|
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
|
Author
|
Topic: There Will Be Blood
|
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 06-13-2008 01:45 PM
Bump.
This is another movie I put off seeing until I could rent it on Blu-ray disc. Like Cloverfield, this is another one I'm glad I only rented. That's disappointing because I liked Paul Thomas Anderson's three previous films (especially Magnolia and Boogie Nights).
There Will Be Blood is interesting in parts, but unfortunately not as an entire film. The production showed great attention to detail and maintained a very authentic feel to the time period and industry involved. The cinematography is very good. Not sure if it's really Oscar-worthy, but it's good. The music score sounded like an homage to parts of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But all of this stuff is for nothing if the story takes 2.5 hours not going much of anywhere.
I think Daniel Day Lewis did a good job portraying the enigmatic Daniel Plainview character. However the character arc and story plot is pretty muddy. Certain events happen that make the story feel like it is going to gear up and finally get some momentum, but then nothing comes of it. Plainview threatens executives from Standard Oil. Isn't something supposed to happen as a result? He commits acts of fraud and violence against other people. Same thing. Little if any consequence. I felt the abrupt ending left a long movie seeming unfinished (despite the main character's parting line).
I'll give P.T. Anderson credit for taking the chance to not make a conventional Hollywood film. However, any filmmaker is still playing his movie to an audience. I'm sure lots of P.T. Anderson fans want him to get back to the style of film making he used on Boogie Nights and Magnolia. No artist wants to repeat himself either.
Many critics have lavished this movie with rave reviews. Some have even noted the film's similarities with Citizen Kane. But any similarities are superficial. Charles Foster Kane has a very clear character and story arc, going from a bawdy, fun loving young man with lots of friends to a destroyed and isolated egomaniac surrounded by mountains of material wealth. Daniel Plainview gets a mansion with its own bowling alley where he wallows in alcoholism and isolation near the film's end. But he just strikes the same paranoid, scheming note through the whole movie. If anything, it's only the characters around him that change.
The term "epic" has also been applied to this movie. There Will Be Blood was filmed in Panavision like so many "epic" movies, but it felt more like a smaller art house film to me.
The Blu-ray disc of There Will Be Blood doesn't contain many extras. It does have The Story of Petroleum, an interesting B&W silent film originally produced by Sinclair Oil. The 25 minute feature is educational in tone and some viewers may find it more enjoyable to watch than the main feature on the disc.
quote: Stu Jamieson
Starting with an unassuming title card and without fanfare, in an Old English typeface, white on black and silent like the films at the turn of the 19th century in which this story takes place, the title appears: "There Will Be Blood".
Technically, the font used is "Linotext" by LinotypeAG. It's been hit with some Photoshop filters to smudge it up a bit.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Joe Redifer
You need a beating today
Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99
|
posted 07-26-2008 04:15 AM
Seen when trying to purchase There Will Be Blood from Amazon:
"People who liked this movie also enjoyed anal warts, brain cancer, paralysis and scurvy."
Seriously, this movie is more pretentious than anything. But hey, it's Paul Thomas Anderson (who I was not aware directed this POS until the end credits started). PTA films are supposed to be pretentious. You're but a lowly commoner if you don't love his shitty films. I'll tell you something, he really needs to hire an editor. Clearly every single frame shot on the camera made it into the movie without exception. You will experience two or three birthdays during one viewing of this thing. Wait, it's Paul Thomas Anderson... he knows nothing of pacing. The music was clearly taken out of a horror film and was completely out of place here. Oh? It's "unique" you say? FUCK THAT! Just because something is unique or new doesn't mean it is good. The story was about... nothing. Nothing at all. When it ended, nothing was resolved, it was a story that was not worth telling, that nobody cares about. A story about a skunk fart would be more interesting.
The acting was ass for the most part. Once again the children performed better than Daniel Day Lewis. All he tried to do was a bad Sean Connery impression and lace everything with "intensity" which is the only thing he knows how to do. He sucks ass and does not deserve to act. I don't know what society did to deserve watching him in this movie. And since Danny DL won an Oscar for this nonsense, that means other actors will try to do the same type of overacting in their attempt to achieve the same. Thanks for indirectly cursing us with even more bad movies, asshole.
Please, let's get rid of these lame-o directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson and all other Andersons who make pretentious movies.
Now I'm off to watch 10,000 BC, sure to be a winner! My hopes are high.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002
|
posted 07-26-2008 06:17 PM
quote: Joe Redifer
I'll tell you something, he really needs to hire an editor.
His editor is Dylan Tichenor, who is easily one of the best in business. Personally, I don't have a problem with the editing, but if you do, PTA is more likely to blame. Prior to the film's release, an interviewer commented that there is nothing in the film which doesn't need to be there. PTA laughed, and said, "I'll have to tell my editor you said that."
As for the music coming from a horror movie, PTA has said from Day One that this film is a horror movie.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002
|
posted 07-27-2008 12:31 PM
quote: Joe Redifer
But I bet you were scared, right Mike?
I didn't jump in my seat, and I didn't look under my bed before I went to sleep that night, but I do find it terrifying that people like Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday exist. That's way more scary than supernatural nonsense like THE EXORCIST or something.
And for the record, I would love to see PTA do an action movie.
quote: Mike Heenan
My question is, will I end up fast forwarding through most of it, like I did with the yawn fests that were No Country for Old Men, and the Brad Pitt Jesse James flick with the untalented Affleck brother?
The pacing in THERE WILL BE BLOOD is slower than NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, but TWBB is much more compelling. Nothing can compare to the boredom of the Jesse James movie.
Also, has anyone else noticed how on BD/DVD, the chapter breaks are the same as the reel changes?
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic