Tuesday, December 1, 2009

2012 Review

2012 is 2009's big disaster movie. And what a disaster it is indeed! We thought with a budget as big as this movie had, they could have made something more than simple genre film. We were wrong. How long do we have before this disaster hits theaters? (long pause) It's already here...

If you feel like you've heard that one before, you're going to hear it again.Can you think of another disaster movie cliche? You'll hear that again too, I guarantee it. 2012 clings like glue to the established disaster formula, even more so than other recent films in the genre like The Day After Tomorrow. Pick any part of this film and you've seen it before. The lack of any originality whatsoever is my biggest gripe with 2012.

But wait, there's more. It seems like they had to try really hard to make this movie long so it just might feel epic. The first half or more of the movie involves people running away from CRUMBLING BUILDINGS! And then, they have to run away from a TIDAL WAVE!!! And then, they have to run away from FIREBALLS!!!!!! (I shit you not). It all just goes on and on; there's no real increase in tension. In fact, there's really not much excitement at all through most of it. The best scene in the whole thing is the one shown in the trailers when they run away from cracks in the highway as they drive through it in a limo. Their survival with everything falling apart inches away from the car is nothing short of impossible.

While we're on the subject of impossible, the film actually doesn't even do a very good job of explaining why the world is ending. It gives you a brief rundown of how it might work according to a crazy man in the woods, and that's about it. From there it just goes. It does mention the Mayans and the lining up of the planets and such, but none of that seems to matter; it actually has to do with unusual solar activity, which seems to imply that there was no reason that this had to happen in 2012 as it was predicted.

The film makes an attempt at being very emotional with everything. 'Oh no, my friend was just hit by a tidal wave (sob).' I have to give it credit for trying because a lot of disaster movies make it seems like the main characters don't really care that much, but with the way it's presented in this one, it just feels way overdone. No sale.

I can tell by the box office numbers that it's going to do me no good to discourage people from seeing 2012. To its credit, the special effects are good, and if you tend to enjoy watching things fall apart on the big screen, then you will get your money's worth from 2012. Just don't expect anything more than that. This is a genre flick if ever there was one, and it's bad. Really bad.

Caius's rating: 1 star

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Mesh: A Perfect Solution review

The latest album from Mesh is, as expected, something special in the world of electro-rock. With few exceptions, A Perfect Solution takes everything that was great about We Collide and takes it up a notch. I think this is the band's heaviest album by a long shot. The one thing sacrificed is the level of variation between tracks that the last album had, but A Perfect Solution makes up for it in the quality of these 11 songs.

"If We Stay Here" was the perfect choice to open the album. It's heavy, catchy, and dark. They seem to be channeling Depeche Mode even more than usual in this one, which is not a bad thing. I think it would also be a great choice for a single down the road.

The leading single, of course, is "Only Better," which is one of the most dynamic and melodic songs on the album. You'll hear me say this a lot in this review, but I really think this was the best choice for a single; it seems the band made some very careful choices in the organization of this album and I think it really pays off. "Only Better" is also one of the most beautifully and fully produced songs I've heard in a while. The odd thing about the album version is that after the song fades out, we get an instrumental outro, in the vain of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" from Violator. Later on, several of the other songs do this. Luckily, these outros are still musically interesting, so I don't mind them, but some people in the iPod generation might be slightly annoyed at these attachments which are not really a part of the song itself.

"Everything I Made" gives a synth counter-melody like I've come to love, similar to the last album's "Step By Step." Again with the organization, I can't think of any other song that would have been a better choice to follow "Only Better."

The following songs are all great, heavy tunes similar in style. My only complaint is that there could be more variation between them. We have a little bit, with the 12/8 "Want You," the soaring melody of "How Long," and the (slightly) gentler tone of "Is It So Hard," but compared with the last album, which had everything from "Crash" to "Room with a View" to "The World's a Big Place," A Perfect Solution just seems to have more of a sameness to it.

