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Yarigosa
Reviews
Pan (2015)
Enjoyable characters but weak storytelling
Spoilers ahead, indeed!
This film suffers from formulaic, uninspired writing, and mediocre direction. Don't misunderstand: Joe Wright has directed 4 or 5 very beautiful, very watchable, very enjoyable pictures (for example: 2004's "Pride and Prejudice"). What he hasn't done is attempt an epic fantasy adventure. It felt like he was going for a vision and chose only to show the 'highlights' or tiny bits of cultural information, (Blackbeard's Victorian costume, the miners singing Nirvana, Tiger Lily's fuzzy yarn hat), leaving us with virtually nothing to stand on when it came to figuring out the world we were watching. This is very different than his previous direction, so I can only conclude it's because he hasn't tried this genre before.
The writing is the same story with the same lines you see in any kind of film like this. Usually, that's okay, because this kind of story kind of requires plot devices like what we see. But the lines are rote and at times you can see the actors more just saying them than really acting them. Everyone suffers from this, from newcomer Levi Miller to Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman. This does place a little more blame on the director because the director should be able to see the actor struggling and say the famous: "Again, only better please!" The biggest conflict in the FILM - Peter's ability to fly - is solved instantly at the 11th hour and we don't even see it happen. I thought they were going to set it up with Peter thinking of Blackbeard always saying: "think a happy thought" and then put the whole thing together. No such luck. Also, Smee randomly looks at a drawing. Pow! It's the map to the fairy kingdom! Peter says to Tiger Lily: "Take me to the fairy kingdom." Boom! We're there! Not a moment of struggle or confusion.
This film also can't decide if it's for children or adults. All the times I saw it, the only people I heard laughing in the theater were adults. You have Blackbeard inhaling fairy dust like a drug, and then you have the natives exploding into colorful mist clouds when killed so as not to show blood. The film could be interpreted as coming purely from the imagination of a child, which means things don't always have to make sense...except if you're trying to watch the movie and understand where it's coming from, you kinda do need things to make sense.
ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) is rerecording of an actor saying lines after a scene has been filmed. The rerecording is then dubbed onto the scene to improve audio quality. There are a million ways this can go wrong and consequently it's one of the hardest things to get right. Unfortunately, when it goes wrong, it's OBVIOUS. And every one of the main actors has at least one scene where this happens. Their physical delivery does not match up with the emotional delivery of the lines, confusing both the viewer's eyes and ears.
Now, the answer to the question I had initially. I didn't like this film but I had to go back and see it again. Why? Simple: The characters.
The writers were clearly going for the anti-hero role with James Hook. There are elements of Jayne Cobb, Captain Jack Sparrow, Indiana Jones, and - most obvious - Han Solo. Garrett Hedlund gives a performance that is so over the top, it either comes across as funny or knocks you out of the movie. It was funny to me and, I daresay, others, because the only time I heard laughter in the theaters (at all three showings) was when he delivered a line or did a bout of physical comedy).
Hugh Jackman is pretty much flawless, save for the complaints above. It's always nice to hear him sing, and I have to say the sequence with him and Peter in which he reveals the prophecy is truly moving. He is playing a man looking at his doom, and the emotion in that scene is just incredible.
Rooney Mara needed more to do, in my opinion. She was a cookie-cutter warrior woman who falls for the rebel. Not to say Rooney is cookie-cutter - she's a fantastic actress. But she really just had very little to do in the film range-wise.
Levi Miller is the up and coming child actor who takes on the role of Pan. He has potential - and a lot of it. He was limited by the mediocre writing and direction. It is obvious he is able to call up great amounts of emotion and convey it through body language. With some schooling I really think he's going to be big.
The score was nothing special in my mind. I expected more from the man who gave us 'How to Train Your Dragon'. He basically took a single theme (a church hymn, the title I recall is 'Lord of All Hopefulness') and played it on repeat with a couple variations thrown in.
The film was very visually beautiful at times (the mermaids and the fairy kingdom.). However, at least two 'key' moments of the film were kind of ruined by confusing visuals (the memory tree and Blackbeard's fight with Peter's mother).
The film also was a lot of fun in its action moments. The initial escape from the orphanage (in which a pirate ship gets in a dogfight with American and German planes), the escape from the mines (In which Hook flies a pirate ship upside down a la HM Murdock from 2010's "The A-Team"), the test of the Pan (in which I was compelled to scream: "RU-FI-OOOOOOOO" as the lead warrior of the natives turned Hook into a pinball), and the climactic sword fight between Tiger Lily and Blackbeard.
I want to see it again, if for no other reason than to laugh at Hook and wonder what this film COULD have been.
Restoration (1995)
I loved it.
This has to have been one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. I am not as up on history as some people, but I think the time - the costumes, the dress, the manners, (though not the language), was stunningly represented. The transition of Robert Downey's character was also wonderfully done - we watch him go from boyishness to maturity in a slow change throughout the film, it's not just randomly done because of one event, but of a series of events. The music was out of this world, and the last half of the movie very chilling, very sad, very emotional. Have a tissue box handy!!