Tag: stewart

0

Kazed reviews Studio Ghibli series: Nausicaä of The Valley of The Wind

So I'll admit this - The only Ghibli film I've seen before this is The Cat Returns, and that was a brilliant piece of cinema. I see Ghibli as the Pixar as the 2D Animation world(if that makes sense?). I've been wanting to see these films for a long time now, and now I have my chance. This will be the first of the Studio Ghibli reviews, starting with Nausicaä of The Valley of The Wind, the 2005 re-release, with the English cast. Behind all of the lush fantasy forests and imaginative over-the-top insect creatures, was basically a 'save the planet' message. This would have usually bothered me, only it was done so brilliantly and subtly that I didn't really care. Wall-E, for example, portrayed the same kind of message, but again, it was done beautifully, and wasn't really shoved down our throats like that atrocity, The Happening. I mean, really, what WAS 'happening'??? Off track. There weren't any moments within this film when I felt it was cliched at all, it all felt natural, as weird as it sounds. I think what added to this natural 'aura', if you will, was the brilliant voice acting by Alison Lohman, who played the Princess of the Valley, 'Nausicaä'. The character suited the voice perfectly, something which is difficult to achieve when something is being translated to English from another language. The emotion that she conveyed through her voice was astounding, I really felt her pain when the insects were being lured by the baby. This wasn't the only scene, but one of many; just thought this was a notable one. Patrick Stewart, Shia LeBouf, Mark Hamill and Uma Thurman also lent a hand, voicing Lord Yupa, Asbel, Mayor of Pejite and Kushana, respectively. The cast was something to admire; like Lohman/Nausicaä, each of the cast members seemed to resonate with their animated counterparts, and this was another element added to what I feel made the film as brilliant as it was. So in staying with the new rating system: Performances: 8/10 Plot: 7/10 Visuals: 7/10 Dialogue: 8/10 Stupidity factor (The higher the score, the more stupid it was): 2/10 Overall (average): 8/10 Kazed

0

Exclusive Snow White and The Huntsman (2012) first look images!

              Yet another badass piece of news to come from the SDCC - a sweet first look at Snow White and The Huntsman. From what I've read, this film will be putting a new spin on the traditional fairytale. Clicky the pictures to see some Hi-res goodness. IGN are also reporting that the film will indeed contain dwarves- 8 of them. This looks like it could be something different altogether. Kazed.

0

First Twilight: Breaking Dawn still

So the first still of Break Dawn surface on the Internet today, behold, in all it's filthy glory:

Wow, LOVE that. Not sure what's going on though, maybe Ed's trying to kill Bella. We can only hope. No I kid. We'll see how this pans out. Kazed

0

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) review

Synopsis: As a string of mysterious killings grips Seattle, Bella, whose high school graduation is fast approaching, is forced to choose between her love for vampire Edward and her friendship with werewolf Jacob. Having seen the first two from the Saga, so far, this would be my breakdown of the three- Twilight: easily the best of the bunch so far. New Moon: Utter disappointment, from a Film standpoint, anyway. Eclipse: a slight step up from New Moon, very impressed with many aspects, including the acting, surprisingly. What a segway to begin the review. I'll also state again that this review will be written from a Film standpoint, so none of you hardcore Twi-Hards be hatin' on me. So Eclipse. Although a little slow at the beginning, it picked up a little when it delivered some intense fight scenes between some of the scenes. I was impressed, but I wasn't too thrilled about the CGI in the film. It just didn't work, the scene where the 'transfomed' Jacob is comforting Bella looked pretty effing stupid. There were some funny pieces of dialogue in Eclipse, which, quite surprisingly made me laugh. Kudos to the screenwriters, here. I'll be honest, I did enjoy this installment moreso than New Moon, but still not as good as the oh-so wonderful first film. Lovely film, there were some really bad, stupid moments which made me want to murder everyone in the theatre. 5.5/10 Kazed.

2

Twilight Review

If I'm going to be completely and utterly honest, I was excessively hesitant to watch this film, simply because, well, I didn't really have a reason. I saw it from a negative perspective, but within the first 20 minutes of the film I was hooked into it. So Twilight is about a girl, Bella Swan, who moves from the hot, scorching wasteland that is Arizona(No, I kid), and moves to a small town, Forks, close to Washington. She encounters a 'young' man by the name of Edward Cullen, who seems a little angry at the world, or maybe at his hairstyle. So they both fall in love, and she discovers that Edward is actually a Vampire who has been alive for quite a while. A while means a couple of hundred years or so. So Edward loves her alot, and seems to be incredibly insecure or something, because he can't seem to stand it when she's around other Males. Bella gets into trouble a couple of times, and Edward saves her. Granted, I haven't read the book(s) by Stephanie Meyer, but generally, when a book has been adapted for a script, the book is usually better. Of course, like I said, I haven't read it, so my opinion won't count for that element. There were several elements of this film that I really enjoyed, and still fresh in memory right now.  One, and the main one I though, was the film gave me an impression of an Indie film. Alot of it seemed so organic, and fresh- until they introduced the vampire. Once the establishment of Edward's 'powers' had become apparent, the interest curve had dropped, quite steeply. Not so much that I wasn't interested in the film, just enough so I wanted to almost 'block out' said scenes. I admired how there was a certain 'innocence', if you will, about the romance between the two, until they began smothering each other in her bedroom. It regained some of it back, to some degree, but it was refreshing, it wasn't a clichéd concept, just a number of elements within the film which were all too redundant(the bland, all-too-familiar clichés, a girl who enters a school and seems to be clumsy and inept at pretty much everything, the girl who falls with the alleged 'hottest guy in school')and I've seen far too many times alternated and adapted for different plots. I think another reason why I was drawn to this while watching was most probably the fact that it was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, Director of 'Lords of Dogtown', a film which will be reviewed in the near future, and quite possibly in my top 10 of all time. I did, however, feel that Stewart's acting wasn't as 'organic' as the film itself, and she seemed to struggle a slight bit at one particular scene, where she was lying in the hospital bed, I got a little confused when she was trying to emote her anger to Edward. Robert Pattinson seemed to be doing almost the same thing, and had a depressed teen thing happening, yet another cliché which wasn't at all required. All in all, it was an interesting film to watch, yes, it had it's downers and it's clichés, but which film doesn't? Good film, respectable acting, familiar plot lines with characters who screamed  cliché, Twilight sort of lived up to the extensive build-up. 7/10 Kazed