This might be more of a problem for me on a weaker album, but this one is about as strong as they come (indie or otherwise, in my opinion). The similarity of some of the songs might be annoying to some, but I say, 'If it ain't broke, who gives a fuck?' Also, just because they sound similar in style doesn't mean they all sound like the same song; they don't. They're just so well-written and beautifully produced that I can't recommend this album enough. If you like electro, or even if you just like rock, do yourself a favor and give A Perfect Solution a look. Muchos kudos to Mesh for what is quite possibly their best album yet.

Caius's rating: 4.5 stars

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Paranormal Activity Review

Ah, the joys of October horror movies. This is my review of The Blair Witch Project 2 -- er, I mean, Paranormal Activity.

To make up for a lack of information from the previews, this is another movie shot from a "real" perspective, similar to The Blair Witch Project and more recently, Cloverfield. In this case, we (the audience) are meant to believe that these events actually occurred, which for some viewers will be the main source of horror in it. Sorry if you take that as a spoiler, but I don't think it's inappropriate to acknowledge the fact that this is a movie; it does have a director, and actors who have gone on to do other movies since (knowledge which might have been useful to the adult male in the front row of my screening who at one point whimpered, "This shit is real!"). But for the sake of its realism, Paranormal Activity (PA) has no credits and opens simply with the line "Paramount Pictures would like to thank the families of [character names]." For the rest of the film, we see only footage shot from a camera that the main character bought to document the weird things that have been going on in his house.

His girlfriend, who is reluctant about trying to film these events, has been haunted by some sort of demonic spirit. She is desperate to have it dealt with, presumably through exorcism, but her boyfriend disagrees and insists on filming the events first and trying to thwart the demon's plotting on his own. As the days pass, creepy things start to happen, and the demon's power seems to increase as Micah and Katie's relationship becomes increasingly tense.

During the day, we are given scenes of Micah carrying the camera around and mostly talking to Katie about everything that's going on. This is when all character development takes place, and we can see the progression of the relationship. During the night, Micah places the camera on a tripod so it can monitor anything odd that occurs in the room while they sleep. And yes, odd things do occur. I don't want to spoil any of them (okay, just an early one below, which I'll mark) for reasons I'll explain in a moment, but these occurances are the greatest strength of this film.

It's difficult to explain why these random things are so terrifying to audiences (the cause for many good reviews of PA), but I'm going to do it anyway. Imagine yourself sitting in a movie theater with a crowd of people. The scene is in the bedroom at night. The camera is fixed. It will not move no matter what happens, and it will focus on nothing in particular. *Mild Spoiler* An indicator in the lower right corner of the screen lets you know what time it is. The video fastforwards, and the timer flies through the hours. It stops at 2:00 AM and proceeds at normal time. This is when you know something is about to happen. You wait five seconds... nothing happens. Ten... Micah rolls over in bed. Fifteen.... the bedroom door slowly swings back and forth *End Spoiler*.

That's why this movie works. All the terror is in the anticipation of what's about to happen, and in a few cases, the shock of what actually does happen, assuming you find it shocking of course. To its credit, this is effective, and I admit that this is one of the creepiest movies I've seen. However, the biggest disadvantage of doing it this way is that it makes it almost worthless to see the movie more than once (and the main reason I don't want to spoil anything significant). Once you know what happens, you're done; it will never affect you the same way again as it does the first time, when you're just waiting, scanning the screen, watching for something to move or something out of place, or just something. My point here is that this movie succeeds in toying with your attention and building huge amounts of anticipation, but it fails in delivering anything horrific (or even interesting) enough to watch more than once.

The other thing I didn't like about PA was the daytime segments. The relationship between Micah and Katie is realistic enough, but after a while, it just doesn't seem like it's been worth your time to watch (that is, aside from the nighttime segments). Micah provides some good humor for the first few days, Katie argues with him over whether he should use a Ouija board to communicate with the spirit, and then after a while it just goes on and on and all I wanted to do was watch an endless nighttime segment of crazy shit happening in the bedroom for the rest of the movie.

