by Evan Webb | Jun 21, 2013 | Opinion
Pixar’s Monsters University is the sequel/prequel to Monsters, Inc. (made after Monsters, Inc., but taking place before the events in Monsters, Inc.). The film follows the story of Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) as he sets off to college in hopes of graduating with a degree in scaring. Now, I don’t believe it’s a secret that Pixar’s latest films have not exactly been the impeccable works we’ve grown accustomed to from the pioneering studio that brought us Up, Wall-e, and the Toy Story franchise. With a resume like that, one would expect pure gold every time they walked into a theater. However, Monsters University tends to follow in line with the likes of Cars 2 as opposed to Toy Story 2. Sadly, the mark has been missed in one of the most anticipated movie franchise returns in recent years. Don’t misunderstand me: Monsters University is not a bad film. It develops a plot, builds new and old characters and gives great graphics and animation to those characters, but that is one of the bigger problems – it does just that. Perhaps I have been spoiled by Pixar’s previous endeavors and come to expect too much from their genius, or perhaps the studio has hit a snag in their current output. Monsters University was essentially a typical college movie dressed in Pixar clothes. The film felt as if it was presented to children with characters we either already knew or ones that aren’t memorable enough to care about. The biggest problem I had with the latest Pixar movie was that it lacked so much of the studio’s originality and freshness. I...
by Evan Webb | Mar 12, 2013 | News Slider, Opinion
Oz the Great and Powerful is the new fantasy film directed by Sam Raimi and inspired by L. Frank Baum’s Oz series. The first thing to be noted about the film is that it is, by far, not The Wizard of Oz. Aside from the setting and some characters, this film misses on giving one the same feeling the original Wizard of Oz did. I do not know if the film was trying to or not, but if one goes to this film expecting to see The Wizard of Oz, then they will be sorely disappointed. However, if one goes to this film expecting to see a new, standalone story set in the same universe as The Wizard of Oz, then they will be in for a treat. Let me take a moment to make a few comments about 3-D: I hate it. But, I saw Oz the Great and Powerful in 3-D, and thought it worked very well. The opening title sequence of the film was beautiful and brilliant on its own but was made more engaging and alluring by the awesome use of 3-D. There are many circumstances in the film that are made better because of the 3-D element incorporated. (I think this is due to the film being shot in that format instead of post-converted to 3D.) As I mentioned before, it’s best not to go into this movie with expectations of reliving all the great things about The Wizard of Oz. The new film follows a wily, cunning magician named Oscar “Oz” Diggs (James Franco) as he finds himself in more trouble than he...
