Battle of the Andersons

Armond White, cinema troll extraordinaire, contrasts this week’s “dueling” releases from a pair of Andersons: Paul W. S. Anderson & Paul Thomas Anderson, the directors behind Resident Evil: Retribution and The Master respectively.

But not before slamming Martin Scorsese’s stereoscopic cinematographic technique in Hugo:

Compare the unoriginal use of 3D in Hugo–standard diorama compositions with objects poking out toward the viewer–to Paul W.S. Anderson’s astonishingly lively 3D compositions in Resident Evil: Retribution where heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) fights the Umbrella Corporation’s viral experiments that produced a plague turning mankind into zombies. Anderson’s images vivify the entire expanse of the wide screen to keep your eyes busy surveying the breadth of action while also pulling your vision inward for an appreciation of depth–and emotion.

My point isn’t to measure Paul W. S. Anderson against Martin Scorsese; that’s too easy–an almost unfair contrast of innovative imagination to uninspired convention.

I won’t spoil the rest.

(via Criticwire)