Thursday 27 October 2011

In-flight movies

The one advantage of long-haul transatlantic flights with KLM was the very impressive range of films available for in-flight entertainment. Of course, this is tempered by having to watch them on a screen slightly less impressive than this laptop, and having to press the naff earphones into my skull to hear much over the noise of the 747. Before I give any more excuses for these briefest of reviews, this is what I watched.


Green Lantern (2011)


One of the main selling points of Green Lantern was the special effects, and given that I was watching on a tiny screen, they were lost on me. This meant that I could concentrate on mundane things such as acting, script, and character development (so old school!). I thought Ryan Reynolds was both bored and boring, he was a bit of a cocky Maverick type initially (his first 20 min of the film was essentially Top Gun, but nowhere near as good), acted like he couldn't care less when he went to Oa, and I don't really feel that he became humble or redeemed himself by the end (despite defeating Megamind Parallax). I thought Mark Strong was completely wasted, and Peter Sarsgaard's character was just plain weird/rubbish. I realise that this "origin" kind of film required a lot of exposition, but I think it could have been done so much better; and given that the Green Lantern can summon anything he can imagine, I thought the film really lacked imagination.



Rango (2011)


This was really quite fun; quirky story, excellent animation, really good voice actors. I felt that the actors would be obvious and over the top as they can sometimes be in animations, (I was worried about Johnny Depp in particular), but they weren't. Rather than model the characters on the actor, I felt the actors really tried to fit the characters, which is how it should be really. In addition to the animation being first class, the use of high contrast in the desert, and the use of shadows indoors gave it a very different feeling to most of Pixar/Dreamworks offerings; it felt more gritty and somehow more real. Perhaps this is because Roger Deakins was a visual consultant on the film, and also having ILM do the animation probably helped. The music by Hans Zimmer was pretty cool too. A very enjoyable animated adventure from Gore Verbinski.


The Adjustment Bureau (2011)


Director George Nolfi's first film is an interesting take on the idea that we don't have free will, and that our lives are predetermined. Matt Damon is running to be elected as the mayor of  New York, when he meets dancer Elise (Emily Blunt). They get on really well, but they are not destined to be together. There is an organisation whose job it is to make sure that everything in the world proceeds according to plan, and Matt Damon's career is far to important to be distracted by Elise. The organisation is the Adjustment Bureau, and via some high-tech gizmos, as well as the ability to open doors (literally) to anywhere, they set about adjusting the world (well New York anyway) so that humans don't destroy themselves. Matt Damon is alright, as is Emily Blunt; far more interesting were John Slattery and Terence Stamp as members of the Bureau. The film was very interesting and had a very Matrixy feel to it. Of course it was rather the wrong kind of film to watch on the plane as there was a lot of dialogue that was difficult to hear. It will definitely be going on my LoveFilm list though.


Battle Los Angeles (2011)



I started watching this because I couldn't get to sleep, and I thought it might help! Unfortunately it was better than I expected and I didn't fall asleep at all. If I was grading it in Hogwarts I would definitely give it an EE; it exceeds expectations. Aliens are landing all over the world and the film follows a squad of marines in Los Angeles as they attempt to resist the invasion. Aaron Eckhart is an unlikely hero, but he does well enough, Michelle Rodriguez is probably the other most interesting character, but this is hardly a character driven film. Director Jonathan Liebesman has made an okay action movie, probably because he chose to position the camera very close to the marines to give it an almost documentary feel that is very reminiscent of Black Hawk Down. The aliens are pretty cool as well. Not as bad as expected, but hardly a great movie.

11 comments:

  1. Ooh, long flight! Where did you go?

    The only one I've watched of these is The Adjustment Bureau, which I really enjoyed. I missed The Great Lantern as it just didn't appeal though I was quite interested in Battle: LA... until I saw the reviews! If it exceeded your expectations then I might add it to my rental list.

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  2. Where did I go? All will be revealed soon (I feel that I'm building this up too much!).

    Yeah, the Green Lantern was fairly lame; Battle LA isn't a great film, but for a bit of entertaining nonsense it was alright.

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  3. wow what a shocking mix of films...

    OLD too huh?

    GL and B:LA are two of the worst films this year

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  4. Scott: There were a lot of good films (or so I've heard) such as Bridesmaids, Black Book, Source Code, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid among them; the logic for my choice was that I'd rather give the better films my full attention on DVD or wherever.

    I figured I'd never be bothered to watch the likes of GL or B:LA ever again so I might as well kill some time on the plane with them. Is that a reasonable justification?

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  5. Since those entertainment systems became common on flights I really love flying. Great way to see a lot of movies without much distraction. I'm not interested in seeing The Green Latern, but saw the other ones. Didn't like the Adjustment Bureau that much, but loved the other two!

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  6. Nostra: It is a great way to see movies, it's just a shame that the headphones they supply you with are total rubbish.

    I liked the Adjustment Bureau enough to want to see it again and give it the attention I think it deserves. Rango was definitely the best film out of these four though.

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  7. Loved all the films you reviewed above, with Rango being my favorite. I decided to skip The Adjustment Bureau though.

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  8. Nebular: I thought that The Adjustment Bureau was fairly interesting, despite rubbish sound on the plane; like I said I'll have to watch it again sometime.

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  9. I liked portions of Green Lantern- thugh I'll be the first to admit that unless you can see the spectacle it's kind of weak.
    I really liked adjustment Bureau a great deal. It wasn't what I expected at all which I think helped it in my eyes.
    I'm still trying to get my head around Rango. I have no idea what I thought of it, though I have to say I am damn impressed that the film made a mint at the US box office since it's so left of center I would have been certain the film was doomed from the start.

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  10. dbborroughs: I read your review of Green Lantern and was surprised that you enjoyed it so much, but then it sounds like you were a GL fan already. I knew nothing about him and felt the film was really insubstantial.

    I really thought Rango was great though, definitely worth another look if you're still not sure.

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