War Horse:
As good as that may sound this film was really not one of Spielberg's greatest films, even in comparison to Tintin. First off, the main character is totally uninteresting and bland; in this sense War Horse had the same problem I had with Tintin in that the lead character was sort of a blank slate and it was only the side characters that had any real personality. Right off the bat we see Albert peering through a fence, falling in love with the horses, but none of the bonding or affection is really earned. As opposed to How to Train Your Dragon, although that was an animated film, I felt a much stronger connection between Hiccup and his dragon Toothless than this kid and his horse. One complaint I see in many reviews that I'd have to agree with is the very phony and cheeseball emotionality to the movie. Unless you're the type of person who walks into a theater prepared with tissues in hand, War Horse has far too many eye-rolling moments. The way Albert talks to his horse, the John Williams score (which on its own is great, but maybe it's too good of a score for this movie), and the overall "safe," family-friendly tone of the film undermines its story, themes, and WWI itself - which is surprising coming from the guy who gave us Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List, both of which were unflinching portraits of their time. In War Horse there's no blood or anything like that, in fact inside the actual trenches the characters talk about a girl back home, not seeming even remotely terrified that bombs are going off around them. There are a handful of weird illogical moments like that throughout the film which I don't understand.
To be fair, this was based off of a children's story, so I guess the whole "fairy tale" approach is somewhat appropriate (having not read the original book I can't make any comments about that), but still something just felt very disingenuous about it. That's not to say I hated the film; aside from the lead actor I thought the cast was very good. I also liked the episodic nature of the movie - the different places, people, and scenarios that play out centering around the horse are somewhat entertaining, even though in the end all the pieces don't fit perfectly together. By far the best aspect of the movie has to be the cinematography by Janusz Kaminski, who has shot most of Spielberg's movies including Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. Kaminski gives the film a very classic Hollywood epic feel, and especially towards the end and during some of the battle scenes I couldn't help but think of Gone With the Wind. Also, the sheer madness it must have taken to train and "direct" the horses must have been incredibly difficult. There are a few moments where you can tell a CGI horse was used, but for the most part I'm assuming it's real horse action you're getting. So if you cry easily you may enjoy this overly-sappy flick, but otherwise all you're getting is a well-shot, polished horse turd.
Rating: C
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo:At this point I'm really starting to get sick of this story. I read the book a little while back, I saw the Swedish movie in theaters not even a year ago: I'm a little burned out on this thriller which isn't exactly uplifting or the type of thing you want to repeatedly revisit. However, this film had one of the best movie trailers of last year and I was wondering what the second team up between David Fincher and composers Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross would bring to the table. The story is basically about a reporter named Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who is accused of libel against some corrupt businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström (but that's apparently not super important according to this adaptation because it's only briefly mentioned in a segment so fast paced if you're not fully focused you'll have missed it). Eventually Blomkvist is summoned to a remote part of Sweden in an attempt to solve a 40-year mystery involving a girl, Harriet Vanger, who went missing. While this is happening we're introduced to Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a mohawk-sporting computer hacker who eventually begins to work on the case alongside Blomkvist. That's Dragon Tattoo in a nutshell.
As expected, this adaptation of the Stieg Larsson book is definitely the more flashy and fast-paced version of the two. Right off the bat there is a very Bond-like opening credits sequence that is a little jarring, happening not a millisecond after the first dialogue exchange, but still very cool. The film is very well-made and the pace is extremely fast, even for a 2 1/2 hour movie. For some reason I did not think the score for this movie, although it was very atmospheric, added as much to the total experience as The Social Network's; maybe it's just because we're not used to seeing people programming set to hard electronic music. But speaking of The Social Network, Fincher's Dragon Tattoo also manages to somehow make computer-work interesting. I don't know what it is, but the way Lisbeth and Blomkvist are captured researching and discovering new things never managed to break my interest, and I liked how the computer technicalities seemed very rooted in reality (for instance Lisbeth uses keyboard shortcuts, etc - it's just those little details that I appreciate). But by far the best thing about this film is Rooney Mara's performance. She brought the right amount of "female power" to the role, while also adding a subtle layer of vulnerability.
That being said, I really couldn't get myself to care about this story anymore. I knew exactly what was going to happen so I don't know if it's even appropriate that I review it. Although it strays farther from the book than the Swedish film, this is much more stylish and some of the changes that were made actually make more sense than what's in the novel. I don't know what to tell you - I don't even know if this is still in theaters so go ahead and check it out on DVD or Blu-ray, or whatever. Fuck it, do what you want.
Rating : B
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