Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
(1984)

Rated PG
My Rating: 4 Stars

Hayao Miyazaki

Alison Lohman
Patrick Stewart
Uma Thurman
Chris Sarandon
Shia LaBeouf

I had never even heard of Japanese Anime before a friend of mine dropped off his entire collection of Hayao Miyazaki's creations for me to watch. Since then, I have been treating myself to an important chapter in the history of film.

I like to have a beginning and an end, so I am watching them in order of production. The first one was, of course, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I have since watched most of his other films but I must admit, none of them had the magic of Nausicaa. Her character is one that people everywhere can aspire to. The story itself is unique. I believe the world view of Hayao Miyazaki is something we can learn from, even if we might not be in 100% agreement with him. This is definitely a children's film but it is so cleverly done that it appeals to all ages and will remain well known for many years.

Summary:
1000 years after an the collapse of civilization as we know it, most of the world has been taken over by a toxic jungle full of poisonous spores and insects of enormous size. The world's population have nestled themselves into little kingdoms away from the jungle's death... but slowly and as surely as the clouds that block the sun, it suffocates them and leaves their bones for weary travelers to find.

Princess Nausicaa is a teen-age, independent young woman whom we first see exploring the desert landscape via glider. She is a fearless flyer and her heart beats with the wind that keeps the poisonous spores away from her small kingdom. Over the desert and into the jungle, her lithe body and glider are one as her eyes search for her prize. Today, she seeks answers for her father's illness. It weakens him daily... his hands once so strong cannot grip his sword. But the very worst of his sickness is that he can fly no longer.

On the edge of the jungle, Nausicaa's glider is abandoned as she slips and slides into the strange light of the underworld. It is so beautiful, yet without her mask, it would kill her in minutes. As she explores, Nausicaa discovers a resource that will make her people very happy: a perfect Ohm shell. To give the men incentive to come bring the Ohm shell to The Valley of the Wind, she takes one of it's eyes to bring back home with her. But as she turns to go, she catches a glimpse through the eye. Enchanted, she lays back on the Ohm's shell with the eye over her and, amidst the other eyes and ridges, watches the beautiful but deadly spores drift through the jungle's shadows ...

Something breaks into her daydreams. Her heart beats wildly; anger is stirring. The first hint of trouble has come to the world of Nausicaa... but also the first hint of whom she is to become.

Life is never dull for Nausicaa. Mainly because she doesn't allow dullness. Her heart is solely for her people, her family, her kingdom. Her faith in nature and humanity allow her hopes to speak to all who know her. And all who know her cannot help but love her in the end. We see her in rage, fear, defeat, love... we feel her joys and pain. I mourned her.

I can't help but be amazed at this story. In some ways, I laughed at it because it was childish. But I loved it for  being childish because I learned from it. I normally cannot enjoy something that isn't top quality; although this film was far ahead of it's time, it is definitely not a recent production. However, I did not mind that. One little bit. :-)

Things I Liked:
1: The idea that being in harmony with nature should be at the core of our existence.
2: The love that Nausicaa had. Love wasn't part of her. It was her.
3: The bad guys aren't really bad. They're just misguided. ;-)
4: We create many of the problems in nature... and ultimately, our lives.
5: The fact that they used Chris Sarandon  for the villain. The entire movie, I kept saying, "isn't that...? I'm sure that's Prince Humperdinck!" :-)
6: Story, voices, music, etc, etc.

What I Didn't Like:
1: Evolution was really stressed.
2: The Japanese religion is very much part the story. Some of it is truth but some of it isn't. As with any film, eat the meat and spit out the bones.


Do I recommend this film? Yes. :-) View and enjoy!

Transformers -- 2007

Transformers

(2007)

Rated for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language

My Rating: 4 Stars

Shia LaBeouf

Tyrese Gibson

Josh Duhamel

Anthony Anderson

Megan Fox

Rachael Taylor

John Turturro

Jon Voight

“What'd they get you for?”

“Uh...bought a car. Turned out to be an alien Robot. [pause] Who knew?”

I was not impressed with Revenge of the Fallen, except for the occasional good humor it had. However, I spoke to a friend about it and she mentioned that she had some friends who really enjoyed Transformers. So I felt that I should watch the original and see if there was improvement. There was. It's interesting how the sequels are rarely as good.

Summary:

Sam Witwicky is a normal kid with a normal desire for a car and girlfriend. According to his Dad, it's only if he gets three A's and $2000 that he gets the car. So he gets the A's and the $2000 and ends up with a used-to-be hotrod Camaro that has a personality.

But getting the girl is up to Sam. Or at least it seems so at first glance. If it had been left up to Sam, the typical guy (all thumbs when it comes to talking to girls) it would have been a disaster. But there's Mikaela (Megan Fox), the gorgeous girl he goes to school with but doesn't even know he exists. Sam has been in love with her for years. Amazingly, it's the car and what's under it's hood that attracts the attention of the girl.

