I totally saw this movie.
And then didn't write a post about it.
I suppose I should though since everyone was going off the deep end about it. They were practically frothing at the mouth from excitement.
Spoilers under the cut.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Saturday, September 8, 2012
The Bourne Legacy
Hello again.
So.
This movie came and went.
What can I say about this movie?
Spoilers under the cut.
So.
This movie came and went.
What can I say about this movie?
Spoilers under the cut.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
The Amazing Spiderman? I Suppose
Don't get me wrong. I did actually really like the movie. But I didn't love it as much as I thought I would.
Spoilers after the jump.
Spoilers after the jump.
The Dark Knight Rises Indeed
I am going to make an incendiary statement. The Dark Knight Rises was a better movie than The Dark Knight. #unpopularopinion
Spoilers and reasons after the jump..
Spoilers and reasons after the jump..
Monday, March 12, 2012
The Secret World of Arrietty Review
I wish they had kept it secret...
I kinda don't even know where to start with this one.
I went with my grandma one day when we had nothing to do. I wanted to see the new Hiayo Miyazaki movie but I was disappointed.
I absolutely loved Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle and it wasn't all Studio Ghibli's fault for why I was let down.
The Breakdown:
The Good:
+Scenery and Setting: Beautiful as always. The animation was flawless. I loved the attention to detail in the settings, especially because they were Borrowers, it was interesting to see how items would be used differently by people who were way smaller than us. The dollhouse was amazing. And the little added touches like when they poured liquid it was only a few drops because to them a drop was like the whole bowl.
+Will Arnett as the Father: He was very subdued and it's kind of weird for me because I've always seen Will Arnett play crazy characters.
+Amy Poehler as the Mother: She toned down the whine in her voice and I hardly even knew it was her. Her voice really embodied the character to the point where I forgot that this was Amy Poehler voicing this mother character.
+Carol Burnett as Hara: I love Carol Burnett as the villain. It reminds me of when I saw her in Annie and her voice seamed so perfectly with the character design.
That was about it....
The Bad:
-The story was weak: It's about Borrowers and how this young Borrower girl befriends this sickly boy. It's supposed to be all uplifting because he's not afraid to die after he befriends her but I thought it was weak compared to his other stories. Totoro is about a girl who's mother is ill, Kiki's Delivery Service about a girl who has to go off on her own and loses faith in herself then regains it, Howl's Moving Castle's about a girl who needs to become old to find out who she truly is and each one of these stories had a dark element to it, something that frightened children or made them think. This one was fairly mild in any subject matter that would be considered "heavy" and the villain was really no villain at all. She was just a doddering old lady who just wanted to prove the existence of the Borrowers. The dialogue was also very weak, unimaginative and fairly cheesy. No one in their right mind would speak like that today. Frankly, it was just very embarrassing to watch the characters speak in such unrealistic ways.
-The voice actors for Arietty and Shawn: The great thing about Howl's Moving Castle was the dub was spot-on. The English words they had chosen fit the mouth movements, and the actors they hired were all top rate. Billy Crystal, Emily Mortimer, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, even the kid--Josh Hutcherson was a top notch actor and they all had talent coming out of the wazoo. But it seems to me that nowadways Disney puts too much stock into their "Disney Channel" actors so for this project they "auditioned" but really just picked Bridget Mendler and David Henrie. The former from the show "Good Luck, Charlie" and the other from that...ugh God-awful "Wizards of Waverly Place". I have to say Bridget Mendler was alright, her character isn't very over the top in any way, just friendly and cheerful. But David Henrie, the character is supposed to be young first of all and second of all he's supposed to be sickly. By having this full grown actor play this boy with no modicum of talent for sounding sickly and young...it just broke down the movie. It wasn't believable for one second.
