Did Titans Clash? And Other Film Stuff
Hi! I'm hoping to write a bit of a film diary for theSprout at vaguely regular intervals. Perhaps monthly, maybe more often. I go to the cinema pretty damn often, as I have an Unlimited Card for Cineworld (which incidentally is well worth it) and so will be writing about a fair number of new releases.
It's worth remembering that thanks to the wonder that is the Unlimited Card I don't have to pay to see films, so it's rare that I get angry and rant at the waste of money. On the other hand I will watch practically anything! However don't expect to see reviews of romantic comedies here unless they are reputedly world-beating, because I won't be going to see them. Anything else is fair game.
I rent a few movies a month too, so I might talk a bit about them, as well as any film news that has grabbed me of late. My main aim is to get a fair few people reading these, and it would be awesome if people could also discuss on here too as I love a good film debate.
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Green Zone
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Right. So recently I have been really happy to have seen some excellent films. Green Zone and Shutter Island were both hugely enjoyable, and brilliantly different in styles; Paul Greengrass's realistic style, emphasised by sparse use of music and his hand-held camerawork, made his film typically gripping, while the intelligent political plot made it more than a war film.
Shutter Island, though deeply contrasting, was equally as good. The old-fashioned, swooping camera shots and over the top music made for true entertainment, and unlike a lot of critics I thought it was deadly serious and pretty disturbing by the end. A gothic mystery set in a creepy asylum is up there on my list of 'best ideas for films', as unoriginal as it is. I thought that the acting was superb, from Leonardo DiCaprio and especially Ben Kingsley, who single-handedly carried the film's tension by being both kindly and menacing. I also loved Jackie Earle Haley's short but weighty performance, due in large part to his phenomenally charismatic voice, which so perfectly captured Rorschach in the adaptation of Watchmen. I would love to say more about Green Zone and Shutter Island, but it was a while ago. Needless to say, people should see them both.
More recently I caught The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and was hooked for the entire two hours and twenty minutes by a great murder-mystery, whose climactic reveal surprised me even though the clues had been there all along - the perfect twist. (Unlike Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, where I sat through two hours of admittedly very stylish plot exposition and introduction of murder suspects, only to be shocked by the twist that the murderer was in fact the until now unheard of - gardener.) Incidentally, I won't ruin any plots of new films, but as you've just seen, potentially could discuss plot points of older films (I'll try and warn in advance if I do).
I recently heard that David Fincher of Seven, Fight Club and Zodiac fame is on to direct an American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Pointless though a remake is, I can't imagine a better director for that job. Just a shame it has to happen. Speaking of pointless remakes of stunning Swedish films, I heard that the remake of Let The Right One In is to star the elaborately named Kodi Smit-McPhee (brilliant in The Road) and Chloe Moretz (fantastic in Kick-Ass). Oddly it's also having its name changed to 'Let Me In', even though the original borrowed its name from a Morrisey song. The only thing that can make this new film worth watching is if they are more faithful to the novel, which I prefer by far to the Swedish film. However this would undoubtedly result in an 18 certificate, surely more edgy than an American remake is willing to be. Ah well.
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Clash Of The Titans
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To Clash Of The Titans. Not for a while had there been such feverish anticipation in our household. The excitement for Avatar pales in comparison compared to that for this remake of the Greek myth mish-mash. I enjoyed it a lot (despite the incredibly Welsh girls behind me tittering at the fact that much of the plot centred on the Greek city of Argos (hah!!)) but I did have a few problems with it.
First the positives - the videogame format (fight with enemies, fight with tougher enemies, fight with the boss) made for almost non-stop action, and the money spent on it was certainly well used on scenes involving giant scorpions and the epically large Kraken. The Kraken was a highlight, its design and realisation both real achievements, and blows Pirates Of The Caribbean’s Kraken out of the water. Some of the final scenes, as Perseus made his way back through Argos, reminded me of God Of War, with the action in the foreground set against a huge and stunning background.
But they seemed to have run out of money around the middle section of the film, noticeably when introducing Medusa, who appeared to have popped up out of a videogame herself.
The cast was full of big names (and two of the cast of Skins - did you notice Nicholas Hoult? And big bonus points for spotting Kaya Schodelario, who plays Effy. I didn't). A highlight was Mads 'the chameleon' Mikkelsen (probably not an official nickname), who I would not have recognised had it not been for his great accent. From the shifty villain of Casino Royale (bleeding eye, smirky) to Draco, a soldier of Argos (hugely buffed up, beardy, and not smirky), I've not seen an actor look so different in two different films. When he declared he would only smile when he had spat in the eyes of the Gods, I believed him.
Sam Worthington portrayed Perseus humbly and likeably, with an amazingly small number of lines given his leading man status. Interesting aside - despite being rubbished by me, a friend of mine was correct when she asserted that Sam Worthington was born in Surrey, before living most of his life in Australia. Crazy. He was the best thing about the dull Terminator Salvation, and it will be interesting to see him in upcoming dramatic roles, rather than effects laden blockbusters which have made him famous thus far.
I was disappointed by usually fantastic actors Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, portraying brothers Zeus and Hades. Ralph Fiennes particularly has portrayed more frightening villains in Harry Potter and even In Bruges. If he'd have shouted furiously at Zeus "you're an inanimate f***ing object!" the world would have been a better place. I wasn't overly awed by their Godliness- their beards were large but not bushy, and in a (very tenuous) way this could serve as a metaphor for their appearance in the film- showy but not substantial.
Clash Of The Titans inevitably feels a little like 300, but while that graphic novel adaptation is all style and no substance, Clash Of The Titans does not really manage even the style. The most effective monsters were the witches whom Perseus must consult on the best method of Kraken-dispatching, and they seemed to me at least to be directly modelled on the terrifying 'Pale Man' character from Pan's Labyrinth.
Better wrap this up. Some kind of verdict on Clash of the Titans? Fun, but not such crazy fun as I hoped it would be (Incidentally, despite the promises of the trailer, Titans did not clash - there were no Titans in the film, speaking purely lexically). It is true that if you have seen the trailers, you've seen the film, so I can't really recommend spending money to go and see it.
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Remember Me
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Lastly I'm going to massively ruin a current release, so if you are planning to go and see Remember Me, starring Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin, stop reading now, thanks very much.
I have absolutely no intention of going to see this, so I'm not going to judge its quality or lack thereof. I just wanted to bring up the ending in the hope of causing some conversation. The message of the film, so far as I can tell from the plot synopsis, is that you should live in the moment, do what you want to do and what feels right while you can, for you don't know what's going to happen in the future. The film then shows this in the most final way imaginable by killing Pattinson's character, who by this stage has of course fallen in love with de Ravin's, in the September 11th plane crashes.
This ending has apparently received some predictably negative press: Rotten Tomatoes described it as 'a borderline offensive final twist', and The Boston Globe review suggested that the film 'crassly repurposes tragedy to excuse its clichs'. The boldness of an ending like that almost makes me want to see it, though I think I'll resist. Just thought it was interesting that even now such a well-known event being used in the plot of a film can potentially bother people.
I suppose the offence comes from a perception that the film merely uses 9/11 to get people talking about the film, to exploit the emotions still felt, or that the events are used in a throw-away, background ending to a story about something else, though I'm sure that the film's makers were aiming to use it in the most cinematically effective way, and not to cause offence. So, that was the ending of Remember Me. Please comment if you wish to, on anything that has been said. Hope you have enjoyed reading, and hopefully I'll be writing again soon on Kick-Ass and How To Train Your Dragon, both of which I am really looking forward to. Cheers!
1 Comment – Post a comment
Sprout Editor
Commented 73 months ago - 27th April 2010 - 12:54pm
I absolutely loved Shutter Island. I haven't seen a film as good as that in a long time! It's one of those films that really gets you thinking, which I like. It would be great to have regular film posts on theSprout, we sometimes get tickets for premier's if you're interested? Our next editorial group meeting is this thursday, 29th April @4.30 in Cardiff library if you want to come along? Everyone is welcome, and it would be great to hear your ideas!