Ogwaros Iwenâl

While I don’t have a lot of hope for the final game, this trailer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow grabs me.

As near as I can tell, the Castlevania moniker was only slapped on recently for marketing purposes. No familiar characters or foes are featured, the setting does not look like the usual Castlevania game, and the music is most certainly not in the usual style. All of that may in fact be a good thing, as the 3D Castlevania games up until now have been pretty lame. This looks more like God of War in execution, which may be the proper route.

The part of the trailer that grabs me is the mask. “The mask is a powerful device.” “Can it really bring the dead back?” Those two lines really cut straight to the heart of this game’s story (or at least I hope so). Lost love and the mad quest to undo it, to disastrous consequences. I can see this as being a reboot for Dracula’s origin story. Because let’s face it, Lament of Innocence’s story was pretty lame.

With real voice talent (Patrick Stewart! Robert Carlyle!) behind it, Lords of Shadow may work as a story oriented game. If the script doesn’t include gems like “What is a man? A pitiful pile of secrets!” We’ll see.

And I really want a replica of that mask. Such a fantastic design.

Sublime genius.

HT Warren.

This is simply incredible.  Gorgeous and functional.

Fred Claus – I’m not sure why I watched this one, but I was surprised how it wasn’t 100% terrible.  It was mostly awkward.  Not quite a kids movie, not quite a movie for adults.  I liked Kevin Spacey as the terribly clichèd evil lawyer trying to shut down Christmas because he didn’t get a present from Santa when he was a kid (oops, spoiler alert!).  Oh the irony that it was a Superman cape that he had asked for and not received.  Who knew this was the origin story for Lex Luthor?  On that note, Superman Returns was terrible.

Not recommended, at all.

Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan – It really surprised me how little I liked this one.  I remember it being my third favorite Star Trek movie, and yet the movie is so bland.  The cinematography – particularly the scenes of Khan on the Reliant – just bores and revolts me.  The score by James Horner is okay, but is entirely inappropriate for Star Trek.  The whole “Kirk feels old” theme is really hamfisted in its implementation.

The movie really has two things going for it – actual submarine space battles, and life/death on a starship (particularly the death of Spock).  It does both things extremely well, but they don’t fully make up for its shortcomings.

The premise: Take the plot of a movie, book or TV show and reword it to totally misrepresent the original work.  This is similar to the idea of trailer recuts I posted a while back.

The results: Hilarity.  Be sure to read the comments as well.  While a lot of the people seem to be missing the point, there are some gems buried in the comments.

As for my own untitled work:  Boy moves to a magical underwater city, becomes a great leader, lives forever.

Grave of Fireflies – Children struggle to survive in WWII era Japan.  Wanted to hate it, wanted to dismiss the inevitable tragedies, but in the end I couldn’t do it.  The ending got to me a bit.  Not fantastic, but good.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Cut – Instead of going to see the new Star Trek movie, I’m going through the old ones again.  The first movie is great in its director’s cut form.  At some point I’ll have to watch the original theatrical version, just to really appreciate how much the director’s cut tightens things up.  Wonderful soundtrack.  Just don’t watch it late at night – not exactly the most action packed of movies.

The Final Cut – Robin Williams is a Cutter, a man who takes the best parts of a person’s life, cuts away all the unpleasant ones, and compiles them into a memorial video upon the person’s death.  This career path was influenced by a traumatic event in his childhood; one whose reality is called into question when an old friend appears in the memories of a recently deceased client.

The movie introduces some interesting ideas about the pros and cons about having your entire life recorded.  Williams does a surprisingly decent job in his role.  Unfortunately, rather than simply focus on this character the movie decides to try to balance this with a thriller plot, and does so poorly.  You will figure out the ending a good hour before it happens, and all you can do is watch as it skids there.  What a waste.

Hitman – Timothy Oliphant tries to play an action hero.  Due to various circumstances (script, direction, editing, and his own acting), he fails.  Based on the hit (HAR!) video game series, this movie offers up a bunch of uninvolving conspiracies and lifeless action sequences.

