dennis-77

I saw the 3D version of the film, which didn't really add much to the overall spectacle, mostly because, I think, in trying to make it available in both 2D and 3D, they've not used 3D to its fullest extent.

Other than that, the film was just there. It had entertaining moments, the car chase especially, but that was about it. Plus, every time there was a "moral moment", the whole thing slowed down so badly. I don't know if it's just me misremembering things but the kiddie films of my childhood either didn't have moral moments or managed to camouflage them into the story better.

The voice acting was good, even if I know that Sam Rockwell can do way better than that. Trying to figure who the hamster was drove me crazy, and I shall now hang my head in shame for not catching that it was Steve Buscemi. Nicholas Cage does a bang up job as Speckles, and now that I know it's him, I can see how they've animated the character to fit his acting ticks.

I liked this film, despite the negative tone that this review will take, but it could have been so much better. I put most of the blame on the director, who seems to be passionately in love with the slow-motion button on his camera. The film could have been at least half an hour shorter with the pointless slow-motion scenes taken out. The pacing was one of the problems, the other is that the opening 15 minutes or so (basically 'The Times They Are A Changing and the first fight) are so very good that the rest of the film has to live up to them, which it sadly only does sporadically.

The acting was uniformly good, and on several peoples's parts, excellent, as was the set design. My problems with the stunt choreography would probably have been solved if they hadn't had to fit to the director's whims.

The make-up was variable, with the make up on the original Silk Spectre being distractingly bad, which was a shame as Carla Gugino was brilliant as Sally Jupiter.

As an adaptation it had its bonuses and its flaws, but I think that the change made to the ending was definitely a good idea. There was however something lacking, but I have no idea what the something was, hence the possibly mildly unreasonably low rating. A re-watch may move this up to 4 stars but there were too many flaws for it to be anything better than okay.