Only three posts in January. Must... try... harder...
What to say about the remarkable WALL•E that hasn't already been said? I didn't see this one at the theatre, perhaps a little wary after Finding Nemo, which felt to me as though the mechanics of Pixar's storytelling were starting to show. WALL•E truly lived up to the rave reviews. The animation is so detailed and lifelike that it's easy to lose sight of the fact that you're not watching live action. I was completely enthralled from the opening minutes to the end. It's worth mentioning that this is the only time a film or television show has used Richard Strauss' 'Also sprach Zarathustra' as a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey without making me groan.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army was less satisfying. I liked Hellboy enough, but I think I was mainly just overjoyed to finally see some decent Lovecraftian monster gods in a movie. The sequel is a classic Hollywood-blockbuster-empty-spectacle, with a fabulous menagerie of fantastical creatures and one of those aggressive soundmixes that needs to be noticed constantly, topped off with Danny Elfman phoning in another superhero score.
1 comment:
I think the triumph of Hellboy II is less in the plotting and more in the maturation of Guillermo del Toro's vision following his experience with Pan's Labyrinth. I cherish more trips to that world, and Hellboy II gave me one. Plus, the scene where Red and Abe get drunk is really funny.
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