And now, more thought about movies I've seen this summer so far. I've got a bit of a backlog, I'll try to remember as best I can. (and beware of possible spoilers...you probably should've seen these movies by now)

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Great movie. I don't think I'm enough of a Star Wars geek to necessarily say it's the best of all of them, but it's up there.

I think the thing I noticed about this movie was the fact that I was able to follow along, much more closely than any other one. I knew what was happening, and where it was going...unlike, say, Episode II on first viewing...stuff was happening, and I was just along for the ride. I knew where the movie was coming from, having seen Cartoon Network's Clone Wars, and I knew where it was going, having seen Episode IV.

I was able to dive deeper into the Star Wars universe, because Knights of the Old Republic is a favorite game of mine. Though I was a touch irked when Mace Windu pronounced the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk as "kash-EEK", as opposed to what I'm used to from KotOR, "KASH-ik". Also, General Greivous should've been more bad-ass than he was (like he was in Clone Wars)...but it had surprised me he was in the movie at all. You almost don't notice him when he's an animated tall lanky droid thingy with four arms....but when he's real (well, OK, mostly CG, but still...), it's like, "Whoa, cool!"

Batman Begins and The Fantastic Four

I think I'll talk about these two movies together, as a kind of compare/contrast on how to (or how not to) do a comic book movie.

Both movies did well in providing a bit more substance in the origin stories...explaining with a little more detail why they have the powers they do. But the main difference between the two is that Batman gave us a nice meaty story to sink our teeth into, while F4 was little more than "here's how they get their powers", then move onto the big battle with the villain, with a little bit of comic-relief character development sprinkled in between.

Now that I think about it, all three of these movies are lacking in the love-interest angle ( the relationship and dialouge parts, I should say...certainly not the actresses involved). But then again, that isn't really the focus of these kinds of movies. :) Moving on...

I wasn't too sure how well the Scarecrow was going to work out in Batman...basically being just a guy how puts a burlap sack over his head, looking an awful lot like the Elephant Man. But, they managed to make it work...OK, the Scarecrow Gas had a lot to do with it, but the effect worked.

I was disappointed there wasn't more Dr. Doom. I know they encountered the same problem as with the Green Goblin in Spider-Man - that is, the villain wears a full face mask - but Doom only wears his mask for a short while...there wasn't even a real good reason to wear it at all. Or if there was, it was rendered moot fairly quickly. I know Stan Lee liked making matching names for his villains, but he kinda dropped the ball on this one. Dr. Octopus -> Dr. Otto Octavius, sure great, that works. But Dr. Doom? "Uh, how about...von Doom?" C'mon, at the very least, spell it "von Dume" or something.

Another problem point for me was The Thing. von Doom managed to do what Reed couldn't...fix Grimm. But then Ben has to re-zap himself in order to save his friends. But Grimm always wanting to go back to normal was a major point through the whole F4 series...they even made a big deal about it in the movie. So, at the very least, why not go back to normal after the big fight and be done with it all? Or, at the very least, you've got the technology now, why not switch back and forth as needed?

On my scale of comic book movies, last comes Hulk, then Daredevil (and that's only because everyone else seems to think it sucks...I kinda liked it), then Fantastic Four. Batman Begins ranks near the top, by the Spider-Man and X-Men movies.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

It seems the thing to do is to compare this to the pervious Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (well, either that, or the book...but it's been YEARS since I've read that)...and I will do the same.

Basically, I like this movie better. They shortened the sequences I thought they took way too long on in the original (especially the chocolate river tunnel ride...that leech on the cheek bit freaked me out to no end) and took out the unnecessary fluff (schnozzberries, soda car, floaty burping soda, etc.). LOVED the Oompa-Loopma sequences in this one...you can't go wrong with Danny Elfman. (And the Burton/Depp/Elfman combination seems to strike gold every time, eh?)

I've heard people compare Depp's Wonka to Michael Jackson...honestly, these people are thinking too hard. I didn't really see it, but you could really tell this was someone who never really grew up with a family. Which is one point in Gene Wilder's favor...he at least was excited/animated/really seemed to care about the candy, where Depp just seemed more concerned about not being touched, and having flashbacks.

Another point...I'm not too sure I like how Charlie ended up with the factory in this one. In the original, at least he (somewhat convolutedly) earned the factory. Here, he just kinda...got it, by virtue of the fact that he was the only one left by the end of the tour. And speaking of which, it was neat to see the parade of losers at the end, as described in the book. :)


And that's all for now. Next on the menu...erm, well, I'm not sure about the reast of the summer. Corpse Bride and Harry Potter 4 to look forward to later, to mention a couple.
posted by Tim at 1:39 AM