The circumstances surrounding the car was strange from the first, but Sam didn't realize how strange until he woke up one night to the engine starting. He got to the bedroom window just in time to see the car rolling out the driveway. Sure the car is being stolen, he rushes out of his room, telling his father to call the police. When he finally catches up with his vehicle, he was astonished to find that his car was alive. Between Mikaela, the car and Sam, they stumble into some interesting situations.

At the same time, across the world, something attacked an air base in Kuwait... and yet again, something hacked into national security, then disappeared without a trace. The US is sure it's a terrorist country at first. Then, they begin to question themselves. What is that sound? What is in that picture? What about eye-witnesses? Could these be... aliens?

What I Liked:

1: It was fairly well acted.

2: Funny.

3: Had patterns of dark and light... nice mix.

4: Military sequences were nicely done. Great job guys!

5: The alien robots were funny, sweet and majestic.

6: The scene where Sam finds out about Mikaela's background, his reaction is very realistic. That was probably my favorite thing about the film.

7: Next favorite is the way Bumblebee uses the radio/t.v. to talk/communicate. I love how they use John Wayne's voice... “anymore questions you'd like to ask?”

8: I like Mikaela. She's a no-nonsense type of girl.

What I Didn't Like:

1: Crude humor

2: The way Mikaela was dressed... it really concentrates on it.

3: The language.

4: Sam's parents are too irritating and naive. How does somebody get to be that way? Lol.

5: Sam's response to Mikaela's body. The way

6: How the aliens seem to take the place of God or angels. It's not pushed heavily but it's still there. For the record, it didn't hurt my belief in God but it might hurt someone else.

If you like Sci-fi, this is a fairly good film. Go for it. :-)

Transformers -- Revenge of the Fallen -- 2009

Transformers

Revenge of the Fallen

(2009)

Rating PG-13 for violence, language, crude/sexual references and one drug reference

My Rating: 3 stars

Shia LaBeouf

Megan Fox

Josh Duhamel

Tyrese Gibson

John Turturro

Ramon Rodriguez

Kevin Dunn

Julie White

Isabel Lucas

John Benjamin Hickey

Rainn Wilson

“What you're about to see is top secret. Do not tell my Mother.”

I must say, for everything I didn't appreciate in this film, I want to rewatch it. It has a nice quality to it and loads of humor. The line above is my absolute favorite. This is next in line:

“Do you live with your mother?”

“No, Mama lives with me. Big difference.”

I haven't watched any other Transformer movies so I have missed out on a lot of the introductions and story that would have helped me understand this movie better.

Summary: Transformers have coexisted with humans since the earth came into existence. They have always helped mankind. But there was a rebel who hated humans and he wanted to destroy earth entirely. The righteous Transformers had no choice but to banish the rebel. They called him The Fallen. He was not alone in his hatred and had gathered many followers as he tried to work his evil plans. They were called Decepticons. There was rarely a time of peace between Transformers and Decepticons. The one always fighting to protect the human race and the other to destroy it.

Sam Witwicki is a teen with a special power and he has been on many missions with his other gifted friends (including his beautiful girlfriend), fighting with the Transformers and soldiers. But he is tired of not being normal. He wants to settle down to a safe, sane life, enjoy his loved ones, go to college and basically, grow up the regular way.

But once he gets to college, strange things begin to happen. First off, there's this creepy girl who won't take 'no' for an answer. In fact, she basically molests Sam whenever she's in the room. Sam knows something is terribly wrong, but being the gentleman he is, he doesn't know how to stop her advances without being brutal. As it turns out... No, I won't tell you.

Suddenly Sam and his friends and family are all thrust into another adventure that involves death and pain and great sacrifice... and plenty of action!

What I Liked:

1: That Sam's parents were still deeply in love... and found each other physically attractive.

2: How strong Sam and Mikaela's relationship seemed.

3: The clear sense of good and evil. (I wish it were always so clear in real life...!)

4: Shia LeBeouf. Good acting.

5: The humor... when it wasn't crude... was really, really funny. It even made my very reserved sister lol. Good job, guys.

6: Military scenes. I love 'em. Seemed very realistic.

What I Didn't Like:

1: Lots of sex talk. It was excessive and didn't add anything to the story.

2: Crude jokes.

3: The molestation scenes. They did add a lot to the story, however.

4: How ridiculous and immature Sam's mother was on campus. That was embarrassing. She was a different person later on in the movie... so why did they have to make her like that? If they did it for the humor aspect, they failed miserably.

5: It was 96% action. Way too much. I need breathers!

6: Some language.

7: While Sam and Mikaela's relationship seemed strong/good, at the same time, I really wish they would have waited to have sex until they were married. I know it isn't often that people wait but there are still some people out there who are committed to sexual purity and would appreciate movies that encourage such a commitment.