Amateur Review: Thor (2011)

*Please note that when I call them “Amateur Reviews”, they’re not technically reviews, they are actually just my scattered thoughts on the subject at hand.
**This also contains juicy spoilers you may or may not want to read.

I just finished watching Thor, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s very hard for me to engage in films such as this one. The “epic”, “other-worldy” kind where they dress up in elaborate costumes and speak in dramatic Old English accents even though they’re from an entirely other “realm”. Because that’s all I see when I watch this kind of film – grown men wearing costumes and playing heroes. It doesn’t matter the budget, I can’t take it seriously sometimes. It just looks a tad ridiculous! Especially Loki with his horn-shaped looking helmet thing. Maybe it’s just me; I never got into Marvel comics.

This film, however, slightly impressed me. There wasn’t anything particularly notable in terms of script, acting, editing, whatever – I was mostly impressed that I was actually entertained. I’m not so much into these kinds of movies, but I decided to give it a go since my whole film class is obsessed with The Avengers and Batman and I’m clueless when they start talking about it. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this movie. I liked the turn in character of Loki. I don’t know if I’m the only one who felt this way, but I actually still felt sympathetic towards him at the end of the movie. To me, he became this power-hungry kid who just got his first taste of real authority and got too excited over it. And I can’t remember the exact words, but I remember him saying to Thor, something like, “I never wanted the throne; I only wanted to be your equal.” The fact that Thor was such an arrogant bastard at the start too, also made it seem like I can understand why Loki went nuts. I remember thinking at the start of the film, why the hell does Thor get to be crowned and not Loki? The IMDb synopsis described Loki in the crowning ceremony as “looking on enviously” which I think is total bullspit. Loki seemed so genuine and was always supportive of Thor and not slightly rebellious like he was (that was until we found out Loki actually helped the frost giants from Jötunheim to get to the blue power casket thing). But I like that about this film, because even though this is a “superhero” film of sorts, the villain is a little bit different. He’s not blatantly evil. I’d usually dislike the villain from the beginning, because I knew he was going to be evil, but this time, it was a bit of a slow build. I’ll admit here and now, I am the only living being of this generation who hasn’t seen The Avengers, so I recognised Loki from the trailers and whatnot, but I actually couldn’t place him of what kind of character he actually was, until I found out his name was Loki.

I sound like I don’t like Thor as a character, but he’s alright I suppose. I can’t help but see him as this uncultured, brawn-and-no-brain kind of guy though, which doesn’t mean I don’t like him, it’s just that he seems like one of those innocently dumb characters who you can’t help but love (“This drink. I like it. Another!” *smashes mug on the ground*).

Another thing I couldn’t help but scrutinise in terms of cinematography is the constant dutch tilt they were doing after Thor was banished to Earth. I get that it’s meant to make the situation feel all out of place because he’s in another world and it’s all weird and different, but I feel like it was a tad overdone, and perhaps applied to some of the wrong shots, like the establishing wide shot of the cafe. It was too noticeable. In fact, I think I noticed each time it was a dutch tilt, and I was taught that good cinematography (and editing) should be smooth enough to not notice these kinds of things. It should just evoke the feeling that the shot intended, but not make us blatantly aware of how it evoked that feeling (in this case, it’s noticing that there is a dutch tilt on a shot). When they did dutch tilts during Thor and Loki’s conversation in that interrogation room, I noticed it, but forgave it because to me it seemed quite natural (most people wouldn’t notice it) and had a very clear intention. But that’s really the only negative note I, as a complete amateur (and in no way think I’m right, this is all opinion!), can give.
Well… I was a little bit sceptical about how or why a strong relationship ever happened between Thor and Jane. It seems to me like they only knew each other for a very short time and never really bonded enough for me to believe that they miss each other and think about each other a lot after their separation. It was a little bit Romeo and Juliet in terms of how fast they fell for each other.

Other than those pretty minor things, I thought it was pretty good. The main things I look for in a film is entertainment (of course) and for it to be thought-provoking. I feel like this is one of those American, big-budget type of films that are more concerned about entertainment value and influx (? What’s the word I’m looking for?!) of money at the box office. But if their aim was to entertain me, then well done.

I rate Thor: ★★★½✰✰

Amateur Reviews: I Am Number Four, directed by D.J. Caruso

*Please note that when I call them “Amateur Reviews”, they’re not technically reviews, they are actually just my scattered thoughts on the subject at hand.
**This also contains juicy spoilers you may or may not want to read.

I watched this yesterday while I was stuck at home with a blocked nose and a mountain of tissues in my bin, so I’m not sure there is much I can say about this film.

