Bolt and Franklyn reviews
Mar. 1st, 2009 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThis week's random double bill at the cinema was infinitely more successful than last week's - and, despite the fact that the two films I saw were vastly different, I think I can cover them both in the same review!
Bolt and Franklyn - deeply predictable, and yet still incredibly well done, so as to make them both extremely enjoyable in spite of their obviousness. Sometimes, it doesn't matter that you can figure out exactly what's going to happen next, because the presentation is good enough that it still makes the viewing pleasurable. In both, the fantasy worlds were beautifully realised and meticulously consistent, and by far the best thing in each movie - I would have been quite happy just watching either Bolt's TV show or an entire film set in Meanwhile City.
Thoughts on them separately:
The first half of Bolt in particular was very funny and very cleverly put together. The second half dipped more into sentimentality, but it still had me going right to the end - and, to borrow a paraphrased quote from Madagascar, "That hamster is psychotic!" I loved the evil cats at the beginning, and the various groups of pigeons were pretty entertaining throughout. Like several other people I've spoken to, the trailer rather put me off this one, but I have to say it was highly enjoyable.
As for Franklyn, I agree with Empire that the reasons why the people were all broken were rather mundane and desperately cliched; I figured out what was going on very early, but I still think the film worked very well as a whole, and managed to be compelling despite its flaws. The performances were excellent and, as stated above, the sections in Meanwhile City were fabulous - it was visually stunning and I could certainly see a comic series about that world being very effective.
Bolt and Franklyn - deeply predictable, and yet still incredibly well done, so as to make them both extremely enjoyable in spite of their obviousness. Sometimes, it doesn't matter that you can figure out exactly what's going to happen next, because the presentation is good enough that it still makes the viewing pleasurable. In both, the fantasy worlds were beautifully realised and meticulously consistent, and by far the best thing in each movie - I would have been quite happy just watching either Bolt's TV show or an entire film set in Meanwhile City.
Thoughts on them separately:
The first half of Bolt in particular was very funny and very cleverly put together. The second half dipped more into sentimentality, but it still had me going right to the end - and, to borrow a paraphrased quote from Madagascar, "That hamster is psychotic!" I loved the evil cats at the beginning, and the various groups of pigeons were pretty entertaining throughout. Like several other people I've spoken to, the trailer rather put me off this one, but I have to say it was highly enjoyable.
As for Franklyn, I agree with Empire that the reasons why the people were all broken were rather mundane and desperately cliched; I figured out what was going on very early, but I still think the film worked very well as a whole, and managed to be compelling despite its flaws. The performances were excellent and, as stated above, the sections in Meanwhile City were fabulous - it was visually stunning and I could certainly see a comic series about that world being very effective.
