Paper Towns

            “Paper Towns” is the newest film adaptation of a John Green novel. The movie was directed by Jake Schreier, and the screenplay was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. It stars Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith, Halston Sage and Jaz Sinclair. I was very excited to see this movie.

“Paper Towns” is my favorite John Green book, and I was thrilled that there would be a movie version. I thought that the adaption of “The Fault in Our Stars” was well made, so I was expecting the same with this movie. That was not the case. It was just an average teen movie. The only reason I even slightly enjoyed it was because it was based off of a book that I love. It is rated as a rotten movie on Rotten Tomatoes with only a 55 percent. The story is not the problem though. It’s the way it is presented.

In the film, Quentin or Q (Wolff) has been in love with Margo Roth Spiegelman (Delevingne) since they were young kids. They saw a dead body together, which sparks an interest in mysteries for Margo. Ever since then, she has been very adventurous and has even become a bit of a mystery to everyone who knows her. After a night of pranks on her friends who did her wrong, Margo disappears. Quentin takes it upon himself to find her. The outcome provides a very important message.

This message makes sense throughout the reading of the whole book. However, it doesn’t fit the movie very well. The ending was changed in the movie in order to get the point across. It doesn’t make sense at all when looking at the rest of the movie. If the whole movie matched the tone and feeling of the end, it would have been much better.

I think they did a good job of including most of the parts the fans of the book really wanted to see, but it wasn’t done well. They only showed one fast pit stop scene and left out some of the fantastic comments the characters made in the process. They showed the “great white wall of cow,” but they never actually called it that or included the best lines from the characters about it. I was also very disappointed about the way they removed the one eyebrow. My favorite part about that was wondering if he would remove the other eyebrow or draw on the one that was removed. It’s all those little humorous moments that I missed the most.

           Speaking of humorous moments, Ben was so hilarious in the book. They tried to showcase that in the movie, but failed. I was completely let down by Abrams. I didn’t find him funny in the film, and that ruined some of the best parts for me. Drunk Ben in the movie was not good at all, it was just sad. I thought Wolff did a pretty average job, but he was much better in his smaller role in “The Fault in Our Stars.” Smith was also nothing special in his role. The girls did pretty well though. I can’t say I was that impressed by Delevingne, but Sage and Sinclair’s performances were enjoyable. Sage did a good job and was my favorite part of the movie, even though she had a smaller role. She was actually believable as Lacey. Sinclair surprised me. In the book, Angela stood out to me the least. I liked her, she just wasn’t as memorable. Sinclair brought Angela more to the forefront of the group.

          All of these things took a toll on the film. I wish it had lived up to my expectations, but it definitely did not. If you are thinking of watching the movie, please read the book first. If you watch the movie first, it could ruin the book for you. That would be tragic because the book is fantastic. I am so disappointed with the way it turned out. Sadly, this is not a movie you need to see.

Home

      The DreamWorks film “Home” was directed by Tim Johnson. The screenplay was written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember, and Adam Rex wrote the book. The film stars Jim Parsons, Rihanna and Steve Martin. It’s a pretty cute animated movie. It was quite average, which is probably why it was rated as a rotten film on Rotten Tomatoes with a 46 percent rating. The plot didn’t help. It was very predictable, but still cute.

      In the movie, Oh (Parsons) and his alien race, ruled by Captain Smek (Martin), invade Earth to make it their new home. Oh accidentally sends their location to their enemy, which turns all of his people against him. He has to live life on the run and meets Tip (Rihanna), a human girl, who is trying to find her mom. In order to escape, he agrees to help Tip find her mom, but he’s really trying to help himself. Tip teaches him what it means to be a human and that mistakes are okay. He also learns about friendship along the way.

      The plot and moral of the film is nothing new. Two very different characters develop a friendship while working as a team to accomplish a goal.They also learn that everyone makes mistakes. It’s what you do with them that matters. These have been used time and time again. It is a nice message though for young children, who haven’t already seen this done to death.

