Tag: 2008

Star Wars: 30’s Serial Edition (2008)
140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Would Star Wars really work as a silent film? Many always thought so. Now that The Man Behind The Mask has done it, fares pretty well…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of Star Wars: 30’s Serial Edition:

It’s long been maintained that the Star Wars films are so timeless, visual and universal that they don’t even need language. I know that my sister used to say that the movies would work just as well as silent films. Well, let’s see if she’s right…

Because faneditor The Man Behind the Mask created silent, black and white versions of Episodes I-VI. Stripped of color, dialogue and sound effects, this is a very different way to experience the films.

Not only has the presentation of the films been significantly altered, the movies themselves have been severely edited. Partly this is a function of the removal of spoken dialogue; with old-fashioned titled cards simply recapping the action, most scenes don’t need to run anywhere near as long. But the editor has really run with this approach, taking the opportunity to strip most scenes to their basic essentials.

Those title cards really strip the dialogue, for good and bad. Short statements replacing the audible mangling of the English language that the films (particularly the prequels) are often guilty of is mostly an improvement. The minimalist approach largely helps the story and removes the fluff. However, the wording on these cards is so sparse and clearly translated from another language that at times they read as too simplistic. Not a big issue, though, as the whole point is that you barely need to understand the language at all to follow these great stories.

Removing the color from the films produces mixed results. Black and white masks some of the “fake” quality of the CG. But since the films were quite obviously meant to be in vivid color, the effect looks similarly unreal. It’s also very clean, which sort of breaks the metaphor of these being like old films…

(Actually, I just found out that the editor created “dusty” versions of his edits, 4:3 cropped and looking beat up. It works much better.)

So, does this approach work? Results may vary. Condensing the prequel films so much is probably extremely welcome for those who don’t really like those episodes. It’s effective even if you are a fan of all the pictures, just not quite as satisfying. They play as Reader’s Digest condensed versions of the stories.

The biggest thing missing in these versions of the films is the sound. While the John Williams score is wonderful to hear in isolation, the 30’s Serial Edition certainly serves as a reminder of the importance of the Saga’s sound design. Not only are the award-winning sound effects sorely missed, their absence lessens some of the weight of the visual effects.

Personally, while I really enjoyed Star Wars: 30’s Serial Edition, it comes off as more of a cool experiment than anything.

For more:
December 12, 2015
Lego Batman: The Videogame (2008)

Batman turned 75 years old earlier this year (2014). In recognition, we are rebranding our site for one week to Now Very Bat… and focusing on the blockbusters, the smaller films, the comics and the video games that feature the Dark Knight. Also if you are a fan of casino games, you might want to visit 666CASINO website, and play some exciting casino games.

These games are huge in my household. We all love playing in the “smashy smashy” world of Lego where we get to bash through bricks in order to get studs and the only thing that happens when you die is your body disassembles amusingly and you lose some points. It’s unbelievably addictive and the simplicity of the games are a real strength.

The Lego games feature the best gameplay feature in the world: drop-in/drop-out cooperative play. If your child is having trouble with a situation just grab a controller and hop in to help. If you have to step away for a moment just drop out for a bit. Every single videogame should come with this feature.

One of the most enjoyable things about the Lego series of games must be the humor. The teams responsible for these games do a marvelous job of injecting a light-hearted feel to familiar characters while retaining the spirit of the source material. Regardless of the franchise, they consistently hit it out of the park with their plastic versions. And the little Lego figures are so cute!

Lego Batman varies from earlier other in the series in two significant ways: it isn’t based on an adapted story and it lets you play half of the game as the villains. This last idea is particularly inspired. You play through the story as Batman and Robin, thwarting the Rogue’s Gallery, only to then return to the same basic plot but playing as the bad guys, able to succeed because it’s all essentially happening before Bats shows up.

Lego Batman is the 5th game in the Lego series by developer Traveller’s Tales, after 3 Star Wars games and Indiana Jones. So they should have the formula perfect by this point, but the game was released only three months after Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, so anything that was a problem in that one wasn’t fixed here. And it shows. The first Lego Batman & Indy games are in my mind the weakest the series has produced. They’re still great fun and have the wonderful wit of all of the games, but the gameplay is not really up to that of the Lego Star Wars games. Fortunately, they’d take a year to put out the next game in the series, Indy 2, and it’s pretty much all been gravy since then.

