I see a lot of movies at the theatre, so I rarely have time to see a film more than once. But on occasion, I will go see a movie more than once, especially if I liked it and want to introduce someone to it. On the odd occasion, I've gone to see a movie three times in theatres!
I am writing this because I saw Avatar for the third time yesterday. My friend Dawn hadn't seen it, and I figured she would enjoy it, so we met up after she got off work, did some shopping, and went to the 5:00 pm show. What I like about seeing a movie over again, both in theatres, and on DVD, is that you tend to discover something new every time you watch it. Once, I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl on DVD for the hundredth time, and noticed that in one of the scenes, Johnny Depp was holding a banana...for no apparent reason. Little things like that amuse me.
In a movie like Avatar, there is always something new to notice. For example, I never noticed that many of the creatures in Avatar have more than two eyes. I also noticed that they seemed to change the trailers that were shown before the film. That excited me, since it meant I didn't have to sit through another Clash of the Titans preview, or a Prince of Persia: Sands of Time preview. I will probably see Avatar at least once more before it leaves theatres, likely when it comes to Imax. The huge screen size, and the amazing sound will add to the experience, and I won't be able to pass up that opportunity when it presents itself. I can understand why it is now the highest grossing film of all time: it holds up very well to repeat viewings, and it is the type of film you want everyone you know to "experience". It may be long, but the time flies by, even when I know what is going to happen.
But alternatively, there are the occasions where watching a film again ruins it for you. Gladiator is my example of this. I saw it many years ago, and loved it. However, I watched it about a year later in school when I was about 13, and found it to be dull, and rather stupid. Since then, I've caught bits of it on TV, and always end up rolling my eyes and changing the channel. To me, Gladiator is one of those movies you can only watch, and enjoy once.
On that note, before Avatar they showed a trailer for Robin Hood, and is it just me, or does it look like a sequel to Gladiator? Here's the trailer. It doesn't help that I dislike Russell Crowe at the best of times.
One movie I have been meaning to watch again is Lost in Translation. I was 14 when I watched it, and did not think much of it, and I realize now that, that is because I could not relate to it. Now, years later, I think I could get a lot out of it. Have you ever watched a film, hated it, but loved it years later? Or watched one, loved it, then hated it years later?
Showing posts with label Avatar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Avatar. Show all posts
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Avatar (and Soundtrack Musings)
I'm quite ill today, so I'll probably refrain from going into as much detail as I would like to on this topic (or so I say at this time, I may get carried away). Nevertheless, I wanted to get into this topic while it was still fresh in my mind.
First off: Avatar was a decent film. The visuals definitely made it what it was, storywise, it was pretty weak. Like I thought, it was a retelling of Dances With Wolves and The Last Samurai. But visually, it was a masterpiece. I don't think I've ever seen a film look as good as this one did. The 3-D was the best I've seen in a film. The Na'vi looked so real, almost like they could walk off the screen. See it in theatres. Even if you don't "like" the story, it'll be worth it for the visuals alone. I was disappointed by the lack of character development though, and would like to learn more about the world of Pandora. It was just so fascinating, and so beautiful--almost like a character in itself.
Now, a topic most people aren't talking about: the soundtrack. I liked it. However, I recognized several bits of the music from other films. I sat there in the theatre at one particular moment wondering where one piece was from, because I knew it was from a film I'd seen multiple times. Y'know, instead of paying attention to the movie, I was thinking about music. I'd thought far enough that it was probably a violent movie, possibly a war film. Here is the piece of music in mind (I've included it as a link because the title of the piece contains a slight spoiler to the film, and I want to give people the choice whether or not they want to view it based on that fact):
Avatar soundtrack, piece 10 (begins about the 5 minute mark)
It's not the main musical composition of the piece, but still I recognized it! I did research when I got home, and found out that James Horner, the composer, likes to "recycle" his past music and rework it into his soundtracks rather than creating entirely new pieces. Therefore, I did more research, and John Tillnes a man who is obviously much more knowledgeable about music than I, gave me the insight I needed to solve my problem (with some help from the commenters as well). Apparently the repeating music at the end is called a "four-note motif", and it's a common theme of Horner's. After reading the comments, I finally figured it out: Enemy at the Gates! That motif is used quite liberally through out the film during really tense moments, thus making it stick out in my mind. It helps that I've watched the film numerous times. Here's the piece in question (again, linked to because of a slight spoiler):
Enemy at the Gates
Clearly the motif is used at the forefront of this piece, whereas it is a bit more subtle in the Avatar piece.
