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Movie Review: Trollhunter (Trolljegeren)

2011/07/03 — isecore

It’s quite rare these days that a movie manages to completely suck me in and forget that I’m watching something fictional. I am too aware of the craft of filmmaking, and all too often I spend a lot of time inside my head wondering about how a movie was made. That innocent and almost child-like suspension of disbelief is a very rare thing as an adult when watching films.

But every now and again some movie comes up and completely sucks me in. It makes me forget about the craft of filmmaking and instead manages to make me believe something unbelievable. It manages to take me away from wondering how a certain special effect was created, and instead makes me believe it’s all real.

“Trolljegeren” (or as it was called in english: Trollhunter) is one of those rare instances where I end up sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation.

The movie is presented as a documentary. It’s done in the currently quite fashionable “found footage” faux-documentary style that started off with The Blair Witch Project and that other movies such as Cloverfield have successfully leveraged. The difference though is that with this low-key Norwegian film you wonder afterwards how much of it is real and how much is movie magic.

The plot in short is that three students at a university in Norway are making a student-film about a supposed bear-poacher. They stumble upon the man in question and it turns out that he’s not a bear-poacher – instead he works for a secret Norwegian government-agency whose mission it is to keep the existence of Trolls away from public knowledge. The trollhunter in question is seemingly somewhat bitter about the low status of his work, and invites the young camera crew to accompany him and document his work in the hopes that his employers might rethink how they treat him when his work is exposed on national television. This sets off a series of events, and the viewer learns about the truth behind the Norwegian governments handling of the Troll-situation…

This movie is utterly brilliant. It’s rough, it’s amateurish, and it’s absolutely beautiful in every way possible. If you liked Cloverfield or any of the other “found footage” type films that have surfaced you will love this one. Afterwards you’re not quite sure if you were watching a fictional piece of entertainment, or if these creatures actually exist. The film explains several of the myths behind trolls with completely plausible and understandable reasoning, and it all makes perfect sense.

It’s a must-see for anyone who wants to get away and see something fresh and exciting. This movie is a breath of fresh air. Don’t miss it.

The only thing that bothers me is that Hollywood is working on a remake, and that remake will suck all the life and originality out of the concept and turn it into yet another plastic entertainer.

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Movie Review: “Monsters

2011/01/31 — isecore

When I first saw the trailer for “Monsters” I knew I wanted to watch it. I’m a sucker for almost anything scifi, and I heart the new wave of somewhat more hard scifi that’s been making the rounds the last year or so. I absolutely loved “District 9″, and still consider it a landmark in proper science fiction.

The trailer for Monsters promised one thing, but another was delivered. While the trailer promised a tight, interesting and somewhat action-filled movie, what you actually get is a very interesting romantic drama. Yeah, you read that right. This movie is at it’s core a romantic drama, but it’s set to a backdrop of conflict in something called the “infected zone” in southwestern USA and northern Mexico.

It starts with a brief introduction. Six years ago in the movies timeline a space-probe brought home alien life, but crashed in northern Mexico. During these six years the area was infested with strange life-forms colloquially called ‘the creatures’. Since then the area has been quarantined as an infected zone, and both US military and Mexican army are hard at work (and it’s implied, failing) at keeping the creatures inside the quarantined zone.

After that we get introduced to Andrew, a photographer for a mostly unspecified media-conglomerate, and Sam, the daughter of a high-up executive in that same media-conglomerate. Andrew has been tasked with getting Sam back from mexico into the USA, and the movie follows the trip of these two people through the infected zone.

Yeah, that sounds pretty straight-forward and we’re assuming it’s going to be an intense adventure. And it is, but in a real sense. The movie is set years after an incident, so it portrays a reality where things are accepted. It’s not the high-intense drama where people run around screaming, it’s an every-day type of movie set to an imaginative backdrop.

What really impressed me about this film is that it’s a completely independent production, and it was made for a very small amount of money. The whole film is more or less improvised, and the only actors involved portray the two main characters. Everyone else just happened to be there, and the film was built around this. It is most impressive, and unless you’re aware that this movie was produced on a minuscule budget you might not ever notice it.

Sure, it has flaws. Oftentimes the acting is a bit wooden, and the plot has a tendency to plod on without getting much of anywhere. But that’s okay, in this case it works. This movie is about the two main characters, not the adventure itself. Additionally the movie contains a stunningly beautiful end-scene. I was completely blown away by the simple beauty in that scene, and the immersion I felt.

Strongly recommended.

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Movie Review: “Predators”

2010/09/27 — isecore

It’s been a long while since I last reviewed a movie, but I watched the brand-spanking new “Predators” yesterday and have some thoughts on it, which seemed like a good basis for a review.

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“Predators”

Action/scifi from 2010 starring among other Adrien Brody, Alice Braga and Laurence Fishburne.

