Category Archives: Cinema Sit-Down

The Force is Strong in This One: My Review of ‘Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens’ (SPOILERS)

December 18, 2015 Nathan Joseph Sitton Marchand 5 Comments

The poster for the film, which was released December 18, 2015. Image courtesy of www.StarWars.com.

The Force—or rather, the hype—has been strong with The Force Awakens, the long-awaited sequel to the iconic Star Wars saga. Like a budding Jedi apprentice, the hype machine for this film has grown steadily stronger since the first trailer was released last December. Tickets went on sale in October, and both Movie Tickets and Fandango crashed within five minutes of them going on sale. The advertising campaign has been in hyper-drive for the last month.

I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t like Star Wars. It’s everywhere now.

Now the day has finally arrived: the first Star Wars film in ten years. New studio, new director, new actors. Can it live up to the hype?

Thirty years after Return of the Jedi, a dark warrior (Adam Driver), serving Galactic Empire remnants known as the First Order, seeks a droid containing a map that will lead him to the legendary Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). This droid is now in the hands of a scavenger (Daisy Ridley) and a Stormtrooper defector (John Boyega).

The Han Solo character poster for the film. Image courtesy of www.StarWars.com.

Where do I even begin? There’s much I could and should say about this film. While I’m a more avid fan of the Star Trek franchise, which was also revived by director J.J. Abrams, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t grow up something of a Star Wars fan as well. It left an indelible mark on my upbringing, especially when I was in college—Attack of the Clones was released the summer before I entered university and Revenge of the Sith during my junior year. While I’m not one of the infamous impossible-to-please fans who did things like troll Amazon’s listing of the Star Wars Blu-Ray collection to prevent people from buying it, I was still stoked by the hype surrounding this film.

Hence why I’m at a bit of a loss for words. On one hand, this is undeniably the strongest entry in the saga in years. It certainly blows the prequel trilogy out of the water. On the other hand, well, for now I’ll just say that J.J. Abrams has joined the likes of Joss Whedon for one major reason.

Speaking of Abrams, putting him at the film’s helm was probably the smartest move Disney made after buying the franchise from creator George Lucas in 2012. In fact, according to Wikipedia, he was handpicked by Lucas himself. Abrams has often described himself as a longtime fan of Star Wars, and his previous work has shown him to be a student of both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. I’d argue that it was good that Abrams cut his teeth on Star Trek (2009) and its sequel Star Trek Into Darkness—which definitely had Star Wars influences—because it undoubtedly prepared him for this. There are few directors in Hollywood who could handle an epic space opera from a long-running franchise filled with beloved iconic characters. Plus, given Abrams’ penchant for secrecy that’d make the C.I.A. jealous, it’d only increase interest in the film.

Kylo Ren, the new villain in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Image courtesy of The Nerdist.

All that to say Abrams’ fingerprints are all over this film. Since he also co-wrote the script with Lucas’ past collaborator Lawrence Kasdan, it’s no wonder. The kinetic pacing, energetic camera work, fast zooms and, yes, the occasional lens flare all combine to recreate the feel of the original 1977 classic, albeit with a modern panache. Abrams treats the material as neither a belligerent revisionist nor a nitpicky fanboy. He respects what came before while also creating exciting new characters, set pieces, stories and ideas, all of which fit within the marvelous universe. One of the subtlest yet most obvious examples of this is the villainous Kylo Ren’s famous lightsaber, which features a cross guard made of the same energy. It’s the first ever major redesign of the classic weapon, and not only does it make sense from a sword-fighting perspective, Ren uses it to great effect in the film.

Ultimately, though, it’s Abrams’ handling of the story that makes or breaks this film. CinemaBlend reported in January that George Lucas’ treatments for Episodes VII-IX were discarded, making this the first Star Wars film without his input (though he was brought on as a consultant). However, it was Disney’s announcement that all of the Expanded Universe (rebranded “Legends”) that had been built over several decades in novels, comics, video games and television to be non-canonical that grated fans. I can’t begin to tell you what a controversy this was in the geek community. Personally, I’d always questioned their canonicity given that until Disney made the announcement, there was no firm rule on what was and wasn’t canon. I can understand the frustration, though. In the long run, I think this was a good move. It freed up the filmmakers to try fresh ideas and not be beholden to a mountain of continuity.

Admittedly, my knowledge of the Expanded Universe is limited by comparison to many fans. I bring this up not only to explain why excluding it from the canon didn’t bother me, but also to say that if I get any details in following paragraph wrong, please feel free to correct me.

General Leia Organa (Carrie Fischer) embraces Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Image courtesy of www.hngn.com

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Now the ultimate question: is the story good? Yes, it is. In fact, it might be the strongest story of all the films. Is that crazy talk? Maybe, but there’s no denying that this is a great Star Wars tale. Like A New Hope, it presents a universe with a long history that is in turmoil, and two young heroes heed the call to save it with the aid of old veterans. If taken in the context of the entire saga, A New Hope is as much a transitional story as The Force Awakens proves to be: the torch is passed from one generation of characters to the next. In the former’s case, it is from the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) to Luke Skywalker. A notable improvement—yes, I dared say that—is the dialogue and acting. While the prequels are often derided for hokey dialogue and wooden acting, even the original trilogy has such foibles to a much lesser extent (though that was more A New Hope than the last two films). Here, however, there’s little. This is a testament to both the actors and Abrams.

That being said, it isn’t perfect. It includes many elements that, while probably intended to be homages, do detract from it slightly. It begins on a desert planet that looks like Tattooine yet isn’t. The bad guys have rebuilt the Death Star again(!), this time taking the Daft Punk approach (“Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger”) by making it the size of a planet instead of a moon. Interestingly, though, it is called Starkiller Base, a reference to the original surname George Lucas used for Anakin and Luke in the rough draft of Star Wars. My point is the Empire should’ve learned the first time not to build the same seemingly indestructible super-weapon again. Why do it a third time?

The new “Star Wars” heroes. (L to R: Rey, BB-8, Finn). Image courtesy of Screenrant.

Regardless, the new characters are delightful, fun and interesting. Rey is a scrappy scavenger from said desert planet. She has a mysterious past, which is only compounded when she discovers she’s a Force user. I confess I expected her to turn out to be Han and Leia’s daughter, especially when she frequently demonstrated an aptitude for machines and piloting, but the questions of her origin are left unanswered as a set-up for Episodes VIII-IX. Finn proves to be the most original in that he’s a Stormtrooper who defects to the Resistance, an anti-First Order movement supported by the New Republic. He’s a reluctant hero with a slight cowardly streak in him, which he learns to overcome as the film progresses. Then there’s the new villain, Kylo Ren, who—SPOILER WARNING!—turns out to be Han and Leia’s son. Like his grandfather, he succumbed to the Dark Side, yet he constantly battles against “the Light.” While he may not reach the iconic status of Darth Vader, he’s a worthy, multilayered addition in the annals of Star Wars villains.

Old friends: Peter Mayhew (left) and Harrison Ford (right) return as Chewbacca and Han Solo, respectively. Image courtesy of Screenrant.

The returning characters are treated as mythic figures, both by the filmmakers and the new characters. Their exploits are the stuff of legends, some of which Rey and Finn had heard and some they didn’t. It is an appropriate response, I thought, in that it almost bordered on being meta. Rey and Finn, in many ways, are like younger Millennials and post-Millennials who aren’t as familiar with the Star Wars franchise. For longtime fans, while these actors/characters are thirty years older, they’re still the “old friends” we know and love. Which only made the moment where, as I hinted at before, J.J. Abrams becomes Joss Whedon.

Han Solo dies.

(BOOM! ULTIMATE SPOILER!)

Late in the film, Han confronts his son, Kylo Ren, on a catwalk, calling him by his given name, Ben, and appealing to him to turn away from the Dark Side. Immediately, I tensed up. I saw it coming, but I hoped against it. Even when Han’s efforts seemed to be working, I was nervous. Then as the sun being drained by the Starkiller Base was snuffed (yes, it can do that), Kylo ran him through with his lightsaber and dropped him into the chasm below. I flinched.

I hadn’t felt like that since watching Captain Kirk die in Star Trek: Generations.

I don’t know what to think of this or how to feel about it. It makes sense narratively, but at the same time, a fan-favorite character is now dead. For good. This isn’t like seeing a superhero die because nobody stays dead in comics. This is irreversible. I haven’t recovered enough from the shock to say whether or not it is, well, there only for the shock value. This is like the death of Wash in 2005’s Serenity, but amplified ten-fold (hence my comparison to Whedon). It’ll take time for me to process this.

That being said, Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens is a tour de force of character, special effects, action and story that lives up to the hype and then some. People have wondered what this generation’s Star Wars would be. Little did they know it’d just be a new Star Wars.

Final Grade: A

Cinema Sit-Down, Film/Television/Broadcast/Radio, Original Content

Cinema Sit-Down – Favorite Movie?

Image December 10, 2015 J.A.Montemoiño

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Cinema Sit-Down, Movies/TV

Disney Under the Scope Part 2: Pinocchio

December 3, 2015 Grant Starson

Just three years after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney followed it up with an adaptation of Pinocchio, by Italian author, Carlo Collodi. Unfortunately, upon its initial release, Pinocchio was considered a box office bomb. Time proved to be kind to the film; however, future reissues in 1945 turned the bomb into a profitable venture for Disney, and critically it has been hailed as one of the finest works of animation ever produced. Similar claims are made about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but as I explained in my previous review, save for its technical achievements and unique usages of animation, Snow White was about as enjoyable watching a snail race a rock. Pinocchio is a far different movie from Snow White in many ways, and serves as a follow up to many of the animation techniques used in Disney’s debut animated film. So let’s crack open this egg the world insists is golden.

