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Michaelnathaniel
Reviews
Inception (2010)
Dreamy !!
In this movie, Nolan picks up the Freudian Theory of dream and pens an intelligent and surreal script from it although he seems to borrow some of this ideas from a Japanese anime movie Paprika. However, to condemn this movie as a Hollywood CGI polished ripoff of Paprika is preposterous. Inception stands on his own because it has an entirely different plot and characters.
The best thing about this movie are the settings, with a ton of dream within a dream within a dream worlds, for me at least Nolan successfully presents us with a fairly coherent state of one's dream (coherent enough to be filmed with CGI at least) without losing the glorious incomprehensibleness of dream itself. However, sadly all of the best CGIs and dream worlds stuffs here on this movie has been spoiled in the trailer, the folding city, the zero gravity hotel room and the icy fortresses.
The acting quality of what could be considered the best all-star casts in any 2010 movie complements the set and plot nicely without any particular character chewing the scenery. However, somewhat annoyingly in my opinion DiCaprio's acting falls short and feels a little bit dull compared to the sheer awesomeness of the environment. His character seems distracted and somewhat bored throughout the movie. His inner struggle projected in the dream settings throughout the movie in my opinion totally distracts the flow of the plot and completely unnecessary since we have already seen DiCaprio struggles against his own mental projection and questioning reality in another movie. Shutter ** cough.. cough..
Now that I've written three paragraphs about this movie, I felt that I'm somehow being to harsh. This is a really good movie, for me it holds a respectable second best movie in 2010 after Toy Story 3 and definitely a top 10 movie in this decade. The action is really intense and the dream worlds presented by Nolan are really top notch. Although the sub-plot DiCaprio's mental stuff kinda drags a little bit, it doesn't decrease the sheer volatile awesomeness of this movie.
Avatar (2009)
I cried
I don't usually review movies but damn this movie just get on my nerve. Actually I must admit the movie worth your 10 bucks but I really hate the overhyping marketing this movie has. Under normal circumstances this movie is a 6/10 all exploding fun popcorn movie, but wasting 500 MILLION DOLLARS to make it is just an overkill of epic proportion. You could save thousands of people in Haiti or actually make a difference in any environmental issues. However, now we have millions of people watching this absolute mediocre movie while killing themselves with high trans fat popcorn and furthermore toast the planet. This movie is against corporation my ass.. Look how Hollywood hypes this movie up the movie is just taking a cheap shot using the current hate of American people for wall street. How could this movie get a decent review is beyond me, many reviews here already said that its a total rip off of any noble savages evil colonist movie like Dancing with The Wolves and The Last Samurai. And you know what? In every single one of those movies the indigenous people can't do a damn until a white man "savior" came and bail their asses. The samurai needed Tom Cruise and God knows what will happen to Pocahontas if there is no John Smith.
and again 500 Millions, damn.. and this movie never achieves anything emotionally significant. Remember how you feel when Luke gazes to the Binary Sunset of Tatooine while the John Williams' "Binary Sunset" played in the background foreshadowing his epic destiny yet to come, or how the ending sequence of Star Wars 3 starting with Padme's funeral, the long forgotten but familiar glimpse "Leia's Theme" in Alderaan where baby Leia is given to the Organas and finally ending with baby Luke in Tatooine with the "Binary Sunset" music perfectly connects the prequel to the original trilogy just as if life has come full circle. How Aragorn stood in the gate of mordor and gives his speech " THIS DAY WE FIGHT! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth.." LOTR and Star Wars with its large budget at their time actually achieves something, they are emotionally engaging and this piece of mediocre crap is uggh... If you want to see good CGI go and play Final Fantasy games, they have far better universe with far cooler monsters and some of them actually has a good plot and deep meaning (FFX). How could you have a not quite alien HORSE six legged creature that sounds EXACTLY like horses on earth - they freakin stole the sound effect, not so alien Tiger alien, Rhino? damn the writer even doesn't care to think of another creature they ripped it off from our planet "convergent evolution" my ass, somewhere a biologist is crying.
Oh yeah not to forget that the Na'vis actually has boobs.. like how could you be an alien in Pandora and somehow have PLACENTAL MAMMALS BOOBS??
