Okay, until a couple of weeks ago, June 6 to be precise, I hadn't been to a movie theater since December when I went to see Night at the Museum with my sister when I was visiting Michigan. The movie was surprisingly better than I had imagined it being, but, you know, it sort of made me realize that there were very few movies worth the hassle of going to the theater, spending a lot of money, and being really cold (can anyone explain why the AC is always kept below zero in theaters?).
But then Ratatouille came out. Then Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out. I have been to the movies twice in the last two weeks! So I have something to say. About stuff other people may actually also have opinions about. Whee.
Okay, I was not crazy about the idea of Ratatouille. When I first saw the previews, I was sad that Pixar had went with the rat as chef idea. But, I also wasn't crazy about the idea of The Incredibles, which I found I did enjoy, so I trusted Pixar. And, I tend to trust Metacritic, which gave the movie a 96 out of 100. By the time I sat down in the theater seat for the movie, I was basically bouncing up and down with excitement. About twenty minutes into the movie, I could barely keep my eyes open. Seriously. I was so bummed. This movie had the slowest start to any children's movie I can remember seeing in recent history. And the movie never got better.
Apparently there are a lot of people who disagree with me on this, but Ratatouille is definitely my least favorite Pixar movie and I really feel like I am owed those $8 dollars and 110 minutes of my life back.
Okay, it's boring. Fine. But I also feel like the movie contradicts itself in a lot of ways. The chef guy has this whole "anyone can cook" thing, but it turns out his own son CAN'T cook and relies on a rat. And, worse still, by the end of the movie, when the kid has been getting the help of the rat for a long time, he still can't cook. And that bothers me. I just felt like the ending that the movie deserved was the kid pulled out a fantastic dish without the rat's help and the rat went on to live a normal rat life and the kid could manage the restaurant and leave the cheffing to others who have actually worked for it. The whole anyone can do anything was just lip service the writers said, but didn't actually demonstrate.
Biker Boy had this whole thing about how he hates movies that philosophize directly to your face (like the scene where the father rat is all, we are what we are, don't get above yourself stuff) and I really feel like this movie was guilty of that all over the place.
So, thumbs down for me on Ratatouille. (As a side note, I went to the movie with a bunch of people and as we were leaving they were all talking about what a great movie it was and Biker Boy and I stayed really quiet. When we separated from the group, we looked at each other and began laughing because we already knew, without saying a word, that the other one had been really disappointed with the movie. It was a fantastic moment of communication without any words.)
Okay, so Harry Potter!!! Oh, MY GOD!! The new book comes out on Saturday and the last thing I have time for is to read it, but you better believe my list of things to do on Saturday involves 1) pack for an hour 2) read HP for an hour 3) pack for an hour 4) read HP for an hour and so on. Oh, and we have to do a social event thing, too, but I think I can convince Biker Boy that an hour and a half is enough being nice for a weekend.
Now, the movie. I will fess up right now and tell you that The Order of the Phoenix is my least favorite Harry Potter book. Harry was such a whiny bitch in that book. I just wanted to punch him. Really. Punch him. It's like 600 pages of angst and then 200 pages of solid Harry Potter story telling. So I had low, low, low expectations for the film. I just couldn't imagine how a book that was so into Harry's internal feelings and head could translate to the screen.
But I found the movie to be the best of the movies yet. I didn't fall asleep (which I'll admit is a first for me in the Harry Potter movie series). And it took a brilliant approach and actually (I feel like I'm guilty of blaspheme here) improves on the book in some ways. It made me feel way more sympathetic toward Harry than I did when I read the book. Further, it made the somewhat protracted novel (remember the 600 pages of angst - about 500 of which were unnecessary) concise and user-friendly.
There were things I didn't like. I didn't like that we didn't get to see the scene at St. Mungo's where the gang sees Neville with his parents. I didn't like that Cho was the one who narced on the DA. I didn't like that everyone heard the prophecy at the Ministry of Magic. I didn't like that Harry didn't use the Pensieve to see Snape's thoughts during the Occlumency lessons. I didn't like that the final fight scene between Voldy and Dumbledore didn't involve the magical brethren statues (something I was looking forward to seeing very much). As someone who is so wrapped up in the books, I can't separate the books from the movies at this point, I can't tell if the movie could be understood on its own without knowledge of the books, but I read a review that said you need a PhD from Hogwarts to understand the movie, so that may be a valid criticism.
But I feel like those minor plot points that were adapted to create a screenplay were certainly worth the added enjoyment of the book. Next time I read the book, I will try hard not to hate Harry.
No comments:
Post a Comment