Where the Wild Things Are

Discuss entertainment media here, including TV, cinema, the Internet, books and literature, and other non-musical works or multimedia productions.
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Postby Studebacher Hoch » 2009.08.08 (19:52)

I don't cry when I see that trailer, I just get this feeling, like this ache right at the bottom of my heart.

I think... I think that's what love feels like.

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Postby Tanner » 2009.08.08 (20:12)

Studebacher Hoch wrote:I don't cry when I see that trailer, I just get this feeling, like this ache right at the bottom of my heart.

I think... I think that's what love feels like.
Nah. That's acid reflux.
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Postby Studebacher Hoch » 2009.08.08 (20:24)

rennaT wrote:
Studebacher Hoch wrote:I don't cry when I see that trailer, I just get this feeling, like this ache right at the bottom of my heart.

I think... I think that's what love feels like.
Nah. That's acid reflux.
Either way Spike Jonze is a genius.

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Postby Leaff » 2009.08.08 (22:04)

Wow.

This is going to be fantastic. :D
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Postby lord_day » 2009.10.01 (12:39)

There are two things to be said.
1) I need Max's costume. Where can I buy it?
2) When my mother used to read me this story as a kid, I would correct her when she made mistakes. This was before I could read.
So yeah. Can't wait for it to be released.
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Postby SlappyMcGee » 2009.10.01 (15:35)

lord_day wrote:There are two things to be said.
1) I need Max's costume. Where can I buy it?
2) When my mother used to read me this story as a kid, I would correct her when she made mistakes. This was before I could read.
So yeah. Can't wait for it to be released.
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Postby Aphex » 2009.10.01 (15:44)

"Hey guys, remember that book we read as kids? remember how great that was? Why don't we make a film about that?
Yeah, and we'll add in some hip modern stuff to attract all the kids! Like... his parents are divorced! Every kid's parents are divorced now aren't they? They probably are! That'll mean everyone can relate to the film!
We won't have to worry too much about advertising, as most people will come see the film because of a sense of nostalgia!
Okay guys, lets get to work recycling this book! The target market is so broad, we can't fail!"


Southpaw, I highly doubt that they used the play adaptation, though if they did, then the film should be decent, instead of abhorrent.

Creating a new idea takes a lot more skill than polishing up an old one.
Plus the results are more satisfying when the work is original.

These are all just assumptions though... Fingers crossed they'll have taken an unique take on it, as opposed to just modernising a classic tale.
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Postby SlappyMcGee » 2009.10.01 (16:20)

Aphex wrote:"Hey guys, remember that book we read as kids? remember how great that was? Why don't we make a film about that?
Yeah, and we'll add in some hip modern stuff to attract all the kids! Like... his parents are divorced! Every kid's parents are divorced now aren't they? They probably are! That'll mean everyone can relate to the film!
We won't have to worry too much about advertising, as most people will come see the film because of a sense of nostalgia!
Okay guys, lets get to work recycling this book! The target market is so broad, we can't fail!"


Southpaw, I highly doubt that they used the play adaptation, though if they did, then the film should be decent, instead of abhorrent.

Creating a new idea takes a lot more skill than polishing up an old one.
Plus the results are more satisfying when the work is original.

These are all just assumptions though... Fingers crossed they'll have taken an unique take on it, as opposed to just modernising a classic tale.

Are you familiar with Spike Jonze' body of work? Check yooself before you wreck yooself, dawg.
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Postby Aphex » 2009.10.01 (16:34)

Being John Malkovich was overated imo, though I haven't seen his other work...

The thing that left me with a sour taste in my mouth was the shot (in the trailer posted originally) where the kid is looking sad, while his dad kisses another woman. That just triggered a thought that this is just a modernising of a classic tale aimed to "relate to the kids of today"...

but as I said
Aphex wrote:These are all just assumptions though...
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Postby t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư » 2009.10.01 (19:40)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the original work (which inspired the alleged play, which apparently inspired the movie) was about Max being an asshole, going to the Land of Assholes, being too big an asshole for them, and getting supper anyway, right?

Tell you what, I have the book right here. Lemme upload some pictures.
http://i37.tinypic.com/2zjez28.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/2n16p84.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/2wlxdty.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/2eupk6o.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/2nr0g8j.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/1giy53.jpg

So why am I seeing sympathy on anyone's part toward anyone else and personal growth in this trailer?
Looks to me like this movie will be as faithful to its original source as I, Robot.
[spoiler="you know i always joked that it would be scary as hell to run into DMX in a dark ally, but secretly when i say 'DMX' i really mean 'Tsukatu'." -kai]"... and when i say 'scary as hell' i really mean 'tight pink shirt'." -kai[/spoiler][/i]
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Postby SlappyMcGee » 2009.10.01 (21:35)

Tsukatu wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but the original work (which inspired the alleged play, which apparently inspired the movie) was about Max being an asshole, going to the Land of Assholes, being too big an asshole for them, and getting supper anyway, right?

