BrownPenguin.com

Saw VI

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Movie Review: Saw VI

The sixth film in this horror series shows signs of a weakening storyline, but at the same time tries very hard to stay fresh. Since the events in Saw III, the killer has been shown primarily in flashbacks, and that remains true for this newest installment. And much like in the previous two movies, the character's lack of interaction with present events make the situations less direct. In the early movies, Jigsaw monitored every trap, and either he or his almost worthy apprentice Amanda were part of the main "game" of each movie.

Unfortunately here, Jigsaw's assistants are carrying out all of his work without the scary passion of Jigsaw and insanity of Amanda. Instead, we are given Detective Hoffman and Jill Kramer, neither of which seems to share the same level of passion that Jigsaw and Amanda brought to the story. This has been a flaw since Saw VI that weakens the danger throughout the movie, because less brilliant and less scary individuals are in control of the traps.

The main game is still quite interesting, despite the fact that less interesting characters are in control. Various deadly traps are set up to punish individuals working for a sleazy insurance company that coldly denies coverage to many of its customers, including of course John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer. The flashbacks are some of the strongest parts of the movie, including Jigsaw being denied coverage for a procedure, as well as new revelations about Amanda. Like the previous movies, this one connects to many of the events in the previous movies, a solid attempt at expanding the story instead of just rehashing the previous storylines.

The ending is one of the better endings of the Saw series, all the storylines coming together fairly well with a couple of shocking moments. Some of the traps are rather intense and Saw fans will appreciate the hard work in creating fresh new terrifying traps for each movie. However, overall, with so much focus on pawns of Jigsaw rather than Jigsaw himself, viewers may find the story growing weaker its with unfocused character development. And by the end, one has to wonder whether the likely next sequel is necessary, even if they enjoyed this installment.

Astro Boy

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:33:00 +0000

Movie Review: Astro Boy

Astro Boy is a movie for children, but has a story that all ages can appreciate and enjoy. There are messages on scientific and social morality, told with imaginative characters and colorful animation.

The movie does bring up the moral issue of advanced intelligent robots and the how they should be treated. Since they are programmed and made of metal instead of flesh, should they be treated any better than a metal can on the ground? In this movie, robots are widely treated as expendable, no matter how intelligent or human-like their programming. In one scene, an intelligent robot is being used as a test dummy for a car. The robot waves goodbye to the humans and the humans wave back, aware that the robot has human-like intelligence, but has no problem destroying it a moment later. There are many scenes of disregard of robots throughout the film.

The main character of Toby, later nicknamed Astro Boy, was also victim of poor treatment of robots. Once a real boy, now a robot with human memories, his father abandoned him soon after making the robot version of his real son who died from an invention gone wrong. Even though the robot boy pleaded to who he considered to be his father, the father flatly told him that he did not want him around and ordered him to leave. There was no consideration for feelings at all, just a cold banishment because of the fact that Toby was a robot.

Although there are some dark themes in this movie, there are still imaginative characters and storytelling that will appeal to younger viewers. The struggle with being equal to humans is also fun and exciting, meeting new characters like Cora who is among a group of kids without parents. There are also amusing robot characters who help that help him along in his journey.

The animation is certainly different from the original televison program and comics, this time in entirely three-dimensional cgi. This will brings a different aspect to the characters, making them a little more lifelike. Children may enjoy the impressive action sequences and the humorous scenes. The humor is not all throughout, focusing more on a good imaginative story than making children laugh. There are positive message about doing what is right, even if it society does not punish us for doing wrong.

The heavy focus on scientific and social morality may be distracting for some just looking for a straightforward fun kids movie. A movie like this might even be better suited for live action to better relate the serious themes. But for anyone, kids and adults, who do not mind message heavy sci-fi tales will have fun with the story and impressive animation.

Precious

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:44:00 +0000

Movie Review: Precious

Great acting performances can sometimes make a film jump from good to great, and this is the case for the movie Precious from director Lee Daniels. The story itself is a drama about a dysfunctional mother and daughter unit, the daughter struggling in school and life.

