The Happening : Review
By admin | June 30, 2008
On a certain level, this is a really, really bad movie. However, it was a bad movie that I enjoyed thoroughly. The Happening is terribly acted, meandering storyline, logically inconsistent and features bizarre tonal shifts - all things that make it terrible, and I recognize that. What I think drew me in though, was that compared to so many films these days it was at least trying to stand out from the crowd and do things differently. It fails at that, but I’d rather watch a glorious failure to achieve greatness than a half-hearted stab at mediocrity.
The first 30 minutes hint at a film that might have been, a true mystery story about events that can never be understood by humans. Shyamalan then seemingly raises the stakes, before dropping them again: At one point we are told the train our heroes are on has stopped because they have lost contact with “everyone” - a truly scary thought. However, within 10 minutes people are watching the news and receiving video clips of lions eating people on their iPhone. It is strange flaws like this that begin to pile on each other and eventually the film collapses under it’s own weight. It’s bad, but there are hints of Shyamalan’s skill hidden in there. So if you are like me, you might still get a kick out of it…
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Incredible Hulk : Review
By admin | June 25, 2008
Great Hulk film, much better than the first one. A good little action film that, in this cut at least, doesn’t spend too much time trying to be anything more. Excellent acting from all involved, good special effects and just takes itself seriously enough to draw you in, without getting bogged down in overwrought drama. Certainly leaves me interested enough to want to see the rumored 70+ mins longer “original cut” that led to some disagreement between Norton/Leterrier/Marvel. If the missing pieces are up to the quality of the rest, they will be worth a look but I think they made the right decision to make this Hulk a leaner, more muscular one - both in terms of the pacing, and in terms of the monster himself, who looks much better this time around, though still a little bit “nice” rather than the personification of anger he supposedly represents.
Overall, not quite on the level of Iron Man, which I think was up there with the best superhero films of all time: Spider-Man, Superman, X-Men 2, Batman Begins, Blade. This is a more perfunctory affair that never rises above the source material, but when the source material is about a 10-foot tall green giant smashing shit up, maybe that doesn’t matter so much.
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