Being a Disney film, Pinocchio is not lacking in its fair quantity of musical numbers, and thankfully they are much better here than in Snow White. “When You Wish Upon a Star” is a classic and is the closest Disney has to a theme song, as it perfectly encapsulates the company’s image of being the creators of childhood dreams. “Give a Little Whistle” and “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee” are ear worms after the first listen, and “I’ve Got No Strings” is no less catchy. However, more than just being nice show tunes, the music of Pinocchio also directly interacts with the plot of film. “I’ve Got No Strings” is an actual performance Pinocchio gives with Stromboli’s troupe, and contrasts the puppets Stromboli manipulates with Pinocchio’s opportunity to choose a different life from them.

Pinocchio seems somewhat terrified looking at the lifelessness of other puppets.

“When You Wish Upon a Star” gives us a view into the almost child-like naivety of Geppetto’s hopes for a son to magically appear in his life and provides book ends to the film. Honest John’s number, “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee,” despite being among the simpler songs, is interesting for how much it tells us about Honest John’s intentions. At first glance, it’s just a little ditty John sings on the way to whatever he talked Pinocchio into doing, but he makes important changes to it as the film continues. After several repetitions of the same prose, John cuts out words all together and only scats the melody, reflecting how empty Honest John’s silver tongue is. As John escorts Pinocchio to the Pleasure Island coach, his lyrics change all together. While maintaining the same song structure and melody, he paints the song as a mere tool to trick gullible kids.

In my previous review, I commented on how great the animation of Snow White is; however, Pinocchio makes it hard to believe there was only a three-year gap between the two. Most of the animation in Snow White focuses on the actual characters, with mostly static backgrounds, and only a few instances of the characters really interacting with the world. The environments are detailed, but that’s all, and the story is told on an entirely different plane. The world of Pinocchio is almost a character in itself, and changes as the movie progresses. Smoke from cigars bend along with the characters’ movement. Most scenes are drawn with realistic lighting, with a clear source of light.

A lighting is treated as if there were a real lamp in the room, so Lampwick casts a shadow over Pinocchio as he stands in front of the light source of the room. — Shading is treated as if there were a real light in the room, so Lampwick casts a shadow over Pinocchio as he stands in front of the light source of the room.

The last act in particular showcases water effects that look live-action. As Pinocchio splashes into the ocean, a current forms around his body. As Jiminy and Pinocchio explore the ocean floor and ask the fish for the location of Monstro, air bubbles form from their movements and plop out of their mouths.

Not only are the underwater scenes vibrant, but the distorted lines of sunlight can be seen flowing on the ocean floor, as if actual waves are above Pinocchio.

Monstro himself is a site to behold. Throughout the final act of the film, the audience is reminded of how massive and deadly the creature who swallowed Geppetto and his ship whole is. Once Monstro finally appears, he’s less of a monster and more of a force of nature. His entire being bends the world to his whim and his impact shows the audience just how minuscule everything else is compared to him.

Monstro rips apart a gigantic wave that Geppetto and Pinocchio struggled to climb. the water bends to meet Monstro's will, and our two heroes are further diminished by their size next to Monstro. — Monstro rips apart a gigantic wave that Geppetto and Pinocchio struggled to climb. the water bends to meet Monstro’s will, and our two heroes are further diminished by their size next to Monstro.

One of the greatest strengths of the animation in Pinocchio is how it gives each character its own visual personality. This is not just in terms of how the actual characters look, but it’s how they move and interact with both each other, and their world. Pinocchio’s movements tend to have a very double jointed nature to them; he can twist and turn in ways others can’t because he is a puppet. He turns his body around under his head a full 360 degrees and bends his limbs in grotesque angles.

Pinocchio bends in ways that would snap the bones of normal people.

While Geppetto is the opposite, and throughout the movie, we can see his struggles with an aging body. He struggles to bend and pick up the book Pinocchio is supposed to take to school, his hands shaking as if they are strained to do such a simple task. It creates a sense of vulnerability from Geppetto. In turn, his struggling helps the audience feel sympathetic towards him, and makes his attempts to save Pinocchio that much more heroic. Honest John moves fast and slyly, which mirrors his fast-witted, improvisational method of conning others into serving his goals. This contrasts perfectly with Gideon, his dumb and slow moving partner. Just by seeing the two carry themselves, it’s readily apparent both of their personalities and relationship with each other. The Blue Fairy is the uncanny valley problem that Snow White had in her movie, but with a glowing aura around her that makes her seem even more out of place. However, unlike in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Blue Fairy seeming out of place makes sense. She’s meant to be this great powerful being who can give life to wooden puppets, and her oddly realistic art design and motions make her presence take over the scene.

