerkface. Wonderful flamboyant attention-whore villain.
5. The Story:
Oh my gosh this was so precious and cute and I can't even find words to describe my squee.
No really. I cannot even find the words. It was just adorable and heartwarming.
Conclusion:
I went to see the movie on my birthday, and it was a very welcome birthday present indeed.
On to Breaking Dawn then!
1. Midnight Showing Experience:
Well, ten-twenty experience at any rate. We were so hardcore we went for the early showing. Which was scheduled very well in relation to the actual midnight showing due to certain twists. The midnighters were out of line and inside their theaters when we got out so we couldn't spoil them. WELL PLAYED THEATER.
Anyway, it was awesome, as per usual. I love being in an enthusiastic crowd full of people cheering and laughing and squealing at all the appropriate parts. And crying out in horror at the part of the movie that I'll get to describing later.
2. Trailers:
Nothing much to report here. We saw a trailer for Beautiful Creatures think, and The Mortal Instruments. Things of that nature.
3. Breaking Dawn Titlecard:
Beautiful scenery that gets iced over with red filters. Pretty neat if I do say so myself, though it got a tad repetitive.
4. Overall Adaptation:
I can't really remember any issues. A few things changed here and there I think? Someone mentioned the Bella getting Alice's passports for Jacob and Nessie being slightly altered that it made it seem like Bella wasn't doing that out of selfless love for her daughter but thinking her whole family were going to survive? Or something? IDK it's been a while since I read the book so my memory of how things progress is a little fuzzy.
Overall, it's pretty solid. I got no complaints.
5. Minor Things:
Garrett and Kate- My precious babies! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. With what little time they were given the two had a good rapport and established their attraction to each other pretty quickly and oh my gosh they are so pretty together. Go be wild adventurers together you two.
The Other Vampires- I love the clans. All of them. All. Of. Them. They were all so perfect. I wanted more screentime with them though. Because I love them so much that I just need to have more of them. Especially Benjamin. And the Amazons. And everyone.
Carlisle- That scene where Carlisle is talking with Edward, about how he shouldn't feel guilty for bringing the danger of the Volturi down on them all because love is worth it and they have something really worth fighting for, as he gazes across the way to Esme and his other children?
Yeah. Good scene. Carlisle is still the most decent and honestly good guy around.
Jacob and Renesmee- Very understated, which I suppose is the way to do it to cut down on the potential creepiness. Honestly it felt way more like he was her protective older brother. Which actually ties in neatly with all my headcanons about imprinting, namely, that the attachment is purely platonic until the imprintee wants a romantic relationship with the imprinter, and otherwise it's just a malleable Whatever-She-Needs-Me-To-Be relationship, whatever that may entail.
Renesmee, by the way, was completely adorable. She's so pretty and cute and tiny. I want her hair. Like holy cow how am I jealous of a nine-year-old's hair?
The Volturi- They made Alec's power visible. That was creepy. Obviously it's hard to show something like that in a visible format but the shifty sandy fog stuff? That reminded me entirely too much of the Smoke Monster in LOST.
Aro was hysterical sometimes. His little girly laugh at Renesmee's showing him her birth. That actor was seriously hamming it up and having way too much fun with his role.
6. Major Things:
The Battle- Holy shit that battle.
Okay so like... Ally and Rachael and I had heard that there had been a minor change to the ending. We figured it wasn't anything major. And seeing the trailers we knew there'd be a bit of an action scene at the end. I figured it'd be really quick and then Alice would turn up with the half-vampire in tow. But then Alice showed up before the battle. Okay. She did her thing where she showed Aro the truth. Okay. She suddenly turns around and loudly proclaims that his mind is already made up and it doesn't matter what she shows him. Um... okay. That's a little different from what happened in the book. The Volturi hold back Alice and Carlisle gets hissy and charges. Aro leaps into the air and they clash. Then land. Then show that Aro is holding Carlisle's disembodied head.
