movies I've seen recently...
Jarhead is a war
movie unlike any war movies I've ever seen. This movie is more
about living the life of a marine, as opposed to a movie about the war
itself. You really get a taste of what it felt like to be in the
situation the main character played by Jake Gyllenhaal
went through as a marine. This movie doesn't necessarily glorify a
marine's life like a lot of war movies do, but instead humanizes the
experience. This isn't an action movie at all and more of a
character driven drama. Sam Mendes
is becoming one of my favorite directors because he makes a great
emphasis to let the characters of the movie shine through, and Jarhead
is no exception. "A-"
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire isn't necessarily one of the strongest of the four movies, and this is coming from somebody who considers GoF the best
book of the series. The pacing of the movie simply went by too fast, as
they tried to cram as much information from the books as a 2.5 hrs film
can hold. Out of all the movies, this one cut almost half of the book's
content (okay, maybe just a little over a 1/3). Out of all the movies,
this one also took the most glaring liberties in the plot. There's also
a lot of elements that aren't explained in the film either, and the
non-book reading fans are going to have to take a lot at face value. I
simply felt that the story would have worked better as a 3 hour movie.
... and that's it for me being a bit nitpicky...
The glaring positive thing about the movie is the look and feel of the
Harry Potter world. Although there are CG sequences that didn't look
too great, there are a lot that really looked excellent. There's also a
lot of great inventive uses of
magic displayed here and like the Prisoner of Azkaban, the world and
people look and act more "natural" as opposed to the staged look of the
Columbus films. The interactions between the characters are also quite
entertaining to watch. The humor here also seems to be improved upon,
while the scary sequences justified the PG-13 rating. I mentioned the
pacing of the film moving too fast, but director Mike Newell
was able
to make the movie really shine when he slowed things down for the more
important events in the story. There are a lot of memorable moments
littered throughout the movie which helps makes the film a wonderful
experience to watch.
Overall though, I still enjoyed the movie a lot despite it's flaws. The
positive elements simply overshadow the negative, so it's impossible
for me to say that I hated the movie (like some diehard purists are probably going to say). I commend Mike Newell for tacking
on
what's arguably the hardest book of the series to adapt. But it still
has to be said that the book is so much better than the movie. "B+"
p.s. I've seen this movie twice already, and I liked it even more the second time around.
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