|
|
Bringing it back to the film itself, I saw it a few weeks ago and really liked it. McKean's visuals are astonishing, but it's not just the animated part, he's got a great feel for editing and music as well, so this feels like a fully realized film, rather than just a bunch of storyboards, which was the problem with the Sin City movie. The editing in the opening circus sequence is phenomenal.
Narrative-wise, the film definitely takes the structure of most 80s fantasy movies, like Labyrinth. However, here the 'real' world is more developed and doesn't feel like just a bookend. In fact I was enjoying those parts so much, the dreamworld scenes at first were rather weak. The film spends way too much time drifting through the fantasy part, with no real narrative drive. I was getting close to losing the movie in the second chunk, but the film comes back strong, and the last third or so is great, the fantasy stuff is more emotionally grounded, and as a result it doesn't just feel like an effects demo reel.
Yes, it has a lot of Gaiman's tropes, and the weak part of the movie is similar to the weaknesses in his other works, where he spends too much time on these wacky ideas, without any emotional resonance. If this was a book, I'd definitely criticize it for being too similar to Coraline, but seeing as how it's a different medium, Gaiman can get away with bringing back some of his favorite stuff.
If you cut out about fifteen minutes in the middle of this movie, I'd consider it a great film. As it is, it's really good, but flawed. But, I'd still reccomend seeing it.
Is it better than Labyrinth? Labyrinth may be more enjoyable, but some of that enjoyment lies on a camp level, with the 80s music and bizarre Bowie performance. Nothing here reaches the level of the ball sequence from Labyrinth, that owned, but there are a couple of scenes here that get pretty close, and on the whole it's stronger. There's a lot of interesting themes to discuss, if you're not wary of spoilers, you can read my review of the film at my blog. |
|
|