The theater I was in FREAKED OUT. Ally was like, "WHAT THE HELL?!" and I was like, "THAT'S NOT A SMALL CHANGE! THAT'S NOT SMALL!"
And as things continued and all hell broke loose with people getting into this mesmerizingly epic violent battle the theater continued to freak out because THEN JASPER GOT KILLED. AND THEN SETH. AND THEN LEAH. AND WE WERE ALL LIKE, "NOOOOOOOO WHAT IS THIS?! THIS IS NOT OKAY! NOTHING IS OKAY!" and then we stopped losing our people and we started killing Volturi and the crowd got really really into it cheering and whooping whenever we lost a head.
I was... actually really surprised that this movie scraped by with a PG-13. A DUDE'S FACE GETS RIPPED OPEN FROM THE MOUTH. THAT AIN'T TAME.
Anyway, Jane and Alec and Marcus and Caius all go and then Aro's the only one left and Edward and Bella tag-team him like an awesome Battle Couple and he's down and the fire's coming towards his head and the reflection is in his eyes...
...Aaaaaand then we cut out and it was all one of Alice's visions of the future. OH THANK X'HAL. The theater sighed in abject relief, shuddering collectively.
I felt legitimately trolled. And Ally and Rachael and I did not calm down for at least an hour.
Edward and Bella- Dat vampire sex. UNF. Vampire Bella was ridic pretty and she and Edward got to be amazing Battle Couple. I approve.
Also that montage at the end with "A Thousand Years" as a duet playing in the background STOP MY FEELS I CAN'T TAKE IT.
Conclusion: ...I think Part One is still my favorite. The battle was just a little too traumatizing for me.
But! An excellent end to the series nonetheless.
ROTG!
This was one of the movies I was looking forward to the most. Dreamworks has not been disappointing me at all lately. I already look forward to The Croods.
1. Trailers:
Which was really the only trailer that was interesting to me, natch. Just... look at it.
Yeah. I want this.
2. Cinematography.
PRETTY. PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY SO FRIGGING PRETTY.
The animation was gorgeous. The set design was amazing. The Tooth Fairy's character design holy cow she's so pretty. Basically, everything was really really gorgeous and eye-pleasing and thematically moody.
3. Music:
I... honestly didn't really actually notice it. There was a pretty good cue when the children's lights were going out, except for Jaime's. But other than that I don't think anything stands out to me. Darn.
Didn't really recognize the composer either.
4. Characters:
Let's go through them one by one shall we?
Jack Frost. Mmm dat boy. Such blatant fangirl bait. White-haired and pretty. Angsty. Mischievous. A little damaged. Yep, it's safe to say I fell for the bait hook, line, and sinker. He was the main protagonist and he had a pretty compelling character arc. Full of endless hurt. Ow.
Toothiana is my favorite because she's so enthusiastic and cute and busy and full-speed ahead and sweet and caring. Oh and she has a total crush on Jack Frost and I ship them completely. But her attraction was really quite subtle actually. We didn't even get a kiss or talking about feelings or anything. Just a cute little hug and some dreamy eyes. I actually like it that way. Anyway, she was adorable and precious and pretty and I love her.
North, AKA Russian tattooed Santa Claus, was hilarious. Best version of Santa like ever. (Except maybe Father Christmas in Narnia.)
Bunnymund was also hilarious. I just loved his little line about, "Easter is about new beginnings... it's about hope... and now it's gone." Very thematically appropriate and it just tugged at my heart.
Sandman was cute. We actually didn't see terrible much of him.
Pitch was... creepy. And that's about all I can say of him. Just creepy and personal space invading (especially towards Jack) and ick go away and leave my babies alone.
