quote:

Originally posted by daysleeper[chickie]:
and add: I think i have a crush on Valentine.

me too. which, if you look at my title, is probably sick and wrong. But there ya go. Maybe I can get a mod to change my title...

Just got back from seeing it (in NY). First of all, let me just say that I'm in love with this movie. After reading all the bad reviews online, I wasn't going in with very high expectations. I even told my friends it got bad reviews so they wouldn't kill me for making them see it with me if it sucked. But it was amazing! Granted, the story wasn't the most complex, but I never felt like anything was really missing. It didn't feel cheesy ever, which I was grateful for. And visually it was STUNNING! I also loved the personalities given to each creature. (Highlights for me were the orbiting giants and monkeybirds(!))I want to see it again just to try to catch all the little details I missed. And b/c I wanna see it BIG again, rather than wait for the dvd and watch it on a tiny TV. I don't understand how the critics could give it such bad ratings.

On another note, though - why is it playing in so few theaters? I was shocked to find out that in NYC only ONE theater was playing it. This same theater didn't even check for tickets, and my friends and i felt like morons for buying tickets when we could have gotten in free. But it was SO worth it! I just hope those of us that did pay help his ratings, so maybe he'll spread it to more theaters.
It was pretty cool, though, knowing that everyone there were big fans - I've never had that kind of experience at a movie.

Anyway, I gotta get to bed - just had to express my ezcitement - my friends must be tired of hearing me talk about it!

Did anyone else think that Valentine's head looked like a large order of french fries?

Ok, apparently not going to bed yet...

I was also confused/annoyed with the record. Mostly because it was the logo of the movie, so it seemed really off...and it didn't seem to have a connection to anything. But it's minor and I can forgive it.

Also...I was surprised no one's mentioned The Neverending Story. As soon as i saw the "Shadow" engulfing the giants, I thought of the Nothing.

As for the storyline, I think it's okay that it was so simple - there were still some nice, creative touches to it (I liked that the Dark Queen wasn't a typical villain with a maniacal laugh) that kept it from being just a modern Wizard of Oz/Alice in Wonderland/Neverending Story. And perhaps if the story were too complex, we'd all be driving ourselves crazy to find all the little hidden meanings in it (which there probably are some anyway).

Mostly what I find frustrating is that I want to be able to see those visuals on a big screen over and over and I know that's not gonna happen - my sticky little tv won't do it justice

Gorgeous, wonderful, incredible visuals. A total feast for the eyes. Very, very, very cool.

As for the story and characters though, I found it to be a little on the cold side. I wanted to care more about Helena and Valentine, but they seem like stock characters out of Alice in Wonderland / The Wizard of Oz / Labyrinth / The Neverending Story / Coraline.

I hope this is the first of more to come. I'd love to see a Dave McKean adaptation of something classic, like A Midsummer Night's Dream.

quote:

Originally posted by aitapata:
Did anyone else think that Valentine's head looked like a large order of french fries?

It made me think of packing foam.

quote:

Originally posted by Royko:

quote:

Originally posted by aitapata:
Did anyone else think that Valentine's head looked like a large order of french fries?

It made me think of packing foam.

And a pink stripe to his face and you've got Neopolitan ice cream!

quote:

Originally posted by aitapata:
Did anyone else think that Valentine's head looked like a large order of french fries?

That's as good a description as any.

Even though I nodded off several times throughout the movie I thought it was great. If you go to Roger Eberts website http://www.suntimes.com/index/ebert.html you can give your own rating of the movie. He gave it two stars but the fans have given it three so far.

Haven't read the other posts yet
I was very tired when I saw it. This did not help. I had trouble viewing it as a flowing whole. The scenes were a bit random. I suspected that my sleep deprived state had something to do with it. Several of Neil's works have worked best for me on the second go through when I've picked up on how beginnings threaded into endings.
I read the MirrorMask children's edition while fully awake the following day. I don't think the book by itself works well because the movie is so visual, but it did amazing things to clarify the significance of certain parts of the story in my head. It made it a better movie for me. For example:
Helena had been turned into the Dark Princess. Valentine started juggling with her, and then she was normal. I lazily blinked and said 'huh? wha?' The book explained that the queen had her head but her hands remembered their skills and so the trance was broken. Without that explaination, I never would have gotten it.
Now that I have the whole of it in my head, I'm really looking forward to seeing it again. I can see how the parts fit into the whole.

oh, and I really liked the bumbling sphinx!

edit: oh, because I couldn't quite get it in one viewing, I don't think it will do well if it gets larger distribution. I think it'll be a long term DVD cult seller without a doubt, but like the other Henson fantasies, it won't do so well in theaters.