But don't let that stop you. Really. Paranormal Activity is far from a bad film. In fact, it's one of the creepiest I've ever seen. I just can't imagine that you'd want to watch it again after the first time. I also think this is one that would be an entirely different experience on DVD. But if you really don't want to fork over the money to see it in theaters, at least do yourself the favor of watching it alone (to avoid friends laughing or otherwise spoiling the mood) and in the dark. You might lose a bit of sleep over it, but at least you can say you got the full effect.

Caius's rating: 3 stars

Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Final Destination review

Happy Horror Movie Season to all! This is my review of Final Destination 4, er, I mean, The Final Destination, which is a completely different title from Final Destination.

So let's get that cleared up right away. There's nothing final about this iteration in the franchise. There was no reason to call it The Final Destination, except perhaps to convince people that they might as well see it if it's going to be the last one. Well, Death only knows if this is really the last one.

To no one's surprise, this movie is essentially identical to the previous three. The style, the story, and the characters have no significant differences in any Final Destination (FD) movie. So why bother making more? Well, the true answer is that as long as they can think of ways to kill people, people will fork over their money to see it.

The supposed big draw of FD4 is that it's in 3-D. This was my first experience seeing a movie in 3-D, and to be honest, it was a lot better than I expected. Aside from the obvious gimmick, the 3-D effect adds noticeable depth to the scenes. I am surprised to say that I think putting it in 3-D was worthwhile. My only complaint is that it's clear that some effects were done specifically to take advantage of the effect, rather than for any purpose within the story. Some of the kills would have been more effective if it didn't seem like this character was killed in this way just to show a 3-D view of the gore. On the other hand, there are a few moments where the added depth really does add something worthwhile to the experience. A good example is the car wash scene shown in the trailers. The scene's depth really gives an improved feeling of being trapped. In future films, this effect has the potential to create a disturbing realism to such scenes.

Now, let's talk about the movie itself. FD4 is the most emotional film in the franchise. I say this as a compliment to it, but unfortunately, it isn't saying much. As usual, there's never a strong sense of the true terror of death looming over you, nor the agony of watching and waiting for someone you love to be killed in an imminent freak accident. Even so, this one does have a few emotional moments that add some much-needed flavor to the series. Let's hope they can take this much further in Final Destination 5: Another Final Destination.

But of course, people only go to these movies to see people die in the most clever ways possible. The kills in this movie are a mixed bag of cringe-inducing, funny, and just ridiculous. Some of them don't seem to know if they're supposed to be funny or disturbing. I recall a few times when we were shown a rather disturbing scene, which was immediately followed by something humorous. Mixing humor and horror is nothing new to the FD series, but it's too abrupt in a few cases to be effective.

FD4 doesn't have the most clever kills in the series, but some of them are fun to watch, assuming you're into that sort of thing.

I applaud this movie for keeping to the style without being horrible after four movies, and for the few innovations, most notably the (mostly) good use of the 3-D technology. The downside, which I think is huge, is that it still sticks too strongly to the formula set up in the original FD. The characters, story, story structure, deaths, and just about everything else are all the same. If this franchise is to continue, it needs some significant changes, if only to make each installment different from the last. It can stagnate at a decent level for as long as the studio lets it, but it has the potential to be much better. But of course, if you found that you enjoyed all three of the others, as I did, then you will enjoy FD4 just as much and for all the same reasons, as I did.

Caius's rating: 2 stars

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Imogen Heap: "Ellipse" review

Hi folks. I haven't done a review in quite some time now, so I thought I better get back to it. I haven't seen any new movies in the theater lately, except Harry Potter 6 which I'm sure everyone has seen (though I'll review it if I get a request), so it's time for another album review.

This time we have Imogen Heap's new album Ellipse. Whether you love or hate Immi, you must admit that her music is unique, both in her solo material and with Frou Frou. Ellipse is a difficult album to evaluate because it's so different from typical pop and electronic music.

