garrettgibbons

Ninjas, family drama, ramen, action sequences, cult leaders... what more do you need? This show is a lot of fun.

Also, I feel compelled to say that the needle drops were excellent in this show. I loved the music.

I need to fill in more characters in order to submit this review so I'll just note that it's bizarre that all of the reviews left up until now mention how much they dislike the music. What a strange thing to focus on! It's great music.

My guess is that some disgruntled crew member is trolling the review page and has a bone to pick with the music supervisor or the director or show runner.

At its core, it's a simple, vague feel-good movie plot with a helluva lot of spectacle thrown on it. That spectacle is some of the most imaginative and wild and entertaining spectacle I've seen in years.

It never reaches the emotional depths or peaks of a similarly surreal dramas (Being John Malkovich, Sorry to Bother You, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and it doesn't have enough combat choreography to be what most wushu fans would consider to be a martial arts movie, but it sits nicely in its unique space as a wild and unforgettable movie.

I love Pacific Rim, and I loved the second movie. It delivered the same nostalgic, yet original, goodness of the first movie, and was a fantastic experience to enjoy. The themes and tone of the first film continue forward strongly into the second, and the same level of manic fun and geekiness prevails.

Great dancers, and great acting from the dancers. Cinematography isn't bad. Editing is very poor. Score sounds like a stock music Dixieland jazz compilation. The net effect is very slow and hard to watch.

I love Bone. I think that Jeff Smith is probably a pretty decent guy. That said, this documentary feels bizarre. So much of it is dedicated to the topics of popularity and trying to persuade the audience that comic artists are rock stars that it just sort of leaves a bad taste in your mouth. The narration sounds like a tour guide at Disneyland, the scoring feels wrong throughout (like some stock music was used by a dispassionate editor). Many of the right people were interviewed, but it feels like the director didn't know what questions to ask, didn't know what to cut out and leave in, and probably doesn't understand comics as a genre.

We hear a little bit about the genesis of Bone and the self-publishing challenges that Jeff Smith faced, and I wish that we heard a lot more about that. We also hear a lot of Smith comparing his storytelling to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and it's just kind of a sad comparison. I hope that the Bone films someday materialize and that they reach the same kind of widespread appeal that Lucas and Tolkien have found, but to make a film like this before any of that has happened seems pretty lame.