The Adventures of Tintin

From my 2011 Leftovers Marathon, part 2 of 14.



The Adventures of Tintin, 2011. Goodguys and badguys race to find a secret treasure.

Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish. Starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis & Daniel Craig.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad). Making a Tintin movie: good concept. Making any movie using entirely motion capture: bad concept. Making an action/adventure movie using entirely motion capture: terrible concept.
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). I felt like these characters could have been very charming. But they're not.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good). The action scenes are a mess, but there are some lovely images in the movie.
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). Most of it is great, but I can't give full points on account of the Epic Animation Fail.
Acting: 0/4 (Terrible). The actors are mediocre (Bell and Craig in particular bring nothing to their roles). But the animators... were there even animators involved? Or did they just film the motion capture and leave everything to computers? Whatever they did, it didn't work. It's like watching cardboard cutouts. Beautifully painted cardboard cutouts, but still cutouts.
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). I didn't have much fun.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.6/4 (Eh)

The Guild: Season Five

The Guild: Season Five, 2011. Awkward gamers go to a convention.

Created by, written by & starring Felicia Day. Directed by Sean Becker.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It has its moments, but overall it doesn't work as well as previous seasons. I suppose putting the characters into a setting where they fit in (and are even relatively cool) messes with the show's dynamic.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.2/4 (Okay)

Prometheus

Prometheus, 2012. Humans visit a planet where they believe terrestrial life was engineered.

Directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Jon Spaihts & Damon Lindelof. Starring Noomi Rapace & Michael Fassbender.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). David is great. The rest are walking cliches.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). I'll just ignore the fact that the Prometheus is a Firefly.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). So much of it doesn't make sense. I don't mean the unexplained stuff (honestly, very little is left unexplained); I mean the science. There's no internal logic to the creatures - just a lot of "this is what they do because it looks cool." But I went in expecting to be frustrated, and was able to just enjoy the movie for what it is: a bad-ass, scary, disturbing action/horror adventure. And the Lindelof nonsense (like dialog that sounds like it was written for Locke from Lost) is kept to tolerable levels.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

La Strada

La Strada, 1954. A girl is sold to a traveling performer.

Directed by Federico Fellini. Written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli & Ennio Flaiano; story by Fellini & Pinelli. Starring Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina & Richard Basehart.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 4/4 (Great). Masina plays her part as a clown, not as an actress; very unusual and very memorable.
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4 5/4). I was about to give this a 6/10, but realized at the last minute that it's a 9. Very odd. The first time I saw it, I appreciated it but didn't really like it. The more I thought about it, though, the more it grew on me. What's interesting about that is that I kept thinking about it. I'd seen it once, more than four years ago, but when I watched it for the second time, a couple days ago, it was as familiar as watching a movie I'd grown up on. Gelsomina leaves her mark. Even though it's a slow, often boring movie, I have to admit it's become important to me; it takes up a surprisingly large space in my cultural universe.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.2/4 3.3/4 (Very good)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

"The Hep Cat"

"The Hep Cat" (short), 1942. A dog tries to catch a horny cat.

Directed by Robert Clampett. Written by Warren Foster. Starring Mel Blanc.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). The cat's a nice character, but the dog doesn't make sense.
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 1/4 (Bad)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It's a scattered mess, but there are some good gags in it.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.1/4 (Okay)

50/50

From my 2011 Leftovers Marathon, part 1 of 14.



50/50, 2011. A guy gets deadly cancer and has a cute therapist.

Directed by Jonathan Levine. Written by Will Reiser. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen & Anna Kendrick.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). Predictable, but without causing much harm to the movie.
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent). The score's good, but they also use crappy 90's alternative.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Emotional, honest, and also pretty funny.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.7/4 (Good)

"The Dover Boys"

"The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall" (short), 1942. A dastardly villain kidnaps the fiancée of some upstanding young men.

Directed by Chuck Jones. Written by Tedd Pierce. Starring Mel Blanc & Sara Berner.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). If I hadn't known better, I might not have guessed this was a Warner Brothers cartoon. I certainly wouldn't have guessed it was from the early 40s.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Very bizarre. Its sense of humor is so absurd, it's almost Ren & Stimpy-ish.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.0/4 (Good)

"The Heckling Hare"

"The Heckling Hare" (short), 1941. Bugs Bunny plays tricks on a stupid dog.

Directed by Tex Avery. Written by Michael Maltese. Starring Mel Blanc & Avery.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Bugs' character works particularly well in this one; he's bored and cruel, and somehow that's funny.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

What About Bob?

