jukangliwayway

I gotta be honest, the film in totality felt rushed & uneven. Visually speaking, the CGI overload was distracting. It's not bad, better than Jack the Giant Slayer that's for sure, but the overall flavor felt so cluttered and artificial. The Moors creatures are adorable though!

There are several factors that made this movie disappointing, if not a failure, but the ultimate crime they did in this big-budgeted fumble of a movie is the overuse of narration. I could only take so much storytelling from a boring voice and several minutes into the movie I was sitting, my mind slowly getting numb, while the lady next to me was busily munching on her extra crunchy corn chips, and I wonder - does Hollywood really think that the audience are stupid? Everything is spoon-fed. Please SHOW, don't tell. Considering it's Stromberg's directorial

debut, maybe it's his way of avoiding the seemingly intimidating task of just doing a few minutes worth of montage. I'm pretty sure half of the film would be unnecessary if they did less narration. That way, Stromberg could have added more interaction between Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty - I totally enjoyed Vivienne's scene with Jolie, and I would have appreciated more scenes like that.

As the credits rolled, I felt nothing. In fact, I have forgotten half of the film already. The first act was kind of shaky for me, like I wasn't too sure what to feel - should I be bored or what? I really didn't know. Add in Sharlto Copley's weird accent that was so distracting that if it's possible to reach in and grab his messy hair I would have - so I could've karate-chopped his Adam's apple! I don't know if he really has some foreign accent in real life, but it's like he's destined to play characters with weird distracting squeaky voices/accents. Yeah, he totally ruined the Oldboy remake for me. Elle Fanning, while being a good actress in her other films, seemed to pale in comparison whenever she's sharing screen time with Jolie. It also seems like she was just an afterthought when they made the screenplay - like "oh wait, we forgot to add Sleeping Beauty! You know, the actual protagonist in the story?" Yeah. Her character was so dry, Fanning really couldn't do much but skip-pity hop in the moors playing with troll-like creatures. Baby Aurora had more character development than her. It felt like a big chunk of the film was spent showing Maleficent blowing some fairy dust and making people sleep and make them float around like puppets. The ending was so blah I just wanted to get out of the cinema already. I mean what's up with (spoilers alert) pretty boy prince (who can't act even if a machine gun is pointed at him) making gooey eyes with the newly-crowned Not-so-sleepy-Sleeping Beauty after we have established the fact that his kiss didn't pass the "true love kiss"? I don't know what that means, except that maybe there really is no true love except parental love, so why not marry the first handsome prince to come our way? I don't know. I didn't get that.

I still feel that despite the shaky direction and screenplay (not to mention the sometimes cringe-worthy script) it's still one of the better re-telling of a classic fairy tale. The sole reason for that is Angelina Jolie as the titular character. Suffice to say, she owned this role! I do think that this movie doesn't deserve her, but it's really nice to see her play a role that only the likes of Johnny Depp might consider, and kick ass with the limp material they provided her with. Without her, this film would be total trash. At least now we know she can do quirky costumed character roles. I could easily get lost and forget about the effects and side characters just by looking at her expressions. Okay, I admit that when she wailed a few times I thought it was a bit cheesy. But damn it she saved this film even if the jilted lover angle is so clichéd!

Maleficent is not terrible. But with its huge budget and one of the biggest A-listers in the universe as the lead with a bunch of little popular names around her, and some seasoned technical people behind the camera/script, this could have been better. Way better than the lackluster spectacle (forgive the oxymoron) that it actually is.

Wait, haven't I seen this before? Oh yeah that has Gerard Butler in it and this one has ships and a forgettable protagonist as flat as a cardboard that not even Eva Green bouncing up and down his man pole could spark some life in him.

It's not for the lack of trying, because it's evident from the gazillion gallons of blood used in this movie that they truly wanted to make a good film. Too bad that Zack Snyder did all of that in 300. It's nice to see some familiar characters with the addition of Eva Green (though I'm not entirely sold with her character, it's just that she's the only memorable one), because without them, it's like watching shirtless amateur actors with acting worthy of a TV movie. The whole duration of the film I was wondering how the hell did Noam Murro bag this gig and if he really thought that all the non-stop blood-spurting & Eva Green's boobs will ensure positive critical & box office reception? It earned more than 300 million dollars so I guess it worked. LOL.

Oh and by the by, I could suspend my disbelief with almost everything, but I just couldn't force myself to believe that horse will gallop so valiantly in that ship, plank to plank, and run through fire, and jump into the water. Unless he is a Spartan.

Snyder's 300, despite my "meh" attitude towards his green screen visuals, is still a solid action-pumped entertainment mainly because of Gerard Butler (and good ol' Fassie!). Now, without Snyder behind the camera and Butler on the screen shouting crazy yet awesome stuff like "Tonight we dine in hell!!", 300: Rise of an Empire crumbles to dust even before managing to actually rise. I was at least expecting some sort of "THIS. IS. SPARTA!", what I get is a half-hearted lame speech about democracy from Mr. Cardboard Man (gosh I don't even know his name).

Typical of Hollywood, this is just another cheap attempt to cash in on a successful movie, bungling its simple formula, and inadvertently killing (hopefully for eternity) this franchise.

My Rating: 1.5/5

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A surprisingly good horror flick that both tickles your mind and chills your spine, which in today's trend (horror genre) is pretty refreshing - and rare.

For the hardcore horror fans who don't flinch at the sight of Sadako's hairy face or accidentally crap their pants while watching The Exorcist, well they may scoff at this movie's lack of scares. But for me, who screams at the sight of my own shadow, Oculus is just the right amount of creepy & thrilling.

Sometimes it's a bit weak, but the acting & superb editing keeps you glued and at the edge of your seat. The score which gives you a sense of foreboding also adds to the impending doom that has been masterfully manipulated by the director using a series of flashbacks intertwined with the siblings' present & increasingly is-it-delusion-or-is-it-really-the- mirror dilemma.

Karen Gillan deserves a mention for an excellent performance as the lead character.

And I'll seriously be on the lookout for Flanagan's future projects.

My Rating: 4.5/5 - It's not the best horror film ever and I doubt if it's gonna be a cult classic, but for the genre it belongs to it surely deserves better recognition.

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