Nostalgic9tails

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

A fitting prequel for Monster's Inc., all the way from first meetings of Mike, Sully and Randall to Mike's inner ambitions to be something he's just not cut out to be. The main reason I didn't give this a higher score is that the ending seemed a bit tacked on and it wasn't as long as I hoped it would be. They seemed to sort of rush the cameos of the first film's characters too, like the Snowman and Roz. Otherwise, the film had that Disney/Pixar charm that I've grown to love, with inventive characters, exciting visuals and the perfect balance of joyous and heart wrenching scenes. It's well worth the price of admission for any fan.

First off, I neither liked this film nor the books. The entire concept was taken directly from Battle Royale and has just interjected elements from The Lord of The Flies. There are several ways that the character of Katniss is just a bland, sociopathic male-stand-in who does everything wrong and seems to get out alive. Peeta is creepy. No question. How he tries to make Katniss act like she's in love with him for the better of the viewers and how he admitted to nearly stalking her in both the film and book. Gale and Prim are useless characters who, if they were removed, the story would still be the same. Haymich isn't alcoholic at all, he's an occasional drunk, and I'm ready to stand up to that point with anyone who wants to protest. I don't want this review to run long with everything that's wrong with this, because there aren't enough characters here to rightly explain. But what I hate the most is the sheer fact that such a large bandwagon has been made for this film/book. There are other alternatives out there that do it so much better than this. Just because millions of people like something doesn't make it as good as everyone praises it to be.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Any true fan of the Silent Hill games will be greatly disappointed by this. It breaks the canon not only from the games but from the first film. The only character done nearly right is Heather, and even then she's still wrong. Don't even get me started on the fact Pyramid Head doesn't belong and how they portrayed **** wasn't scary, it wasn't faithful to the games, it was just a pure mess all around.

When I first saw a preview for this film, right away, I knew I wanted to see it. And I was not disappointed in the least. The acting with the characters was genuine because the VAs worked in the same room together as opposed to other animated films where each VA is in a different recording room. I enjoyed how the focus wasn't on mainstream video game characters and how they were only in the film for a maximum of 5-10 minutes. That keeps the attention on the main characters without forcing pop-culture references. The worlds were beautifully well done, even the Fix-It Felix world which was only a penthouse and garbage dump in front of a black backdrop. I wanted to know what would happen to each of the main characters, and each of them received a very fitting ending. The twist at the end was barely predictable (at least for myself and the people I went to go see it with) and, as it is Disney, I was left crying at the appropriate moments. Even the soundtrack was wonderful, I purchased it shortly after seeing the film. This is a rare movie for me in the case that I put in money and effort to see it multiple times. I will definitely be buying the DVD once it comes out and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Disney, video games or just a good story.