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Post by montee916 on Jan 20, 2013 8:05:05 GMT -5
So, has anyone else seen it yet? What are your thoughts on it?
Just went to see it last night and gotta say, I ADORED it. Honestly there were moments in this movie where I just wanted to stand and applaud, it was that good to me. An incredible cast with stunning performances and just.... WOW
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TCA
Don Corleone
Always on my mind
Posts: 1,401
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Post by TCA on Jan 20, 2013 8:46:07 GMT -5
Yep, I feel the same, I loved it. Terrific job by everyone.
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Post by B'Cup x on Jan 20, 2013 10:07:25 GMT -5
my girlfriend has seen it twice in the last week and intends to see it next week aswell. I have no desire to go x
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Post by Red Impact on Jan 20, 2013 11:05:03 GMT -5
I didn't like Anne Hathaway's singing, but besides that, I loved the movie.
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Post by Piccolo on Jan 20, 2013 11:18:18 GMT -5
With the exception of how Javert was done, I thought it was really terrific. I would definitely go see it again.
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Post by Cyno on Jan 20, 2013 11:19:30 GMT -5
I cried 5 times. Russell Crowe's Javert was really the only downside and I got used to it eventually. Rooting big time for Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway in the Oscars for their brilliant performances.
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Legion
Fry's dog Seymour
Amy Pond's #1 fan
Hail Hydra!
Posts: 22,862
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Post by Legion on Jan 20, 2013 12:13:39 GMT -5
Crowe grew on me.
He was perhaps a bit too gleefully evil rather than just dedicated at times, but by the end, I was there with him.
Fantastic cast imo, truly can't pick on anyone except little nit picks here and there.
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Post by Cela on Jan 20, 2013 13:16:41 GMT -5
It was absolutely terrible.
-Terrible pacing. -Unsubtle songs, "I'm FEELING ALONE! AND COLD" Songs are supposed to have subtext, show not tell sort of stuff. -Need to sing EVERYTHING. Good musicals break up endless singing with spoken dialogue. -Little to no character development in non big two characters. -Characters we we supposed to care about that had very little set up before being told to cry for them. Without googling, tell me the name of red shirt. -Bad singing. -Cockney chimney sweep accents for French people -The Passion of the Hathaway seeming to take one day -Wide sweeping musical numbers being filmed 3 inches away from peoples face -A love story somehow worse than twilight. -Pointless fan favorite side characters. -Plot developments that seemed to be common sense/knowledge instead of twists. -It seeming interminably long and yet rushed at the same time.
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Post by Red Impact on Jan 20, 2013 13:24:56 GMT -5
It was far more opera than traditional musical, in terms of song vs. spoken dialogue goes. I wasn't expecting it going in, but I didn't mind it by the end. That's how the play was written, but I'd never read it.
I'd argue against songs having subtext and subtlety. In most musicals, they really don't. It's very much "We're angry, here's an angry song. We're happy, here's a happy song! We're in love, we're singing about it!"
And as far as love goes, it's not that uncommon for plays to fall into the love at first sight theme. Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, most every single fairy tale and Disney movie, Sweeney Todd, it's how it was in the book and in literature terms, it's normal.
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Post by Piccolo on Jan 20, 2013 14:04:04 GMT -5
I think I've mentioned this in a previous Les Mis thread, but my problem with Crowe's Javert was really just that he lacked passion. Javert is a fanatic. His fanaticism is terrifying and pathetic and strangely grand, a force of nature, a thing so powerful that when it's challenged and cannot be reconciled, it forces him to end his life. Crowe was almost too gentle... part of it was that he rarely injected emotion into the sung lines, but part of it is just his face. I didn't buy that this was a man who was so rigid that he would take his own life rather than change his moral framework.
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Post by Cyno on Jan 20, 2013 14:10:18 GMT -5
I have to say the one thing I really liked about Crowe's Javert was putting the little medal on Gavroche's shirt. I think he needed that sort of humanizing moment.
I also loved the nods to not only the original musical, like Colm Wilkenson (the original Valjean) as the Bishop, but also Victor Hugo's book. Like seeing Marius' grandfather, who was never in the original musical.
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stealthamo
King Koopa
Something stupid
#AJAll
Posts: 11,247
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Post by stealthamo on Jan 21, 2013 1:18:53 GMT -5
Just got back from it. I thought it was alright. My biggest problem has to be the fact that they sing everything. Every other musical I've ever seen have non-singing scenes that help to transition, whereas this goes from one song to the next, never letting me a chance to relax. Instead, I have to stay on my toes and pay attention (though it's pretty easy to know what's happening, so it's not like you'd have to focus non-stop). Also, it seemed odd to me how the tone changed so suddenly in the final act, and how Cosette isn't seen for about half an hour. In addition, Carter and Cohen's characters annoyed me after a while. I get that they're comic relief, but it got tiring quick.
All in all, not a great movie, but not terrible either. The acting really makes the movie, especially Jackman and Hathaway. I actually liked Crowe as well. It did get confusing in the third act though, when you're introduced to a million characters at once, and I barely had any idea who they were. I could see why people could love it, and why people would hate it. I'm somewhere in the middle, though I did enjoy it (probably cause I only paid $4 to see it).
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the2ndevil
Grimlock
Super Seducer Survivor
Where Is Your Santa, Now?
Posts: 13,629
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Post by the2ndevil on Jan 21, 2013 13:39:55 GMT -5
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Legion
Fry's dog Seymour
Amy Pond's #1 fan
Hail Hydra!
Posts: 22,862
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Post by Legion on Jan 21, 2013 14:26:07 GMT -5
I have to say the one thing I really liked about Crowe's Javert was putting the little medal on Gavroche's shirt. I think he needed that sort of humanizing moment. I also loved the nods to not only the original musical, like Colm Wilkenson (the original Valjean) as the Bishop, but also Victor Hugo's book. Like seeing Marius' grandfather, who was never in the original musical. I also liked that he showed some emotion like that, but I felt it was in the wrong place. {Spoiler}Had he gone from the final scene with JVJ and throwing the gun away to seeing Gavroche and putting the medal on him, it builds towards his suicide. The way they did it, he broke for the kid and by extension the rebels, but then still tried to be hard line with JVJ and then broke and threw his gun away.
Wrong way round for me.
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Post by Cyno on Jan 21, 2013 14:48:34 GMT -5
The way I see it, Javert was never really a bad person (granted I never read the book so I don't know how different he is there vs. the musical). He was obsessed with catching Valjean because he was the one who got away. While he did think the Abc Cafe revolutionaries had to be stopped, that doesn't stop him for feeling sadness or regret that it had to come to such a violent end. Especially for a little kid like Gavroche.
While I usually don't like to use D&D alignments to describe characters with more dynamic personalities, Javert is the embodiment of Lawful Neutral. When a far more chaotic character like Valjean, his sworn enemy and life's obsession, actually makes him think he might be wrong about his entire outlook on life, it breaks him.
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Post by Baixo Astral on Jan 21, 2013 15:02:01 GMT -5
It was spectacular - Crowe's Javert wasn't great, partly because of his poor singing, and partly because he doesn't capture that Javert is Rorschach with a baguette. The degradation of Fantine, from factory worker to her death, is off the charts brilliant, and Anne Hathaway deserves every award for which she is eligible.
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