Valiant (2005)

United Kingdom, 2005
Cast (or rather, voice-actors): Ewan McGregor, Ricky Gervais, Tim Curry, Jim Broadbent
Director: Gary Chapman
My Rating: * / ****

My comment on this movie could be (and would be) summarized up to a simple sentence: "Thank god, that it took only 72 minutes".

Valiant is about birds, well, maybe it was actually made for birds, if they could understand English, that is.. wait, British-accented English. Yeah, i really confused at times to see where this movie headed, or who does (what kind of audience, that is) this movie was aimed for. It's set on a World War II, a theme that would eliminate most of the interest from a young boys (and girls), and it's about a talking pigeons who actually took place in a WWII as an aerial messenger, complete with, i quote from the movie, "mother-nature has the audacity to create a little something called 'The Falcon'", which would be a turn-off to a much more adult audiences. So, that leaves a big question mark behind my mind. "Where do i put myself?". Hence, in the minutes that follows, i positioned myself as one of those flurry beaked animals that fly through the sky, which much popular as 'birds'. And by that, i came to the simple sentence that represented this whole CG adventure called "Valiant": "Thank god, that it took only 72 minutes".

Probably the only thing that stood out from this movie is the voice-actings. Man, they were superb.. and not that i'm a sucker for a british-accented speech thingy.. no! what? oh, you doubted me? ah, well, yeah, got to admit, that was also the factor, but trust me, it was really that great, even though one could argue that it WAS great since any other elements in this movie were either mediocre at times, or mostly horrible. The CG quality was what i'd say, if i was a CG expert, which i'm not, a large step-back from what CG we previously saw on Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. I really would like to compare the CG quality to Disney's Chicken Little but, i haven't had the chance to see it yet. Well, it's not as bad as it sounds, but it was still a large step-back. And the story? let's see... uninteresting, predictable, and nothing fresh. Understandable, though, i mean, did you really expect to give some 'deep' material, or unpredictable twist, to a bunch of birds?

My say, it's not even enough for a family material, maybe, if you had a three-year old sons or daughters, but older than that? i doubt that they'd enjoy it, and you'd had a great possibility to lose your children when the movie is over since you'd be fallen asleep during the movie, and your children would think that it was better to wander around, than to sit through on a cold movie theater. Ah, they'd know the ending anyway, right from the very first minute. Unless, if you (or your children) are a bird, which i'm sure you (or they) are not.

Before Sunrise (1995) / Before Sunset (2004)

Jarang sekali saya menonton sebuah judul film lebih dari satu kali. Yah, walaupun saya bukan fans Pauline Kael, kritikus yang percaya bahwa sebuah kesan pertama terhadap film adalah yang paling penting -- opini saya sih, seorang kritikus profesional mestinya menonton sebuah film paling tidak dua kali dulu sebelum dibayar untuk menulis apresiasinya di media --, secara pragmatis boleh dibilang saya tidak punya waktu untuk memutar kembali sebuah film yang pernah saya tonton dikarenakan kesibukan saya (not) atau terutama karena banyaknya film di koleksi saya yg belum saya tonton (bukan cuman puluhan, tapi ratusan judul film dari koleksi saya belum saya tonton). Tapi, sekali waktu saya akan kembali menikmati sebuah film yang saya tahu pasti ceritanya, dan ingin sekali mengulang pengalaman tersebut. Dan kedua film ini (yang saya lebih suka lihat sebagai satu kesatuan) adalah salah dua dari film-film yang mendapat kehormatan tersebut (as if!).

Jesse dan Celine. Sepanjang pengetahuan saya, oh tidak, menurut saya, dua karakter ini adalah jelas-jelas karakter film bergenre drama-romantis paling hebat yang pernah diceritakan. Mereka berdua bertemu untuk kali pertama di sebuah kereta menuju ke Paris, ngobrol biasa -- which actually held place in Vienna --, dan jatuh cinta (Before Sunrise) dan kembali bertemu sembilan tahun kemudian di jalanan kota Paris, dan mencari tahu apakah mereka telah jatuh cinta kembali atau tidak (Before Sunset). Kedua film ini bisa dinikmati sendiri-sendiri karena -- lagi-lagi -- menurut saya, kedua film ini menawarkan pengalaman yang berbeda. Di Before Sunrise, kita mengikuti chemistry dari dua orang yang baru pertama kali bertemu, mengamati dari dekat bagaimana lantas Jesse atau Celine jatuh cinta satu sama lain. Dan di Before Sunset, it's all about second-chance. Di banyak sisi, saya lebih menyukai Before Sunset, yang menurut hemat saya, lebih dewasa, atau lebih tepatnya, lebih bisa nyambung dengan saya.

Terdengar klise? Mungkin. Tapi percaya deh sama saya. Apakah film ini akan seklise kedengarannya kalau sampai saya tonton dua kali? Entah di mana kekuatan dari (dua) film ini (i'd go for the script, the cast, the set, the scores, the ending. And the beginning. And the middle), yang jelas saya sangat menikmati setiap detik dari (dua) film ini. Well, sebagai perbandingan, di genre yang relatif sama, drama-romantis, saya juga sangat menyukai "When Harry Met Sally" yang secara pragmatis bisa dipukul sama-rata dari segi ide dengan keseluruhan ide dari dua film ini. Meskipun tentu saja, minus eksplisit humor karena memang "When Harry Met Sally" lebih condong ke komedi. Sedangkan dua film ini lebih berkonsentrasi pada obrolan Jesse dan Celine yang kadang2 tidak jelas relevansinya -- obrolan yang kalau kadang tidak membuat anda minimal tersenyum, saya akan menuduh anda tidak punya selera humor sama sekali -- untuk membangun koneksi di antara mereka.

All in all, sedikit sekali film dengan genre romantis yang masuk ke daftar "my favourite film", these two are among the tops of that list.. that's for sure.

NB: Uh, saya baru ingat, saya selalu menyukai long-shots, dan dua film ini relatif terkenal karena long-shots nya (ya, jamak).
NB2: Dan dialog terakhir di "Before Sunset" really really blows me out.