Hanna (2011)

4/5

Hanna is a terrific movie. The plot follows the daughter (Ronan) of a rogue agent (Bana) on a quest to take revenge on the person who killed her mother (Blanchett). The scenario surrounding that basic premise is fairly uninspired and recycled, borrowing heavily from action movie tropes without anything to call its own. The writing is just as dull as the plot, with characters that, while well-acted, end up flat and boring because there's nothing original or even remotely interesting about what they do or what they say.

What this movie does have, and in abundance, is style. Its visual flair makes it a delight to watch from beginning to end. The movie uses the most exotic, curious, beautiful locales to set gun fights and chase scenes. It combines refreshing cinematography with eclectic, exciting music to create something unique and memorable despite its bland storyline. Wright directs this film with ease, using some of the same techniques he used in his earlier Pride & Prejudice and Atonement to striking effect. He even cuts away from the action from time to time to focus on images or ideas that are more captivating than the fighting itself. This is not a traditional action movie, and may in fact alienate some typical action fans, but it will enthrall those who appreciate the essence of cool.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993842/

Ponyo (2008)

4/5

Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo is a wonderfully inventive, creative foray into another universe. The story follows a young boy named Sosuke (Jonas) and a magical goldfish creature (Cyrus) that he saves and names Ponyo. Sosuke lives with his mother (Fey) in a seaside village, alone on a cliff, while his father (Damon) is out at sea. Ponyo's father (Neeson) wants to get his daughter back because the future of the world depends on it. And so begins their magical story together.

The best part about Miyazaki's directing is by far the fantastic world he creates, the characters that inhabit it, and the rules they live by. It is fully-realized and awe-inspiring, and it is something I have never seen before. Much like Tim Burton's works, the movie has the potential to frighten and terrify, but instead benevolently lets us enjoy the triumphs over the catastrophes. However, the directing and the movie as a whole suffer from a few problems as well. There is no real conflict to consider except perhaps that nobody really knows what's going on, so they might "make a mistake" and cause the world to be destroyed. In fact, the audience doesn't know what's going on at all either because the background story isn't fleshed-out enough for anybody's to comprehend it. Side stories seem to be picked up and ignored almost haphazardly. And Fey's voice acting was sometimes good, sometimes downright bad--I'm sorry to report--but mostly just distracting. Overall, however, these flaws aren't that bad. If you're a Miyazaki fan, this will definitely not disappoint.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

2/5

When I first heard about David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a year ago, I must admit I was very excited. But the more I saw trailers for it, the less and less thrilled I became. And when I finally saw the movie, my feelings had turned completely dead to what I originally thought was an innovative concept. I don't know why it happened, but I'm sad that it did, because I was unable to truly enjoy this movie. After thinking about what it meant to age backwards, to see everyone you "grew up" with die, to love someone and lose them, I let those thoughts all percolate in my mind. And by the time I saw the movie, there was nothing new for me to take away from it.

If you strip out the gimmick, you'll see that the story itself is fairly plain and uninteresting. It's as if they wanted to make a new Forrest Gump but ran out of interesting stories and just went with second-rate ones. And it's long. You can try convincing yourself that it's a sweeping epic, but you'd just be lying to yourself. It was like watching Ben Stein read War and Peace. The acting was all right, although I never really felt it to be a powerful or emotionally gripping piece. The romance was unconvincing and quite frightening actually. The pacing was lethargic, and many worthless scenes were kept when they should have been cut. The best thing that can be said about this movie is its visual style. Fincher knows good cinematography. And with that, seamlessly integrating CGI into it. Even in that regard, however, it resembled a Jeunet picture (Amelie, A Very Long Engagement) more than a Fincher picture (Seven, Zodiac) because the tones were much warmer than I'm used to seeing from Fincher. Fincher directing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button felt like Lynch directing The Elephant Man.

Overall, I have to say I'm very disappointed with this film. I don't know how "bad" it is, but I do know I got nothing out of it. I can see others enjoying it, but I don't know how deep their appreciation for it really goes. To me, it felt like the filmmakers took a great concept and wrote 3 hours of filler around it. And much like Memento, we're left with a movie that a lot of people like for its initial idea, but is ultimately a subpar, immature, unfinished picture. At its heart, there's really nothing this film has to offer me except negative three hours and negative eight bucks.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/

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

4/5

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is an enjoyable and entertaining thrill ride. It's a worthy successor to a historic lineage of awesome adventure movies. The plot weaves and wanders amidst side stories, double crosses, and misdirections, but at its core it tells the story of an aged Indy fighting Commies to restore a Peruvian artifact (the titular crystal skull) to its rightful place within the mythical city of El Dorado. Spielberg references and reunites old friends, which goes much appreciated by me. He is very much aware of the movie's roots, and this latest Indiana Jones sits firmly within its elders both in style and mood. Though some have complained of the "preposterous and outrageous" ending, of what we are expected to believe as audience-members, I believe it is no more preposterous or outrageous than the first three.

