Shutter Island

I almost feel like Martin Scorsese should have been born twenty years later or something. He's certainly impressed me with his older movies, but what he's able to do with the advantages of modern film equipment and techniques is nothing short of amazing. With the help of cinematographer Robert Richardson (who by no real surprise most recently handled the beautiful Inglourious Basterds as well), he's crafted one of the best looking movies I've seen, one that in general is elevated from its potential B-movie status by a sharp script based on a novel by an accomplished author, a great cast of mostly recognizable faces, and excellence in nearly every facet of its production.

The movie isn't perfect, of course. There are a couple missteps. The use of greenscreen is obvious in a few shots (although you wonder a bit if that was intentional to add to the uncertainty of the narrative), and a few lines feel clumsy or melodramatic. Overall though it's a well constructed, tense film that Scorsese seems in control of the entire time despite the somewhat kinetic way in which information is doled out. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a federal marshal named Teddy Daniels assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient at a mental hospital for violent offenders on an island off Massachusetts. He meets his new partner played by Mark Ruffalo on the boat ride over, and from there they soon realize that something is off. The island itself is intensely foreboding, introduced to some of the most sinister music I've ever heard, and it's not long before the marshals start to feel weird about the whole investigation. Ben Kingsley and the other hospital staff seem friendly enough on the surface, but it's clear pretty early that not everything is as it seems. The movie has a twist that I was partly already spoiled on, but it's completely woven into the fabric of the entire film, and it's not so much the surprise of the truth that's interesting but just the way it informs every little thing that happens.

While the normal parts of the story are interesting and well made, the movie stands out the most with its flashbacks to Daniels' experiences during World War II and a couple intense dream sequences that are drenched with amazing imagery and hint strongly at the truth behind everything. He also starts hallucinating at one point, and you're constantly being peppered with little touches that make trying to figure out what's actually going on a constantly entertaining exercise. Despite the certain visual and auditory treats, the movie wouldn't work without a good cast supporting it, and everyone seems to bring their A game. I wasn't sure about DiCaprio at first but he won me over with his reactions to the constantly increasing stress of the situation. Ruffalo is as solid as ever, Kingsley and Max von Sydow are wonderful in their intellectual menace, Michelle Williams is creepily effective in glimpses of Daniels' dead wife, and all the guards and inmates are perfectly leery and off kilter as required.

The story has the appropriate amount of twists and turns before the ending, which is of two parts. First the truth is laid bare, in a scene that might be just a bit too tidy but it ultimately effective mostly because of DiCaprio's performance, and then the plot is finally resolved in just about the perfect fashion. After everything is put together, you can either dwell on the results or think about how well it fits. Considering I was sort of looking for that already, I've already done some of the work, although it definitely still merits a second viewing. I'm not positive every single moment will still make sense, but at least the broad strokes seem to be in order. I expected to like the film, although not to be so impressed by the skill of its creation. Scorsese is definitely getting older, but I'd say his abilities are still pretty far from eroding at this point. It might even be my favorite work of his out of the handful I've seen. If I wasn't already convinced, I definitely have some catching up to do.

Watchmen

Much like 300, Watchmen is Zack Snyder's faithful take on one of a comic book icon's original stories; in this case, the most celebrated and influential graphic novel of the last 25 years. Obvious comparisons aside though, despite sharing some similar flaws, it's a more involved and interesting story, and he does a pretty solid job telling it. The movie is far from a perfect adaptation, although it's pretty legitimate to say that a lot of the reasons for that stem from the very nature of the comic itself. It's simply not structured like a film. It was originally released as a series of twelve issues, and several of them focus on a single character's background instead of really advancing the central plot forward. A truer translation would have been a miniseries instead of a theatrical release. But there's probably no way you get them to do that with a large enough budget to really pull off the story, and a compromise like this is the best we can really hope for. The script probably could have used a bit of tweaking to account for the different way a movie would flow, but except for a few segments to explain character that almost completely halt momentum, it worked out.

There are a few things that can be blamed on less than amazing filmmaking, though. It's clear from his comic work and Dawn of the Dead that Snyder does not have an ounce of subtlety in his being. The comic certainly didn't shy away from violence, being fairly grisly in places, but there's a difference between a panel showing something and a film lingering on it for several seconds. The fights are far crazier, and while I thought the choreography was actually pretty good and don't mind the speed ramping effect nearly as much as a lot of people, it was a big feeling of cognitive dissonance to see the heroes kicking people across rooms when the whole point of the story seemed to be about the fact that (except for Dr. Manhattan) these were just normal people who fought crime in costume for a living. I didn't mind a slight increase in vulgarity, but one of the sex scenes was really over the top too, not aided by the absurd choice in music. It wasn't the only occurrence of this either, with a lot of the choices either being too obvious or just seeming out of place with what was happening. I would have preferred an original score most of the time.

Not that the movie was all bad. I thought the entire relationship between the second Nite Owl and Silk Spectre was pretty laughable, and Veidt was pretty horribly miscast, but other than that the main cast did solid work despite there not being a big name among them, and in places excellent. Jackie Earle Haley's performance as Rorschach was 100% spot on, and just like in the comic, he easily stood out as the best character. It was very interesting to see the audience react more and more favorably to him as his actions become more and more psychotic. The Comedian also worked very well, and Carla Gugino was nice to see again even though most of the time she was covered in crappy "old person" makeup. There were a few other issues with makeup actually, especially the film's version of Richard Nixon, which was too comically out of place to take any of his scenes seriously. The changed ending actually seemed to work better within the existing plot and definitely would go over with a normal audience better, so I didn't mind that change terribly. All the little changes, missteps, and successes added up to a very long and divisive film, one that in general I liked but wasn't completely satisfied with. Still, an interesting experiment.