I love the Sandman comics and have been dreaming of the day when someone makes a film (or TV series) based on it. So when I heard about Gaiman and Mckean collaborating on a production called Mirrormask, I got very excited indeed.
Coming out of the theater last night, I felt a tinge disappointment. Perhaps if I were 20 years younger I'd be blown away (like the when I saw Time Bandits at 14), but I wasn't. A great movie, regardless of its subject matter, is much like a dream: You forget yourself and meld with an alternate reality, completing forgetting time. Oddly, I was only too aware of normal time during much of Mirrormask. I would loose focus and stare AT the movie rather than be IN it. (Then again, this effect may have been intentional, considering how they play with the idea of lucid dreaming.)
Another IMDb commentator opines, "This could have been a GREAT film under the direction of someone like Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie) who knows how to balance the surreal with the emotionally grounded." My sentiments exactly. Mckean is a great illustrator and is obviously multi-talented (the end credits are amazingly specific about how each and every crew member contributed) but he has a lot to learn about directing. There were too many moments in the film which felt awkward and mis-timed. And yes, I can tell the difference between "non-linear" or "dreamy" or "trippy", and "inexperienced."
The same goes for the writing: Gaiman is a great writer, no doubt. But creating a screenplay is something altogether different than writing a book (or graphic novel). Some of the lines came across as cheesy, even though they might have read well on the page.
But this doesn't mean that you shouldn't see Mirrormask. On the contrary, if you love a fecund imagination, fanciful notions, mythology, Jungian psychology, and real fairy tails (not Disney), by all means, check it out.
Coming out of the theater last night, I felt a tinge disappointment. Perhaps if I were 20 years younger I'd be blown away (like the when I saw Time Bandits at 14), but I wasn't. A great movie, regardless of its subject matter, is much like a dream: You forget yourself and meld with an alternate reality, completing forgetting time. Oddly, I was only too aware of normal time during much of Mirrormask. I would loose focus and stare AT the movie rather than be IN it. (Then again, this effect may have been intentional, considering how they play with the idea of lucid dreaming.)
Another IMDb commentator opines, "This could have been a GREAT film under the direction of someone like Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie) who knows how to balance the surreal with the emotionally grounded." My sentiments exactly. Mckean is a great illustrator and is obviously multi-talented (the end credits are amazingly specific about how each and every crew member contributed) but he has a lot to learn about directing. There were too many moments in the film which felt awkward and mis-timed. And yes, I can tell the difference between "non-linear" or "dreamy" or "trippy", and "inexperienced."
The same goes for the writing: Gaiman is a great writer, no doubt. But creating a screenplay is something altogether different than writing a book (or graphic novel). Some of the lines came across as cheesy, even though they might have read well on the page.
But this doesn't mean that you shouldn't see Mirrormask. On the contrary, if you love a fecund imagination, fanciful notions, mythology, Jungian psychology, and real fairy tails (not Disney), by all means, check it out.