Perhaps my favorite part about this movie was the cinematography. The shot compositions and camera movements were unbelievable. Spielberg truly understands the medium of film and uses all his tricks here. I thought the editing and CGI could have used a little more work, but most of this is hard to notice because you're so entranced by the adventure. Which is simply astounding and breathtaking. The characters were believable and the acting made them come alive (although Cate Blanchett's character was a bit of a stretch). The music was fantastic: a perfect blend of nostalgia and reinvention. However, since it is a relatively simple adventure movie, there's not much to take home. Still, it's a must-see and one of the best movies of the year so far. Watch it.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/

The Good German (2006)

3/5

The best part about The Good German is how it looked. A murder mystery set in 1945 post-war Berlin, it attempts to emulate a film noir style but doesn't quite succeed. The problem is that Soderbergh doesn't know film well enough, and doesn't get the specifics right. I liked how he made the film look, with his stark black and white photography and slightly blurred images, but film noir didn't look like that. While film back then was never quite as crisp as the HD cameras we have now, it was certainly more crisp than the TV-style images inhabiting this movie. And the heavy black and whites with minimal gray midtones was too stark for 40's noir; it felt more in line with the worse film grain from the mid-30's. Additionally, while noirs are supposed to have confusing, labyrinthine plots, this one is a bit excessive. At the end of the movie, I really had no idea what had happened, which is never a good thing. I understood more about The Big Sleep. It seemed as if there were a bunch of innuendos and assumptions that the characters went with that I never got, which left me in the dark for most of the movie. Also, there were so many "references" or "homages" to Casablanca, not just in shots, but in entire plot constructions, that it just felt like theft to me.

On the other side of the stick, the cinematography was amazing. The lighting and composition in so many scenes were spot-on and looked like actual 1940's film noir. The consistently bleak mood and dark underbelly of surviving in such a ravaged situation fit nicely in the noir genre. While the swearing and sex were not exactly staples of film noir, their inclusion in the movie made it feel more crude and more vulgar, which I believe is how film noir felt in the 40's. The acting was amazing by all parties. Tobey Maguire unnerved me, Cate Blanchett was equally stunning and deceptive, and George Clooney, it seemed, really would stop at nothing to get to the truth. Unfortunately, this movie is not a film noir, for a great many reasons, and despite all its efforts, it is merely an unsuccessful attempt at one. Not really recommended, but A for effort.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0452624/

Babel (2006)

4.9/5

This is one of the most richly tapestried movies to show up in theaters this year, in plot, acting, and theme. The emotions, as in every Iñárritu movie, are explosive. Iñárritu really lets his actors give it their all. Layers upon layers of themes run rampant throughout, the main one being: miscommunication causes tragedy (à la Camus's famous Le Malentendu). But when that tragedy strikes, sadness is universal, heard loud and clear through silence. The story of the Japanese girl seems particularly out of place given the rest of the movie's plot, but it is only superficially so. Not only does it fit the main theme to a T, it also generates so many other themes (baring body vs. soul, being unable to hear vs. being unable to understand, distance and proximity, family and strangers, redemption and forgiveness, and many more) that I can see why Iñárritu decided to use it. By the way, the music is phenomenal. Its companion use with silence is so utterly devastating and haunting.

This movie is definitely not for everyone. It's an intense viewing experience and difficult to dissect; but such analysis is utterly necessary after watching this movie. Many will forgo trying to understand some parts and simply discard what made them uncomfortable because it's easier that way. Scenes often extend past their utility, forcing the viewer to question its meaning. That is not, however, an excuse for bad editing and overlong scenes, which Babel is not without. The coincidences and chain reactions sometime seem too constructed and planned for, a guilt similarly structured movies (like Crash) share. A lot of people are going to come into this movie expecting something similar to Crash; they are going to be very disappointed. Babel is hard to digest; its message isn't cookie-cutter simple and superficial or obvious. But for those it reaches, it's magnificent.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0449467/