The kids! There was Jaime of course but I actually want to talk about Cupcake because she was ADORABLE. She looks like a total complete tomboy with her wild hair and pudgy face but she's actually a total girly girl who likes ballet and unicorns and wearing tutus and YES DEFY THOSE EXPECTATIONS GIRL. Lol, it actually looks like they reused her character design for Eep of The Croods. I guess they loved her so much they were like, "WE NEED TO MAKE A MOVIE ALL ABOUT HER." Cupcake deserves her own movie.
5. The Story:
It actually wasn't quite as strong as I was expecting/hoping. Which isn't to say it wasn't good, just that there was a little bit of meandering and a little too many comedic shenanigans and we needed a little tighter focus on character development and world-building. I think the best part was actually the last third, when things got super SRS. Jack regained his memories, Pitch seemed to win, all that good stuff.
Conclusion:
Well, my favorite Dreamworks picture is still Kung Fu Panda 2 but this one is definitely up there. I think solidly right under How To Train Your Dragon. So pretty entertaining and definitely worth several watches.
1. Trailers:
Action flicks for the most part. Nothing terrible interesting to me.
2. Cinematography.
We had a little shakey cam here and there that made it hard to see things occasionally. Other than that I don't think I had any problems. Some of the shots were excellently framed and composited. Everything else was pretty basic.
3.Music:
Actually we had some really good cues in here. I kind of want the soundtrack.
4. Characters:
Lol I don't remember anyone's names. I just referred to them as Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Maddie, Peeta (Josh Hucherson), Love Interest, etc. It wasn't actually a good idea to get attached to people. Especially minority characters. (*SIGH!*) Hispanic Couple both died, though not at the same time. Mayor's Son died. Peeta's Black Best Friend had to wind up staying behind to sacrifice himself 'cause the Russians put a tracker in him.
Hell, THOR died. In a swerve shock death that only my foreboding sense of unease could vaguely anticipate.
Peeta made it through though. Go Peeta.
5. The Story:
Apparently a lot more idealistic and hopeful than the original Red Dawn. I don't mind. I like happy. Anyway, pretty solidly constructed, apart from the issues with knocking off their minority characters (including one of the competent females). I had no complaints and I enjoyed myself, even if I wouldn't rank the movie up there with my favorites.
Conclusion:
I guess it was a pretty decent watch. Not terrible. Not super-amazing. Maybe if it had embraced a little more bombast and cheese like Battleship I would have enjoyed it a little more.
AHSFLAKSFHALSFKH HOOOBIIIIIIIIIT!
TOLKIEN-Y GOODNESS EVERYWHERE.
FEELS.
1. Trailers:
We got two pretty cool-looking sci-fi films in front here. The one I'm most interested in is Pacific Rim.
Oh HELL yes Idris Elba fighting Godzilla monsters in a giant robot mecha. Gimme.
2. Cinematography.
ASLFKAHSFLAKSFHALSFK.
If there's one thing I can count on with Peter Jackson, it's that the movie will look REALLY RIDICULOUSLY PRETTY. With plentiful amounts of scenery porn.
SCENERY POOOOOOOORN. OH NEW ZEALAND HOW I WOULD LOVE TO LIVE THERE.
Costumes gorgeous, of course. We had a different designer than Ngila Dickenson this round, which I was a little sad about at first but the new girl seems to have stepped into Ngila's shoes very well. She and WETA made the dwarves all look very individual, with their own unique looks so you could tell them apart. Galadriel's dress was immaculate, naturally. And I really ridiculously loved Radagast's design, bird poo in the hair and all. He reminded me of the wizard Fenworth from the Dragonkeeper Chronicles. More on that later.
I didn't actually notice any issues with the framerate, except in this one part where we had a pan over shot that blurred really badly unexpectedly. I guess it looked better in the 48fps. (I think our theater showed it in the standard 24fps?) And I could tell the film would look really amazing in 3D. Picture quality was top notch.
So really, I have nothing but gushing and flailing here.
3.Music:
AND HERE.
HOWARD SHORE MY LOOOOOOOOOOOVE.
