I realize this is an art blog, but I feel this movie review fits with that. I went to see this movie based on awesome concept art. The visuals did not disappoint. As for the plot... well, keep reading.
Some plot discussion, but probably not too many spoilers 'til the end.
The beginning set-up was great. The music (Tainted Dreams) perfectly suited it and was a great introduction to the movie. Our introduction to Baby Doll showed her to be capable and very protective. I should have realized it also set her up to not always make the best decisions.
This movie has awesome visuals. I loved the kick-ass action and the pin-up girl outfits. Those worked great. The music was very cool, but unlike what I've heard other reviews say, the music doesn't sync with the action (like in Scott Pilgrim) at all. The action sequences take place during dance seqences, yet the action isn't reminiscent of dance moves at all.
I'm about to go into the structure of the movie and how it sets up the action sequences. Understand, I saw this movie because I saw Alex Pardee's concept art, then the live action posters based on it, and decided this movie needed to be seen. I also decided I didn't want to know anything about it plot-wise. I wanted to go into a movie without knowing anything besides that it looked kick-ass. When I accidentally found out it was set in an old-time asylum, I started to wonder how they were going to connect these awesome genre-blending images into an asylum. I imagined things like Alice in Wonderland, or more apt, American McGee's Alice.
The movie has three layers- real world, burlesque/brothel, and imagine spot. The problem is we only see the real world twice- at the beginning, and at the end. We don't cut back to see how the other two things are happening in the real world, so when we hear dialogue or action that we know corresponds to some real-world event, we wonder how it's actually playing out. It wouldn't be so bad except we cut into the other two layers too soon. The other girls are not introduced in a group therapy session or at a lunch table, etc so we can find out why they were committed or what they are like. We don't know why they have burlesque-layer nicknames like Baby Doll, Rocket, or Sweet Pea. Amber is at least a real name and Blondie for a brunette could just be ironic.
In the concept art by Alex Pardee, "Madame Gorski" is introduced with a whip, so I figured she was some sort of authoritative figure, maybe even a cruel one, in charge of the asylum and a sexier Nurse Ratched. Instead, she's benevolent, which is okay, but in the brothel level, she isn't authoritative, instead being another victim of a horrible orderly (who in this level is a club manager and pimp.) However, in the real world level, she's a doctor, he's an orderly. Yet, when Baby Doll hears her evil step-father and the orderly discuss forging Dr. Gorski's signature to get Baby Doll lobotomized so the cops can't get any info out of her, she doesn't do to the doctor, she just keeps it a secret. That might not have worked in burlesque-world, but here she's in charge of the institution. Why not go to her? Surely she's had therapy during the week prior to the lobotomy appointment. She's even shown interacting with her in the burlesque level, so she's definitely had spoken with her in some way.
Speaking of therapy, that would have created a better story and structure for the action sequences: have each girl in therapy, she can either straight-out tell us her back-story, or the action sequence can reflect it. I was positive each girl was going to be the star of her own sequence, which didn't really happen. They might have gotten a little more spot-light, but the sequences didn't add anything to character development.
Spoilers now as I discuss the ending and some earlier things.
As for the dance sequences being the segue into the action sequences: this isn't some magical dance that enables them to enter another world. In one sequence the girls are alone with the cook in the kitchen, and they need to steal a knife from him. They bolt the doors with broomsticks, throw things off the table, and Baby Doll climbs up and starts dancing. Suddenly, this man who should be terrified these mental patients are going to harm him sits down and gives into watching the sexy dance. Also, when the radio cuts out and we're taken from the action to the brothel level, then it works again and suddenly we are teleported back... what's with that? It's not like music is some sort of mental cue for Baby Doll to go back to the 3rd level. It isn't a switch flipping between worlds literally. It only happens so we can see an awesome portrayal of a sacrificial death rather than a mundane and sad death.
As for the ending:
Why does Baby Doll give up? All she has to do (besides the obvious tell the therapist idea) is wait for the cops to show up. Why does she give herself up for Sweet Pea? This is a character no one likes. She never redeemed her snotty behavior. Deciding to help out wasn't much. To really redeem herself, she should have distracted the guards so Baby Doll (who can now go find cops and get her inheritance) can escape. The entire goal of the movie was to escape. Why did the lobotomist say she looked like she wanted him to do it? Why give up? Yes, her sister is dead and she was almost raped, but that isn't any reason to stop fighting now. How is becoming brain-dead an escape? Her life wasn't hellish just yet.
