deathscythe_42

Christopher Nolan is fastly becoming one of my favorite directors. I've loved all of his movies so far and I've been eagerly awaiting his follow up to The Dark Knight since I came across the in-production page for this movie online, probably a year ago or more. Now after having just returned from the theater, I must say I was met with some mixed feelings about it. My feelings are certainly much more positive than they are negative. It is safe to say right off the bat that the movie was indeed very good. But I think it fell just slightly short of the hopes that I had for it.

Now maybe my expectations are set a little too high. It is perhaps unfair to expect any movie to be a perfect ten before you see it. But it's hard not to with many of the critics hailing this film as a masterpiece. I think with Inception, all of the pieces of a well above average, even excellent movie are there. An imaginative, very original concept, a well-written, believable, and deep script, good characters with good performances all around, adept directing, and exciting action scenes with breathtaking visual effects. I just personally feel that it's lacking a few ingredients to elevate it to the status of a true masterpiece.

So I'll start with the positives. Many parts of this movie are really quite brilliant. The storyline is extremely imaginative, and in much of the movie a treat to watch unfold on screen. I think that with one of Hollywood's biggest issues being derivative plot-lines and unoriginal ideas, this movie really stands out as a unique idea and an original film. Not only is the idea unique but it is also a deep plot-line. Sometimes it's a little hard to follow what's happening for a moment or two, but it's generally well executed in that I never felt completely lost for a significant amount of time.

the technical aspects of the film are top-notch. The action scenes are exciting and well directed, and the special effects are brilliant. Another excellent aspect of this movie that doesn't always show up quite as much in action movies anymore, due to the use of CGI, is some excellent stunt-work. The special effects work very well in this movie to give you a truly larger than life feel. Whether it's the greatest movie of all time or not, when you watch this film you know you are witnessing something much bigger than yourself.

The acting is also very good across the board. I am personally a huge fan of Leonardo Dicaprio, but I was disappointed by both of his last two films, so I was very happy to see him give an excellent performance in this legitimately awesome movie. His character is quite deep and has some monster-sized demons, and he plays it very convincingly. I also quite like most of the other actors in this movie, and I can honestly say everyone involved did a good job. I don't necessarily think any of it will be Oscar material, but they got into their characters well and were believable and entertaining.

All that being said, my main problem with this movie was the pacing. While being exciting and fun in many ways, the entire thing also seemed very heavy-handed. The script contained a lot of emotion, which in general is a good thing, but sometimes I felt that the emotion served to weigh it down rather than to bring the intensity of the movie up to that next level. It also felt too drag on a little too long near the ending. All of the scenes serve a purpose in the movie and perhaps are necessary to tell the story that Nolan was going for, but it seemed that there could have been some more effective way to arrange them to make the movie flow just a little more fluidly. It's hard to explain without giving anything away but let's just say there were a few scenes that I thought slowed the film down and distracted from the central plot-line.

The climactic final act of the movie is brilliantly layered in several ways, but sometimes the layers work against each other. The film involves multiple plot-lines, and at times it seemed to leave one plot behind for a while in favor of another. It's obvious that a lot of thought went into constructing this movie, almost like constructing an elaborate dream world, but ultimately I think the plot of the movie weighs itself down a little.

The TV spots for the film have been describing it as The Matrix meets James Bond. While I think the Matrix comparison is very accurate, I think it lacks a little bit of the overall cool-ness of James Bond in favor of a more heavy, emotional tone. Of course whether that's a good or a bad thing is subject to opinion. Another discrepancy I had about it is how to feel about one very specific, manipulative moment in the film but saying anything further on it involves a spoiler so I'll stop there.

Don't get me wrong. This is without a doubt one of, if not the, most imaginative and creative sci-fi action films since The Matrix. But I do not think that it is Christopher Nolan's masterpiece. There is a lot to praise here, but also room for improvement. I think it's a masterpiece concept that wasn't quite perfected. A little smoothing of the edges and adjustments to the pacing and it could have been a truly incredible film across the board. As it is, I still say it's a great ride that you won't want to miss. ********1/2- 8.5/10

I went into this movie really excited to a see a sweet action movie, and hoping that it would also deliver some of the tension and suspenseful build-up that made the first installment so strong. Well, I will say that while it had its moments of excitement, and was overall a fun movie, it fell pretty short of my hopes and expectations.