I found another, with a bit of assistance from a friend as well, the following piece is similar to many pieces of the Glory soundtrack:
Avatar Soundtrack, Piece 6
I've read that there are similarities to the Titanic score, among many others. I didn't catch any other similarities though, because my fascination with movie music is a fairly recent one. Before, I hardly noticed the music, save for a particularly good piece. That, and I haven't watched Titanic in over two and a half years, despite owning it on DVD. It's just too long to watch most of the time, I don't have the attention span for it. Gangs of New York is one of the very few "long" movies I can watch on even a semi-regular basis, because it's one of my favourites. However, I don't believe Kirk has seen Titanic, so that should be remedied at some point.
So how do I feel about Horner "borrowing" from his past sound tracks? It doesn't really bother me that much. He's clearly got a specific style, so if it works for one film, and can work for another...go at it. But it is a problem when the pieces are much too similar. Noticing that four-note motif was clearly distracting for me, but I also recognize that I'm quite nerdy about movies in general. For the casual fan, I doubt they'd notice. I don't think I'd say that I dislike Horner, his music is actually quite moving, but there are other composers out there that I like a whole lot more.
First off: Avatar was a decent film. The visuals definitely made it what it was, storywise, it was pretty weak. Like I thought, it was a retelling of Dances With Wolves and The Last Samurai. But visually, it was a masterpiece. I don't think I've ever seen a film look as good as this one did. The 3-D was the best I've seen in a film. The Na'vi looked so real, almost like they could walk off the screen. See it in theatres. Even if you don't "like" the story, it'll be worth it for the visuals alone. I was disappointed by the lack of character development though, and would like to learn more about the world of Pandora. It was just so fascinating, and so beautiful--almost like a character in itself.
Now, a topic most people aren't talking about: the soundtrack. I liked it. However, I recognized several bits of the music from other films. I sat there in the theatre at one particular moment wondering where one piece was from, because I knew it was from a film I'd seen multiple times. Y'know, instead of paying attention to the movie, I was thinking about music. I'd thought far enough that it was probably a violent movie, possibly a war film. Here is the piece of music in mind (I've included it as a link because the title of the piece contains a slight spoiler to the film, and I want to give people the choice whether or not they want to view it based on that fact):
Avatar soundtrack, piece 10 (begins about the 5 minute mark)
It's not the main musical composition of the piece, but still I recognized it! I did research when I got home, and found out that James Horner, the composer, likes to "recycle" his past music and rework it into his soundtracks rather than creating entirely new pieces. Therefore, I did more research, and John Tillnes a man who is obviously much more knowledgeable about music than I, gave me the insight I needed to solve my problem (with some help from the commenters as well). Apparently the repeating music at the end is called a "four-note motif", and it's a common theme of Horner's. After reading the comments, I finally figured it out: Enemy at the Gates! That motif is used quite liberally through out the film during really tense moments, thus making it stick out in my mind. It helps that I've watched the film numerous times. Here's the piece in question (again, linked to because of a slight spoiler):
Enemy at the Gates
Clearly the motif is used at the forefront of this piece, whereas it is a bit more subtle in the Avatar piece.
I found another, with a bit of assistance from a friend as well, the following piece is similar to many pieces of the Glory soundtrack:
Avatar Soundtrack, Piece 6
I've read that there are similarities to the Titanic score, among many others. I didn't catch any other similarities though, because my fascination with movie music is a fairly recent one. Before, I hardly noticed the music, save for a particularly good piece. That, and I haven't watched Titanic in over two and a half years, despite owning it on DVD. It's just too long to watch most of the time, I don't have the attention span for it. Gangs of New York is one of the very few "long" movies I can watch on even a semi-regular basis, because it's one of my favourites. However, I don't believe Kirk has seen Titanic, so that should be remedied at some point.
So how do I feel about Horner "borrowing" from his past sound tracks? It doesn't really bother me that much. He's clearly got a specific style, so if it works for one film, and can work for another...go at it. But it is a problem when the pieces are much too similar. Noticing that four-note motif was clearly distracting for me, but I also recognize that I'm quite nerdy about movies in general. For the casual fan, I doubt they'd notice. I don't think I'd say that I dislike Horner, his music is actually quite moving, but there are other composers out there that I like a whole lot more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