It occurs to me this vaguely resembles One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (which I watched once over a decade ago, so forgive me if my details are off) in that she wasn't crazy yet ends up lobotomized while another patient escapes. The downer ending works in OFotCN, but not here. I can't remember the why of Jack Nicholson's character being lobotomized, but it was supposed to be tragic. The point of Sucker Punch was her escaping and things turning out well. Why did the movie suddenly say Sweet Pea was the main character all along? We knew nothing about her except protective-of-sis. I understand her and Baby Doll are similar for that, but why should she get away (alone)?
Overall, an awesome action movie with an incredibly lousy story structure and plot. Go see it in theaters for two reasons: so Hollywood will give us awesome genre movies, and because the action is awesome and deserves to be seen on a huge screen.
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
3.27.2011
10.23.2010
Mixed Media Experimentation
I just started reading the book Werewolves by Alice Carr, the found journal of a girl documenting the weeks following the attack on her and her brother by wolves. It's actually by a Paul Jessup and illustrated by Allyson Haller, (whose other work I'll go check out now.) The writing's not bad, but it's not great. It just comes across a bit forced when trying to get plot details across while still trying to be a journal. The art is what caught my eye. It's mixed media with mostly charcoal and inkwash with some ballpoint pen and other mediums fixed in. The style is also mixed, with doodles juxtaposed with realistic drawings of people.
Well, this got me wanted to do some traditional work, particular bunnies and werewolves, both of which show up in the book. I've been mostly doing digital, so I figured an afternoon of smearing charcoal might be fun. I found my charcoal pencils (sans the extra-soft) and all my inking supplies, but I think Oni still has my ink bottle and she's in Texas, so I found a Crayola watercolor set.
This is a bit different than what I'd originally envisioned. I'm going to just consider this a sketch and do the version I wanted once I get a new bottle of black ink. I really think I want to do some inkwash paintings, maybe even for class. I'm fond of the Burton-esque tree though, I might have to incorporate it in a future piece.
Then, I was going to do a Dia de Los Muertos picture, but when I went looking for stock photos of a face, I came across a pose I liked by PoorSouls-stock. It wasn't the pose so much as the subtle expression and messy hair, but I wanted to try a stylized version of it. Here is a WiP. This isn't finished. I really need to figure out a way to clean up scanned in pencils to make nice lineart. My sketchbook has yellowish paper so trying to get rid of blue lines results in a dirty mess.
This isn't finished, though I think I'll keep it mostly flat.
Then I tried playing with some filters and got this effect, which I think could be interesting.
None of these are done, just showing what I've been up to this afternoon (besides a few chores.)
Well, this got me wanted to do some traditional work, particular bunnies and werewolves, both of which show up in the book. I've been mostly doing digital, so I figured an afternoon of smearing charcoal might be fun. I found my charcoal pencils (sans the extra-soft) and all my inking supplies, but I think Oni still has my ink bottle and she's in Texas, so I found a Crayola watercolor set.
Then, I was going to do a Dia de Los Muertos picture, but when I went looking for stock photos of a face, I came across a pose I liked by PoorSouls-stock. It wasn't the pose so much as the subtle expression and messy hair, but I wanted to try a stylized version of it. Here is a WiP. This isn't finished. I really need to figure out a way to clean up scanned in pencils to make nice lineart. My sketchbook has yellowish paper so trying to get rid of blue lines results in a dirty mess.
Then I tried playing with some filters and got this effect, which I think could be interesting.
None of these are done, just showing what I've been up to this afternoon (besides a few chores.)
1.26.2010
Life Out/Loud Gallery Opening
I use robots to represent the heterosexual "norm" in society. They are the traditional boy/girl colors of baby blue and pink, respectively. Society dictates that women are supposed to love, marry, and bear children for men. This idea is retro, much like the robots.
The two human girls are shown to be alive, happy, and deliriously in love. As too many homosexual couples in history have had to do, these women pretend to be straight, to be "normal" according to society, disguising the fact that they are in a same-sex relationship. They dress up and appear to go with society's plan, but only for appearances. The girl on the right giggles behind her hand, entertained at their secret. They are holding hands, a small Public Display of Affection that often draws scorn when a straight couple could get away with something less decent. These two women are not in line with the others, they are not marching but strolling happily to their own drum, that is, the beating of their young hearts.
I will be putting this piece into the 2010 ArtPrize.
9.24.2009
ArtPrize Day One
So yesterday was the opening of ArtPrize, the competition here in Grand Rapids where over a thousand artists are competing for a quarter of a million dollars. Oni invited me to head around after I got out of class. My camera died halfway through, but I got some pics. I didn't get to do any actual voting 'til I got home since there were so many registrations at the Old Grand Rapids Art Museum that the system shut down.
We started off by heading to the B.O.B. where there were a lot of sculptures outside. It was fenced off, so we headed inside. There was a living statue that winked at me, though his gold monkey was indeed fake. There was a light-up painting I liked and a series of three with manta rays and sharks swimming among a flooded city. My favorites were a Kali statue and a battlefield of what appeared to be Frenzies from the Transformer movie. (They weren't, the style just reminded me of it.)
After that we headed to the river to check out Nessie. We passed what appeared to be the remains of a gypsy caravan. We'd missed the gypsy walk by a few minutes. The walking bridge was covered in sculptures, and it was cool to see one on a rock in the middle of the river.
In front of the Gerald Ford Museum is an ice sculpture in a trailer (to keep it refrigerated) and they have a little one outside they are rebuilding each day.
We met up with Maggie and Mike after at the Old Grand Rapids Art Museum and there was a lot of cool stuff there, including a moving field of metal rods that played music, portraits made of pushpins, and a huge oil painting.
Artspace was more dance club than art gallery, which was disappointing.
We walked down Division for a bit before Oni and Maggie decided to head home. One gallery had a gem mine set up, complete with a miner inside, and we watched him like at a zoo for a bit since he was behind glass and had a little hole to go back inside. At another we were spellbound by one of the Super Happy Funtime Burlesque girls perform an aerial show with a stretch of fabric. All of us particularly liked a table with settings, cameras, and screens that projected a person sitting in the head chair to the "faces" of the other three. There was even a delay so you could watch yourself chatting with the other three and get up bored or huffy.
We glanced in UICA but didn't get a good view since it was crowded and late.
I still would like to make it to the B.O.B. to see Miss Pussykat and Miss Audacious perform with the Devil Dolls.
We started off by heading to the B.O.B. where there were a lot of sculptures outside. It was fenced off, so we headed inside. There was a living statue that winked at me, though his gold monkey was indeed fake. There was a light-up painting I liked and a series of three with manta rays and sharks swimming among a flooded city. My favorites were a Kali statue and a battlefield of what appeared to be Frenzies from the Transformer movie. (They weren't, the style just reminded me of it.)
After that we headed to the river to check out Nessie. We passed what appeared to be the remains of a gypsy caravan. We'd missed the gypsy walk by a few minutes. The walking bridge was covered in sculptures, and it was cool to see one on a rock in the middle of the river.
In front of the Gerald Ford Museum is an ice sculpture in a trailer (to keep it refrigerated) and they have a little one outside they are rebuilding each day.
We met up with Maggie and Mike after at the Old Grand Rapids Art Museum and there was a lot of cool stuff there, including a moving field of metal rods that played music, portraits made of pushpins, and a huge oil painting.
Artspace was more dance club than art gallery, which was disappointing.
We walked down Division for a bit before Oni and Maggie decided to head home. One gallery had a gem mine set up, complete with a miner inside, and we watched him like at a zoo for a bit since he was behind glass and had a little hole to go back inside. At another we were spellbound by one of the Super Happy Funtime Burlesque girls perform an aerial show with a stretch of fabric. All of us particularly liked a table with settings, cameras, and screens that projected a person sitting in the head chair to the "faces" of the other three. There was even a delay so you could watch yourself chatting with the other three and get up bored or huffy.
We glanced in UICA but didn't get a good view since it was crowded and late.
I still would like to make it to the B.O.B. to see Miss Pussykat and Miss Audacious perform with the Devil Dolls.
6.19.2009
LA Time's Guide to Comic-Con for Girls
I should have mentioned this earlier this week when I found it, but io9 had an article on how Comic-Con wasn't for girls. First the people in charge of District 9 made a contest that specified it was only for men. They added a second contest for women and extended the deadline, but the irony of excluding someone when the movie's tagline is "You are not welcome here" is amusing to me.
What wasn't funny though was the LA Time's Guide to Comic-Con for Girls. It starts off saying women will line up to do Jake Gyllenhaal's laundry on his washboard abs (yes, they really use that joke,) and get worse from there. Some highlights, or is that lowlights?:
It featured both male and female contributors, so this isn't just a case of them finding chauvinists to write for them.
I have a lot of female friends, nerds and not, and this is insulting to anyone with more than a couple braincells. The opening page for it says Comic-Con is for more than just nerdy guys and the influx of Twilighters, but then panders to the shallow Bellas of the country.
What wasn't funny though was the LA Time's Guide to Comic-Con for Girls. It starts off saying women will line up to do Jake Gyllenhaal's laundry on his washboard abs (yes, they really use that joke,) and get worse from there. Some highlights, or is that lowlights?:
- Saying that only as long as a hot guy with a hotter accent is talking, women will bother listening to details about a murder mystery plot
- Werewolves make better BFs than vampires because that can sympathize with you about your monthly curse
- Review for Where the Wild Things Are (yes, the one with the little boy) starts off "Two words: Mark Ruffalo." They just reduced a kids' movie to what hot guy is in it. They do this to every single movie and show without fail, this is just the most disturbing and blatant.
