HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
Another Harry Potter film. Some of you might think “Awesome!”. Some of you might think “Christ…”. A whole other section is going to weep and gasp for breath as it dawns on them that the phenomenon (you’ve got to admit it’s pretty well-known by everyone) is closing in on its last motion picture and that Harry Potter is no more. Personally, I have only ever seen the movies, and not been utterly impressed.
Bar the third movie. Ever since it release in 2004 , I have been praying and hoping for yet another such masterpiece. This is the only movie of the saga worth watching if you’re not a fan of the books and over 12. The darkness of the plot and the style of the movie gave me hope that a movie like this would happen again within the series. It felt like a perfect merger of adult language and psychology with a child-oriented tale of magic.
A lot of you will have seen the trailer already (I went on holiday, so forgive me my lateness in the selection of trailers this time!) and have an opinion. Here is mine.
I won’t bother getting into the details of the movie itself. Especially since, as you might have guessed already, I don’t really care about the plot. I just want an amazing experience. Harry’s still staying clear of Voldemort (or IS he?), Hermione’s still growing into a woman and Ron’s as ginger as ever. And judging from the trailer, my wish might finally come true at last: a worthy follow-up to the magnificent Prisoner of Azkaban.
The trailer suggests this epic two-part finale will be majestic and mysterious, dark and dense, fantastic and fantastical. It’s the perfect end to a decent franchise. At least I really hope so.
This intense 2-and-a-half minute trailer contains everything the entire Twilight saga is lacking.
UK release date: not soon enough (19 November 2010 for Part 1, 15 July 2011 for Part 2)
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Oh God. OH GOD. This is my worst nightmare.
Who in their right mind will sit down and watch a movie about the invention of Facebook? SERIOUSLY?
I am not one for using caps unless I feel violated or angry. And the trailer for The Social Network made me feel both. The keywords that dart up on the screen in the midst of useless meaningless sound bites (cues like “Genius”, “Loser”, and all those familiar labels Americans love to plaster on their protagonists) are about as useful as an ear dryer. In the crescendo, the spectator find themselves gazing in wonder a mosaic of photographs representing Jesse Eisenberg, who plays main character and website inventor Mark Zuckerberg. Talk about inefficiency and pointlessness. I just kept thinking “who got paid to make this shambles of a trailer?”.
Sure it’s a David Fincher movie, but that doesn’t refrain me from cringing hard. The worst part is that a great director like him has taken up such a silly plot – is he running low on cash or does he truly have faith in the film?
I complain about this movie, and here’s why (yup, it’s not just the trailer itself that puts me off).
It’s simply too early. The website was made less than 10 years ago. There’s nothing to dig into. Let’s give it another 20-25 years, then we can make a recap movie about the behind-the-scenes story of Mr Zuckerberg’s social network.
You wanna know how Facebook got invented? Just read the paper every now and again. Save yourself some money.
UK release date: hopefully never – I mean, autumn 2010
EAT PRAY LOVE
Here is a movie that is relevant to people women above 40. Around that age, they’re entering a delicate decade of constant self-doubt, need for confirmation of their talents, questioning whether it’s all worth it.
In the film Julia Roberts plays Elizabeth, a strong woman who goes on a world-round journey to find herself after a divorce. A corny subject that deserves a corny trailer. She comes off as a poor excuse to do the travelling and soul-searching for the female audience. A sort of pre-menopausal ambassador for the Modern Madame. The trailer makes it looks another condescending and annoying display of some Hollywood hotshot’s acting talents. Lest we forget. Sigh.
It is a movie that clearly wants to act as inspiration for women to get off their bee-hinds and do what they’ve always wanted to – whatever that might be. Fair enough if you need a movie to tell you what to do. Films are indeed supposed to help us grow and understand ourselves. If some women need a story like this to commence a longer process of introspection, I just hope they won’t just walk out of the cinema feeling like they’ve actually done the journey by proxy.
Hollywood’s attempt to empower women more than often falls flat. Perhaps the story does work; I haven’t seen the film. But I am just scared that it’s going to end up depressing more people in the long run than benefit them.
Even the trailer’s structure is arrogant. The distributors used Florence + the Machine as soundtrack. I personally enjoy her music, but it’s going into overkill. Their use of popular music to appeal to the masses is quite unnecessary for a film based on a worldwide bestseller.
Meh.
UK release date: probably autumn 2010 but not confirmed
Louise-Afzal Faerkel
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