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Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World | 2003 | Weir | D+
This evening was the second time this year I have walked out of the cinema disappointed (The first due to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines [2003]), Not that I had expected a lot from Master and Commander (the case with T3 was not so much expecting but wanting and hoping for a worthy sequel) but I had at least expected a decent film, Which was not delivered.
Before I start to go into way I didn’t like M & C I will express my view of Russell Crowe , I hate him as an actor and although I have never met him I hate him as person. I tried as hard as I could to not let this get in the way of this film… But in the end it did.
Maybe the projector was broke or something but to me the cinematography in this film was horrible, everything seemed out of focus, cramped and…… cheap. Looking through his IMDB profile I don’t think Russell Boyd was the best choice to shoot this film, I mean the only decent movie he has been involved in is Gallipoli [1981] and I cant remember how that looked.
I think that there was a (failed) attempt to transfer what was happening on the screen to affect the viewer. The storm was a good example of this, instead of feeling cold and “weathered”, I felt annoyed (If you have no idea what I am talking about see Barton Fink [1991] or Fargo [1996], The first makes you feel like your on fire and the second makes you feel frozen). This was also tried during the battle scenes (Especially the hand to hand combat part in the last one) and instead of getting a Saving Privet Ryan like effect I just felt plain confused and once again annoyed.
I also read somewhere that in the book the enemy ship is American working for the French, whereas in the film it is a French ship, If this has been changed because of current politics I am very disappointed. But I have not read the book so I am not sure if this is true.
There are a few reasons why this film didn’t get an F or even a low D, One is the weevil joke and another is Max Pirkis, This kid was amazing, Probably one of the first kid actors I could say I enjoyed watching. And the last was the one on one scenes between Bettany and Crowe, they really got me to sit up and pay attention.
This evening was the second time this year I have walked out of the cinema disappointed (The first due to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines [2003]), Not that I had expected a lot from Master and Commander (the case with T3 was not so much expecting but wanting and hoping for a worthy sequel) but I had at least expected a decent film, Which was not delivered.
Before I start to go into way I didn’t like M & C I will express my view of Russell Crowe , I hate him as an actor and although I have never met him I hate him as person. I tried as hard as I could to not let this get in the way of this film… But in the end it did.
Maybe the projector was broke or something but to me the cinematography in this film was horrible, everything seemed out of focus, cramped and…… cheap. Looking through his IMDB profile I don’t think Russell Boyd was the best choice to shoot this film, I mean the only decent movie he has been involved in is Gallipoli [1981] and I cant remember how that looked.
I think that there was a (failed) attempt to transfer what was happening on the screen to affect the viewer. The storm was a good example of this, instead of feeling cold and “weathered”, I felt annoyed (If you have no idea what I am talking about see Barton Fink [1991] or Fargo [1996], The first makes you feel like your on fire and the second makes you feel frozen). This was also tried during the battle scenes (Especially the hand to hand combat part in the last one) and instead of getting a Saving Privet Ryan like effect I just felt plain confused and once again annoyed.
I also read somewhere that in the book the enemy ship is American working for the French, whereas in the film it is a French ship, If this has been changed because of current politics I am very disappointed. But I have not read the book so I am not sure if this is true.
There are a few reasons why this film didn’t get an F or even a low D, One is the weevil joke and another is Max Pirkis, This kid was amazing, Probably one of the first kid actors I could say I enjoyed watching. And the last was the one on one scenes between Bettany and Crowe, they really got me to sit up and pay attention.