My excuse for not posting for more than a month is that I've been obsessed with watching the Olympics. Well I guess that's not really an excuse since it's only been on for over a fortnight.... Anyway I shall not ramble on too much and quickly cruise through the three movies I've consumed in the last few weeks.
The first is
Millennium Actress, a Japanese animated film that I watched because I love the director Satoshi Kon's more famous feature
Paprika. The plot is a lot more demure and less ambitious, recounting the lovelorn life story of a now reclusive actress.
 |
| Sadness weaves in and out of the roles the actress plays and her real life |
I say demure, but being a Satoshi Kon film it still retains all the whimsical surrealist imagery that I actually sometimes find more refreshing than Studio Ghibli's features *shock horror*. I feel that this film tries to say a lot about the main character's tragic romantic quest, but is buried under too much symbolism and left me a little befuddled, even more than usual with Japanese cinema. I guess I was hoping for more of Paprika's smorgasbord of visuals.
TL;DR VERDICT: 3.5/5 stars, tugs on my heartstrings but left wanting something more
Second off the list is none other than
The Dark Knight Rises. Is there really anything to say? Everyone who hasn't been living under a rock has seen it already, and even those who haven't have already formed their own opinion of it.
Christopher Nolan reunites his
Inception buddies to party down in Gotham City and does a pretty good job of it. Ed Hardy as the calculating brute Bane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young police officer and Marion Cotillard as Batman's socialite girly.
Yes we made fun of Batman's voice as usual afterwards, and even pretended to speak like a maniacal Bane as well (how
inaudible was his voice?). But everything is as you imagined, being the last installment of Nolan's amazing trilogy. I was even impressed with Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, and a very clever rendition of her cat ears that made me go "Ooohhh I get it...". Only thing I could comment on was the slightly rushed ending that seemed to try and round off everything too quickly.
TL;DR VERDICT: 4.5/5 stars, nananana nananana BATMAN! ie. it's very good, almost better than
The Dark Knight
Lastly I decided to continue on my Godfather journey and watch
Part II (Roman numerals so fancy) of the trilogy. OH MY GOD, Robert De Niro, I have a whole new outlook on you. Since when did you ooze so much class and become so
smooth? I know I sound like a complete film bimbo for not realising your acting potential beyond imposing dads in B grade romantic comedies.
 |
| A behind the scenes shot but look at this suave father-son duo |
De Niro portrays young Vito from Part I as part of the parallel storylines with his son Michael's story as the new Godfather. To be honest I enjoyed Vito's rags to riches story a lot more than Michael's. It was a lot more empowering I guess, than the progressively more depressing descent of his son's.
The juxtaposition between the two storylines just makes it even more heartbreaking as the Corleone family dynamics shift ever more towards dysfunction. I think breaking it up also made the length of the movie more bearable (although I did watch it in two sittings because my movie buddy fell asleep....). Now I just have to watch
Part III for closure, and ignore the huge plot points I accidentally spoiled for myself. *sigh*
TL;DR VERDICT: 5/5 stars, two epic mafia storylines in one movie make sitting on your butt for 3 hours worthwhile
That's all for now, I'm very excited about a few upcoming trailers and such, will probably post on them soon!