- Using the phrase "face furniture," which isn't so degrading to women as it's just stupid phrasing
- the only mention of Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes is whether Robert Downey Jr. or Jude Law is sexier
- They mention female empowerment in the middle of this 23 pages-long reversion into a pre-suffrage age article
- Scariest picture of Denzel Washington I've ever seen, without makeup
- Saying Battlestar Galactica got girls into sci-fi, and then saying new show Caprica will be more for women since it'll be a soap opera in space
- The only reason women will see an action flick is if a hot guy is in it
It featured both male and female contributors, so this isn't just a case of them finding chauvinists to write for them.
I have a lot of female friends, nerds and not, and this is insulting to anyone with more than a couple braincells. The opening page for it says Comic-Con is for more than just nerdy guys and the influx of Twilighters, but then panders to the shallow Bellas of the country.
5.27.2009
Outlander Review
I saw the movie Outlander today and it was awesome, including the special features.
It's about a space marine who crash lands in 400-something AD in Norway. He is taken to a Viking village when he is mistaken for the one responsible for massacring a neighboring village. He tells them a "dragon" (that is, an alien monster) is the one who destroyed the village and after a while manages to convince the vikings to join him in hunting it before it kills everyone.
I heard absolutely nothing about it on any website, television ad, or friends. Michael (link to his review is at the bottom) merely said "it's aliens vs vikings" and I accepted it as nothing more than an action flick. How wrong I was.
First of all, we checked out the special features. They included a lot, including a commentary, animatics, CGI tests, and production art. The last one was what we mostly cared about. Now, this wasn't just a poster or two with some stills thrown in, this was wonderful. It had fully rendered set designs, backgrounds, creature, costume, and weapons designs. Not only did they have beautifully detailed paintings showing scenery (along with three different shots of the same alien landscape under different lighting) but they included a sculptured model of the alien and several props. Everything was of the highest quality.
The movie's CGI was really good. Instead of a Lucas-esque approach where actors are standing around in a green screen warehouse, this movie focused on using actual locations and tangible props where they could. There are maybe a couple instances where the CGI is slightly off, but that is only if I want to be nitpicky. The movie has a wonderful sense of atmosphere, and details to lighting in different settings looks amazing.
The monster is bioluminescent and has neon green blood. Instead of the glowing pinks, blues, and greens looking like black-light paint from a Schumacher flick, they light up at appropriate times and allow illuminate the skin and bones surrounding the patterns used to attract prey like a deep-sea fish. There are times the blood appears too bright, but it's so...pretty if I may use the word to describe such a thing, that it isn't too striking to the setting.
This moving perfectly blends its Norse setting with a sci-fi story. The space marine never mentions space, aliens, or planets, but opts for "farther up north," "dragon," and "islands." The spaceship is later used to make swords, halberds, and axes, and while only the king sword is shown in all its glory, the rest can be viewed in the production art. Also, humans are apparently a seed colony, so there isn't the question of "well, why is he humanoid?" A real nice subversion of movies featuring people learning techniques on-the-spot (Matrix immediately springs to mind) is that when Kainan, the space marine, hooks up to a device in order to learn Norse (English for the viewers obviously) and about Earth's history, he is visibly very bothered and uncomfortable. Imagine a glaucoma test anxiety times ten. It also makes his nose bleed, which seems to be traditional for brain-use problems, and the rush makes him get sick below screen.
Like I said, I thought this was just going to be an action flick ala Aliens vs Predator or something. Also as I said, I was wrong. This movie has really great action, and a couple huge explosions, but that isn't the main focus. It takes the time between attacks to develop the characters, some more than others, but almost all the main and supporting have enough development that you actually care about what happens to them and wonder what fate is going to wait them before the movie's end.
It's quite long at almost two hours, but it's certainly worth it. I saw it on a HDTV and can't wait for its Blu-Ray release to see it again in order to witness every little mark on the alien's skin and tendrils as it tears through the village. I didn't find the character developing parts to be too slow, and the amounts of action make up for any down parts. There are also some bits where I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen; not everyone dies at a predictable time. When people do die, it's usually in a cool or wicked way that made me leap to the edge of the couch with an exclamation of shock and excitement.
The production quality is amazingly high for a movie I heard nothing about, and has quite a good cast complete with Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles, John Hurt, and Ron Perlmen. If you know these people from their other movies, some bits are extra amusing, such as when the Vikings are decrying Christianity when Jesus Christ himself walks in the door. Also, Hellboy and his father fight at one bit.
It's a really great movie and includes some of the coolest concept art I've seen in a while, and it's actually included on the disc. I just hope the Blu-Ray version has even more.
