Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole [Movie review]

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


After having experienced the cruel reality of life in The American [Liviu: The American (review)], it was time to dream again. Ok, let's pick an animal, hmm, what about owls? In Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole [official site; IMDB; en.wikipedia; CineMagia (in Romanian)]? Yes, almost a good choice. In 3D? Yes.


The story?

Definitely too straightforward. The bad owls

1. Build a weapon of mass destruction [1] using some crystals or something collected from I-forgot-what (could be what owls throw up at times and then ended up eaten by mice... anyway, it's irrelevant)
   
2. Kidnap baby owls to either train them as soldiers for their army or brainwash them in order to work in collecting those crystals
3. Follow a Nazi-Fascist line of thought / philosophy 
4. They live in a mountainous region, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan or insurgents in Iraq. Of course, it's a coincidence, isn't it? :)

Obviously, once the good-owl Soren and (his future mate maybe?) Gylfie escape from their kidnappers, they reach the Guardians, tell everything and the good-owls-Guardians decide to start the war on terror [1] to free the enslaved owls and establish peace once more.

Good owls win, bad owls loose, while the adult viewer gets bored.


So, it's about some... owls?... in 3D? What's the animation like?

Yes, somewhat & sometimes & to some extent

• funny
• sweet & cute
• daring
• courageous

owls. But not all the time.

In 3D, yes. They got some nice 3D effects. However, the animation does not raise to the Pixar & DreamWorks standards - sorry, Warner Bros but you are in the small league when it comes to animations for the big screen.

Problems:

1. Why did not the owls make their specific sounds? They speak plain English all the time :)) Only when it comes to fighting, they scream like eagles :)) Wtf?
2. Why did not the owls turn their heads to 90-180 degrees like they usually do? Only Digger quickly does it a couple of times and that's it.

Btw, regarding the starting animation based on the Coyote and Road Runner series [en.wikipedia on the series] - if Warner Bros actually thinks that's funny... Well, I'm starting to hate the financial crisis and the low quality it brings! Ok, I had a couple of good laughs, but it was so predictable and just good, but nothing great about it...


Can children watch it? Will they enjoy it?

I'm not sure to what degree it may suit children: too much useless violence, too little attitude & courage & determination. Children might enjoy it; I, as an adult, did not quite enjoy it for example.



Conclusions

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole - a good animation, but not great. Warner Bros has yet to learn a lot until they can make great animations. As an adult, I got kind of bored - it felt the movie lacked a clear objective besides the good owls shall win in the war (on terror :p) against the bad owls.

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[1] Describing it using the War in Iraq terms may sound funny, but these terms fully apply in this animation.

The American [Movie review]

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


Following all that Aim'est, there was an urgent need to get back to the reality of real life dramas, sourness & bitterness etc. What to pick? How about The American [IMDB; cinemagia; en.wikipedia]?


Is it a George Clooney classic?

I say yes - it's about life: Sour + Bitter + sometimes Sweet. I've always had that feeling in what I call George Clooney classics, e.g. Good Night and Good Luck [IMDB], Syriana [IMDB], Michael Clayton [IMDB], Burn After Reading [IMDB]. Note: although I haven't watched Up in the Air [IMDB] I suspect it falls in the same category, given the synopsis and trailer.

Do you know Clooney's voice? You know, that voice of Clooney that seems serious, but says in-between words I'm gonna trick you sooner or later or at least do it my way not yours. Besides the titles above, his voice sends the same message in Fantastic Mr. Fox [review: Liviu] or Ocean's 11-12-13 series... Well, here it seems only sad but still we get the I'm gonna do it my way not yours.


The story?

You know, it's that type of story that when leaving the theater you feel both relaxed and rather tired at the same time.

Cool things Clooney does during the movie:

• gathering stuff for the weapon, assembling the parts, testing it
• putting in a sad & stressed face all the time
• charming the 3 female (2 for sure, 1 just during the picnic after testing the weapon) characters with his sad face
• shooting the bad guys and killing them quick and smart, nothing hero & fancy-like
• dying at the end

I'm not telling you the story, not even giving any other little spoilers! Should you want to know, then watch it. Or find another source of info on the net.

