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On Tuesday I saw Kung Fu Panda 2
AWESOME.
The story in this one is a lot better - it's a more personal journey for Po, and he's more connected to the bad guy, so it improves a lot on the original. They still underuse most of the Five, but they give Tigress more to do, which is lovely. There are a lot of jokes for young and old - I caught a few lines that made me laugh really hard that the kids didn't get, but they laughed at some of the other parts. I wish live-action movies put as much effort into choreographing their fight scenes as this movie - you can see what's happening, and it's inventive and funny and cool. There isn't a sequence quite as cool as Tai Lung's escape in the first film, but a cart chase through the streets of the city is pretty great.
The voice cast is having fun. For obvious reasons, Crazy Gary Oldman as a mad genocidal peacock is an absolute delight, and the cameos are clearly enjoying themselves.
I love the art in the Kung Fu Panda movies. The animation on the fantasy/dream/memory sequences is always gorgeous and creative, and I love the depiction of China. The bad guy being a peacock added the opportunity for an extra layer of artistic fabulousness, which they took full advantage of.
The obvious set-up for a threequel at the end really annoyed me, though.
4 out of 5
Then, at midnight, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
I suppose after the brilliance that was DH1, I should have known I would be disappointed by Part 2.
It started off well enough, like the first part - the scenes at Shell Cottage and Gringotts were faithful and cool and effective. Then they got back to Hogwarts and it all fell apart. It's like Steve Kloves suddenly remembered all the stupid things he'd been doing for years and started up again.
+/-
+ The depiction of the Malfoys was great - not much was really changed, but it was made a little bit clearer. The actors did a fantastic job.
+ The scene at Gringotts, and Warwick Davies as Griphook, were exactly as I pictured them. Love HBC-as-Hermione-as-Bellatrix, love the duplication of the treasure and the escape on the dragon, love all of it.
+ The movie looked fantastic. Great colour palette, the part where the suits of armour/stone soldiers protected the school looked FANTASTIC,
+ The Prince's Tale was done well (with the exception of the scene where Lily talks to Harry, which Snape can't POSSIBLY have known about).
+ The HBIC pair of Neville and McGonagall. It was a shame that Neville didn't get to say "Dumbledore's Army!" but he's still pretty fucking brilliant.
+ "Not my daughter, you bitch!"
+ The Forest Again. That was handled beautifully, with the Marauders and Lily together and supporting Harry.
+ Most of the King's Cross scene - that is absolutely the best and most faithful Dumbledore we've seen in eight movies. He's whimsical and a bit sad and grandfatherly and perfect. "Of course it's in your head, but why should that mean it isn't real?" was perfect. Only thing wrong with it was the SO SNAPE LOVED MY MOTHER, RIGHT? BECAUSE OF THE PATRONUS THING? Like, really, you couldn't figure that out already? Augh.
The epilogue was fine. We were expecting it to be awful and it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, either. I think after we've seen the movie a couple of times, like after reading the book a few times, it will just become...part of it, accepted.
- I am never going to get over the fact that they didn't show Fred's death. I'm furious. It diminishes the entire impact of the battle, and it's a disservice to the fans and the character. It was still sad to see the Weasleys crying over him (GEORGE, OMG) but the force of horror and sadness isn't there. Also, not showing Percy's big return was a major let-down.
- Dear Steve Kloves, we get it. You are hot for Hermione Granger. She is your favourite thing in the entire world of Harry Potter, except maybe for Lily Potter. Letting that get in the way of faithfully adapting the books is just bad writing. Is that why all the Weasleys get the fuzzy end of the lollipop? Why Ron gets pretty much no decent moments with his best friend in the final movie of all the movies?
- WTF, boathouse? The return to the Shrieking Shack had resonance with earlier books, and relocating to a completely new location within Hogwarts is just stupid.
- The entire final part of the battle, when Harry and Voldemort chase each other all over the castle and Neville takes forever to kill Nagini so that we're not concentrating on the movie at all, just thinking "Wait, is Neville not going to kill Nagini? He has to!" That's not dramatic tension, it's taking people out of the movie.
- We see the bodies but not the deaths of the good guys, and the bad guys die but leave no bodies. They're not vampires, they don't burst into ash when you kill them. Oh, while I'm at it, Harry kills Voldemort...when they're entirely alone and not a single other soul is there to see it. Um. No.
Might add more when I think of it.
I'm torn about the rating of this. As a film it probably deserves 3.5 out of 5, but as an adaptation I only want to give it 2.5. I'm splitting the difference and calling it at:
3 out of 5
Green Queen
AWESOME.