December 15, 2014

The Dungeon Masters (2008)

Dungeons & Dragons turned 40 years old in January of this year (2014). In recognition, we are rebranding our site for one week to Now Very Beholder… and focusing just on the films that star or in some way revolve around D&D.

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Everyone involved in this predictable & possibly insulting documentary need to make a saving throw. Filmmakers message is really unclear…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Dungeon Masters:

Our last Now Very Beholder review (for Zero Charisma) discussed the potential dangers of making a film about a particular group or interest – it’s very easy to get caught up in the effort to be funny and go for the cheap burns. There’s a fine line between portraying a group a little irreverently and making fun of them. In the case of The Dungeon Masters that line is behind them.

The Dungeon Masters follows three hardcore gamers in what seems to be an effort to point out how sad and pathetic their lives are. I’m hoping that wasn’t the goal, that they were really trying to illustrate how struggles in gaming do not necessarily correlate to troubles in life, but it really does seem to be just embarrassing unsuspecting people.

Well, here’s the synopsis from Antidote Films, one of the production companies: “An evil drow-elf is displaced by Hurricane Katrina. A sanitation worker lures friends into a Sphere of Annihilation. A failed supervillain starts a cable access show involving ninjas, puppets, and a cooking segment. These are the characters, real and imagined, of The Dungeon Masters: Against the backdrop of crumbling middle-class America, two men and one woman devote their lives to Dungeons and Dragons, the storied role-playing game, and its various descendants. As their baroque fantasies clash with mundane real lives, the characters find it increasingly difficult to allay their fear, loneliness, and disappointment with the game’s imaginary triumphs. Soon the true heroic act of each character’s real life emerges, and the film follows each as he or she summons the courage to face it. Along the way, The Dungeon Masters reimagines the tropes of classic heroic cinema, creating an intimate portrait of minor struggles and triumphs writ large.” I must tell you that the film only barely resembles that bit of marketing.

The tone of the doc wavers, from the beginning soundbites and snippets about the popularity of the game through to the chronicling of one of the subjects ninja cable access show. It’s really unclear if the picture is meant to be celebratory or sympathetic or played for the “stop and point at the weirdos” angle. Indeed, the mission of the film is completely lost on me. Eighty-seven minutes isn’t really a long time for a documentary, but it is if you don’t know what they’re going for.

Regardless, the inclusion of only three individuals necessarily means that a lot of pressure is put on them to represent all gamers and that’s hard to do. It’s certainly no slander to suggest that these gamers are on the extreme end of things, and relying solely on those stories paints a very incomplete picture.

Part of the problem surely lies in the production. The documentary was initially envisioned as a history of the game, but when the director met the three individuals who make up the majority of the film it seems to have developed a bad case of mission creep. All of a sudden it had turned into a character study of 3 people, where the game is only part of the story, and it goes out of focus with no real linear theme.

I don’t want to be too hard on the filmmakers, because I may be misreading their intent. I really don’t think this is supposed to be a hatchet job, but I do think that it comes off as an insulting picture more akin to reality television than documentary. If you think I’m being unfair, ask yourself this: do you imagine that the three people featured in this film were pleased at how they came off and proud to show the final product to friends and family? Me neither…

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test & The Representation Test Score: n/a

[schema type=”movie” name=”The Dungeon Masters” description=”Against the backdrop of crumbling middle-class America, two men and one woman devote their lives to Dungeons and Dragons, the storied role-playing game, re-imagining the tropes of classic heroic cinema, creating an intimate portrait of minor struggles and triumphs writ large.” director=”Keven McAlester” ]

Main Cast
Rating	Not Rated
Release Date	2008
Director	Keven McAlester
Genres	Documentary, Drama
Plot	An evil drow-elf is displaced by Hurricane Katrina. A sanitation worker lures friends into a Sphere of Annihilation…
Poster
Runtime	87
Tagline	This is how they roll.
Writers
Year	2008

December 12, 2014

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

#140RVW

It’s not the worst movie you’ve ever seen. Faint praise, maybe, but most every other review has given that impression. #StillBetterThanTOD

What’s more:

Let’s get the simple stuff out of the way first.

You’re right, they never should have made this movie; should have left off in 1989 with Last Crusade. Was a perfectly logical place to stop.
Yes, Harrison Ford is far too old to play this role.
Spielberg, Ford and everyone else who blanched at making a sci-fi “B” movie should have stuck with their gut and told Lucas to get real.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, how is this admittedly ill-advised film? Meh…

When this came out in 2008, I was rooting for it; hard. I really wanted to love it in spite of how nervous I was and how against the existence of the movie I was. It arrived in theaters with a ton of pressure, which it never could have lived up to – and didn’t. I didn’t condemn it as a total loss, but I sure wasn’t pleased.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — The internet reacts to the new Indiana Jones movie…

But a funny thing happened when it came out on home video; I watched it at home and kind of liked it. Once I had accepted that it really wasn’t a very good movie and got over all the things it wasn’t, I was able to see it for what it was. And in truth, there’s a lot of stuff to like here (to go along with the myriad things to dislike). All the stuff that made me apoplectic in the theater merely annoyed me at home. Faint distinction perhaps, but it’s there.

Seriously, try it for yourself at home. It isn’t a good movie and so don’t look for it to be. Just watch it knowing that so many talented people can make for some moments even if the sum total is somewhat lacking.

I mean, really, it’s not that bad. Ford isn’t that old here. Now if they tried to have him play, say Han Solo at his age, that would be a real problem. Can you imagine?

Play-by-play (thoughts written down while watching the movie):

Old Paramount logo dissolving into prairie dog mound – cute. Digital prairie dogs? Less so…
Drag-racing to bring us right into the time period is a good touch and gives some energy. This is also the last time anything in the movie will look good. Janusz Kaminski is a fine cinematographer, but the movie looks awful. I know they worked really hard to study Slocombe’s style and lighting, but it just isn’t working.

19 years after Last Crusade, both in real life and in setting of 1957
The costumes just look off…
Dr. Spalko – can’t decide if I hate the character more than I hate Blanchett’s performance. Tough call…

A sword? Really?
The problem here with the opening is that you’re just being dropped into it – that’s fine, but there isn’t feeling of an established relationship as there was with Belloq, so it’s not as effective.

Indy’s moving in slow-motion. I’m not going to spend the whole review saying Ford is too old for the character, so let’s just say it once and be done with it…
Some good stunts, though…
Rocket sled is cool setpiece.
What, they don’t know where he is but just leave?
Atomic test site is creepy, but not as creepy as he looks in modern time.
Sigh…the refrigerator gag…
I didn’t realize how much they’re relying on shorthand of common knowledge until I watched this with my daughter and had to pause for ten minutes to explain Communism and McCarthyism.
They had to dress LaBeouf as Brando? Really?

This plot is beyond confusing. I’ve seen the movie 3-4 times now and I still haven’t figured out what Harold Oxley has to do with “Mutt”. Must be a script remnant from when they were making this character Abner Ravenwood.
Exposition deadly…
Motorcycle chase through “Barnett College” (Yale) pretty good with good practical effects, not digital, even though the body doubles are pretty hard to not see.
Broadbent is always great, of course, but it’s a wrench not seeing Denholm Elliot…
The Peruvian cemetery set is pretty good. In fact this sequence may be the best in the film, although I’m still not sure who the heck these guys attacking them actually are.

The character of “Mutt” is such a problem for this movie. It’s sort of hard to get past, even when you’ve let most of the other stuff go. Contrary to what you might suspect, I really don’t have a problem with Shia LeBeouf. He was so good in The Greatest Game Ever Played that I’ve given him a pass since then (which is easy, because he makes crap movies that I don’t see).

But Karen Allen is back! Never mind, all is forgiven.

I actually stopped making notes after awhile because I just wanted to watch the movie, and I was frankly finding my nitpicking to start seriously affecting my ability to enjoy the movie. And I do actually enjoy Crystal Skull, although it’s hard to justify why. When I note all the things about the movie in a list, it seems really awful. And it isn’t a good movie – it has way too many problems for that. But my daughter was really having a good time with it, so I lightened up a bit. And there were enough fun scenes, barely. I guess I’m just not quite as hard on this movie as I probably should be. That’s what comes of wanting to enjoy something – sometimes you succeed…