Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Forward... Penguin!

Yum! There’s a big block party out here. I’m such a lightweight. One margarita and I’m warm.

I did see March of the Penguins today, and it was pretty good. I’m going to probably suffer both slings and arrows when I say I wasn’t really blown away though. I think it’s another case of expectations vs. reality. Don’t get me wrong, I did really enjoy it, but with all the talk, I thought it might be better.

I do understand now what people are saying about there being a bit too much personification, and I tend to agree. Now I’m a guy who is genetically unable to refer to a pet as an ‘it,’ but I think they take it a bit too far when they talk about the penguins as devastated or ecstatic or such. Even if I left devastated by watching the penguins loose a chick, it would have been much more powerful to let the film speak for itself, rather than force very charged words into the mind of the penguin.

That being said, even though it was shot in some horrible conditions (and portions of the film show it), it’s a beautiful film. It’s a great story more than a great documentary, but if that’s what you are looking for, you can’t do much better. The penguins are also wonderfully cute and resilliant. It's easy to see why they hold the filmakers personification as well as they do.

March of the Penguins 7/10

Bonus:

There was a trailer for the new version of Pride and Prejudice. It looks pretty good. Kiera Knightley is gorgeous and all, but is it wrong that I’m in love with Judi Dench?

2 comments:

Stewgad said...

I really enjoyed the movie, but I'm with you on the narrative. I probably would have preferred more science, less love story. But, regardless, we had a great time watching it. Maybe because it was just so nice to be watching a raging snowstorm while it was so hot and miserable outside the theater.

Overread said...

Yeah, I'm a big fan of all things frosty. One of the things I liked most about the film was just looking at the scenery. It's so beautiful.