Rosamund Pike – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl :: Which girl is gone?

Vampire Bat :: No, it is the name of the movie.

Vampire Owl :: Really? But you are going to a theatre which almost froze us to death last time.

Vampire Bat :: Yes, but it happened only once.

Vampire Owl :: Dude, only a Vampire Penguin can stand such cold. I think they are trying to start a new mortuary freezer at the theatre in collabration with the nearby hospital.

Vampire Bat :: Have you ever been to a mortuary?

Vampire Owl :: Yes, once when I was looking for a zombie to provide assistance to my owlification. Couldn’t find one though. I was freezing to death; no wonder there are no zombies in this part of the world. Even the undead dies in that cold.

Vampire Bat :: But people usually want this cold.

Vampire Owl :: It is already raining outside. Why would they want more cold? See, this is why I should not watch this movie and go back to owlification. Watching a movie here would be like watching Frozen without the visual effects.

Vampire Bat :: Be the Gone Owl then. Best of luck.

[Goes into the multiplex].

What is it about? :: Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) returns home on the day of his fifth anniversary to find his wife missing. The situation does manage to find a lot of media coverage as she is daughter of the parents who wrote a very popular series of books with Amy Elliott-Dunne (Rosamund Pike) at the centre of it, called Amazing Amy. Soon, the media comes to the conclusion as he is the one who is responsible for the same and has murdered his wife, thanks to the revelations of Noelle Hawthorne (Casey Wilson) who says that he was not a good husband and she was pregnant. Nick acts strange and also sounds weird during the investigations making the cops suspect him, and there are also more evidences that point to him. Then there is his sexual relationship with Andie Fitzgerald (Emily Ratajkowski). Finding Amy’s diary and what seems to be the situation of their marriage, it becomes clear that he is in big trouble, despite the sincere efforts of his twin sister Margo Dunne (Carrie Coon) and attorney Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry).

The defence of Gone Girl :: The movie has two sides, and the first half is entirely different from what is to follow in the second, and the PVR intermission is nicely created. The two halves are rather like two parts, with first one being an investigation of the mystery of the disappearance of a man’s wife, and the second being how it has been working for the wife, and how it goes on as everything comes together in the end. I found the second half clearly superior to the first, and there is a lot of truth as well as entertainment in the latter division. The first half’s mystery as well as the second half’s black comedy nicely compliments each other. This is comparable to the movies like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Enemy and Prisoners with its content. It brings the questions about modern marriage to light and talks about how it has changed in the recent years – the narrative is as good as it can get, and the plot is nicely managed. There is also that power of the performances.

Positives and negatives :: I have heard some people say that the novel is better than the movie, and I do ponder about it, but I don’t think I am going to read the book any time soon. For now, I can say that the movie is excellent. Some people might find the movie’s going forward and backward in time irritating, but I find it nice. It does have a strange twist in the end, and even as it has a certain beauty about it, some viewers might find it ridiculous – yes, some other usual kind of ending could have been the one for normal audience, but we are always equipped to take something different, aren’t we? Then there is the slow start which can take the interest off you, and the extreme length of the movie which has two and half hours taken away from us, making it a total three hours long with those advertisements – too many commercials and trailers, and I was frozen in the theatre by then. Thank God for the intermission we have here, for a long English movie is not what our audience ask for.

Performers of the soul :: Ben Affleck is playing a usual unsuspecting man, and it seems to work for him a lot. There is not much to do there for him to do other than being clueless and making at attempt at being better, but he does that nicely to convince us about his character. It is undoubtedly a good role for him as we wait for him to come back to us as the new Batman. I loved how Rosamund Pike played her amazing Amy, as there is as much mystery about it as well as the awesomeness in the portrayal. There is that moment when she reveals her thoughts, and it is one bloody awesome moment, and there is that thing that he does with the climax, and she is simply perfect right there. Neil Patrick Harris is pretty much wasted in his role which is pretty much a dumb one, and does nothing much. Emily Ratajkowski is there as the most gorgeous person around, nothing more about her character, but she is indeed lovely to watch. I did think that Carrie Coon was very impressive there. Tyler Perry was nice, I liked how he did his job. Lola Kirke and Casey Wilson also do their jobs nicely.

Soul exploration :: Gone Girl is a mixture of many genres, as it has its mystery and twist along with humour and crime investigation. There is romance, but one might not want to see that genre at the centre. The movie takes more of a satirical view on the marriages of the modern age, and during the same, black humour is implemented a lot. It also shows how easy it is for the media to manipulate the public opinion and devastate a man in the most disgusting and ridiculous manner, and that it is indeed easy for the woman to put the blame on the man and frame him for her troubles, because the society will always favour a woman as long as she can keep the mask of being in trouble. There will always be at least one stupid person whom a smart one can manipulate. It gives its viewers one more reason why one shouldn’t cheat in a relationship, and your wife might be a psychopath, but you will never know. Both the protagonists are liars, and there lies the strange beauty in the narrative. May be we can put this one into the psychological thriller genre.

