I realize that it has been five months since I wrote a
review about a new movie. In that
"missing time" I have seen four movies in the theater; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, Sin City 2, and Gone Girl. I took two
classes over the summer which might partly explain the decrease in movie
watching, but honestly there haven't been many movies that I've wanted to
see.
Dawn of the Planet of
the Apes struck me as an extraordinary technical achievement in filmmaking. The techniques which were used to bring
Gollum to life in The Lord of the Rings
have been improved significantly. This
movie represents a milestone; human characters and their effect-generated
counterparts will become indistinguishable.
Guardians of the
Galaxy fulfilled its promise of being entertaining; which is saying quite a
bit these days. In an environment oversaturated
by comic book movies/television shows, this was overall a refreshing deviation
from the norm. Sure it followed well
traveled clichés, but the characters and the landscape set it apart. I will still contend that it would be
difficult to make a movie starring a raccoon named Rocket that isn't
entertaining.
Sin City 2
followed the amazingly crafted visual experience of Sin City with a blasé, messy, pointless jumble of a movie. Seriously the only thing this movie does well
is reaffirm the notion that sequels are unnecessary.
I went to see Gone
Girl last night. I had seen the
poster, but I have avoided any other contact with promotional material. When David Fincher makes a movie I prefer to
see it uncontaminated by spoilers. Gone Girl will be studied for years to
come as an example of mastery in film editing.
Fincher weaves an elaborate mystery, revealing each new piece of
information exactly when it best contributes to the overall effect. The opening dialogue is unsettling, but
doesn't quite sink-in until halfway through the film. Or at least it seems to make sense at the
halfway point, when in fact the whole movie is necessary to truly
understand. Rarely have I been so
manipulated by storytelling techniques as I was last night, and it wasn't until
later that I understood the extent. As
long as you don't realize that you're being manipulated in the moment, it can
be a good thing (in filmmaking). Thanks
to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' contribution to this film, I also experienced
one of the tensest sequences ever filmed.
The sequence I'm referring to was simply a revelation by one of the main
characters, but the dialogue, the film editing and the sound design all
contributed to enhance the tension. I
feel compelled to include the following statement: As I said before, this is a David Fincher
film, so no matter what qualities I mentioned previously, it's still a Fincher
film.
P.S. I saw the
trailer for Clint Eastwood's newest film American
Sniper. I can only assume that
Eastwood must have overseen the editing of the trailer, because it is probably
the most powerful trailer that I've ever seen.