Every familiar theme was nostalgia incarnate. And then our new themes? EPIC. My favorite of course was the dwarf song Misty Mountains, especially the really epic version that played over their traveling scenes.
JUST TAKE A LISTEN:
IT MAKES ME FEEL AWESOME JUST SITTING HERE AND LISTENING TO IT.
Did I mention the best Christmas present I got this year was the soundtrack? Two disc special edition? I love my family.
4. Characters:
Martin Freeman captured Bilbo... pretty well actually. 'Course it's the type of role he plays all the time so it wasn't really that hard. I liked that there was something very hobbit-y about the way he walked and moved. Though, to be perfectly honest I'd actually attribute that to good directing from Peter. I dunno I can just see PJ demonstrating that sneaking and strolling very vividly in my head. There were good tidbits of hobbit peril in the film, to my pleasure, though I would've liked them more if they'd happened to a more attractive hobbit. Namely Frodo.
SPEAKING OF. Oh my gosh those five minutes with him in the beginning just made the whole movie for me. No seriously. I would watch the whole film again and again just to see that bit where he walks in and is a cute happy smiley adorable innocent. Elijah definitely looked and sounded older than he did in Fellowship though so... that kind of jarred with my brain a little. It was ever-so-slightly-distracting. Nevertheless, the more Frodo there is in the next films, the better they will be.
I loved Radagast. As I said, he reminds me of a Bog Wizard named Fenworth from this other book series. Fenworth was just about as spacey and flighty and constantly had beetles and birds flying out from his hair and clothes and beard and stuff too. I adored Radagast the moment he called the hedgehog's name and tried to nurse the poor thing back to health.
The dwarves! Thorin, Kili, and Fili got the most screentime, followed by Balin and Dwalin. They were all pretty entertaining to watch though. Thorin was cantankerous and grumpy. Kili and Fili were hot. Bombur looked cuddly. Ori was cute.
Gandalf was a lot more fun this round, probably because he got to be way more funtiems and way less Doom and Gloom Exposition guy. Also I got weird tingly feelings whenever he and Galadriel interacted? They weren't exactly I Ship This tingles but I just really enjoyed watching their interaction.
Gollum was perfection as usual. Funny and creepy and tragic.
5. The Story:
Peter Jackson decided to adapt The Hobbit much the same way he did The Lord of the Rings: add, expand, and adjust to create the required dramatic narrative points of a film. This resulted in a lot more material than actually covered by the book. We added the whole Dol Gulder and Necromancer plotline for example, to explain what Gandalf kept popping out to do. We gave glossed-over battles more screentime. We gave Thorin a more personal antagonist that he needed to face down (and somehow we made the Nazgul theme into a badass theme for Thorin!). We added female characters. (Galadriel, looking fabulous as ever.)
And I ate it up. None of the changes really bothered me. I mean, I had some nitpicks and, "Oh, that wasn't in the book." but I was just having so much fun I could ignore all that. I really, honestly don't mind stretching the book out into three film adaptations. Peter Jackson is giving me more Middle-Earth goodness. I will gladly hand over all my money to him.
The film was much lighter in tone than LOTR. The battles were a lot less bloody. There were shenanigans. They were hilarious.
AND I LOVED EVERY BIT.
The whole prologue was my favorite part, because of Frodo of course. The Riddles in the Dark sequence was perfectly well done. The final battle was nail-biting. I couldn't believe how much dramatic tension PJ wrung from a bit in the book that was like... eight pages? The mini-character arcs were engaging and I could have watched Balin and Thorin interact forever. Old bros yo.
So I really have nothing more to say that is not keysmash.
ALSKFHALS.
ALSFJBASLFJAB.
FKASJFBAKFS!
Conclusion:
I WANT MORE. I WANT TO GO SEE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND I WANT THERE TO BE A SPECIAL EXTENDED EDITION LIKE FOR LORD OF THE RINGS AND GIVE ME MOOOOOOOOOORE!
So very satisfied.