The best moment?  When the hero crashes through a hotel balcony door to find two kids playing Hitman.  The movie does this without any trace of irony or humor.  As if a movie that was adapted from a video game needs to nod to it by featuring the video game in the movie!

Not even the lead actress cavorting toplessly (multiple times!) can save this one.

Blood Diamond – A decent action/adventure that thinks a bit too highly of itself.

Cashback – A strange movie that has absolutely no idea what it wants to be.  Is this a romantic drama?  A college sex comedy?  A sci-fi erotica thriller?  A pretentious arthouse film?  I honestly don’t know.  It defies genre categorization which would be a great thing if it weren’t so incohesive.  It’s extremely well shot in portions, though, and I can’t say it was a complete waste of time.

Futurama: Bender’s Game – There is something horribly wrong with these Futurama direct-to-DVD movies.  Yes, it’s still Futurama.  But none of these movies have had enough energy to sustain their full running times.  And they don’t work when split up into 30 minute episodes either.  Just weak overall.  I did get a few laughs out of it, though.

You pretty much need a flowchart to understand Primer.  You might need a flowchart for the flowchart.  I don’t think I’ve ever not understood a movie the first time through until now.  Even Donnie Darko was more understandable.

What a moebius strip of a movie… and not necessarily in the enjoyable ways.

Let The Right One In is a Swedish film about a twelve-year-old boy named Oskar and his relationship with a young girl named Eli.  Oskar is bullied constantly at school.  Sometimes it’s innocuous name calling; he’s called a pig despite his skinniness.  Other times the bullying turns violent, as when he is whipped with a switch in the school yard, severely scratching Oskar’s face as he stands silently.  “I fell on a rock” he explains to his mother.

One night, Eli moves nextdoor with her father.  Her father is a loner who rejects invitations to hang out with the neighbors.  Eli is a strange child, who smells funny, who isn’t bothered by the cold, and seemingly only comes out at night.  But she is quite lonely, and quickly forms a bond with Oskar.  Young love is a sweet, if awkward, thing.

Did I mention that Eli is a vampire?

Yes, Let The Right One In is a vampire movie.  But mostly in the fact that one of the main characters is a vampire.  For the most part, though, it is a meditation on youth, young love, and the nature of violence.  These thematic elements elevate Let The Right One In above its “grr argh” brethren.

The relationship between Oskar and Eli is sweet, awkward and often disturbing.  On the surface, the story is about two lonely twelve year olds falling for each other.  But, being a vampire, Eli is in fact much older than she appears.  While she could be a twelve year old in mind, there are dark hints that she may be manipulating Oskar for her own purposes.

What reasons would you apply violence?  To feel powerful?  To fit in with others?  Revenge?  For food?  To protect the one you love?  Or would you rather die than live with violence?  We see instances of each of these in the film, to the varying reactions of the characters.

Sound is very important to the mood of the film.  Vampire hunger mixes in sounds of a low growling as that of a rumbling stomach and that of lips smacking hungrily.  The sharpness of the crunching of snow fits with the bleak winter landscapes.  The score for the film is quite excellent, though sparsely used.  The cinematography of the film is well done, mixing in elements of horror in appropriate scenes.  The well-shot penultimate scene is simultaneously shockingly violent and hauntingly beautiful.

In short, I really love this film, but I don’t know how I feel about the events of the film.  It’s sweet and beautiful, yet creepy and disturbing.  There’s a great amount of ambiguity in the film, which works in its favor.  Without going into spoilers, I’m conflicted about whether the ending is happy or sad.  It will depend on your own perspective on things.  I’ve watched it twice and still haven’t decided.

I think I may read the original novel, though I’m afraid the extra detail a novel can provide will remove that ambiguity…

Recommended, though I would highly recommend watching it in the original Swedish with English subtitles.  And with the theatrical subtitles if at all possible.

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