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A mercenary named Royce (Brody) awakens and finds himself rapidly falling towards the ground. Panicked by this, he tries to find his bearings and disovers he has a parachute. At the last moment the parachute deploys and saves him from being smashed into the ground. Later he encounters several other humans who have two things in common – they all fell to the ground in the same fashion, and they’re all violent people. A mercenary, an enforcer for a mexican drug cartel, a Russian special forces commando, an Israeli sniper, a convict from death-row and a Rwandan paramilitary just to name a few.

The third thing they all have in common is that they’re being hunted for sport by a vicious alien race of beings known only as “predators”…

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“Predators” is a type of sequel/reboot to the original “Predator” starring everyones favorite mountain of muscle back in 1987. It completely ignores the rather dysmal attempts at a crossover with the Alien franchise, which I felt was very thankful.

I was looking forward to this, knowing that it would be produced by Robert Rodriguez and that to me felt like a good sign that the amount of compromising would be minimal. I hoped that all the good things would be kept intact, and that this would be a worthy Predator-film.

In hindsight, I feel glad to say that these hopes were fulfilled.

Yeah, I will honestly say that this movie is nothing subtle or very thought-provoking. It’s not meant to be either, it’s meant to be a violent action-fest featuring everyones favorite hunter. It succeeds quite well in this respect.

The mood is flawless. Everything that should be there is there, right down to a score very reminiscent of the original ’87 movie. At first I thought it was actually scored by the same composer, but it wasn’t. John Debney had made a beautiful tribute to the original haunting score by Alan Silvestri, keeping the tribal and jungle themes while updating it and making this score his own.

The cast works great. I had some reservations about Adrien Brody, but I like the idea of a lean and wiry mercenary rather than the mounds of muscle usually associated with these types of roles. Overall the casting is excellent, and each actor fits well into the part assigned to them. Absolutely no complaints there.

The plot is acceptable. It loses a bit of steam halfway in, before the grand finale, but that’s fine. The character played by Laurence Fishburne is a bit odd, as is the casting of him in that role, but at the same time it seems a bit fitting. The plot flails around a bit at times, but again – this is not a serious drama, this is an action-fest.

But overall, I feel confident that if you’re a fan of the 1987 original, you’re also going to enjoy this one. I know I did, and this is the best Predator-film in the last 20 years. It’s far superior to the AvP-films and I’ll happily watch this film at least 2-3 times more.

Totally recommended.

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Movie Review: The Black Hole (1979)

2009/05/08 — isecore

Last night I watched the Disney classic “The Black Hole”. I had some thoughts about it so here goes.

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The Black Hole

Drama/Scifi from 1979 starring among others Robert Forster, Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian Schell.

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In some unspecified but spacefaring future the research vessel Palomino happens upon a black hole. When closer examined the crew discovers that there’s a ship floating right in the eye of the hole. Upon closer inspection this turns out to be the USS Cygnus, a ship that went missing twenty years earlier. At first the ship is presumed to be a derelict, but when they approach it turns out to be quite alive. The crew lands upon the ship, discovering it to be inhabited by strange robots as well as it’s captain, the eccentric Hans Reinhardt, who has a plan to take the ship into the black hole…

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Well, I was prepared that this would be a cheese-fest and boy was it true. Some scifi-films just boggle my mind at how short-sighted they are. This movie manages somehow to squeeze together virtually every ’70s space-cliché and somehow also manages to add quite a lot of Disney-style clichés to the mix. Admittedly though, it does get some things right though. But these drown in the overall mix of overwhelming cheesiness.

This movie has not aged well. The special-effects which must’ve been quite impressive for it’s time now look extremely dated. There’s a lot of shots where things just look off, and Disney opted heavily for various matte paintings which is quite clear in many shots. I thought most of the model-shots however were quite neat, even though they’re quite clearly model-shots none the less.

I also appreciated some of the craft-design. The spaceship Palomino is a horrible design which looks more at home in a mid-50s b-movie, but I though the Cygnus was quite cool, looking like a gothic cathedral in space. Completely impractical, of course, but cool none the less.

The movie is full of other goofs which generally sour the experience. Cables are visible, actors in suits, and the robots… oh god. The robots. I absolutely hated the robots Vincent and Bob. Those two robots must be the most horribly designed scifi-robots ever.

When I was finished with the movie I felt that the general plot of a madman lost in space was quite interesting. There’s a good movie hiding inside a horrible cheesy ’70s scifi film. The very odd ending didn’t really bowl me over in any positive way, in fact I felt it to be overly pretentious and mystical, but at least it was more unconventional than the rest of the film which is completely standard in every aspect.

So… to summarize. The Black Hole is parts taken from a good movie that’s hiding inside a horrible gaudy cheese-fest of a monstrosity. Maybe a remake some day would be nice, where someone straightens up the plot and focuses on the themes presented.

One thing that struck me after viewing this film was when I compared it to another scifi-flick released in the same year: Alien. Comparing these two movies is like comparing apples and oranges. They have very little in common. While Black Hole is a throwback escapist science fantasy with strong influences from 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea and a godawful Disney-production that only (thankfully) lacks a dog, Alien is a dark and fully believable science fiction movie.

Recommended just for the experience. If you like kitsch then this is a movie for you.