Monday 22 October 2012

First Impressions: "Frankenweenie" + "Taken 2" (2012)

   John and I went to the cinema again on Thursday.

   The first movie we saw was Frankenweenie. It's Tim Burton once again doing what he does best: a dark, somewhat twisted horror spoof. Stop-motion animation, too. It's classic Tim Burton inside and out. But it's a shame the movie itself is just okay.
   It has a lot of cute references to classic horror movies (my personal favourite being a dog with the Bride of Frankenstein hair), the climax has some fun moments, and of course it's all flawlessly animated. But none of it packs any kind of emotional punch, even though it's trying to. Maybe it's the voice acting – I don't know.
   Other than that, I'm not sure what to say about this one. I liked parts of it, and it had a lot of potential, but overall it was nowhere near as strong as it could have been. I prefer this year's other stop-motion horror spoof, ParaNorman, by far.
   My rating: 60%.

   And the second was Taken 2. This one's okay too. It's certainly much simpler than the original. It's not trying to be anything more than a simple revenge-themed action fest. And for that, it's not bad.
   In a way, it's also less pretentious than the original. I've mentioned before that you'd expect a certain degree of maturity from a film involving the very real issue of human trafficking. But this sequel has nothing to do with that.
   The only major problem is the excessive Bourne-esque shaky cam. I thought at first that that would constantly irritate me, but luckily, for the most part, I could still make out what was happening.
   Also, the story has no real structure, so the climax kind of caught me off guard when it arrived.
   On the whole, I think it's okay. It's a fun film with some fun moments.
   My rating: 60%.

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