elidirkx Reviews

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Pixar's greatest foliage tech demo!

[3/10 · 15 January 2024]

I had a lot of problems with Toy Story 3.

I heavily disliked what I saw as a trend that was getting in the way of Pixar producing more and better original movies.

It seems that other movies from the studio got real good review in the meantime; Brave was supposed to be great, Inside Out was a new masterpiece from them.

I got lucky that my Pixar experience of 2015 was The Good Dinosaur.

It had foliage! It had a scene with psychedelic fruit!

And I'm gonna give the rest of the movie to the count of ten to get its ugly, yellow, no-good keister off my property before I pump its guts full of lead.

Apparently this one had a lot of development problems behind the scenes, and it shows.

But after being mildly disappointed in Toy Story 3 and not seeing any other Pixar movies in the meantime, coming back...to this?

Let's just say I was NOT happy at having spent money on a ticket to this film.

And that was a year where I saw stupid, mindless movies like Terminator: Genisys and Jurassic World.

Because while it was obvious to any moviegoer that those movies would be a dumb yet entertaining waste of time, I was not expecting something of this...calibre from Pixar of all studios.

I don't know, and just trying to think back of my experience with the film I...can barely even remember much of it at all.

That already poses a bit of a problem, when even a Pixar film I was previously disappointed with (Toy Story 3) still has moments I could remember a decade later (the furnace, the Totoro cameo) and then this?

I just remember the hallucination scene and the death of a parent in the opening.

Something about tyrannosaurs with Southern accents later?

As a series of little short films featuring the main two characters I don't even think I would have been disappointed or mad.

Their shenanigans alone could be entertaining for twenty minutes at a time, exploring a world that starts to feel larger as they see more of it with each episode.

But presented as a 94-minute movie, I felt like I was starving for anything interesting happening at all.

Whatever the film makers and writers intended to accomplish just did not hit me in any appreciable way except that 90 minutes felt like three hours.

That in and of itself is an accomplishment, but then I'm the fool who spent the money on a ticket for this.

I did that to myself, and the film isn't necessarily to blame.

In retrospect, reading all about its troubled production that I have, it's just a sad tale of a completely mistreated project that may never have had an actual chance to live up to its potential, and I feel a strange combination of admiration and grief for the people who tried their best to make it work despite the considerable odds against their efforts.

Well, it does have foliage going for it.

Toy Story 3 (2010)

A troubling sign of Pixar's direction to come.

[7/10 · 15 January 2024]

Let me start off by saying that I don't hate Toy Story 3, but in a decade (2001 up to 2010) where Pixar produced no sequels and instead had many strong individual films that even when not perfect, still stood solidly on their own (Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up), why would you choose to end that decade with another Toy Story movie?

It's not even that I necessarily disagree with a follow-up to any pre-existing stories, it's that it just feels so weird when aside from Toy Story 2, the studio had been known (at least to me) as a fantastic team of artists and writers who were able to craft grand new stories, and each new film also employed a new piece of technology that hadn't quite been explored in computer generated imagery yet.

Monsters, Inc. Had the addition of moving, squishing, swaying fur, Finding Nemo experimented with the many situations in which water could be animated, lighted and otherwise displayed.

The Incredibles experimented with more overtly cartoonish stylisation of human characters, Cars had cars in it.

Ratatouille tried (and mostly succeeded at) bringing appealing food on the virtual table.

Wall-E experimented with some of the most realistic CG scenery the studio had put out to date.

Pixar was, at least in my eyes, established as a trendsetting studio that broke new ground with each new release and actively employed new graphical features and technology in the pursuit of technical advancement in computer-generated animation, while also allowing each film produced with them to have its own unique feeling and vibe.

Let's just say that I felt left out with the release of Toy Story 3.

I didn't go out of my way to see it because I just had no active interest in seeing another sequel from Pixar.

It's not even that I disliked Toy Story 2; I actually really appreciated the further character study of Woody and Buzz's personalities.

It was a perfectly fine movie that never felt like a copy of the original.

Eventually, over a year after its release, I did take a chance to see Toy Story 3.

And it just felt like watching a less cohesive Toy Story 2 to me.

It wasn't that anything in particular bothered me, initially.

But I had seen some great stuff at my age then.

I had been greatly surprised by the refreshing qualities of How To Train Your Dragon from Dreamworks earlier, I had had a chance to see more new material from Studio Ghibli like Ponyo on the Cliff.

