seraphcelene (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seraphcelene) wrote2005-08-13 10:54 pm
seraphcelene) wrote2005-08-13 10:54 pm
Entry tags:
Movies: Constantine and Electra
I watched movies, there was a theme, but it was a bit of a hit or miss. Really.
First I watched
Constantine
Constantine was a wash out of a film. All pretty and absolutly no substance. The story was rather uninspired, although perhaps I should say that the execution of the plot was rather uninspired. For such a long movie, it's amazing how much nothing happened. The casting was decent; the set-design and art direction were gorgeous. CGI rendering was also very pretty.
Tilda Swinton who played Gabriel, an angelic half-breed exiled on Earth with no way to return to Heaven, should always play angels. She's perfectly androgynous, perfectly serene, and, at least in this movie, perfectly insane. It would have been nice to see more angels in the movie, in terms of character interaction, and, in light of the big reveal near the ending, what it would do to them psychologically to be exiled from the divine. Gabriel begins to introduce those themes, but it gets bogged down in the ninth hour plot twist and is just never fully realized. The short version is that Garbriel is crazy and jealous. It would have been more impressive if there were a legion of angels, or at least if she had her own corpus of hench-angels on her side.
The DVD's alternative ending, adjusted, would have been a good close to the movie. Shia Le Beouf as one of the angelic nephilim would have been a nice way to round-up all of the divine/angelic influences at work in the world. Despite Constantine's anger at God, he too, has a guardian angel. One that he doesn't even know about. A nice irony considering his extreme cynicism.
Keanu Reeves, as always, sucked. Looked pretty though.
Gavin Rossdale as Balthazar was rather disappointing. Nothing more than a throwaway character meant to distract us from the movies 'real' villian. I was all prepared for him to be the great Nemisis or at least the great Pain in the Butt. He turned out to be neither.
Rachel Weisz was pretty and tortured. She cries awfully well. Again, I would have liked something more from her character, althouth Rachel was the most believeable of all the actors.
Loved the opening exorcism. Great foreshadowing of the birth of Mammon that closes the movie, although it would have been a nicer touch to see more of the same throughout. Balthazar as the Lord of Flies was off-putting for reasons that I can't pin down; I just didn't like it.
The opening car crash was pretty spectacular as well. I would have liked a little more background on exactly how or why the lance ended up buried in a hole in the middle of nowhere in Mexico wrapped in a Nazi flag.
Constantine jumping for the hospital ID tag was rather brilliant. Hell was marvellously vivid and frightening, although I would have liked to see some condemned souls actually being tortured. Still, I wouldn't want to end up there. Not if that's what Hell looks like. The conceit was rather familiar, although I couldn't put my finger on it, it was something besides Angel. Hell as a skewed and monstrous refllection of the World. A dimension a hair's breadth away from our own.
All of the sidekicks getting kilt off was odd and heavy handed as well. Beamer and Hennessy. The ones with the information obviously being done away with for no other reason than that they are in possession of information that will lead to the revelation of the villian's true identity and/or the Secret, Hidden Plot.
All together Constantine was an awkward, heavyhanded film with nothing besides graphics to really recommend it.
Then I watched
Elektra
Another movie all about the pretty and that, but for its brevity, was more entertaining than Constantine. Elektra managed to keep the exposition low, fluid and clear. Their only assumption was that you had seen Daredevil, but knowledge of that wasn't crucial. I actually did see Daredevil, but I remember less than nothing about it. Elektra tries to get slick with the Chosen One thing, obviously comparing Elektra with young Abby and the uber badgirl villaness. They are all of a kind, apparantly. I am rather surpised at all of the negative reactions to Elektra. Perhaps, they all expected too much from the movie. It was, to a greater or lesser extent (depending on what you compare it to), a dick flick. Pretty, action-packed, plot lite. For what it is, I thought it was very entertaining.
Constantine was a hodge podge of directorial assumptions and muddled revelations. Some things you were told, some was left to your imagination, nothing was ever very clear except that demons and angels can't cross over onto the Earthly plane. Half-breeds can be sent elsewheres via death, and Satan had a son. Exactly who Constantine is, how and why he has all of these powers are pretty sketchy. We know he's a powerful pychic. But what we don't know is anything about the Light Command thing and why exactly he is so feared and dangerous amongst the nephilim. I mean there could have been a curse or a prophecy or something. That's at least what we get in Elektra.
Although Elektra is full of cliches, they were entertaining:
Why is the battle between Good and Evil always fought in the shadows?
Requisite blind guru? Check
Evil Mystic Asian Organization named after a body part? Check
But that's not really fair because it's part of the comic book back story, yes? So, I'll give them a pass. Besides it's pretty well done. Pretty visuals, etc. The movie could have been longer and more involved, but I don't know if that would have been a good thing. As it is, it's just an action adventure movie and that suits us just fine, precious.