-The pacing was extremely slow: to the point where it was very awkward. The music was minimal and for very long stretches of scenes all there would be is the character in a beautiful setting with no music and minimal sound (just "nature" sounds). Now some people might say I have a short attention span but these are little kids trying to watch this movie here, they have even less of an attention span than I do, and you could tell that the kids and the parents were getting antsy at these long scenes that were milking the art for all it was worth. I love art as much as the next person but not when I paid to see a movie, with you know, MOVING pictures? I caught myself yawning more than once and feeling that uncomfortable prickle on the back of my neck as everyone was just feeling very awkward at the stillness and silence on screen. You could just feel it in the audience.
All in all, I don't know if I would recommend this movie for anyone. If you're gonna watch it, I would probably recommend the NON-dubbed version and brace yourself for one of the most boring movies you've ever watched.
I kinda don't even know where to start with this one.
I went with my grandma one day when we had nothing to do. I wanted to see the new Hiayo Miyazaki movie but I was disappointed.
I absolutely loved Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle and it wasn't all Studio Ghibli's fault for why I was let down.
The Breakdown:
The Good:
+Scenery and Setting: Beautiful as always. The animation was flawless. I loved the attention to detail in the settings, especially because they were Borrowers, it was interesting to see how items would be used differently by people who were way smaller than us. The dollhouse was amazing. And the little added touches like when they poured liquid it was only a few drops because to them a drop was like the whole bowl.
+Will Arnett as the Father: He was very subdued and it's kind of weird for me because I've always seen Will Arnett play crazy characters.
+Amy Poehler as the Mother: She toned down the whine in her voice and I hardly even knew it was her. Her voice really embodied the character to the point where I forgot that this was Amy Poehler voicing this mother character.
+Carol Burnett as Hara: I love Carol Burnett as the villain. It reminds me of when I saw her in Annie and her voice seamed so perfectly with the character design.
That was about it....
The Bad:
-The story was weak: It's about Borrowers and how this young Borrower girl befriends this sickly boy. It's supposed to be all uplifting because he's not afraid to die after he befriends her but I thought it was weak compared to his other stories. Totoro is about a girl who's mother is ill, Kiki's Delivery Service about a girl who has to go off on her own and loses faith in herself then regains it, Howl's Moving Castle's about a girl who needs to become old to find out who she truly is and each one of these stories had a dark element to it, something that frightened children or made them think. This one was fairly mild in any subject matter that would be considered "heavy" and the villain was really no villain at all. She was just a doddering old lady who just wanted to prove the existence of the Borrowers. The dialogue was also very weak, unimaginative and fairly cheesy. No one in their right mind would speak like that today. Frankly, it was just very embarrassing to watch the characters speak in such unrealistic ways.
-The voice actors for Arietty and Shawn: The great thing about Howl's Moving Castle was the dub was spot-on. The English words they had chosen fit the mouth movements, and the actors they hired were all top rate. Billy Crystal, Emily Mortimer, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, even the kid--Josh Hutcherson was a top notch actor and they all had talent coming out of the wazoo. But it seems to me that nowadways Disney puts too much stock into their "Disney Channel" actors so for this project they "auditioned" but really just picked Bridget Mendler and David Henrie. The former from the show "Good Luck, Charlie" and the other from that...ugh God-awful "Wizards of Waverly Place". I have to say Bridget Mendler was alright, her character isn't very over the top in any way, just friendly and cheerful. But David Henrie, the character is supposed to be young first of all and second of all he's supposed to be sickly. By having this full grown actor play this boy with no modicum of talent for sounding sickly and young...it just broke down the movie. It wasn't believable for one second.
-The pacing was extremely slow: to the point where it was very awkward. The music was minimal and for very long stretches of scenes all there would be is the character in a beautiful setting with no music and minimal sound (just "nature" sounds). Now some people might say I have a short attention span but these are little kids trying to watch this movie here, they have even less of an attention span than I do, and you could tell that the kids and the parents were getting antsy at these long scenes that were milking the art for all it was worth. I love art as much as the next person but not when I paid to see a movie, with you know, MOVING pictures? I caught myself yawning more than once and feeling that uncomfortable prickle on the back of my neck as everyone was just feeling very awkward at the stillness and silence on screen. You could just feel it in the audience.