The concept art can also be viewed here.
For another person's opinion, read Michael's review at Movie Omelet.
It's about a space marine who crash lands in 400-something AD in Norway. He is taken to a Viking village when he is mistaken for the one responsible for massacring a neighboring village. He tells them a "dragon" (that is, an alien monster) is the one who destroyed the village and after a while manages to convince the vikings to join him in hunting it before it kills everyone.
I heard absolutely nothing about it on any website, television ad, or friends. Michael (link to his review is at the bottom) merely said "it's aliens vs vikings" and I accepted it as nothing more than an action flick. How wrong I was.
First of all, we checked out the special features. They included a lot, including a commentary, animatics, CGI tests, and production art. The last one was what we mostly cared about. Now, this wasn't just a poster or two with some stills thrown in, this was wonderful. It had fully rendered set designs, backgrounds, creature, costume, and weapons designs. Not only did they have beautifully detailed paintings showing scenery (along with three different shots of the same alien landscape under different lighting) but they included a sculptured model of the alien and several props. Everything was of the highest quality.
The movie's CGI was really good. Instead of a Lucas-esque approach where actors are standing around in a green screen warehouse, this movie focused on using actual locations and tangible props where they could. There are maybe a couple instances where the CGI is slightly off, but that is only if I want to be nitpicky. The movie has a wonderful sense of atmosphere, and details to lighting in different settings looks amazing.
The monster is bioluminescent and has neon green blood. Instead of the glowing pinks, blues, and greens looking like black-light paint from a Schumacher flick, they light up at appropriate times and allow illuminate the skin and bones surrounding the patterns used to attract prey like a deep-sea fish. There are times the blood appears too bright, but it's so...pretty if I may use the word to describe such a thing, that it isn't too striking to the setting.
This moving perfectly blends its Norse setting with a sci-fi story. The space marine never mentions space, aliens, or planets, but opts for "farther up north," "dragon," and "islands." The spaceship is later used to make swords, halberds, and axes, and while only the king sword is shown in all its glory, the rest can be viewed in the production art. Also, humans are apparently a seed colony, so there isn't the question of "well, why is he humanoid?" A real nice subversion of movies featuring people learning techniques on-the-spot (Matrix immediately springs to mind) is that when Kainan, the space marine, hooks up to a device in order to learn Norse (English for the viewers obviously) and about Earth's history, he is visibly very bothered and uncomfortable. Imagine a glaucoma test anxiety times ten. It also makes his nose bleed, which seems to be traditional for brain-use problems, and the rush makes him get sick below screen.
Like I said, I thought this was just going to be an action flick ala Aliens vs Predator or something. Also as I said, I was wrong. This movie has really great action, and a couple huge explosions, but that isn't the main focus. It takes the time between attacks to develop the characters, some more than others, but almost all the main and supporting have enough development that you actually care about what happens to them and wonder what fate is going to wait them before the movie's end.
It's quite long at almost two hours, but it's certainly worth it. I saw it on a HDTV and can't wait for its Blu-Ray release to see it again in order to witness every little mark on the alien's skin and tendrils as it tears through the village. I didn't find the character developing parts to be too slow, and the amounts of action make up for any down parts. There are also some bits where I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen; not everyone dies at a predictable time. When people do die, it's usually in a cool or wicked way that made me leap to the edge of the couch with an exclamation of shock and excitement.
The production quality is amazingly high for a movie I heard nothing about, and has quite a good cast complete with Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles, John Hurt, and Ron Perlmen. If you know these people from their other movies, some bits are extra amusing, such as when the Vikings are decrying Christianity when Jesus Christ himself walks in the door. Also, Hellboy and his father fight at one bit.
It's a really great movie and includes some of the coolest concept art I've seen in a while, and it's actually included on the disc. I just hope the Blu-Ray version has even more.
The concept art can also be viewed here.
For another person's opinion, read Michael's review at Movie Omelet.
4.18.2009
Activesite Spring 09 & More
So last night was the Spring Art gallery series. There were over a dozen shows going on simultaneously. I saw some really great work.
WWIV Gallery Review
Michael Ingold's WWIV show just opened at Kendall. His work creates a future where there is a robot uprising.
His pieces are very well done and range from printmaking, mixed media, and hand-made robots. The robots were especially interesting; when I first saw them I just thought they were cool 50s-retro robots.
There is much more depth to them though; in Ingold's vision of the future, Japan reverts to isolationism (resulting in ninja robots,) and a bear robot originally created for preservation starts eliminating species.
It was one of my favorite shows in the Student Gallery this semester.
His pieces are very well done and range from printmaking, mixed media, and hand-made robots. The robots were especially interesting; when I first saw them I just thought they were cool 50s-retro robots.
