Customer Reviews

MirrorMask

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"You can't run away from home without destroying somebody's world"

Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) is unhappy with her lot in life as a circuses entertainer and expresses this to her mother (Gina McKee.) Later her mother has a medical problem and Helena is not sure that she did not contribute.

The story starts with a wall of drawings and drawing on a door. We assume that this is an ongoing nightmare. It makes you wonder if German expressionism film had survived how it would have morphed. Even though much of the movie was filmed at Embassy Court in Brighton Beach, the dilapidated building even has an expressionist look.

As we watch the dream, we wonder where the dream starts and reality ends. Maybe there is more to this than meets the eye. There is an eerie part when Helena looked through a window to see her doppelgänger. However it is not the what, but the why that really makes the story.

Now watch as we try to discover the secret of the MirrorMask.

For people interested in media, I only saw this in Blu-ray and con not contrast. However the voice over commentary is worth the time to watch.

Oedipus Rex ~ Douglas Campbell

Being a fan of both Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, I was excited to hear about this movie. From what I had seen of it, it looked like our modern day's version of Wizard of Oz, and I adored that movie as a kid.

Unfortunately, the movie is all visuals, rapturous, creepy, astounding visuals. The acting is acceptable, but there are times I felt the actress playing Helena was not terribly adept at acting with a green screen. It's understandable, of course, she's fairly young, and I'm sure it's always a challenge for any actor to pretend to be interacting with something that just isn't there at the time of filming.

With the movie 90% special effects, the simplistic plot gets lost in all the imagery. Helena and her street juggler companion seem to wander around aimlessly, their destinations a given to them, but lacking deeper motive and better reasons to us. And unfortunately, for a movie so heavy with visuals, a lot of it looked plastic, cartoony almost--some things and creatures just stick out as horribly fake, especially in the presence of a live actor. I don't know if this was intentionally done for a specific style or look, and if it was, I'm at a loss to how it can be justified--for such an odd, alluring, expansive fantasy realm, anything that prevents total immersion is a flaw.

So all in all, it was okay. With patience, you'll see some neat things, but don't expect to be blown away by the movie, or have it leave a huge impression.

Regarding the French version of Mirrormask, apparently, many people have purchased the incorrect version, according to the rankings, the french version is 808, while the english version is 40761, someone screwed up at Amazon resulting in the sales of the French version.

I don't care too much, all you got to do is change the audio. Still I would hope that Amazon ensures this doesn't happen again.

You know, technically it's false advertising to display the English artwork and ship the French version. Saying "Language: French" really doesn't mean anything since 99.9% of movies sold in Canada have a French audio track. There is no indication otherwise to show that it's a French-only version. It should say in the title or description somewhere. And, considering the rank of 156, there was no reason to think that it was a non-standard version. I sent them an e-mail to see what they say for themselves. Unfortunately the English version seems now to be sold out and only available through Marketplace. Irratating!!

The English artwork for Mirrormask is shown - but the language is French. I ordered this believing I'd get the English version (it's an English-language movie, anyway), and received the French instead, and now I have to pay for its return because I technically ordered the French version.

I thought it was an isolated incident, but it appears I wasn't the only one who ordered the French language version of Mirrormask by accident. When I came back I noticed that there were no other version available, except in the Marketplace. I gave up and decided to order the movie elsewhere. This is the only problem I've ever had with amazon.ca. Hopefully this situation won't happen again.