There is great character development throughout the film. Each of the characters and the actors playing them are what made this movie so rich and interesting. The main character Precious, played by Gabourey Sidibe, does fantastic at playing an uneducated teenager in pain, relying on her fantasies as a method of coping. Throughout the film we get to see her struggle in finding some form of happiness as well as her exponentially worsening feelings towards her mother. The journey is saddening to watch, played naturally and fearlessly. Sidibe's very realistic reactions to all the terrible events and dialogue make the overall story and character that much more real and therefore more intense.

The cast is not a common one people would expect for a serious drama, a mixture of several comedians and singers, including Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, and Sherri Shepherd. However, the director clearly wanted to show them in a different light, placing them in roles different from their previous and even their appearance less glamorous than their fans would expect. The acting itself was very strong among all of them. Actress Paula Patton does well in the positive role of Ms. Rain, reaching out selflessly to a girl in need. Mariah Carey has a similar role with Ms. Weiss, another helpful ladder of hope Precious uses to reach where she wants to be. Mo'Nique stands out the most as a bitter and cruel single mother, using her own twisted logic as reason to verbally and physically abuse her daughter. It is fascinating to see such an cruel character express themselves as passionately as Mo'Nique was able to do. Her performance is certainly worth considering for the next award season.

Anyone who does not mind watching dark dramas will likely be affected by this movie, will relate to Precious's depressing situation, and will hope for a better tomorrow as the character does. The message of hope evens out the dark tone a little bit, but like real life, even if there is hope at the end of the tunnel, the past will always haunt. And after viewing this movie, the dark and realistic tone will linger as well, but there is hope that even in the darkest of situations that life brings us, there is still some good out there that be found and achieved.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:27:00 +0000

Movie Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Vampires, Werewolves, and love are the main ingredients in the blend of genres that is The Twilight Saga : New Moon. The main difference from the previous Twilight film is the werewolves have a more prominent role this time around, and the lead female character Bella once again has a new love interest that is sensitive but at the same time dark, mysterious, and part monster.

The werewolf in her life is Jacob, who at first seems relatively normal like in the previous movie. But later, it is revealed that he has become a werewolf, a species that has a fued with the vampires. This adds to the already numerous emotions that Bella feels, because not only is she in love with a vampire who has a family that wants to feast on her, but now she has a best friend who is the enemy of that love who also has a dark and violent side. Anywhere Bella turns will be a complicated and somewhat painful road, and this is what this movie explores greatly.

Emotion is important in any kind of science fiction or fantasy peice. It is what grounds the movie in reality and make the audience still relate to it, even with its far-fetched premise. New Moon has plenty of this, with love, allegiance, loss, and fear. But the lead characters response to all these emotions may divide some of the audience.

Audiences will either relate to Bella and her painful struggle with her lost love, or will be annoyed by her greatly, considering her pain and pitiful appearance stays with her throughout the entire movie. There is scene after scene of her either talking about how painful it is to be away from her vampire love Edward or doing something wreckless because of it. Some wreckless behavior includes jumping off a tall cliff into water and getting onto the motorcycle of a strange man probably twice her age. Some may be sympathetic and understanding of her rather idiotic behavior, but others may start to dislike the character for being overly obsessed with one person.

For fans of vampire and werewolf tales, they may appreciate the few action sequence where the two species face each other, and some versus themselves. But overall, they may find the love story to be a bit too much and decreasing their enjoyment of the film. Others who enjoy emotion-rich love stories will likely find the film interesting whether or not they agree with Bella's behavior fully or not. It is a love story that spans multiple books, and now movies, and many will follow the emotional ride. Its blend of romance and horror and fantasy will attract various audiences, though all of which may feel a little cheated out of their favorite genre due to the movie trying to balance them all.

