The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is better than its predecessor, and that's a rare occurrence when it comes to Hollywood films.

The story begins where the first film left off: Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) continues on his quest to Mordor to destroy the powerful ring in the same fires of Mount Doom from which it was created. Aiding him, directly and indirectly are, fellow Hobbits Samwise Gamjee (Sean Astin), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Dominic Monaghan) and Peregrin Took (Billy Boyd); Gandalf (now) the White (Ian McKellen); Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen); Legolas Greenleaf the elf (Orlando Bloom); Gimli the Dwarf (John Rhys-Davies); and Treebeard the Ent (voice of John Rhys-Davies). Against him are Saruman the White (Christopher Lee) and Sauron the Dark Lord, whose spirit is intertwined with the ring. And a creature whose intentions are ambiguous (quite literally) is Smeagol/Gollum (voiced by Andy Serkis).

The main goal of this episode is to showcase the unleashing of the Saruman's forces to conquer middle earth. The movie actually ends on a positive note, with our friends having the upper hand in the two epic battles--between Saruman's 10,000 strong army and the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Rohan at their Helm's Deep fortress; and between the Ents and Sarmuan's war machine in Isengard--as well as several minor ones.

The cinematography, along with the computer graphics, is awe-inspiring. Gollum is animated brilliantly, so much that I thought he was more convincing than any of the real actors. The CGI in general is state-of-the-art; the only time I could clearly discern the computer generated images was when they had the battle with the Wargs, There is a lot of humour in the film, which shows that nothing in life is worth taking too seriously. The soundtrack, which is reminiscent of old Westerns, is excellent.

It's hard to fault a film that is as well-made as this one. In my view, The Two Towers is best judged on its own merits. While it would help to be familiar with Tolkien's works (including The Hobbit, which really fills in a great deal of the background material), this tale can stand on its own if you use your imagination.

The reason Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, are such big successes is because of the mythology they create. The Lord of the Rings, which predates these works, is no exception and is one of the richest. The film itself can be described only in superlatives. Go see it.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to translate a book into a movie. The problem has to do with one's imagination: words in a book conjure up images that are highly personal and subjective, and any attempt by a third party to lend form to them ends up disappointing. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is no exception in this regard, but fortunately, the imagery presented is awesome and wondrous in its own right.

The film is made strictly by the book: Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), a young boy mistreated by his foster family, learns that he is special and comes of age... in the Hogwart's School of Magic (!) where he learns wizardry, plays Quidditch and fights an evil despotic wizard (who does not turn out to be his father).

While the movie stays fastidiously true to Joanne Rowling's book, perhaps one of the best adaptations ever, the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words doesn't hold true here. For the most part, from the initial victory of the baby Harry Potter upto the Quidditch match, a lot of the details are skipped. What we're presented with is a jump from one scene to another (sometimes too quickly) that illustrates with painstaking effort the magical realm that Rowling has constructed in her series. For example, while the opening sequence shows Professor Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris) turning out the lights in a street, Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) changing to her true form from being a cat, and Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) bringing Harry on his flying motorcycle, we're not really shown the celebration of Lord Voldemort's fall. This isn't criticism but just an observation; in fact, I think doing this is especially okay if one is familiar with the Harry Potter books, but it does impart a sense of urgency in the beginning portions of the film.

I marvelled at how technology enabled the film makers to make possible the wonders of Harry's world, including Diagon Alley and Gringotts Bank, the moving pictures, Hogwarts Castle, the Sorting Hat (Leslie Phillips), the ghosts in the Castle (including a cameo by John Cleese), Fluffy the three-headed dog, the ugly troll, and so on. I believe that it is technology that makes the Harry Potter film authentic, in the same way as in the X-Men or the How the Grinch Stole Christmas movies, by letting at least the imagination of a few people come to life as vibrantly as possible. Most of what I imagined and what was projected on the screen weren't really colinear, but it was still cool, incredibly so at times, to watch.