For a fun sci-fi movie I can let it all go by shutting off my brain, but Avatar who has 500 million dollars budget and making political cheap shots every now and then totally distract me from shutting of my brain and enjoying this movie..
Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
This film depicts Antartica like it never seen before..
Most of us think that Antartica is a frozen dead land, most of us maybe doesn't even know that there is a civilization, a goddamn city with around 1000 people who stayed there each summer. This movie really brings a new perspective to the most unknown continent in our world, how is life in there, especially the people, the inhabitants who can proudly say "I'm ANTARTICAN!!" to the world. This film is mainly about the story of people who live in Antartica, a documentary about their own personal experience of leaving their home and human civilization behind, and sought the new life of adventure and traveling. We are shown a wide array of personal experiences from a physics professor in search of some hypothetical particles to runaway prisoner who has been taking refuge in Antartica.
Aside from the new insight about life in Antartica, this film also provides us with some brilliant shot about the landscape in Antartica, the underwater shot is extremely beautiful,but they could have done better with the shot on the mountain and stuff. The director also includes some weird ambient 1920's or 30's movie clip that somewhat doesn't really makes sense. And finally, the message of this movie is kind a ambiguous, it doesn't make any real statement about the global warming effects on Antartica, or anything else for us to do. It is somewhat usual kind of Discovery Channel or National Geographic documentary, which only show us some information without really adding some statement or opinion about it. It's just like the usual education movie we see in our environmental or biology class.
In the nutshell, this movie really gives us a brand new view about Antartica, but nothing more. If you are expecting a brain beating conscience knocking documentary about some untold true story in some part of the world like Jesus Camp or An Inconvenient Truth this is not a film for you..
Persepolis (2007)
This movie is about what will happens if Lisa Simpsons was born in Iran..
There is one saviour to year'07, and that is PERSEPOLIS. This brilliant movie combines the fun meter created by its animation and a strong message about living in Iran.
The story is about Marjane Satrapi's live. She is an Iranian girl who grow up in a intelligent western-minded family. She grew up in the time of so called "Islamic Revolution" in Iran, then the war between Iran and Iraq. To escape the war, she is sent by her parents to Austria. After studying there, she came back to Iran and faced the new regime, the Islamic regime which totally anti-emancipation and feminism.
The story maybe sound too boring for most brainless movie-goers who just expect some action stunts and exploding cars. That's when the brilliance of Vincent Paronnaud comes in. He successfully tell the "political" story and makes it totally enjoyable. It's just like watching other animated movie like Lion King with some political message inside it.
The animation itself is very-very unique.. The film tells some political incidents from a girl point of view. The movie really capture Marjane's struggle within herself, how she tries to defend her integrity as an intelligent human being,in the anti-feminist Islam world in a very comical fashion so it's watchable for everyone without being a really racist film.
Star Wars (1977)
Watching StarWars is like the earliest memory I have in my life..
The first time I watch StarWars when I am like three or four years old. I watched it with my mom and dad in my home. At that time, the only thing I can remember from the film is only a laser gun, mean black robot with red laser sword, spaceships, and Luke Skywalker. From the first time I watched it, this film totally amazes me, truly capture all of my imagination, and inspiring even for children of my age. Since then, I remember I watched this film almost everyday.. especially during my lunch and dinner.. (I love to watch movie while eating).Of course I skipped all of the dialog part that I don't understand and only watch the Death Star shooting scene, the ObiWan vs DarthVader, and the final spaceships battle. I grew up with this saga, fill my entire room with StarWars action figure, bought all of those stupid Star Wars coloring books.
Now that I am older, I still believe that this is one of the best movie which ever made. George Lucas really captures all aspects of storytelling to this film, there are action, drama, suspense, adventure, comedy, thriller, anything (except horror of course) in this movie. It is the most compact movie of all time, consisting of every factors possible to be in a movie.
Mark Hamill has done such a wonderful job playing his characters, Luke Skywalker.. It is a character that set the standard and become a role model for what should main protagonist in adventure film should be. As Luke Skywalker, Hamill successfully portrays his teenage farm boy image, with the sense of humor and jokes that really feels that Luke is the REAL person who lived in the galaxy far-far away from this earth.
However, the brightest star or the show is Han Solo.. Mr.Ford plays this character brilliantly, he made Solo such a charming character and capture the totally audience's heart. He makes Solo a REAL space pirates with the way that he escape from trouble, his lack of respect towards fair head to head fighting, jokes in the most critical times, and his witty comment throughout the laser gun fight with the stormtroopers.
Princess Leia also made a terrific impact to the series, it is one of the very first KICK ASS and in-your-face princess character ever. It is totally capable of defending herself and not the typical stupid princess who got into trouble and start screaming "HELP MEE.." without really doing anything. C-3PO also plays a very important role, as the source of comedy and tension-breaker throughout this film with all of his non important but funny comments. It is even funnier to watch other characters reaction toward his comments.
Last but not least, the greatest character created by Lucas, and the baddest, greatest, most iconic villain of the 20th century, Darth Vader played brilliantly by David Prowse and James Earl Jones. Darth Vader is really the greatest antagonist of all time. He got scary mask, black armor, blood crimson colored laser swords, a brilliant strategist, what else can you asked for? The greatest thing that differs Vader from the typical villain is that Vader is literally an unstoppable force, without any mercy at all, he crushes all of his enemies and even allies who got in his way, he shows no hesitation in pulling the trigger. He doesn't have the stupid villain arrogance that usually ends up by killing the villain himself in the end. Vader demonstrate his seriousness in striking down the unguarded Obi Wan and in demolishing almost every Rebel Starships remaining on the Battle of Yavin.
With all those great and groundbreaking characters, George Lucas acts as the final catalyst to create such great classic. He ingeniously mix all those complex characters and adds almost every elements of storytelling to this masterpiece. The story moves up pretty well in a brilliant up and downs, as he divide the scene to a perfect proportion of funny scenes, emotional scenes, action scenes, he is really showing us all the meaning of BALANCE.. With his final touch of genius, Lucas as the director wraps up all the amazing cast, mind-blowing and out of this world story, great special effects into one of the best work of art in our time
The Tracey Fragments (2007)
Truly a work of art in cinematography.. Love the unique multiple frames..
Did anybody like Ellen Page from Juno? Anybody said that her acting in that movie is terrific? Well, her acting in Juno is nothing compared to her's in this movie. This movie really makes Juno looks like High School Musical without any music. In my opinion she is the only girl on this planet that can pull of this psychodrama movie. As an professional actress she push her acting to the limit, and she deserves credit for her terrific job. In this movie, Ellen plays the character Tracey Berkwitz, a sixteen years old girl who on the verge of her insanity and tries to find her missing little brother.
As the director, Bruce McDonald presented this film with a very unique way. He split the screen into three, four, or even dozen frames to project the state of Tracey's mind. Bruce then develops the story with three different time lines simultaneously, crossing each other. At first, audience may become confused, but in the end everyone will agree that he has done a wonderful job with the storytelling. This film also presented some realistic and rare to be seen condition of cities in Canada at night and twilight moment. The environments blend perfectly with the plot and storyline. However, this film is lacking on one real solid ending to close this great work.
This film is really a work of art in filmography, the acting quality, the storytelling time line, and the multiple camera angle are very unique. However, just like every other arts, it is up to every person interpretation. Some people will say that the multi-frames doesn't really work and they doesn't understand the movie at all. But for me, The Tracey Fragments is one solid ending away to become one of the best indie film I've ever seen.
10 minuta (2002)
Remarkable camera skills combined with great deep meaning in such short time..
10 minutes is a short film made by Bosnian film director Ahmed Imamovic and won the Best European Short Film award back in 2002. This film is about contrast situation between the peaceful Rome city and Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.
The film starts with Japanese tourist in Rome who go to a photo shop and ask the shop to print his photos. The Italian shopkeeper then ask him to wait 10 minutes until his photo done. Meanwhile, in Sarajevo Bosnia, which was torn apart by the Bosnian War, a kid is asked by his mom to buy a bread. About 10 minutes later, his town is attacked and his life changed forever.
The greatest thing about this film is Imamovic managed to take the whole Bosnian scene with only one shot!! The camera doesn't change shot at all, continuing events after events. It doesn't shake and take every scene with perfect angle.
