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Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
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stuffp
Keeping it Light
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:06 am Posts: 11185 Location: Bright Falls
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Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Quote: Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is a 2018 fantasy adventure film directed by Andy Serkis with a screenplay by Callie Kloves, based on stories collected in All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling. The film stars Rohan Chand, Matthew Rhys, and Freida Pinto, along with voice and motion capture performances from Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomie Harris, and Serkis.
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Sat Dec 08, 2018 8:56 am |
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David
Pure Phase
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:33 am Posts: 34865 Location: Maryland
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Re: Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
This is a deeply strange movie. And mostly unsuccessful. As a drama, it is not a particularly well-told version of this story: the jungle milieu is underdeveloped and honestly less compelling than in the Disney animated film and its live-action counterpart. And the resolutions of the third act (man versus tiger, staying in the village versus returning to the jungle) are, in my estimation, notably rushed and anticlimactic.
The computer-generated animals, achieved via motion-capture performance by a prestigious cast including Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett, frequently land in a perfectly imperfect spot between reality and cartoon. They are just...uncomfortably rendered, as if the actors' features were roughly pasted on the stretched faces of animals. Baloo, played by director Andy Serkis himself with an inexplicable cockney accent, is a highly unpleasant creation. In a change of pace, he is depicted as Rudyard Kipling's serious-minded instructor of jungle law versus the carefree comic relief of the Disney adaptation, but ugly enough to leave one pining for a dose of "The Bare Necessities."
It is, as advertised, a quote-unquote darker telling of this iconic material (solemn nods toward colonialism in the form of a boorish hunter, a nightmarish fate for an adorable peripheral character), but not productively or provocatively so. A meaner spirit and a bit more blood and grime does not necessarily equal greater sophistication.
I do not doubt this was a titanic effort in terms of budgeting and production time, particularly in post-production, but there is a strong sense everyone should not have bothered.
_________________1. The Lost City of Z - 2. A Cure for Wellness - 3. Phantom Thread - 4. T2 Trainspotting - 5. Detroit - 6. Good Time - 7. The Beguiled - 8. The Florida Project - 9. Logan and 10. Molly's Game
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Mon Dec 10, 2018 10:55 am |
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Thegun
On autopilot for the summer
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 10:14 pm Posts: 21628 Location: Walking around somewhere
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Re: Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
3 and a half years of production! The other film stole its thunder, and is much much better, and this couldn't recover in post. It's the Sloppy Jungle Book. It's all right, reminds me of Wyatt Earp coming after Tombstone.
C
They are really keeping a lid on the budget for this one. I thought I read 110 but not sure if that was just initial production costs. I wonder how much Netflix paid for it. Anybody have any info?
_________________Chippy wrote: As always, fuck Thegun. Chippy wrote: I want to live vicariously through you, Thegun!
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Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:44 am |
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Dil
Forum General
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:48 pm Posts: 8942 Location: Houston, Texas
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Re: Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
I can honestly say I enjoyed it quite a bit. I really liked the fact that it was a lot darker than the Disney film, and I even thought the kid who played Mowgli this time around was great and way better than the kid in Favreau's film. I agree though the the CGI does look pretty bad at times, and while the voice acting was solid overall, especially Bale as Bagheera and Cumbebatch as Khan Cate Blanchett as Kaa was kind of weak and the stuff with the hunter went nowhere.
B
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Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:31 pm |
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Algren
now we know
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:31 pm Posts: 66999
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Re: Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Wow, this was an impossible watch if you've seen the Disney one. It's also so uncannily similar in terms of production design, cinematography, etc. It's not as good. Only mildly diverting. But towards the end I did find myself enjoying it more, and there are some quite good bits throughout (such as Shere Kahn stalking Mowgli when he's under the water). But it really feels like when Serkis got wind of the Disney one, perhaps he didn't try as much as he might have to make a great movie. The visual effects leave a lot to be desired. They are often plastic, with the sort of quality you might get from a shopping mall VR experience or something. Not always, but a lot.
In terms of the story, eh, it's fine but something isn't right. Feels like an experiment in many ways rather than an experienced hand re-telling a classic. It should have been even darker too. There are a lot of cuts and obscuring angles, which were annoying as hell (such as the final stab to Khan). And the tiger could have got Mowgli so many damn times. lol
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Thu Jan 31, 2019 6:19 am |
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