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ladyoflorien) wrote2002-05-09 12:38 am
ladyoflorien) wrote2002-05-09 12:38 am
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I just got done watching "Ali." I haven't slept in almost 48 hours and now I'm all pumped up. Though, I do want to gripe about the movie for a bit. If you don't want to be spoiled, then skip this, but I recommend you take a spoiling because it's just one of those movies you NEED to spoil to be able to watch it.
First of all, the cinematography bugged the heck out of me. It was filmed like a bad documentary movie on the mating habits of African Wasps and was very distracting. I think the goal was for the movie to look more artistic and angsty, showing the real power of the content. But it came off very choppy and disconnected, and was a burden to the eyes. The plot was in serious wanting for the first half of the movie, chopping up one scene after another, never fully explaining situations or characters. There was little character development, and they let a lot of promising plot twists die a terribly distracting death. They most obviously disregarded movie making rule #1: catch the audience's interest. The beginning was dull and confusing and detached, and never snagged the viewers attention. They seriously needed to flesh out their plot, because what could have been an amazing story ended up being absolutely terrible.
They often jumped ahead years at a time without telling you, moving into new places and situations (not to mention characters) that you weren't prepared for and thus distracted you from the story flow. They also liked to overlap sounds which was aggravating and confusing, and overloaded the viewers sensory intake. You often missed dialog because of it, and were constantly frustrated over the noise.
The choice of camera angles and motion, color and consistency was supposed to give the viewer an artsy, raw and natural look at the movie and what was going on. But I found it much much too raw. There was no flow, no consistency, and they overplayed their attempts at an artistic level so badly that it left the viewer aggravated and unnerved, because it was more distracting than moving. The heart was there, but whoever worked on this project was much too overzealous. If they had fleshed out the scenes, smoothed them out considerably, and muted down some of their artistic angles and sounds, it would have come across much MUCH more moving than it did.
But, here's the kicker: This movie had one of those endings. You know; the endings that just blow you away. Where those last 5 minutes redeem the rest of the movie, no matter how terrible, and leave you in utter awe. The kind of ending every film-maker dreams to achieve. Perhaps they were relying on those last five minutes to pull them through, and that's why they spent so little attention on the quality of the beginning. If that was the case, if they had spent a little more time on the beginning, this movie would have most definitely been one of the best movies of the year.
I was silently screaming during the ending of the movie; shouting in triumph and glee, and yes, shock of all shocks, had tears running down my face. You felt like you had just witnessed the most awe-inspiring scene this world has ever been met with. It was fabulous and it was very stimulating. A fantastic ending, really.
But the sad thing is that, because of the quality of the first hour and a half of film, this movie will just be one of those movies where you fast-forward to the last half hour of film and just watch from there, because you don't want to have to deal with the beginning. If they had seen the potential and worked with it, it would have been a mindblowingly amazing script. But they took no pride in it, and left it so poorly tended to. It was a shame. Because Will Smith was fabulous, the soundtrack was fabulous, and the story was fabulous, it just needed to be really dug into and revealed for its full potential.
So there's my rant for the evening. I feel so... alighted after watching it. lol. It was a most amazing ending. If the first half was just the slightest bit better, I would be purchasing it immediately. Because there's not many movies that can move you like that.
So there. I recommend Ali, but you have to be patient because you're gonna be suffering through the beginning of it. But once you get halfway through and realize you're now watching intently, your breath stilled, you're going to wonder when you went from thinking how much better a scene could have been to god, how amazing was that?
First of all, the cinematography bugged the heck out of me. It was filmed like a bad documentary movie on the mating habits of African Wasps and was very distracting. I think the goal was for the movie to look more artistic and angsty, showing the real power of the content. But it came off very choppy and disconnected, and was a burden to the eyes. The plot was in serious wanting for the first half of the movie, chopping up one scene after another, never fully explaining situations or characters. There was little character development, and they let a lot of promising plot twists die a terribly distracting death. They most obviously disregarded movie making rule #1: catch the audience's interest. The beginning was dull and confusing and detached, and never snagged the viewers attention. They seriously needed to flesh out their plot, because what could have been an amazing story ended up being absolutely terrible.
They often jumped ahead years at a time without telling you, moving into new places and situations (not to mention characters) that you weren't prepared for and thus distracted you from the story flow. They also liked to overlap sounds which was aggravating and confusing, and overloaded the viewers sensory intake. You often missed dialog because of it, and were constantly frustrated over the noise.
The choice of camera angles and motion, color and consistency was supposed to give the viewer an artsy, raw and natural look at the movie and what was going on. But I found it much much too raw. There was no flow, no consistency, and they overplayed their attempts at an artistic level so badly that it left the viewer aggravated and unnerved, because it was more distracting than moving. The heart was there, but whoever worked on this project was much too overzealous. If they had fleshed out the scenes, smoothed them out considerably, and muted down some of their artistic angles and sounds, it would have come across much MUCH more moving than it did.
But, here's the kicker: This movie had one of those endings. You know; the endings that just blow you away. Where those last 5 minutes redeem the rest of the movie, no matter how terrible, and leave you in utter awe. The kind of ending every film-maker dreams to achieve. Perhaps they were relying on those last five minutes to pull them through, and that's why they spent so little attention on the quality of the beginning. If that was the case, if they had spent a little more time on the beginning, this movie would have most definitely been one of the best movies of the year.
I was silently screaming during the ending of the movie; shouting in triumph and glee, and yes, shock of all shocks, had tears running down my face. You felt like you had just witnessed the most awe-inspiring scene this world has ever been met with. It was fabulous and it was very stimulating. A fantastic ending, really.
But the sad thing is that, because of the quality of the first hour and a half of film, this movie will just be one of those movies where you fast-forward to the last half hour of film and just watch from there, because you don't want to have to deal with the beginning. If they had seen the potential and worked with it, it would have been a mindblowingly amazing script. But they took no pride in it, and left it so poorly tended to. It was a shame. Because Will Smith was fabulous, the soundtrack was fabulous, and the story was fabulous, it just needed to be really dug into and revealed for its full potential.
So there's my rant for the evening. I feel so... alighted after watching it. lol. It was a most amazing ending. If the first half was just the slightest bit better, I would be purchasing it immediately. Because there's not many movies that can move you like that.
So there. I recommend Ali, but you have to be patient because you're gonna be suffering through the beginning of it. But once you get halfway through and realize you're now watching intently, your breath stilled, you're going to wonder when you went from thinking how much better a scene could have been to god, how amazing was that?