Would have worked better as an ADULT Feature

Rating: 9/10 (13 November 2014)

This story is from a totally innovative & aberrant angle of the modern day fairy-tale. Farther Christmas with machetes?! I instantly fell in love with it's un-restrictive execution.. at first.
First off, this is Dreamworks best piece in their long line of rivalry towards Pixar. The visuals are simply divine, the renders are lush, the colours are vibrant & the detail is at last matching that of Pixar & Disney! The voice acting was a very sagacious risk by the producer who mixes cultures & accents; something parochial American audiences always tend to detest. "OMG.. There's other people on this planet other than us? This is an American film.. it should keep US-only cast.. Boo Hoo"! Get over yourselves!! It works a treat in this film & they all worked rather well accept.. well, sandman! Luckily they kill this podgy Ewok Lemon off quite soon so we don't have to keep making allowances for him. He's later restored, which doesn't work really. We don't care. Never missed him in the first place!
Matt Smith plays a devastatingly convincing role as the Bad Guy in this I must say! Jude Law fills in for one of his horses too!
Now the cons!
The music. It fits well.. Yarrr.. like how wind fits into a good view maybe? the point I'm making is that it is bland. ALL the cues, All the instrumentation, chord combinations, & sounds used are completely STOCK. It has but ONE melody for the fleeting title card, but this isn't even vaguely captivating. And once again, it seems that all the boring combinations of tenor range performances make for a very forgettable transparent mix. There's the usual LOW drones for the Bad Guy, nice mallets & mellifluous plucks for the ice scenes, & action simply requires brass stabs & everything else just blares together to reach volume that is inevitably pushed down with compression anyway. This kind of film required something MUCH more bold & contemporary. A whimsical vocal choir of just a few female sopranos, some avant-garde string sweeps, some synth-sculpted icicles along with a foreboding distorted villain theme perhaps? The possibilities are endless! But NO. It's just another score. Yawn. Composed on a PC with VSTi no doubt. Uninspired & tame.
This film has a very serious back-story with a lot of emotion at it's core. It even takes it's somewhere with Jack's past life - heavy stuff that could have worked very well. He could have considered Pitch's offer & joined him for a while. And they should have had a 1 on 1 duel at the end without the silly slapstick. But I guess it was too dark?
The problem we have with these films is that they are far too frivolous without the contrasting seriousness to them. Pixar gets away with it because they make them memorable with poignancy & sentimentality. You can't remember something frivolous. and although it makes you laugh, it's an extremely temporary feeling. This film could have been a triumph if the parties involved allowed it to be intelligent, sophisticated, a bit more mature, & yes.. ADULT. Pan's labyrinth & Water Ship Down are rare breeds; one of a kind. Because money is the focus here. Not the film.
It's still an enjoyable film even if it is disposable. And I like how they added some adult content. But it really needed lifting to the next level & treated seriously to balance out the humour.
Close! But no cigar!