I'm home! Despite the allergy attack, it was a good trip. I'll be better prepared next time.
Going through my pictures, I'm surprised what a big difference five days made for the sakura trees:
The other thing that I was pleasantly surprised by on the trip was the Northwest Airlines flight I'd taken there and back - it was good! The food was decent, and better yet, they had a good selection of movies on demand. I managed to catch Atonement (better than I expected), There Will Be Blood (worse than I expected), P.S. I Love You (an excellent cry), The Great Debaters (nothing special), Bella (interesting), Saawariya (reminded me of Moulin Rouge), and Om Shanti Om (campy).
Saw two completely different movies yesterday: 300 and Bridge to Terabithia.
I was fairly excited to see 300: I'm a Frank Miller fan, they'd managed to pull off the movie adaptation of Sin City perfectly, and I'd heard some good rumblings on the net. Alas, I came away fairly disappointed.
First off, I don't think that this was as close an adaptation to the original 300 as Sin City was, and it wouldn't really matter except that I felt that something was lost in the translation.
Let's start with the visuals: everything looked absolutely gorgeous, but after two hours of that limited color palette, my eyes were crying for something different. And while the long battle scenes may have worked on the page with Frank Miller's succinct visual style, it too just became excessive on the screen. Perhaps I'm just getting older, but it felt like there was too much fighting, too much gore -- much more than necessary for the story.
Even more disheartening is that Frank Miller's distinctive, stilted dialog rang a little hollow from the actors. There were a few moments where it became very obvious that the actors were just posing to hit a specific frame from the comic. The combination of these two issues seriously undermines the emotional thrust of the movie -- that the Spartans sacrifice was worth something/meant something.
Like I said in the beginning, there's no denying that the movie looks good. It just works better as an extended trailer than a feature length movie. The one scene that stole the show for me was the Oracle's dance.
I have no clue how they shot the scene, but it was just breathtaking.
I'm a little torn on how to rate the film, but in the end, I can't give it more than 3/5, and a 2/5 for those who are gore averse.
And for something completely different, I also watched Bridge to Terabithia. About the only thing I knew about it going in was that it's targeted at kids and has some fantasy elements in it. Unlike 300's trailers, which accurately depict what you get in the movie, the trailers for Bridge to Terabithia are totally misleading. This isn't a Narnia-wannabe. It's a story about friendship and the power of imagination.
I have to say though, I'm not sure how many kids out there who will actually appreciate the underlying themes of the movie. I guess that's for the parents. It's sort of a coming of age movie dealing with loss. That's about all I can say without giving anything away. It's a gentle, subtle movie that's (amazingly) carried by the performances of the children. When I was watching, Bailee Madison, who plays May Belle, consistently got all the "Aaaaw"s from the parents.
Worth watching: 4/5.
The short version is: I liked the story, I liked the characters (they were all unique and very well defined), and I loved Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat. That said, I also have to say that it does not hold up to the high standard set by Hero. I can't pinpoint the problem, but I did leave the theater feeling like something was missing.
The one thing that really surprised me was the colors. Instead of the strong color theming I've come to associate with Zhang Yimou, Curse of the Golden Flower had this lollipop rainbow swirl thing going on which I found rather distracting.
Two final points: I liked the pomp and circumstance and the sheer spectacle of it, and I found the underlying message of the movie rather novel, cynical as it may be -- power is everything.
It's just too darn bad that watching this movie is like eating a great meal where you're still hungry when you're done. 3/5 - worth renting.
Bartender: Shaken or stirred, sir?
Bond: Do I look like I care?
I don't think I can say much more without giving anything away, so I won't. It's a great movie that I would have enjoyed watching again. Easily a 5/5 - go watch it now!
P/S - There's a great parkour chase sequence at the beginning of the movie!
Went to see a preview of The Guardian, starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. It's pretty much your standard training movie (e.g Top Gun, An Officer and a Genlteman) for the Coast Guard. OK, OK, the elite Coast Guard rescue diver program. I'm no Costner fan, but I actually found him doing a creditable job in this movie. I give this a 3/5 - worth renting.
A much better choice was The Illusionist. I don't want to give anything away, and it's probably best if you go in knowing nothing about it anyway, other than it is a very well-crafted story. Definitely worth watching - 4/5. I think this is Edward Norton's best film since Fight Club, and Paul Giamatti was very good as well.
Speaking of fighting, I had an attack of bad judgement and watched The Protector. It's really only worth watching if you really enjoy fight sequences. The plot, if you can call it that, is totally fractured and only serves to connect one fight to the next. If I hadn't known better, I'd thought this was some Street Fighter spin-off. There seemed to be a fighter dedicated to almost every martial art style, with the protagonist being the Muay Thai expert. Definitely NOT recommended: 1/5 - only suitable as background noise.
