REVIEWS: Millennium Actress (2001), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) & The Godfather: Part II (1974)

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!

Blockbusted

Two major action packed movies have released new trailers and the first is Christopher Nolan's third installment in his Batman adaptations. The Dark Knight Rises releases its third trailer:

This immediately reminded me of the trailer of Nolan's other epic Inception. Besides the presence of Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, both are tied together with deceptively quiet background music that blows up to a crescendo, successfully pulling audiences in. You know, that famous BUAAAAAMMMMM that is now synonymous with Inception. Other action movie trailer editors should take note.

I thoroughly enjoyed the last installment of the franchise, The Dark Knight, and look forward to more of the careful controlled suspense Nolan is famous for. And even though Christian Bale was majorly upstaged by Heath Ledger last time, there will be a new baddie (it's always more fun to play the evil guy) Bane (Tom Hardy) to look forward to. And even though we can't actually see much of his mug behind that Saw-like contraption (shoosh, I'm not well read in comic books), there is lots to look forward to. Anne Hathaway proves that she might even be able to pull off the Catwoman role. I mean, who doesn't still see her as Mia Theamapoulos (sp?).

I am much much more excited about the next movie in question. If you know me in person and I haven't ranted to you yet about Prometheus, then I will probably do so the next time I see you. Check out the new international launch trailer (pish posh it's just another trailer) below:

Why am I excited? I think the first few trailers and teasers have captured my heart already, pretty much. Ridley Scott, god of sci-fi, returns with an epic prequel to Alien with visuals and audios to match. Ok I'll admit, I haven't watched Alien and the only Scott movie that I've watched, Blade Runner, was for school and a bit of a let down after I pumped up my expectations. But I will admit that it was probably groundbreaking at the time, and as a recently new sci-fi fan, Prometheus looks amazeballs.

There's not much to say for the story as it is all in the trailer. This can also be a bad thing as many YouTube comments have pointed out that it gives away too much............I guess. I don't really mind as these movies are pretty predictable anyway, but at the same time entertaining because of that. Plus I've been actively trying to pry my eyes away from the copious amounts of Prometheus featurettes, viral ad campaigns, etc to stop hyping myself up.

Can't WAIT to see this on the big screen, ahhhhhhh.