Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Yay, made it to another film. I think this is either the third or fourth one of the year.

The cinema was packed. For the first time in ever, they'd sold out of the showing we wanted to see ( we wanted four seats together, there were still a few odd seats left though the show sold out a few minutes later) so we got seats in the next showing.

Just to illustrate how slightly odd I am and the way my mind works. When someone started sneezing during the trailers I did think what a bummer it would be to catch swine flu at a Harry Potter screening. And how perhaps coming to a packed cinema during a flu pandemic was not perhaps a smart thing to do.

Trailers - I'm hopeless at remembering these. I get out of the cinema and have already forgotten them. But here are the ones I remember. The Proposal, not a huge Sandra Bullock fan but I'm tempted by this because I love Ryan Reynolds when he's snarky. Up - the trailer had me laughing my head off. New Moon - was the last trailer and my niece sat up and had a great big grin on her face (lol) We will be coming to see this in November, I'm sure. I'm sure there was at least one other but I cannot remember what it was. (Edited to Add - it was GI Joe).

Here I admit to not reading the Harry Potter books. I have tried several times to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and have never got past the first few pages. I do like the films and therefore my main hope is that I'll be able to follow what's going on without having to ask someone who's read the books. So far with the exception of Goblet of Fire (I found the film very confusing and thought they relied to much on the assumption that the audience would have read the books) it's been okay.

I liked this one. I liked it more for the comedy - the scenes with Ron and Hermione, Ron and Harry, Harry and Hermione. Favourite scene in the movie is when Hermione smacks Harry (I AM the chosen one) on the back of the head with the book. I'm not sure the balance between light and dark moments was right, but having not read the book I don't know how true they're being to the source material. It could be that this is the last opportunity for a little humour before everything goes down the pan and becomes unremittingly grim.

Looking forward to seeing the last two films in the franchise. :)

Star Trek - thoughts

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So...went to see Star Trek last night and I liked it a lot. I thought it could have been cut in a couple of places (notably the water pipe scene), some of the silliness felt a little out of place, but apart from that I think it worked really well as a reimagining of the series.

Favourite things.

Spock both the elder and the younger. I loved the little scene at the end.

The little nods to the series and previous films. Red shirt on the away team, and I think that was the worm from Wrath of Khan. (I am by no means a Star Trek buff).

I was a little worried after reading a couple of reviews that I wouldn't like Simon Pegg as Scotty but it was a case of expecting the worst and being pleasantly surprised I didn't think he did that bad.

And I didn't have a problem with elder Spock speaking the famous lines at the end of the movie I thought it was appropriate and fit in with the changed timeline.

I hope there will be future films featuring this cast and if I had a wishlist would like to see more banter between Spock and McCoy.

(Aside - I have finished The Lily Brand so will be posting my TBR review soon).

Watchmen

Okay, not really a review, just some thoughts I had after watching. I meant to post this a few days ago, but kind of got sidetracked. :)

I went to see this with my sister, who when the film ended and the lights came up, turned to me and said - that was a load of SH**! So you can guess her opinion of the film. lol I think in part this was because she was heavily influenced by the trailer which seemed to promise something along the lines of the X-Men movies. The trailer is what? two minutes long and contained, I think, virtually all of the action sequences.

So anyone who went wanting an action movie I think would be understandably disappointed. Instead it's around two and a half hours of quite slow story building. I found the first half of the film slow and wish they had cut some of this - though I guess if they'd done that we wouldn't have had the same insight into the characters that we did.

So for me, it was more about 'compare and contrast' between the three characters of - Rorshach (sp?), Dr. Manhatten and The Comedian. And my favourite character had to be Rorshach.

Re. Dr.Manhatten being nude for a lot of the film - didn't bother me, however what did bother me, was the woman who kept on giggling every time he came on screen. To the point where I wanted to go and ask her if she'd never seen a penis before. Okay, it was blue. But please, get over it.

One of the most boring sex scenes ever. Could have been edited out and I wouldn't have missed it.

What I did very much like was how everyone looked so normal and ordinary. The settings were beautifully realized from the ice and snow of the finale, to the scenes set on Mars. Even the ordinary street scenes had an incredible depth. And the soundtrack was brilliant. So whilst I won't be getting the DVD I will almost certainly be picking up the soundtrack.

So in my plan to see at least twelve movies this year at the cinema I'm currently 2/12.

Twilight Movie Review

As one of my aims for 2009 is to get to the cinema more often I'm including a little (kind of) review for Twilight, which I went to see with my niece on New Year's Eve.

First a little background.

I have read Twilight, but for some reason, other than the baseball game and the fact that Edward is a vampire I can't really remember anything else about the story. Usually it takes a few weeks, a month or so for this to happen, my short term memory is quite appalling, but for Twilight it happened almost as soon as I closed the cover on finishing the book. So I went into the film with something of an open mind.

My niece along with a fairly large chunk of the teenage girl population is somewhat obsessed with Edward Cullen. Lol. And I was under strict instructions once we got into the theatre and the lights went down not to speak to her, ask questions, or otherwise interrupt her viewing pleasure. I agreed. Though within fifteen minutes (maybe less) of the movie starting, she leaned over to inform me that THIS hadn't happened in the book. We did have a little discussion before leaving for the cinema about how the film wouldn't be exactly like the book.

I admit after reading Christine's Review over at The Happily Ever After. I was a little worried that my niece would be put off the series. But luckily for me that wasn't the case. My niece hasn't yet read the whole series and because she's borrowed the books from friends hasn't been able to re-read them. So maybe the storylines aren't as firmly entrenched in her mind as with some other fans.

The bits I liked.

The baseball game - loved this, it was exactly like I'd imagined it.

I loved The Cullens as a family group. They were just the right side of weird - the actor playing Jasper was particularly fascinating whenever he came on screen. I really felt there was the potential that he could just lose it. And I love that they all got together to make a meal for Bella, probably my favourite scene in the book. I think this is why I liked the second half of the film more, because we got to see more of the Cullens.

I did have a problem with the movie but I'm not sure I can quite put my finger on what it is. Something wasn't working for me. I didn't have the invisible remote control thing*, though in a couple of places it was close. When Bella and Edward are in biology looking at the onion cells I slightly wanted to tear my hair out and scream 'get on with it'. But managed to restrain myself.

I did find Bella a little po-faced and superior, but I have a sneaking suspicion I felt like that about her in the book. (Would have to re-read to be sure). So if the actress is working to the source material then that can't really be laid at her door. I did think especially in the early part of the movie that the chemistry between Edward and Bella was somewhat lacking.

I came out of the movie and didn't feel like I'd wasted my money. And my niece was raving about how she wanted to see New Moon when it came out and how she had to get the other books in the series. So not a wasted trip. :)

* I'm so used to watching stuff either on DVD or hard drive that I've become used to fast forwarding through the boring bits. So I can tell in the cinema if a film isn't working because I automatically reach for a remote that isn't there to ff to something happening.