Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Much, much better than I expected, especially for being an 'Apes' film. Most of the human characters were, for the most part, pretty bland and uninteresting (particularly Freida Pinto, and John Lithgow's character deserved far better), but thankfully, the film's primary focus was on the apes. Andy Serkis steals pretty much every scene he's in, and I was surprised by the assured, economic direction of Rupert Wyatt. I was amazed by how quickly the film moves, yet it never feels like any key information was left out or dumbed down for plot convenience. Despite a couple of nitpicks with the CG, the visual effects were incredibly effective.
Spoiler (click to read)
Tom Felton's delivery of the "Take your stinkin' paw off me..." line was pretty atrocious (I'd fault the writers more than the actor, though. The line didn't fit in with any of the character's other dialogue, and just sounded incredibly out of place). However, I can easily overlook it because the moment that immediately followed was probably the best scene in the film.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Yeah, yeah, I know, slowpoke.jpg here (I should also mention that I haven't seen Part 1 yet). This film is basically 100% spectacle and not really much else. I suppose this is expected of a part 2, but with this one in particular, I definitely got the impression that the action was intended to upstage the performers (though with an ensemble cast like the one HP has accumulated over the years, their screen presence is usually enough). However, taking it for what it was, I liked it a fair amount, and that's about the most I have to say.
Last edited by MindGame (August 20, 2011 (09:36pm))
