The Count of Monte Cristo 1934 and 2002: A Comparison

Though they were made almost a century a part, both of these films tell the story of Edmond Dantes, a young man who is wrongly accused of treason and sent to a merciless prison. After several years painfully spent there, he manages to escape and discover the treasure of "Monte Cristo". He then enters society once again, this time as the Count of Monte Cristo, and avenges himself against those who sent him to prison.

Between the two movies, I enjoyed Kevin Reynold's 2002 remake more than the original. Firstly, I found the second movie much more enjoyable because the Edmond Dantes' character was much more driven by revenge, which made the motivations for his actions much more obvious. I say this because in the first one, he rarely shows emotion or the extreme anger that an actual person would have felt after they'd been betrayed by their best friend among others. This made it unclear and seemingly pointless that he should get revenge upon his enemies, for he barely seemed driven to kill them or satisfied once they were dead. In the 2002 version, the Count's fury and resentment is portrayed much more clearly as he goes on to fight, imprison, and  murder his enemies.

Secondly, I preferred the second version because it goes more in-depth while explaining Edmond Dantes' transition into his "Count of Monte Cristo" identity. Unlike in the first film, it shows him learning to sword fight in prison, found a loyal companion among pirates that he encountered, stole the treasure, and established a life for himself back in civilization.

Lastly, the second version of the film contained more scenes in which Dantes murdered the men who and done him injustice in his life. The first of these would be the man who ran the prison and annually whipped Dantes, whom he drowned in the ocean surrounding the prison. This did not happen in the original version. In the first film, Dantes does not always kill his enemies himself. In some cases, he guilt trips them so that they kill themselves. In the second film, the only occasion in which he does not perform a murder is when he imprisons the man who originally sent him to jail. I found the second film to be much more satisfying, because Dantes is more ruthless whilst seeking revenge.

Blade Runner

Directed by Ridley Scott, Blade Runner (1982) is a science fiction/ film noir distributed by Warner Bros. Prictures. I would like to start off by saying that I probably would have enjoyed this movie more if I were more fond of the "film noir" style. The film noir techniques in this film consisted mostly of dark, dingy lighting, an over-all dirty looking city and dark saxophone background music. This style of film suited the decaying, post-robot apocolypse, feel of the movie, but I still didn't like it. The combination of intense pollution, constant darkness and the grubby, over-populated city made me feel unhappy and uninterested by what was going on in the story.

I finished watching this movie with an unsatisfied feeling because I had not fully comprenhended all aspects of the story and could not entirely grasp the message behing its events. The ending where the replicant lets Harrison Ford live felt right to me, but I still could not decide on a solid reason for why he did it. This sense of not being able to find closure bothered me.

Even though I am not a huge fan of it, I would still recommend this film to anyone above the age of 14 becuase it is said to be one of the greatest films of all time. I figure that other people will watch it and interpret it differently than I did. This way, they will be more capable of enjoying this confusing sci-fi classic.

Pan's Labyrinth

Produced by Esperanto Films, Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is a Spanish fantasy-thriller realeased in 2006. Set right after the Spanish Civil War, it tells the story of a reincarnated princess and her pregnant mother who go to live with her mother's fiancé, a spanish captain, at his military camp.  Mysterious events begin to take place when the young Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero, discovers the labyrinth containing the portal that leads back to the magical world from which she escaped centuries ago.

This was my second time watching this film, and I loved it just as much as the first time, if not more. First of all, the story in itself is incredible. Guillermo del Toro does a phenomenal job of parallelling fantasy and reality between the eery magical tasks Ofelia must complete and the atrocities of war that occur at the military camp around her. With these contrasting themes, the viewer is constantly enticed by either violent, creepy, thrilling or wondrous scenes. Between Ofelia's challenge to return to her kingdom, her mother's struggle to give birth to her baby, the Captain's battle against the remaining soldiers from the war, and the servant Mercedes's efforts to secretly betray the Captain by aiding the troops, there are numerous compelling stories to follow throughout the movie that maintain the audience's attention.

The acting in this film was fantastic and helped the quality of the story sky-rocket. All of the actors were extremely convincing in their roles and provoked the exact emotions that were expected from the audience. For instance, Ivana Baquero as Ofelia maintained her role of youth and innocence over the course of the film and often made the viewer feel either scared of hopeful when necessary. The Captain, played by Sergi Lopez, always provoked an immediate tension and elment of fear as soon as he entered a scene because of his intensity and dedication to the mean-spiritedness of his role.

Although this film contains quite a bit of gruesome violence and scary scenes, I would strongly recommend it to anyone above the age of 14 because of its terrific acting and unforgettable story.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is a film that was originally released in 1968 by MGM Inc. that both confused and frustrated me. A Sci-fi film set in the future (hence the year in the title), it tells the story of a team of astronauts in space who's ship gets taken over by its computer, Hal-9000. There is much symbolism and many metaphors weaved in throughout the movie, which at the same time impressed me and only further confused me about what was going on in the film.

An element that I was not fond of throughout the story was the pace at which everything seemed to unroll. From my perspective, scenes would drag out for much more time than needed to get the message across, and the introduction seemed like an unnecessary compilation of events that lead to nothing. In retrospect, there was much explained about the themes of the movie within these scenes, but that still does not make something at such a gruelling pace intriguing to watch. This was also an occurrence when the story began to take place in space and all of the scenes seemed over-extended and dull, like in the part when the camera ran along the length of the spacecraft. I appreciate that this was probably a technique used to express the vast and slowness of space, but, once again, it did not make for a very captivating scene.

An aspect of the film that I did enjoy was how they incorporated the character of Hal-9000. Even though the true stars of the film were Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, and William Sylvester, my favourite performance by far was that of the computer. I am always intrigued by the idea of a seemingly flawless machine who appears to develop human characteristics, such as emotions, and use them against the humans that initially had control over it. It is an eery yet compelling thing to see human feelings produce slowly inside of a lifeless machine, and Kubrick captured the underlying evil of Hal-9000 perfectly.

I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys the sci-fi genre, movies with a twist in the plot, or thought-provoking works of cinema.

Night of the Living Dead

The independent film Night of the Living Dead (1968), was directed by George A. Romero stars Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It is the story of an oddly matched group of people who spend a night trapped in a house out in the country, hiding from man-eating zombies and fighting for their lives. Although over time it has become a cult classic, I myself did not particularly enjoy this movie. I found that the beginning jumped too quickly from a brief introduction of a couple driving in the countryside to the rising action of a zombie attack. This transition was too abrupt in my opinion and didn't focus enough on the background information and story, thus making the viewer less attached to the characters and, in my experience,  uninterested in the film.

Another thing that I did not enjoy about this film was the character of Barbra, played by Judith O'Dea, who is the female half of the couple introduced in the beginning. I understand that her traumatized and often zoned-out behaviour after the zombie attack is a pretty realistic reaction, but I still found myself becoming extremely frustrated watching her as she refused to talk or act quickly when she was in danger.

All in all, as you may have guessed, I did not like this movie. However, if you are someone that enjoys cheesy horror films, fake guts, or just classic cult movies in general, Night of the Living Dead may just be worth your while.