How it finishes :: For one second, I thought that this had released here before it did in the United States, and then on the next second, I realized that this month is not October – the time does fly so quickly, and we are indeed coming to the close of this year’s movie watching adventures in less than two months with Christopher Nolan’s already much critically acclaimed Interstellar so close to getting released. Yes, Gone Girl becomes the movie which made a difference in the closing stages, unlike those other movies which were the more awaited ones. Even as I once again almost got frozen to death in the multiplex theatre, it was worth it. Yes, this is one question that I ponder over – why is it too cold in some theatres? What is the need for the same especially when it rains almost every day here? It is a wastage – they should surely keep it low and save some energy rather than creating the mortuary freezer effect which is rather a punishment.

Release date: 31st October 2014 (India); 3rd October 2014 (USA)
Running time: 149 minutes
Directed by: David Fincher
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Emily Ratajkowski, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Fugit, Casey Wilson, Missi Pyle, Sela Ward, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Lisa Banes, David Clennon, Scoot McNairy, Boyd Holbrook, Lola Kirke, Cyd Strittmatter, Leonard Kelly-Young

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

✠ It was in 2010 that my favourite movie based on Greek mythology released, in the form of Clash of the Titans – but I have to admit that I haven’t watched many movies based on that mythology. The 2011 version, Immortals was strictly okay. Even as my love for Greek mythology goes as far as my childhood with such stories easily available in a local version in the nearby library, the love was extended to something better in the first half of the 2000s with that city building game called Zeus: Master of Olympus. Despite the similar games Pharaoh and Caesar III, this was the game which stole my time, and the fact that it was based on the mythology helped, just like in the case of Age of Mythology. Wrath of the Titans is that sequel which falls somewhat behind from its predecessor, and has not many things to boast about. Otherwise, it could have come up with an extraordinary box-office performance, that is for sure.

Count Dracula: You had to watch that? I heard that the gods die in the movie. I couldn’t stand that after watching Immortals. They call themselves immortals and they die, isn’t it the same case with Wrath of the Titans? I guess I am the true immortal of this world, and about the other dimensions, I shall speak not.

Vampire Bat: Immortality is losing soil right from underneath its feet. The main culprit is the use or rather the abuse of vampire mythology in the works like Twilight. The ridiculous glorification of immortality has lead to at least some people having a certain feeling against it, and it seems that Immortals and Wrath of the Titans have tried to hold onto that aversion towards immortality by killing those gods who were supposed to be immortals. Now the gods die and random pale teenagers with bad teeth lives forever with strange pacts, ideas and a love story which should qualify as the wonder blunder of the world.

Count Dracula: I am glad that you didn’t call them vampires. Yes, they are blood suckers and not vampires. They belong to a breed of mosquitoes. They are also indirectly killing not only the vampire franchise, but also many others, and the Greek mythology is also one of them. I won’t even talk about the other group walking on four legs. It is beyond hope, but still what is it in Wrath of the Titans?

Vampire Bat: This movie’s incidents happen many years after the events of the first movie, as the gods keeping on losing power and they almost lose control over the imprisoned Titans until Ares and Hades turns against the other gods and make the process complete. Zeus is captured and kept a prisoner as Kronos slowly awakes and Poseidon dies. The other gods are not even in the fight, as Hephaestus is the only one who is there to show himself. If you are looking for gods, you better play the game Zeus: Master of Olympus.

Count Dracula: I have never seen that horrible gods as those in Immortals. In that movie, when it was known that Luke Evans was Zeus, I thought that he was just a crazy guy who lived in one of those caves. I would rather not see them if I have to witness them like that. I would still miss Aphrodite though. They could have also had Athena and Artemis, as the only divine creature I liked in Immortals was Isabel Lucas’ Athena. I wondered how it would have been if Freida Pinto played an immortal.

Vampire Bat: We don’t even get to see Gemma Arterton, as her character is declared dead. Alexa Davalos is also missing, as Rosamund Pike becomes Andromeda, something which doesn’t seem to fit as a whole. Sienna Miller or Rachel Nichols might have been a better choice as this time the lady is more of a warrior princess rather than the damsel in distress. My imagination of Andromeda is completely destroyed by this movie.

Count Dracula: Well, if you consider the destruction of the images in my mind caused by Immortals, there will be too long a list. They are all trying to deviate from the mythology that we have read. Even Percy Jackson was closer to mythology than the so called mythological movies. Why would you even watch a movie based on mythology after such a setback?

