Faith through Film and Fiction

Mars Attacks!

This week, I watched Tim Burton's 1996 film Mars Attacks! I chose to watch this film because I had already seen a lot of Burton's films and this seemed interesting because it seemed very different from the rest of his work, both visually and story-wise. This movie was very expensive and really is not that funny. The movie attempts to parody 50's alien invasion movies but ends up falling flat. In order to be funny, having a good parody idea is not enough; good writing is needed. Without the comedy, this movie ends up looking like a more expensive version of these tacky old movies without the authenticity and fun of these movies of old. In addition, the violence and special effects end up looking gratuitous. In the film, the humans are zapped by the aliens and light up like they are under an X-ray. This is funny the first time but happens over and over again until it is annoying. In addition, when the humans find a weapon to kill the aliens, we see the aliens' heads explode over and over again in their masks. This movie was not very funny and kind of annoying.
3/10

I really enjoyed Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. I had seen the disney version but not this version. I liked the creepy aspects Tim Burton picked up on that disney left out. I think it enhanced the story line because this is a creepy story. No one dreams of falling down a rabbit hole and getting harassed by the queen of hearts. I have not seen many of Tim Burton's films so I am not very familiar with a lot of his different filming techniques, but I definitely noticed how he used lighting. It was obvious when he was trying to make some things look darker and more mysterious versus when he was trying to show something good. I especially liked how Burton portrayed Wonderland. It was still colorful, but very mysterious. I think Disney missed out on a significant part of wonderland by making it almost a place you wanted to go. Burton really made it a place that looked cool, but once you got familiar with it, you realized how dark and twisted it is.

I really enjoyed this movie because it was like a dark fairy tale.  Edward only wanted to fit into society and go along with the social "norms" but it was hard for him because of his physical appearance.  People (Jim)  took advantage of him because of how innocent he was.  I had always heard how good this movie was but I never found the time to watch it before this assignment.  I thought it was really interesting how the story was told by a grandmother to her granddaughter.  It made it feel even more like a twisted fairy tale.  I thought it was very interesting how Edward became super popular in the neighborhood but then suddenly went downhill from there.  Johnny Depp did an amazing job in this movie because he really portrayed the innocence that was met to be Edward.  I am very surprised he was not nominated for an Oscar since it is such a bizarre role.  It's like he sympathized with Edward and was able to play him so well.  Overall, I think this movie was amazing and so different from anything else I've ever seen.  Tim Burton does an amazing job and has such a unique talent for developing movies.

9/10

i watched alice in wonderland. i went into the movie skeptical because i never found the whole plot interesting and i hate tim burton. i hate tim burton because he makes scary movies and i hate scary movies. but i kinda actually liked this movie. the directing and camera angles were great. ALSO i like the script because it wasn't too forced. it was like free flowing conversation. and the special effects were really nice. and the it was really funny. my favorite part of the movie was jonny depp he is by far the best actor in this movie. and he is my favorite actor of all time. he is so cute. the ending was really nice my favorite "theme" of the movie is how she creates her own story and takes charge. i give this movie an 8 out of ten even though it was made up when someone was high. i liked it. but it did just seem like something someone high would come up with. still good though.

This past weekend I took the time to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was very surprised by it because most Christmas related stories tend to be very pleasant and happy, but this seemed to have a little bit of a darker side to it. I have seen a couple other films done by Tim Burton and noticed that he has a tendency to do this. Despite this fact, I did enjoy the movie and it did have a happy ending that kind of reverted back to most Christmas movies. Jack Skellington does not seem to really grasp the concept of Christmas in the beginning, but slowly begins to understand what it is all about. Along with this, he sick of the same old routine that he has always done. Where he is from,  all they really celebrate is Halloween and he no longer wants to be apart of it. He wants people to be extremely happy versus scared which is what leads him to this thought. He goes about implementing Christmas where he is from in the wrong way, but it all works out in the end. I would definitely recommend this movie to a friend and would gladly watch it again.

Over this weekend I watched Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. The one thing that I did not like about the film was the fact that it seemed a lot older and fake than I expected. I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when I was younger and I remember that as being a really cool and awesome movie, but while I was watching this, I thought to myself "really?" because it seemed very fake (which is something that I get since it is an older movie in general). I have a prejudice against older movies and whenever I can tell something that is fake in a movie, it immediately turns me off and makes me upset and that is what happened to me in this movie. Although I did not enjoy that certain aspect of the film, I still would give it a rating of 8/10 because it is such a classic and that it really is just a beautiful movie to begin with and the story behind it is amazing. Also, some of the scenes really were amazing how real they were and you can tell that it was very tough to create a film like this. For example, when Augustus Gloop got sucked up into the pipe in chocolate, it looked really cool and real which is something I appreciate and give credit to Tim Burton for creating something so cool in that time period.  I would definitely recommend this film to someone who has not seen it and I am very glad that I spent time to watch it.