Hero review

 Number 367 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2002 wuxia film 'Hero.'

Jet Li stars as the Nameless warrior who is summoned before the king of Qin - one of the seven kingdoms of Ancient China. Nameless foiled three assassination attempts on the king. And the king wants to hear how he did it.

Stylistically, there is no faulting Hero. It was visually gorgeous; a real treat for the eyes. Different sections of the film are broken into different colour schemes - white, blue and the gorgeous red that is considered so lucky in China. The martial art sequences while far from being the most realistic were still spectacularly choregraphed. The use of slow-motion and occasional monochrome added to the striking visuals.

However beautiful Hero looked it wasn't very interesting to watch. I found it very boring. Part of that was down to how it was structured. Much of the film is told in flashback and we're led to believe these flashbacks are not to be trusted. The prime timeline sees Nameless and the king simply talking to each other. There is no forward momentum and very little else going on. And I did struggle in paying attention.

Perhaps I don't have a very long attention span or I'm impatient, as I'm sure there were plenty of deep-rooted metaphors and symbolism which I missed out on.

Although I didn't find Hero particularly interesting, there ids no denying that it is a visually stunning film.

MegaMind review

 Number 990 on the top 1000 films of all time is the animated superhero comedy 'Megamind.'

Megamind (Will Ferrell) is a supervillain in Metro City. He has a fierce rivalry with super hero Metro Man (Brad Pitt.) However, after Megamind seemingly kills Metro Man, he feels lost and powerless. That is until he creates a new super hero. But this super hero quickly becomes a villain which Megamind must beat to save Metro City.

I totally see what this film was going for. It's trying to be a clever re-invention of the superhero genre. But a parody of a cliche is still a cliche. Megamind pointed out plenty of the cliches present within the superhero genre, but instead of subverting them like arguably better film, it tries to put a funny spin on them and fails miserably. Like many superhero films, Metro Man and Megamind have a big dialogue in the build-up to their final confrontation. Yet this dialogue gets progressively sillier and it adds nothing to the overall plot.

That's also a prime example of the film's poor attempts at humour. Many of the jokes fell completely flat and Will Ferrell's lacklustre performance did nothing to help things. He tried doing an imitation of Vito Corleone in the Godfather, and it was one of the worse imitations I've ever heard. Brad Pitt was was surprisingly uncharismatic as Metro Man.

Megamind and Metro Man are in themselves parodies of Superman - both are alien refugees sent to earth as their own planet is sucked into a black hole. Metro Man is handsome and popular at school, while Megamind is ugly and bullied. He goes onto begin resenting Metro Man before fully embracing his role as a supervillain. 

And that's largely all I can remember from this film, as I kept falling asleep. I wouldn't even say it was a kid's film, because I don't think it would be that entertaining for children to watch. Or for anybody to watch for that matter.