Immi leads off with her lead single, "First Train Home." When I first heard it, I was a bit confused that she (or her label) chose this as the first single from the album, as it isn't as intriguing as her most famous single, "Hide and Seek," nor as accessible as most of her other singles like "Goodnight and Go." This turned out to be more of a problem with the album than I had expected; it turns out that the album doesn't have a standout track, so she just had to go with the best one she had.

And really, that pretty much sums up the album as a whole. Immi has clearly refined her style perfectly and has made a coherent album, but at the expense of anything that will really grab you. I normally applaud albums that have a consistent quality among their songs, and this one does, but it's not that each song on Ellipse is great, it's that each song is mediocre. If you like Immi's style, you'll get tons of it here. What you won't get is a song you'll be singing for weeks, or a song with a unique structure, or a song with a varying mood or flavor, or a song that you'll even remember when her next album comes out.

Besides "First Train Home," the best candidates for singles are probably "Wait It Out" and "Swoon." But again there's that mediocrity issue: Even though these songs are the strong points of this album, not one of them would compare to any of the singles from Speak for Yourself.

But I don't want to sound like it's all bad, aside from the fact that her stylistic awesomeness is intact. I do applaud her ambition in some areas, most notably the brief and moody instrumental "The Fire." Songs like this work in well-structured albums because they can give some added flavor to an album without trying to be hit singles. That's part of the beauty of the album as a medium.

Immi put some effort where it counts, and a lot of her diehard fans will probably be pleased. I might not be so harsh on her if I didn't know from two fantastic albums that she's capable of much better work. I think that both Details and Speak for Yourself will go down as classics among people who can appreciate what makes them special. But this just isn't her best work. But hey, even The Beatles had a couple of lousy albums, right? Maybe she'll get it together next time. She's definitely got the foundation right. Now she just needs to knock it out of the park.

Caius's rating: 2 stars

Friday, February 6, 2009

Shiny Toy Guns: Season of Poison Review

Let me get this out of the way. The first time I listened to this album I cringed. I thought, oh no, what have they done with everything that made their first album good? But, now that I've heard it a few times, I feel like I can give it a fair chance.

What put me off at first was the two singles, "Ricochet!" and "Ghost Town." God, they are awful. I don't know who chooses their singles, but I think they really need to reconsider their career choice. Now, that's done. Listen to the album as a whole. It's not bad, except for those two songs. I'm going to try to evaluate the album as a whole; just keep in mind that those two songs weigh down the whole thing to a degree, while the rest by itself is pretty solid.

We open with the moody "When Did This Storm Begin." It's by no means a standout track, but it sets the tone well for the wide array of songs (and genres, even) to come. Next up is "Money For That," a synth-free rock song about nostalgia. Then comes "I Owe You a Love Song," which is probably the most similar to the style they set up in their first album. It doesn't measure up to songs like "You Are the One," but it's good to have a bit of the "classic" Shiny Toy Guns.

After the miserable "Ghost Town" comes "It Became a Lie on You." This is the first of several slow-tempo songs on the album. If they had more songs like this in place of the singles, I would have a lot of respect for them. After "Ricochet!" is the second slower song, "Season of Love." It's very simplistic and features a bit too much falsetto from Chad, but I like the chords, and the harmonies between Chad and Sisely are actually nice.

My favorite song on this album by a wide margin is "Poison." It's by far the most dynamic, interesting, and, dare I say, aesthetically pleasing song on the album. Let's hear more like this, STG!

The next two are pretty good lead-ups to a strong conclusion in "Frozen Oceans."

Although I sometimes question their choice of flow, I think they did a good job making Season of Poison feel more like an album and less like a collection of songs. This is especially apparent in the second half, once the singles are out of the way and the style is consistent. For this reason, and for the handful of songs that really are solid, I don't consider this album a failure. I actually like that they represent many different styles of music in their albums. If they can get rid of the style found in songs like "Ghost Town" and polish up their electronic tendencies, then they should have a great third album. Will this happen? I doubt it, but we can hope.

Caius's rating: 2.5 stars