Wall-E

Before I went, my dad told me, "It's pretty boring. Nobody talks for like the first half of it." Conversely, most reviews mentioned this exact thing as a positive, as if the movie was very experimental for doing so and successful in its experimentalism. Then later while I was driving through Wyoming this guy on NPR was talking about how they made us connect to the robot by giving him toddler-like features, with big eyes and head, short stubby arms and legs, fat torso. I thought that was all old news, like who doesn't know about those tricks? Anyway, the movie, like all Pixar movies I've seen, was thoroughly enjoyable. I especially liked the no talking parts, which felt, far from being experimental, like a throwback to Charlie Chaplin, where the humor and delight is all in the movements alone, and the fact that they were able to accomplish this in animation seems worth celebrating to me. The robots all seemed more likeable and quirky and ultimately human than the actual humans, but of course that was on purpose. My favorite robot was the little scrubber robot, and his burst of excitement, like a giant blocky exclamation point, when he jumped off the path of the little line laid out for him. Utterly delightful.

Kung Fu Panda

Something about watching kids' movies makes you, an adult person (or at least, me), watch them even more closely for the moral message, because somehow it just feels like ultimately the point of a kids' movie is it's moral message. Maybe it's because I don't really think kids are complex enough to handle a movie without a clear moral message--although I think this reveals a certain bias on my part (that I'm a little uncomfortable about being aware of) toward judging movies based on their moral message. On that level, I guess Kung Fu Panda is fine. I saw the big reveal of what the Dragon Warrior scroll was going to be coming from pretty much the second it was set up as the ultimate prize. And from a critical perspective, I'm a little curious about the fact that after getting it Po is suddenly able actually do incredible Kung Fu. And I'm a little wary about how much this movie (and, I can't help it, "movies like this," whatever that actually means) just gloss over the amount of actual hard work required to become very good at some skill. But, whatever. This movie was probably the most genuinely fun kids' movie I've seen since Spy Kids (I'd count Pixar, but Pixar movies always go for the heartstrings at some point, and I've decided arbitrarily that is grounds to exclude them from this short list). Jack Black and a lot of the visual gags are really really funny, and the action sequences are just delightful. And it's really hard not to be completely won over by a movie when, during the climactic battle, there's a little girl behind you screaming "Go Panda! Go Panda! Go Panda!"

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

My favorite thing about this movie was the way the dead bodies slapped into the cement after going down Sweeney Todd's little barber chair chute. The insouciant way Todd slit the throats while singing his song was also rather delightful. I'd never seen the musical, but I imagine mostly everything that was cool about this came from that, and it was good enough here that I can't imagine they fucked up too much about the musical. Johnny Depp, of course, was enjoyable.

Someone needs to get Burton to back of the digital color manipulation though. He already's ruined a few movies with it's over/misuse, and could've done so here if the music wasn't good enough to inject life into the movie even though Burton tried to sap all the life from nearly every frame. Mrs. whoever's (HBCarter's) extended daydream with the extra-saturated color, though, was a nice touch, but it didn't need the grayed out London of the rest of the movie to make it effective. Burton decided, I guess, to make the whole thing seem as if the characters were all wearing the One Ring...

The Golden Compass

It flew by really quickly and I felt very entertained, and it made me really want to read the book. No, really, when it ended I thought: when's the next one come out? I was seriously ready for about an hour more of movie. By which I mean, I guess, it felt like a lot was missing, but what was there was very good and made me want more. I just kind of wish this wasn't the finished movie, and I could go up to the filmmakers and say, "Yeah, that's a really good start. Keep going." I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not.

I did feel like there was a pretty serious critique of authority kind of happening in the background... No, actually, I guess it was pretty explicit, it just wasn't actually very interested in it. I think that's why I want to read the books. I assume the book was actually interested in that aspect of it. If I read this book to my kids will they grow up to be good little anarchists? I hope so!

I Am Legend

I really wanted this movie to be good, but it wasn't. It's stubborn refusal to actually go anywhere with any of the intriguing developments it presented completely ruined it.

Why did the zombie leader not do anything except scream? If he was smart enough to set up a trap for Will Smith? Are their people out there who really think huge-mouthed screaming is that awesome or scary? And why are those people allowed to make movies? Now I just want to watch the Omega Man again and dream about the present-day big-budget blockbuster that could really do this movie right and pretend this movie'd never happened.

It almost felt like someone had come in and decided that the three-hour movie the first hour and a half seemed to be setting up were just too long and so they ripped off a page from the Judge Dredd playbook and decided to blow everything up.

I've hated this movie more every day since I watched it a week and a half ago.