Reviews
Avatar
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
| Directed by: | James Cameron |
| Written by: | James Cameron |
| Starring: | Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi |
| Released: | December 17, 2009 |
| Grade: | A |
In 1997, director James Cameron “wowed” me with Titanic. It was one of the greatest films ever made and it’s still the highest grossing film in U.S. history. I’ve been waiting twelve long years for Cameron to make another movie. Why has he taken so long? Whatever the reason, the wait has been worth it. Avatar is the most visually spectacular film that I’ve ever seen on a big screen. The bar has been raised.
Set in the year 2154, an army of humans have travelled to a distant planet known as Pandora. They are extracting a valuable mineral from the ground which is worth an astronomical sum back home. Unfortunately, there is an alien race on Pandora known as the Na’vi. The only way the minerals can be dug up is by displacing the Na’vi from their homes. They don’t plan on doing so without a fight.
Not everyone aboard the human spaceship is interested in these rocks. A small team of peaceful scientists are looking to explore the planet to see what else can be learned from its people and its beautiful forests. To help with their task, they have created avatars – a Na’vi body they can inhabit whilst on the surface. It helps them communicate with the locals and in defending themselves against some vicious wildlife.
Caught in the middle is a paraplegic named Jake Sully (Worthington). Jake is an ex war veteran who has been brought in to help the head scientist (Weaver) with her work. Ah, but he’s also being used by the ship’s military leader (Lang) to gain valuable intelligence information on the Na’vi people and their weaknesses. To whom do his allegiances really lie?
Not even Jake knows the answer to that question at first. All he cares about is his amazing new life on Pandora. Through his avatar, he now has the use of his legs for the first time in many years. He has also developed affection for the planet and its people. In particular, Jake has formed a bond with a young woman named Neytiri (Saldana) who is teaching him the ways of the Na’vi.
The dialogue is stiff at times but there’s an intricacy to the story which elevates it above your run-of-the-mill action flick. This should come as no surprise given James Cameron’s history. He loves visual effects but he recognises the importance of telling a good story. Aliens, Terminator and Titanic are fitting examples. In Avatar, he had me cheering for the strange-looking blue creatures instead of the humans. Not necessarily an easy accomplishment.
Let’s be honest though – the reason this film is so amazing is because of its look. The line separating live action and special effects has been blurred beyond recognition. I didn’t know what was what. Enhancing it even further is the fact it was filmed using the latest in 3D technology. You will find yourself immersed in a fantasy world filled with a kaleidoscope of colours. Or to put it more bluntly, in the words of Hollywood columnist Jeffrey Wells, “it's like your eyeballs are having sex.”
Australian Sam Worthington must be pinching himself after the year he’s had. Fresh off his role in Terminator: Salvation (where he was the best part of it), Worthington then got to star in a James Cameron movie. Does it get any better? You can see why Cameron chose him though. Worthington gives a terrific performance. With just a hint of his Aussie accent, he turns Jake into an ideal hero – someone a little rough around the edges but not lacking in passion.
It goes without saying that Avatar must be seen in 3D on the big screen. It clocks in at just over two and a half hours and is sure to have cinemas packed once the word of mouth spreads. Mr Cameron, please do not make me wait another twelve years for your next movie.
Planet 51
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
| Directed by: | Jorge Blanco |
| Written by: | Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers |
| Starring: | Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Gary Oldman, Seann William Scott, John Cleese |
| Released: | December 10, 2009 |
| Grade: | B |
On a recent episode of At The Movies, Margaret Pomeranz says that she divides animated films into two categories – “animation ordinaire” and “animation that really is a notch above”. It’s an apt way of summing up my own thoughts on the genre. I’m usually “ok” with most animated films but I love those which have a rich, well thought out story. Recent examples would include Up, Coraline, WALL-E and Ratatouille.
Planet 51 is a decent film but it’s not in the premiere league. It’s the tale of an astronaut named Captain Charles T. Baker (Johnson) who lands on a planet which he thought to be uninhabited. Instead, it finds it filled with cute-looking green aliens who speak English and live in a manner similar to our own (for reasons which are never explained – probably because there is no explanation).
The alien army seizes his spacecraft but he himself evades capture. He meets a friendly alien named Lem (Long) who agrees to help him. Lem realises that this human isn’t here to take over the planet or destroy their species. He has come in peace. The two must now devise a plan to get Lem back on his spacecraft and return home before it is too late.
It’s light-hearted stuff which kids should enjoy. Justin Long is the best of the cast and I think makes a nice, likeable character out of Lem. John Cleese seems to feature in so many animated films these days (Valiant, Shrek, Igor) but I never get tired of his antics. Here, he does what he does best – playing an eccentric professor who thinks he’s an alien expert.
On the downside, there was potential to take this concept a lot further. The idea of a human finding himself immersed in an alien world is the flip-side of so many other movies which have been made. It’s all rather conservative but I admit to chuckling at a few of the pop culture references. I don’t think I’ll be seeing it again but it was worth a look.
