Sunday, July 03, 2005
Review: “War Of The Worlds”
In what may be the biggest disappointment of the year, Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning run from aliens in Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds (PG-13). The movie starts off simple and enjoyable. Scenes like the lightning storm and the cracking asphalt give the movie more promise and suspense than I can describe. However, it is all downhill from there. Most of the suspense is lost once the giant machines start running around the world. It is somewhat amusing and there is enough action to satisfy most summer-movie fans. However, it is nothing more than an average movie. Signs was much more terrifying and a far superior film in every aspect.
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2 comments:
What's up with your ratings? You trash a flick and then give it three stars (sorry, kernels...)! Make a statement! If it sucks, stick to your guns. If it's a far cry from X-men, show it...
And summer-long Disney animation podcasts? What the crap? I mean, it's a cool history and all, but personally I'd prefer to have regular movie review podcasts; that's what I read your site for. Then if you start throwing in special features once in a while, like this history of Disney animation, that adds depth and variety to your content. But I don't like it replacing the regular content.
Also, with regards to the way you're going about your podcasting: I don't really hear you becoming more conversational at all, but I think I can specify a little more what it is. You need to RELAX. Don't change the way you write any of it, I think your writing style is very good for audio broadcast. The problem is that you speak it all in your presentational voice and it shows. Practice speaking as you would to a friend in casual conversation, probably lower the pitch of your voice a little bit. Read your podcasts out loud several times before you record them and then record them several times so you have a few choices. You won't feel pressured to get it exactly right the first time and will probably be much more relaxed after a few goes.
Next, you need to work on pacing. SLOW DOWN your talking. This sort of goes hand in hand with the relaxing, but you also need to put in more pauses. When someone's reading, they can take as much time as they want between sentences or paragraphs and go back to re-read and such, but when they're listening they tend to listen straight through. You need to give your audience time to process between thoughts because otherwise it becomes a blurred mish-mash of aural stimulation.
Finally, last but not least, some variety would go a long way. I don't know if you've ever listened to any NPR broadcasts, but where the TV programs show video clips, they insert sound clips. I know you're technically-minded enough to be able to extract audio from trailers and such, so go ahead and do it! It would be awesome to have your reviews punctuated by lines or sound effects from the movie illustrating your point. Study up on some All Things Considered broadcasts. As far as tools, there's a terrific free, multi-track audio recorder and editor - that's available for Windows as well as Linux - called Audacity. This way you can record your podcast, break it up as necessary, insert sound clips in between (or in the background!), even mix sections from different takes of your speech, so you don't ever have to get it all right in one shot.
So yeah, I really got into that constructive criticism thing... I just think it would be really great if you started doing these incredible broadcast-quality movie reviews and a lot of people started listening in regularly and responding and such. You could even start taking "calls" over something like Skype and recording people's comments to insert into your podcasts. How awesome would that be if it really took off? Maybe someone would see it and hire you on the spot!
- Mike
Hey, thanks Mike. I know I look indecisive when I give some movies 3 kernels but I tend to review movies based on expectation / comparison but the kernels are a straight-forward take on the film quality. I’ll use what Roger Ebert recently said on his show: What I say is the only thing that matters. The kernels are very transparent / shallow because they are just numbers. Very few movies get 1 or 5 (only Boogeyman and The Honeymooners so far this year for 1 and only Crash so far this year for 5). This means the majority get thumbs up, thumbs down, or the middle. Those in the middle are the most important for you to read the actual review, which I know you do. But my point is that the reviews are what matter and the kernels are something to glance at over time.
As for the lack of review podcasts (or popcasts as I will begin to refer to them), it is basically because of my dialup internet connection. I have decided that until the end of August, I only have time to complete the Disney popcasts and the special review popcasts. I am working on my special review of The Island right now and I will then work on its popcast. Just put up with the text reviews for the rest for the next month and then I promise you will see a change.
Thanks for all of the tips and I will try very hard to work at relaxing my voice. Forgive the fact that some of my Disney popcasts have already been recorded. I will try to see what I can do with The Island, though. I really like the idea of inserting audio clips and such. I use Audacity right now but use just the basic recording function. I will play around with it and see if I can figure out how to insert audio clips in the near future. I also like the Skype idea.
Finally, since you are being so helpful, here is an insider tip – see The Island as soon as possible. It kind of rocks. ;-)
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