There is much more depth to them though; in Ingold's vision of the future, Japan reverts to isolationism (resulting in ninja robots,) and a bear robot originally created for preservation starts eliminating species.
It was one of my favorite shows in the Student Gallery this semester.
3.17.2009
The Fall
My post was featured on LemonVampire's blog Movie Omelet as a Guest Review.
The Fall is a beautiful movie. I got to see it last night in Blu-Ray on a HD TV and it was the only way to see it. It's got a great story within a story. A little girl in a hospital comes across a man who starts telling her a story, and she comes back each following day to hear more of his "epic."
The epic he tells has five men all out for revenge on this Governor. Along the way they meet a few other people who are involved in some way. It's a wonderful fantasy adventure story. Each character is distinct and interesting. The entire story is being made up as the man goes along, and each character is a person the little girl knows.
Now, onto the visuals. There are at least a few motifs, especially oranges, as this is set in California. The entire thing is how the girl pictures it, and completely saturated with every color of the rainbow. The backgrounds are lush, and the costumes are well-designed and cool.
The movie isn't just eye candy either, the story, and the epic, are entertaining as details change based off the little girl's comments or events in real life are reflected in the story. The outside story with the little girl and man is very touching and fun to try and decipher dialogue and events in order to figure out why they are in the hospital and what else is going on.
It's a wonderful film and artistic without being empty and "artsy" with no plot.
The Fall is a beautiful movie. I got to see it last night in Blu-Ray on a HD TV and it was the only way to see it. It's got a great story within a story. A little girl in a hospital comes across a man who starts telling her a story, and she comes back each following day to hear more of his "epic."
The epic he tells has five men all out for revenge on this Governor. Along the way they meet a few other people who are involved in some way. It's a wonderful fantasy adventure story. Each character is distinct and interesting. The entire story is being made up as the man goes along, and each character is a person the little girl knows.
Now, onto the visuals. There are at least a few motifs, especially oranges, as this is set in California. The entire thing is how the girl pictures it, and completely saturated with every color of the rainbow. The backgrounds are lush, and the costumes are well-designed and cool.
The movie isn't just eye candy either, the story, and the epic, are entertaining as details change based off the little girl's comments or events in real life are reflected in the story. The outside story with the little girl and man is very touching and fun to try and decipher dialogue and events in order to figure out why they are in the hospital and what else is going on.
It's a wonderful film and artistic without being empty and "artsy" with no plot.
3.06.2009
Go Watch the Watchmen
So, I didn't read the comic despite constant urging, and I'm kinda glad I didn't. I got to enjoy the movie for what it was rather than nitpicking it for any inconsistencies.
It's awesome, plain and simple. The visuals are brilliant, though Dr. Manhattan at times looked realer than the non-CG people. He had more pores and skin markings than all but a couple of the characters. I suppose a god would be realer than real, but unless someone points out the CG artist is very deep, I'm just gonna shrug it off.
I saw it in IMAX, which was weird since I'm used to wide screen. IMAX is, what, almost a square? It was odd to contemplate. I think I was too busy cheering on Rorschach to observe compositions, but yeah, great great job making a comic come to life.
Oh, and speaking of IMAX, the whole silver-screen idea? Bring some shades in with you. There are moments that are past bright.
I really liked the updates to the costumes... for the most part. I kinda would've liked to see costumes that looked like they were really made by the heroes, but then it might have seemed a little too sloppy. This is just a minor point. I'm merely musing.
It was so cool seeing the posters in action, because I'd seen shots that I thought were just for promotion, but no, they were screenshots. How cool.
And yes... I will eventually actually read the comic. : P
PS: Bonus art points for Andy Warhol's presence in the opening credits.
It's awesome, plain and simple. The visuals are brilliant, though Dr. Manhattan at times looked realer than the non-CG people. He had more pores and skin markings than all but a couple of the characters. I suppose a god would be realer than real, but unless someone points out the CG artist is very deep, I'm just gonna shrug it off.
I saw it in IMAX, which was weird since I'm used to wide screen. IMAX is, what, almost a square? It was odd to contemplate. I think I was too busy cheering on Rorschach to observe compositions, but yeah, great great job making a comic come to life.
Oh, and speaking of IMAX, the whole silver-screen idea? Bring some shades in with you. There are moments that are past bright.
I really liked the updates to the costumes... for the most part. I kinda would've liked to see costumes that looked like they were really made by the heroes, but then it might have seemed a little too sloppy. This is just a minor point. I'm merely musing.
It was so cool seeing the posters in action, because I'd seen shots that I thought were just for promotion, but no, they were screenshots. How cool.
