Thursday 13 January 2011

Tron Legacy 3D

Ok, so my other reviews have been rocky towards 3D, even avatar managed to irritate me in 3D. But Tron really did add to the overall experience with the 'slight' 3D effects. And i mean slight in terms of not trying to push effects out of the screen too much, and that a good 30% (and possibly more) have no 3D elements in them at all (was sneaky and took the glasses off a few times).
The plot was fairly basic, but in my opinion, needed to be. It was still quite a classic storyline, and managed to deliver it well. The action was excellently paced, with some nice action scenes that were kept low key enough not to overdose on action.
As soon as watching it, and possibly due to having a bee before, thought instantly of comparing it to Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark, or Star Wars A New Hope, as it had this great sense of sci-fi opera, and was a joy to sit and fest in this thorough and strong world.
As much i've read and heard that the film was rubbish/thin/too effect heavy, i thought it worth watching. And was glad i did. More than buyable :)

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Iron Eagle

Wow. Some awesome (possibly post-Topgun) Fighter jet film romp. Wonderful film, imo.
Could really do with a re-make - some polishing on the rubbish effects and repeated explosion frames, because it had this great appealing quality. And there aren't that many decent fighter jet films out there :P

Monday 10 January 2011

The King's Speech

Wonderfully crafted film. Beautiful shots, with really deep images and lovingly good composition. Great acting and a simple story made this a really nice watch. A little slow for some, but some ingenious shots, dialogue and acting made up for the ADHD'ers out there.

The Next 3 Days

Excellent film. Long and winding, and Crowe isn't that bad in this one.
Lots of twists, some lovely use of 'vigilante justice'.
Quite nicely shot, though most shots are simple fare. Nothing to speak of technically, but a decent film, made you feel, was on the edge of my seat :) Recommend.

Sunday 2 January 2011

Narnia

Wow.
Awful film. In a few interesting ways.
Aside from the usual suspects with these films - plot, acting quality, plot, plot, - there was a slightly bigger issue afoot. The '3D' fad effects were fairly basic. And watching the film was quite difficult.
Firstly, the use of 3D (stereoscopic cameras) was only implemented with 3D-space 'place-cards'. Each character was mapped onto a place-card, and lobbed somewhere in 3D space. Or so it looked.
The other serious problem with the 3D was the lack of story-telling direction. There were two focus pulls i noted, both were tiny, and ineffectual. It was a shame really, as this is why 3D should be taking off. Directing the viewer, and allowing flat scenes to be more visually interesting.
The last problem i found with the 3D on this movie (possibly just me), was the fast editing, while having these 3D place-cards. You have to watch the action, note the 3D space they're in, and ignore the odd 'flicker' instead of motion blur, all in an instant.

Not sure this is the way forward for storytelling film.
Didn't even get to enjoy any of the modelling/effects because of the 3D (i'd stopped using the glasses after about 20mins in) and the ADHD editing. :/
Bummer of a film.