slowcando
Joined Mar 2015
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slowcando's rating
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slowcando's rating
I recently hugely enjoyed the spectacular A Bridge Too Far and declared that the best war film I've seen outside of the immense Apocalypse Now.
Only weeks later I see one that tops it. 1917's big selling point is the entire movie being a single take (well, making a convincing illusion of it). Sam Mendes already impressed when I caught Spectre at the cinema: that opening single-take at the Day of the Dead festival was the best scene of that movie. Here with 1917 the entire movie is one epic best scene!
But it's not just that excellent 'gimmick' that works, it's everything else too. A coherent tense plot, superb acting from one of the main characters (Oscar-worthy), high-class cinematography and immersive sound-design. Actually for the first hour I wasn't convinced that the film needed background music, especially when it sounded so modern...but once a truly special scene begins (the sky lit up) the strings soar and it really works. Directly following that are a few beautiful tender minutes which is temporarily carthatic, before the march continues.
Impressive moments like that abound.
We may wonder about how quickly dawn brightens, we may be a little charitable about some powers of recuperation, and we may regret the somewhat impersonal shallow presentation of the Germans...however these are relative nitpicks. One slight critique is during the finale's most bombastic scene you can make out a blue-screen outline of the main character in shot, which slightly deflates the epic happenings. This kind of effect we're more used to from older movies. However I did watch this in the virtual IMAX (near 150° field of view) wraparound screen of the Meta Quest 3...so may not be so noticable for most viewers. I watched while spot-walking/jogging...extremely immersive! That headset has a FoV itself of around 110° so I was actively turning my head left and right to see more, just as you would in real life. This method of immersion-viewing fit 1917 perfectly (note: only properly appreciable with uncompressed Blurays & above...not with compressed HD, streams or DVD due to digital artifacts & visible pixels).
Misses a mega-rare 10/10 (about 1% of my rated films, including Apocalypse Now) but totally deserves the 9 (about 5%). I feel comfortable placing 1917 in my all-time Top 50, out of near 1200 movies rated.
Recommended to anyone who appreciates high-quality film-making.
Only weeks later I see one that tops it. 1917's big selling point is the entire movie being a single take (well, making a convincing illusion of it). Sam Mendes already impressed when I caught Spectre at the cinema: that opening single-take at the Day of the Dead festival was the best scene of that movie. Here with 1917 the entire movie is one epic best scene!
But it's not just that excellent 'gimmick' that works, it's everything else too. A coherent tense plot, superb acting from one of the main characters (Oscar-worthy), high-class cinematography and immersive sound-design. Actually for the first hour I wasn't convinced that the film needed background music, especially when it sounded so modern...but once a truly special scene begins (the sky lit up) the strings soar and it really works. Directly following that are a few beautiful tender minutes which is temporarily carthatic, before the march continues.
Impressive moments like that abound.
We may wonder about how quickly dawn brightens, we may be a little charitable about some powers of recuperation, and we may regret the somewhat impersonal shallow presentation of the Germans...however these are relative nitpicks. One slight critique is during the finale's most bombastic scene you can make out a blue-screen outline of the main character in shot, which slightly deflates the epic happenings. This kind of effect we're more used to from older movies. However I did watch this in the virtual IMAX (near 150° field of view) wraparound screen of the Meta Quest 3...so may not be so noticable for most viewers. I watched while spot-walking/jogging...extremely immersive! That headset has a FoV itself of around 110° so I was actively turning my head left and right to see more, just as you would in real life. This method of immersion-viewing fit 1917 perfectly (note: only properly appreciable with uncompressed Blurays & above...not with compressed HD, streams or DVD due to digital artifacts & visible pixels).
Misses a mega-rare 10/10 (about 1% of my rated films, including Apocalypse Now) but totally deserves the 9 (about 5%). I feel comfortable placing 1917 in my all-time Top 50, out of near 1200 movies rated.
Recommended to anyone who appreciates high-quality film-making.
I've been enjoying 3D-Bluray movies in the virtual IMAX of the Meta Quest 3 headset. Viewing this way elevates a lot of mediocre films a couple of points.
And Battle For Terra is certainly mediocre. It hits all the same tired story beats we know from a hundred similar movies. The kid-friendly clear emoting recalls typical Disney films. We know where we stand.
The animation and graphics seem a little dated now too, the soundtrack is generic and the voice-acting merely serviceable. So all that's left to save it from a poor score is the 3D-spectacle....
....and that is very good indeed! Great depth and some nice popouts marry well with an imaginative world and immersive dramatic action. Pacing was decent too, no boring or annoying bits.
Recommended if like me you're becoming a 3D-completist.
Not particularly recommended if you're looking for epic sci-fi animation. It's too generic to really stand out.
And Battle For Terra is certainly mediocre. It hits all the same tired story beats we know from a hundred similar movies. The kid-friendly clear emoting recalls typical Disney films. We know where we stand.
The animation and graphics seem a little dated now too, the soundtrack is generic and the voice-acting merely serviceable. So all that's left to save it from a poor score is the 3D-spectacle....
....and that is very good indeed! Great depth and some nice popouts marry well with an imaginative world and immersive dramatic action. Pacing was decent too, no boring or annoying bits.
Recommended if like me you're becoming a 3D-completist.
Not particularly recommended if you're looking for epic sci-fi animation. It's too generic to really stand out.
5/10 may seem harsh, but I rate 6/10 as the minimum 'worth a watch' rating...and frankly if you've never seen The Last Starfighter I can't quite say it's 'worth a watch'.
I enjoyed it as a kid of the 80's...it has an outstanding magical premise which fires the imagination: a young man gets so good at a video-game that he gets to live it!
But upon rewatching - around 35 years since last seeing it - the movie has quite basic textbook setpieces, flat dialogue, thin characters, some lame humour (tho' the beta droid was funny) and very dated CGI FX which age poorly vs the model-FX of other space-opera movies like Star Wars (A New Hope had a similar budget) and others. Cinema-historians may get a kick out of how impressive those graphics must have seemed at the time, however I judge on how the experience is now.
While I didn't get excited at the action, there were a few entertaining moments in the film, and some flickers of imagination to tickle the sci-fi mind. Overall it's watchable...but not really worth watching.
Recommended for completists of 80's boys'-own-stuff sci-fi adventures. Not recommended for anyone seeking movie magic.
I enjoyed it as a kid of the 80's...it has an outstanding magical premise which fires the imagination: a young man gets so good at a video-game that he gets to live it!
But upon rewatching - around 35 years since last seeing it - the movie has quite basic textbook setpieces, flat dialogue, thin characters, some lame humour (tho' the beta droid was funny) and very dated CGI FX which age poorly vs the model-FX of other space-opera movies like Star Wars (A New Hope had a similar budget) and others. Cinema-historians may get a kick out of how impressive those graphics must have seemed at the time, however I judge on how the experience is now.
While I didn't get excited at the action, there were a few entertaining moments in the film, and some flickers of imagination to tickle the sci-fi mind. Overall it's watchable...but not really worth watching.
Recommended for completists of 80's boys'-own-stuff sci-fi adventures. Not recommended for anyone seeking movie magic.