All in all, I don't know if I would recommend this movie for anyone. If you're gonna watch it, I would probably recommend the NON-dubbed version and brace yourself for one of the most boring movies you've ever watched.
Monday, March 5, 2012
The Geekdom: Oscars '12 Edition
So I'm back!
After a couple of weeks...doing nothing and being sick...and not being able to watch anything remotely new/interesting, I've finally watched something new! Although to call it 'interesting' could be contested...but this review is not about the new movie I watched but about the Oscars I watched this past Sunday.
Alright, so this year...I didn't watch too many of the nominated films...even though a lot of them were more "kid-friendly" than past years. Let's see. I watched War Horse, The Help, and Moneyball which is a pretty good track record with me. I want to watch The Artist, Midnight in Paris...and kinda Hugo but not really.
Anyway. Everyone was up in arms about how Hugo was winning everything and I kinda agree. I mean I was watching the clips and it didn't seem like Hugo was THAT special. Especially for things that I get very geeky about which is sound and visual effects and editing and all that technical stuff. Like Cinematography it won...but it seemed like it had more visual effects rather than stunning vistas or interesting camera pans. I mean I may have not liked War Horse but it had some great looking scenes. I think it deserved the Art Direction Oscar...because it was a very stylized film as opposed to the other nominees which were very historically based...and I never liked Harry Potter's art direction after the first two films, I felt like it moved away from the warmth of Chris Columbus's vision to Alfonso Cuaron's vision and permanently got stuck there is lurid colors and odd contrasts and weird sort of 50's carnival-esque type...I don't even know. And then Hugo wiped up the rest of the Oscars for Sound and Visual Effects. I seriously think that the "Academy" are a bunch of snobs because seriously...Sound and Visual Effects? ...Really? Against Transformers? Granted Transformers isn't the greatest story and probably won't be remembered for years and years to come but one thing I was impressed by was the Sound and Visual Effects. That is the ONE thing or the FEW, should I say, things they do EXTREMELY well. For someone like me, who absolutely loves blockbusters and then loves to go into the blockbusters and break them down technically, the Sound absolutely makes that film. It really brings a life to larger than life robot characters who would otherwise be seen as childish and silly. And visual effects then enhances it even more and I have to say, the visual effects in Transformers are pretty flawless. That's something I specifically look out for, and Hugo's visual effects, from what I've seen in clips are pretty lacking in realism. That's just my little rant about Academy snobbishness. I mean if a movie does something REALLY great, even if the rest of it is crap, shouldn't it be commended?
And there there was that whole hullaballoo about The Iron Lady winning over Harry Potter for Best Makeup. And I have to say that even though Harry Potter had MORE makeup needs, The Iron Lady did their ONE charge to perfection. I mean it really is a debate of quantity over quality. Looking at clips from The Iron Lady, they really did such a subtle job with everything, especially when Margaret Thatcher is older. I've seen some bad makeup when it comes to aging characters (coughHarryPottercough) and you can tell when it is really bad, it looks like a silicone mask with wrinkles on it but when it came to The Iron Lady it looked so real. Obviously the Harry Potter team didn't do that great of a job with subtlety...and I mean Griphook wasn't THAT great a makeup job.
Again...anyway. One little victory that I absolutely adored was the winners of the Animated Short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. I got to watch it online and actually shed a few tears. I loved it, the subject matter, the art, the music, everything was amazing. It deserved the Oscar.
SO...
The Good:
+Billy Crystal as Host: It's his NINTH time hosting! I loved the little movie montage at the beginning because it was short, funny and straight to the point. And it's Crystal! So of course I had to love it. And then when he sang the little musical numbers about the feature films and it was a callback to every other time he hosted....ah you could smell the nostalgia in the air. I loved it. And his jokes were great. Especially kinda gently but not so gently ribbing all the celebrities in the room about how they all have SO MUCH MONEY. Including him I suppose. He kept it short and sweet and helped move the show along at a pretty quick pace.
+Chris Rock: HAHA. I love Chris Rock. His introduction for the Best Animated Feature was great. They should bring him back next year to host again.