What About Bob?, 1991. A man with crippling neuroses stalks and harasses his psychiatrist.

Directed by Frank Oz. Written by Tom Schulman; story by Alvin Sargent & Laura Ziskin. Starring Bill Murray & Richard Dreyfuss.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible). Might have been an okay premise for a thriller, but a comedy? No.
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). This movie should have been an awkward, uncomfortable train wreck, but instead it had me grinning through the entire thing. Part of that's Oz's timing, and of course Murray's ability to make a mediocre script funny, but mostly - unexpectedly - it comes down to Richard Dreyfuss. He hits the perfect balance of believable and cartoonish. There's just the tiniest ounce of sympathy with his character, so that you can appreciate how horrible the situation is without his pain ever being anything but funny.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

VSM: 2011 Leftovers

It's the middle of the year, and that means it's finally becoming possible to watch movies from last year.  (One does miss out on quite a bit when living two hours away from the nearest decent theater.)

Very Slow Marathon #10 - 2011 Leftovers
[note: You can find this list from the sidebar, under "Very Slow Marathons."]

- 50/50
- The Adventures of Tintin
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams
- Jane Eyre
- Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
- Project Nim
- Senna
- A Separation
- Shame
- Submarine
- Tabloid
- Tucker and Dale vs Evil
- Warrior
- Young Adult

On the Beach

From my 1950s Science Fiction Marathon, part 12 of 12.



On the Beach, 1959. After nuclear war, Australia waits for the fallout to arrive.

Directed by Stanley Kramer. Written by John Paxton, based on a book by Nevil Shute. Starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire & Anthony Perkins.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent). Bad sound.
Acting: 4/4 (Great). I feel like I need to take a point off for the sad, half-assed attempt at silly accents. But I'm not going to. So there.
Music: 0/4 (Terrible)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). I can't find a trailer online, but I can imagine the tag line: "Watch as your favorite stars die a slow and pointless death!" I guess I can see why it's not more popular than it is, but I like it. Great writing, great acting, and the apocalypse - what more do you need?
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

"Alice's Wonderland"

"Alice's Wonderland" (short), 1923. A little girl visits an animation studio, then dreams of visiting Cartoonland.

Written & directed by Walt Disney. Starring Virginia Davis.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 0/4 (Terrible)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). Disney seems to have burnt out his imagination thinking up the idea. A human goes into a cartoon, where anything can happen, and... there are lions? Why are there even lions?
Objective Rating (Average): 1.6/4 (Eh)

One Hour in Wonderland

One Hour in Wonderland (tv special), 1950. Edgar Bergen and friends go to a party at the Disney studio and watch cartoons.

Directed by Robert Florey. Written by Bill Walsh. Starring Edgar Bergen, Walt Disney & Kathryn Beaumont.

Concept: 0/4 (Terrible)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). There's just enough Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd to make it watchable.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 1/4 (Bad)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, 1/4). Walt Disney pats himself on the back for an hour. Notable for containing a fairly sizable excerpt from Song of the South.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.5/4 (Eh)

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland, 1951. A little girl wanders through a nonsense world.

Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson & Hamilton Luske. Written by Winston Hibler, Ted Sears, Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Milt Banta, William Cottrell, Dick Kelsey, Joe Grant, Dick Huemer, Del Connell, Tom Oreb & John Walbridge, based on books by Lewis Carroll. Starring Kathryn Beaumont.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4 5/4). As a whole, it's a frantic mess. But the individual pieces are great enough to make up for that. It's best viewed as a series of shorts instead of a feature.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 3.0/4 (Good)

(update of a previous post - original is here)

"Thru the Mirror"

"Thru the Mirror" (short), 1936. Mickey Mouse has a dream about going through the looking glass.

Directed by David Hand. Written by William Cottrell, Joe Grant & Bob Kuwahara. Starring Walt Disney.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). It's interesting to watch a Disney cartoon from the 30s after recently watching a bunch of Warner Brothers cartoons from the same era. Disney's on a completely different level, technically.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). Despite heaps of attempted whimsy and silliness, it's only occasionally fun enough to entertain.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.5/4 (Okay)

Creature Comforts: Season Two

Creature Comforts: Season Two, 2005-2006. Animals share their opinions on various topics.

Created by Nick Park. Directed by Richard Goleszowski. Starring "The Great British Public."

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). No story.
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Pleasant and amusing. Not the same level of quality as season one; the characters aren't as impressively expressive, and the audio seems to be leftovers. Still very good, though.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

The Blob

From my 1950s Science Fiction Marathon, part 11 of 12.



The Blob, 1958. Teenagers try to warn their town about a space blob that blobs people.

Directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. Written by Theodore Simonson & Kay Linaker, from an idea by Irvine H. Millgate. Starring Steve McQueen & Aneta Corsaut.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). But you've got to believe me! You've just got to! Oh, shut up and go kill the monster already.
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 0/4 (Terrible)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). Although, it is a nice touch how the blob turns red after it starts eating people.
Acting: 1/4 (Bad). Minus a point for the random yelling child.
Music: 3/4 (Good). I love the theme song.
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent, 2/4). There's a fair amount of heckling value, but too much of the movie is tedious for it to be much fun to laugh at.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.1/4 (Bad)

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park, 1993. A dinosaur theme park has real dinosaurs, and nothing could possibly go wrong.

Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Michael Crichton & David Koepp, based on Crichton's book. Starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum & Richard Attenborough.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Fun. You have to turn your brain off, but that's okay; you don't need your brain to enjoy watching people get eaten by dinosaurs.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.6/4 (Good)

The Monolith Monsters

The Monolith Monsters, 1957. Rocks from space grow and multiply.

Directed by John Sherwood. Written by Norman Jolley & Robert M. Fresco; story by Jack Arnold & Fresco. Starring Grant Williams.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 3/4 (Good). It's not by any means good writing, but they deserve some serious credit for making this idea work as well as they did, and for not getting too sidetracked with B movie cliches.
Characters: 0/4 (Terrible)
Dialog: 0/4 (Terrible)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). There's a point in the movie, about halfway through, when you finally see the rocks doing their thing. Up until then, the whole movie seemed absurd and silly. But when you see it for yourself, it's convincing and logical and neatly pulls everything together. Maybe it helps that I know so little about geology that I can absorb the pseudoscience without objections, but they had me accepting this premise as entirely plausible. I think that's pretty cool.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.8/4 (Eh)

The Fly

From my 1950s Science Fiction Marathon, part 10 of 12.



The Fly, 1958. A teleportation experiment goes horribly wrong.

Directed by Kurt Neumann. Written by James Clavell, based on a story by George Langelaan. Starring Patricia Owens, David Hedison & Vincent Price.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad). I can't get over the fact that a perfectly sane scientist, who personally acknowledges both (1) the importance of his discovery and (2) that he can't figure it out, insists on working in complete isolation.
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad). Yeah, buddy, teleportation is just like television. Whatever you say.
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent). In some places, there's excellent suspense. In other places, such as when flashbacks duplicate stuff we've already been given in exposition, it can get pretty dull.
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Pretty damn awesome. There's plenty of corniness and bad science. But there's also disturbing psychological horror, rooted in empathy. My wife observes that she had her "heart strings tugged by a man wearing a rubber fly mask." And there's actually a good ending - very rare for this type of movie.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Three

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Three, 1989-1990. A giant space ship flies around the galaxy, ostensibly exploring but usually running errands.

Created by Gene Roddenberry. Directed by Cliff Bole (5 episodes), Les Landau (4), Winrich Kolbe (3), Robert Scheerer (3), Gabrielle Beaumont (2), David Carson (2), Timothy Bond (2), Robert Wiemer (1), Jonathan Frakes (1), Chip Chalmers (1), Robert Legato (1) & Tom Benko (1). Written by Michael Piller (4 episodes), Ronald D. Moore (4), Michael Wagner (3), Richard Manning (3), Hans Beimler (3), Melinda M. Snodgrass (2), Richard Danus (2), Ira Steven Behr (2), René Echevarria (2), Ron Roman (1), David Kemper (1), Hannah Louise Shearer (1), Sam Rolfe (1), Robin Bernheim (1), Ed Zuckerman (1), Trent Christopher Ganino (1), Eric A. Stillwell (1), W. Reed Moran (1), Drew Deighan (1), Dennis Putman Bailey (1), David Bischoff (1), Sally Caves (1), Shari Goodhartz (1), Peter S. Beagle (1), Marc Cushman (1), Jake Jacobs (1), Fred Bronson (1) & Susan Sackett (1). Starring Patrick Stewart & Jonathan Frakes.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 3/4 (Good). There's lots of terrible writing, but this season the worst offenses are mostly confined to dialog. And there are a handful of great stories.
Characters: 3/4 (Good). Data in particular is handled well this season - more subtle (relatively).
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad). Even the great episodes have mediocre dialog at best. The bad episodes sound like they're after school specials.
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 1/4 (Bad). The effects are fine. The design - especially costumes - occasionally pushes the limits of awful.
Acting: 3/4 (Good). Sometimes great, often bad, usually pretty good.
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). About a fifth of the episodes are great - among the best Star Trek episodes ever. About a quarter are good. The rest are crap, and would be difficult to watch if it weren't for my blind love of Star Trek. Even when it's terrible, I still love watching this show. Nostalgia maybe? Or maybe it's the balance of seriousness and humor: it takes itself seriously enough that you can care about the characters, but it's light enough that it never looses its sense of fun (sometimes in spite of the writers).
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