First I watched
Constantine
Constantine was a wash out of a film. All pretty and absolutly no substance. The story was rather uninspired, although perhaps I should say that the execution of the plot was rather uninspired. For such a long movie, it's amazing how much nothing happened. The casting was decent; the set-design and art direction were gorgeous. CGI rendering was also very pretty.
Tilda Swinton who played Gabriel, an angelic half-breed exiled on Earth with no way to return to Heaven, should always play angels. She's perfectly androgynous, perfectly serene, and, at least in this movie, perfectly insane. It would have been nice to see more angels in the movie, in terms of character interaction, and, in light of the big reveal near the ending, what it would do to them psychologically to be exiled from the divine. Gabriel begins to introduce those themes, but it gets bogged down in the ninth hour plot twist and is just never fully realized. The short version is that Garbriel is crazy and jealous. It would have been more impressive if there were a legion of angels, or at least if she had her own corpus of hench-angels on her side.
The DVD's alternative ending, adjusted, would have been a good close to the movie. Shia Le Beouf as one of the angelic nephilim would have been a nice way to round-up all of the divine/angelic influences at work in the world. Despite Constantine's anger at God, he too, has a guardian angel. One that he doesn't even know about. A nice irony considering his extreme cynicism.
Keanu Reeves, as always, sucked. Looked pretty though.
Gavin Rossdale as Balthazar was rather disappointing. Nothing more than a throwaway character meant to distract us from the movies 'real' villian. I was all prepared for him to be the great Nemisis or at least the great Pain in the Butt. He turned out to be neither.
Rachel Weisz was pretty and tortured. She cries awfully well. Again, I would have liked something more from her character, althouth Rachel was the most believeable of all the actors.
Loved the opening exorcism. Great foreshadowing of the birth of Mammon that closes the movie, although it would have been a nicer touch to see more of the same throughout. Balthazar as the Lord of Flies was off-putting for reasons that I can't pin down; I just didn't like it.
The opening car crash was pretty spectacular as well. I would have liked a little more background on exactly how or why the lance ended up buried in a hole in the middle of nowhere in Mexico wrapped in a Nazi flag.
Constantine jumping for the hospital ID tag was rather brilliant. Hell was marvellously vivid and frightening, although I would have liked to see some condemned souls actually being tortured. Still, I wouldn't want to end up there. Not if that's what Hell looks like. The conceit was rather familiar, although I couldn't put my finger on it, it was something besides Angel. Hell as a skewed and monstrous refllection of the World. A dimension a hair's breadth away from our own.
All of the sidekicks getting kilt off was odd and heavy handed as well. Beamer and Hennessy. The ones with the information obviously being done away with for no other reason than that they are in possession of information that will lead to the revelation of the villian's true identity and/or the Secret, Hidden Plot.
All together Constantine was an awkward, heavyhanded film with nothing besides graphics to really recommend it.
Then I watched
Elektra
Another movie all about the pretty and that, but for its brevity, was more entertaining than Constantine. Elektra managed to keep the exposition low, fluid and clear. Their only assumption was that you had seen Daredevil, but knowledge of that wasn't crucial. I actually did see Daredevil, but I remember less than nothing about it. Elektra tries to get slick with the Chosen One thing, obviously comparing Elektra with young Abby and the uber badgirl villaness. They are all of a kind, apparantly. I am rather surpised at all of the negative reactions to Elektra. Perhaps, they all expected too much from the movie. It was, to a greater or lesser extent (depending on what you compare it to), a dick flick. Pretty, action-packed, plot lite. For what it is, I thought it was very entertaining.
Constantine was a hodge podge of directorial assumptions and muddled revelations. Some things you were told, some was left to your imagination, nothing was ever very clear except that demons and angels can't cross over onto the Earthly plane. Half-breeds can be sent elsewheres via death, and Satan had a son. Exactly who Constantine is, how and why he has all of these powers are pretty sketchy. We know he's a powerful pychic. But what we don't know is anything about the Light Command thing and why exactly he is so feared and dangerous amongst the nephilim. I mean there could have been a curse or a prophecy or something. That's at least what we get in Elektra.
Although Elektra is full of cliches, they were entertaining:
Why is the battle between Good and Evil always fought in the shadows?
Requisite blind guru? Check
Evil Mystic Asian Organization named after a body part? Check
But that's not really fair because it's part of the comic book back story, yes? So, I'll give them a pass. Besides it's pretty well done. Pretty visuals, etc. The movie could have been longer and more involved, but I don't know if that would have been a good thing. As it is, it's just an action adventure movie and that suits us just fine, precious.