And yes... I will eventually actually read the comic. : P
PS: Bonus art points for Andy Warhol's presence in the opening credits.
10.05.2008
"Baby's black balloon makes her fly..."
So over the weekend I went to two art shows, one of which was the first not-at-school show in a very very long time.
The first was called Activesite, and I had no intention of going to it. There were no pictures on the posters and with the way they colored IV, I thought blood was going to be involved, such as a drive or whatnot, but definitely not a sculpture show. Even if someone had said our faculty had work over there I wasn't going to go, I only knew one sculpture teacher at my school and I haven't considered him talented. Even when the Illustration Club told me to go I had no idea where the building was, since they used some title for the building "The Such-and-Such Building," rather than "where the old art museum was."
Anyway, I ended up going to the school to do work, got caught by free food for a gallery opening (which I'll get to in a moment) and was told about the Activesite show, or specifically the bar they had made of ice. I can't drink, and I had to be somewhere shortly, but I went and begged my friends to come with me and the one who agreed was someone I didn't even think liked art. So I headed over, and instantly had to look at everything. We found the bar but it wasn't quite set up, so we started going around, at one point we found a box that gave out compliments for a quarter, and since it was making an electronic hum, he put in twenty-five cents. It didn't say anything to him. There were postcards, the one that caught my eye said "You've found a 5 Rupee, it's worth 5 Rupees," but my fav involved lions... I couldn't get a decent photo of the text though. The entire show was quite interesting and we spent about an hour looking at everything. He made a joke about an ice-sculpture toilet (depicting the economy going down the crapper) being the Lich King (of WoW)'s throne, you know, a man's throne...yeah. Pictures can be found here. (password is grohl5)
Then the other art show was the one in the school. It looked mildly alright. From passing by going to class I could see a red ceramic deer and a machine that made a shoe tap. But nothing I had to rush to see. So yesterday I went to school to work on my project and decided to go in. The first artist took everyday things and made you look at them again in a new way, since everyone knows what the extraordinary is, but people take for granted enjoying the everyday things. The next artist used belts and pulleys and gears to animate household items. It made me think back to my Drafting class in high school when we learned about constructing machines. The next artist had a video of people moving in space wearing bright colors. They failed to have video of the hings on the posters, so I quickly lost interest. The next used plastic in contrast to things considered natural. His artist statement made some good points.
The last artist, William Lamson, wrote an artist statement about amateurism and masculinity. There were other words but those two I remember, particularly the latter. His exhibit was two TVs, one showing black balloons being popped (a huge understatement considering the detail I'm about to go into) and the other had colored balloons emerging from a serene lake covered in mist and floating off in the air or water. I'll get it out of the way now and say it was a nice commentary on serenity and death, and possibly the soul.
Now, it's true the first video just showed black balloons being popped in various ways, but oh the ways it was done! Ok, some if not most of the videos are on his site, so go watch them, 'cause I am going to refer to them. The one that caught my attention was him shooting at falling balloons with something that had crepe/film attached to the bullet/spike/nail/whatever and created really good visuals with the use of line and diagonals. Then the one that really kicked in the whole "masculinity" exploration had a man walk out with a bunch of balloons, then take a gun out of his holster... only it was rubber and very flaccid. He then started beating them all until they'd popped. Some were just elaborate yet simple, such as the guy jumping on a seesaw while wearing a spiky face mask and looking up to pop the balloon. One awesome video had a (white or black) can tied to a black balloon in a stark white room. The can was shot, started to leak black... and when it was light enough the balloon floated up, dripping black in a (pretty?) pattern. The problem with the entire thing though, was that I felt like I was either looking too deep, examining each element and trying to figure out symbolism -"Ah, his holster is see thru, much like a condom," and let's not forget the flaccid gun- for things that were just visually appealing (actually, they were darn hypnotizing, I sat there for at least 15 minutes straight and couldn't look away.) Either I was adding too much meaning to cool looking things, or I was diminishing the work by not looking for the hidden meaning. It was one of those things where it was either the deepest thing I'd ever looked at, or just an artist doing great things with black, white, and finding visually stunning ways to pop balloons. I mean, most artists get annoyed when you look too deeply into a picture they drew for fun or that is straight-forward (really, it's just a horse drinking water at a stream, the leg does not look like a forlorn woman,) but if a viewer doesn't pick up on the nuances, it can be equally insulting.
So basically, I have no idea what I witnessed yesterday, but you definitely need to go hypnotize yourself with the artist's work. Also, his photo of a balloon in front of a security camera? I have definitely seen it circulated around the internet, maybe even on Failblog.
Also: The other artists at the gallery exhibit were: Chad Curtis, Robin Mandel, ManosBuckius Cooperative, and Angela Pease, but not in that order. As for the Activesite show, most of the artists were from colleges surrounding and in Grand Rapids. I attend Kendall College of Art and Design.