Plot, characters, setting, actors, music? Whatever! I don’t think this is going to be one of those films I’m going to remember in a year or so, seeing as I’m writing it the day after and I’m already trying to remember exactly what it was about (I don’t have a terrible memory, I remember it now, thanks). There isn’t really anything special about the film, but I do love Dianna Agron’s character. I love that kind of character – the stays-out-of-the-spotlight, artsy, takes photographs of everything, sees the world differently kind of girl. I would love to play that kind of character in a (short) film or play. I think they are fascinating.

Also, that dog. When he came out of the bushes at the start, I swore he was evil, like he was one of those “Mogadorians” morphing into a cute little dog so he could get close to Number 4 and then get into his house and crazy murder him. So throughout the movie, there I was, thinking like a schizophrenic, “Omg, evil dog, get away GET AWAY HIS EARS ARE SO FLOPPY AW he’s gonna eat you alive oh them puppy dog eyes stop it you’RE HYPNOTISING ME” and so on and so forth. So even though he was adorable, I didn’t trust him, pretty much had no sympathy for him. Then he morphed into that crazy bitch giant dog in the car and I was like, “I TOLD YOU I KNEW IT EVILLLLLLLLLL” and then I find out he was helping “John Smith” against the bad guys and I was suddenly in love with that little monster. What annoyed me was that there he was, back to his little dog-self, injured, bleeding, lying down alone, meanwhile freaking John Smith is out there blowing shit up and then the scene changes. It was as if he didn’t even go looking for his dog, who just saved his life! The last thing I saw of the dog was him lying down in a pool of blood, and then they went into the “epilogue” scene!
I THOUGHT HE DIED! I thought he died, and no one cared, like he was an insignificant loss! All I was thinking throughout the whole end scene was WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE DOG. And it came limping out, cute and all.

Thank you. That was all I needed to know.
Number 6 was badass. And for some reason, the ending seemed to be set up for a sequel. I don’t think a sequel will go well. Just my opinion.

Message of the film: Dogs are loyal as fuck.

I rate I Am Number Four: ★★✰✰✰

Amateur Review: Chronicle, directed by Josh Trank

*Please note that when I call them “Amateur Reviews”, they’re not technically reviews, they are actually just my scattered thoughts on the subject at hand.
**This also contains juicy spoilers you may or may not want to read.

I did have interest to see this film when it first came out, but not enough to actually get off my arse and to the cinemas. Then as I was forgetting about it, Chronicle was briefly mentioned in my Film and TV History class this morning. And I thought, why not? So here I am, having just finished watching the film not more than five minutes ago, and let me tell you this: my emotions are confused.

Chronicle was very easy to follow. I suppose it is one of those “teen movies” where they are more focused on showing rather than to make you think.
Admittedly, and unsurprisingly, I watched a download of this that my friend gave me, which was a recording in the cinemas. Honestly, I didn’t think people did that anymore. I don’t really like to watch films like that when the quality was so poor, but alas, I had a downloaded copy and it would save me the effort. The reason I’m rambling on about this whole bad-quality-downloaded thing is because when they suddenly cut to the three of them doing all their telekinesis tricks was because I thought that the download I owned had a chunk missing or something. But then I guess it didn’t. So it kind of left me out of whack when all of a sudden they have these magical powers; the cut in storyline was a little too sharp for me. But I guess if they’re trying to stick to the whole naturalism/realism style, you wouldn’t really expect Andrew to coincidentally record an accidental moment of discovering their telekinesis abilities.

I was okay with “believing” the whole telekinesis thing when they did it (willing suspension of disbelief), but the flying through the clouds bit was a bit much. I can believe them flying, but not through the clouds. Yes, of all things I’m not willing to believe, it’s that they were in the clouds. If they’re trying to make this whole thing realistic, what with the “found footage” style, at least let all the aspects outside of telekinesis make sense. You can’t breathe in the air pressure of that altitude, and it would be so freezing up there, that a thermal jacket isn’t going to fix things. Also, I couldn’t help but laugh after extremely serious and dramatic confrontations that ended with one of them just turning around and flying out of a window or something. It just looked comical to me.
Other than that, I was surprisingly responsive to this movie. When I watch movies at home, yes, I talk to the screen and smile and laugh and make ‘aaw’ noises and insult the irritating characters. When I was watching Chronicle, I was so aware of me smiling, for so long, throughout a lot of the first half of the movie. A big smile, with teeth! I was having fun watching them having fun (although I was very aware of how obnoxiously dumb and immature they made this generation look. But that’s already how people see us anyway :/). I am still extremely jealous and want to go find a hole with weird crystal things that will make me pass out and then have magical powers afterwards.

