maya-maya
Joined Oct 2010
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Reviews7
maya-maya's rating
If you found 'An Unexpected Journey' too childish, you can breathe more easily. 'Desolation' is more serious than its predecessor; gone are the silly songs and even then slapstick jokes have been reduced. Especially the Dol Guldur storyline and Lee Pace's portrayal of Thranduil add to the noticeably darker tone of the movie.
Evangeline Lily does a good job depicting the non-canonical Elf Tauriel, and while the resulting romantic tension might not have been necessary, it's good to see some variation among the Elves apart from the strict Sindar. Stephen Fry cuts a delightfully corrupt Mayor of Laketown and I hope we'll see even more of him in the next movie.
Book-purists might be somewhat miffed that a few plot details were changed, and some scenes were cut short while others, especially towards the end, were padded to ridiculous lengths, but that was to be expected considering the sheer size of the project. Needless to say it will be interesting to see how things play out in the trilogy's conclusion. However, once again it's great to see Dol Guldur, and the inclusion of this story feels natural and integrates well into the rest of the movie.
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable movie that is more grown up than 'Journey', with good acting throughout.
Evangeline Lily does a good job depicting the non-canonical Elf Tauriel, and while the resulting romantic tension might not have been necessary, it's good to see some variation among the Elves apart from the strict Sindar. Stephen Fry cuts a delightfully corrupt Mayor of Laketown and I hope we'll see even more of him in the next movie.
Book-purists might be somewhat miffed that a few plot details were changed, and some scenes were cut short while others, especially towards the end, were padded to ridiculous lengths, but that was to be expected considering the sheer size of the project. Needless to say it will be interesting to see how things play out in the trilogy's conclusion. However, once again it's great to see Dol Guldur, and the inclusion of this story feels natural and integrates well into the rest of the movie.
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable movie that is more grown up than 'Journey', with good acting throughout.
Vegas is actually my favourite SGA episode, for many reasons.
First off, AU is a lovely trope that just isn't explored often enough even in sci-fi where it can almost be considered a canon trope. And using it so late in the show's run, when we already know the characters pretty well, makes it all the more powerful.
Second, the production is beautiful. You can tell that every shot has been considered carefully, and it shows because the cinematography - the editing, the colours, everything you never notice when it's there is wonderfully done. Every shot builds on the atmosphere - which is apparently supposed to be CSI Las Vegas meets The X-Files - and the stark contrast to the usual look of SGA delivers an even greater impact. This isn't just a nice, weird niche episode, this is the whole team that works on the show and loves the show going, "see what we can do".
Third, the score is just excellent, not just because after five seasons we finally got a Johnny Cash song and it fit.
Fourth, it works because it's the penultimate episode and as we get to see tiny details to the characters we haven't seen, we're forced to face that fact that this is it. You can let a show run out in the rush of an action-packed three-part finale, or you can take the opportunity to showcase the characters you've crafted one last time, from an unusual angle and without the adrenaline rush and dramatic plot twists.
(Fifth, this is truly John Sheppard's episode, and after five years he kind of deserves it.)
And finally, it's kind of crazy that a story that could very well be used as an introduction to the series is used in the penultimate episode, but it also makes a lot of sense to draw the viewer's attention to the fact that the main story, the story they've been watching for five years, is just one of many. The concept of alternate universes has been thoroughly explored before in the show, so it's a very smart, very meta idea to say "yes, this show is ending, and look, we're even giving you the normal kind of show finale that you expect, but consider what could have been, what could yet be."
First off, AU is a lovely trope that just isn't explored often enough even in sci-fi where it can almost be considered a canon trope. And using it so late in the show's run, when we already know the characters pretty well, makes it all the more powerful.
Second, the production is beautiful. You can tell that every shot has been considered carefully, and it shows because the cinematography - the editing, the colours, everything you never notice when it's there is wonderfully done. Every shot builds on the atmosphere - which is apparently supposed to be CSI Las Vegas meets The X-Files - and the stark contrast to the usual look of SGA delivers an even greater impact. This isn't just a nice, weird niche episode, this is the whole team that works on the show and loves the show going, "see what we can do".
Third, the score is just excellent, not just because after five seasons we finally got a Johnny Cash song and it fit.
Fourth, it works because it's the penultimate episode and as we get to see tiny details to the characters we haven't seen, we're forced to face that fact that this is it. You can let a show run out in the rush of an action-packed three-part finale, or you can take the opportunity to showcase the characters you've crafted one last time, from an unusual angle and without the adrenaline rush and dramatic plot twists.
(Fifth, this is truly John Sheppard's episode, and after five years he kind of deserves it.)
And finally, it's kind of crazy that a story that could very well be used as an introduction to the series is used in the penultimate episode, but it also makes a lot of sense to draw the viewer's attention to the fact that the main story, the story they've been watching for five years, is just one of many. The concept of alternate universes has been thoroughly explored before in the show, so it's a very smart, very meta idea to say "yes, this show is ending, and look, we're even giving you the normal kind of show finale that you expect, but consider what could have been, what could yet be."
As it is a compilation movie, some segments stand out as being well-crafted and thought-provoking, and some fall flat.
The tone varies wildly - some segments revel in gore, some in sex; some are darkly funny, some repulsive, and some shockingly sad. Barring one, the Japanese submissions are rather bizarre and fall into the 'bad' category, and the 'POV' pieces don't fare much better.
The earlier segments are generally enjoyable without being outstanding (personally, I found C and D very good, for completely different reasons), but the sequence of good ideas is soon harshly interrupted (F). A mix of unremarkable and bad follows, while L stands out as one of the best segments of the film. It doesn't get much better until Q, which provides a nice break, and from there on the movie seems to deteriorate into either very good or very bad segments. R, V, and X are highlights of the second half of the movie (although V is only really interesting because of the incredibly high production value); U, W, and Z are laughably bad.
Some reviews say that it might be difficult to sit through 2 hours of more or less experimental filmmaking with such highly fluctuating quality, but I found the episodic structure did not allow for boredom. At least those segments that are utterly bad are also mercifully short. Some scenes (L and P for me, especially since P didn't feature the standard disclaimer in the credits) are hard to watch, some will stay with you (I and X).
It's a nice experiment that did pay off on occasion. Not something I'd pay to see in a cinema, but fine if it's on and you have an evening to spare.
The tone varies wildly - some segments revel in gore, some in sex; some are darkly funny, some repulsive, and some shockingly sad. Barring one, the Japanese submissions are rather bizarre and fall into the 'bad' category, and the 'POV' pieces don't fare much better.
The earlier segments are generally enjoyable without being outstanding (personally, I found C and D very good, for completely different reasons), but the sequence of good ideas is soon harshly interrupted (F). A mix of unremarkable and bad follows, while L stands out as one of the best segments of the film. It doesn't get much better until Q, which provides a nice break, and from there on the movie seems to deteriorate into either very good or very bad segments. R, V, and X are highlights of the second half of the movie (although V is only really interesting because of the incredibly high production value); U, W, and Z are laughably bad.
Some reviews say that it might be difficult to sit through 2 hours of more or less experimental filmmaking with such highly fluctuating quality, but I found the episodic structure did not allow for boredom. At least those segments that are utterly bad are also mercifully short. Some scenes (L and P for me, especially since P didn't feature the standard disclaimer in the credits) are hard to watch, some will stay with you (I and X).
It's a nice experiment that did pay off on occasion. Not something I'd pay to see in a cinema, but fine if it's on and you have an evening to spare.