+Emma Stone: She is so cute! When she presented, it was one of the most remembered moment of the night. When she was trying to get Jonah Hill to dance with her...amazing.
+Colin Firth: I love how he presented the Best Actress nominees, especially Meryl Streep. I love how he is not apologetic at all for Mamma Mia. Because to be honest...I kinda loved that movie.
+Meryl Streep: She won! I felt really bad for Viola Davis because she was amazing in The Help but Meryl's acceptance speech was just so sweet and was nominated soooo many times. I'm glad she won for The Iron Lady which I should watch...
+Best Adapted Screenplay speech: Jim Rash, Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon's pose when they accepted the award! Their mocking of Angelina Jolie's leg baringness just made my night.
+Best Editing speech: I loved how they tried to say thank you and then fumbled over their words, and their last parting sentence was, "We don't do this! We're editors!"
+Octavia Spencer: I was so happy she won! She was great in The Help and her acceptance speech almost made me tear up too!
The Eh:
-Justin Bieber: Enough said.
-No Potter love at all: Really? After 8 movies? No love for Potter at all? I mean granted, they aren't the BEST films but it's a whole decade of movies, you would think they would say something.
-Gary Oldman snub? I think he deserves an Oscar for SOMETHING and if not Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy then I don't know what else.
-NO Cumberbatch: Seriously? I know tumblr was literally COMBING the crowd, every shot, to catch a glimpse of him but none of the cameras caught him on the red carpet or in the theater. Maybe next year he'll be more important? Important enough to get a reaction shot or something?
-Poor Viola Davis: Her performance in The Help was so...I don't even know how to describe it, soul-stirring? Emotional? Flawless? I think I'll go with flawless. Her portrayal of Abilene was so subtle but open enough to allow the audience into her mind, her thoughts, her feelings. I can't even say enough good things about her. She deserved the Oscar for this movie but it was a very difficult year.
-No costar introduction of the Best Actor/Best Actress awards: Last year they had the costars or friends of the nominees come up and talk about them and it was really fun to hear little anecdotes about the actors and actresses but this year they didn't have that. I wish they had added that in. They are constantly changing the Oscars Ceremony and the sets were amazing but it was kind of boring this year. I think other years had better transitions and introduction of the nominees.
-Less Muppets...Want more Muppets: They should have put the Muppets in for more of the show! Not just Kermit and Miss Piggy for like two minutes of commentary and then nothing. They should allow the Muppets to host the Oscars one year. Seriously.
I'm waiting for next year. The Hobbit is going to sweep the technical awards, or they better.
After a couple of weeks...doing nothing and being sick...and not being able to watch anything remotely new/interesting, I've finally watched something new! Although to call it 'interesting' could be contested...but this review is not about the new movie I watched but about the Oscars I watched this past Sunday.
Alright, so this year...I didn't watch too many of the nominated films...even though a lot of them were more "kid-friendly" than past years. Let's see. I watched War Horse, The Help, and Moneyball which is a pretty good track record with me. I want to watch The Artist, Midnight in Paris...and kinda Hugo but not really.
Anyway. Everyone was up in arms about how Hugo was winning everything and I kinda agree. I mean I was watching the clips and it didn't seem like Hugo was THAT special. Especially for things that I get very geeky about which is sound and visual effects and editing and all that technical stuff. Like Cinematography it won...but it seemed like it had more visual effects rather than stunning vistas or interesting camera pans. I mean I may have not liked War Horse but it had some great looking scenes. I think it deserved the Art Direction Oscar...because it was a very stylized film as opposed to the other nominees which were very historically based...and I never liked Harry Potter's art direction after the first two films, I felt like it moved away from the warmth of Chris Columbus's vision to Alfonso Cuaron's vision and permanently got stuck there is lurid colors and odd contrasts and weird sort of 50's carnival-esque type...I don't even know. And then Hugo wiped up the rest of the Oscars for Sound and Visual Effects. I seriously think that the "Academy" are a bunch of snobs because seriously...Sound and Visual Effects? ...Really? Against Transformers? Granted Transformers isn't the greatest story and probably won't be remembered for years and years to come but one thing I was impressed by was the Sound and Visual Effects. That is the ONE thing or the FEW, should I say, things they do EXTREMELY well. For someone like me, who absolutely loves blockbusters and then loves to go into the blockbusters and break them down technically, the Sound absolutely makes that film. It really brings a life to larger than life robot characters who would otherwise be seen as childish and silly. And visual effects then enhances it even more and I have to say, the visual effects in Transformers are pretty flawless. That's something I specifically look out for, and Hugo's visual effects, from what I've seen in clips are pretty lacking in realism. That's just my little rant about Academy snobbishness. I mean if a movie does something REALLY great, even if the rest of it is crap, shouldn't it be commended?