In my opinion though, most of them are douches. All the people in the high school are those typical brutally excluding cliques. Casey, though. Freaking Casey. Yeah, she’s supposed to be the cool girl who’s also kind of mysterious and walks around with a camera, and Matt’s there trying so hard to impress her and saying all this pretentious shit, and she was just so demeaning. Especially when he went to her house, she just had that smile and nod that wasn’t for good intentions – like she was belittling him, like she didn’t really care at all what he was saying, or just wasn’t even listening, just thinking, ‘wow, get a load of this guy’. Andrew’s dad was quite clearly a douchebag and a half. I don’t really want to get too much into this guy, because he just makes me irritated. But I feel he was a bit flat as a character – he was all rage rage rage, grief, blame, rage rage, half-dead. I just wish he smothered Andrew with a pillow when instead of crying and shouting at him. Or at least just cry because his wife just died and his son is in the ICU because he went nutso trying to get money for his mother’s medication. Also, I find it hard to believe he went out looking for Andrew that night. Really.

And Andrew. Fucking Andrew. He really is that high-school-nerd-who-is-unloved-and-doesn’t-belong-and-ends-up-becoming-a-crazy-serial-killer type character! Yes, I’m being serious! It’s always the quiet ones that end up being the crazy villains because of their horrible past. I think it’s safe to say, I had no sympathy for him from the beginning. Okay, maybe at the very beginning when his dad hit him and pushed him on the ground, and bullied by those sad-life jocks. After that, rave party onwards, I was already over his whining and his, ‘guise, wer r u? gaiz i dont think u shud go in da hole guyz, omg lets go back gaiz omg matt ur my ride home’. Fair enough, everything bad he did, initially, had good intentions. And yes, he went nutso and clearly had no good intentions there, but I think, to put it simply, he had rage issues. Any harm he caused purposely was caused by his rage issues. You saw it when he said things like, ‘Seriously, Steve, stay away from me, I need to be alone right now, just leave me alone’. BAM. Steve dies.

The most satisfying part, though, was when Andrew’s dad started beating him up again and Andrew throws him against the wall and puts on this epic voice and says, ‘I CAN CRUSH YOUUUU’. Lordy, that settled a lot of rage out of me. It’s just one of those things, you know? When there’s that one character who is just constantly on your nerves and always gets away with it, but you can’t do anything because you can’t freaking control the movie, so finally a character gets shit done and throws a bitch down.

Despite how many negatives I seemed to have mentioned about this film, it’s safe to say I enjoyed it. In the style that it is, I enjoyed it. The thing is, my kind of movie is the very thought-provoking kind where I don’t mind getting a little confused along the way because there’s a lot to take in, and not just seeing a plot unfold. I’m not saying this movie isn’t thought-provoking, because every film should be. I’m saying this is the kind of movie that you can just sit and enjoy and not have to think too hard about what that close up means, or why the music is contradicting the image, etc. It’s very much a movie to watch with your friends (ironically, I didn’t) and just not analyse (ironically, I did)!

So on an entertainment level, it was pretty good, but on an overall level, I think some things were missing, or some of the characters needed a bit more dimension. But the bottom line is, I enjoyed watching it enough to talk to the characters in the movie (especially, ‘SMOTHER HIM WITH A PILLOW’ to his dad when Andrew was in hospital; I knew mayhem was about to break out!).

I rate Chronicle: ★★★✰✰

Amateur Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

*Please note that when I call them “Amateur Reviews”, they’re not technically reviews, they are actually just my scattered thoughts on the subject at hand.
**This also contains juicy spoilers you may or may not want to read.

Being a college student, I tend to spend most of my time eating, sleeping, engaging in easy entertainment, and going to class in the city that is an hour or so away. Despite the fact that I waste all hours of the day doing things I shouldn’t be doing, I insist that I cannot indulge in reading a book at home because there is always college work to be done. In saying that, my one hour train ride to the city four days a week has become my reading time, since my train ride is the inbetween of having to do work at home, and having to do work at college – there aren’t many productive things for me to do on a train except read. So there was no excuse. Suffice to say, reading The Fault in Our Stars during a disruptive hour to and from the city felt too disjointed for me, especially for a book as engaging as this one. In fact, I was often on the verge of missing my stop.
After a few days of reading it only on the train, I got impatient and it was finally Saturday until I decided I was going to sit down at home, in my bed, and read it. Unsurprisingly, I finished it in the one sitting, and now here I am, talking about it, because I don’t know what else to do.

