Archive for February, 2008

Review: Mongol

Published by Administrator February 25th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Digital Technology, Film School, Movie Reviews and Storytelling. 0 Comments

MongolI saw Mongol almost a week ago. I wasn’t even aware it was nominated for an Oscar (for Best Foreign Film). It didn’t win but I’m hardly surprised.

The movie aspires to portray Ghengis Khan’s early life. I understand there will be 2 more movies to follow. It does a decent job of portraying the 12th century nomads of Mongolia. It was shot on location in Kazakhstan and Inner Mongolia (a Chinese province).

I guess this first part was intended to show why Temudgin (played as adult by Tadanobu Asano) became who he became. It focuses on several important episodes - his choice of bride, the poisoning of his father, the relationship with his half-brother, and the numerous captures and escapes.

The photography and the art direction are excellent - they really contribute to an epic but authentic feel. The characters do not disappoint either.

My only problem is that the movie seems incomplete - maybe because it’s intended as a part of a trilogy. We don’t get to see Ghengis Khan and his Golden Horde until the very end, the last battle scene.

Review: Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Published by Administrator February 6th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Movie Reviews. 1 Comment

Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn TwilightI was a big Dungeon & Dragons fan. I’m not anymore not because I grew up (which I did) but because it seems that every book, movie, etc. based on D&D is excruciatingly bad. So bad in fact, I’m not sure I’ll be watching another D&D movie any time soon.

I have read the Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight book back in my college days. It wasn’t Tolkien, but it worked. Since I was playing D&D at the time, it was interesting for me to see what an “ideal” D&D party would look like. I even liked the tale about how the mage got his power but that crippled his body (constitution, baby!).

In short, it was a fun book. Not so with this movie though. The adventure is more or less the same. There a couple of points which bothered me so much, I couldn’t focus on the story.

Let’s start with the production values (source):

Produced by Toonz Animation India, South Asia’s largest and self-proclaimed “most admired” animation studio, Dragons of Autumn Twilight is an absolute mess. This mix of traditional 2D animation for principal characters and backgrounds does not mesh at all with the 3D animation used to create the various Dragons, Draconians, and other evil creatures.

Wow. This probably explains why the movie looks like a mess. I have seen WoW machinima’s that are ten times better than this movie.

The next point is the script. Although the lines are read by the likes of Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Rosenbaum, and Lucy Lawless, they’ve lost a lot in translation from the book source. Furthermore, the writer has galloped though the book’s 400 pages. Scenes and characters are missing. By the end of it all, I didn’t care about any of the nine characters.

It’s a shame that the D&D universe gets another slap in the face by Hollywood. The Dungeon and Dragons movie had the excuse of a poor budget (or something to this effect). When you’re doing animation, however, it costs the same to draw a bad cave and to draw a good cave! Anyway, if you’re a D&D zealot, you could rent it but you’d better off reading the book again.

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