2012

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:36:00 +0000

Movie Review: 2012

Grand Effects, Grand Story, Grand Ridiculousness. The makers of 2012 definitely wanted to leave all previous disaster movies in the dust as far as visuals, and they succeeded, but in the process they made it extremely unbelievable as well.

If someone were to research 2012, they would find various predictions and other info on how in 2012 the earth will undergo some sort of disaster that will change it drastically or destroy it completely. Is there any truth to it? The movie 2012 does not aim to convince the audience this will indeed happen. There is a lack of contemplation over the theory by any characters. It is simply a sudden realization that the world will end, followed by two hours of ridiculous amounts of damage to the world, mostly through immense earthquakes.

Character development exists, although there are far too many characters to gain significant feelings for them. Unlike director Roland Emmerich's superior disaster movie Independence Day, most of the characters in 2012 lack strong and heartfelt dialogue. Instead there is some forced humor in a very disastrous situation that should be darker than the disaster movies before it, because it is inspired by true historical information and theory. One of the few characters that stayed appropriately serious throughout the movie was Chiwetel Ejiofor's character Adrian, who also delivered one of the only serious monologues in the movie.

Where one may find enjoyment in the movie is primarily in the action sequences and special effects. Those are the two aspects where the movie really succeeds. There are buildings falling, earth shattering, running/flying/jumping from fire, tsunamis, and many, many more visually enticing sequences with very impressive effects. If these scenes were backed up with realistic and less caricature characters and story development, these scenes would feel far more intense. Instead, these scenes were good to look at only, but not believable. And considering 2012 knowledge is quickly becoming more widespread, it would have been an easy opportunity for the filmmakers to dig into the existing fears of the audience and create drama they could connect with.

Impressive effects and action sequences overshadow the story, characters, and talented actors. Although the movie was not as realistic or dramatic as it could have been, perhaps it can calm the audience's mind on just how real the 2012 predictions are. If the movie would not take the predictions seriously and made a mostly humorous action movie, perhaps the real 2012 should not be taken too seriously either. And if it does turn out to be real, we can only hope to be as unrealistically lucky as some of the characters in this movie.

The Fourth Kind

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:53:00 +0000

Movie Review: The Fourth Kind

How do you make today’s audience truly horrified? Imply that everything in the movie is true. That is the strategy for the sci-fi thriller The Fourth Kind, directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. The movie, from the very beginning, is presented as a recreation of true events involving extra-terrestrials, the "fourth kind" being the last on a scale of alien encounters ranging from sighting to of course abduction. The lead actress even tells the audience this in a short opening monologue about how the character she is playing is based on a real woman and how real footage will be mixed in as proof the reenactments are of real events.

Alien abduction is the focus of this movie, but fortunately it steers away from far-fetched visuals and events to an extent. There are still some almost too bizarre to believe events that occur, but fortunately this movie kept them as realistic as possible. The limits of realism are pushed to almost an unreal point, but never far enough where the audience can be 100% certain whether or not they are being shown truth or fiction. And with truth being a possibility, meaning witnessing alien abduction being a possibility, the events on screen are significantly more frightening.

Some who are more skeptical may find themselves too preoccupied with figuring out how much of the film, or if any of it, are true events and real footage being used. These individuals may not be as shocked or entertained by the movie because of this. At the core, The Fourth Kind is a mystery. It is a mystery of both the unknown (aliens) and the mind. Without proof, no matter how many people experience it, all claims are questionable. Writer/Director Osunsanmi does a great job in constantly returning the story to realism and not exploiting the more bizarre events.

It is not often that someone can refer to a science-fiction story as realistic, but Osunsanmi has done just that. At times, one may doubt the validity of what is shown, and this is one fault that could negatively affect some viewers’ experiences with the movie. The movie itself even has its share of characters who doubt the validity, so it is not as if the filmmaker ignored relevant skepticism. Instead, it was embraced, and a story was told that may seem unreal, but the realistic conspiracy-driven plot will make The Fourth Kind worthy of discussion whether it is fact or fiction.