Cloverfield (2008)

I am going to do this review in two parts. The main review here will be vague and reveal as little as possible, while sharing my overall feeling of the film. However, there are many things I want to talk about that would be spoilers for the film. So I will post a comment with those points. If you don't want to read spoilers, just dont read the comments.

This movie was a great, intense story that dragged you right into the plight of the main characters. It was probably one of the most realist feeling movies I have seen in a long time. Which is amazing considering the story was so fantastical.

Here is the big warning. Sit in the back. And if you get motion sickness, take your Dramamine. Or don't go. My brother-in-law had to leave the movie toward the end, and get a little fresh air.

Without revealing to much I think I can get away with saying that the entire movie is supposed to be from the visual point-of-view of the people in the story holding a camcorder, recording what is going on. However, the filming in this film was much better than Blair Witch. In fact, I thought the filming was fantastic.

The very first of the film had the video quality of camcorder, although perhaps a really nice one. I was worried because visual quality is something that can wreck a movie for me. But that first part was just to establish the framework of the film, because not a minute into the movie and we were at full qualify. What was really nifty was they sneaked the switch in so I didn't see where the switch was made, and I bet no one else in the theater even noticed.

The really masterful thing about the filming was that you never once got pulled out of the idea it was these people just holding a camcorder while experiencing the intense events. And yet, while it felt like some amateur holding the camera, you saw exactly what you needed to understand the story. It was masterful. Even that does not describe how this movie felt to me. Emotionally, it felt to me like maybe I was the one holding the camera. Maybe I was there going through this too.

I don't know how soon I can see this film again. It was very intense. And I really empathized with the people and their plight. When it was over I was exhausted. However, the ride was fantastic.

I am Legend (2007)

Intense, delightfully scary, and somehow very real, I enjoyed every step of this movie. I really liked that it was not about what happened to the world. That was just the back story. What happened to the world was just the environment in which our protagonist, Robert Nevill, had to live and survive.

I also like the way that the intensity and suspense was created and maintained. Most of the time you saw shadows and highlights, instead of outright monsters. When you did see the monsters, they were more scary than gross.

I liked the level that Robert went to in order to protect himself. The story also gained a ton of reality by not making him a super hero. He only did as well as he did by luck or thinking ahead. And when he was in major danger, he was scared out of his mind.

But most of all, the realism in the story was gained by the way Robert was dealing with his situation. How he interacted with his dog, things he did to try to keep his sanity, and the level of sanity he actually managed to keep, all contributed to the rich tapestry of the story.

Now if you don't like scary stories, don't see this one. It was quite frightening. This wasn't just Shyamalan-scary, it was the stuff of nightmares. And if you are only looking for a horror flick, skip this movie. It took a luxurious amount of time creating a story and character that you could believe. However, if you like compelling stories, detailed characters, and intense, freakily frightening films, this might be right up your ally.

Mars Attacks (1996)

Ok, my review for this movie will be short: This was the dumbest, more boring movie I have ever seen.

I only saw the last half-hour. I dont need to see any more. This movie was trying to be cheeky, playing on the style of classic Sci-Fi 'B' movies. It failed. The jokes did work, the style didn't work. Every weird idea just fought against every other one, and the whole thing just made you feel sorry for all the big names that got roped into it.

If you want an intentionally bad movie that is actually funny, check out "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." However, ignore "Return of the Killer Tomatoes." That one is dumb too.

The Golden Compass (2007)

Loved it.

The more I think about this film, the more I enjoyed it. This movie had all the aspects I look for in a movie. Great story, engaging dialog, great visuals and music, and something to make me think. But there were two things I liked most about this movie.

1) The Girl. She was a great character from beginning to end. She was not just the lead character, she was by far the star. Her cheekiness, to her dedicated fight at the end, was believable at every turn.

2) Agency. Ultimately, I believe this movie was about agency. I've never read the book. I don't know the author of the book or the screenplay, or what their belief systems might be. But the basic message from the movie I got was that any organization or authority that tries to remove agency is bad. This is a message I happen to believe in.

I only have two complaints. First, the movie felt a bit rushed throughout. This is a risk with a book adaptation. It is hard to have time to put everything in that needs to be in there. Second, the end felt a bit canned. They were trying to create an ending that didn't feel to much like a cliffhanger, because when they made this film they didn't know if they were going to be able to make any others. Thay had to give us some kind of ending. But unfortunately, it kinda felt like they just stuck a little dialog on the end and called it good.

However, even with those two small complaints, I enjoyed myself while watching, and I enjoyed thinking about it after. What more can you want.

Mothman Prophecies (2002)

Meh.

M-E-H, meh. This movie was mostly just boring. I mean, the idea was kinda cool, I guess. Some weird moth-being that would zap your eyes if you saw him, and tell you secrets from the future, secrets you could doing nothing about... or maybe he would lure you away to another city to get a call from your dead wife, and try to keep you from saving your new potential love, even though she already had a dream-vision from the moth of her rescue.

Are you confused yet? I was, and I don't get confused easy. Well, to be fair, I wasn't confused, I just didn't understand why, and the "why" is what drives me. I dont need to understand everything perfectly, but I do want the pieces to fall into place. I need everything in the story to count for something, and when the final picture is revealed, I want to go "A-ha! That is what that was about." And if there is a piece left-over, I want it to feel like a teaser from the creators. Something to make me think, ponder, or speculate.

This movie just didn't do it for me. Maybe my second time watching it made the overall affect more boring, because I knew the story wouldn't really go anywhere. Maybe I had been watching Sixth Sense, and this movie could just not stand up. Or maybe this is just a blah movie. Not great cinematography, storytelling, dialog, acting, editing, or really anything. None of it was really bad, but none of it was really good.

So, not really scary, but not really anything at all. Meh.