9 of 10 stars
So, I finally got out to see A Scanner Darkly last night. Like I said I would, I drove 2+ hours to Atlanta, where it was playing. I must say, I was (and still am) impressed.
animation
The rotoscoped animation, while beautiful, was subdued and extremely lifelike; unlike Richard Linklater’s previous film Waking Life, which was a constantly shifting mess of a dream, where you never knew what was going to pop out of someone’s ear or mouth or materialize out of thin air. Instead the animation of A Scanner Darkly enhances the dreamlike nature of this film, while staying grounded (to a degree) in a recognizable reality. Linklater tries to make the few special effects part of the overall reality of the film, this way you don’t know what is real and what is not and you’re forced, as the viewer, to make some of your own decisions about what you’re seeing. There was no part in this movie where you go, “Oh that’s CG” or “that’s an effect”, because the whole film is an effect. For the most part, however, the animation is so sublime that there were times where I forgot I was watching an animated film. Then, there are other times where the animation is used to do things that cannot be done in practical photography.
Continue reading ‘A Scanner Darkly (spoiler-free)’
7 of 10 stars
I took some time and thought really hard about [Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest][pirates] and I’ve come to two conclusions:
1. As I’ve stated before, cliffhanger endings suck. Though I feel that I wouldn’t be as pissed off if I’d seen the cliffhanger coming or even if at least one of the plot threads withing this film was brought to a resolution. Instead, the story ramps up and cuts off abruptly. I feel like I’ve only seen half a film. Unfortunately, I paid for a complete story. My biggest issue is that I feel like they’re trying to force me to see the next film.
I mean, even Spiderman 2 had a cliffhanger of an ending, but at least the matter of Doc Octopus was resolved. I didn’t feel cheated at the end of that film, I was excited.
2. All of that being said, it was a tremendously good movie up to the end. It was funny, it was full of action. I was awesome. It was better in all ways than the first film. All ways, except the ending. I hate to keep going on and on about the end, but the ending of a film will make or break a film. It’s, of course, the last thing you see as you leave the cinema.
Maybe my opinion of this film will change once I’m able to watch it and its sequel. As it stands though, it is a half a film.
[pirates]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383574/ “Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest”
I had the chance to see [Superman Returns](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348150/) in IMAX 3D the other day. As one who has had the opportunity to see the movie on both the big screen and the really big screen I will say that the IMAX experience isn’t really worth the extra money for a few reasons.
1. The screen is really too big for feature films. I don’t think I was sitting too close (I was in the center about halfway up, as average a seat as you get), but I found that I had to turn my head to see something happening near the edges of the screen. It was really easy to miss something that happens pretty quickly if you’re focused on the wrong area of the screen.
2. The 3D effect didn’t really work for me. During certain points in the film, an icon flashes telling you to put on the special 3D glasses and when the scene was over, an icon flashed to tell you to take them off. Usually, I ended up seeing double or going cross-eyed. Again, the whole putting on and taking off of the glasses regimen was distracting and it took me out of the moment. I found myself trying harder to see things in 3D than to actually pay attention to what was actually happening.
3. I might be showing my age (25), but the whole experience was a bit too sensory overload… the sound was too loud, the picture too big, and the 3D was disconcerting. The whole experience caused me to focus too much on where I was, as opposed to what I was watching.
Having seen the film in both venues, I will recommend that prospective viewers of Superman Returns see in their local cinema and rent/purchase the original [Superman](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078346/) with the money you save!
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