But eventually I came to realise what bothered me about the film: it had little identity to call its own.

It took the structure from Toy Story 2, changed a few details around, convoluted a few plot conveniences to give us a highly emotional fake-out towards the end.

It felt manipulative, insincere, and coldly calculated.

And it's never been the case that I felt that way with a Pixar film.

I hypothesise that Disney's acquisition of Pixar had something to do with it, but fine, after so many great movies I guess they'll learn their lesson and continue to make great original movies after this.

Which, of course, they did.

In between Cars 2, Monsters University, Finding Dory, Cars 3, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4 (WHY?), Pixar produced many more great original films like The Good Dinosaur (the most remembered Pixar movie of all time).

At an assembly line, forced to churn out sequels on the side to keep Disney's corporate vampires happy and likely leading to heavy crunch which could one day destroy the entire studio if left unchecked in its escalation.

I actually don't think this is a bad movie.

It's got some nice moments, it's got some nice interplay between characters both old and new and of course the visuals are gorgeous.

Though I can't help but feel that Pixar as a studio would have been better off if it had been a flop.

Closing the door for sequels and giving the studio more time and resources to focus on their new films would have been a great deal for them in hindsight.

Alas, what wallets that vote.

PS: The Totoro plush was so cute it brought the score up by three points just by itself.

Phenomena (1985)

As confusing as a roller-coaster with lights in billions of directions.

[8/10 · 21 December 2010]

As I found an old Japanese video game called 'Clock Tower' I found myself thinking this ought to have been a horror film in the first place. A strong female lead, who didn't look all that bad herself... Then when looking for things it might have referenced, I found this. Coincidentally, in both the main character was called Jennifer, and in both the face was just about the same. In both the main character also had to deal with a vicious killer.

Well, enter Phenomena. We deal with Jennifer, a foreign student who just arrived at a Swiss boarding school because her father had to work somewhere else.

She finds it difficult to be accepted in school, main reason being that she seems so odd to other people, and she reveals to us one extraordinary gift; she has the power to control the insect.

Flesh flies, beetles, larvae; and she shares this gift with a scientist played by Donald Pleasence, called John McGregor. As he has searched for an elusive killer, he had also searched corpses for their insects, so that they might help him to determine when those who were killed had in fact died.

Nobody knows who this killer is, only that he kills within the neighbourhood; but maybe Jennifer's gift could just help to turn the tide in their favour, before all Hell breaks loose.

I would highly advise not to try too hard to make sense of it all; just sit back and enjoy.

If you enjoy '80s heavy metal and bands like Goblin and Iron Maiden, that's an added plus.

Starship Troopers (1997)

Not a masterpiece, but what the hell.

[7/10 · 31 August 2010]

I must admit that I did not read the book.

But having seen RoboCop in the past, I know Paul Verhoeven's always there to make a satire out of today's society.

Just look at it all. A fascist society that relies on army service in order to attain citizenship. People only caring about blowing crap up during their service. And what is the motivation of the enemy? Perhaps they have a deep kind of motive to want to destroy the humans. But the military simply doesn't care. They're enemies, pure and simple.

People and 'bugs' regularly get ripped to shreds. No big deal. If people get wounded or stabbed, a medic is casually referred to.

This film is obviously a fun satiric flick that makes fun of totalitarianism, violence and mankind's presumption of having superior intelligence, all dressed in some kind of fascist propaganda skin which apparently upset quite a few people. Didn't bother me, though. I still got some laughs out of it.

Would you like to know more? Just watch it, if you're into people getting ripped into small particles, gigantic 'bug' type creatures, explosions, and space ships. The music by Basil Poledouris is also a good excuse to keep on watching.

Friday the 13th (1980)

Oh, for Pete's sake...

[5/10 · 23 July 2010]

Now, I will admit that I have watched some 'slasher'-type films in the past.

Nightmare on Elm Street and Alien, for example, which, I guess, is a little bit difficult to compare to, but still about the same genre.

We start off in 1958, where we experience some people getting killed on summer camp. Afterwards we go to 1980, where some young peeps are going to try out for that same camp, apparently known as Camp Crystal Lake, or if I recall correctly also Camp Blood.

In the evening, that turns to crap. Don't be expecting Shakespeare. It's really just people getting killed off one by one, and occasionally some music accompanying it. The ending is one of the better things about this film, but I wouldn't spoil it.

3 points for the ending.

However, the ending alone is definitely not a reason to watch this film. I wouldn't recommend this film even to bore someone.