Despite my anticipation, I felt a negative reaction to this movie almost immediately when it started rolling. It's like I knew as soon as the title hit the screen that I was not going to enjoy this movie nearly as much as I expected. The reason is because the film has very little exposition, and what is there is a mess. Imagine if a couple of screenwriters get together, and come up with a very vague idea for a movie. They say "hey, let's take a handful of people, drop them into a jungle on a foreign planet, and then have them get attacked by aliens." Then instead of fleshing the story out and adding some depth, they start filming the movie right then and there, but not only that, they take that outline completely, one hundred percent literally. I won't put any spoilers but two minutes into the movie you will know exactly what I mean by that.

Now not every single movie has to have a ton of back-story to make it good, a simple premise like that can be scripted and shot effectively, but the point is that I did not care about these characters at all, and rather than being enticed by their dilemma, I found myself waiting impatiently for them to try to sort things out so that the action could start. On top of that, the characters and the script were both very cliché and not very interesting. I usually try my best to stay quiet during movies but I almost couldn't help making off-handed comments to break the monotony, and neither could some of the other viewers. One of my friends summed up my feelings at that moment pretty well when he said fairly loudly "This is going to be a long movie..."

As it turned out, it picked up a significant amount of momentum as the movie went on. Ninety percent of this movies problems come from the screen writing. The technical aspects are actually pretty solid. By that I mean it has enjoyable action sequences with pretty good special effects. I wouldn't exactly call it a top notch actioner, but it had a lot of exciting moments. At first it seemed like it was just going to be a lot of walking and arguing leapfrogged in between "RUN! SHOOT!" over and over again, but during the middle it built up some solid tension and suspense. It didn't quite have me on the edge of my seat like I hoped, but I can honestly say I did feel pulled into some of the scenes later on. It also has some satisfying violent moments for blood and gore lovers.

The other main flaw of the movie is that it mimics the first one a little too much, and not to as great of an effect. Despite some obvious differences, it seemed to follow a pretty similar formula, and while some of it was clearly meant to be viewed as homage, I saw a lot of it as a cop out.

My final verdict is that this movie is quite enjoyable visually, but it was clearly written with the intention of playing off of the original's success and Hollywood's clichés. The script is mostly laughable, but it has some well done moments. If you aren't very stingy with your money I would say it's worth seeing in the theater for the action elements, but if you prefer to be more selective with your movies I will recommend you pass this one up. *****----- 5/10

When Pixar released Toy Story in 1995, the first in the studio's remarkable line of superior animated movies, not to mention the first fully computer animated film to ever hit the silver screen, I was five years old. Roughly the same age as the film's character Andy, the fun-loving and imaginative owner of the toys we have all grown to love. Now, after a triumphant sequel and several other wonderful Pixar adventures, Andy is seventeen years old and on his way to college. I myself am now twenty, and heading towards my junior year of college. It suddenly struck me just how personal the Toy Story saga was to me when i was sitting in the theater watching Toy Story 3 this afternoon. Woody, Buzz, and all of their plastic pals have been with Andy for as long as he can remember, and I realized that they have been with me for as long as I can remember as well. Needless to say this movie needed that extra personal touch to really deliver, and let me tell you that it did not disappoint. It is clear that Woody, Buzz, and Andy mean just as much to the Pixar crew as they do to you and I, and while Pixar has had several other masterpieces, this one may just define the Toy Story Trilogy as their crowning achievement.

Like the first two films, Toy Story 3 pulls you into a world of pure imagination. The adventures these toys go on represent the fantasies of every five year old child. Ironically, it reminds us what it's truly like to be a kid again, even while the central conflict of the movie is the issue of growing up. And at the films core is a set of real life emotions and themes, touching strongly on the subjects of friendship, loyalty, and of course keeping that kid inside of you alive.

The script of the film is hilarious, filled with gut-busting scenes that may have you rolling on the floors with laughter. But of course, Pixar never lets its audiences slide through a movie without introducing an intense level of adversity, and this movie delivers a level of suspense and drama that any adult film fanatic should be able to appreciate. To top it all off, the ending of the movie brought me very near to tears.

Make no mistake, this is the film to see this summer. It's hilarious, exciting, adventurous, suspenseful, imaginative, heart-warming, and above all it reminds us never to let our imaginations die. 10/10