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Reviews
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
An Unexpected Journey is a well made adventure film.
An Unexpected Journey is an adaptation of The Hobbit, or There and Back Again written by J. R. R. Tolkien. However, it serves more as a prequel to The Lord of the Rings than an adaptation of Tolkien's book. The film covers the first six chapters of the book, from 'An Unexpected Party' to 'Out of the Frying-Pan Into the Fire'. In addition to the content from the book is other worldly events occurring alongside the hobbit's tale, presented as prelude to the fantastic The Lord of the Rings film series.
The film excels in technical achievements. This film is presented in 48 frames per second for select theaters. This new format for film is subtly different. The motion is smoother and makes the 3D format bearable. The screen is well lit, and the 3D process is not distracting. It does little for the film itself, but it is exciting to see a new format with obvious benefits. The photography and set design is mesmerising. Every location is beautiful. Every set is finely detailed. Middle-Earth looks beautiful. Unfortunately, some of the gorgeous scenes are deteriorated by post-production. There is an inordinate amount of CGI in this film. Certainly much more than its predecessor, and certainly much more than this year's The Dark Knight Rises. This creates a world that is less real, more abstract, and more requiring of a suspension of disbelief. Where once was prosthetic makeup, now a computer graphic replaces a great goblin's face.
The acting in this film varies wildly. The two stars, Martin Freeman as the hobbit Bilbo Baggins and Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf, are as good as ever. Freeman's performance gives a strong personality to the main character, even if his screen time is really relatively short. McKellen presents his Gandalf with far more mystery than that seen in The Lord of the Rings. With his top notch performance, he is the carrier of this film. Richard Armitage's Thorin is another noteworthy performance, although sometimes he is perhaps too callous and thoughtless to be believable, and occasionally a tad bit over the top. One last performance worth mentioning is the hammy and ridiculous rendition of the brown wizard Radagast by Sylvester McCoy. It's unfortunate that a figure deemed to be wise and powerful is made into a comic numbskull of no importance.
With plenty of interesting characters, the film falls flat on what it decides to do with them. The characters, including Bilbo, are just there. Any attempts to develop them are quite futile. Bilbo discovers his inner courage. Thorin learns to not judge books by their covers. It is all so elementary. There is no criticism for these developments. There is only criticism for the fact that these developments don't mean much. There could've been more depth to these faces, but there isn't. Perhaps the great exception is the relationship between Gollum and Bilbo, in which Bilbo shows mercy for the beast when he has the opportunity to kill him. Still it is a wonder what the writers were going for. Perhaps some kind of 'kill only when necessary' thing, though the heroes seem to have no remorse for killing orcs. Orcs have no feelings anyways.
So the actual Hobbit story is pretty good. It's unfortunate that there is more than just this simple Hobbit story in the actual movie. There is a subplot of a rather ridiculous orc villain with such a clichéd villain trope that it seems unreal. Also there is the dark and mysterious Necromancer, yet another villain introduced to the series. These are really nothing more than distractions adding to the films length. Sometimes, especially when in relation to the Necromancer, the cuts away from the main story can be so long and over-dramatic you forget what the film is actually about. Perhaps the editor was sick or something. Considering the title, The Hobbit, it is astonishing to see so little of the hobbit.
An Unexpected Journey is a really nice Christmas film. It is fun and entertaining and nothing more. Those who want more have already gotten that from the book anyways.
Wild Wild West (1999)
A Horrbly Underrated Movie
I was quite surprised by the negative reviews for this movie. This was a very entertaining movie. Sure, it's weird and ridiculous, but you have to realize that was exactly what the intent was. It was meant to be a satirical remake of a popular television show. Kevin Kline and Will Smith present excellent performances, the cinematic direction is interesting, and the soundtrack is superb. The story is quite original, especially when compared with the uninspired superhero movies of today. No, this movie is certainly no Oscar-winner, but it certainly deserves more than 1 star. If one thinks this movie is bad, then one has not seen truly bad movies. For me, this was a very enjoyable film, and it has a giant mechanical spider, which is really quite awesome.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1975)
This Movie Sucks
This is by far the worst movie of all time.
This is not a movie. This is an audio book with over elaborate illustrations and awkwardly placed scenes of live action. The first part of the movie is a horribly dry prologue called "The Strangest Voyage", and if you happen to survive through that, prepare to be disappointed because it gets even drier and more boring. Really, you should just read the poem yourself.
Let's talk about aesthetics for a moment. The movie is almost like a picture book, and I can see where they might be have been going with it, but it's not executed properly AT ALL. Whenever they show a still image they pan and zoom the camera around in an attempt to keep you awake and it just looks stupid. There are live action shots, too, and their photography is terrible. Not only this, but the imagery is just random. It's entirely made up of various representations of the sea, the ship, and the characters. It's almost as if the illustrators had nothing better to do but spend hours drawing these elaborate drawings for a well-known poem, and for that matter, the illustrations look like engravings colored in by a kindergärtner.
If this movie was ever good, then it was back in 1975, because its age shows. I don't understand how you could watch and enjoy this. Just read the original poem. Don't watch this. It is more awful than any movie I have ever seen, and being a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 I've seen a lot of bad movies. This movie is horrible. Any educational value it has is washed away by its dryness and sent into the Land of Mist and Snow.
Moon Zero Two (1969)
Moon Zero Two: A Freeform Jazz Concert
After watching this movie, I realized I don't remember a thing about it. All I remember is the soundtrack, and boy is it a soundtrack.
This movie takes everything bad about every sci-fi and mashes it together with overacting and cheap special effects. The result is something almost close to a masterpiece in B-movie cinema, but not exactly. For one, the Jazz steals the show, for two, the style of the movie was obviously inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey but is also obviously inspired from the 60s, and finally, it's just bizarre. This movie's got exotic dance scenes, a low-gravity bar fight, a complicated plot that you don't care about, space shootouts, bowler hat villain, tough guy hero, useless heroine, and bad haircuts. What else can I say? Oh yeah, scientific background is essentially non-existent, but who cares? This is a great movie to watch if you want to teach yourself what NOT to do in a sci-fi story; it's also featured on a great episode on Mystery Science Theater 3000. In my opinion, that's the better choice.
I have no idea what the title means....