The Incredible Shrinking Man

From my 1950s Science Fiction Marathon, part 9 of 12.



The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957. A man shrinks, incredibly.

Directed by Jack Arnold. Written by Richard Matheson, based on his book. Starring Grant Williams.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). It changes tone, and quality, drastically in a few places.  At first, it's a corny, B-movie attempt at suspense, which is amusing.  Then it turns into a drama, briefly but tediously.  Finally, he shrinks to a few inches tall, and it becomes an adventure.  That part is great - clever and exciting - but they sure take a long time getting there.  Oh, and then there's the ending. What the hell is that ending? I'd have given the movie a strong 7/10 if it weren't for that.
Objective Rating (Average): 1.8/4 (Eh)

the first half hour of John Carter

John Carter, 2012. A confederate soldier teleports to Mars, where a bad guy has a death ray.

Directed by Andrew Stanton. Written by Stanton, Mark Andrews & Michael Chabon, based on a book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Starring Taylor Kitsch.

(unofficial ratings, as the movie is too bad to actually watch)
Subjective Rating: 0/10 (Torture, 0/4). Amazing levels of inept storytelling. Zero sense of fun, whatsoever. I was kept awake last night, just lying there thinking about how awful this movie is. It will haunt me for days. Go back to Pixar, Andrew Stanton; you need them, desperately. (They probably don't need you, though. If you thought this crap was watchable, you couldn't possibly have been the one behind Wall-E  or Finding Nemo. It just doesn't make sense.)
(Estimated) Objective Rating: 1.2/4 (Bad)

Forbidden Planet

From my 1950s Science Fiction Marathon, part 8 of 12.



Forbidden Planet, 1956. A planet's last surviving colonist doesn't want to be rescued.

Directed by Fred M. Wilcox. Written by Cyril Hume; story by Irving Block & Allen Adler. Starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis & Leslie Nielsen.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4 5/4). Star Trek wishes it could be Forbidden Planet. (At least, that's the case when Star Trek is at its best. Somebody should force J.J. Abrams and his writers to watch this movie a few hundred times.)
Objective Rating (Average): 3.0/4 (Good) 3.1/4 (Very good)

[Update of a previous post - original is here. I really don't know what I was thinking back then. Has my taste really changed that much in less than three years?]

The Artist

The Artist, 2011. A silent film star destroys his career by ignoring sound.

Written & directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Starring Jean Dujardin & Bérénice Bejo.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent). They rarely use title cards unless there's some sort of self-aware joke involved. ("I won't talk! I won't say a word!") It's a funny joke, but they keep repeating it through the whole movie.
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Cute, pleasant and memorable. I had expected it to fill me with joy (an old school romance with a whimsical gimmick is the sort of thing I'm likely to love), but it didn't. It's just a nice movie - nothing special outside of the novelty.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.8/4 (Good)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

From my 1950s Science Fiction Marathon, part 7 of 12.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956. Plants from space are replacing people.

Directed by Don Siegel. Written by Daniel Mainwaring, based on a book by Jack Finney. Starring Kevin McCarthy & Dana Wynter.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent). The best thing about the book is the ending, and yet they felt the need to mess it up in both movie versions.  In the 70s, they gave it a mindless zombie movie ending.  But in this version, they don't even bother to replace it with anything. There's just... no ending. The last 20 minutes of the movie is nothing but flailing gibberish.
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Dialog: 1/4 (Bad)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Maybe I would have liked it if I hadn't read the book. I can't tell. During the time when suspense might (or might not) have been building, the adaptation is so close to the book that I couldn't really separate the two.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

"Hollywood Steps Out"

"Hollywood Steps Out" (short), 1941. Celebrity caricatures at a night club.

Directed by Tex Avery. Written by Melvin Millar. Starring Kent Rogers.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 1/4 (Bad)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). Amusing in places. It's nothing but references, and a lot of them are over my head. Without Avery's timing, it probably would have been a disaster.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)