Blog Relaunch and Movie Review: Australia

I have decided, a year later, to have another go with the keeping of a regular blog, in concert with my attempts to become more knowledgeable in the fields of music and movies. So while this may be a vehicle for other sorts of musings, I intend for it to primarily be a means for discussing those things as I previously mentioned. So here goes...

Movie Review: Australia
Director: Baz Luhrmann
How I Watched It: Free Pre-Release Screening at Regal Fenway Cinema
Date: Thursday, November 20th

Being a big fan of Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet, I was extremely excited to see this new movie Australia. I've loved Hugh Jackman ever since I watched him host the Tony Awards in 2003, a fanhood that The Prestige only cemented. (more Christopher Nolan appreciation coming in the next few weeks hopefully :-p)

Unfortunately, this movie did not at all deliver on the potential that I saw in it. Early in the movie, Luhrmann's inventive direction shines, particularly in the prologue section of the movie which illustrates how Nicole Kidman came to Faraway Downs. The art direction, obviously a strength of all the director's movies, remains relatively solid throughout the whole movie.

However, somewhere in the middle, Mr. Luhrmann seems to have forgotten precisely which genre his movie is. He is clearly under the impression that he is shooting the Lord of the Rings, utilizing a number of ornate shots which this reviewer did not find particularly appropriate to a period piece, culminating in a Peter Jackson-esque slow-motion-shaky camera-battle scene shot in a context that failed to deserve such a methodology.

The movie drags through the last half of the movie, and it would've been much better served by wrapping up at least an hour earlier. It picks up for about 5 minutes during the eventual battle of Darwin, only to lose all that momentum immediately afterward.

Jackman was mediocre, maybe a bit better. The part wasn't particularly well-written. Nicole Kidman was exceptionally annoying from her first appearance on camera. Not Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia annoying, but almost there. Only the young man who plays Nullah, Brandon Walters, is especially distinguished, although David Wenham is somewhat better than the rest as well.

As to the climax, I don't want to give it away, but they so stole that from Crash...