A small Dutch period piece about an air race to New Zealand. That's about what the official description said about it, but really the air race is only the turning point in the story. The rest is about the four main characters lives in this new land, their whole lives. It's also periodically intercut with the present where they are having the funeral of one of the main characters. Overall, i really liked it, the acting was really good from everyone, the chemistry between the main characters was fantastic. Even with the desaturated color correction of the scenes in the past, the scenery was beautiful. I really hope to experience New Zealand some day. The production design was pretty good. The main problem came with lack of focus, The fact that it starts off with the funeral of one of the characters, it seems like that character is the main protagonist. While you could argue that he is intercut with all of the other three's lives, there times that we don't see him for quite a while. Also with trying to show the most important moments of 4 people's lives in 2 hours it get's a bit episodic in nature. Still, even with it's faults, i really enjoyed it and felt what it was trying to say.
Rio 2/10
Garbage. These film makers should go work on the nickelodeon channel or some other garbage outlet. This is prime example of why people still see animated films as just for kids. by the numbers plotline, awful awful dialogue. It's no wonder Pixar has such a hard time trying to get academy voters and others to take their films serious and as films for everyone, not only for those of lower mental ability.
Submarine 5/10
(just a note: i saw this late at night with my mind fuddled by tiredness) That being said, i enjoyed what i understood of it.
Story-wise, it was downright weird. Technical-wise it was ten times as much as that. I mean, there were jump-cuts, weird camera angles, i think i even saw a zoom out and if i'm not mistaken the character acknowledges it. Back to the story, There are a lot of different descriptions of what it's about, but a lot of them seem off to me. I think that is because the film makers purpose of the film was for it not to fit in a neat little box. What i got out of it anyway, was a boy not being able to cope with what was happening around him and he might not be totally right in the head either. Arrietty 3/10
sigh. maybe i just have too high hopes for ghibli films after mononoke, howl's castle etc, but their last three films have not been very good. To be fair, Arriety is better than ponyo and earthsea, but still has many problems. One of the problems and one that irked me the most was the old-maid 'villain' of the story. She has no purpose other than to be the evil incarnate of whoever it is that wants to destroy the endangered species of this world. It also doesn't help that Miyazaki writes his 'villains' morally ambiguous. She is poorly written, about the last 10 minutes of the movie they try to give her a few justifications with a few lines thrown in about the borrowers stealing and whatnot. which brings me to the main problem, the fact that personal moral convictions are given priority over story. I have nothing against environmentalism, in fact i agree with a lot of their views and think humans should be more conscious and responsible of what happens to the world. Still, the story is compromised over his views. Up till the halfway of the film, there hasn't been much dialogue, more contemplative, then there is about a 10 minute monologue about dying species and whose fault it is, yada yada. I really wanted to like it, the animation is wonderful like most Ghibli films are, the sound design was quite unique, switching between how we normally hear things, to how a little person might hear things. The main girl was quite likable
Griff the Invisible 6/10
Australia's entry in the crazy-humans-who-think-they-are-superheroes genre. The two main characters were likable, Ryan Kwanten's acting was surprisingly good. It ends a bit different than most films in this genre, but there was nothing about it really made it stand out
