Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

I went to see Pan’s Labyrinth today. I didn’t have any expectations for the movie, and it blew me away. From the start the fact that it was a movie entirely in Spanish was almost unsettling, except that I speak Spanish. I had expected it to be in English, but somehow the pain and suffering in the movie was more poignant for the fact that it was foreign.

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, of Hellboy fame, the movie has garnered an amazing 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, 8.5 on IMDB, and six academy award nominations. John Wirt for the Advocate wrote:

Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth brilliantly melds the realms of fairy tale and brutal 20th-century history. Beautiful, horrible and deeply affecting, it’s the 21st century’s first film masterpiece.

Here are a few of the movie posters, to pique your interest:

The plot, without giving too much away, is about a young girl who’s lost her father. Her mother has married a Spanish military officer to escape her loneliness, but they both hate him. The girl is swept up in magic and prophecy as the real world around her plunges into chaos and violence. At the end of it all, you’re struck with two options–to believe that what the young girl experienced is true, and redeem the story, or to deny it to her imagination, and realize the stark reality of the world. There’s no way to choose between the two because the story is told in such a way as to make both equally possible.

If you want to see more, Apple has a trailer you can download! While unsettling, the movie’s grandiose themes and visions overcome its horrors. I highly recommend watching it.

You could either go explore the official site (http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/spiderman3/site/), visit IMDB’s listing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413300/), or come check out this post. Together, Spiderman I & II grossed $1,591,000,000 worldwide with a combined budget of $339,000,000. If that isn’t a sucessful franchise, what is? Spiderman III, coming out May 4th, 2007, will break the box office once again. Bet on it!

Here’s a little teaser photo from the official trailer:

If you’re interested in following more about the movie, people have been reporting commando-style from the shooting locations! I can definitely say that I’ll be watching it when it comes out.

Let me know what you think about the Spiderman franchise in the comments, please!

So, I’m going to see Superman Returns tomorrow with my sister, and I thought I’d check out the previews, which you can get in HD from Apple’s trailer site: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/supermanreturns/hd/. Starring Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth, the film grossed about $20,000,000 on opening day, neither hot nor cold. The trailer is great, though. Check out this screenshot:

The first trailer is glorified Superman, savior of the earth. A narrator (Kal-el’s father), tells him how good the people of the earth are, if only they had someone to guide them. The visual imagery shows Superman in the adoring gaze of the crowds, basking in the sun’s halo, and with his all-time favorite girl, Lois Lane.

This second photo is from the second trailer–which is more about Superman’s past than anything else. Watching both trailers will probably give you some major spoilers for the movie, but how can you resist?