Review of Australia (2008) by Phil H — 09 Feb 2012

I thought this was an epic 'Dances With Wolves' type film so I was alittle disappointed to discover it isn't, its more of a romantic comedy/epic in the same vain as 'Gone With the Wind'. That's fine and for what it is its a good film but its not quite my cup of tea.

It is very well made and in fine 'Gone With the Wind' form, the Aussie cast are all perfect for their roles (except Jackman seems a little typecast as 'Wolverine' hehe that's all I could think when he shows his chest, Wolverine in 1939) and the visuals are tremendous, the Oz landscape is really used for its best possible look although there is quite alot of bluescreen used which is obvious (to me anyway).

It would have been nice to see an epic about the Aborigines in 'Dances' style to be honest, that could of been very cool, the glimpses of the old Aborigine man King George is very curious and needed to be explored more. The first 30min of this film does tend to be rather romcom and silly, much like Jackmans other romcom period set film 'Kate n Leopold'. It does get much better and more serious as the war looms closer and things get abit teary for sure. The effects are, as said, obvious but look atad better during the war sequences.

Its a very old style flick, very 40's right down to the end credit fonts hehe which is nice, a good film but maybe too mushy haha but thats how they used to be right :) a nice happy ending.