Movie Notes: MirrorMask

January 25th, 2008

MirrorMask

starstar = 2 stars

Starring Stephanie Leonidas, Rob Brydon, Gina McKee
Directed by Dave McKean

Amazon Link

Synopsis

Fifteen year old Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) has parents who are circus entertainers. Her mother (Gina McKee) falls ill and Helena has a dream / nightmare in which she meets all sorts of imaginatively designed creatures and gains a new perspective on her life.

The Good

The Bad

  • After the novelty of the cool visuals wore off - I was bored out of my mind. I barely recall what happened in the second half, increasingly distracted by the relative excitement of a peanut butter sandwich.
  • The computer animation isn’t on par with recent PIXAR flicks or even Happy Feet. I was reminded of the video game MYST.
  • All the crazy dream-world stuff is symbolic of the real world. I’ve seen that plot in many other movies.

Conclusion

MirrorMask reminded me most of Labyrinth which I enjoyed when I was younger (maybe I should re-watch that one). Perhaps I’m just too old for this kind of movie. I also feel it was over-reliant on CGI when a bunch of wacky puppets would have sufficed.

IMDB: MirrorMask
Wikipedia: MirrorMask
Rotten Tomatoes: MirrorMask 51%

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4 comments!

  1. comment Gravatar MG Siegler - January 25th, 2008

    While we mostly agree on all movies, I did like MirrorMask - the visuals never really wore off on me and I just thought it was pretty different and eerily haunting - yes kind of like Labyrinth, which I need to re-watch too by the way.

  2. comment Gravatar webomatica - January 25th, 2008

    Yeah that’s fair. Maybe I’ll give it another chance later. Thanks for commenting though, it’s good to hear different opinions.

  3. comment Gravatar engtech - January 27th, 2008

    I’ve been avoiding this one because of all the negative reviews.

  4. comment Gravatar Movie Notes: Pan’s Labyrinth » Webomatica - Technology and Entertainment Digest - July 28th, 2008

    [...] week, after watching MirrorMask I voiced doubts that I could ever become involved by a story of a young girl lost in a fantasy [...]

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