Princess Mononoke (1997)

It still makes me cry.

[10/10 · 5 May 2010]

In ancient times, the land lay covered in forests, where, from ages long past, dwelt the spirits of the gods. Back then, man and beast lived in harmony, but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed. Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit, for those were the days of gods and of demons.

About 9 years ago, I saw this film for the first time in my life.

My mind was pounded very harshly. With my only experience with manga or animé having been Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon, yes. It was definitely different. What struck me most about this was the sincere tone in which they handled the entire film. No exaggerated humour, no pop culture references.

We open with a brief narration, after which we see a young prince of the Emishi tribe, Ashitaka, defend his village against a former boar turned demon.

His arm receives a terrible curse, and he is to travel to the West to there see, with eyes unclouded by hatred, what caused this beast, that cursed him, to go mad.

Riding his red elk, on the way he meets many figures among which being a monk named Jigo, a ruler named Eboshi who harvests iron for the sake of melting it into bullets so as to be able to expand her territory, and a mysterious girl who has sided with the wolves of that same territory.

Each of these parties clash against one another often, while Ashitaka only wishes to stop the fighting, as demonstrated in a beautiful scene where he brutally interrupts a battle in the middle of an entire crowd.

He seems to figure his own need to cure his own curse is irrelevant compared to the sake of ridding the present society of its own diseases.

I feel no need to disclose any further details. Do yourself a favour. Watch this film. Watch it again. And again. Do it in an endless loop, if you will. I can almost guarantee it is highly unlikely that this one would ever get old.

It could seem like an environmental message in disguise, but don't you dare fool yourself! It's truly much deeper than just that.

It has never failed to make me cry. And I suspect it will always succeed at just that.

Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (2009)

An ideal film? No.

[4/10 · 24 December 2009]

While the original film wasn't exactly a masterpiece either, this one digs lower. And I can't say it's an improvement. The music is corny. The titular villain only appears pretty late in the film. The characters are sideshows, most of them. I really can't say I liked very much about this film at all. Then again, perhaps it IS a plague when considering they decided to make a book into a 90-minute film, but I don't know. This whole film, to me, felt like an unnecessary sideshow, and the ending doesn't help it at all. Maybe a rental when it's available, but otherwise don't bother. This was a bigger disappointment than Terminator: Salvation even if watched with lower expectations.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Terminator: Injustice

[4/10 · 5 September 2009]

Now, I'm not going to lie about my experience with this film series, and will admit that I never saw a Terminator film. But that doesn't help any. One of the only characters I actually cared about was the person called Marcus Wright, with whom the film started. It was a very interesting character with how he came to be, and such, and how he was revealed. So we come to know that the ancestor of John Connor has been lost in some wasteland near L.A. by accident, and a few people go to look for him. That's all good, and the film steadily progresses. Later in the film John Connor reveals himself to be an absolute asshole towards Marcus by torturing him incredibly, practically erasing the need to be sympathetic to Johnny. What John Connor did in this film to some people, only a villain would do. And yet he's regarded as the hero of this flick? I was disgusted by the ending of this flick precisely because John Connor, in this film, was such a cruel man pretending to care about others. I won't spend any more words on this, and just call it: Terminator: Injustice. Seriously. If the previous Terminator movies are anything like this, I won't even bother to watch those.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Was I privileged to watch this one first?

[10/10 · 31 January 2009]

The first time I got to set my eyes on this movie, back in 2000, was on an old TV record that we had somewhere here... I didn't know what to expect. The only thing that I'd ever seen of Star Wars was a vague memory of Yoda that was invoked by the word 'yoga' and I believe a poster of The Phantom Menace, so I didn't really know much about this franchise. So I placed the record into the VCR and started watching...and I was blown away.

I watched the opening crawl before being introduced to my first Star Destroyers, and I must say...I found this introduction to be pretty interesting. The pacing, overall, was pretty good, especially for the start of a science-fiction film. (even though it's actually a space opera, but who cares...)

So I got to see the main character getting into trouble with an ice monster that seemed to be looking for food, and found it..then shots of the other main characters who seemed to be worried about the main character, and were discussing some other business as well... After some of that business, we got to see a pretty large-scale ground battle which had some interesting stop-motion animation which deemed to be pretty effective for a movie of the early '80s, and at times looked rather advanced to execute. The special effects were great, overall, for a movie from around the time of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

After a while, the main characters split up and meet differing situations, before eventually both facing peril, both eventually managing to get out of this, but then, near the end of the movie, all being trapped in the same location, just in very different spots.

