A big problem with this movie is that for source material that clearly required a great deal of imagination to create, the movie makers were totally devoid of any. This is a movie by numbers. The casting is uninspired (Come on Gandalf? You couldn't find any other Shakespearean actor?) as is the whole movie. The worst culprit is the writing here; all exposition. As a result the lead girl isn't given much to do except to react to tons and tons of expository dialogue and green screen effects, so we end up not liking her. Smart creative writers are able to hide the exposition in action and story. Here they just say it. This is this and this is this and this is called this and this is the most magical important thing blah blah blah blah. They might as well have done the movie as a Power Point presentation, it would have been equally as enjoyable and I would have been involved about as much. It's like they were so worried about setting up the two sequels that they forgot to make an entertaining movie. Sucks to be them because this movie pretty much bombed so the sequels have been cancelled.
My other gripes:
I couldn't hear what Nicole Kidman was saying. She kept talking in this low scratchy voice that was hard to make out. It wasn't sexy at all. So did the James Bond girl whatever her name is. Is this some kind of new trend; Frog throat acting? It needs to end.
After LOTR and the movie about Spartans, your climactic epic battle between good and evil better be good. It wasn't here, move on.
What Worked:
There's one or two shots where the little girl meets the Polar Bear Gandalf where the digital effects looked really good and the Bear looked real. For the rest of the movie it didn't.
The guy from the Big Lebowski didn't look stupid for about a second.
Was it Better than Dungeons and Dragons:
Yes but it shares some commonalities; Weak lead, lame climactic battle, Shakespearean actor picking up paycheck.
Recommend:
I think kids might like it. Their own imaginations will fill in the voids left in this movie. But they'll probably be looking forward to sequels that will most likely never happen.
Mediocroty Scale:
Just Mediocre
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment