Robin Hood, a faux review

I liked the cinematography -- this film was a visual feast, a joy to look at. The framing and movement of the camera in both quiet, emotional scenes and action scenes, nearly moved me to tears with its beauty. Virtually every frame of this film would be quite at home hanging in an art gallery, the visuals had an astoundingly beautiful, 'painterly' feel to them. Scott mentioned being influenced by Akira Kurosawa on the commentary track of the 'Gladiator' DVD, and as I feasted on the sumptuous visuals in this film, I thought, "…Kurosawa...", even though I've never seen any of his films before.

The dialogue was quite interesting, although some of it was lost on me, as my brain struggled to enter 'film-mode' and acclimatize to the various accents, at the beginning of the film. I watched Scott's two previous films, 'American Gangster' and 'Body of Lies', which were also scored by Marc Streitenfeld but, I don't recall hearing any score in the former and nothing jumped at me in the latter, but Streitenfeld knocked one out of the ball park here. I didn't understand why Scott kept hiring him, but I'm a convert now. In the action sequences the score was so beautifully rousing, I felt as though I was going to leap out of my chair and yell "Yes!" And in the dialogue scenes, for example, the scene where Marion (Cate Blanchett) takes Robin (Russell Crowe) on a tour of Walter Loxley's land on horseback, the score had a beautifully subtle, flowery and somewhat evasive melody, such that I thought I was going to levitate. The theme used in that scene, which quite annoyingly, isn't on the official release of the score, is a gem. Perhaps it's not an original composition, but whatever the reason, it's a gem.

The delectable Cate Blanchett had, to quote a remark by Ridley Scott, a "regal sexuality". I thought her character mirrored, on some level, that of Connie Nielsen in 'Gladiator'. The relationship between Walter (Max Von Sydow) and Robin (Russell Crowe), mirrored that of Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) and Maximus (Crowe) in 'Gladiator'. Seeing mutual admiration amongst men and the protagonist/hero interacting with a father-like figure has a certain je ne sais quoi. Not having had a father in my formative years, perhaps it's something I wish I'd had, but I digress. I wonder what these similarities with 'Gladiator' mean, if anything. Brian Helgeland is a force to be reckoned with, I haven't seen much of his work, but I've enjoyed what I've seen thus far. A Knight's Tale, Pay Back, Man On Fire and now this -- wow. A scribe-cum-director par excellence.

When I first heard that there was going to be a Robin Hood movie, I thought, "We don't need another Robin Hood movie, it's been done to death!", but this is definitely worth a look. It's vastly better than the one with Kevin Costner.

Industrial Light and Magic

The first time I came across the name "Industrial Light and Magic" -- George Lucas' premier visual effects company -- was at about the age of ten, in the dirty and tattered pages of a magazine, whose name I can't recall. The article was about how "ILM" had done the visual trickery in Robert Zemeckis' seminal 1985 film "Back To The Future". There were pages missing and I didn't know then that "Industrial Light and Magic" was the name of a company. As a result, at the tender age of ten, I surmised that the visual effects had been created with actual industrial lighting -- huge, immensely bright lights -- and magic. Magic as in, that mysterious art practiced by witches and wizards, in fairytales. I was ten! I sometimes cringe and chuckle to myself when I recall that gross misinterpretation.

The Autobot Sigil

It was delightful to see Sam (Shia LaBeouf) unsuspectingly and casually rub his thumb over the grimy Autobot sigil on the hub of Bumblebee's steering wheel in Michael Bay's 2007 film "Transformers". That image brought back fond memories of some of the toys I played with in my childhood. It hinted ever so nicely at the amazing "techno-magical" being, disguised as a yellow 1976 Chevrolet Camaro. It had wonder, mystery and excitement. Perhaps Joseph Campbell's theory of Collective Memory has something to do with it. "Transformers" is one of the best examples of what fantasy cinema should be -- magical, fun, epic and exciting.

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, a review

14-04-10

So I watched "Transformers: The Revenge of The Fallen" at the cinema last night, and I was pleasantly surprised. I still think that the original film is better -- I decided a long time ago, when I read the plot of the sequel and found it somewhat "empty", that the original was a better film -- the original had a sense of wonder that is hard to recapture and those scenes that were meant to move an audience, didn't feel contrived or manipulative at all, unlike in the sequel.

The visual effects, as expected, were some of the best in the history of cinema -- absolutely amazing. There's a scene where Optimus Prime goes head-to-head with both Megatron and Starscream, in a forest, as Sam watches from a distance. To say that this scene was exciting, would be a gross understatement. I have not the words to fully impart to the reader how breathtaking this scene was. The fight choreography was some of the best, not only in animation -- since Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream were computer-generated characters -- but, once again, in the history of cinema. It was hard-hitting, had impact, had "oomph!", the three combatants moved gracefully, it was easy to see what was taking place and the seamless integration of the gigantic virtual battle of the three titans, with live-action, was to say the least, impressive. Optimus Prime is a uber-warrior, an iron hand in a velvet glove -- he was outnumbered two to one, yet he fought with the grace of a Shaolin monk and the determination of the Greek Spartans of old. Now I understand why someone would say that Optimus Prime is his/her hero. This scene was also quite emotional, it was sad to see Optimus "killed" by Megatron and the despair on Sam's face. I felt the deep paternal connection between a non-biological extraterrestrial and a human, being severed. I was quite glad when the rest of the Autobots arrived on the scene, letting loose a barrage of super-advanced alien gunfire and preventing Sam from falling into Megatron's evil clutches.

16-04-10

There was a ship -- a humungous seagoing vessel -- with the word "Bayos" emblazoned on its front, and when I saw this, my eyes welled up a little from enjoyment -- it was the film-makers winking at the audience. You see "Bayos" -- a combination of "Bay", the director's name, and "chaos" -- is a sort of running in-joke between Bay, his producer Ian Bryce and crew, that references Michael Bay's knack for directing exciting action sequences, that are often frenetic and somewhat chaotic.

Another "wink" that I liked was, the huge theatrical poster for the film "Bad Boys II" -- a Michael Bay film -- hanging on the wall of Sam's shared college dormitory.

Some of the "sexual" comedy was funny, but most of it seemed inappropriate and clichéd. Two examples are, firstly, Mikaela (Megan Fox) accidentally landing on Sam's nerdy college roommate's (Freddy Rodriguez) gonads, after having been teleported to the Egyptian desert, by geriatric Cybertronian Jetfire. Secondly, the Witwicky's two male dogs, Mojo and Frankie, copulating and Ron (Kevin Dunn), Sam's father, yelling at Mojo to stop "dominating" Frankie. Despite this, there were some genuinely good laughs to be had. An example is when Sam's roommate leaves the toilet with his pants down to his ankles, pretending that he's run out of toilet paper, attacks a museum guard with a taser, who falls down paralyzed, and then accidentally administers the taser on himself and falls on the incapacitated guard, also temporarily paralyzed -- taser still in hand and pants down -- to which Simmons (John Turturro) exclaims when he arrives on the scene -- "What the hell is going on here?!" or something. Very funny.

Another delight in this film was some of the dialogue, despited being shouted, delivered at lightning speed and somewhat obscured by the dean of explosions and gunfire -- referred to as Bay's "military porn", by a blogger whose name I can't recall.

21-04-10

I loved the scenery in this film, seeing shiny, brightly colored vehicles driving through the sun-drenched deserts of Egypt, was a feast for the eyes. Some kudos goes to cinematographer Ben Seresin, who more than adequately filled Mitchell Amundsen's shoes, who shot the original film. Seeing super-advanced vehicles or technology set against barren desert landscapes just gets me going, I'm not certain why. Perhaps it's the contrast between the sleek, shiny, synthetic and intricate parts, with the natural, harsh and plain desert sands. I'm not certain. Anyway, this reminds me of the fun I had seeing the intricate podrace vehicles tearing through the deserts of the planet Tatooine at lightning speed, in George Lucas' "Star Wars Episode IV: The Phantom Menace".

Steve Jablonsky's score was, like the original film's, magnificent. There were some new themes that, despite being similar to some from the first film, were quite emotional and beautiful in their own right.

It's been one full week since I watched "Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen" and my memory of it has become vague, plus this essay has been written in three passes with too long intervals in-between, so the momentum has somewhat waned. Thus, I'll end here.

Suffice it to say that "ROTF" isn't a perfect film, there are numerous things that make precious little sense, but it's a great deal of fun to watch. Watch it.

Inglourious Basterds, a review

The Inglourious Basterds are a motley group of Jewish-American soldiers, led by the pompous and somewhat insane Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), that are sent to German-occupied France to kill Nazis and throw a spanner in the Fuhrer's plans for world domination. The Inglourious Basterds end up playing an important part in the complete and utter destruction of the Third Reich.

The dialogue was, to say the least, interesting -- the kind of dialogue that one wants to listen to over and over. It was an immense pleasure to watch as the stellar cast delivered it.

One particular song stood out for me -- "Putting Out Fire" by David Bowie, from the film "Cat People". It was used in the scene where Emmanuelle/Shosanna (Melanie Laurént), beautifully decked out in red dress and lipstick, stands beautifully, with smoldering cigarette in hand, at a circular window and looks down on the mingling crowd below, as if psyching herself up for the huge task at hand. This scene, in my opinion, contains some of the best costume design and cinematography in the film. Emmanuelle's beautiful red dress and pale skin, partly illuminated by the light streaming through the window, looked absolutely divine.

The violence was unexpectedly graphic and disturbing -- a taste of Tarantino's "Controversial Cinematic Violence" -- but despite the discomfort I felt, I thought it gave the film credibility. It was World War II, one of the worst wars known to mankind, if not the worst -- it had to be gory.

It wasn't difficult to see that this film was made by a film fanatic. What with all the filmic talk sprinkled through the dialogue, the largest and final action set piece taking place in a cinema, the director taking his time to show how a film comes on several reels and how the reels end up inside the film projector, and many other things. What was shown was almost enough to serve as a primer course in film projection! Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it was more detailed than it needed to be.

I liked how the dialogue kept switching between the three romance languages -- French, German and Italian -- and English. It added a great deal of linguistic life and colour to the film, and showed the skill of the actors and actresses.

This film is definitely worth one's time. It's so visually and aurally rich, that it's in a sense, "educational".