Vampire Bat: The special effects are excellent, and what it misses out on the story, it tries to make up with the graphics and the action sequences. May be some of our literature postgraduates can come up with a better story than this one which has quite a useless Zeus and Poseidon, a more wasted Hephaestus and a strange Ares along with a Hades with clear psychological problems making it almost impossible for him to do the right thing or even the wrong thing. Perseus and Andromeda doesn’t even seem to belong to the world. It is still that visual extravaganza that you can watch on the big screen.

Count Dracula: It has Sam Worthington as Perseus, and that should be its best advantage. One can guess that without even going near that movie. Whenever he is there, one can feel that there will be something there to look out for. I am not an Avatar fan, but if someone can save a movie with his presence even without many people of a land knowing the name of the actor, it is him.

Vampire Bat: Yes, he does save the movie just like Perseus saves the world. Rosamund Pike also does the same, not as Andromeda, but more as a warrior princess or a fighter queen who has come to aid whoever tries to save humanity. Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson are given what might be their worst characters ever, and why would they need these two to play those characters is so strange. May be as the characters are like that, these two were needed to make it any good. This is such a shame that monsters of this movie saves the day for the viewers while the gods ruin the same – the exact opposite of what happens in the movie.

Count Dracula: I would rather like the movie for being what might be the last movie based on Greek mythology for a very long time. Everyone needs a dose of Greek mythology, not considering Percy Jackson which is a different take. The love for monsters is a thing of this age. This is an age of no faith, and people tend to like monsters more than gods and pretend that they don’t believe in both. Trust me when I say this from my experience – it is not in human nature to be good, and without civilization, they are nothing. It is the beliefs and the faith in God that keeps them good, and the bad are only those who deviate from faith.

Vampire Bat: I agree, as there is no pillar for faith in this age. I have to struggle with my set of beliefs very often because there is always an attempt to brainwash people into believing that there is no God, and there is no evil. People are denied the chance to live in faith, and we are glad to be part of a nation which has more faith in the supreme power than any other. The weakening of the gods with the loss of faith of humans is a parallel to the recession and the financial problems which Europe and America have faced due to the loss of faith, and the nations with faith are improving. Without faith, you are nothing – even Zeus was nothing.

Count Dracula: Exactly my thoughts. I am a man who has seen almost all wars which you have studied about. None of those wars were actually religious wars. There were just people who lost faith in God and went for material achievements. They never conquered anything for God. They did it for themselves and to enjoy their life on Earth. I have seen into their mind and they had only “Carpe Diem” in their mind. Most of them didn’t really believe in me, and it is such a shame. I lose my confidence when they loss faith in me. Then I can only transform into a little toothless black cat!

Vampire Bat: That comparison is one of those things which I could find. Hades is more like the devil, feeding from the fears of man, but he is also that fallen angel whom Milton told us about. We would love to see such a movie being made based on Paradise Lost, and the fact that the Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of Lucifer will no longer happen is such a shame. The movie could have taken the movie experience to greater heights, something which Noah might succeed in a limited manner. But nothing like angels and demons fighting a war and their leader delivering those speeches. Not even Kraken, Chimera, Cyclops, Minotaur and Kronos together could have stood a chance.

Count Dracula: They can rather develop an original mythology based on my life. Yes, I have fought my battles and my tale has one of the best stories ever, which can be developed into a mythology. I know you would still rate this high enough, and I might also do the same, even with that knowledge that this is an unwanted sequel.

Vampire Bat: Yes, it shall get a 70/100 for its special effects, 3D, the leading actor, use of whatever mythology they can, the action sequences, the monsters and bringing a different idea on gods and ending the franchise for good. That will be good?

Count Dracula: Yes, I think it is. Well, it is time for me to go to the Goblin Market and sharpen my fangs. Good bye, my brother in fangs.

Vampire Bat (to himself): Wrath of the Titans is a lot like its predecessor and it has only a few new things. If this movie was the first of the franchise, the whole thing could have been better, and as a stand-alone version, this scores better. There is a lot of monster stuff for the fans of Greek mythology stories, but that hasn’t really helped, and that much we can easily figure out from the way the responses have been.

✠ Wrath of the Titans will not improve your impression about movies based on mythology, and it won’t make you better with greater knowledge of Greek mythology. Don’t consider it your spark-notes, but watch it for the visual treat that it has to offer with special effects and action sequences. Also, look out for the labyrinth. Lets hope for Hercules: The Thracian Wars to be great, even as it is more of a comic based adventure rather than having a strong base in Greek mythology. We might need a lot more than just a random mythological story to come up with a perfect demigod story. There is the need for a lot more, and the lack of popularity of Wrath of the Titans is no real surprise. For now, we can adjust with this movie, and compared to Immortals, this is a much better choice, and scores as being among the best of its kind (mostly due to not many movies of the kind being released).

Release date: 30th March 2012
Running time: 99 minutes
Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman
Starring: Sam Worthington, Rosamund Pike, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy, Édgar Ramírez, Toby Kebbell, Danny Huston