Annabelle

 

I’ll be honest, as always, with this one.

After watching the Conjuring my hopes started to fly. It was a good movie. Not the best one I have seen though, but it was pretty decent compared to the Paranormal Activity ones. I thought that if that one was good, Annabelle would make me reenact my days of Chucky terror (I was seven when I watch a scene of the movie that would leave deep trauma inside of me years later… but that’s another story. The truth about this movie is that it isn’t that scary. If you remove the jump-scares there’s not really anything to be afraid of. Yes, the doll’s face is hideous, but believe me, once you get used to that creepy face is kind of pointless. You see, obviously the producers thought of making Annabelle super creepy. They wanted one reaction from the audience and that was fear. How did they get it? Well, they created a new doll that kind reminds me of the Saw series. But, the real Annabelle is way less creepier than that. If you didn’t know, the real Annabelle is a old-school doll made of fabric.

Ok, so now, the plot!

What really bothered me a lot about this movie was the plot. I have read the real Annabelle story anywhere online and is ten times scarier than the movie. In the website the story begins telling that Annabelle was a gift from a mother to a daughter. The daughter was a nurse who lived with a friend, also a nurse. And yes, they gave permission to little “Annabelle Higgins” to live inside the doll. Was the real demon attached to her? We don’t know. Did the demon need permission in the first place? We don’t know. And, honestly, I would have preferred for the producers of this movie not saying anything about it, but is Hollywood and they will exploit anything for the sake of money

First of all, the events that happened in this movie “attempted” to explain how Annabelle got her evilness. I thought they were going to continue where the Conjuring started. I’m talking about this scene:

The two nurses speaking about Annabelle to the super-cool paranormal team, but no 🙂 producers decided to make a pre-sequel of the sequel, which would be Annabelle 2. I didn’t like their attempt at explaining how Annabelle was evil, at all. In the first movie, the doll was mysterious, creepy. It made you wonder how and what happened with her to be like that. To the point your mind would go wild and freak the heck out of it. I would have preferred they left the mystery of the doll, as that, a mystery. Now I cannot take her too seriously. The movie went from Annabelle to Chucky in a couple of seconds. Why Chucky?

Annabelle Higgins, supposedly by the producers, was the daugther of Pete and Sharon Higgins. Friendly people that went to church every Sunday. Annabelle, their daughter, had escaped a few weeks/months ago and many believed she was dead. SPOILER ALERT… she was NOT! She was only living with her boyfriend and both were part of a satanic cult. No biggie. Then one night Annabelle comes back with her boyfriend to her home, and they kill both of her parents because of cult reasons, I guess.

The Higgins’ neighbors, which are also our main protagonists, hear the commotion get out of their house to investigate because that’s what everyone would do right away. Police, 911, ambulance? What’s that?

John Gordon goes to the neighbors house and finds that everyone is dead while his wife, Mia (she’s prego) stays at home. BIG NO! Annabelle and her boyfriend enter the Gordon’s house and stab Mia. Then John enters the house and attacks Annabelle, but her boyfriend almost kills him. Almost. The police arrives and helps as Annabelle runs into the nursery room the couple have for the baby. There are shots and Mia is still in shock as she looks as the nursery, then she faints.

Annabelle, the doll, came to the house thanks to John Gordon. It seemed like Mia had some kind of weird fetish with super-creepy dolls, so she was happy when John shows her what he bought for her. That doll was placed inside the nursery, and that doll was used by the living Annabelle so she could transfer her soul, I guess.

After the attack, John throws Annabelle into the garbage because Mia got all sensitive whenever she looked at it because it reminded her of the attack.

Once the couple has baby Leah or Liah, they move to another place with the hopes Mia can recover from the traumatic experience. I’m don’t really like babies, but Leah was such a precious one. She’s just too cute and adorable… sorry. When they move everything seems perfect until

Annabelle appears once again inside a box/bag can’t remember anymore. John insists on throwing her away once again, but Mia refuses believing that it will help her cope with her trauma and she put is back in the new nursery room. I thought she had said it would help HER cope. HER, not her child. HER.

