Margaret ☆☆☆☆
Very rarely do I see a film that by the end of it, I’m forced to proclaim: “I don’t know how to feel about that.” Ultimately, I think that’s what Margaret as a whole goes for.
The performances in this are nothing short of stellar. Every character, major and minor, is fully fleshed out and alive, bursting with purpose.
Technically, however, it’s a mess. But a beautiful mess, like when Courtney Love decides to shower. It is never melodramatic, and in the very capable hands of writer/director Kenneth Lonergan, it becomes a sloppy dance that you can’t help but watch.
I need to see it again. But not anytime soon. You need to see it now.
Prometheus ☆½
Ah, Ridley Scott. You do try, don’t you?
But he fails in the sci-fi endeavor Prometheus. And not for lack of trying. You can almost taste the effort to try to recapture the glory of his masterpiece Alien. And during the first half of the film, you really think he might pull it off.
You’d be wrong, though. For all the beauty and intrigue that it has, Prometheus is remarkably basic. The writing is lackluster and is probably my biggest gripe with the movie. Co-written by Damon Lindelof of Lost fame, you can tell by the third act that the writing clearly doesn’t know where to go, much like that overrated shit show. So it opts for splashy action sequences. All sound and fury, signifying nothing. It answers none of the numerous plot questions that it brings up, instead taking the INFURIATING road: “Well, we’ll find out in the SEQUEL!” Screenwriters of the world … STOP FALLING INTO THE TRAP OF HOLLYWOOD BULLSHIT. Write a self-contained story. STOP BANKING ON A GODDAMN TRILOGY.
As far as performances go, with a bunch of A-Listers doing their thing, there’s little character development. Charlize Theron, bless her heart, is flat in this role. Michael Fassbender is probably the best part, injecting a semi-nuanced pathology into his robot David. Noomi Rapace is no Ripley, believe or not. GOD, I WANTED TO DO THAT JOKE. IT WAS SO WORTH IT.
All and all, Prometheus is the first shitty movie of 2012, as far as I’m concerned. They can’t all be winners.
Snow White and the Huntsman ☆☆☆½
I went into this for Charlize Theron. Period. Simply put, Theron is one of the baddest bitches in the game right now. I would watch her play Bea Arthur. Hell, that sounds awesome. Her role as the evil queen Ravena was nuanced and juicy. And she’s clearly having so much fun with it.
I expected the film itself to be formulaic and over the top. And it is. But not all the time. Sometimes, it’s actually fun. And it’s always beautiful. Greig Fraser, the DP behind Bright Star and Let Me In, could probably film a Mexican donkey show and make it look breath-taking.
I won’t go too much into Chris Hemsworth, and how he makes me go into fits of neo-puberty every time he’s on-screen.
However, let’s get into Kristen Stewart. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet. She is the weakest link in this film, shocking no one. She literally has NO DIALOGUE in the first half an hour of the movie, as if [director] Rupert Sanders knows how terrible she is, and is trying desperately to keep her silent until it’s absolutely necessary. She has all the charisma of a cold sore. Snow White as a character is kind of boring, but in the hands of Stewart, she’s downright atrocious. As an actor, her work in this, and EVERYTHING else she’s been a part of, is nothing short of offensive. Kristen Stewart offends me. And she’s a mouth-breather.
Despite Chipmunk Head Stewart’s valiant efforts to utterly drain the life of the film, Snow White and the Huntsman offers a solid piece of summertime movie making, and is worth seeing Charlize Theron having a blast on-screen. Plus, she turns into birds. And that’s always creepy.
