geardrops [blog]

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Saw Coraline in 3D last night.

For the unfamiliar (how can you be, at this point?) Coraline is a story of a young girl dissatisfied with her parents, alone in a new town. And through a secret door, she finds the Other world, a perfect world of best meals, beautiful gardens, and constant games, strung together by her Other Mother. Except that this fantastic other world is a trap set to lure children away, for the Other Mother, the Beldam, to devour their lives and snatch their eyes.

If you like Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) you’ll like this. It’s very similar-but-not-same, visually, because he’s got a distinct style, though I see him pulling from the modern school of animation (which pulls from an almost-twenty-year-old pushing-boundaries school of animation) and integrating it with his style flawlessly.

Script is good. Voice acting is good. The story is well done and I feel stays very true to the book. My friends claimed it was scary, but I wasn’t that creeped out by it. They also claimed they wouldn’t take their children to it, but I would. It really wasn’t that frightening. Maybe at moments, but it’s okay for children to get scared once in awhile. Helps spinal development.

Now, I’m not entirely sold on the 3D concept. My friends were pretty stoked on it, but I’m not sure it impacted the movie-watching experience to the point that I’d insist people try to see it 3D. Still, the 3D tricks (things coming out at you) weren’t overused, and they weren’t used at poor moments, so the 3D definitely doesn’t detract at all. Simply a flavor choice, here.

In the end? Highly recommended. See and enjoy. Bring the kids.

I haven’t been doing my part. Time to fix it. Repeating viral marketing for Watchmen.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5WsciSNVS0]

Trufax.

Novelist Neil Gaiman, fresh off his Newbery medal win for The Graveyard Book, announced that director Neil Jordan will adapt and direct the film version of that award-winning novel.

Go check it out.

It’s everything the first trailer wasn’t. For one, there’s speaking. They give a hint at the actual story. And it’s… it’s got Muse in it, people.

Go.

So, in case you haven’t heard, Disney decided that the covers already out there for Nightmare Before Christmas would be a great way to make some money. But instead of using those covers, they hunted down their own.

I love this damn movie. And not recently. I loved it when it was in theaters and I was but a wee child. I was spooky from a young age.

I’ll give you a quick rundown.

Overture(DeVotchKa)

Pretty straight-faced playthrough, nothing too wild or out there. I didn’t get the feel for the cover artist, just more Nightmare stuff. Still, not bad. Listenable.

Opening (Danny Elfman)

Not technically revisiting, is it? This is all ground he’s ploughed before. Cheating. Let’s move on.

This Is Halloween (Marylin Manson)

This is an old cover. If you haven’t heard it by now, you lose at the internet. Still, it’s solid. Say what you will about Marylin Manson, he knows what songs to cover. Another solid version of this is offered up by Panic at the Disco.

Jack’s Lament (All American Rejects)

Now, understand, this is my favorite song of the movie. I absolutely adore it. So when I hear that whiny voice streak through my eardrum, I wail inside. I got 20 seconds into this song before I had to turn it off, and only 4 seconds of that was comprised of vocals. Next.

Docter Finkelstein/In the Forest (Amina)

Thus far, the instrumentals are two-for-two on being good, and this one takes a step outside of what Nightmare originally laid out for it. I think this one’s quite well done. Loving the theramin.

What’s This? (Flyleaf)

Ugh. So, instrumentals are winning, but vocal bits are just… not clearing it. Her vocals are not quite emotive enough to handle the wonder that is supposed to be coursing through this song. She sings “What’s this?” but it sounds like she really couldn’t care less about what anything is.

I never in my life thought I’d write these words, but Fallout Boy did it better. You have failed. Next.

Town Meeting Song (The Polphonic Spree)

Let me just get this out of the way: I love The Polyphonic Spree. And their absolutely inspired cover of Nirvana’s Lithium made me very curious to hear this. I’m really enjoying this one. It’s not what I expected, but it’s doing it’s thing and taking me along with it. Best of the vocal songs so far. My only real complaint is that it needs to pick up the pace.

Jack and Sally Montage (The Vitamin String Quartet)

Another instrumental. Rather meh. Doesn’t entice, doesn’t push away. It’s just there, four people on string instruments playing some music that stays just this side of spooky.

Jack’s Obsession (Sparklehorse)

I didn’t know you could ruin this song this badly. After all, it’s a bit more obscure, and doesn’t draw as much love or notice as the others. I thought this would slip under the radar of suck. I was wrong.

Kidnap the Sandy Claws (Korn)

It’s Korn. I don’t think I have to say any more. I started laughing at this cover not ten seconds in. I’d much rather be listening to She Wants Revenge, and even I’m able to recognize that SWR didn’t do that amazing of a cover.

Making Christmas (Rise Against)

Not horrible, but the vocals just do not work for this song.

I’ve started down this dark path, and I will finish. Not rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail will stop me from this crap. But good God, what have I condemned myself to?