After that, strange events start to happen followed by a huge repertoire of jump-scares 🙂 some crayon messages here and there, Annabelle closing and opening door, the doll almost killing a Father, Annabelle sitting and then floating (this last scene, I loved). Also, I was kind of confused. By half of the movie you see two beings related to Annabelle. There’s the killer, and there’s a demon. Are these the same entity? They didn’t say. If a person is part of a cult they become demons in the afterlife? They didn’t say. Why would a demon share the doll with a human? You already know where I’m going with this.

In any case, I was full of questions that never got answered and they won’t probably be answered… ever. In the Conjuring we had an explanation about witch, which made sense. Again, in this movie there were plot-holes too but it was way better than Annabelle’s.

Part of the last scene was super random. Halfway through the movie we’re introduced to a lady that manages a library with every kind of book, including the very creepy ones about cults.

The producers attempted that we cared about her because otherwise, what would be the purpose of introducing characters with a painful back-story that will only end in their imminent death because they don’t really have nothing to continue on living?

Once again… HOLLYWOOOOD!

The very last scene was kind of funny. Kind of. The doll Annabelle, after eating a soul, appears in an antique store. She’s sitting in one of the shelves to your right, and to your left you can see how it looks the real Annabelle doll. Watch it, watch it! I think it was a pretty clever contrast between both of them, and I honestly believe the producers got a couple of laughs doing that.

Anyways, don’t expect this movie to be better than the Conjuring. Not even the music scared me because they used variants of Rory’s lullaby. I miss Rory, such a cute ghost.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a super-cool link that explains the facts and fiction of the movie!

http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/annabelle/

 

 

 

Pompeii

  “You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness for evermore.” – Pliny the Younger. Warning: This post contains too much sarcasm and dislike towards the movie.

Pompeii is one of those movies that I wanted to love, but it didn’t happen. Special effects were pretty decent, the hero backstory not so much -but most aren’t because most directors, not filmmakers, directors use same the same base over and over again. They just change names and events, but just by watching the first twenty minutes of this kind of movie, you already have an idea that hero has a tortured past, who’s the love interest, the hero’s friend who probably wanted to kill him at the beginning but somehow ended up helping him and all those things.

Cassia, the hero’s love interest, was a girl that spent years in Rome, and wasn’t a conformist woman which I really I like when executed well, however, Cassia ended up being a naïve-petulant child every time she said something “authoritative.” And, of course, she was used just too add more story to the nonexistent badass plot.

I didn’t like the romance in here. It seems like every hero needs a helpless woman to save all the time because I guess that thickens the plot; people might feel more involved and root for them until the very end. Well, it doesn’t. I believe with all my heart that the film was better off without some kind of insta-love that we can view nowadays in most Young Adult books. I’m sick and tired of it. It isn’t cute, it isn’t real, it makes you look like a teenager who’s going through a hormonal phase. It needs to stop. Now, the writing… Way to ruin the story, suckers. So, this is very important because although I thought the film in general had a great pace, but sometimes what happens doesn’t make really sense or adds up to the story except in stupidity! Let’s talk about this scene first: So Cassia’s horse was scared as heck because animals can feel when something isn’t right, which in this case was the volcano beginning to stir. Cassia doesn’t know how to control his own pet because… because… if she does then Milo, the hero, wouldn’t have a justification to get beaten up after it. Cassia finds Milo and, I guess, explains the problem to him -though the scene didn’t exist. Milo enters the stable, sees the horse, whispers to him love promises and the horse calms down. Then Cassia enters the stable too because yes, and wonders how our hero Calmed her own horse down, and he replies dramatically: “My family were horsemen.” Or something similar. That’s it, that’s the answer, and there’s no more. If your family were horsemen you automatically become a horse whisperer because, well, all know those traits are just part of your DNA and makes you all mysterious and interesting. After they speak just a little bit more, Milo offers Cassia to ride with him and she accepts. The horse gets out of the stable as if the devil is chasing after him, and they stop in some hill because… because… otherwise, you don’t give enough time to the guards to capture you, duh. Cassia is all like: “You’re hot, let’s go,” while Milo is like “If they find us together, you will get your booty smacked for real,” then Cassia is like: “you should go alone then,” and Milo: “I won’t leave you alone,” and just when they’re about to kiss All Pompeii and Roman guards find them and guess what!!! Milo gets whipped instead of killed because Cassia pleaded for his life. Such a good woman, such good writing. Why in the world did they ride the horse away if they knew they were going to get into trouble? I DON’T KNOW, and at that point I couldn’t care, and I was waiting for more. It was a pathetic scene that showed the two lovebirds together for no reason in particular. That, I call amateur writing or fan-fictions which are based in personal fantasies.

