Well then, the time has come. Has your favourite childhood book been ruined? Is it a glorified One Nation advertisement with the cast of Home & Away? or is it Australia's first decent blockbuster in years? Find out down below... Review is 2min 04sec
If the above player isn't showing up you can right-click & download the MP3 of the review here.
Lemme know what you think of the movie - I'm really interested to know how people are finding it.
And - as always - you can subscribe to the reviews at the triple j movies podcast. (No iTunes? head here)
21 comments:
I thought the kid who played Lee sucked, but was pleasantly surprised by Kevin, Ellie and Homer.
But what the heck is up with eating Vegemite off a spoon? Nobody does that.
I've eaten Vegemite off a spoon before, I put that shit on my steak before I cook it.
I think the problem with the dialogue is that much of it was ripped straight from the book where it was actually inner monologue or reflection. It may still have been slightly cheesy in the book but not nearly so much as when spoken aloud.
And as for the xenophobia, I guess that's the unfortunate by-product of having to condense an entire book into a movie. The book dealt with the issue of invasion in a far more delicate way, thoughfully exploring the notion that a country with so much space must surely seem brutally selfish to countries with so little.
It was never going to be possible to take the depth, emotion and moral contemplation of the book and transplant it into a movie with the same finesse. So, minor complaints aside (the overplaying of the character stereotypes for one) I was surprisingly pleased with the movie.
I think the tension was played extremely well. I've read the books a million times and knew everything that was coming, but still found myself holding my breath through most of the high risk moments.
The inexperience of the director really showed. Most scenes came off really stiff (not helped by the woeful dialogue and inexperienced actors). The score was also substandard and did little to enhance the tension. But despite all it's glaringly obvious (and usually unforgivable) flaws, Australian critics are still being very kind to this film...
If I were those producers I'd make sure a different director is directing the next one.
My sister's priceless one line review:
"Yeah, it was great! And it wasn't too poxy Australian, either."
This film was definitely groan material, and looked like an extension of Neighbours, although the acting wasn't as good as Neighbours. Nor Home & Away. .... which should give you an idea of the quality of the acting, and the less than adequate script.
I can see the sequels going straight to DVD.
The biggest question I ask myself - why did I waste my free gold class tickets on this rubbish. Not even great seating can make up for this film!
Marc - your review was a bit harsh and in my opinion focused on the wrong things sounding more like 'im such a cool sweet movie critic on triple J' kinda dude than someone who should be genuinely discussing and reviewing the film for a wider audience.
The film suffers from a few moments of bad acting but in no way is it a long episode of Home and Away. The cast may be too pretty initially making you think that, but the passion and beauty of the filming make up for that. I cant believe you didnt even mention the scenery, and Hell and all the important things from the book, like how well Ellie acts her character arc, her narration opening and closing, how her monologue is turned into speech how faithful it was to the book ... AND how for a big budget Aussie film, based on awesome Aussie books, independently written, directed and created in Australia ... they did a friggin awesome job!
Really dissapointed you overlooked the important stuff to make yourself sound good. No wonder the Aussie film industry cant get a break if our own people who are supposed to be supporting and assisting it aren't interested in helping out.
I loved the film and I loved the books. Its not a 5 star movie but its a solid 4 star movie in my opinion, and better yet it might help the film industry find out what we actually want made here. Everybody should get out and support it!!
I saw it yesterday - and I actually really liked it! I was expecting it to be awful, so my expecations were low, but I thought the action stuff was great!
Sure, most of the acting was lousy, but the girl who played Ellie was pretty good and the guy who played Homer was great. The rest of them were pretty awful though! Watching the characters of Fiona, Kevin and Robyn was borderline painful...
But I agree that the film kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the time, even though I know the books in and out.
I think the cheesy one liners make it harder to watch. And the final image was LAME.
But I liked it. Loved the scene where they talk about books being better than movies!
I thought the movie was great.
I am unsure what you were all expecting from it - it's a teenage book adapted to film with a medium size budget.
In regards to the 'Xenophobia'issue, I was a little disappointed at first when I saw on the previews that the invaders were Asian but then what would you have preferred? It has to be somewhat believable and let's face it, if "space rich" Australia was ever to be invaded it would likely come from our "space poor" neighbours.
This movie is not meant to change lives. However the tension in the film worked really well and I didn't ever think 'when is this going to end?' like I have in so many other recently released films.
There were a few moments of cringe but I could put that down to as much 'cultural cringe' as being anything else. If you go into the movie cynical about it then you will get what you want, if you are open minded you will enjoy it.
OK so I just got around to listening to review. You obviously weren't brainwashed by the books as a teenager is all I can say. I thought the movie was EPIC. Ever since I read the books I have been secretly wishing for the Auspocalypse Marsden has created just so life would be a bit more interesting.
And you totally missed the reconcilliation allegory that I missed as well when I read the books. It hit me in that scene where Ellie looks up at the colonial invasion poster.
Marsden is saying with this story: "The only way you Australians will ever understand what the First Australians went through is if you yourselves were invaded."
The alarm bells started ringing somwhere inside the first 90 seconds, with the super cliched and highly stylised opening scenes of Ellie helping to build a fence and then weilding a chain saw. Cut to bedroom scene with Ellie and best friend discussing her first shag and I was reaching for my jacket. Unfortunately, my masochistic movie buddies insisted on staying to the end and so wasted the next 105 minutes of my life.
Don't know about the book and don't care. You can't drag some sentimental recollection of a childhood favorite around with you in order to impart any merit to whats on the screen.
Badly acted, tediously and needlessly wordy and completely fails to build to anything remotely probable.
Sorry but boo with a capital S!
Sadly I was dissappointed as I wanted it so much to be a great success. The highlight was the scenery. The acting was below best except for Ellie. The trailer had me really looking forward to the movie which may be why I couldn't wait for it to end. I think we have come to expect so much more these days to match what is coming out, even on TV. Maybe the sequel will do better but I won't be going!
I think you've been a bit generous Marc, Three stars? Really? You gave Tropic Thunder & Iron Man 2 three stars and I hardly think these are on the same playing field in terms of quality.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh - I have read and loved all the books (at a time when popular to do so) and i grew up in a small isolated country town. I indeed had friends that perhaps could have fashioned most of the guerilla action scenes into something realistic.
However, none of what my personal experience tells me, resonated in this movie - I found the characters to be stereotypical, the script and editing was awkward and while many of their teenage mannerisms were just plain unbelievable. I will forge discussing the 'invaders', the momentary and empty indigenous reference, or some of the obvious plot holes in military strategy - these issues crop up in the book also.
My main problem though was with the generous hype surrounding the movie, I had high expectations and was even more disappointed. If it was an American film I hardly believe it would get the same praise. I don't think it was terrible and I will still see sequel but it really was a lost opportunity - it had such potential to be great but as my friend says 'It was all glitter. No gold'
I reckon this movie had enormous potential and while I think it was "good" in an average way, I cannot honestly recommend it to friends.
The main problem of the movie is not a xenophobic one. I think it was more a practical thing to use an Asian face.
The real issue was the wasted potential for character development, and I was sorely disappointed. I could say this about all the characters.
However let's focus on Lee in my comment because it is with him who I can relate to most. Many think his actor was poor and if that's your opinion it's fine, but that's beside the point.
Instead of portraying the real complexities of an Asian-Australian and their relationship with other Australians, he engaged in meaningless conversations and an even more meaningless flirt with the lead character, a white female. The fact that this scene elicited chuckles from the cinema audience and that this flirt episode was never resolved, means no more than to suggest the unlikelihood of such a cross-racial relationship. Lee's presence on the set seemed merely for no other purpose than to offset the possible suggestions of xenophobia. Lee is the perfect stereotype Australian born Asian, which is just pathetic.
In addition, Lee (as well as other characters) never truly build upon their relationships in meaningful ways through the movie. The word "mate" is used many times through the film but no real attempts were made to explore this theme.
My immediate recollection of the movie was a potpourri of boring dialogue, meaningless character development, and heavy use of stereotypes.
Thanks for providing this forum for us to comment - as you know it is very difficult to get published on any topic in newspapers, and there is no outlet at all for viewers' responses to the arts except online.
My 16-year-old son and I [I'm a 54-year-old woman] both thoroughly enjoyed this movie as a cinematic experience: it is exciting, suspenseful, and thought-provoking. Afterwards we talked about how we would react if Australia were invaded, and agreed we would fight like the characters in the film.
Agreed, the film has many flaws which other reviewers have mentioned, but overall it provided a satisfying fantasy escape.
I think the producers, writer, director and all involved were immensely brave to take the risk of producing an unequivocally and unapologetically Australian film.
As usual, as tall poppies they are being cut down by their fellow Australians.
HEY EVERYONE, HERE'S THE LINK TO MY REVIEW OF TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN!!!!!
http://kd-passthepopcorn.blogspot.com/2010/09/where-were-you-when-everything-changed.html
I think marc fennell and everyone else bagging out the movie are just trying to look really cool.. this is the kind of movie which needs to be made in Australia more often, i'm sick of seeing Australian films which are just so boring and it just drags on and on and on.
I think the actors did a pretty awesome job and the only reason your all saying they didn't is because you've seen them on home and away and neighbours and therefore they can't be any good at acting.
and I think the one liners are pretty good, I think it's great getting away from realistic dialogue seen in past Australian movies it's boring, i want to go to the movies to watch a movie not see life imitated on screen, obviously you Australians want our film industry to fail and I think it's funny saying the sequels will go straight to DVD, I highly doubt it will the movie hasn't exactly been unpopular.
This Movie was Incredibly Awesome,The Actors/Actresses did a very Good Job in Giving life to the Characters From the Book. The Action Sequences where pulled off Excellently,And yeah The Acting wasn't Bad as some people have made it out to be i saw this Movie Twice,And the after the Second Time seeing this Movie i saw The Expendables and I DIDN'T LIKE THAT AT ALL,I Thought Tomorrow When The Wat Began was Allot Better and that is saying Allot.
I thought it was a fun, exiting movie. To be honest, I'd heard very little about it and since I'm not an Aussie I didn't know any of the cast.
I was pleasantly surprised and I'm hoping for at least a few decent sequels.
Red Dawn anyone?
A US movie made in the early 80's with Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Charlie Sheen.
A movie about a group of high school kids in the mid west taking up arms & fighting invading Russian & Cuban forces with guerilla tactics.
About to be remade this year.
Invaders coming by boat... and we don't care where they're from... or who they are? We just want kill them to defend our relaxed and comfortable bush lives? Very Stop the Boats! Give me the appalling Red Dawn any day of the week. At least the invaders in that had characters and the High School insurgents knew who they were killing.
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