Tell you what, I have the book right here. Lemme upload some pictures.
http://i37.tinypic.com/2zjez28.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/2n16p84.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/2wlxdty.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/2eupk6o.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/2nr0g8j.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/1giy53.jpg

So why am I seeing sympathy on anyone's part toward anyone else and personal growth in this trailer?
Looks to me like this movie will be as faithful to its original source as I, Robot.
and twice as kickass! Good point, Tsukatu.
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Postby t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư » 2009.10.02 (01:15)

SlappyMcGee wrote:
Tsukatu wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but the original work (which inspired the alleged play, which apparently inspired the movie) was about Max being an asshole, going to the Land of Assholes, being too big an asshole for them, and getting supper anyway, right?

Tell you what, I have the book right here. Lemme upload some pictures.
http://i37.tinypic.com/2zjez28.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/2n16p84.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/2wlxdty.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/2eupk6o.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/2nr0g8j.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/1giy53.jpg

So why am I seeing sympathy on anyone's part toward anyone else and personal growth in this trailer?
Looks to me like this movie will be as faithful to its original source as I, Robot.
and twice as kickass! Good point, Tsukatu.
Well yeah, I didn't say it'd be a bad movie. Just not faithful to the source. At the very least, the chase scenes that look like they're straight out of a movie about 'Nam (and probably directed by Zack Snyder) promise mindless action, which I can always lower my standards to on the fly during a movie if the plot sucks, and begin enjoying the movie again.
[spoiler="you know i always joked that it would be scary as hell to run into DMX in a dark ally, but secretly when i say 'DMX' i really mean 'Tsukatu'." -kai]"... and when i say 'scary as hell' i really mean 'tight pink shirt'." -kai[/spoiler][/i]
spoiler

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Postby SlappyMcGee » 2009.10.15 (20:34)

Reviews are starting to roll in, haters:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/where-th ... are,34168/
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Postby unoriginal name » 2009.10.16 (05:49)

I am psyched and am not reading one word more about this aside from any gushing over IRC until I see it on Saturday.

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Postby unoriginal name » 2009.10.16 (21:56)

Haha, Saturday? Who was I kidding.

So I just got back from the matinee and oh my god oh my god amazing. All the characters are well-rounded and three-dimensional. The story is multi-layered and engaging, yet has a humble simplicity that allows it to be grasped innately. I certainly don't really have my thoughts together about the film right now, but I'm pretty sure it's one of my favorite films of the year. Heartily recommended.

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Postby SlappyMcGee » 2009.10.21 (01:46)

Well, that was disappointing.

I expect a lot from a Spike Jonze. His first two movies are both favorites of mine, and Adaptation will likely find it's way very high on my top film list. His music videos are sublime and circle around the same music that I love. This man can literally do no wrong in my eyes.

This movie is mediocre. Well, no. It's good. But not nearly as good as it would have you believe.

Some greatness before I begin the hating:

-The kid is magnificent. Great performance.
-The music is magnificent. Good you, Karen O.
-The Wild Things look believable and look magnificent.

Now, let's get into this.

I felt throughout the movie a combination of two distinct feelings: being confused and being insulted. It became very obvious early on, after Max's foray into the land of the Wild Things, that we were to make parallels between his real life and the fictional world he is in. This should be awesome; within the deft subversive hands of Spike Jonze, subtlety could allow us to inhabit feelings and thoughts of a nine year old who we know very little about. And at the high points of this film, that's exactly what happens. We learn more about who this child is without being told directly about his life. Since this is a character study, and it would have to be, doing this well should seem important to the film.

Alas, the line that the film seems to intend to straddle is so often, well, not. We have these Wild Things not just exhibiting thoughts and feelings of the young boy, but acting out the very situations that the boy has presumably experienced. This is not as big of a problem as it would be in a lesser filmmaker's hands. It still feels remarkably obvious, but it also gives us some idea of what the movie is about; maybe these wild things are just exaggerated projections of the people around Max.

What minimal time in the "real" world means is that the life that Max has led up to hear is unknown to us; that we should be getting an idea of that life entirely from the Wild world. But while I felt at times spoon-fed what that life was, there were other times where I felt what was going on on screen was utterly pointless. There were moments where, without any precedence, I struggled to find meaning in them from both a straight-forward plot sense as well as in a symbolic sense.

Ultimately, I feel like Spike Jonze may have successfully submerged us into the mind of a nine year-old. But like the mind of a nine year-old, this film feels too often unorganized. Although it has moments of pure unadulterated fun, it sacrifices those for its semblance of meaning, and I found very little in this picture. But once again, I echo my earlier sentiments; the performances are all ace, the direction is competent and the music is excellent. It's a shame that the script is a bit of a letdown.

6/10.
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Postby origami_alligator » 2009.11.01 (23:55)

I watched it sometime last weekend. I think it was a Saturday or something.
While I felt that the movie itself was lacking in a lot of respects (failure to really convey that Max was escaping his own world rather than Max entering a world which mirrored his own) it still managed to somewhat hold my interest. While the dialogue had its moments of hilarity, too often I felt that it was teetering between trying to convey some deep meaning and then falling back on comedy too soon before anyone could really grasp anything emotionally tangible.

Biggest letdown to me? The lack of Arcade Fire. That would have set a much deeper tone with me for scenes such as sailing across the ocean on the way back home or playing in the forest with the Wild Things. Loved the music, enjoyed the movie, but was possibly (probably) expecting too much.
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