Bonus: Clooney charms and/or interacts with 3 beautiful women: Irina Björklund [google image search], Thekla Reuten [google image search] and Violante Placido [google image search]. He's good!


Does it feel sad? Does it get close to an European-like movie?

Indeed, overall the movie seems sort of sad.

Yes, it is kind of European-like: Clooney gets close to that style (with the sadness and sex/nudity scenes), but he does not cross the limit - very smart of him, 'cause otherwise he would have received a bad review from me-the-almighty-irrelevant-critic that I am :D...

However, I must emphasize that you need to have the taste for such movies, since otherwise you might just think of it as a bad, boring & sad movie. It's really smart and profound actually, but you need to understand it.


... any good laughs?

Oh yes, of course. Many very good laughs. Beware they're very subtle, very different from the Hollywood style of producing laughter, i.e. they're subtly hidden - again, you must have the taste for such things... I totally enjoyed these subtle funny & ironic moments.


Clooney for Oscar?

Nominee? Well, yes, certainly. He does a great part.

Winner? I'd like that, yes. He's very good here.
Probably the committee would point out that this is clearly the type of parts he does very well (e.g. in Syriana and Michael Clayton it's roughly the same sadness coming out), therefore they might hesitate to award him - hey, they may want from an actor to have had several various great parts (and I don't think they count the Ocean's 11-12-13 series or his voice in Fantastic Mr. Fox) in order to award him/her, so I can't blame them if they refuse him the privilege of winning.



Conclusions

The American - a George Clooney classic, on the sourness & bitterness & sweetness of life; worth watching, indeed.

So, yes, see you at the next Clooney-classic!

Brandul turistic al Romaniei - idei paralele

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


Daca cei din Ministerul Turismului (e.g. doamna Udrea in acest moment) raman fara idei de promovare scumpa si ineficienta a Romaniei, ar putea sa ia in considerare idei paralele. De exemplu...


Super tare tipul asta Bear Grylls [en.wikipedia] (mda, a fost putin prin Fortele Speciale Britanice, asa intr-o scurta plimbare [en.wikipedia], ca un fel de doctorat scurt de 3 ani :D), care acum face emisiunea Man vs. Wild:

• Pasiune
• Facut din suflet
• Explorator adevarat
• Mananca de toate: 
• bucati comestibile din caca de urs,
• melci adevarati (ce pregatire in stil frantuzesc, bre! direct de la sursa, suculent! :D),
• peste viu (ce sushi!) - foarte tare cum pecuieste cu mainile goale sub pietre!
• Lectii de supravieturie
• Super imagini cu ursul de aproape

Trebuie sa fii destul de nebun sa filmezi cu el [echipa de la Discovery] - isi iau masuri de precautie oamenii :D Tipul e tare [emisiunea descrisa pe wikipedia], desi se pare ca planifica (i.e. regizeaza) unele momente cam mult.


Filmele = cele 6 parti ale aventurii in Romania:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYtd_XWdGFQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkROQKHQV3A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP_ccNK-P_w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rcmUwomL8A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sLyQeibE-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGmVcjn9tYA



What TO DO:

Le putem da unor oameni pasionati ca acesta ustensile (elicopter, permis de decolare/aterizare/survol etc.) si eventual bani (nah, asta-i jobul) ca sa ne cutreiere tara si sa scoata super filme ca acesta! Ei vor fi multumiti pentru ca vaneaza adrenalina, noi ne facem brand! Sounds like good marketing to me! Apoi adunam toate filmele intr-un loc, le facem publice si gata, avem super video-uri de promovare free facute super tare de cei pasionati de asta! Go [professional] crowd sourcing!

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Intr-adevar, au mai trecut si cei de la Top Gear pe Transfagarasan demult [Vimeo] - da, le-a placut. Cand exploatam emisiunea lor? Am citit destule nemultumiri la momentul respectiv ca Ministerul Turismului a scapat printre degete sansa aia...

King of Thorn [Movie (animation) review]

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

As part of my desire to watch some animations at... Anim'est [official site] (doh, of course!), I've chosen this time King of Thorn [official site - English version; IMDB quoting the start of a review and the rest at TwitchFilm.net; details on the comic on en.wikipedia] - it seemed interesting, I don't know. Besides, I don't know anything about Japanese comics & movies, so I decided to give it a shot. Don't worry if my reasoning doesn't make sense - it's my fault :)


All in all, how's this movie/animation compared to Pixar/Dreamworks etc.?