What I really liked about the film, however, was this sense of isolation. An ice planet almost devoid of life, a forest planet with barely anyone to talk to, a lonely cave...I feel that this had an interesting influence on the perception of the interaction between some of the characters.

The Han/Leia romance was one thing that kind of interested me due to the characters being of totally opposite personalities and origins, and the R2-D2/C3PO conversations...

Now the personality of Darth Vader in this film was also to my liking. He very plainly didn't care how many admirals and captains he killed...after he needed them no further, or felt they had failed him, he disposed of them like they were nothing. What made this a bit funny, however, was how nobody seemed to care much if one of these persons was killed. I guess that's what they were used to.

Some characters return, some characters are new, and some characters have been disposed of. Grand Moff Tarkin couldn't hold Vader to his leash anymore, so Vader could do as he wanted to whomever he felt fit, and he held an iron hand within the division of the Empire that he controlled.

This film also marks the first brief appearance of the personage named 'The Emperor' back then, who would later be replaced by a different actor who would play in a few more Star Wars movies. After finishing this TV record, I eventually got hold of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the Special Editions of the original trilogy on VHS. Some changes in these versions were crappy, some weren't that bad. However I don't get why some lines had to be replaced in the Special Editions and the later 2004 Special Editions.

Otherwise the only big change in the 1997 Special Edition seemed to be a more fleshed-out scene of the ice monster somewhere near the beginning of the film.

After watching the Special Edition Empire Strikes Back and the rest of the originals in that version for quite a few years, I kind of went silent on Star Wars...until the release of Revenge of the Sith, and then, after that, again.. Then in 2007 I got a box of the Original Trilogy for Christmas.. And the alterations in that box were a bit more than I could bear.

They replaced the conversation between Darth Vader and the Emperor with the actor that acted as the Emperor in the later movies, which sounded pretty consistent to do, but the make-up and lighting of that version was screwed up, they changed the dialog for some reason.. The original Emperor's projection had a face that was kept in the dark, and the 2004 DVD version's face was partially kept in the light and leaning backwards. Also, colouring issues were present at certain times.

Well...after that I got the soundtracks and then The Force Unleashed, somewhere during 2008. And then I found the original version of this movie on DVD, as well as STAR WARS and Return of the Jedi...and I decided to buy those versions, because I was tired of seeing an altered version of a classic that made it look as though it wasn't made in the '80s, when in fact it was. It would seem I prefer the unaltered version over any others, no matter how badly they try to soup it up. Thank you, George Lucas, for helping me turn back and look for the original version.

Golden Sun (2001 Video Game)

Owns.

[9/10 · 29 June 2007]

On a day in October 2002 I went to the mall and looked between the games. I met quite some games like Final Fantasy X and such, but I didn't have a PS2, so...well, I found this, and I DID have a GBA. Bought it. After that, I was amazed. It started with the climax of a volcano having an outburst, and having to go save friends until one was swept away in a storm while it was raining...the climax was broken, and then you met the two villains in the game; they noticed you eavesdropping and then they knock you out. After that you get to see the town again, this time it is not raining and everything is sunny, and your main character is working on a roof of your main character's house. Then two of your friends come and accidentally ruin the roof by standing on it...foo. In the end, you get invited by a scientist named Kraden (Sclater in Japanese version) to visit the temple which is based upon the mountain which was disrupted in the beginning. OK. You get to put some time into puzzling, which is in my opinion, very good, because there is a good balance between puzzling and battling, though sometimes there are just too many random battles. Finally you get to solve it, and you arrive in a room in which the essences of the four elements (air, earth, water, fire...) are sealed, but you are quickly forced to give them to the villains that beat you up in the beginning of the game and an unexpected guest. Finally, you are involved in a quest to save the world by stopping Saturos and Menardi, the villains, in unlocking the Power of Alchemy, the 'magic' of that game's universe. But do they really have to be stopped? Is it really their purpose to destroy the world? A lot of things are found out in the second part. Graphical wise, I have to say this is the best game ever for a 64-Megabit cartridge. Battles and the world map are in Mode 7, and the overall is well-animated and coloured. Musical wise, this game is alright. With a score composed by Motoi Sakuraba, the music is not always 'good' but it mostly does fit with the situations in the game. There are no slowdowns so far I noticed, and the learning curve isn't very long. Also you can collect up to 7 Elementals of each elemental force, which also enables more skills and also summons in battle, which can get to be VERY powerful to fight with. Also, quite a few side-quests, and they could get vital to the second part also. Overall, 9/10 for me. I hope there are going to be more games like this in the future. And 'coloured' is NOT a spelling mistake.

Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (2004 Video Game)

Speedier than the PS1 version at the very least

[10/10 · 10 June 2007]

Alright. So I got this release for Christmas 2004. The night after I spent my first minutes playing Final Fantasy I. After two weeks I finished that one. Then I re-started on Final Fantasy II, got that done in two weeks also, then spent three weeks on the Soul of Rebirth Mode.

FFI: The learning curve is quite fast, the battles are pretty simple, turn-based battles, but, compared to the NES version, with auto-targeting and the spells-per-level changed into MP. The UK translation was just terrific. I'd love to have such a translator for most games. The music was just wonderful to hear for such a small system, and I spent some time admiring how they redid the Boss Battle A and B, but the Last Boss track didn't sound as good as in the PS1 version. Probably limitations, but still a bit disappointed about that. The story begins with the earth driving into imbalance and such, and four warriors which should save the world eventually by freeing the power of 4 Crystals. You get to choose between six classes: which are Warrior, Black Mage, White Mage, Red Mage, Monk and Thief, which can later be upgraded to stronger classes, along with improvements to the magic power of the Mage classes. White Mage and Wizard seems to be the only female class, strangely. So you start, and head for the local kingdom, in which the king tells you to save a princess, and you go do it in a dungeon to the north of the kingdom. There some knight called Garland tells you he will 'cut you down to size', and then you enter a battle, then if you're unlucky get killed, and if you're lucky, you kill him, which then saves the princess and they agree to make a bridge for you, at which point you get a point of narration about what might await you on your journey and such. Eventually you fight the same knight at the end of the game, but in a more demonic form, named Chaos. The side quests are unlocked with the freeing of the power of each Crystal, and they contain areas from Final Fantasy III, IV, V, and VI, and bosses like Cerberus, Scarmiglione, Gilgamesh, Shinryu, Phantom Train and all those you might already have beaten in other Final Fantasy titles. You also get nice weapons from them, like the Kotetsu and Ultima Weapon. Also, these dungeons are randomly chosen from a list of presets so you never arrive in the same spot. Overall, it gets a 9 of 10. FFII: Great title, I find. You start off with four heroes, which you can give any name, but are default named Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon. You start off running from soldiers from the Palamecian Empire, which strives to take over the world (yeah, folks) and are forced to get killed since those soldiers are too strong for you at that point. Now, the battle-system is in a way identical to that of FFI, but with various differences; you have no levels and get no experience from battles. Indeed, your attributes raise as you use them or they are stressed, for example; you took a lot of HP damage in a battle. Result when winning is that your HP with that specific character raises if stressed enough, and you also have Magic levels up to level 16, and also weapon proficiency levels. If you use a staff if your staff level is 5, you could not possibly do as much damage as with using a spear when the spear level is at 15. Got it? So, out of that. After getting killed, you wake up in some sanctuary after a man with a turban named Minwu heals you, and then rush out to find Maria and Guy. Apparently Leon is missing, so they go ask the Princess of your kingdom Fynn where he is. Apparently they don't know whatever happened to him, and you get a mission; to infiltrate in the Empire-occupied town of Fynn and find a certain Prince. When you find him he gives you a ring which seems to be of importance, and after that just dies. OK, after that you return to the headquarters of the Princess and you have to continue your quest with many other things. Apparently a number of conversations in this game are triggered by saying Keywords, like Wild Rose or Sunfire, but you must learn them first, and it's not always easy to find people who tell you Keywords. The battle system I find the best in all the old-school FFs, excepting the job training in FFIII. There is also a Soul of Rebirth Mode unlocked upon finishing the game, in which you play as Minwu and others who died, and are forced to fight a different version of FFII's final boss eventually. The music I find just fantastic, with themes like that of Castle Pandaemonium, the castle of Kashuan, the main theme, and of course the battle themes. This is one aspect of FFII which I find sometimes sounds better than in the PS1 version, since the strings and trumpets seemed to sound too harsh in that version, and they seem to sound much more balanced in FF:DoS. Overall, a 9 out of 10. Total: 8 out of 10. These might contain the most fun I've ever had on a hand-held, excepting M&L: SS and other stuff. I hope I'll ever meet this fun again.