My favourite director Guillermo Del Toro returns to give his
horror stylised spin on a gothic romance.
Edith, a naïve American girl who dreams of becoming a
writer, is swept away from her father’s protective surroundings when a stranger
from Britain arrives with a business proposition. But Edith has been receiving
warnings, warnings from her dead mother…
I can be very, very biased towards Del Toro’s work (how can
you go wrong with a back catalogue including such films as Cronos, Devil’s
Backbone, Blade 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy 1 and 2 and Pacific Rim?) and
Crimson Peak certainly delivers a lot of his visual flair and style. The
titular mountainside mansion is a gorgeously detailed and designed set, a treat
of gothic shapes and colours, the fact that it is slowly collapsing is the
least of someone’s concerns living there. Our characters’ costumes are
beautiful too, making our actors Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska disappear
into this period drama.
The film even has subtle themes, not dissimilar to Pan’s Labyrinth, including
Wasikowska’s character of Edith being the only one who can see the ghouls and
ghosts that also live in our world. This is a regular character trope of Del
Toro’s work, as well as the contrast between real and fantastical worlds and
which one may be more horrific. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
But, the film didn’t exactly grab me. I chalk this down to a
somewhat excessively drawn out setup, exploring Edith’s safe environment
within her father’s business world in America and her growing affections for
Hiddleston’s Thomas. While the film opens with a peek at the horrors we will
see, there is a significant drought of horrors and the mansion is a long way
away from appearing. It feels like you are waiting, and I didn’t appreciate how
little of the film was actually in the house.
I think I was hoping for something more like The Woman in Black; a lot of establishment of the house to give you a sense of the space and the build of tension.
Del Toro also goes for practical effects for his monsters,
at least as often as he can, and while these are ghosts and therefore
incorporeal, I was quite disappointed in the overuse of CGI creations. I liked
their designs, but I didn’t believe they were there… I wasn't especially scared of them, and the scares are generally quite predictable.
I really don't like railing against a Del Toro creation, but I felt there was a lot of room for improvement with Crimson Peak, including the scare factor. Certainly there is awesome cinematography, awesome colours, set and costume design, really gory moments that shock after the long stretches of period drama.
If you enjoy gothic romances and ghost stories, you should definitely check out Crimson Peak. My review only sounds negative because I have such high hopes for Del Toro films!
Additional Marshmallows: No matter how in love you are with someone, surely when they take you to their place and the roof has caved in to snow and the walls are literally bleeding, naturally, you really should reconsider your options immediately.
A horror I was always keen to visit with producer Guillermo Del Toro's name attached, but feedback had been shaky at best. Personally, the film wasn't terrible, in fact it had a lot of atmosphere to give.
Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (of Game of Thrones fame) leads the film as Lucas, the brother of a father who disappeared mysteriously and how he has to care for his two nieces who had also disappeared only to be found alone in a woodland cabin. The two very young girls are traumatised from their experience, believing in a spiritual guardian they call Mama...
The film is a very simple premise, one of has been done before, but similar to Del Toro's other production project The Orphanage, Mama has a lot of presence and atmosphere as well as some nice character development. I think my only grievance with the movie (asides some mildly frustrating horror tropes and cinematography cliches) would be some dodgy CG imagery for the entity Mama. Mama's design is very intense and subtle, her hair moving as if underwater, but it feels as though the technology wasn't there to fully render her – her hair being a prime example.
The film is very murky but has excellent use of shadows and camera angles. Much of the film revolves around the two young girls, Victoria and Lily, and fortunately they are mostly competent actresses! Victoria is the older of the two and has more to do than the traumatised Lily. While Nikolaj Coster-Waldau does well, his character's girlfriend Annabelle (Jessica Chastain) steals the parent role midway through. Annabelle is part of a rock band (the film acknowledging how these two are not the sort to care for the two girls) Annabelle being the definition of unfit. The film does well to inspire confidence in her as it progresses.
Some criticise the ending of this film, but without spoiling anything I felt it was effective in an unconventional sense; it was going one direction but quickly pulls the rug from under your feet.
I enjoyed it, though it has already dated with visual effects which is very disappointing as it makes Mama less threatening. The film has plenty of horror tropes that it stumbles over and works tiredly with, but that isn't surprising for many horror films.
Director Guillermo Del Toro can do no wrong in my book, so when he decides to make a two hour giant robot movie, I have very little to gripe about!
Set in the near future, Earth is persistently attacked by giant alien creatures known only to us as Kaiju. They wreck havoc and destroy major cities for decades, and the frequency of attacks (and size of the monsters) is only increasing. The countries of the world unite to forge the Jaeger program; giant, skyscraper sized super machines to fight back against the invaders.
The film is Del Toro's biggest, brassiest and most deliberate "blockbuster" yet; it is simplistic in formula, full of archetypical characters (and stereotypes), driven only to give us action on a staggering scale.
Some people will see nothing but cliche and lack of "seriousness", and certainly, Pacific Rim is first and foremost an entertaining romp and little else. While there isn't that much to the characters, there is enough to give a weighty (and awesome!) finale. It isn't weighed down with emotional baggage either; this film isn't trying to have "a message" or "subtext", its about good old fashioned action.
I am grateful someone like Del Toro took up this project. Despite its simplicity, the man's creative vision and tact provides the film with awesome spectacle. Action sequences are graciously slow; none of the frenetic chaos Michael Bay gave Transformers, no, Pacific Rim's action is on such a scale that movements are so huge they have to be given proper treatment.
What is greater still about Pacific Rim is that, despite outward appearances from critical opinions, it is an original film: this isn't based off a comic, or a cartoon; it isn't a remake, or a sequel or a prequel to anything. While watching you are reminded of those ballistic action films that existed before Hollywood got obsessed with remaking familiar properties. This is a great film for just this reason!
I'm singing its praises a lot aren't I, especially how it should hopefully be a new benchmark for original material and the handling of spectacular action, so what can I possibly gripe about? I always find something, right?
While Idris Elba and Ron Perlman steal the show completely, other characters are pretty unimaginative. The two I had any misgivings for were the stereotypical "science nerds", whose purpose may be valid in the story but their dialogue is deliberately ranting and raving to get important exposition out of the way as quickly as possible. This, however, isn't film breaking (Mr Bay has made a lot worse (and less necessary) stereotypes than these)
Overall, if you like your Godzilla films (the originals, that is) and frankly any science fiction action ever made, Pacific Rim is definitely for you. I would go so far to say that if you have been drawn into comic book universes recently (yes, almost everyone) I'd recommend this for you too, if only for giant action being filmed correctly.