Nabbed (Yoshida Brothers)

More instrumental. More delicious things-not-sucking. Seriously, I could take half those singers to school on how you do these songs, and I’m barely passable. This track is great, really divergent from the original, displaying the Yoshida Brothers for what they are, but still keeps that kick of what the song once was.

Oogie Boogie’s Song (Rodrigo y Gabriela)

So, wow. First, whatever made Disney decide to pick up these two is beyond me, but for once, God bless ‘em for making a good call. This was a wonderful cover, even if you don’t like two guitars playing maniacally side-by-side (which really, if you don’t, what’s your problem?). Gabriela’s standard percussion-style strumming and Rodrigo’s sharp picking make for an amazing cover here.

Sally’s Song (Amy Lee)

When I first saw who was singing this, I muttered “Goddamnit.” She has a solid voice, but it’s so typical, putting the lead singer of Evanescence on this kind of project. Still. She did a very solid job, and I really can’t complain. It doesn’t compete with Fiona Apple’s version at all. I think the two bring their own things to the table, and shouldn’t have to fight for the lead.

Christmas Eve Montage (RJD2)

Meh.

Poor Jack (Plain White T’s)

First of all… what? The Hey-There-Delilah assholes covering Nightmare Before Christmas music? And… wow. This… isn’t terrible. Crap. Have my standards fallen so low that this is good, or is it good on its own?

To the Rescue (Datarock)

The first few measures of standard uhn-tiss made me concerned. Largely, not bad, but not incredible. Feels like that’s become the mantra of this CD (alongside “singers can’t sing”).

Finale/Reprise (Shiny Toy Guns)

And welcome to why I’m here. Hearing this is a terrible tease. It makes me want to hear them cover the whole album. I can only imagine how they’d kick ass at What’s This, Sally’s Song (though I’d wager Carah would swing it better than Sisley). Ah, well. Damn.

Closing (Danny Elfman)

End Title (The Album Leaf)

Maybe we go through a lot of suck, but this is prettymuch the best way to wrap up this CD.

In the end? I’d say don’t buy it, just download the good tracks.

So, first there was Coraline (link).

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Then, Watchmen (link).

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And now? More Terry Gilliam: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (link).

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Holy crap. I grew up on Terry Gilliam films. This is nothing short of win to me!

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Link

An oldie but a goodie.

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Link. Shamelessly stolen from SBTB.

This is a movie I’d see. Hells yes.

Brought to you by a dempsey who is still at work.

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As you can see above it’s obviously beautifully filmed. Doing a little research, I found that this was an intense labor of love on Tarsem’s part, self-funded and piggybacking off of commercial shoots for locations. Sure. This kind of thing wouldn’t be openly funded by any studio.

The story itself is one of–you guessed it–a fall and redemption. Angry, suicidal man saved by a little girl. I want to say I felt that the “message” of the movie was unabashedly overt, to the point of clubbing me over the head; but I may just be smart.

Hear me out on that one.

As I left the movie, I heard three girls who utterly missed the point. It’s as if we weren’t watching the same movie. The content of their conversation reveals major plot points, and is also absolutely laughable; I’ll spare you. But being that this film was not widely advertised, I would have assumed the audience was slightly more incisive in their analysis of story than the average moviegoer. Lo, I stand corrected.

My friend argued that the point was to be overt, as it is seen through the eyes of a child; the world she lives in is in fact very dark yet she cannot understand it. I saw what she meant, but I think that it would be better if they actually took into account their audience. You can write through the eyes of an “idiot”–Faulkner pulled it off. But it’s a filter better suited for written form, I feel.

But can you hate any movie where one of the characters is Charles Darwin? I mean, honestly? And there was a monkey. A monkey. His name was Wallace.

I want to say this movie was pretentious, but I think it was more like a child with a poorly-guarded secret that it cherished as its own. Ostentatious, but doing it wrong. Still, I enjoyed the message enough–it’s the sort of intellectual wankery that I go in for.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, the music used in the trailer is Beethoven’s 7th (second movement). Though this is probably one of the few instances where Mozart’s Lacrymosa could actually be legitimately used, I think the use of Beethoven was probably for the best.

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It’s taken me too long to set myself down and write about this. This week has been hellish. So I shall do so with a quickness right now.

I went to the midnight showing. That’s the breed of human I am.

Blasting through the negatives right away: Not the best-written Pixar film. Heavy-handed on the social commentary. The camera work bounced between being very mature for a Pixar film and very noteworthy to being the same-old same; normally the boring angles wouldn’t have been noticed, but when juxtaposed so sharply against some wonderful shots, it made itself apparent.

But the picture was so overwhelmingly adorable and the character of Wall-E was so absolutely lovable that I couldn’t help but enjoy it from beginning to end. I don’t think I could ever watch it again, though. I nearly had an aneurysm from how cute it was. Seriously, my heart nearly exploded.