The first was called Activesite, and I had no intention of going to it. There were no pictures on the posters and with the way they colored IV, I thought blood was going to be involved, such as a drive or whatnot, but definitely not a sculpture show. Even if someone had said our faculty had work over there I wasn't going to go, I only knew one sculpture teacher at my school and I haven't considered him talented. Even when the Illustration Club told me to go I had no idea where the building was, since they used some title for the building "The Such-and-Such Building," rather than "where the old art museum was."
Anyway, I ended up going to the school to do work, got caught by free food for a gallery opening (which I'll get to in a moment) and was told about the Activesite show, or specifically the bar they had made of ice. I can't drink, and I had to be somewhere shortly, but I went and begged my friends to come with me and the one who agreed was someone I didn't even think liked art. So I headed over, and instantly had to look at everything. We found the bar but it wasn't quite set up, so we started going around, at one point we found a box that gave out compliments for a quarter, and since it was making an electronic hum, he put in twenty-five cents. It didn't say anything to him. There were postcards, the one that caught my eye said "You've found a 5 Rupee, it's worth 5 Rupees," but my fav involved lions... I couldn't get a decent photo of the text though. The entire show was quite interesting and we spent about an hour looking at everything. He made a joke about an ice-sculpture toilet (depicting the economy going down the crapper) being the Lich King (of WoW)'s throne, you know, a man's throne...yeah. Pictures can be found here. (password is grohl5)
Then the other art show was the one in the school. It looked mildly alright. From passing by going to class I could see a red ceramic deer and a machine that made a shoe tap. But nothing I had to rush to see. So yesterday I went to school to work on my project and decided to go in. The first artist took everyday things and made you look at them again in a new way, since everyone knows what the extraordinary is, but people take for granted enjoying the everyday things. The next artist used belts and pulleys and gears to animate household items. It made me think back to my Drafting class in high school when we learned about constructing machines. The next artist had a video of people moving in space wearing bright colors. They failed to have video of the hings on the posters, so I quickly lost interest. The next used plastic in contrast to things considered natural. His artist statement made some good points.
The last artist, William Lamson, wrote an artist statement about amateurism and masculinity. There were other words but those two I remember, particularly the latter. His exhibit was two TVs, one showing black balloons being popped (a huge understatement considering the detail I'm about to go into) and the other had colored balloons emerging from a serene lake covered in mist and floating off in the air or water. I'll get it out of the way now and say it was a nice commentary on serenity and death, and possibly the soul.
Now, it's true the first video just showed black balloons being popped in various ways, but oh the ways it was done! Ok, some if not most of the videos are on his site, so go watch them, 'cause I am going to refer to them. The one that caught my attention was him shooting at falling balloons with something that had crepe/film attached to the bullet/spike/nail/whatever and created really good visuals with the use of line and diagonals. Then the one that really kicked in the whole "masculinity" exploration had a man walk out with a bunch of balloons, then take a gun out of his holster... only it was rubber and very flaccid. He then started beating them all until they'd popped. Some were just elaborate yet simple, such as the guy jumping on a seesaw while wearing a spiky face mask and looking up to pop the balloon. One awesome video had a (white or black) can tied to a black balloon in a stark white room. The can was shot, started to leak black... and when it was light enough the balloon floated up, dripping black in a (pretty?) pattern. The problem with the entire thing though, was that I felt like I was either looking too deep, examining each element and trying to figure out symbolism -"Ah, his holster is see thru, much like a condom," and let's not forget the flaccid gun- for things that were just visually appealing (actually, they were darn hypnotizing, I sat there for at least 15 minutes straight and couldn't look away.) Either I was adding too much meaning to cool looking things, or I was diminishing the work by not looking for the hidden meaning. It was one of those things where it was either the deepest thing I'd ever looked at, or just an artist doing great things with black, white, and finding visually stunning ways to pop balloons. I mean, most artists get annoyed when you look too deeply into a picture they drew for fun or that is straight-forward (really, it's just a horse drinking water at a stream, the leg does not look like a forlorn woman,) but if a viewer doesn't pick up on the nuances, it can be equally insulting.
So basically, I have no idea what I witnessed yesterday, but you definitely need to go hypnotize yourself with the artist's work. Also, his photo of a balloon in front of a security camera? I have definitely seen it circulated around the internet, maybe even on Failblog.
Also: The other artists at the gallery exhibit were: Chad Curtis, Robin Mandel, ManosBuckius Cooperative, and Angela Pease, but not in that order. As for the Activesite show, most of the artists were from colleges surrounding and in Grand Rapids. I attend Kendall College of Art and Design.
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