The Blue Fairy was animated through rotoscoping (tracing over live-action footage) which is why she looks so different from the rest of the cast.

The Blue Fairy is a foil of sorts to Monstro: both act as forces of nature, and as such take center stage in their respective scenes. While Monstro acts with forceful, angry acts of destruction, The Blue Fairy creates her presence through subtle and gentle motions.

Pinocchio lacks the more metaphorical uses of animation that Snow White has; it’s all fairly straightforward. While it is very impressive, the movie dabbles in a little too much, “animation for animation’s sake.” There are sequences that are in the movie strictly to show off the fruits of the animators’ efforts, rather than advance the plot. Close to the beginning of the movie, the various clocks in Geppetto’s shop begin to ring to inform him it’s time for sleep. Then, the movie basically pauses to show us each and every clock’s unique alarm. Yes, they look well animated, but this takes several minutes to show us what could’ve just been a few seconds. This in turn takes up time that could be spent on more interesting set pieces. Compare a scene like that to a scene such as the children playing in Pleasure Island, where the scene is both visually more appealing and actually informs the plot. Through the acts the children commit on Pleasure Island, we see the destructive nature that lies behind kids when left to their own devices.

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The kids on Pleasure Island run amok, and we see first hand their destructive capability.

We can see this come to a head when Lampwick throws a brick through a stained glass window. It can be inferred from the prominent usage of praying in many early Disney films that the company held religion in high regard, so to have a child deface church property would be regarded as a high act of debauchery. However, the movie uses up much of its run time with sequences that don’t inform nearly as much, and as such many of the plot elements of the movie cannot be expanded upon.

I cannot complain about Pinocchio being a boring movie, if only for how ridiculous it gets. It does progress at a quick pace, making sure not to drag on like Snow White does. The movie essentially revolves around Pinocchio’s journey to morality and learning to resist temptation. To that end, it focuses on two major arcs about things that lead us astray from the straight and narrow path: fame and pleasure. In each act, Pinocchio attempts to walk to school are halted by Honest John and Gideon, essentially the embodiments of the temptation that exists for him to misbehave. Each tale inevitably ends with Pinocchio learning why that path doesn’t pay in the end and narrowly escaping its consequences. The film does a fairly decent job of showing why someone would want to take these routes in life, however, the film ends up falling flat in each.

Pinocchio is about the titular wooden boy developing a conscience and experiencing his own rite of passage, but Pinocchio never makes his own decisions about how he wants to run his life. Yes, Pinocchio goes back on the path of education and morality, but it’s only ever because the other paths he took had run their course and basically forced him to return to the good path. Pinocchio was fully willing to become an actor in Stromboli’s marionette troupe, he enjoyed the fame it brought him, but then he wanted out once Stromboli’s true intentions were revealed. At that point, Pinocchio was faced with a decision of returning to the straight and narrow, or live to be used by Stromboli until his usefulness was up, then killed.

When Pinocchio meets up with Honest John again after escaping from Stromboli, Pinocchio tells him he doesn’t want to be an actor anymore, because “Stromboli was horrible.” This implies that had Stromboli not been horrible, Pinocchio would still be riding the gravy train of fame. At that point, Pinocchio is not making a moral decision and he is not developing a conscience, just a functioning brain. The same applies to his venture into debauchery on Pleasure Island. Pinocchio is all fun and games until people literally start turning into jackasses. People don’t develop their morality by having a variety of metaphorical guns pointed at their heads, they need to be able to sit down and assess their own decisions and make them of their own free will. Once Pinocchio decides to set off to save Geppetto from Monstro we finally see him make his first decision that’s not purely based on an ultimately selfish motive. His decision serves as an effective end to Pinocchio’s arc, shame the arc itself doesn’t live up to it.

Despite the main character arc’s problems, the film does succeed in creating memorable and likeable characters. Pinocchio may act like a naive kid who only thinks about what’s good for himself a few minutes in the future, but that makes sense given he’s essentially a newborn child. The center of Pinocchio’s world is Geppetto, and this can be seen in his interactions with Stromboli. Stromboli does everything he can to take advantage of Pinocchio: he gives him a useless hunk of metal as payment for his performance, he tells him how he’s going to make him travel and give nonstop performances and he even berates him during the show whenever Pinocchio does something slightly out of line, yet none of it really registers with Pinocchio.

He smiles as Stromboli nearly chops his arm off. Funny fact: Stromboli's a rather offensive Italian stereotype, with all that delicious angry broken English, yet the original story was written by an Italian. — He smiles as Stromboli nearly chops his arm off. Funny fact: Stromboli’s a rather offensive Italian stereotype, with all that delicious angry broken English, yet the original story was written by an Italian.

It’s not until Stromboli threatens to never let Pinocchio see Geppetto again that Pinocchio finally realizes the situation he’s in. This makes up for his lack of real development in the film, and allows Pinocchio risking his own skin to save Geppetto to makes sense.

Geppetto himself is largely made compelling due to his animation. At first glance, all we really get from him is that he is a loving father, but through the visuals surrounding him, we learn a lot more. He trembles as he tries to perform simple tasks, he always has a noticeable hunch when he walks and he apparently needs several dozen clocks going off at the same time to even begin to register the alarm that tells him to go to sleep. This gives us a view into how age is catching up with him.

Seeing Geppetto go to such lengths to search for Pinocchio despite his physical weakness is quite endearing.

This is especially important when trying to understand Geppetto’s bizarre mindset in wishing to turn his puppet into a real boy. Geppetto is a lonely old man who never was able to have a family of his own. He overcompensates for this through his woodwork and his house pets, giving each the care and attention not unlike a father to his offspring. Even his interactions with Pinocchio seem based on how he’s heard a parent should take care of their son, not from experience. This depressing subtle undertone shows us the kind of hopeful person Geppetto is. Despite never getting the son he wanted throughout his entire life, he’s still hoping for it into old age. He is willing to fight for this hope once he gets it, going so far as to go on an overseas journey to save his son from Pleasure Island. The film would’ve benefited had more time been spent dealing with Geppetto’s crash course on fatherhood, but he ends up being in very little of the movie.

The story of Pinocchio’s trials to attain boyhood, is almost equally the story of Jiminy learning how hard life can be to do the right thing. The only reason Jiminy is appointed by The Blue Fairy is because he proudly boasts his knowledge about what a conscience is. The Blue Fairy seems to find his assertion so humorous that she immediately lets him guide the life she just created, as if to tell Jiminy to put up or shut up. Serving as Pinocchio’s moral compass, one would reasonably assume he is just a one-note, know-it-all, but Jiminy ends up knowing very little. He consistently makes poor judgment calls in his mission to teach Pinocchio how to be a good boy. He leaves Pinocchio to Stromboli after he sees him at a show and thinks Pinocchio is a success. He gets frustrated at Pinocchio’s immature behavior at Pleasure Island and abandons him. While this makes him a questionable choice by The Blue Fairy as Pinocchio’s conscience, it does make him a more compelling character. While Jiminy does mess up a lot, he also works to solve his mistakes. By the end of the movie, Jiminy is awarded a golden badge, which basically is The Blue Fairy outright telling the audience Jiminy’s character arc is complete. While not the most subtle approach, Jiminy’s arc falls on its face a lot less than Pinocchio’s, so I’m willing to overlook the small moral anvil.

At least it's a small badge, so that's a a point towards subtlety, I suppose. — At least it’s a small badge, so that’s a a point towards subtlety, I suppose.

Coming from Snow White, Pinocchio is a relief. It solves much of my complaints with the previous film in the Disney canon: it’s not boring, the characters aren’t merely caricatures and the music is vastly improved. However, with the good, comes its own set of problems, such as the primary arc breaking a few of its legs, causing its moral to fall flat, or the lack of development between Geppetto and Pinocchio. Overall, Pinocchio is like waking up in the middle of a really good dream, it was fun while it lasted, but you wish it there was more to it.

More like copper Walt. Copper's good. — More like copper Walt. Copper’s good.

Cinema Sit-Down, Movies/TV

‘Mockingjay’ is No Mockery: My Review of ‘Mockingjay, Part 2’

December 2, 2015 Nathan Joseph Sitton Marchand

The poster for the film, which was released November 20, 2015.

After nearly four years and as many films, the Hunger Games “trilogy” has come to an end. So huge was the climax that, as is tradition with young adult book series adaptations (see Twilight Saga and Harry Potter), it took not one but two films to contain it. After leaving filmgoers starving for more (see what I did there?) last year, were the odds ever in the favor of Part 2?

With the war escalating, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) leads a Section 13 strike team into the Capital, intent on assassinating President Snow (Donald Sutherland), all the while everything she holds dear—including Peeta (Josh Hutcherson)—hangs in the balance.

(SPOILER WARNING!)

First, let me apologize, Giga readers, for not publishing this review sooner. Normally I’d see a film like this during opening weekend, but I waited so I could see it with my little sister when she came home for the holidays. She loves the films, and I wanted to experience it with her.

Second, I think I should give brief thoughts on the films and books before I continue, especially since this is the second half of a what’s essentially one long movie. I didn’t see the first film until I’d read the book by Suzanne Collins, for which I was glad. I honestly think the books shouldn’t be considered “young adult.” In my opinion, they’re excellent dystopian science fiction that just happens to have a teenage girl as the protagonist.

