Movie Review: Gulliver's Travels

Happy Boxing Day everyone!

Last night my family continued our Christmas day tradition of going out to see a movie in the evening. The audience is virtually non-existent (there were less than a dozen people in the theatre), the walk outside is nice and it's a fun thing to do as a family. We saw the film Gulliver's Travels and It got me thinking of movie adaptations.

I read the original novel last year and other than the idea of a giant man visiting with tiny people and later giant people, there isn't a lot in there for kids. The novel is a satire and pokes a lot of fun at various forms of government, then the question of ancient versus modern knowledge and finally a question of whether man in inherently corrupt or corruptible. Also (mild spoiler) the end is not a happy one for Lemuel Gulliver.

The movie, on the other hand, is definitely aimed at kids, is a re-imagining of the story, taking place in modern-day and has a focus on the importance of self-confidence. It focuses largely on the first section of the novel (the second, wherein Gulliver meets people who are as big to him as he was to the Lilliputians, is touched on briefly), and overall was a lot of fun. I enjoyed how the Lilliputians were played as kind of silly and living their lives as they assumed people should live (a kidnapping scene early in the film was pretty hilarious). Although the film had a few dark points (an apparent on-screen death and a chilling off-screen one), the family had a lot of fun.

In the end I wouldn't necessarily change much of the film, adapting a satire for kids is pretty tricky and the later parts of the novel only really work if the audience has a lot of world knowledge (being knowledge of the world in the 1700s when the book was written), so I imagine there wouldn't be a lot there for kids. As a Christmas movie, it was fun, and that's about all I can say.

A quick side-note, for people taking their kids to see the movie, it might be good if the kids have seen The Empire Strikes Back and (if they're old enough, Titanic) as the movie gives spoilers to both.

Bookmonkey's top 5 Genre Films to see before Christmas

As it is now September, I thought it would be a good time to look ahead to the genre films I'm hoping to see over the next few months - this doesn't count the obvious films I'll see with my kids like Harry Potter 7 or the next Narnia film, or the non-genre films I'm hoping to check out, but instead we'll look at the ones I'm hoping to see for myself.

I've put the list into release schedule order, so let's start with September:

Let Me In (October 1)

On the same day that the first Twilight film was released into theatres, a Swedish film about the budding relationship between a vampire and a human was released, and although not nearly as popular, Let The Right One In is by far the better film - the story is scarier, more intriguing, and has blood (which is kind of important in a vampire movie). The upcoming American remake has a lot to stand up to, but I'm hoping the remake will be worthwhile - just make sure you see the original first.

Red (October 15)

Last years I took my BFF Mike to see Surrogates, wherein Bruce Willis played a man and a remote controlled robot, based off of a graphic novel. This year he appears in RED, based off a graphic novel by Warren Ellis (which, although short was a lot of fun), the film is pretty action-based - I was intrigued by Bruce Willis, but I've got to say the image of Helen Mirren with a machine gun in the Trailer is what moved this up to the top five of my must see list.

Skyline (November 12)

I like alien invasion stories - there, I've said it. If you have aliens invading Earth, you've probably ensured I'm going to buy a ticket and check it out. Add the creepy factor of people getting sucked up into the flying saucers and the casting of personal favourite Donald Faison and this is a movie I'll try to get to as a matinee.

Tron Legacy (December 17)

I saw the movie Tron when I was in after-school care, back in early Elementary, in a room with a whole bunch of grade 1-6 kids. The lights were on, the popcorn was stale, but the constant noise of the centre was virtually non-existent as soon as the film started. As a kid I really, REALLY liked tis movie, so now I'm going to have to check out the sequel.

Gulliver's Travels (December 24)

Each Christmas my family goes out to the movies - we aim for the early evening show, as the theatre is almost always empty and it gets us out of the house - It's cold up here in Canada. Last year we saw Sherlock Holmes and had a great time, so when I looked to the release schedule for films this Christmas I was happy to see a family friendly fantasy film - my family likes Jack Black, and I read the original novel last year so I'm interested to see where the film makers will go with this film.