Other scenes that bothered the heck out of me, was when Cassia’s mom was dying and tells Milo the address with zip code included of where Cassia was so he could save her before the volcano got her. The woman dies after she delivers the message, HOW CONVENIENT

Now… a real question here. What would have happened IF Milo hadn’t know about Cassia being in the closest house to the volcano? It has to be the closest one because it adds drama, and makes the story more interesting of course. Would a coherent person save another one in this kind of situation? Because what first comes to mind is ‘heck no’. Why? Because.. 1)they don’t really know each other

2)at that point they had spent a maximum of 10 minutes during the whole movie. There was no way in this world they were already in love

3)he was a warrior, yet he had zero survival skill when it came to girls

4)all the choices are correct

Another thing that bothered me were the characters taking their damn time doing stuff while the volcano was killing everything on its path. When a volcano starts to erupt the first thing I would think would be “I need to get the fuck away somehow, and I cannot waste any time,” but our beautiful characters in here didn’t care about time at all!!! They enjoyed the scenery every time they would arrive at some place. After all, nothing like a pile of ashes, fire, and dead people to get your attention and make you spend at least 5 vital minutes of your life just staring at it. They just don’t appreciate time! That’s why Cassia’s father got killed. Well, that and because he was a dumbass who couldn’t held a dagger properly. Once again, poor writing! Predictable and Yucky.

The acting? MEH. It could have been better, it could have been worse. For me the star there was this guy:

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

I loved his character completely. We don’t really know too much about his past and I wished we could because he was so down to earth. His motives, his faith, his honesty, bravery and determination make you care for this character more than you should. I consider he needed to be the main character and the others just some kind of cheap sidekicks.

Kit Harrington which played Milo, the hero, well, I’m a fan of Game of Thrones and I have this bad habit that once an actor “marks” my life playing a certain role, I cannot help but seeing them as such character. For example, for me, Daniel Radcliffe will always be Harry Potter until another role of his changes my life completely hahaha. So, when I watched Kit, I imagined he was Jon Snow because the characters are pretty similar. I just couldn’t help it, and he seemed to use the same base for both roles.

What it bothers me yet intrigues me is the kiss at the end. I don’t know if the director had made and alternate ending that didn’t involve the hero in some kind of passionate kiss while Pompeii was erupting, literally, but I would pay to see one without the cheesy romance. I mean, I liked the kiss while the world was ending lol after all I’m a girl and I love romantic stuff. Nevertheless, if I were Milo I would have so many choices just to save my life and my friend’s instead of having a crush for some girl that at the end would kill me. I think to myself, that maybe and only maybe the director wanted to end the movie with a kiss as a symbol of what really happened. Something beautiful and real got destroyed, but at the same time lives eternally.

And I think that just because I like to make myself feel better about it hahaha who knows? Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong, maybe there’s no real answer or symbolism behind all this. However, I insist, it could have been a great story about survival which dead or not would have been epic, yet this, this changed everything.

Finally, I will leave you with a couple of pictures, so you can appreciate the real Pompei people that perished all those years ago. (Nowadays is written with just one ‘i’)

  And extra info if you’re interested to know the real history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii