It demanded an immense amount of technology to create… to fit a vision that had never been done before in cinema, yet Titanic defied all odds to become the most successful movie ever made, pushing the medium forward with its use of old and new visual effects tricks. For the ship itself, a 775-foot-long replica of the exterior was built and broken into three segments that could be tilted at different angles. Some of the elements in the replica were actually made of rubber for the scenes where people were falling during the ship’s destruction, and if it couldn’t be made of rubber without looking totally fake, human dummies were used for padding instead.

​There also were several miniatures of the ship, and for the extreme-wide shots, mocap actors created some people to populate the decks, making this one of the first movies ever to use this technology. But besides just the immense innovation of digital effects, this movie formulated genius approaches to old-school effects too, such as breath created practically by actors against a black background and then added in post-production to make the actors look like they were out in the cold. So while the movie’s love story is groanworthy, the main character is a selfish brat, the message is preachy, and the historical accuracies are numerous, James Cameron’s ultra-smash-hit motion picture deserves its reputation for making blockbusters today so extravagant.

PG-13 (DLSNV)
Historic/Romance
3 hr. 14 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY, SAD, and AFRAID.

​Moonrise Kingdom is a nice feel-good piece of summer entertainment about falling in love for the first time, a warmly nostalgic look back at the 1960s that teenage audiences will find oddly romantic. Being a Wes Anderson original, this has everything expected from his signature style: symmetrical framing, insert shots of letters, playful colors, cameras spinning on their axis, smooth dolly shots, establishing shots meant to look like toy models, and an overall childlike nature despite the mature subject matter. Wes Anderson has that special eye for treating every one of his motion pictures like stage plays from the perspective of a child, all of which are married to techniques found in 1960s French cinema.

​While many of the sets were built inside an old, empty department store, others were on an island only accessible by ferry, which made the efforts of the crew under Anderson’s direction all the more remarkable as they realized these complex shots. With this movie having been released in 2012, the time the Harry Potter and Twilight series had just ended, a movie like this was much needed as a refreshing new take on teen romance between two kids who had just barely hit puberty. Even if the two leads are pretty terrible actors who lack any chemistry, this hit teen movie is a satisfactory little piece of entertainment that only cares about giving its viewers a nice warm hug.

PG-13 (DLSV)
Comedy/Romance
1 hr. 34 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY.