Change Your Image
geocraftsman
Reviews
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987)
Colorful, scary, fun!
Pinocchio and the emperor of the night is a film I am sure would have repelled more 4-year olds than draw them in with its horrifying imagery for a G rating. But as a film for anyone over 9 years old, I think it is a movie that holds up very well, and is often forgotten. I think it even trumps the Disney film! But why? Well, here we go! This was made by filmation, who also created He-man and all the Archiecomics cartoons. The animation is stunning and you can tell a lot of effort was put into it. The characters are believable and fun to watch. Especially the main villain, the emperor of the night, which has that whole Shiva thing going on with more than two arms. This movie is an alternate time line to the original fairytale, in which the event where the blue fairy changed pinocchio happened, but nothing else. At least I think it is. Everyone else I run into thinks it is a direct sequel, but I personally think it has to be an alternate time line, but the film doesn't explain very well, mystifying most people. However, the songs are mostly bland and forgettable. They are okay at best, except for the blue fairy song, which is horrendous. But, this movie has great voice acting and a very ambient and well- defined tone to it. It has great action, and can be suspenseful and fun, especially near the end when Pinocchio and the emperor of the night are battling over buying Pinocchio's soul. The character designs are really cool. I especially love Pinocchio and Gee willikers, the movie's replacement of Jimminy cricket. I also liked their design of the blue fairy over the one from the Disney version. This is a very well done movie with plenty of good things going for it. I recommend to check it out if you are deep into obscure animated movies with an edge that time forgot.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
The hobbit; ruins the spirit of the original book.
This movie is based upon a book named the hobbit, and another series called the Silmarillion, wrote by J.R.R Tolkien. This is a bad decision because it leaves the story unfocused, jumping to other plots that do not pertain to the story of the hobbit at all! And the camera do not help this jumping around at all. These camera move all over the place! If you want to make an epic adventure movie with atmosphere, a steady camera is important. There is no time to breathe or look at the world around you! The entire movie is a blur of information that goes by too fast and messily for you to take a break and and say; "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, here's the story so far..." It feels disjointed and overblown.
But camera issues aren't the only problem. The main problem is that it ruins the original spirit of the book! The best example are the orcs that follow around the dwarfs. I hate them so much! And not in a good way. I hate seeing them on screen because every other second, they are in another action fighting scene with the dwarfs! I am SICK of them! It is the same every time! There were no orcs on the dwarfs' butts in the BOOK, so why does the movie need them?
The best example of how the movie ruins the spirit of the book is the barrel scene. Gee, I HATE this scene! In the book, the dwarfs have to escape the elves by hiding inside barrels and floating down the river toward Lake town. It is clever and it is also like; "Yeah, we escaped those elves and they don't even know it! Ha ha ha! Suckers!" But here, the elves know they escaped and start attacking them! With a battle scene like this, you can't appreciate how sneaky it is because a battle scene is being forced into your stupid face. It is as if Peter Jackson is waving keys in front of our faces. We aren't stupid! But the again, ho can we APPRECIATE the sneakiness if the elves learn about the plans before the dwarfs leave! In addition to that, the orcs come to fight the dwarfs. What commences is a battle scene with the dwarfs, elves, and orcs all together. And it is over the top! For example, in the scene, for a few seconds, Bofur the dwarf receives dwarf barrel battle armor. Sounds silly, huh? That's because it is.
So that is my diagnosis of this film; a fast-paced, unmemorable, disrespectful to the books MESS nd large disappointment to Tolkien fans.
Silent Running (1972)
Silent running; a slow movie, but great fun
This was in fact, my first slow movie and it is pretty well done. The important thing to say is, the trailer for this movie is the worst I have ever seen. It uses every action scene in the movie pretty much, and makes it look like an action adventure, with quotes like 'cataclysm in outer space' and 'every moment bringing its own danger' yeah, right. This is a very different kind of movie.
In the far future, the only remaining forests are inside of domes many miles up into space, where nobody seems to care about them anymore. Except for Freeman Lowell, who has been maintaining the forests for over 15 years, most recently alongside three others, and is a flamboyant environmentalist. But orders are given to blow up the domes and return home, he decides to go rouge by disobeying orders, killing his team members, and claiming that this last forest as a detonation problem, not letting it die by explosives. Then he retreats into deep space after jettisoning his cargo in an attempt to signal the others that he has been blown up, hence the name 'silent running.' His only companions are his three robots that would be ripped off by war hammer 40k in their dreadnaught design. I am serious! The design is TOO similar!
This movie's strength is it's drama. Freeman Lowell is like a normal human being in the future. This is reflected when he names the three drones Huey, Dewey, and Louie. But in the end, the rest of the ships discover him and are about to close in. Lowell realizes they would be able to find out that he murdered his crew mates and disobeyed, so before the other ships board, he blows up his own space cruiser, Valley forge. If you are not a fan of slow movies, this isn't the one for you. It is atmospheric, with little music, but some of it is sung by Joan Baez. It was the 70's, ladies and gentlemen. Embrace it! And embrace this movie, if you are the kind who loves this style.