2008 Rondo Awards - Best Movie

2008 was a terrific year for big budget horror, fantasy and sci-fi movies. There were some really fantastic films released, and the choice for Best Movie was really tough this time around.Here's a partial list of some of the movies release in 2008...

Cloverfield
The Spiderwick Chronicles

Let the Right One In

Diary of the Dead

Iron Man

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The Happening

The Incredible Hulk

WALL-E

Hancock

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Journey to the Center of the Earth

The Dark Knight

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Igor

Saw V

Quantum of Solace

Twilight

Punisher: War Zone

The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Spirit

It's by no means a complete list, just some of the ones I felt were deserving of possible Rondo inclusion.

Looking at the above list, I have a hard time narrowing it down to just one choice.
I almost chose Cloverfield (it comes in a close second for me), but I have issues with that movie. My number one beef with it is the camera work. I understand that the hand held look is because we're seeing the action through a video camera held by a scurrying survivor of this devastating event (a giant monster invasion), and we're watching the events unfold first person as it happens.

It's a great idea, but the problem lies in the execution. I felt the filmmakers had little respect for the viewer in this area - the whirling, shaky, constantly moving camera movement was way overdone, and in fact I literally felt nauseous watching it, (and even had to turn away from the movie at one point due to motion sickness). This constant camera motion also became distracting to the point of pulling me right out of the story.Instead of being swept up in this gripping event I was constantly annoyed at the camera work.

For an example of how this technique can be used properly check out Diary of the Dead. The lead characters in this film are also on the run in the face of a disaster, a zombie plague in this case, and we're seeing the action through the lens of their video camera, too.This film manages to pull off the same effect without the nausea inducing overuse of Cloverfield. I didn't think it was as good of a movie as Cloverfiled, but I did at least appreciate Romero's restraint on the hand held technique.

The Dark Knight was a good film, and featured an amazing performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker. But although I liked the movie, I didn't feel it was the best picture of 2008.

My choice for Best Movie for 2008 has to go to Iron Man. It was a near perfect comic book adaptation, and really hit a home run in my book.Fantastic special effects, great casting and acting, and a fun storyline. I grew up an avid Marvel comics reader, and for me it really held true to the source material.

It was as if the pages of a comic book had come to life. I had my doubts going in whether they could convincingly pull off the armor effects, but it was really well done.Robert Downy Jr. was fantastic as Tony Stark, and Jeff Bridges was a perfect villain. I liked the always lovely Gwyneth Paltrow as love interest Pepper Potts too.It was just a really entertaining movie, and in my opinion the best of 2008. So it gets my vote for Best Movie in the 2008 Rondos!

My thoughts on Cloverfield

I finally got a free afternoon to check out this movie. I'd been looking forward to seeing Cloverfield since I first saw the trailer a few months back. Thought I'd share my thoughts on this film.

I had an idea in mind of what to expect going in, as I'd heard a few things about it, seen a couple of different trailers and heard some word of mouth. Unfortunately, that can't be avoided when you have to wait a few weeks to see a movie. I prefer to go into a movie with no preconceived notions and no idea what to expect. Almost all of my favorite movie viewing experiences have been this way, when you are totally pleasantly surprised by what transpires on the screen in front of you.

This time, however, that wasn't the case. Not that that is a bad thing, just the way it was. My friend Eathen and I arrived a few minutes before the show started and the theater was almost empty. We settled in and after a half dozen or so trailers and a couple of commercials the film started. Now, I had been warned that it was shot as if with a hand held camera, a-la the Blair Witch, but I was still unprepared for the amount of shakiness on screen. After a half hour of this my head was a bit woozy - after an hour of it, I was downright nauseous. Maybe I'm just more susceptible to this than most folks, but I had to stop watching the screen and just listen to parts of it to avoid getting sick, glancing up whenever possible to keep up with the action, but looking at the floor the rest of the time to avoid heaving. The entire video camera gimmick got old after a very short period of time. The same story could have been told with the same characters without it being done so entirely through a hand held video camera.

Speaking of which, that was exactly the thing that I had the most problems with. I found it easier to suspend my disbelief in a giant rampaging monster than in this video camera technique. I work as an audio visual guy in my day job - or at least that is a large part of my job duties. I know cameras, and let me tell you, if they have one on the market like the ones these folks were using I want one.

Have you ever dropped a camera? I have, from a distance of about three feet, and it was never the same again. This camera was dropped from a distance of about twenty feet, survived a helicopter crash, and lasted through an explosion I can only assume was a nuclear one, and whatever magnetic pulse would have been generated. That is one tough camera.

Not to mention that the characters never, at any time, change tapes or batteries on this camera. Standard mini-dv camera tapes are 60 min long. There are 80 min tapes available, but I’ve never seen any in stores, only online. This movie is 85 min long, and since what we’re seeing is real-time, that means they would have to have at least 85 min of tape in the camera. There is no way that these characters, who barely seem to be able to operate a camera, would have the longer tapes, they would be shooting on whatever is readily available.

It is possible they could have shot this in LP mode, and gotten 120 min of footage, but the quality would look bad, much worse than what we were seeing.

And then there are the battery issues…the battery on my consumer camera wants to start crapping out after I film just one of my son’s basketball games, which is about 40 minutes. It goes out quicker if I film it through the pop out window, like the characters are doing in the shot below.

Even if they had the longer tapes, or were shooting in LP mode, they would have to recharge the battery or have backup, charged batteries. I kept thinking about this during the movie. “Damn, those are some long lasting batteries.” I know I come off like some nitpicking nerd here, but these technical issues pulled me right out of the movie.

Telling the story from the perspective of a bystander caught in the grip of this catastrophe was really a great idea. The emotional impact was incredible and there was a real 9-11 feel to certain parts of it, particularly at the beginning as a building collapses and a giant cloud of debris rushes down the street toward the main characters. It looked almost exactly like footage from 9-11, especially since this was happening IN New York City.

Overall I think the film works, and is very powerful in areas, but suffers from the very techniques that make it unique. Any technique can be overdone, and should be used only as much as appropriate. The fact that I felt physically nauseous made this a way overdone gimmick for me.

I've read that there may be a sequel in the works soon. If so, I hope they decide to lose the hand held technique and just tell a good story. It would be easy enough to follow a group of individuals through this crisis with a tripod mounted camera, and I don’t think the effect would be lessened at all. This hand held technique was old after about five minutes of the Blair Witch, much less 85 minutes of Cloverfield.