I talked the movie up to a co-worker last week, and she thought about going. Conversation today:

Christy (yes, my co-worker is named Christy. Shut up): Hey, I saw that MirrorMask movie.
Me: What did you think?
Christy: I really liked it. I thought it was more like Labyrinth, though.
Me: Huh?
Christy: I'd heard it was like Dark Crystal, but I thought it was more like Labyrinth.
Me: . . . isn't that the movie with-
Christy: David Bowie. <Pause> And he wore really tight pants in that movie. <Pause> Really tight pants.

quote:

Originally posted by Tongster, the Good Twin:

Christy: David Bowie. <Pause> And he wore really tight pants in that movie. <Pause> Really tight pants.

That's one of the best parts of the whole movie!

I feel so horrible, but I didn't really like Mirrormask. I can appreciate bits and pieces, and certain segments entertained me, but as a whole I couldn't find much to recommend. While little fragments charmed me (the books returning to the library, the sphinxes, 'i don't want to be a waiter'), a lot of stuff bothered me. It just seemed as if there were a lot of ... herrings (red, mind you). The record playing 'mirrormask' which just didn't fit with the content of the movie. Or Valentine's vision, which sets up the possibility that he might betray her again, except that the moment's over too quickly, and was already dealt with during the vision (the line "I don't want to be a waiter.)"

The herring riddle is brilliant. And I also want a sphinx, they're so cute and menacing.

Don't feel horrible! If you didn't connect with the film, there's no reason to feel badly about it; it just didn't connect.

For me, the faults and flaws are outweighed by the parts I really loved, but by no means was it a flawless work, for me.

What Maure said. My review wasn't exactly glowing either (I had forgotten the record bit - it did take you out of the moment somewhat). It happens.

Still waiting for it to open near me can't wait to see it.

from the locus review :

quote:

Second, while it would have made for a radically different movie, I can't help thinking that Helena's evil doppelganger is in fact quite a bit more interesting than Helena herself. "She's awful! She smokes and snogs rotten boys!" True, but apart from inevitable Bad Grrrl fascination, she's also someone who's a far more active character than Helena; it is, after all, her machinations that set the plot in motion. Moreover, she's someone who is a literal princess in a fantastic world who has thrown away vast (if icky) wealth and power to become a normal girl. It's a pity that her journey lacks the raw visual appeal upon which the entire movie is based, since it would potentially be far more interesting in terms of theme and narrative.

http://www.locusmag.com/2005/Features/10_WaldropPerson_MirrorMask.html

*nods*


Yes. There are so many characters in this film that I'd love to know more about. The Other Helena. The Black Queen (where was the father equivalent in that weird family?). THE ORBITING GIANTS. I want to know the back-stories on all of them. At times, there was more emotional attachement to them than to Valentine or Helena.

I took 13-yr-old Cho Girl and a friend of hers to see it yesterday evening. We all enjoyed it, and so did the rest of the audience (a rather small audience, but mind you, this was at about 5 pm on a weekday) - there was plenty of laughter in all the right palces, and otherwise a rapt silence.

We had a nice talk about the movie on the way home. The young ladies, interestingly, were sorry for Anti-Helena at the end, because she had to go back to her original family. However, at 13, they quite agreed that smoking cigs and snogging nasty boys were disgusting behaviors! We liked Valentine but agreed that he was definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer - however, we gave him credit for dealing sensibly with the dozens of keyholes, once he got started.

The library was marvellous, and yes, the key looked quite like a prettier, smaller relative of the Key to Hell.

There were indeed some wasted/out-of-place bits of symbolism. I agree that the "Mirrormask" record on the gramophone was jarring - but also interesting. Did we see that before, or after, the old lady started talking about her husband? I can't recall. "Before" would have been good if the characters had also seen it, and regarded it as a clue, but I don't think that's what happened.

And we thought that the keyhole that turned out to be the correct one - shouldn't have been. There was another, clearly visible, keyhole that seemed to be much more appropriate, given the symbolism that Helena was following for the Queen earlier.

We also agreed that the critics just didn't get it, sadly.

The Wash. Post's reviewer didn't like the movie, and he also didn't mention Neil at all, which I think was a mistake - especially given the glowing review that one of their "Book World" critics had given Anansi Boys just a few days earlier!

- Cho

Wouldn't it be nice to see this movie at an Imax? I would definitely pay again for that experience...

I've been thinking about the record thing and I acctually think I like having it in the movie.

we do see it BEFORE she mentions her husband, and it reflects and catches our eyes and we expect it to be a clue, and it isnt. Then she talks about how her husband said all this stuff and we expect it to be a clue, and it is, only she says something about her husband always talking nonesense and the other two blow it off as well.

I think, it was acctually supposed to make us go "YOU GUYS ITS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE" in our minds, which is effectively how she finds it.

I dont think it was pulled off that well though, unfortunately.

quote:

I think, it was acctually supposed to make us go "YOU GUYS ITS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE" in our minds, which is effectively how she finds it.

But I didn't think that. My friend thought so for a second, but I was just thinking "why would the mirrormask be a record?" and then I just forgot about it for the rest of the movie. Would love to hear what Neil/Dave have to say about it - what they were thinking when they put it in there.