The Last Candle

Just what the title says. Enjoy!

I was intending to writeup a good long review of Nolan’s “reimaging” of Burton’s (and the original comic and TV series’) Batman, but Ace’s review at Ace of Spades HQ is pretty much spot-on with my own particular feelings about the flick. So go over there and check out the great review; if you like, regard the review as if it’s my own under a ghostwriter, except not really so much a ghostwriting since it’s obviously his stuff and written at his page — but I’m 100% with ‘im here, which should be counted for something…right? <p/> Okay, if I had to say something original, I’d say that the original Burton films — we will not speak of the Schumacher tragedies here — were more like the Adam West series (with the addition of an awesome score, courtesy of the one-and-only Danny Elfman), while Batman Begins captures a feel close to the animated series that ran during the 90’s. (My friend Andy did remind me of the original’s score, which was much better than Begins’s score, even if Begins did use it’s own pulsing and mostly rhythmic score well for it’s quick pacing and tight tension.) <p/> One thing I won’t pass up on is the opportunity to use the Yun-Fat-o-Meter grading system: <p/> <p/> Finally, when we saw the movie at Quality 16 near Ann Arbor, the sound in the theater was WAY too fargin’ loud. A good height for volume is one thing in an action film, but having the film’s sound effects give you a nasty headache by the end is too much. (Then again, the punches and explosions had a sort of tactile boost from the extra amplitude — something be said for immersion…) <p/> So far, Miyazaki’s got me divided on his films; I’ve only seen Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, but thought the former was a big ton of weirdo-mystical crap (but beautiful, erm, crap) while Spirited Away is easily one of my favorite all-time films. Go figure. However, having the more-recent Spirited Away be such a high favorite, there wasn’t any way I was going to miss Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki’s latest, when it arrived at a local theater. <p/> And it fell somewhere between Mononoke’s overwhelming weirdness and Spirited Away’s tightness and beauty — and more closely to Spirited Away. Whew. <p/> Of course, the film was just gorgeous and incredibly satisfying in the sights category — more detail in the animations and backgrounds than Spirited Away mixed with a huge variety of different locales and environments ranging the from dark and dingy to flower-swept plains — and the dubbing was OK. Christian Bale was decent as Howl (making the tally of Christian Bale-starring movies seen this week at TWO). Sophie/Old Sophie was quite good, even though I feared that the voice of Suzanne Pleshette, previously the voice of Yubaba/Zeniba in the American Spirited Away dub, would get old after hearing it for a couple hours, but that wasn’t the case — in fact, Pleshette was probably the best voice actor in the film. <p/> Almost by default as a Miyazaki film, besides a highly enjoyable cast of characters, the creative energy of Howl’s Moving Castle is really what keeps the film moving forwards; this does not speak well of the film’s plot. I can’t tell whether to call it more oriented for kids or more oriented for adults: it certainly has a huge amount of fantasy vibrance and a snappy pace, but the plot changes focus often with threads meandering all over the place, hoping to reconnect sometime in the future. Some events (including one at the very end of the film) happen almost without precedence; other layers, like Howl’s hate of the war and his consequent actions, take the entire film to engage while never really reaching any kind of conclusion. It’s fine to add atmosphere, but atmosphere stops becoming periphery when it not only drives characters but causes change in the story. Such things are not great to leave hanging by the wayside when the movie’s credits begin to roll. <p/> But really, in a film like Howl’s Moving Castle, plot and story acts (not solely) as a proponent for pushing the great characters and artwork. Spirited Away is a better film because it managed both without a reduction in either, but even though Howl’s Moving Castle lacks the narration focus of Miyazaki’s previous film, everything else in the flick makes it an excellent show. <p/>