McGonigle

This is one of the most visually stunning movies I've seen in a long time. The production stills and poster really do the movie a disservice by emphasizing the "pure black and pure white" nature of the animation. While the characters are, in fact, animated in only black and white (no greys) the backgrounds are rendered with an amazing level of detail in various shades of grey as well as pure black and white.

There are too many breathtaking shots to name, but some of my favorites were (1) The "magical forest" where the Ilona wakes up, (2) the Avalon president's office, which is in a grey glass cube overlooking the city, and (3) the car chase that climaxes at the foot of Notre Dame. While there is an obvious (and superficial) visual resemblance to Sin City, I found that I was most often reminded of the original V For Vendetta: the combination of high-contrast, photo-based backgrounds with more "cartoony" foreground characters is very similar to the look that David Lloyd achieved in that classic comic book.

In a movie like this, the animation style could easily become just a gimmick, but the makers of Renaissance have managed to keep the visuals interesting without distracting from the storytelling.

The story itself is your typical futuristic sci-fi mystery. Nothing great, nothing terrible. The acting is well-done. The real reason to watch this movie (preferably on a big screen) is to be blown away by the graphics. While the technologies in use here (3d rendering, motion capture, etc) are nothing they are used in this movie to make one of the most original and creative visual statements I've seen in years.

In the 70s, all of the Bond films made regular appearances on Sunday night's "Movie of the Week", and I saw this one two or three times as a kid.

This was the first time I've seen it as an adult, though, and I have to say that unlike Goldfinger or From Russia With Love, this one didn't hold up very well.

The whole thing seems somewhat dispirited, like everyone is just going through the motions. The plot is completely nonsensical -- even more so than most Bond films. The setup is that SPECTRE is using a rocket ship to steal Russian and American space capsules out of orbit, in order to provoke a war. So it goes without saying that the Americans play along perfectly, even though a Soviet space capsule has been captured as well as an American one. Obviously, it's just those sneaky Commies capturing one of their own ships to throw off suspicion! But that plot weakness would be forgivable if the whole movie were a little more exciting. Unfortunately, it isn't. Towards the end of the movie, we have to endure a long sub-plot in which Connery is made-up to look Japanese(!), undergoes ninja training(!!) and has a phony marriage to a Japanese woman which is supposed to help him sneak onto the island which is of interest to the Secret Service.

Fortunately for Bond, the phony marriage lasts for about two minutes of screen time before he and his faux-wife are chasing the villains again. It's fortunate for him because his Japanese makeup (and accent) are particularly awful, but it's unfortunate for the viewer because it renders the entire 20-30 minute sequence we've just sat through completely meaningless. They could have just as easily skipped the whole thing, and had Bond and the girl go straight to the island to start fighting the baddies, and the movie wouldn't have felt like all the energy was lost in the second half.

The climax is an uninspired and unexciting shoot-out. Overall, this is definitely one of the weakest Connery Bond films.

As pure an example of de-evolution as you're likely to see on screen this year, 300 takes the grand tradition of Hollywood historical epics and reduces it to the level of a TV commercial.

The filmmakers have reduced one of the seminal tales of western civilization to a bunch of stale catchphrases and lovingly photographed, slow-motion violence. Philosophically, this is a good movie for those who found the "Star Wars" movies to be too subtle. Virtually everyone who opposes our noble heroes is portrayed as, quite literally, an inhuman monster, while visually, the only tricks the director and editor seem to have brought to the table are (a) color everything bronze and (b) the old slow-fast-slow routine, a digital effect that was thoroughly played at least five years ago.

Add in some endless fields of softly swaying wheat, and all that was missing was for the latest Dodge SUV to come sweeping majestically around the mountains.