Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Pitch Black was good, especially the 2nd time around. No, it wasn't the acting or the plot, but I guess I haven't seen anything recently from the genre of sci-fi space horror. The coincidence of visual and audio effects in the film are just plain enjoyable. I was annoyed with the lead female actress for being predictably stupid and selfish, Riddick's story and mystery throughout the film is interesting enough to keep me watching. I think its just a little funny that the monsters don't kill them all when they're stalled and bickering for so much of the movie, and most of the people that got axed deserved it (although the other deaths were a bit tragic), a portrayal of life's sense of fairness and justice is quite satisfying...I think its fair that annoying, selfish, petty, and insipid characters get eaten by monsters. It makes the blood and guts that much more enjoyable. I love the last scene where they "say goodbye", and also liked that they flew close to the rings of the planet, because it looks SO cool. Friends of mine really liked the crash scene at the beginning. I have to admit, it's cool to watch a hypothetical space ship crash from many points of view. Although its not as scary or good as Aliens because the plot isn't there, the special effects and artistic details more than make up for it. Couple the eye/ear candy with a "good" bad-boy hero and "dark" hollywood ending, and voila, you have people waiting for the sequel.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was complete rubbish. The vapid Paltrow as the leading female and the shallow, obvious but boring plot really made me mourn the lost hour. I think Soul Plane was better than this...
The worst part was that it had such great potential. The main draw is the nostalgic backdrops in blue screen, but unfortunately, the bad script made the visuals the only saving grace. The characters could have been better developed. Paltrow's character was completely annoying and distracting to the movie. We get too much silly, selfish newsreporter and very little of the other potentially "cool" characters (or they would have been cool if the plot actually revealed more about these people): heroic pilot, russian camper, british daredevil, dirty-faced asian, newspaper editor, mad scientist. Unfortunately, the cool characters last less than a flicker during the movie. The stills are a much better way to appreciate the landscape. Ah well, unfortunate... it seems that this weekend was full of shallow plots...
Soul Plane had its moments. It wasn't nearly as funny as Pootie Tang, but there were some good buts. I thought it was weird how the soundtrack sounded very similar to Pootie's theme song. Sadatay!