It has been approximately five and a half hours since I finished reading The Fault in Our Stars (abv. TFiOS), and I think it’s safe to say, I am currently suffering from what I call Post-Good-Book Depression. I’m sure it is common among other readers, when you finish reading a book and you don’t know what to do with your life. I have been self-diagnosed with this illness, considering I spent the last five hours catching up on Nerdfighteria, watching vlogbrothers videos of the events surrounding the making and release of the book, and wishing I had pre-ordered a copy for January 10th this year so I could get a signed hardcopy of the book. That last part was especially saddening to me, because I never really considered myself a nerdfighter – I didn’t watch ALL the vlogs(!) – but I did know about the release of TFiOS at the same time as other nerdfighters. If I cared about John Green’s books then, as much as I do now, I most definitely would have pre-ordered for a signed copy. But I didn’t. Moving on.

This book, in comparison to the other other books John Green has written, is in a league entirely of its own. The first book I read by John Green was Paper Towns, and literally hours before I read TFiOS, I read Looking For Alaska. I’ll be honest. In Paper Towns, I mostly disliked a lot of things in it, like the hourly countdown that seemed a little too dramatic and kind of out of place for the book, or the rather sad obsession the main guy (I don’t even remember his name) had over Margot Roth Spiegelman, and Margot Roth Spiegelman herself. I did not like her at all, which made the idea of going on a wild goose chase after her not very appealing to me. In fact, I don’t think I liked any of the characters in the book, yet somehow I sort of enjoyed reading it. I guess because Green went with the “right” (in my opinion) ending, as opposed to the “happy” ending.
I enjoyed Looking For Alaska a lot more than I did Paper Towns, though I kind of want to write a separate post about that book. Haha! But still, to me, both of those books lacked something that I couldn’t put my finger on. It was like I was hyper-aware there was someone sitting behind a computer, typing it. I didn’t really care that much for the characters that were in pursuit (maybe because they were both these complex, independent pixie-like teenage girls who were super hot, yet an intellectual and into literature, and hard to please).

With TFiOS, it was different. Yes, she was also an intellectual and very much into literature and then some; the meaning of life, death, the universe, et cetera. But she was not really the blatantly strong, independent, unpredictable girl. She was blunt. She says it like it is. And it stands out especially in her case, when everyone is stepping around the fact that she is going to die. She sees the world in an entirely different and wonderful way to everyone else, and I actually admire it.
Even Augustus Waters. I believe he played the equivalent of the unpredicatble pixie-girl that is present in Green’s other books, except that he was not at all like that. Yes, he was the love interest of the main character, and yes, he was unpredictable. But he was not really unattainable, nor was he an intolerable character (in my opinion). In fact, I pretty much felt so strong a sadness to what he became, that I actually felt emotionally numb. I was just so sad, that his personality was so brilliantly portrayed and then he turned into this thing made of cancer, and all his characteristics were gone. I was numb!

Not to mention all the wonderful sentences and passages I know I’m going to see circulating tumblr and whatnot. It was so thought-provoking. She often explained things I also thought about the world. The horribly blunt reality of the world. The way people see sick people, even how funerals are for living people, and then there are the things she notices people say which I also recognise are rather ridiculous, and the whole thing about human existence, the universe demands to be noticed but we also demand the universe to notice us, the fear of oblivion…

In fact, all these Deep and Meaningful Thoughts made me dig up my hand-written journal and made me write thoughtful things in there that were so unlike my “Today this happened” sort of entries. (And actually, I’ll post another extract from my journal after this one, that was a result of being in the middle of reading TFiOS!)

I had this weird feeling the book was going to end the way An Imperial Affliction did – in the middle of a sentence. Except that the happenings of the other characters in the book would be explained somehow – whether by being resolved before she died, or some crummy author’s note or something at the end of the novel. But thank goodness it didn’t end that way.

Okay, I’ve decided to resign to sleep. It has actually taken me an hour an a half to write this post – without distractions – because I’m so scatterbrained about this book. There is so much I want to say about it, but now that I’ve come to talk about it, I don’t know what to write. The ideas really only come about as I’m reading the book, when I’m not interested in putting it down. Also, I have this problem with being able to fully comprehend things, especially when they are as complex as this book, so it definitely needs a reread. And though I hate marking in books or messing them up in general (all the books on my shelf look untouched), I think this one needs underlining – everything that means anything to me. There will be so much.

I honestly don’t know how I’m going to read another young adult book without thinking, “Eh, it’s all story and no thought.” Because that’s how it is with most young adult books. Sure they often have lessons that come out of their stories, but when am I ever going to read another book again, that was an easy a read as TFiOS, and as thought provoking as Fahrenheit 451?

I rate The Fault In Our Stars: ★★★★☆ (<- half a star!)
It only loses half a star because it’s making me depressed, as though I have lost someone myself!)