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| March of the Penguins | | Date Created: Sep 01, 2005, 12:48 AM |
 GG and Q will never forgive me for hoodwinking them into watching March of the Penguins last night. Now don't get me wrong, I genuinely thought it was a good movie. I made my assessment based on the rave reviews it got in the US, plus it outgrossed War of the Worlds on per screen revenue. Admittedly it was initially released in a limited number of cinemas. The trailer on apple.com also featured Morgan Freeman doing his best National Geographic voice, extolling the monogamous virtues of the mating Emperor Penguins.
But in Singapore, the cinemas are not screening the US version. Instead, we either get the original French version or one that is dubbed in Mandarin. We caught the French version and it was the worst example of French film-making excessive indulgence since Irreversible. We were tortured by the most asinine voice-overs that tried to convince us that Emperor penguins don't just communicate in French, they speak in these hushed existentialist tones and are apt to break out into poetry while they starve in the biting cold. The dialogue is only punctuated by this Bjork wannabe belting out the most inane lyrics to a soundtrack that sounds like it came from the latest Cirque de Soleil production.
The penguins did their best to salvage this sorry excuse for a National Geographic feature film but floundered badly. The lucky ones managed to dart under the Antarctic ice in shame.
For the sake of the Emperor penguins, give this movie a huge miss and watch Discovery or National Geographic channel. |
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