From the opening scene of “Omega Man” there are already several things that are different, right off the bat. In “I Am Legend”, Robert Neville is driving a crappy station wagon and when that one gives out, he finds a new one. Because it is Charlton Heston playing the main character, of course Hollywood has to put him in a nice new convertible! It is a little cheesy not to try to stick as close to the original story as possible but I think we would be able to handle seeing Charlton Heston in a station wagon and move on with our lives. In “I Am Legend” it was inevitable that the so-called vampires were not intelligent and could not speak. In general, all they could really do was moan, scream, and destroy things. “Omega Man” displayed the vampires closer to the known myth where they cannot be in the light and have to wear sun glasses because their eyes are all white. It is interesting though how every single vampire, which basically means the rest of the world’s population, has the same exact pair of sun glasses. In “Omega Man”, it was interesting how the vampires caught Neville and dragged him in to a sanctuary whereas in “I Am Legend” the vampires do not fear the house of worship if it was not their religion.
Although it is easy to get carried away in the differences of the two stories, there are still some striking resemblances. Each story captures the same essence of sadness there is in Neville’s life, even though he tries to stay tough and be the last survivor. Both types of vampires are still extremely violent and continue to try to get Robert Neville. The two stories also heavily emphasize Neville’s excessive drinking where it is on the borderline of concerning. In both tales, Robert is very sexually deprived and it is hard to restrain him from being calm when he sees the woman and he ends up chasing her.
As much as there are differences in the stories, there are also similarities that can just as easily be identified. Without even finishing the movie, it was clear that there was a fine line between “I Am Legend” and “Omega Man”.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Pan's Labyrinth Movie Review
All Hale Pan’s Labyrinth!
The mystery that lies beneath the metaphors of this film is absolutely mind boggling! The deep forests and the doors made with chalk that leads into a completely other realm: it is hard to know where to begin. Although there are a few gory scenes, the film is so good that the subtitles do not even matter!
The director’s choice of actors is so spot-on that you suddenly get caught inside the movie and forget that you are actually in a room. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) plays the innocent little girl that explores her surroundings and finds herself in danger both at home and on her adventures. Her father, Captain Vidal (Sergi López) is the protagonist and seems to hurt anybody that crosses his path. The faun (Doug Jones) is played so accurately and he gives the immediate feeling that he cannot be trusted- like the myth of all fauns.
The believability makes you wonder if there could be something like this story in the woods somewhere in the world. If someone were to ask me a question of who was the best actor, I wouldn’t be able to answer that. Each and every person who portrayed their character exactly how they should have. Not once did I wonder about their real-life persona. The director, Guillermo del Torro, deserves as many awards that is humanly possible for creating such a terrific film and putting in the time and effort to get every detail just right. If I had the opportunity, I would select “Pan’s Labyrinth” as the greatest movie all around! The movie at first was a little hard to follow, getting everything started but it was the moments where I had to stop watching it when the class was over that made me more disappointed. Never did I lose track of the premise.
When it comes to special effects, I can get quite knit-picky but overall, they were very well done. Del Torro's detail was so specific to every scene. Down to the pieces of the moss-covered trees which caught my attention even more. The colors of the film get quite dingy until the end when suddenly, the screen explodes with colors of reds, golds, and whites.
The overall lasting impression on me was certainly a good one. In the end, I remember the film as exhilarating and not as “the crappy Spanish film that I watched in my English class”. At the very end of the movie, I remember paying so much attention to the film, I snapped out of my trance and looked around the classroom, realizing that everyone else was dead quiet and in the same trance-like state as I was. In all honesty, it was not a film I was necessarily looking forward to seeing, until my after-thought made me come to a screeching halt of thinking that this may be one of my favorite movies, no matter what language it was filmed in.
Word Count: 500
The mystery that lies beneath the metaphors of this film is absolutely mind boggling! The deep forests and the doors made with chalk that leads into a completely other realm: it is hard to know where to begin. Although there are a few gory scenes, the film is so good that the subtitles do not even matter!
The director’s choice of actors is so spot-on that you suddenly get caught inside the movie and forget that you are actually in a room. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) plays the innocent little girl that explores her surroundings and finds herself in danger both at home and on her adventures. Her father, Captain Vidal (Sergi López) is the protagonist and seems to hurt anybody that crosses his path. The faun (Doug Jones) is played so accurately and he gives the immediate feeling that he cannot be trusted- like the myth of all fauns.
The believability makes you wonder if there could be something like this story in the woods somewhere in the world. If someone were to ask me a question of who was the best actor, I wouldn’t be able to answer that. Each and every person who portrayed their character exactly how they should have. Not once did I wonder about their real-life persona. The director, Guillermo del Torro, deserves as many awards that is humanly possible for creating such a terrific film and putting in the time and effort to get every detail just right. If I had the opportunity, I would select “Pan’s Labyrinth” as the greatest movie all around! The movie at first was a little hard to follow, getting everything started but it was the moments where I had to stop watching it when the class was over that made me more disappointed. Never did I lose track of the premise.
When it comes to special effects, I can get quite knit-picky but overall, they were very well done. Del Torro's detail was so specific to every scene. Down to the pieces of the moss-covered trees which caught my attention even more. The colors of the film get quite dingy until the end when suddenly, the screen explodes with colors of reds, golds, and whites.
The overall lasting impression on me was certainly a good one. In the end, I remember the film as exhilarating and not as “the crappy Spanish film that I watched in my English class”. At the very end of the movie, I remember paying so much attention to the film, I snapped out of my trance and looked around the classroom, realizing that everyone else was dead quiet and in the same trance-like state as I was. In all honesty, it was not a film I was necessarily looking forward to seeing, until my after-thought made me come to a screeching halt of thinking that this may be one of my favorite movies, no matter what language it was filmed in.
Word Count: 500
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