[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

One of my favourite Goldenthal scores for a strange, but spellbinding vision of Shakespeare's play.

I have, and that is pretty damn awesome too.

That's a superb film (and fine score), Bob -- one that divides critics, but I dig it.

DARK CITY is great, I ROBOT is OK, but KNOWING is one of the worst films I've seen in recent years.

Well it was quite enjoyable. I loved I, ROBOT and DARK CITY too. What is he up to now?

Just saw Cloud Atlas.

This. Film. Is. Amazing!

V.

You must have seen another film than me then.

Loved it too. I think people's negativity isn't thoroughly justified.

Yep, the premise sounds really interesting and fun.

The reason why Proyas hasn't been doing anything lately (that came to fruition) is because he was long developing a large scale adaptation of Milton's Paradise Lost, a project that went from a huge budget to a mediocre budget to being put on hold, even after he had already cast several characters (with Bradley Cooper as Lucifer) and was pretty far in pre-production. A shame if you ask me, because I was looking forward to it and hoping it would return to his DARK CITY sensibilities. You can find some of the concept art here, although studio Legendary Pictures has demanded most of it to be taken offline after the project was cancelled.

I dare say what really ails you are the metaphysical implications, or am I wrong?

Volker

THIS!

Star Trek: Into Darkness

I enjoyed it! Very bold though, doing what they did, and I'm not sure that aspect of it came off that well. I won't repeat John's spoiler section above, but I agree with every word he put in it. I wonder about the wisdom of trying to get you to care about characters based on what the previous actors who played those characters did with them, rather than what's been done by these actors... it didn't really feel earned for me, the big finale, based on the characters as they appear in these two Abrams films - but interestingly, a couple of the people I saw it with had not actually seen the Shatner/Nimoy films and still liked it, so maybe I'm wrong. [spoiler]How the hell did Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer not get any screenplay credit? If I were they... I'd be seeking some reparations![/spoiler]

Giacchino's score... well. There was a score? Maybe that's a bit unfair but given how musically distinguished the series has been, it's fair to say it doesn't stack up. And the most famous of famous scenes from the original movies, which is repeated here, suffers incredibly because Giacchino's music for it is a very, very, very long way short of what the previous composer wrote for it. I can see that people on certain messageboards are already going mad that the album's only 45 minutes long, but if there was 45 minutes of memorable music in the film (other than the reprises of the theme from the previous score) I'd be amazed. There's one exquisite cue earlier on when the Cumberbatch character is introduced - I certainly hope that's on the album. But that's basically the only time I noticed the music at all.

I think the problem there starts with the idea --- 'how can we take <PRE-EXISTING BELOVED PROPERTY ICONIC MOMENT X> and put a fresh spin on it?' --- than trying to find a new moment that stands on its own. Abrams has always been better at moment-by-moment engagement than building up a long arc emotional experience (I haven't seen Super 8 of course, I'm just going on the others).

I want escapism, so off to the cinema later today.....Ironman 3 or Star Trek? Mmmmmmmm??