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
| Directed by: | Phil Lord, Chris Miller |
| Written by: | Phil Lord, Chris Miller |
| Starring: | Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris |
| Released: | November 26, 2009 |
| Grade: | B |
If you’re off to the movies this weekend with the kids, then the forecast is Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. I do like that title. It wasn’t the filmmakers who came up with it though – it’s the title of a children’s book written by Judi and Ron Barrett which was first published in 1978. I must have missed that one when I was growing up.
Ever since he was young, Flint Lockwood (Hader) has dreamed of being a successful inventor. On his bedroom wall are posters of guys like Alexander Graham Bell and Nikola Tesla. Unfortunately, Flint is not yet in their league. He has some wonderful ideas but he struggles to put theory into practice.
I should mention that Flint is from a small community who live on an island in the Atlantic. The town’s income is derived from sardine fishing. When the world realised just how yucky sardines were, business fell through the floor. The residents are now struggling financially and the mayor is looking for a way to revitalise the town.
Flint’s time to shine has arrived. He has invented a machine which will make it rain food. He sends it up into the atmosphere and then types his menu into his laboratory computer. It rains hamburgers, it rains bacon and eggs, it rains ice-cream. Everyone is well fed and Flint becomes the island’s most popular person. He even finds a love interest – a weather reporter named Sam Sparks (Faris). All his dreams have come true.
What goes up, must come down however. Flint soon realises that his revolutionary weather machine has a few problems. With everyone eating so gluttonously, waste lines are starting to expand. Just wait until you see the mayor. Further, the size of food falling from the sky is getting bigger and bigger. Something’s got to give.
This fun children’s film with a catchy title is sure to generate interest as we approach the Christmas school holidays. As you’d expect from a film of this nature, some notable stars have provided their voices to the movie. James Caan is great as Flint’s old fashioned father. Mr. T is also good as a police officer trying to keep everyone in line.
I admit that I found the storyline somewhat limited. You kind of know everything that’s going to happen before it does. I didn’t laugh as much as I thought I would either. It’s more wacky than humorous – something that I know kids won’t have a problem with at all.
Screening in 3D in selected cinemas (always a plus), Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is a watchable animated flick but not one that’s overly memorable.
Where The Wild Things Are
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
| Directed by: | Spike Jonze |
| Written by: | Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers |
| Starring: | Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara |
| Released: | December 3, 2009 |
| Grade: | A- |
I’ve often spoken about the difficulty of adapting a beloved novel for the big screen. It’s hard to condense the material and the character development into a mere two hours. That wasn’t the case with Where The Wild Things Are. The picture book, written by Maurice Sendak and first published in 1963, contains just 10 sentences. Screenwriters Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers found themselves in the odd position where they needed to build on the original story.
And what a great job they’ve done. Jonze didn’t want to make a children’s film. Instead, he “set out to make a movie about a childhood”. The story’s protagonist is a 9-year-old boy named Max (played by Max Records in his first movie role). Max is a typical kid at that age – fun-loving and adventurous yet immature and naive. He’s also got a lot of strange feelings building up inside of him.
Max always wants to be the centre of attention and he gets frustrated when his mum and older sister don’t reciprocate. One night, he runs away from home and finds himself in a strange fantasy world inhabited by large monsters. They initially threaten to eat Max but he convinces them otherwise by telling them that he’s a king who has come to rule them. The monsters have been looking for a leader for some time and they anoint Max by providing him a gold crown.
At first, everything is great. Max receives all the attention he demands and he makes a bunch of new friends. All the decisions he makes are fruitful. He even helps the monsters establish a new home – a giant fort with a series of underground tunnels.
Ah, but it’s not always easy being the king. These monsters are battling their own strange feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. A division develops between some of them and Max doesn’t know how to make things right. He’ll need to quickly learn from this fast-paced lesson in maturity or else he could end up as the monster’s next meal. Max’s old life is taking on a much greater appreciation.
Spike Jonze is one of the world’s most gifted filmmakers and his credits include Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. He gave himself a big challenge in taking Where The Wild Things Are to the big screen but Jonze was up to the task. It’s a dazzling film to watch on the big screen – from the close ups of Max’s face (whose emotions are always showing) to the panoramic shots of this fantasy world.
Let’s not forget the “wild things”. If they all look very real to you… then that’s because they are. They weren’t created with digitally. The creature crew spent 8 months designing and building actual monster suits for actors to inhabit. The only special effects are the monster’s faces – which were later altered to match up against the dubbed voices. You won’t notice it at all.
The film could be quite scary in places for young children – a fact I have no problem with. It’s nice to see a family-orientated movie that contains “fear” as part of its repertoire. It’s a feeling that we all deal with and too often it is overlooked in films of a similar vein.
Shot on the southern coast of Australia just outside Melbourne, Where The Wild Things Are is a terrific movie for people of any age to enjoy.
New Moon
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
| Directed by: | Chris Weitz |
| Written by: | Melissa Rosenberg |
| Starring: | Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Ashley Green, Michael Sheen |
| Released: | November 19, 2009 |
| Grade: | B- |
As I publish this review, thousands of people are currently lined up at cinemas across Australia for the special midnight screenings of New Moon. Regardless of what you think of the film, that’s pretty amazing. We haven’t seen a movie event like this in some time.
Stephanie Meyer’s books have captivated the world’s romantics. Is it because women harness a secret fantasy to fall in love with the bad guy? Is it because this pair of “star crossed” lovers reminds us of our experiences? Is it because Robert Pattinson is just really hot? Don’t ask me to pinpoint a precise reason. All I know is that people really, really, really want to see this movie.
So what’s it about? It will help if you’ve seen the original Twilight. In this second instalment, Edward (Pattinson) dumps Bella (Stewart) and then disappears. He still loves her but is doing this to protect Bella. He knows that they cannot be together – given that he’s a vampire and she’s a human. Trying to make it work will only prolong the agony and expose Bella to unnecessary risks.
Bella doesn’t see it this way but she doesn’t have a choice. In the months following the break up, she shuts herself off from the rest of the world. She cries, she stays at home and she ignores all her friends. On the heartache scale, this one ranks pretty high.
Trying to pull back Bella’s dark curtain is her best friend, Jacob (Lautner). They start spending more and more time together with Jacob promises to never break her heart. Bella is tempted to give in to her developing feelings for Jacob but something holds her back. She has visions and dreams of Edward and thinks that perhaps, they may one day be together again.
There are more than a few similarities to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. There’s a nice moment early in the film where Bella and Edward are watching it in class at school. I’m sure it’s no coincidence. When I started thinking about Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of Romeo & Juliet (with Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes), I realised that New Moon doesn’t have the same level of energy and passion. It gets bogged down in a sea of melodrama with not as much action and suspense as I’d have hoped.
I can’t say much about the acting either. Edward comes across as such a dull character. I don’t know what Bella sees in him. Watching Robert Pattison with his sparkly skin and blood shot eyes just didn’t do it for me. I wanted to see her character developed further but I still enjoyed Kristen Stewart’s performance. By highlighting Bella’s insecurities, she seemed more real than anyone else.
There’s a new director at the helm of New Moon with Chris Weitz (About A Boy, The Golden Compass) taking over from Catherine Hardwicke. I couldn’t tell the difference – which is a good thing. I liked the creative fantasy world in which this tale is set. Kudos go to the team of cinematographers and there’s also a nice film score from Alexandre Desplat (The Queen).
Striking while the iron is hot, the next film in the Twilight series is slated for release in June next year. It’s called Eclipse and we’ll once again see a barrage of media hype and a wave of special midnight screenings. I look forward to seeing it but I’m hoping for something a little more interesting.
Paranormal Activity
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
| Directed by: | Oren Peli |
| Written by: | Oren Peli |
| Starring: | Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Ashley Palmer, Amber Armstrong |
| Released: | December 3, 2009 |
| Grade: | A- |
If you want to make a great action film, you’ll need $100m, a stunt team and the latest in visual effects software. If you want to make a great horror film on the other hand, all you need is $15,000 and the will to do it. Paranormal Activity is proof of that. Sometimes, the simpler you make a horror film, the scarier it can be.
Katie (Featherston) and Micah (Sloat) are a happy young couple who live together. Of late, Katie has been hearing strange noises during the night and it’s starting to freak her out. Micah buys a new state-of-the-art video camera to put her mind at ease. He sets up in the bedroom each night and they fast-forward through the footage the next day to see if they spot anything unusual.
I’ve seen my fair share of horror films and I’m seldom do I feel any emotion. I know in the back of my head that it’s only just a movie. That said, there were scenes in this movie that sent a shiver down my spine.
On one of the first nights in which they use the camera, the bedroom door partially closes and then reopens. That may not sound too spooky but when you’re sitting in a packed cinema which is deathly silent (the movie has no soundtrack) then you’ll think again. For anyone who believes in ghosts and other such paranormal beings, this probably isn’t the best film to watch before bedtime.
The film’s intensity builds and builds. I don’t want to say too much because I want you to be caught off guard, as I was. It’s important to shriek and scream (as many did at my preview screening). With regards to the sudden climax, it’s worth pointing out this wasn’t how the film originally ended. After being scared out of his wits when he first saw it, acclaimed director Steven Spielberg suggested an alternate ending and this was ultimately used in the film’s world wide release.
Paranormal Activity has a few other odd qualities to help distinguish it from other horror films. There are no opening credits or closing credits. At the end, you’ll be simply left with a blank screen and your own troubled thoughts. That may be good for some but not for others. The film has made more than $100m at the U.S. box-office and as you’d expect, a sequel which has been scheduled for 2012. I hope it’s better than the follow up to The Blair Witch Project (which was made in a similar vein ten years ago).
If you are going to see this movie, I strongly recommend that you see it late at night during its opening week. The bigger the crowd, the better the atmosphere.