JANUARY 2011 MOVIE DATE: GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

SPECIAL MEDIA 3D SCREENING OF "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS"

7pm, January 6, Thursday
Glorietta 3

Gulliver's Travels is a 2010 American fantasy comedy film directed by Rob Letterman and loosely based on the 18th-century novel of the same name by Jonathan Swift, though the film takes place in the modern era. The film stars Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Billy Connolly, Catherine Tate, Chris O'Dowd and Amanda Peet as Darcy Silverman[3] and is distributed by 20th Century Fox. Originally scheduled for release in early 2010, its release was pushed back after20th Century Fox announced its convertion to 3D.

Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver is presented as the frustrated mail room employee of a New York City newspaper, who was by passed up when a newcomer was promoted and became his boss.

Depressed in this turn of events, Gulliver convinced journalist Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet), the secret love of his life, that he dreams of being a writer and that he could write an article about his imaginary world "travels". With the use of the  Internet he submitted the article which impressed Darcy so much that she gave  Gulliver a new assignment-– to travel to the Bermuda Triangle and write an article confirming that the legend of ships mysteriously disappearing in the area being caused by extraterrestrials is not true.




Upon arrival in Bermuda, Gulliver rents a boat and travels into the triangle and was promptly washed up  unconscious on the shore of Lilliput after a freak storm. He is captured and imprisoned in a cave, where he met another prisoner named Horatio (Jason Segel) who was jailed by General Edward (Chris O'Dowd) because he fancies Princess Mary of Lilliput (Emily Blunt), whereas Edward wants her for himself.
After saving the royal family from the hands of the commandos from Blefuscu, Gulliver was declared a hero by Lilliput's citizens and he promptly made a lot of lies up saying he is the President of the United States, that  Yoda is his Vice-President and a living legend in his homeland.

Chaos ensues as the Blefuscian Navy lay siege on the city when Edward shuts down its defense system as an act of revenge for Gulliver's treatment. Gulliver defeats the armada, invulnerable to the cannonballs being fired at him (although he receives numerous welts on his stomach). Embarrassed once more, and with Mary no longer wanting to do anything with him, Edward defected to the Blefuscians and helped the Blefuscians to secretly build a robot based on Gulliver's magazine, with Edward as the pilot.

When the Blefuscians successfully invaded Liliput, the robot-wielding Edward made Gulliver to admit to his lies. Edward banished Gulliver on the shores of Brobdingnag ("the island where we dare not go"), where he is captured by Glumdaclitch and forced to become her doll complete with wig and dress.

Darcy who washed up on the shore in the same manner as Gulliver was imprisoned by the Lilliputians. Horatio, who has gone to Brobdingnag after being spurned by Mary, reveals to Gulliver that Darcy was imprisoned in Lilliput. This prompted Gulliver to escape from Brobdingnag and to rescue Darcy.
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Once again accepting a duel from Edward, Gulliver ultimately defeats him with the assistance of Horatio, who disables the machine's electrocuting weapon. Horatio is hailed a hero and gets King Benjamin's permission to court the princess. Edward, reaching the point of insanity, threatens to kill the princess, but the princess, finally having enough of Edward, beats him up in frustration. Gulliver then helps to make peace between the rival island-nations by reciting Edwin Starr's "War" and he, along with Darcy, return to New York on their repaired boat.

According to a critic, "Though Jack Black is back doing what he does best, Gulliver's Travels largely fails to do any justice to its source material, relying instead on juvenile humor and special effects.", which is precisely what I also thought. I had high hopes of being entertained by this movie but even the special effects hardly kept me from yawning, and closing my eyes. Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver gave a very good performance, although he tends to be corny in some sequences. The "dancing sequence" towards the end did not helped at all. It's a good thing that the lead characters ended up in each others arms and became successful fiction writers in New York, writing about their experiences on Lilliput.