Aeon Flux Movie Review

Aeon Flux is a science fiction movie based on an MTV animated series that ran in 1991, 1992 and 1995, created by Peter Chung. The movie adaptation has a much more sophisticated look and refined plot than the original rough animation, and less of the disturbing suspense and strong images of the original.

The Other Side: The Invisible Movie

Can a teen thriller about a near-death young man in his desperate struggle to get back to life make an engaging movie? The Invisible proves so.

The Illusionist: The Magician’s Revenge

The Illusionist is one of the best movies of the last decade. It is an impressive thriller set in the late 19th century, which has flawless photography, lavish scenarios and wardrobe, making you feel as if you were inside the movie, living the action.

Sherlock Holmes: Dark & Dirty

The latest Sherlock Holmes movie is very entertaining. Though it was released on Dec. 25, 2009, in the US, it was released where I live only last weekend, so please ignore the delay...

Robert Downey Jr. embodies a dusty, decadent, devil-may-care Sherlock Holmes, which is perfect for this action-packed movie. Jude Law makes a very modern Watson, with nothing of the lackey-ish attitude usually attributed to the character. He's a fine and even counterpart for Downey's Holmes, often exchanging funny repartees with him, and a fierce fighter.

Besides the main pair, there's the seductress Irene Adler played by Rachel MacAdams, a clever resourceful thief, who outsmarted even Sherlock himself several times. And there's the villain, the ambitious Lord Blackwood, who wants to rule the world through the Free Masons.

To me, this is the first decent Guy Ritchie movie (Ritchie fans don't get offended!), and it has some smart fight sequences, special effects and a beautiful and properly dark photography. Late 19th century London is shown as decadent, dirty, messy and dangerous, which fits the plot very well. I bet this movie will have a sequence, which is already hinted at in it, when they mention the archrival Moriarty.

If you haven't already seen it, do it!




PS: Sherlock Holmes was the creation of Scottish writer and physician, Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote many books, not only novels, and was curiously eccentric. He was a Spiritualist, member of several paranormal research societies, and was involved in the ugly scam of the Cottingley "fairy pictures" of 1917, which doesn't make his beliefs less intriguing.

Just as it happened with several famous characters of the Victorian period literature, such as Alice and Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes started out as a dark character, who was a drug addict, at a time when the use of drugs was almost as common as that of smoking. (Check the interesting article by Mike Jay about it in the Darklore magazine.) Below a selection of sites where you can find more information about Doyle, Spiritualism and Sherlock Holmes.

Official site: sherlock-holmes-movie.warnerbros.com/

More information:
www.sherlockholmesonline.org/
http://www.woodlandway.org/
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org.uk/articles/doyle/war.htm

Darwin The Movie: So Much For Free America?

It's been over a year since the polemic on the Creation movie started, and it's finally being released next 22 in the US. The movie features Paul Bettany as Darwin and not only explores the scientist's ideas but also his life.

The trailer shows that the movie may be really good, but some seem to have found the movie too controversial. And why? Because in the 19th century, Darwin established a theory that all creatures evolve and adapt, which is the opposite of the creationist theory that holds that everything was created by God as it is, and will always remain the same.

The problem here is not that there are large groups of people, in the country which is the cultural-leader of the world, that believe in creationism, but that a movie about a scientist and his theory, important as it is, can face difficulties in distribution, just because there is a certain amount of people that don't believe it. Is America the land of freedom? Certainly not of total freedom of expression, as it's commonly known for.
For those of you who don't know about Darwin and his ground-breaking theories, visit the links below and peek over. Also visit the other sites to know more about Alfred Russel Wallace, who was another evolutionist, and about the movie.

I can't help but remember one of John Lennon's songs: "I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round... I'd really love to watch them roll!"

http://creationthemovie.com/
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/01/first-look-creation/#more-25878
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/12/charles-darwin-rutherford
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/12/wallace/quammen-text.html
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/

Ladyhawke: A curse between a werewolf and a hawkwoman

Ladyhawke is a 1985 movie, directed by Richard Donner, with Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer and John Wood, among others.

It has a fantasy plot about a captain of the guard (Hauer) who fell in love with a young lady (Pfeiffer), who was loved by a bishop (Wood), who was a dark magick sorcerer (interesting twist that a priest was the story's villain), and cursed them so that she would be a hawk at day and he a wolf at night, keeping them forever apart. In the end, with the help of a thief (Broderick) and an exiled priest (Leo McKern), they find a way to break the curse.

The movie has a beautiful photography, with soundtrack by Andrew Powell from the Progressive Rock band Alan Parsons Project, and though the visual effects are a bit outdated (the werewolf transformation scene was done by superposing images of Hauer and a black wolf, as seen below), it still retains its beauty and interest.

Interesting detail: In Ladyhawke, the werewolf turns into a wolf not a "wolfman", which makes me wonder whether Twilight writer Stephenie Meyer got inspired by this movie...

Below is a selection of snapshots of the movie and the trailer. Cheers!

Christmas Ghosts

I just came back from watching A Christmas Carol movie, an amazing 3D animation, featuring Jim Carrey, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, among others.

A Christmas Carol is a great story, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, about an old miser who is haunted by ghosts who scare him until he decides to change his ways and become charitable and social. It breaches some important matters, like not giving too much importance to possessions, spending some time doing good for others, enjoy life, so it's worth watching.

Jim Carrey, who plays the main character, the miser Scrooge, plus other seven characters, told the Indie London site: “Generally, what I think about most people is that we walk around believing a lie about ourselves from a very early age. Scrooge’s lie is that he wasn’t worth loving. And so he couldn’t afford to believe in love because he didn’t get it.

“So, that’s a wonderful place to start. I also wanted him to appear to be irredeemable, which is a difficult task after you’ve seen this story so many times. I think we got there. But playing all the different characters was such a huge challenge and it’s really important to me, personally, that people in the UK enjoy this beautiful story again, which is theirs.” [1]

Go see it, if you haven't yet! Below is a couple of captures from the trailer and the trailer itself:

Official Site: A Christmas Carol movie