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While Part 2 has more action sequences and set pieces than Part 1, it’s still not a glorification of violence or war. Some complained this made both halves slow and plodding. I, for one, was never bored. I knew that this was a film that wanted to ponder ideas and show the ravages of war. Ask any veteran and he’ll tell you, “War is Hell.” Collins pulled no punches with her characters, and neither does the film. Every character is either broken or killed. The novel, in most respects, has a very un-Hollywood ending. There are few, if any, happy moments until that ending, and even then they are realistically tainted by tragedy. Mind you, that brokenness is a bit stronger in the novel, but it still comes through loud and clear in the film.

Yet despite showing the horrors of war, the film, like the novel, isn’t strictly antiwar. War is ugly, but it is often necessary. Those who wish to wage it, especially if for a just cause, must be willing to pay the price. This is a difficult balance to strike. In a time when war-weariness seems to be on the rise, this film dares to say there is a time and a place for a “just war.” Yet it never glorifies it. In fact, Section 13 President Coin (Julianne Moore) uses tactics that are arguably as despicable, if not more so, than that of the cruel Snow. I applaud the filmmakers for unflinchingly exploring this idea.

Media has always been a huge theme in this series. The focus has shifted from being a criticism of reality television as the brutal opiate of the masses, to its use as a propaganda tool in wartime. Both Section 13 and the Capital use state-controlled media to perpetuate a mixture of truth and falsehood, though proportions obviously differ. This is timely in an age when information is rampantly available, yet most sources are biased. Deciphering the truth in the cacophony is an almost impossible task. This is seen most strongly toward the end of the film when Snow tells Katniss it was Coin, not him, who ordered the bomb drop that killed her sister and hundreds of Capital children. She refused to believe him, a man who had lied to the masses, but he reminds her that they’d promised never to lie to each other. This forces Katniss to see Coin in a different light—and in the end, assassinate her instead of Snow.

Mockingjay Part 2 is no lightweight in terms of acting. While every actor gives a good performance, it’s Jennifer Lawrence who, unsurprisingly, steals the show. Katniss is a complicated character: a young woman of intermingled strength and weakness. Lawrence is at her best near the film’s end when Katniss has returned to her ruined home in Section 12 and finds her sister’s beloved cat, who had always hated her. She tells it Prim is gone, but when the cat ignores her, she has a breakdown. She yells at the cat, throwing dishes that narrowly miss it, until finally embracing the feline, which no longer hisses at her. Lawrence proves once again why she won an Oscar.

Becoming more common in many films these days, the special effects are a mix of practical and CGI, though it seems to favor the former. Even when Katniss and her troupe are accosted zombie-like Mutts, the creatures are CGI only when necessary, which adds to the horror. Most things feel “real” and “present,” even when it’s a CGI hovercraft flying overhead. The special effects are used not as a spectacle unto itself, but as a means of telling the story. That’s an uncommon thing in modern cinema.

Mockingjay Part 2 closes out a thought-provoking yet exciting series of films in the most appropriate way possible: with a faithful adaptation of the final novel that gives the story time to breathe while pondering its big ideas.

Final Grade: A

Cinema Sit-Down, Movies/TV

Disney Under the Scope Part 1: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

November 11, 2015 Grant Starson 1 Comment

A hard look at the Disney Animated Classics.

As the first cel-animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was nothing short of a technical marvel of its time. Its legacy is no less prolific, with it entering both the legendary Disney lineup and becoming a staple of pop culture. Many kids grow up knowing the dwarfs’ iconic song, “Heigh Ho”, while “Someday My Prince Will Come” has since become a jazz standard, being covered by big names like Miles Davis. To many people, this is the definitive Disney animated film, so my expectations going into it were high, but does it live up to the hype?

Walt Disney’s achievements in the animation of Snow White cannot be denied. Movement is crisp and fluid, the landscapes are colorful and detailed.

Great attention to detail is paid towards replicating realistic lighting effects. Snow White emerges from the shadow of a tree, and the reflections of all the animals can be seen on the water.

Each character is visually distinct from one another, which is particularly important when it comes to the dwarfs. Each one has aspects of their personalities woven into their visual design: Sneezy has a red, swollen nose; Bashful has long eyelashes and bright amber eyes; Doc wears professional looking bifocals; Dopey has big, flabby ears and his clothes look like he could fit a whole other Dopey in there; Happy is, well, happy with a big Santa-Clause-style stomach; and Grumpy has a sleek and edgy figure. Another interesting design choice on the dwarfs is how each one that represents a “down” emotion, such as Grumpy, keeps their hat drooping downward, where as the ones with “up” emotions keep theirs propped up. These are small and simple details to be sure, but they go a long way towards helping to physically distinguish the admittedly otherwise very similar looking dwarfs.

Each dwarf has their own mannerisms and physical features which help the audience know who's who among the dwarfs. — Each dwarf has their own mannerisms and physical features which help the audience know who’s who among the them.

Snow White and the Prince, however, come straight to us from the uncanny valley. They are both smoothly animated like the rest of the film, but they look like real human beings in drawn form, and compared to the cartoony look of the rest of the movie they look out of place.