The story in this one is a lot better - it's a more personal journey for Po, and he's more connected to the bad guy, so it improves a lot on the original. They still underuse most of the Five, but they give Tigress more to do, which is lovely. There are a lot of jokes for young and old - I caught a few lines that made me laugh really hard that the kids didn't get, but they laughed at some of the other parts. I wish live-action movies put as much effort into choreographing their fight scenes as this movie - you can see what's happening, and it's inventive and funny and cool. There isn't a sequence quite as cool as Tai Lung's escape in the first film, but a cart chase through the streets of the city is pretty great.
The voice cast is having fun. For obvious reasons, Crazy Gary Oldman as a mad genocidal peacock is an absolute delight, and the cameos are clearly enjoying themselves.
I love the art in the Kung Fu Panda movies. The animation on the fantasy/dream/memory sequences is always gorgeous and creative, and I love the depiction of China. The bad guy being a peacock added the opportunity for an extra layer of artistic fabulousness, which they took full advantage of.
The obvious set-up for a threequel at the end really annoyed me, though.
4 out of 5
Then, at midnight, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
I suppose after the brilliance that was DH1, I should have known I would be disappointed by Part 2.
It started off well enough, like the first part - the scenes at Shell Cottage and Gringotts were faithful and cool and effective. Then they got back to Hogwarts and it all fell apart. It's like Steve Kloves suddenly remembered all the stupid things he'd been doing for years and started up again.
+/-
+ The depiction of the Malfoys was great - not much was really changed, but it was made a little bit clearer. The actors did a fantastic job.
+ The scene at Gringotts, and Warwick Davies as Griphook, were exactly as I pictured them. Love HBC-as-Hermione-as-Bellatrix, love the duplication of the treasure and the escape on the dragon, love all of it.
+ The movie looked fantastic. Great colour palette, the part where the suits of armour/stone soldiers protected the school looked FANTASTIC,
+ The Prince's Tale was done well (with the exception of the scene where Lily talks to Harry, which Snape can't POSSIBLY have known about).
+ The HBIC pair of Neville and McGonagall. It was a shame that Neville didn't get to say "Dumbledore's Army!" but he's still pretty fucking brilliant.
+ "Not my daughter, you bitch!"
+ The Forest Again. That was handled beautifully, with the Marauders and Lily together and supporting Harry.
+ Most of the King's Cross scene - that is absolutely the best and most faithful Dumbledore we've seen in eight movies. He's whimsical and a bit sad and grandfatherly and perfect. "Of course it's in your head, but why should that mean it isn't real?" was perfect. Only thing wrong with it was the SO SNAPE LOVED MY MOTHER, RIGHT? BECAUSE OF THE PATRONUS THING? Like, really, you couldn't figure that out already? Augh.
The epilogue was fine. We were expecting it to be awful and it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, either. I think after we've seen the movie a couple of times, like after reading the book a few times, it will just become...part of it, accepted.
- I am never going to get over the fact that they didn't show Fred's death. I'm furious. It diminishes the entire impact of the battle, and it's a disservice to the fans and the character. It was still sad to see the Weasleys crying over him (GEORGE, OMG) but the force of horror and sadness isn't there. Also, not showing Percy's big return was a major let-down.
- Dear Steve Kloves, we get it. You are hot for Hermione Granger. She is your favourite thing in the entire world of Harry Potter, except maybe for Lily Potter. Letting that get in the way of faithfully adapting the books is just bad writing. Is that why all the Weasleys get the fuzzy end of the lollipop? Why Ron gets pretty much no decent moments with his best friend in the final movie of all the movies?
- WTF, boathouse? The return to the Shrieking Shack had resonance with earlier books, and relocating to a completely new location within Hogwarts is just stupid.
- The entire final part of the battle, when Harry and Voldemort chase each other all over the castle and Neville takes forever to kill Nagini so that we're not concentrating on the movie at all, just thinking "Wait, is Neville not going to kill Nagini? He has to!" That's not dramatic tension, it's taking people out of the movie.
- We see the bodies but not the deaths of the good guys, and the bad guys die but leave no bodies. They're not vampires, they don't burst into ash when you kill them. Oh, while I'm at it, Harry kills Voldemort...when they're entirely alone and not a single other soul is there to see it. Um. No.
Might add more when I think of it.
I'm torn about the rating of this. As a film it probably deserves 3.5 out of 5, but as an adaptation I only want to give it 2.5. I'm splitting the difference and calling it at:
3 out of 5
Green Queen
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