The film statement was amazing, how can life change in other parts of the world in such short time without us even noticing it. We who live in a relatively good place should appreciate every passing minutes, because there are millions other people who aren't as lucky as us. This film combines great art of cinematography and strong film statement. Brilliant camera technique, acting, and actors selection combined with such strong screenplay. This is one of the best short film I've ever seen..
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
The final movie for the greatest villain of all time, Mr.Vader.. And the movie that makes me love cinematography arts so much..
Maybe I have seen this movie twenty times or more, I never got bored by this masterpiece. Since I was a boy, this movie accompanies my life.. There was a time when I was three or four years old, I watched it like twice a week, I almost remember every line from the characters, every shots, every scene. Since I was a kid, I thought that this is the best film ever.. I love this movie so much especially because everything in it is very very cool, Luke's green lightsaber, the final duel between Luke and Darth Vader, and mostly because my favorite fictional character, Darth Vader's heroic death..
Now that I'm older, I can seemore great aspects of this film besides its "coolness". Han Solo's(Harrison Ford) and Darth Sidious's (Ian McDiarmid) acting was trulyterrific.. Harrison Ford truly lighten up this movie by some degree of comedy, since Luke's character has transformed to become more mature, patience, and serious. Ian McDiarmid as The Emperor also did a terrific job, he is portraying Darth Sidious as the most twisted dark villain in my life, as we can see there isn't anything good left behind The Emperor, it is just pure SITH, pure dark side, evil and twisted. The mirror lightsaber battle, DjemSo v.s. DjemSo by Vader and Luke is the most magnificent and greatly choreographed duel at that time, and the development of Darth Vader's character from the dark side back to light is done magnificently, in my opinion much better than his transformation from Annakin to Darth Vader in The Revenge of The Sith. Darth Vader also shows a great moral value, that however bad your sin or mistake was, there always a chance of redemption. Finally in this movie, the greatest villain of all time got the redemption he deserves.
However, I must admit this is not the perfect flawless 10/10 movie like Schindler's List or Lord of The Rings Return of The King. There are some flaws in this movie. One fatal flaws that all of us- Star Wars fan regret is how could Gorge Lucas end his double trilogy with a war between 1meter-tall monkey and Imperial Stormtroopers? How could the primitive Ewoks beat all of the modern Elite Trained Strormtroopersw, therefore doomed all of the Empire, a feat that a fully assembled Rebel Army never could have done.. Aside from those idiots Ewoks, this is a very great films.. Definitely better than Star Wars I or II.. Although maybe from performing arts points of view this film is the worst of all Star Wars Original Trilogy, it is still the film that I watched many many times, the film that grow up with me, and teach me how great it is the world of cinematography and performing arts.
The Dark Knight (2008)
The best superhero film ever and the best film of 2008 yet..
This is totally the best film in 2008, no doubt about it. Christopher Nolan really did a wonderful job directing this film, great scene, great atmosphere, great suspense in the entire film. This film has surpassed any other superhero themed film before it, in almost all terms, the storytelling, the acting quality of their stars, and most importantly, it is the most rational and possible Superhero movie ever. The stunts are amazing, not even one non-logical stunts is performed in this film, all of them are very plausible and look very real.
Heath Ledger as The Joker totally steal the spotlight in this movie. His acting was awesome, he made The Joker character in this movie become one of the best antagonist in filming history, comparable to those all time greats such as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and Hannibal Lecter. Heath Ledger portrayed The Joker as a very dark, psycho, terrifying, and unpredictable character that totally capture the audience and makes us wonder what things he will do next.
Sadly, this film is not without flaws. Christian Bale failed to portrays Batman as one of the greatest and most terrifying superhero in DC Universe, although he is doing a great job with the "human" Bruce Wayne character. Somewhat the fear factor is lacking, especially with the weird and annoying voice when Bruce is in his Batsuit.
However, this flaw is minor and isn't big enough compared to all of good things in this film. Award-winning performance by Heath Ledger, great dark atmosphere in Gotham City "made" by Christopher Nolan, solid acting performance by the rest of the crews and finally amazing suspense/thriller which is sustained in the entire film makes The Dark Knight in my opinion the best film of 2008 and the best summer blockbuster film ever.