      The biggest reason I watched this movie is because of Parsons. He did not disappoint. His voice acting for Oh was pretty funny. It was a lot like Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. The main difference of the two is that Oh is more energetic all the time. The tone Parsons used, plus the misuse of the english language, made the character so likable. I also personally enjoyed the word-play.

      Another character I liked a lot was Tip’s cat and the way it interacted with Oh. The sight of the cat always sitting on Oh’s head makes me smile. Also, Martin was entertaining as Captain Smek. He was a fun addition to the cast. The Tip character was pretty typical though. There really wasn’t anything about this character that stood out to me, except that I liked her name Tip was short for Gratuity.

      I think the animation was done just as well as DreamWorks’ past films. The aliens looked right at home in this film. In fact, the aliens seemed to fit into that world more than the humans did. Maybe that was because there were many more aliens than humans throughout.

      I also didn’t think the music was anything special. It was fine, and it fitted the film well enough. The music just wasn’t very memorable. The only reason I remember anything about the music is because it was promoted so much beforehand.

      In general, “Home” was pretty average. It’s a light-hearted, rainy day type of movie. It is much more suited for young children than for everyone else. This is not something you need to rush to see.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

           Studio Ghibli’s “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” made its American debut in 2014. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata. Some of the voice actors include Chloë Grace Moretz, James Caan and Mary Steenburgen. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. I liked this movie very much, and it looks like the critics agree. This film has a 100 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Part of this is because of the unique story.

Princess Kaguya comes into the world from the middle of a bamboo stock. A bamboo cutter finds her and brings her home, where she starts growing rapidly. The man believes her to be a princess and thinks she is his blessing from heaven. He also finds a lot of gold and material to create beautiful clothes in bamboo stocks. The Bamboo Cutter, along with his wife, uses these treasures to turn the girl into the real princess he believes her to be.  Princess Kaguya has a hard time dealing with the process of becoming a princess. She is expected to act according to certain rules, but she is a free spirit. This creates a situation no one expected.

The story is augmented by the incredible visual aspects of the movie. Everything was created by hand, and each frame could stand alone as a beautiful picture. It definitely adds to the magic of their world. My favorite part of the movie is when the princess runs away during a celebration in her honor. It gave me instant goosebumps. She flys across the screen, her anger unmistakable. At one point, she sheds several layers of colorful robes. It moves so fast, and it’s so gorgeous to look at. The lines of the scene are scribbled in order to create the fast-paced action.

 Another of my favorite scenes to look at involves the princess turning in circles under a cherry blossom. It has a similar visual technique. It took me back to when I would spin around when was little. I remembered how fun and freeing that felt. Because of the amazing movement and beauty of the scene I could share in Princess Kaguya’s disappointment when that sensation came to an end. Not only does the visual experience affect the movie, but also the voice actors themselves are really important to portraying the story in the correct way.

 I started watching the movie in english. However, the voice acting of Caan (The Bamboo Cutter) was too distracting to me after only about five minutes. It didn’t really seem to match well with the flow of the film. The lines were really choppy. I liked it better in Japanese. The movement of the characters and the tone matched the Japanese voice actors. In addition, hearing a movie that takes place in Japan in the Japanese language makes it seem more believable. It puts the audience in the world easier.

 I watched some parts of the movie in english afterwards to see how that affected the scenes. Moretz (Princess Kaguya) sounded good on the parts of the film where the princess is speaking quietly and slowly. However, on the faster speaking parts, the princess spoke exactly the way Moretz usually speaks. That distracted me, and it took me right out the scene. I think the tone she used matched the tone of the movie really well though. For me, if a voice is too recognizable, it takes away from the character I’m watching on the screen.

              Another thing that made a difference in the tone of the film was the music. There is a song in the movie that the princess knows a second verse to that no one else does. This song comes up several times and ties into the big plot point of the movie. The other music that is played during the movie amplifies what the characters are doing. There are some wonderful quiet moments that the characters don’t speak. The music speaks instead.

              Because of these things, I couldn’t help but love “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.” It is now one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies. I hope more people watch it, so they can have the same great experience as I did.