Up All Night, Got Demons to Fight.: MirrorMask Movie Review

First off, thanks to everyone who voted on your favourite Quentin Tarantino movie. The official winner was Kill Bill 1&2! Which is kind of cheating, because it's 2x the Tarantino goodness.

For those of you who are too lazy to comment/don't have anything to say, I've made a new poll just so you can still give me some feedback. I really want to know what you think. So be sure to vote on how you like my blog!

365 Days of Creativity

day seven

MirrorMask Movie Review

Always gotta have a spoiler alert.

MirrorMask is a fantastical film about a young girl who is transported to the world that she's created in her art. Reminiscent of fantasy classics like Alice in Wonderland, it's delivered to us by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Neil Gaiman has quite an impressive wrap sheet with writings including Coraline, Stardust, and Beowulf.

While the plot can be a bit drawn out at times, and first time feature director Dave McKean seems to put visual enticements before either plot or character development, all in all, I was highly impressed.

These two creative minds definitely know how to steal you away for a couple hours, and MirrorMask is them a their finest. You're immersed into a world that runs on the balance between light and dark (a concept that I love) and every single aspect of the realm is creative, exciting, and dangerously intriguing. I feel that if I was the main character, there's no way I'd get shit done. I'd be too busy feeding pages to the sphinx's or riding books around.

The movie is visually stunning. The costume design, art direction and every single thing you see is astonishing. From the villains to the creatures, to even the circus folk in real life, you can't take your eyes off the screen. And you don't want to.

Favourite Quote: "You can't run away from home without destroying someone's world."

Favourite Character: Valentine. Helena's witty, distracted sidekick in her magical land. He's everything you need to know about what kind of world you've just been thrust into.

The Orbiting Giants are a close second though. They are two huge intertwined stone people who forever float around tall pedestals. They are the keepers of the key, and it makes sense that they would be, since they are the definition of balance. They stay where they are because while the gravity of one pushes itself downwards, the gravity of the other pushes upwards. Perfect balance.

Least Favourite Character: The annoying mime-y sound effects guy in the real world. Yes you're in a circus, but you can use your big boy words. Making noises isn't a talent (in his case), it's as terrible and unneeded as the sound effects on a radio show. Zing!

Favourite Scene: Why do I torture myself like this? Every scene is as beautiful and well acted as the next. If I had to pick, and I do, because I'm making myself, it would have to be the scene where the Queen of Shadows is meeting with her councilmen. She has this amazing costume on. White lipstick against a silver mask that is totally bordered by silky black feathers. Uh, gorgeous. And I'm a little impartial to the all-black eyes.

Oh! And the scene where Helena is being changed by the music boxes. That version of The Carpenters' Close To You is simultaneously breath taking and bone chilling. Wonderfully deadly.
In fact, here it is!

Least Favourite Scene: I want to say that I feel like the beginning of the movie is drawn out too far, but I think that's because I love the alternate world so much more.

Favourite Actor in a Role: Or in this case roles, Gina McKee. She was fantastic as all three of her characters. Especially the two that involved a lot of laying down and being unconscious. But really her Queen of Shadows had me rooting for the dark to swallow up the light in this one.

Least Favourite Actor in a Role: This is hard, there weren't too many important roles, and I liked all of the main ones. The person I liked least was one of the real life circus crew. She's french, and talks about how she's leaving with her sister. I think they're acrobats. Either way, I didn't like her voice and especially her face.

Favourite Actor in General: Again, difficult because it was not a hollywood blockbuster, so there's none of the familiar names or faces. Stephanie Leonidas is my pick after this film though. She did great as the creative Helena. She was sweet, brave, and harsh where she needed to be. Brava.