And there there was that whole hullaballoo about The Iron Lady winning over Harry Potter for Best Makeup. And I have to say that even though Harry Potter had MORE makeup needs, The Iron Lady did their ONE charge to perfection. I mean it really is a debate of quantity over quality. Looking at clips from The Iron Lady, they really did such a subtle job with everything, especially when Margaret Thatcher is older. I've seen some bad makeup when it comes to aging characters (coughHarryPottercough) and you can tell when it is really bad, it looks like a silicone mask with wrinkles on it but when it came to The Iron Lady it looked so real. Obviously the Harry Potter team didn't do that great of a job with subtlety...and I mean Griphook wasn't THAT great a makeup job.
Again...anyway. One little victory that I absolutely adored was the winners of the Animated Short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. I got to watch it online and actually shed a few tears. I loved it, the subject matter, the art, the music, everything was amazing. It deserved the Oscar.
SO...
The Good:
+Billy Crystal as Host: It's his NINTH time hosting! I loved the little movie montage at the beginning because it was short, funny and straight to the point. And it's Crystal! So of course I had to love it. And then when he sang the little musical numbers about the feature films and it was a callback to every other time he hosted....ah you could smell the nostalgia in the air. I loved it. And his jokes were great. Especially kinda gently but not so gently ribbing all the celebrities in the room about how they all have SO MUCH MONEY. Including him I suppose. He kept it short and sweet and helped move the show along at a pretty quick pace.
+Chris Rock: HAHA. I love Chris Rock. His introduction for the Best Animated Feature was great. They should bring him back next year to host again.
+Emma Stone: She is so cute! When she presented, it was one of the most remembered moment of the night. When she was trying to get Jonah Hill to dance with her...amazing.
+Colin Firth: I love how he presented the Best Actress nominees, especially Meryl Streep. I love how he is not apologetic at all for Mamma Mia. Because to be honest...I kinda loved that movie.
+Meryl Streep: She won! I felt really bad for Viola Davis because she was amazing in The Help but Meryl's acceptance speech was just so sweet and was nominated soooo many times. I'm glad she won for The Iron Lady which I should watch...
+Best Adapted Screenplay speech: Jim Rash, Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon's pose when they accepted the award! Their mocking of Angelina Jolie's leg baringness just made my night.
+Best Editing speech: I loved how they tried to say thank you and then fumbled over their words, and their last parting sentence was, "We don't do this! We're editors!"
+Octavia Spencer: I was so happy she won! She was great in The Help and her acceptance speech almost made me tear up too!
The Eh:
-Justin Bieber: Enough said.
-No Potter love at all: Really? After 8 movies? No love for Potter at all? I mean granted, they aren't the BEST films but it's a whole decade of movies, you would think they would say something.
-Gary Oldman snub? I think he deserves an Oscar for SOMETHING and if not Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy then I don't know what else.
-NO Cumberbatch: Seriously? I know tumblr was literally COMBING the crowd, every shot, to catch a glimpse of him but none of the cameras caught him on the red carpet or in the theater. Maybe next year he'll be more important? Important enough to get a reaction shot or something?
-Poor Viola Davis: Her performance in The Help was so...I don't even know how to describe it, soul-stirring? Emotional? Flawless? I think I'll go with flawless. Her portrayal of Abilene was so subtle but open enough to allow the audience into her mind, her thoughts, her feelings. I can't even say enough good things about her. She deserved the Oscar for this movie but it was a very difficult year.
-No costar introduction of the Best Actor/Best Actress awards: Last year they had the costars or friends of the nominees come up and talk about them and it was really fun to hear little anecdotes about the actors and actresses but this year they didn't have that. I wish they had added that in. They are constantly changing the Oscars Ceremony and the sets were amazing but it was kind of boring this year. I think other years had better transitions and introduction of the nominees.
-Less Muppets...Want more Muppets: They should have put the Muppets in for more of the show! Not just Kermit and Miss Piggy for like two minutes of commentary and then nothing. They should allow the Muppets to host the Oscars one year. Seriously.
I'm waiting for next year. The Hobbit is going to sweep the technical awards, or they better.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Haywire
I know I said I was going to post another movie review of another superhero movie but I saw Haywire recently and so I guess this one is going to take precedence.
Haywire--I consider it a Jason Bourne type story with a female instead of a male and with a weaker storyline. It was alright.
The Breakdown (Spoilers)
Haywire--I consider it a Jason Bourne type story with a female instead of a male and with a weaker storyline. It was alright.
The Breakdown (Spoilers)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Captain America: Movie and DVD Review
I went to Best Buy recently with my dad because he wanted to buy a wireless router and while there bought four DVDs so expect four "older" movies getting reviews as I go through them.
I saw Captain America last night with my dad and grandpa although my dad fell asleep halfway through...so I'm not sure if he counts as well as not being sure what that says about the movie.
But I liked Captain America. It is a solid addition to the Superhero collection and is not, by far, the worst superhero movie made. I think that honor goes to Spiderman 3 or Superman Returns...actually no, Catwoman was the worst.
Anyway.
Spoilers after the jump. Although if you haven't seen the movie by now...then I'm assuming you just don't want to see it and don't care if I spoil it. But for the sake of how long this review is probably going to be, jump cut it is.
I saw Captain America last night with my dad and grandpa although my dad fell asleep halfway through...so I'm not sure if he counts as well as not being sure what that says about the movie.
But I liked Captain America. It is a solid addition to the Superhero collection and is not, by far, the worst superhero movie made. I think that honor goes to Spiderman 3 or Superman Returns...actually no, Catwoman was the worst.
Anyway.
Spoilers after the jump. Although if you haven't seen the movie by now...then I'm assuming you just don't want to see it and don't care if I spoil it. But for the sake of how long this review is probably going to be, jump cut it is.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of One-Liners
So. I watched Sherlock Holmes 2 last night with my parents...at 10:20...and didn't get out til 12:30 and then I had to go to work today so...tired feelings all around! But I'm glad I got to see it. I had been wanting to see it for the longest time and had no one to go with for the longest time.
Spoilers ahoy! After the jump.
Spoilers ahoy! After the jump.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Benedict Cumberbatch and Star Trek 2
So in this post from Collider.com and other places. It's been revealed that Benedict Cumberbatch is going to be the new villain in J.J. Abrams Star Trek 2.
Um
Can I be extremely excited about this??
First of all I'm excited that a new Star Trek is being made...and that J.J. Abrams is going to direct this one.
But BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IS GOING TO BE IN IT. (he has a very funny last name...)
He's also going to be in The Hobbit as the voice of Smaug.
I'm really excited because he's in a series on BBC called Sherlock and he's extremely amazing in that show.
So yay! Another reason added to why I'm going to go see Star Trek.
Um
Can I be extremely excited about this??
First of all I'm excited that a new Star Trek is being made...and that J.J. Abrams is going to direct this one.
But BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IS GOING TO BE IN IT. (he has a very funny last name...)
He's also going to be in The Hobbit as the voice of Smaug.
I'm really excited because he's in a series on BBC called Sherlock and he's extremely amazing in that show.
So yay! Another reason added to why I'm going to go see Star Trek.
