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MirrorMask (2005)
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Not as Cool as They Wanted
I have recently been reading a lot of Neil Gaiman comic books and graphic novels, thus with this his feature film writing debut I expected a lot of pretension and stunning visuals. However this film is far less pretentious than, say, 'The Sandman', instead it is a sort of mix of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'The Wizard of Oz' if they were directed by Marilyn Manson's art director.
The story is of Helena (Stephanie Leonidas), the daughter of a circus owner and a juggler in the show, who is transported to an alternate reality on the night her mother is to have a serious operation. Helena must save the alternate world and stop her anti-Helena self from destroying her life. If that makes any sense...
The alternate world is interesting, constructed out of Helena's drawings, but the CGI looks quite cheap in comparison with what Peter Jackson has gotten us all used to. In fact, it is a bit frustrating to see such CGI, no matter what their budgetary constraints were, as it takes one right out of the moment. They would have been better off using mechanical constructions.
The film is a cool idea, however the filmmakers certainly didn't have the means to fully realize it. They do their best and the pseudo-circus/goth world is an interesting, if not fascinating, experience. There is a really great scene where Helena becomes dressed as the anti-Helena while robotic jack-in-the-boxes are singing 'Close To You' that made me really like this movie, however that was soon lost in the muddle.
It is a cool movie, but not great.
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 | Jenny
May 21, 2007 5:48 PM
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| This seemed so slow to me. I had a hard time making it all the way through. Looking forward to Stardust though! |
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