Sunday, March 28, 2010

Walt Disney Pictures Alice in Wonderland (2010)

I stepped into AMC Theatre 4 on a rainy day. The day was perfect for watching a movie because it is very dark and wet and there's nothing to do. Watching this movie in the morning got my mind working because it was funny, creative, and entertaining. There were great actors, great special effects, and awesome visual effects.

Alice and Wonderland is from a classical novel that every American should read. It is wonderful book and now a wonderful movie. This movie could be used as a teaching tool to help students understand the novel, the time period, and the general setting. The movie also showed Alice's emotions and feelings really well. It is understandable to be scared of a nightmare and a place like Wonderland. Wonderland is weird, strange, surreal, and sometimes hard to understand. It is created by a Englishman because the movie is about dethroning a monarch and saving a land. England was a monarchy , so it knows a lot more to getting rid of bad monarchs or dictators. The Red queen resembles a dictator that is power hungry. She wants the kingdom and got it by force. The classical tale and the movie has landed a place in my memory. Her relationship with her sister is a classic sibling rivalry because the youngest always get everything. The oldest sibling is always the one that is left unsatisfied and jealous. Even the battle is about the rivalry between two siblings because the younger one , the white queen, got the kingdom. So the older sibling, the queen of hearts, believe that the older one is more responsible and thus she should get the land. However, the queen of hearts has no friends or council, because she created allies using fear and power. The White Queen used that to her advantage and got Alice to slay the queen of hearts' most powerful beast. Without that beast, every body is free because she no longer has the power.



This movie also gave us a history lesson on a family of monarchs. When the older brother ascends the throne, sometimes the younger brother would use force to get rid of his blood brother. This fact is true because humans have a nature to want power and they always want more. The story also tells us that with great power comes great responsibility. The Queen of hearts had all that power , but she took no responsibility. She created hatred among her people because the people believes that she is enjoying too much time in her castle. She eventually became oblivious to what was going on in wonderland. She believes that everything is perfect and protesters should be decapitated. It shows her irresponsibility in following what her people want. This happened a lot in medieval England, ancient china, medieval France, and the Ottoman empire. This means that this story, movie, and book showed us the time period that it was written in and the historic activities going on. It also hints that the story takes place before the Opium war because it was mentioned that they wanted to find a shorter route to China. All movies have stories, some of these stories could hint at the past, the present, or the future. Avatar hinted that we might discover a new planet and ruin it all together. The Hurt Locker hinted on the past Iraq war and what happened. This story hinted on a medieval fugue with two monarchs facing each other.

Alice in Wonderland also tells us about a childish dream. It shows us that we all want to travel to a place where we can enjoy the moment without pollution, crowds, or pressure and stress. It tells us that we all want a place to think, relax, and "flush out" our thoughts to someone trustworthy. The time spent in Wonderland helped Alice understand her dilemma in the wedding ceremony. When she climbed out, Alice knew her future as clear as day. She also became happier because she understood more about herself and others around her. For example, she made the connection of the two fat boys with two girls. Those two girls were her friends and they knew what would happen that day and they would also "fight". The connection is similar to the connection that Dorothy made at the end of The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy said, " I had a dream and you were in it". It just explains that the author of the Wizard of Oz had read Louis Carroll's books.

This movie's connection with Louis Carroll's novel, Through the Looking Glass and Alice in Wonderland is very precise and very informational. The three dimensional effects were awesome, but that was not the most important part in the movie.

However I have mixed feelings about this movie. Some parts were dull, some parts were exciting, and some parts were sad. This made me think twice about the rating of this movie because it was not consistent. I feel that this movie has too much dialogue and some of the dialogue could be cut out. I also found listening to their British accents annoying. Also , the movie started out to be very confusing. They did not introduce everything clearly. Although this movie has faults, I still love Alice in Wonderland. Watch it in 3D and you will not be disappointed. It has great visual and special effects, but incomparable to Avatar. Watch the movie in theatre because they have comfy seats and screens. Also, watch the movie in the morning because movies are cheaper in the morning than the afternoon.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

OSCAR Night Who won? Is there personnal bias?

The Academy Awards have been a prestigious award for eighty two years. How has the procedure for choosing a winner changed and what are they doing differently? I believe that the academy is trying to keep awards from the rightful owner and giving it to someone else. James Cameron is the best director because he wrote the screenplay for Avatar, produced Avatar, and directed Avatar. Without James Cameron, there would not be a movie because he did the crucial work. However his team did the a lot of work too, but under his supervision.

James Cameron has won dozens of awards and have millions of dollars. The Academy hates James Cameron because Cameron has everything. Cameron has the awards and the money and the fans. They want to give the award of Best Picture and Best Director to Kathryn Bigelow because the audience least expect that to happen. But I ask the Academy , If Kathryn Bigelow would spent 15 to 16 years of her life for making a movie. Avatar is still better than the Hurt Locker because the story is more original, the picture quality is better, and the technology is newer. The new technology to film 3D movies was introduced by James Cameron because he wants the audience to pick up a bow and fight along side the Na'Vi. His dream became reality and everybody in the world accepts that. Not only is the technology amazing, but the worldwide audience reaction is even greater. The Amazon natives are using the movie as an inspiration to face the developing companies. The Palestinians are using Avatar as an inspiration to fight the Israeli. James Cameron made a excellent point when he said, " It doesn't matter if I win a award or not because I broke my own box office record, I received excellent reactions from the world, and I already have dozens of awards. This is just a big celebration for me. I just want to celebrate the success of my team and my movie. " My belief is supporting James Cameron's statement to ABC cameras and E News cameras. This also supports the fact that Avatar is still a great movie and the Academy is very bias and near minded.

A computer generated movie can win best picture because change is coming to the motion picture department. We have seen too many movies like The Hurt Locker because everybody wants to capture the Iraq War details. Compare it to Avatar, The Hurt Locker falls behind because Avatar is an epic movie that has romance, environmental cause, action, adventure, and science fiction. Nonetheless, The Hurt Locker has never captured my attention because it looks more like a news channel than a movie. I never even finish the movie once because I felt it was boring and only portrayed the soldiers as heroes. I understand that these soldiers are heroes, but to some of the natives , western soldiers have been a threat. Avatar portrayed the side of the natives very well because the Na'vi saw the soldiers as terrorists and land stealing aliens. Avatar has also portrayed the western soldiers as heroes. Avatar has moved me emotionally and physically. I was deeply touched by the natives' willingness to fight for their homeland. (They want to keep their planet fresh and without pollution.) I was also touched by the way a small team and an entire native population can defeat the powerful imperialist power. (It shows that natives can go up against the people with guns. ) I will ask Kathryn Bigelow and her "Hurt Locker" team, if their movie can be as touching to the world as Avatar has.