Snow White and The Prince lack the exaggeration of the rest of the cast, and not only does it make them ill fit for their environment, it also makes them look dull by comparison.

The Queen manages to strike a perfect balance between the two, and her old form in particular is to this day among the best examples of animation, period.

The Evil Queen's bigger eyes and more outlandish attire allow her to stylistically mesh with the rest of the film, despite also retaining realistic human proportions. — The Evil Queen’s bigger eyes and more outlandish attire allow her to stylistically mesh with the rest of the film, despite also retaining realistic human proportions.

The art in the movie even manages to enhance the storytelling in many scenes. Upon avoiding being assassinated by the Queen’s huntsman, Snow White runs through the forest and faces what seems to be a forest hell bent on her demise. However, as it comes to a head, it is revealed that the horrible beasts that she thought had been chasing her, were simply adorable woodland creatures trying to help her. It is a unique way of showing Snow White’s state of mind after the attempt on her life. Her entire world had been uprooted, and as far as she knew, everything was out to get her, and her paranoia physically manifested itself in the ghoulish hallucination of the forest.

Another great example is the vultures that follow the Queen throughout the last act of the film. Since the Queen is heading towards Snow White to seal her doom, the vultures appear to foreshadow her death, and it’s even more so implied after Snow White takes a bite of the poison apple, as the vultures immediately fly off screen towards the direction of Snow White’s corpse. However, this is revealed to have been a red herring, as the Queen makes her final stand against the dwarfs, the vultures land on a nearby branch just as the Queen meets her end.

The movie uses the fact that the audience will connect the Vultures' sinister smile with the evil of The Evil Queen, to convince them that the Vulture's are on her side. However, literally embody death, and in the end, death takes no sides. — The movie uses the fact that the audience will connect the Vultures’ sinister smile with the sinister intentions of The Evil Queen, to convince them that the vultures are on her side. However, the vultures literally embody death, and in the end, death takes no sides.

The music in the movie is more of an “eh” quality. While there are catchy melodies like “Heigh Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” none of them are songs I’d voluntarily listen to on my own time. Even the iconic “Someday My Prince Will Come” doesn’t stand out here; it took other musicians covering it later to really bring out the life in the tune. It also doesn’t help that Snow White’s singing voice, done by Adriana Caselotti, sounds like she just got her toe run over by a car. The dwarfs do a better job of singing their parts, but their songs tend to be regulated to the repetitive and simplistic numbers.

So this review is about to follow a convenient descending line pattern, because now I’m going to talk about how the story is impressively bad. It hits this interesting median of bad writing, where not only very little occurs in the film, it’s also full of plot holes. The plot of the film revolves around The Queen deciding to kill her step-daughter, Snow White, because her magic mirror reveals to her that Snow White is the fairest in the land, and not her.

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You'd think he'd also be able to reveal to her that just slapping a maid outfit on someone doesn't make them not hot anymore. — You’d think he’d also be able to reveal to her that just slapping a maid outfit on someone doesn’t make them not hot anymore.

The Huntsman disobeys The Evil Queen’s orders and allows Snow White to escape into the forest where she meets the dwarfs. The Evil Queen finds out and disguises as an old woman to trick Snow White into taking a bite of a poison apple, which Snow White falls for and falls into a sleeping death. The Evil Queen then falls to her death after being chased off by the dwarfs, and The Prince awakens Snow White with “True Love’s Kiss.” I’m sorry for those that haven’t seen the movie, because I just spoiled the film in its entirety.

Now it is an interesting question as to how this film runs for 80 minutes despite having a plot that can be described in full within a few sentences, and the answer to that is because more than half the movie is watching mine work, house cleaning or parties.

I'm sorry movie, I can see you are busy. I'll come back at a better time after you are done tiding up. — I’m sorry, I can see you are busy. I’ll come back at a better time after you are done tidying up.

Now, I’m sure there’s some neat freak outs there that are completely enthralled by Snow White’s intricate, “Sit on Your Ass and Let Animals Do the Work” method of cleaning, and I’m sure the extremely prominent miner audience appreciated their profession getting the Hollywood glorification treatment for once, but it simply doesn’t make for a good plot. The film begins to drag fairly early on once Snow White meets the dwarfs, with the only real respite being the few cutaways to The Queen making her dastardly plans. It’s unfortunate that so little of the film gives focus to The Queen, since the film comes alive whenever she’s on screen. Unlike everyone else in the cast, she has an actual goal that she works towards, even if it’s a simple one, that gives the movie a much better sense of direction. Lucille La Verne puts on a great vocal performance as both the young Evil Queen and her old hag alter ego. She captures a unique personality for each role, despite the two technically being the same character. While in her young form, Lucille speaks in a dignified and calm manner, like someone obsessed with maintaining appearances to those around her. Once the Evil Queen transforms however, every line is delivered with a sheer, unfiltered joyful boom as the old Evil Queen revels in the evil she commits.

Hearing her cackle after taunting the skeleton of a deceased prisoner (potentially The Huntsman) gives off a level of energy the rest of the movie sorely lacks.

It’s interesting that such a simple movie ends up being so poorly written. There are obvious issues, such as the insistence that Snow White and The Prince are in love when The Prince says maybe three sentences throughout the film. He never actually holds a conversation with Snow White, but I was willing to forgive something like that. “True Love at First Sight” can be a tough pill to swallow for someone who loves smartly written character relationships and arcs as much as I do. If it is worked into the narrative properly, or if there’s enough other good traits to distract me from it, I can dig it like a goldmine. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does neither of these things.

Other than two scenes, The Prince and Snow White are never on screen together, and even in those scenes, they don’t speak to each other, so we never “see” them in love, we just hear Snow White insist how great he is. This becomes a big glaring problem during the “Someday My Prince Will Come” sequence, because Snow White claims that no one else is like The Prince, in front of seven individuals whom she knows much more about. Snow White ends up looking almost as superficial as the Evil Queen, since ultimately, she chose the outward beauty of The Prince over any of the dwarfs whom she had actually grown to know as people.

Snow White is meant to be a woman so kind, gentle and beautiful that people and animals alike instantly develop an attraction to her. However, her actions really make her out to be clueless, inconsiderate and condescending. I suspect Snow White may have some sort of mental deficiency that prevents her from retaining information for more than a few minutes. She recovers disturbingly fast from the attempt on her life, and she doesn’t reference it in any way ever again, she doesn’t even mention The Evil Queen. She decides to enter the dwarfs’ house without invitation or them even being there, as if she’s never heard of the concept of privacy or trespassing. She initially assumes that the dwarfs are children upon seeing the miniature stature of their house, but even upon learning that they are full grown men, she never stops treating them as kids. She cooks for them, forces them to clean themselves, kisses them on their way to work and tells them bedtime stories.

Granted, they apparently hadn't washed for over a year, but if they want to smell like limburger cheese bathed in vinegar, then that's their business. Just hope they don't invite anyone else over for tea. — Granted, they apparently hadn’t washed for over a year, but if they want to smell like limburger cheese bathed in vinegar, then that’s their business. Just hope they didn’t invite anyone over for tea.

Snow White also runs from The Prince in the beginning of the movie, implying that she is timid, then everything she does for the rest of the movie says the exact opposite. She breaks into a stranger’s house, begins running the lives of its inhabitants, accepts a strange woman’s outlandish claims of a magic apple and finally rides off into the sunset with a man she knows nothing about. The reason Snow White ran from The Prince was for plot convenience. Considering the Evil Queen couldn’t survive her encounter with the dwarfs, The Prince probably could have cut her head off and ended the movie in the first ten minutes, if Snow White’s fleeing hadn’t convinced him to leave.

The Evil Queen’s actions tend to make very little sense in regards to her intentions. She keeps Snow White as a maid in an attempt to hide her beauty. Since we see how easily she sentences Snow White to death, that brings up the issue as to why she didn’t kill Snow White a long time ago, and why she assumed that just being a maid would make Snow White less pretty. Her plan with the poison apple hinged on the assumption that Snow White would be buried alive rather than just killing Snow White herself. The Evil Queen also did not need to assume a disguise that so clearly physically handicapped her, thus creating the situation that got her killed. However, I don’t fault that particular point too much, since it ends up being fairly clever having The Evil Queen die as the old and ugly hag that she, ironically, only turned herself into in order to become the most beautiful woman in the land.

The Prince could be replaced with a feathered hat on a stick and the only thing that would change would be the absence of a few sentences. He does nothing, says almost nothing and probably feels nothing even as he rides away with his princess.

I'm not even entirely sure this is a picture of him, it might just be a slab of sculpting marble — I’m not even entirely sure this is a picture of him, it might just be a slab of sculpting marble.

The dwarfs are exactly what they say they are, except Grumpy to a small extent. Happy’s happy, Sneezy sneezes, Sleepy sleeps, Bashful is bashful, Doc is, uh, a doc and Dopey has a dope problem. Grumpy is pretty much in the same boat, but he has a small character arc as he slowly warms up to Snow White and begins to look at her as a friend. His small change makes him the most endearing character in the movie, even if it’s like saying a head of lettuce out of seven was my favorite because it had a small piece of bacon trapped in it.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is like finding an over-stuffed burrito in the fridge. It looks nice and appetizing as you warm it up in the toaster oven, but once you take a bite, all the contents burst out of the other end and leave you with nothing but a cheap shell of that delicious lunch you wanted to eat. Then you look up, and remember that you are actually at your tedious job and you are bored with your life.