Indeed, it's different, because it's the Japanese culture there. I liked the story, but not so much some parts of the characters' behavior. An interesting experience overall. If it only had the fine details in the Hollywood style... that would have been awesome!


The story? Medusa virus?

Story: complicated, yet coherent. The story develops in a catchy & intriguing manner. Everything makes sense in the end. I enjoyed it.

Medusa virus - great idea: the virus (which turns people into rocks eventually) gives one the ability to turn whatever they imagine into material/live things which interact with everything (people, the environment etc.). Well, there are some catches here:

1. Nobody knows that the virus actually enables the materialization (i.e. into live things) of one's imagination.
2. Everyone affected by it seems to be having psychological problems, i.e. some traumas collected at some point in their lives.
3. One does not realize they're affected by the virus.
4. Not even the one imagining stuff realizes it's them imagining it.
5. The imagined stuff is usually harmful or very disturbing & disruptive for everyone else.

I've got the spoiler at the end of the post, in case you're interested...


Is it smart as TwitchFilm.net claims it is? Are the ideas in it worth thinking about?

Yes, it's smart. It caught me until the end, when all made sense.

The idea that the Medusa virus had been here all throughout the history and enabled evolution...


Male characters? European-American-like...

Funny, but we have the:

• English originally-undercover-commando-military-trained cool & helpful guy
• Black American & family-type ex-policeman
• Old & having-committed-bribery-to-reach-into-the-cryogenic-project Italian male politician
• The strong & powerful & in-charge-of-the-cryogenic-project Russian ex-Ministry-of-Internal-Affairs-something now working in the private sector
• Northern looking like (could be European or American/Canadian) & blond scientist/researcher guy
• The kid could be anything. Forget him.

So, all the main male characters (except the kid) are European-American-like... Funny thing.


Female characters?

They're all Japanese I believe. The blond nice-looking female might not be. I don't know.


What are the differences that the Japanese style brings into this animation?

Well, that's the really bad part of this animation and I feel sorry that the Japanese have this wierd way of expressing themselves:

• It's all talked in Japanese which I find uncomfortable, i.e. stressing for my ears
• Voices sound like children voices
• When characters shout they sound & look so childish - maybe it's the language or the Japanese behavior... either way, it's so annoying & stressing! And they shout every 5-10 minutes! :)) What? They have bad nerves or communication problems in that country?
• Drawing young females in the Japanese style is kind of weird: they have long legs, short skirts (which sometimes the wind moves a bit), long socks (i.e. up to the knee), which leaves no space for the ass - Do Japanese young females have an ass? Really, it's a serious question! It seems like a fetish of theirs to me of not having one. Hey, I like the ass, it's very nice, it's a sign of fertility, ok? It should be drawn proportionally with the rest of the body! There should be a rule for that in Japan!
• They have this passion for showing blood from now and then, i.e. every time one of the characters dies.

King of Thorn (if it were a real movie, not an animation) vs. Inception [IMDB]?

Given that it had:

• been done as a real movie (therefore not an animation)
• been provided the same cast & post production & special effects etc.

, King of Thorn (as a real movie, not an animation) could have kicked the ass of Inception if it only had:

1. been spoken in English
2. had the fine details processed as in the Hollywood style (you know all that glamour & Di Caprio's way of chewing words [1] etc.), targeted for an American-European audience (the Japanese style looks/sounds/feels weird - even the please-do-not-illegally-tape-record-this-movie ad before the movie is weird)

Are you kidding me? No, that's the truth. The story & storytelling would feel better than Inception's given the same Hollywood-style packing [2].



Conclusions

King of Thorn - I enjoyed it, although the Japanese culture repeatedly kicked in destroying the mood and annoyed me at times. Wait until the end. If you didn't get it, read my spoiler. I do not find it suitable for children.

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[1] Credits for Di Caprio talks in Inception as if he's chewing words go to Andrei [site]

[2] Indeed, Hollywood has mastered to perfection the ability to nicely pack all elements in a movie.

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Spoiler - do not read this

One of the twin girls kills by accident the other one when standing on the cliff before entering the castle, which leads to her trauma. Her remorse [m-w] determine the bad things that happen all around them; everything stops when she acknowledges what her subconscious has tried to hide. How long are they all asleep? 48 hours only; then hell breaks loose. She and the kid live, everyone else dies.

Metropia [Movie (animation) review]

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


Anim'est [official site] again, of course. I've chosen to watch the apparently creepy Metropia [official site; IMDB; cinemagia in Romanian; google search].


Dark images, shades of gray...?

Well, I'm kind of bad at naming colors, but it seems there are mostly shades of gray whatever, everything's very dark etc. - well, it goes perfect with the tone of the movie, i.e. the pessimistic & sad world [story] that the movie envisions etc. We do get some colors from now and then, but rarely.

I'm gonna be nasty about this: since it's a cooperation Sweden + Denmark + Norway + Finland, maybe the dark images make sense after all - in many parts of Scandinavia / Northern countries [en.wikipedia] they get little light (therefore a lot of dark)
=> Examples of worst day lengths:

• Stockholm: November, December (the day lasts only 6 h), January
• Copenhagen: December, January
• Oslo: November, December (a bit under 6 hours), January
• Helsinki: November, December (again, a bit under 6 hours), January

... now think those are the day lengths computed as the difference between sunrise and sunset, therefore that does not mean sunlight :) Now count in the clouds and/or rain due to the proximity of the ocean all around... (OK-OK, they call them seas: Baltic Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea - I see them as the ocean, since they're not clearly trapped.)



The story? What's with the voices inside the guy's head? What about the woman in the trailer? The conspiracy? Does he win?

The story stops somewhat halfway between complicated and straightforward; it develops nicely and coherent; ok, maybe it's 60% complicated and 40% straightforward, I don't know.

We do get (doh!) an European-pessimistic approach/style overall. Could it have been otherwise?! :))

At times, the atmosphere feels like in 1984 [IMDB] or Equilibrium [IMDB], i.e. some overwhelming tension all around in the air pressing on everything & everyone although one has no clear idea where it comes from.


Spoiler: Indeed, the sexy woman (Nina) manipulates the normal-dumb-Roger-guy and everyone else so to get her father killed. Why? Well, he was the main stockholder of Trexx, i.e. the company running Europe's underground web of transportation. Also, Trexx developed the technology for manipulating people by speaking in their heads (I'm not telling you how the shampoo worked :p). So, she can inherit all now: the transportation web, and the shampoo technology-for-speaking-into-people's-heads since Roger only blew up the Scandinavian floor of the manipulation headquarters, but they did not destroy the shampoo factory when she has shown it to him.

So, we get kind of half of a happy end, which I consider a huge breakthrough given the European pleasure for breaking/crushing destinies in movies etc. I still am surprised they didn't eventually crush Roger... - do they plan on making a sequel? :D


Overall, a fresh approach I'd say; I find it encouraging to see Europeans pull off an animation like this. It's not Pixar or Dreamworks, of course, but it works. It could have made it into mainstream, people might have liked it.

Definitely an animation for adults - it doesn't have anything to entertain children.
I joked on it, yes, but the subject is serious.



Conclusions

Metropia - good story, indeed, but the European-pessimistic approach/style prevails (which I say it's bad). It would have been fair for Metropia to make it into mainstream - some adults would have enjoyed it; children couldn't and wouldn't have understood it.

Fantastic Mr. Fox [Movie (animation) review]

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


OK, so Anim'est [official site] has continued, therefore I've chosen to watch the funny & entertaining Fantastic Mr. Fox [official site; IMDB; cinemagia in Romanian; google search].


Voices?

Wow, cool people & good voices [cast]. No wonder the voices sound so good. George Clooney as Mr. Fox and Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox sound really good, they fit together perfectly.


... but the movie doesn't look like the classic animations/cartoons we've seen until now at cinema, does it?

No, it doesn't. They say it is stop-motion [en.wikipedia] - all in all, it is not that continuous flow that I am used to. If it were that Pixar- or Dreamworks-style of animation... wow, it would have rocked! Or... even better: Monsters Inc [IMDB] style of detailed (heavy rendering) animation... However, it looks very good, it feels very good, but still I prefer the continuous flow of everything instead of this stop-motion thing. 


