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Saturday 7 July 2012

Movie Review: Brave (2012)

So Thursday night after all the fun and work of cleaning up after the Mad Scientists, I rewarded myself with a trip to my other place of work - the Royal Theatre - in Trail, to watch Brave!


Now I've been working at the Theatre for almost a year! And it was my first "real" job - before which, friends always bugged me about my perpetual unemployment! But I'm so happy to have the opportunity to work of the theatre - and the BV Library or course! They have been the best jobs I could have ever asked for! I grew up with my family owning a chain of video stores and VHS movies were my babysitters growing up - come one guys: Fern Gully?  Beauty and the Beast? Sleeping Beauty? The Aristocrats? The Lion King! A Troll in Central Park!?

I watched 'em all - and perhaps a little too many! But needless to say, I've always been a big fan of movies!

Also, since I waited til the last day of the show's playing, I already been aware of many spoilers of the movie! Especially when I'm at work and can hear a lot of the movie as I'm cleaning... or from customers leaving the theatre... or just from the fact that we've had the trailer playing over and over and over, over that past couple of months that I basically memorized everything from it! And trailers these days do a very thorough good of giving away all the funny, action packed, and most valuable plot points of the movie away! Talk about selling a movie ... They're basically giving it away for free in a desperate plea for the audience to watch!

Brave, however, did do a good job - in the trailer sense - of keeping the major twist in the story a secret!  My friends, and a lot of other people, I'm sure, were under the impression that the movie was to focus more on Merida's suitor situation, when really that was really just a sort of catalyst that brings the relationship between Merida and her mother to a very very strange predicament - one that I won't spoil for you here ! :)

I think the main fault of this movie, is the huge reputation that Pixar has gained with its stories. After seeing movies like Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Up!, Brave sort of didn't stand up so well in comparison.

Brave, was visually breathtaking and beautiful and I found the first part of the movie to be very promising! The family dynamic I think was something very applicable to children and parents alike! Not the whole arranged-marriage-thing but the lack of communication and sort of distorted view of each other. Merida sees her mom and possessive and manipulating and her mother sees Merida as rebellious and unruly. Both point may at times be true but are not placed well in seeing each other as a real fleshed out person! John Green my favourite YA writer often says that you have to imagine people complexly and that is something that the two main characters - and many people today - fail to do.

However, after the first part of the movie, which went about building up the characters very well, the movie, as I said before takes a major twist. And I think for me the twist sort of lessened the impact of the story... made it less believable. A youtube reviewer said that for him the twist sort of divided the movie into a very adult-like first have and a very juvenile second half... which I totally see. But it didn't really make me hate the movie or anything, perhaps I'm still deluded to think I'm still in between an adult and a child and that's why I enjoyed the movie so much!

But I think after seeing Pixar movies dominate so well in the way they appeal to both children and adults, Brave sort of took a step back from the formula and didn't deliver it so well, leaving the movie sort of fragmented in what it wanted to accomplish.

I did enjoy the experience of the film though! The 3D didn't seem as powerful as I've seen it utilized in other films. But the visuals, the hair! and the scenery were beautiful! I loved the setting of past historical Scotland and the voices/accents had me hypnotized! Beautiful!

I remember Rhonda saying that she felt that the movie seemed to have been rushed into being made after all the success of this "bow and arrow, archery" fad that's been occuring in movies, books and other media.

Legolas .... I blame you! or thank you? I can't decide....

And I think that I may have to agree with her... and after all the "success" from the Tangled Disney movie, perhaps Disney and Pixar wanted to continue their fantastic hair adventures with another beautifully-coifed princess, taken to another extreme with gorgeous ginger curls!

Oh! and of course my love for Craig Ferguson did not deter me from enjoying this movie! gosh, he is lovely! The father's were all hilarious!
Oh! and Merida's brothers were the cutest!

All in all, I enjoyed Brave, I went into it spoiled by spoilers and also having been told by lots of people that it wasn't as good as previous Pixar movies, so I didn't expect a lot out of it! But I think that low expectation set me up better for the movie then going into the movie bright-eyed and expectant of another Oscar-worthy Pixar movie!

I loved the Scottish scenery and culture, the music - even the bagpipes had great comedic timing! - the characters were great, and truthfully I was near-tears for a good part of the movie beginning and end, and I really did enjoy the story, even if people have pointed out the faults to me! I'd say on a scale of 1-10 this movie would get a 8.5 from me :)

Oh and also, on tumblr today I found this beautiful Brave poster done by artist Michael DePippo:


Awesome right? Heres a link to his website http://michaeldepippo.com/?p=2433

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