Iron Giant Review - Last Blog Entry

I was always a fan of giant monster movies, Cloverfield being one of my favorites. I saw Iron Giant in the movies when it first came out and I loved it. I was young, so all that got across to me was the story and how awesome the giant robot was. Watching it again in class helped me absorb all the other elements this movie has to offer.
The music is fantastic, giving the sense of an epic adventure. I feel like the music would have to be grand, to match the scale of the size of the Iron Giant.
The pacing and action sequences do not disappoint either. My favorite being when the Iron Giant unleashes his secret weapons out of nowhere. That is my favorite animation sequence too. I love how the robot transforms into something more, and does is very seamlessly. It is one of my favorite animations, next to Spirited Away. I applaud the movie for matching everything up to the size of the Iron Giant himself, and it took multiple viewings for me to understand that.

Updated:
After doing a bit more research, new facts and interesting tidbits about these movie have been uncovered. I didn’t even realize that this movie came out in 1999. I believed that it could have been released between 2001 and 2004, easily. The graphics and editing in this movie is phenomenal. I love every second of it. Music was a large part of this too. This is thanks to Michael Kamen, the composer for this movie. His score helped bring the antics of the robot and Hogarth to life. Sadly, he passed away in 2003 due to heart problems. His other works include, but are not limited to, Band of Brothers, X-Men, Frequency, and Mr. Holland’s Opus. Interestingly, the film WALL-E had a trailer featuring a score of his, five years after his death. This just shows how his work will live on after his time.
Brad Bird, the director, is not only a director, but also a screenwriter, animator, and actor; he is a jack of all trades. He’s directed some other fantastic movies such as The Incredibles and Ratatouille; he provided his voice for side characters in each of the films. I also discovered that he is not limited to directing animated movies, he is currently directing Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol (the fourth movie in the series). I feel like this extra research has shown me how versatile one can be and how each and every creation one makes can help create an extensive and impressive portfolio of work.

Lastly, I wanted to look at some reviews for this movie, to see if they point anything else out. Rotten Tomatoes, a popular movie critique site, gave the movie a 97% and a 72%. The 97% is from the critics, and the 72% is from regular movie-goers. I agree with the critics on this one. The movie is “engaging, endearing, affecting and charmingly retro”. That last part stuck with me. I never thought about calling this movie retro, but now I can’t get that idea out of my head because it is so true. I am not sure what the “audience" was thinking, but I completely agree with the critics.