The movie, however, picked up with the first Quidditch match where Harry, on a broomstick, plays the position of a Seeker after the Golden Snitch, a particularly hard-to-catch ball, which is key to winning a game. The inspired depiction of the game meshed with my imagination extremely well, and from there on, the story of Harry's second encounter with the dark Lord Voldemort (Richard Bremmer) enfolded in a less fragmented and more cohesive manner. The final confrontation, and what Harry and his friends have to do get there, is a delight to watch.

For those paying attention, the main change from the book has to do with how Hagrid's dragon is disposed of and the resulting consequences. The ghosts also play a smaller role here though given the movie's running time, I'm not surprised parts like those were omitted.

The actors playing the young leads give decent performances, with Emma Watson as the know-it-all Hermione Granger standing out. The adult actors aren't given much time but they all present solid performances. The score by John Williams is simple but effective. The set design, cinematography, and visuals are impressive. Director Chris Columbus does a great job of bringing to the big screen the Enid Blyton-like atmosphere that Rowling's books exude.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a great movie to watch. I viewed it from the perspective of someone who is intimately familiar with the books, and I believe there is strong merit to watching it being completely unfamiliar with the story, a choice I do not have given that I've read the four books a few times. Definitely check it out on the big screen and make sure you goto the bathroom before.

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Pirates of the Caribbean 4 on Stranger Tides

ON STRANGER TIDES is one of the best PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movies to date. There were some doubts going into this as two key characters from the original trilogy are missing, Will and Elizabeth Turner. While Will and Elizabeth added a lot to the first three films their absence in the fourth is hardly worth mentioning. A new cast mixed with many old favorites makes for a great story.

On this adventure Jack faces off against Blackbeard, vicious mermaids, and an old girlfriend while searching for The Fountain of Youth. It’s good to see that Jack is keeping busy.

This movie is fun and exciting, loaded with action. There’s even a nice cliff-hanger to encourage the idea of a PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 5. It seems like this franchise can truly go on forever without getting stale. Jack is such a great character that movies about him can never be boring.

The only disappointing aspect of this movie is the very minimal amount of screen time allotted to Jack the Monkey. That monkey is darn cute and kind of serves as a mascot for these films. Besides it’s a simple fact that monkeys should always have maximum screen time.

ON STRANGER TIDES is a great addition to a great franchise. This movie is not to be missed.

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Spiderman 3

Spider-Man 3 adalah film superhero yang diluncurkan pada tahun 2007. Film ini ditulis dan disutradarai oleh Sam Raimy. Film ini adalah film ketiga dari serial film layar lebar Spider-Man yang dibuat berdasarkan karakter fiksi dari Marvel Comics, Spider-Man. Film ini dibintangi oleh Tobey Maguire (Peter Parker), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson), James Franco (Harry Osborn), Thomas Haden Church (Flint Marko/Sandman), dan Topher Grace (Eddie Brock).
Film ini dimulai pada masa Peter Parker telah sukses sebagai Spider-Man, sementara Mary Jane Watson memulai kariernya di Broadway. Harry Osborn masih terus berusaha membalas dendam atas kematian ayahnya, dan Flint Marko jatuh ke dalam sebuah akselerator partikel dan berubah menjadi makhluk pasir yang dapat mengubah-ubah bentuk. Ditambah lagi dengan alien yang jatuh ke bumi dan mengikatkan diri kepada Peter Parker - meningkatkan sisi gelap Peter. Ketika Peter berhasil melepaskan diri, alien tersebut berhasil menguasai Eddie Brock Jr., fotografer saingan Peter. Simbiosis alien tersebut dengan Eddie menyebabkan Peter masuk ke dalam salah satu pertempurannya yang paling hebat.
Spider-Man 3 dirilis secara komersial di banyak negara pada 1 Mei 2007. Di Amerika Serikat, film ini dirilis pada 4 Mei 2007 baik untuk bioskop konvensional maupun IMAX. Di Indonesia, film ini dirilis serentak di berbagai kota pada 2 Mei 2007.

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