Invader Zim
5th June 2009, 01:59
I finally shifted my arse in gear a few weeks ago and watched this film, and in another thread the film got a mention and it reminded me to make a thread about it. On balance I think that the rave reviews I recall from this board, among others I frequent, massively over sell the film. It's good, but not that good. And Ken Loach has made far better films. Personally I thought it came out with a fair bit of work still to be done.
But like most films it is a mixed bag. On the one hand I was very impressed by the way the film was shot. I thought the film visually was great to watch. I also thought that the cast were good. Cillian Murphy, in particular, was very good. He lived upto what I have come to expect from him having seen his work with Danny Boyle, among others.
The major problem I have is with the film is with the character development. It isn't along the same lines as I saw in a number of reviews that took issue with the fact that the film was supposedly anti-British, my problem was that it did none of the characters, regardless of nation, any real favours. That is because all the character development struck me as perfunctory to the point of producing caricatures rather than believable individuals. All the British characters, with one memorable exception, remind me of the orks from the Lord of the Rings franchise. While all the Irish characters struck me as that kind of 1980s cold warrior action-heroes; flawed, and in some cases rough and ready, but courageous romantics. Even their mistakes are based on a deep and heartfelt desire to do the right thing by their fellow Irish compatriots, if only they could see the wisdom. Even the lad who is shot as a traitor early in the film, while having made a terrible error, as having realised his sin and stepped up, without fuss, to face his fate (albeit with a nauseating moment of sentimentality when he provides a message for his poor shortly to be bereaved mother).
It is the kind of lazy characters you expect in a Dan Brown novel, not from the person behind Kes and Land and Freedom. And that really is the problem I have with this film. It struck me as being in dire need of an extra thirty minutes of screen time (which would bring it to 2:37 minutes) to flesh out the characters. It would also have been able to provide more time to the civil war, which I felt was comparatively neglected.
But like most films it is a mixed bag. On the one hand I was very impressed by the way the film was shot. I thought the film visually was great to watch. I also thought that the cast were good. Cillian Murphy, in particular, was very good. He lived upto what I have come to expect from him having seen his work with Danny Boyle, among others.
The major problem I have is with the film is with the character development. It isn't along the same lines as I saw in a number of reviews that took issue with the fact that the film was supposedly anti-British, my problem was that it did none of the characters, regardless of nation, any real favours. That is because all the character development struck me as perfunctory to the point of producing caricatures rather than believable individuals. All the British characters, with one memorable exception, remind me of the orks from the Lord of the Rings franchise. While all the Irish characters struck me as that kind of 1980s cold warrior action-heroes; flawed, and in some cases rough and ready, but courageous romantics. Even their mistakes are based on a deep and heartfelt desire to do the right thing by their fellow Irish compatriots, if only they could see the wisdom. Even the lad who is shot as a traitor early in the film, while having made a terrible error, as having realised his sin and stepped up, without fuss, to face his fate (albeit with a nauseating moment of sentimentality when he provides a message for his poor shortly to be bereaved mother).
It is the kind of lazy characters you expect in a Dan Brown novel, not from the person behind Kes and Land and Freedom. And that really is the problem I have with this film. It struck me as being in dire need of an extra thirty minutes of screen time (which would bring it to 2:37 minutes) to flesh out the characters. It would also have been able to provide more time to the civil war, which I felt was comparatively neglected.