Wolverine #14

[flint_marko]

Comments

[misterbug]

Enh...as a lifelong Shakespeare enthusiast of 21 years, I have mixed reactions to Taymor's Titus. Good design, outstanding performance, nice use of the grotesque, fantastic execution of the 'Roman Empire Never Fell' concept, but...a wee bit too much in certain areas.

The Lavinia-stick scene, certainly, I thought could have been quieter. It's a pity, because the reveal of Lavinia's mutilation to Titus was done with exactly the alarming, horrific pathos that I feel is essential to her character; but it wasn't properly carried on. The heavy-metal music, combined with the speeded-up footage and the crazy-acid-vision-tiger-attack iconography smacked of 'XTREME!' to me.

Similar the flying-trumpet-angel sequence bridging the gap between Hopkins' two flawless deliveries of Titus pleading with the rocks and Titus gathering his tragic family together. I couldn't help but think of the first flashback in 'Airplane!' when a woman's legs are shown striding a raunchy bar, only for the camera to pan up showing her playing the raunchy trombone music that provides its atmosphere.

And this is purely my own hang-up, but nothing arrests a good murder scene more than noticing mid-stab that the victim is Miss Marple.

Good film, though. It's just I'd give it 3 out of 4, myself.