The story? 

The story develops in a smart manner over time: quite a lot of catchy twists and turns, combined with lots of action. One doesn't get bored that's for sure!

...but Mr. Fox lacks responsibility as a parent. OK, he might save the situation (and he does it really well) many times, but the situation they have ended up in the first place is due to his desire for the danger of stealing chickens & ducks & cider from the 3 bad farmers [1] - ok, ok, he's a fox so he needs to steal chickens & ducks et. al. cause we're wild animals. I think Roald Dahl [en.wikipedia] wrote Fantastic Mr Fox [book] with the purpose of teaching children: That's what happens when parents are irresponsible - their family gets hurt... So grow up into a good parent, young man!

It's nice how all the other animals jump in to support Mr Fox, i.e. try to help him get out of the trouble he got himself into.

In the end, Mr Fox doesn't solve the situation - just that they're stealing from the 3 bad farmers' supermarket far away doesn't mean they're safe. They kind of just postponed their sentence. In the long term, that will just get the farmers more annoyed and more determined on catching them.



Conclusions

Fantastic Mr. Fox - great story, catchy twists and turns, lots of action. However, please note that Mr Fox is actually an irresponsible parent and due his actions he puts his family at risk.

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[1] If he had done this to teach the bad farmers a lesson, then it might have had a point. However, the only reason behind Mr Fox's the triple strike is just proving himself as a great thief fox - he wants to be fantastic, that's what he says. He just wants to outsmart the bad farmers.
If from the beginning he had lead a crusade against the 3 bad farmers with the help of the rest of the animals... well, that would have been completely different. But he did not. He just put his family at risk for the sake of his ego.

Despicable Me [Movie (animation) review]

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Finally, I got to see the much talked about animation Despicable Me [official site; IMDB; cinemagia in Romanian; google search]. Good thing this Anim'est [official site] festival we get around here in Bucharest these days!


Is the despicable guy really despicable? Does the despicable guy make kids and/or other people feel bad and other bad stuff? Most importantly, is he a funny bad guy (even when bad things happen to him)?

Yes, he's funny. Not that despicable. He's got a good soul - sorry to spoil the surprise ;)

There are other more despicable characters in the movie: the female administrator of the orphan girls' house and the chairman of Evil Bank. Beware of those!


... shall my child cry during the movie?

Oh, no. Sorry. :)) A-ha-ha, that was so funny of me! Right?

Seriously now: they won't cry, of course. However, they may feel bad at times, I think - I do not know how they take some pieces of humor, since it's kind of dark/selfish/crude a couple of times - you just cannot offer a child a toy horse made out of balloons with the purpose of blowing it up right after you give it to him - for me it may be funny, but not for a kid.

Therefore, although the movie talks about (converging the bad buy to) kindness, I wouldn't quite take my child(ren) see it [1], nor recommend it to parents.


What about the story? Is the animation funny? (It certainly seems so in the trailers.)

Kind of light; too straightforward. I did not hold my breath at any time - felt the story lighter than in Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore [official site; IMDB].

I had several very good laughs throughout the movie:

• The army of yellow robots, i.e. the minions, is so damn funny all the time
• Gru's dog - I wish they have really rendered his fur
• When Gru enters the evil bank, there's a sign saying Bank of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers) :)) which was so funny. Come on, don't you know the Lehman bankruptcy story due to the subprime crisis? [en.wikipedia] Now this is the kind of joke that Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps [blog post: review] should have presented in order to make it a great movie!
• Victor self-called Vector - funny at times. (The character had much potential though, which they have wasted.)

Yes, it is a funny movie, worth watching. They could have built a better story, that's all.


... so the bad guy turns good?

Yes, he does. Maybe I'm too old, therefore I have predicted the guy shall turn good, but I've had this weird feeling he was eager to turn good. At no point I took into consideration that he may remain a bad guy after all. It was too obvious he would become good.



Conclusions

Despicable Me - light story; a funny movie overall, worth watching. However, it may prove inappropriate for children at times. Also, they could have built a better story.

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[1] I do not have children, therefore this dilemma is already solved. Phew!