Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince is a fans only movie. If you have never seen any of the Harry Potter movies and suddenly decide to see what the fuss is about...this is not the movie to start with. Don't get me wrong - the movie is terrific! But you need to be following the story. AND it would help if you reviewed the last movie, The Order of the Phoenix, before seeing this one.
Once again the movie can stand on it's own for someone who has not read the book but just barely. You know the movie mommy rule about movies made from books - the movie has to be enjoyed without reading the book. Since I did read the books it is hard to separate myself from that BUT it has been a while since I read The Half Blood Prince and much of the narrative seemed new to me.
I would call this movie the Empire Strikes Back of the Harry Potter movies. If you saw Empire in the movies and felt that pang in your stomach of, "WHAT?!?!" when it ended, that is, with no real ending to speak of. What about Han frozen in carbonite? What about Darth Vader being Luke's father? WTF?! Well, we didn't have that last acronym back then but you get the point.
However, if you read the books, The Half Blood Prince is kind of anti-climactic. You know what happens next! Dumbledore? Harry and Ginny? Raging hormones? Ron and Hermione? Snape? Malfoy? WTF?! Well, you get the point!
This movie has all the darkness you expect plus some things you have been looking forward to seeing. Like we finally see the Weasley twin's joke shop and more cool places in Hogwarts. The set designers like to keep Hogwarts changing and that is fine with me. Plus, a great Quiddith match, wand duels, dark magic, a new teacher and excellent effects.
No, I am not going to go into the plot because you will have to go and enjoy!
As a fan of the books, you will want to read the final book again after watching this movie. As a fan of the movies - you are just going to have to wait until the next movie (which I heard will actually be two movies) to finish the final story for you.
You are just going to have to live with that Empire feeling in your stomach.
MMMM1/2Ms (out of 5 M's)
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Transformers 2
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: I don't ask a lot from a movie. I like to leave my brain at the door and be entertained. BUT I don't need the film maker to assume I did leave my brain at the door and make a movie that is well...brainless.
This movie suffers from the same problem the first Transformers movie did - The Transformers are more interesting and well thought out characters than the flesh and blood ones.
Shia LaBeouf had some obvious potential in The Greatest Game Ever Played but has since squandered any talent in material such as this and the last Indiana Jones installment. I know it isn't easy talking to a character that isn't there (special effects) but at least give it some effort. The rest of the cast are well known and reliable character actors but seem to wince their way through this lame material.
The Transformer thing never gets old, I have to admit. I totally dig those guys going from cars, planes and truck to being big bad ass robots. Maybe that is a problem as well. I would rather see a movie of just the Transformers doing their thing. It is certainly more entertaining than anything else in the movie.
In any case, Transformers 2 follows our hero, Sam, off to college where he has some post-pubescent antics and finds out he has acquired some kind of special knowledge and now the bad guy robots, Decepticons, are after it. I can't believe it would be hard to find what is in this guy's brain, anything extra would stand out. Yawn. The military now has a special unit that is dedicated to finding these Decepticons, since the last movie, and end up bumbling through a major city and tearing it up a bit. The unit is shut down and the good robots, Autobots, are mothballed. Of course, the Decepticons stir things up and our Autobots are called on again. Big battle scenes, etc. There are some references to some old time Autobots and shows pictures of them as model T's and bi-planes. I really thought they were going to resurrect some of those. Now, that would have been cool but not to be. Please hurry up and end this 2 and half hour movie!
Another problem I have with this movie, which I also had with the first one, are the amount of US military casualties. Maybe it is because we are at war and maybe it is because much of the military bloodletting is in the desert scenes of this movie but I find it disturbing. Sure the scene with a Decepticon crashing through the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt is a stunning effect but it is also hard to watch. The ship sinks with all hands lost. We see people and planes sinking to the bottom of the ocean. I heard that kids in my son's class at school (4 and 5 year olds) were talking about seeing this movie. I cannot imagine how they felt watching a ship, much like one of their parents could be on, being destroyed. I know, I know, in most sci fi movies, such as Independence Day, the military is being obliterated left and right but something about the way this movie goes about it is different. At least for me. It also shows the military being heroic but we know this already.
This movie is not for kids. I don't want to sound like a fuddy duddy but there is some cursing (by parental types), drug references (once again by a parent) and even a reference to "cherry popping" (by a parent!). They could have called this movie, "Parents Behaving Badly."
The movie suffers on many levels and that includes - Who is the intended audience?
Yes, I am being harsh. I know it's only comic book sci fi stuff BUT after movies such as Iron Man and most recently Terminator Salvation and Star Trek - we, the fans, want more. Maybe that is my problem, the last movie I saw was Star Trek and was superior quality for sci fi and well, any movie. My suggestion is see if Star Trek is still playing and go see that.
MM (out of 5 M's) because the Transformer effects are so cool.
This movie suffers from the same problem the first Transformers movie did - The Transformers are more interesting and well thought out characters than the flesh and blood ones.
Shia LaBeouf had some obvious potential in The Greatest Game Ever Played but has since squandered any talent in material such as this and the last Indiana Jones installment. I know it isn't easy talking to a character that isn't there (special effects) but at least give it some effort. The rest of the cast are well known and reliable character actors but seem to wince their way through this lame material.
The Transformer thing never gets old, I have to admit. I totally dig those guys going from cars, planes and truck to being big bad ass robots. Maybe that is a problem as well. I would rather see a movie of just the Transformers doing their thing. It is certainly more entertaining than anything else in the movie.
In any case, Transformers 2 follows our hero, Sam, off to college where he has some post-pubescent antics and finds out he has acquired some kind of special knowledge and now the bad guy robots, Decepticons, are after it. I can't believe it would be hard to find what is in this guy's brain, anything extra would stand out. Yawn. The military now has a special unit that is dedicated to finding these Decepticons, since the last movie, and end up bumbling through a major city and tearing it up a bit. The unit is shut down and the good robots, Autobots, are mothballed. Of course, the Decepticons stir things up and our Autobots are called on again. Big battle scenes, etc. There are some references to some old time Autobots and shows pictures of them as model T's and bi-planes. I really thought they were going to resurrect some of those. Now, that would have been cool but not to be. Please hurry up and end this 2 and half hour movie!
Another problem I have with this movie, which I also had with the first one, are the amount of US military casualties. Maybe it is because we are at war and maybe it is because much of the military bloodletting is in the desert scenes of this movie but I find it disturbing. Sure the scene with a Decepticon crashing through the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt is a stunning effect but it is also hard to watch. The ship sinks with all hands lost. We see people and planes sinking to the bottom of the ocean. I heard that kids in my son's class at school (4 and 5 year olds) were talking about seeing this movie. I cannot imagine how they felt watching a ship, much like one of their parents could be on, being destroyed. I know, I know, in most sci fi movies, such as Independence Day, the military is being obliterated left and right but something about the way this movie goes about it is different. At least for me. It also shows the military being heroic but we know this already.
This movie is not for kids. I don't want to sound like a fuddy duddy but there is some cursing (by parental types), drug references (once again by a parent) and even a reference to "cherry popping" (by a parent!). They could have called this movie, "Parents Behaving Badly."
The movie suffers on many levels and that includes - Who is the intended audience?
Yes, I am being harsh. I know it's only comic book sci fi stuff BUT after movies such as Iron Man and most recently Terminator Salvation and Star Trek - we, the fans, want more. Maybe that is my problem, the last movie I saw was Star Trek and was superior quality for sci fi and well, any movie. My suggestion is see if Star Trek is still playing and go see that.
MM (out of 5 M's) because the Transformer effects are so cool.
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