The Iron Giant (1999)
★★★★
This review may contain spoilers.
Lately I have been struggling in life, the choices that I am making always feel like the wrong ones and weather intentional or not intentional this movie always brings me a little confront when I am struggling with those thoughts. this movie is also just really nostalgic for me, I used to watch it all the time on VHS at my Nana's, I haven't seen it in a while and it has made me kind of see it in a new light, of course life experience has weighed on me and makes me ask the question, I wish they would have let the robot hurt someone even if it was an accident, but then it would be a different kind of movie?
the story is really wonderful, I do feel like the third act is rushed, the beats are happening really quickly compared to the earlier half of the film where they flow really naturally, the ending is a bit off for me as well I wish it ended with a bit more ambiguity the screw moving showing us the giant is still alive is plenty I feel, showing him really hammers home that point to an over degree, the mom character doesn't really get any development which is such a shame cause I can imagine a b-story where we see Dean and Annie flirting, wish we could see a bit more of that instead of just having hints of it, to that degree Annie's whole character is underdeveloped, I needed and wanted more from her. I wish we had a little more motivation from Kent as well, I mean maybe he is just a bad government guy but I feel like there was more to the story than him just hunting down a giant robot to get a promotion or something, I think it would have been cool to juxtapose Hogarth and Kent a bit more, like maybe Kent never had a pet or something I don't know terrible suggestion, wish we got a bit more of Dean's character as well, see his wants and desires for sure, I mean like make art out of scrap metal is such an interesting thing I wish we got more of it. I feel like the relationship between Hogarth and the Giant is well done, although I wanted a better fallout for sure, but I still teared up. choose who you want to be is a strong message for kids for sure and it does that really well with the haunting imagery of the giant going evil and becoming that weapon.
the animation is so good, the waves crashing towards the beginning of the movie, the animation on Annie's hair alone is so well done, the scale and model of the characters are super cool and really unique which is pretty cool to see, I like the subtle shadows on Hogarth's face, that is really cool stuff, but more importantly I like how the colors change in the shadows, the robot becomes this deep dark blue-ish dark maroon color which is so nice.
I wish that the music was a little more memorable, there are a couple of strong moments like the bass hits when the giant is walking that sync up that was super cool, but there is a really basic piano key moment towards the end that pulled me out of it, almost made me wonder what if that beat wasn't score and it was all silent, really would have driven home that imagery that they were going for, just food for thought, the soundtrack isn't bad by all means it just didn't fit certain moments in the film and really pulled me out.
the sound design however is really nice, nice sounds on the robot, the sound of metal scrapping against metal is ear shredding but not awful to listen to which is nice, the laser had a kind of cool sound and a couple other moments that were nice in the sound department.
I also really liked the lighting engine that was used, seems almost revolutionary for the time period that it came out it, seriously jaw dropping visuals that were being used here.
this movie for me has always and will always be about choosing to be good, choosing to be better than you were yesterday but as I have aged it's shifted a little and has now become even though we may have made a bad choice, or decision or hurt someone yesterday, we have the chance to chose today to be better, or in shorted, be better than you were yesterday. we have the choice to be superman, whatever that means to us.
notes below
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- the water in this opening scene looks crazy!
- very cinematic, the use of the flash light si super cool, the lighting, how it gradually gets lower the further out it gets, cool detail.
- I like ow well the secondary items like "the red menace" or "whos there" from the cheesy horror movie are telling the story.
- the colors are so great, I like how when the giant is casted in the shadows he has a almost dark deep red to his shell.
- the shot where it pans upwards at the iron giant is so cool.
- crazy that Vin Dessel plays the iron giant.
- using a deep rich blue for electricity was so smart.
- the character design looks really cool.
- he said coffee-zilla.
- the sound track is really good.
- those shadows look so cool.
- wish we spent just a little more time with the deer, I know it's suppose to be sudden.
- I do like the connection to the cold war that the movie is displaying, I like how the Superman and Atomic Man aspect plays into that, Superman was created as a response to the impending Cold War and so juxtaposing that with the giant is really great.
- I do like how these really dark subject matters are essentially hidden in these lighter things like the TV commercials or the ad in school, really emulates the time period. very cool.
- like this integration scene, the blacks contrasting against the character.
- I do like these moments of play that the film has between giant and Hogarth
- I do think that the climax comes a little too soon, we see him save someone after we see him attack someone and I feel like we could have gotten a bit more of that.
- I like the scale of the characters, whenever the giant is on screen he really does feel giant.
- parallel's between Hogarth and the dead deer.
- the turn to Atomic that the giant does is horrifying.
- I wish that when the missile shot off we cut to the wide for the whole launch, would have shown the gravity.
- superman. tears.
- I do think that we could have ended on the screw leaving, and "see ya later"
- man nostalgic!!
