TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

I had the pleasure of taking my wife and son to see this animated feature last night. It was a movie that I expected us to all enjoy on our own individual levels. I figured we'd each take something away from it. Well as it turns out, I was right.

After watching the trailers and looking at the images I've seen online, I was hoping it would have a nice look to it. It does. This is one of the best looking animated features I have ever seen. It looks considerably better than any non-Pixar feature. In fact, I would say it rivals Pixar too. There is a scene about halfway through the movie that takes place in the rain and it looks stunning. I found myself saying "Oh wow, that looks good" on more than one occasion. One of the best things they did was to make the human characters look convincing. They had a unique physique to them. The arms and legs were drawn with a slight over-exaggeration to the shape to give them more curve. The faces of the characters gave them a look that kind of reminds you of The Incredibles. One thing I was particularly happy to see was the eyes looked like they had actual life in them. They did not have the "dead eye" look that plagued The Polar Express. The turtles and Master Splinter looked incredible. They each have a slightly distinct look and build to them. Their respective personalities are very consistent with the previous incarnations of the Ninja Turtles too. This movie looked like it was showing off how advanced the special effects were in some spots. Water, fire, smoke, reflection, lighting, and textures were shown off in some places in an almost "Look how good we can make this seem" fashion. Most times, it's sits back and just seems to blend in. I can only imagine what movies like this will look like 5 years from now.

If you don't already know, The Shredder is not in this movie, but it is strongly hinted that he will be a major part of the next movie. The storyline is pretty cool. In fact, it was better than I expected it to be. 13 monsters from 3,000 years ago running through New York did not sound like something I would enjoy as much as I actually did. I told my wife at one point that they could have made this movie really scary for little kids if they wanted to. The movie has some dark spots in it, but not enough to scare my three year old son. Much more and he would have been a little freaked out. The soundtrack is loud, modern, and really quite fun for an animated movie. There's plenty of action to keep you interested, but not so much that it comes across like a Michael Bay movie. It has plenty of heart, character development, and feel good stuff too. I hope that the Star Wars animated series looks and resembles this movie. Please pay attention 20th Century Fox! I would love to see a Justice League movie done this way too. Forget the live action version, do it this way.


5 Words to Sum it Up: Anticipating more Turtles like this!

300

I went to see 300 last Saturday night with my wife. I remember being hooked on this movie from the first trailer. I remember thinking "Wow that movies looks really interesting!" There was some trepidation at first though. Had I already seen all of the money shots? I've left far too many movies feeling let down because I saw all of the coolest effects or funny scenes. Comedies are notorious for this. I hate watching a movie and knowing exactly what the funniest lines are gonna be or which part is gonna be scary. Another tactic is slowing down the action or changing the speed of a fight scene to heighten the mood. Was this the case for 300 though? Not at all. This movie was almost 100% visual orgasm. We knew from the commercials what the premise was gonna be. A war of 300 Spartans versus the Persian army of a million men. What else was there?

Within minutes the audience knows why there's gonna be a war. The voiceover was used to great effect in this movie. Not used too often and just long enough to give you vital information. This is not a movie that is trying to give you a history lesson. A casual observer knows that it's a movie based off a graphic novel which was itself based off of the historical events. How does it fare as a comic movie then? It does very well. You could practically take any random moment from the movie and frame it as art cells. The last movie to pull this off, in my opinion, was The Matrix. It's been eight years since I walked out of a movie and thought, "Wow, I just saw something revolutionary!" Now in the defense of Star Wars and perhaps Lord of the Rings, I knew more or less how the movies were made and what to expect. I had no idea what I was getting into with this one. I've never read anything by Frank Miller, but after this I would really like to get into his stuff. From all indications online, this was very faithful to his work. My understanding is that his next adaptation will be The Watchmen. I better catch up on it before it shows up in my theater!

Back to the movie. What else was there? How about Gerard Butler's Leonidus? Awesome. I was slightly afraid that I was not going to like his character a great deal. I thought that I was not going to be able to get behind this character. Again, a misconception on my part. There was a lot more going on with him than I expected. The music was also great. It really seemed to go well with the action. Typically I will find something in a movie that just sticks out really bad. Fortunately, this time there was nothing that seemed to bother me. I liked the fact that this cast was all relative unknown actors. There are a few guys where you might say "Hey I know that guy. He was in..." It's not enough to distract you though. The movie has more depth than one would imagine. Considering this movie is based off a graphic novel drawn in one and two dimensions, there is far more character development that you'd expect.

The action is what will bring most people to see this movie. It's also what will most likely bring people back to see it a second or third time. I loved the fact that there was nothing that was implied. You get to see everything you want in the battles. Cool characters, crazy violence, blood, and plenty of tension. Slow motion and unique camera angles are used perfectly here. The slow motion is essential. It's the only way you can catch all the action going on. One guy flips an enemy over his shield and the guy behind him comes up and slices said enemy up. You really get a sense of the teamwork and strategies used by the Spartans. Also done well is the tone, color scheme, grit, grain, and overall feel. The water feels cold and the rocks seem sharp. I felt bad for the Spartans at the end of the first day. It was great to see the honor in the fighting. There were no sneak attacks or flanks done in the middle of the night. They left it on the field. Go to bed and meet again in the morning. Perfect! I'd go on about other little things but it's not essential to this review. I watched the trailer online again last night to see how it played and it really got me excited to see it again. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie that I wanted to go back to so badly. Seeing a movie that felt this way makes me wonder what it was like for my parents to have seen Star Wars 30 years ago. It's got mass appeal. Even my wife wants to go back. We're looking for excuses to go see it again.

5 Words to Sum it Up: Best Cinematic Experience in Years.