Most Anticipated Blockbuster Movies for 2012
So in this post from Collider.com, they list the 15 most anticipated movies for 2012 and I would like to go through them and write my own opinion on whether they deserve to be on this list or not.
After the jump.
After the jump.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
War Horse...oh God.
So I saw War Horse over the New Year's weekend...and can I just say...most depressing movie ever...?
That doesn't seem to make much sense, I know and it's supposed to be this heartwarming tale about a horse and his boy but seriously...it was the most depressing movie I've seen in a while. I think it's because I don't usually watch "drama" type movies, preferring to stay with action/adventure/superhero/comedy (any fluff whatsoever). I'm not a big fan of the drama genre because I don't like watching stories about other people's messed up lives. We know life is messed up...why must I spend 10+ dollars and 2 hours of my time to just see it confirmed in cinematic form? If I see a movie, I want to escape reality...that's the point. Not see it thrown back in my face...
The trailer was really misleading...seriously.
Anyway, spoiler alert.
So it started out and it was all nice and peachy, and I was like "hey this is pretty good." It was all very coming of age and bonding between this horse and the boy and a lot of uplifting triumphs and all that and then...
The boy's family's farm's radish crop failed...and it was all downhill from there.
World War I broke out.
Then, the horse was sold to this captain played by Tom Hiddleston (I was very excited about him being in the movie. I think he's a great actor.) And then ten minutes later he DIES. So I was sort of heartbroken by the first 30 minutes of the movie. He was such a nice character and he was very kind to the boy and to the horse.
And then the horse gets captured and put in the care of these two really young German soldiers who are brothers, one of which is only 14 years old. The younger brother gets called to the front line while the older is ordered to stay behind and care for the horses. The older brother made a promise to their mother to take care of the younger sibling so he steals two horses, one of which is THE horse, and they desert the army in France, hiding out in a windmill. They get found and SHOT for deserting...so they die.
Then the horses get found by this French girl who's not very healthy and living with her grandpa. She's an orphan and when she finds the horses she keeps them because she wants to learn how to ride. The German army comes through and takes everything of value/foodstuffs from the grandpa's farm. So he lets her take her mother's saddle and ride up the hill...but on the other side there's the German army again who take the horses.
Now the horses are used to pull huge artillery to wherever they need to be. They're extremely heavy and look like modernized cannons which they are. They need a team of 8 horses to pull it up the mountain and the horses don't last very long at this job because it's very difficult to constantly haul these things, so a lot just fall down dead from overwork. The black horse gets injured and DIES...again...with the dying.
And the other horse, THE horse, runs away from the German army into no man's land and gets caught up in the wire.
You find out that the boy had joined the army by this time and is fighting in the general area. He goes with a friend from his village and the friend gets engulfed by gas and DIES.
And there's a heart warming scene about the British and German army putting aside their differences to free THE horse and the horse gets taken back to the camp and the boy proves that it's his horse by describing it even though he's blind at the time from the gas.
But he has to buy the horse back because it's getting put up for auction. But the french grandfather pays the highest bid because his granddaughter DIED during the war...
And that's the last death in the movie. But seriously.
I mean by that time, I didn't even care that the horse and the boy were together again and they were going to live happily ever after because seriously EVERYONE DIED. Except the horse. And the boy.
I know it's based in World War I and WWI was an especially difficult war, what with the trenchfoot and shellshock and high death tolls and all that. It is a war after all, but seriously...does everyone have to die? If I didn't know any better, I would say the horse is cursed.
And the ending scene where the horse and boy are riding home is shot very oddly. The color is oversaturated with reds and oranges because it's the sunset and you really only see the silhouettes of the people. It almost looks like that one scene in Gone with the Wind where Scarlet O'Hara is telling the sky, "I'll never go hungry again". It jarred me out of the movie because none of the other parts were filmed that way. Was it supposed to be like a nostalgic thing? Like a throwback to Gone with the Wind? Or was he trying to say something about how the audience doesn't get to see this homecoming because it's too personal so he's shutting us out? Or what...?
