Hey sir! You sir!
Jan. 12th, 2008 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loony_moonyI just saw "Sweeney Todd"! FINALLY! :D
I have to say the trailers before "Sweeney Todd" though were made of AWFUL. When the highlight of your pre-movie experience is a stupid commercial with a cartoon panda voiced by Jack Black (who is always awesome), you know Hollywood's in the dumpster.
The AMAZING OMFG
THE LOOK. Oh, Tim Burton, you were BORN to make this movie. It's a proper masterpiece production, down to the CGI titles. The colours of the movie, with present!London being all grey and black and blood red, and past!London being sunny and flowery and beautiful just enhances how all of this movie is happening through Sweeney's eyes, not reality. How Mrs. Lovett's colours are all dim and sort of faded, and her fantasies are completely surreal. The gorgeousness of this goes also for the way everyone looked: Johnny Depp is positively exquisite, and the romantic tragedy hovering over his head throughout the movie only adds to his very unique, obviously insane aura. Helena Bonham Carter is fantastic in every damn scene she's in. Alan Rickman looks like the proper silver fox, and dear god, HE SINGS. I DIED. I SQUEED. HE SINGS, PEOPLE. And Sasha Baron Cohen was downright a scene-stealer, from his Mr. Pirelli act (people started laughing before he even said a word, I swear), to his scene with Sweeney at his shop.
The Frustration Inducing Details
The singing. It really wasn't stellar most of the time. I know they're only actors, and I'm not a die-hard musical theater lover, but still. It grated sometimes, because you could hear that on a normal day, Johnny Depp would've needed serious amplification to get through the full symphonic orchestra, and I could hear the studio tricks in the soundtrack. And Johnny was sometimes truly the best of them all.
Another thing about Johnny was his accent. It could be just me, but I could sometimes see a glimmer of Jack Sparrow through Sweeney, not to mention the identical accent. Maybe he did PotC for too long and didn't have a proper break after? I don't know. All I know is that this is his first movie ever where I've not been completely satisfied. Guy sets a really high standards to his performances, and this time I felt it was brilliant only at times, and confused at other times. Maybe he didn't have a complete lockdown on Sweeney, maybe his daughter's illness stole his mojo, I certainly wouldn't blame him for this if it were the case.
Alan Rickman was also frustrating, because he seemed to be taking one too many cues from Snape. The scene with the boy in the library was a COMPLETE rip off from the GoF scene in the potions storage room, not only with the way he acted. However, the SINGING compensated.
Mrs. Lovett's looks was a bit too "The Corpse Bride" for me. But Helena Bonham Carter's an absolute genius at comedic timing, so I ddin't care quite so much.
The Rest
I'm still a bit shocked, I have to say. I don't think this was Tim Burton's bloodiest movie by far, but the violence was still very much there. He certainly didn't spare in the throat slashing scenes, and the burning and the bleeding. I actually had a HUGE deja-vu to "A Very Supernatural Christmas" when Toby notices the butchery in Mrs. Lovett's basement, because it looked SO SIMILAR to the Pagan Gods' basement.
The music is complete genius. Not for nothing it's called one of the great musical masterpieces of the 20th century. It's unique and terrifiying and totally gorgeous in a very macabre sort of way. It was a pleasure to hear it fully finally, with the exception of "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" of course.
All in all, amazing, but has its problems. But definitely worth watching though.
THE LOOK. Oh, Tim Burton, you were BORN to make this movie. It's a proper masterpiece production, down to the CGI titles. The colours of the movie, with present!London being all grey and black and blood red, and past!London being sunny and flowery and beautiful just enhances how all of this movie is happening through Sweeney's eyes, not reality. How Mrs. Lovett's colours are all dim and sort of faded, and her fantasies are completely surreal. The gorgeousness of this goes also for the way everyone looked: Johnny Depp is positively exquisite, and the romantic tragedy hovering over his head throughout the movie only adds to his very unique, obviously insane aura. Helena Bonham Carter is fantastic in every damn scene she's in. Alan Rickman looks like the proper silver fox, and dear god, HE SINGS. I DIED. I SQUEED. HE SINGS, PEOPLE. And Sasha Baron Cohen was downright a scene-stealer, from his Mr. Pirelli act (people started laughing before he even said a word, I swear), to his scene with Sweeney at his shop.
The Frustration Inducing Details
The singing. It really wasn't stellar most of the time. I know they're only actors, and I'm not a die-hard musical theater lover, but still. It grated sometimes, because you could hear that on a normal day, Johnny Depp would've needed serious amplification to get through the full symphonic orchestra, and I could hear the studio tricks in the soundtrack. And Johnny was sometimes truly the best of them all.
Another thing about Johnny was his accent. It could be just me, but I could sometimes see a glimmer of Jack Sparrow through Sweeney, not to mention the identical accent. Maybe he did PotC for too long and didn't have a proper break after? I don't know. All I know is that this is his first movie ever where I've not been completely satisfied. Guy sets a really high standards to his performances, and this time I felt it was brilliant only at times, and confused at other times. Maybe he didn't have a complete lockdown on Sweeney, maybe his daughter's illness stole his mojo, I certainly wouldn't blame him for this if it were the case.
Alan Rickman was also frustrating, because he seemed to be taking one too many cues from Snape. The scene with the boy in the library was a COMPLETE rip off from the GoF scene in the potions storage room, not only with the way he acted. However, the SINGING compensated.
Mrs. Lovett's looks was a bit too "The Corpse Bride" for me. But Helena Bonham Carter's an absolute genius at comedic timing, so I ddin't care quite so much.
The Rest
I'm still a bit shocked, I have to say. I don't think this was Tim Burton's bloodiest movie by far, but the violence was still very much there. He certainly didn't spare in the throat slashing scenes, and the burning and the bleeding. I actually had a HUGE deja-vu to "A Very Supernatural Christmas" when Toby notices the butchery in Mrs. Lovett's basement, because it looked SO SIMILAR to the Pagan Gods' basement.
The music is complete genius. Not for nothing it's called one of the great musical masterpieces of the 20th century. It's unique and terrifiying and totally gorgeous in a very macabre sort of way. It was a pleasure to hear it fully finally, with the exception of "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" of course.
All in all, amazing, but has its problems. But definitely worth watching though.
I have to say the trailers before "Sweeney Todd" though were made of AWFUL. When the highlight of your pre-movie experience is a stupid commercial with a cartoon panda voiced by Jack Black (who is always awesome), you know Hollywood's in the dumpster.
