by Quan Guo
So far (by the end of the third week here), I have seen four movies in L.A.: WALL-E; The Dark Night; the X-Files: I Want to Believe; and Mama Mia. For this blog, I will not only talk about these movies, but also about the movie culture in America.
About the movies, they are all from different genres. WALL-E is an animated movie and it was Amaaaziiiiing…!!! A very beautifully made movie, not only visually stunning but the plot, the content were wonderful; it just made you think deeply about your relationships with the people around, the world and the earth. Unlike animated movies in China which are simple, sometimes naïve and targeted directly to children, American-made animated movies are broader in terms of the scope of the audience. In other words, parents obliged to take their children to see these movies will not be bored at all.
From the box office results, you can see that there’s another film sitting comfortably for the second week in a row: the new Batman movie, with a gross income of over 300 million dollars. Somehow people, including me, feel compelled to see the movie because everyone else has watched it. But, in reality, it was hideous……just kidding, it was a great movie and the performances are really strong and impressive, especially the joker, played by Heath Leather (also in Brokeback Mountain), who died tragically early this year allegedly for a drug overdose. I particularly like the part in which the joker tells the gangster the reason for his scarred face. And when the joker says “why so serious?”, I got goose bumps and chills all over my body. I was scared and impressed at the same time. In fact, I asked a few friends of mine who said that they are motivated to see the movie because of the joker and the underlying tragedy. Anyway, it is a must-watch movie of the year and is setting new records every single day.
As for the last two movies, the X-files movie is OK. I don’t think people will love it unless you are a hard-core fan of the corresponding TV series like I am. The style of the movie directed by Chris Carter follows the original TV series and so do the two characters: Molder and Scully.
Mama Mia is more of an upbeat, live, entertaining comedy-musical movie. I never thought Meryl Streep would fit in this genre; but like the “Devil Wears Prada” movie, she can play anything. The most memorable part of the movie was when Meryl sang the “Winner Takes it All” song with such commitment, passion, fervor that you can feel every word of it. This is the second time I got goose bumps and I really enjoyed the movie.
Americans are proud of their movie industry, which entertains people and brings shock waves to America and the world at large. And the epicenter is of course the grand Hollywood, L.A. I am a great American movie fan and definitely I will never miss an opportunity to watch them while I am here. I love the movies I have seen so far but what impressed me more is actually the audience; how they appreciate a good movie!!! I remember at the end of the WALL-E movie, people were so captivated by the scene that it was dead silent and you could literally hear the drop of a needle on the floor. And when it ended, almost everyone applauded and when the director’s name appeared on the screen , they applauded again. And most people didn’t leave until the music subsided. It amazed me the degree of appreciation among American people for an excellent piece of visual art and their politeness and respect for it.
I also made a friend right before the Batman movie and we talked a lot about our opinions of films in a general sense and found out that we have a lot in common. I made a friend just in a few minutes; after the movie, we went to a fast food restaurant and continued the talk and we promised to see a movie together every weekend. It is amazing that a single interest can lead to a possible friendship for life. And it proves that movies, consisting of music and a flow of pictures, is quite a universal language in that human nature is at its core the same everywhere: curious to find the beauty of everything.–Quan Guo