So I do not really recommend the movie unless you want to be depressed when you get out of the theater.
The whole rest of the night, I just kept announcing, "I'm so depressed!" like Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...because I was!
No bueno.
That doesn't seem to make much sense, I know and it's supposed to be this heartwarming tale about a horse and his boy but seriously...it was the most depressing movie I've seen in a while. I think it's because I don't usually watch "drama" type movies, preferring to stay with action/adventure/superhero/comedy (any fluff whatsoever). I'm not a big fan of the drama genre because I don't like watching stories about other people's messed up lives. We know life is messed up...why must I spend 10+ dollars and 2 hours of my time to just see it confirmed in cinematic form? If I see a movie, I want to escape reality...that's the point. Not see it thrown back in my face...
The trailer was really misleading...seriously.
Anyway, spoiler alert.
So it started out and it was all nice and peachy, and I was like "hey this is pretty good." It was all very coming of age and bonding between this horse and the boy and a lot of uplifting triumphs and all that and then...
The boy's family's farm's radish crop failed...and it was all downhill from there.
World War I broke out.
Then, the horse was sold to this captain played by Tom Hiddleston (I was very excited about him being in the movie. I think he's a great actor.) And then ten minutes later he DIES. So I was sort of heartbroken by the first 30 minutes of the movie. He was such a nice character and he was very kind to the boy and to the horse.
And then the horse gets captured and put in the care of these two really young German soldiers who are brothers, one of which is only 14 years old. The younger brother gets called to the front line while the older is ordered to stay behind and care for the horses. The older brother made a promise to their mother to take care of the younger sibling so he steals two horses, one of which is THE horse, and they desert the army in France, hiding out in a windmill. They get found and SHOT for deserting...so they die.
Then the horses get found by this French girl who's not very healthy and living with her grandpa. She's an orphan and when she finds the horses she keeps them because she wants to learn how to ride. The German army comes through and takes everything of value/foodstuffs from the grandpa's farm. So he lets her take her mother's saddle and ride up the hill...but on the other side there's the German army again who take the horses.
Now the horses are used to pull huge artillery to wherever they need to be. They're extremely heavy and look like modernized cannons which they are. They need a team of 8 horses to pull it up the mountain and the horses don't last very long at this job because it's very difficult to constantly haul these things, so a lot just fall down dead from overwork. The black horse gets injured and DIES...again...with the dying.
And the other horse, THE horse, runs away from the German army into no man's land and gets caught up in the wire.
You find out that the boy had joined the army by this time and is fighting in the general area. He goes with a friend from his village and the friend gets engulfed by gas and DIES.
And there's a heart warming scene about the British and German army putting aside their differences to free THE horse and the horse gets taken back to the camp and the boy proves that it's his horse by describing it even though he's blind at the time from the gas.
But he has to buy the horse back because it's getting put up for auction. But the french grandfather pays the highest bid because his granddaughter DIED during the war...
And that's the last death in the movie. But seriously.
I mean by that time, I didn't even care that the horse and the boy were together again and they were going to live happily ever after because seriously EVERYONE DIED. Except the horse. And the boy.
I know it's based in World War I and WWI was an especially difficult war, what with the trenchfoot and shellshock and high death tolls and all that. It is a war after all, but seriously...does everyone have to die? If I didn't know any better, I would say the horse is cursed.
And the ending scene where the horse and boy are riding home is shot very oddly. The color is oversaturated with reds and oranges because it's the sunset and you really only see the silhouettes of the people. It almost looks like that one scene in Gone with the Wind where Scarlet O'Hara is telling the sky, "I'll never go hungry again". It jarred me out of the movie because none of the other parts were filmed that way. Was it supposed to be like a nostalgic thing? Like a throwback to Gone with the Wind? Or was he trying to say something about how the audience doesn't get to see this homecoming because it's too personal so he's shutting us out? Or what...?
So I do not really recommend the movie unless you want to be depressed when you get out of the theater.
The whole rest of the night, I just kept announcing, "I'm so depressed!" like Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...because I was!
No bueno.
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