Reviews

At first, I thought I was watching another Twilight Zone or Black Mirror, and I was excited about that. But as the series goes on, I wasn't sure what I was watching anymore. I watched episodes 1-6. These episodes ranged from pretty predictable Twilight Zone-style plots to touching dramas to whatever the hell happened with the cult episode to literally 30 minutes of interpretive dance.

So after 6 episodes, I'm calling it quits. I don't think it's a bad thing to question or be surprised about what you're watching, but there's a limit to that. If I'm in the mood for sports, I don't want to see a psychological thriller. If I'm in the mood for sci-fi action, I don't want a Charlie Chaplin silent film. The problem with Room 104 is that you don't know what you're watching until you've watched it (and with some episodes, you still don't know what you watched). It's like committing to watching whatever channel you land on after mashing the buttons on your remote.

With that said, the production values are pretty good, there are some good actors, and 1 of the 6 episodes had a twist that surprised me, so I gave it a 3/10.

If you've never seen a movie made by The Asylum, then give this a shot so you know what to avoid in the future.

Setting aside the poor acting, ridiculous plot, miserable special effects, and complete disregard for physics in every action sequence, it's the poor editing that really gets to me. In the opening sequence (which really isn't related to the rest of the movie outside of really obvious foreshadowing), a plane starts to crash, but the pilot pulls up before it hits the aircraft carrier. He flies it a little longer out over the ocean but can't get enough speed to pull it, so he ejects. Somehow, the plane then crashes into the aircraft carrier as if it hadn't just been flying away. On top of that, when they find the pilot, he's burnt and dead as if he was in an explosion, which he wasn't because he ejected. It's like they just filmed random scenes without thinking about how'd they'd fit together. And that was the first 3 minutes or so.

I turned it off around the 20 minute mark. It's a complete waste of time just like Transmorphers, Terminators, or Snakes on a Train.

Yes, I'm going to go ahead and say that this is my favorite movie. Take that as a bias for this review, or take it as an endorsement, it's up to you.

First off, as you've probably read, if you're interested in the US remake, watch the original. I'm not saying you should watch the original first or second, or to skip the US version, I'm just saying you should watch the original whenever. It's better than the remake, regardless of the order that you watch them. There is a desperation in the main character of the original version that is lost in the remake, and to me, that desperation was the driving force behind the plot.

While spending his time locked up, you get to see Dae-su go through all the stages of grief. But the difference is that the final stage, acceptance, has a different effect on him in that he becomes almost empty. I used the word desperation before because he becomes a man who has nothing to live for except revenge. While the hallway scene may seem ridiculous on paper, I had no trouble believing it when I first watched the movie. In other movies, his actions would be those of a man possessed, but Oldboy is about a man who has suffered, was hollowed out, and no longer knows fear.

Chan-wook Park is an amazing writing and director. I wish I knew more about film theory so I could explain the various ways he makes this film spectacular. The most important thing to me is how he conveys emotion. Even watching it with subtitles, you'll understand the characters' plights. On top of all that, the twists and turns are completely unexpected assuming you haven't seen the remake or the ripoff "The Samaritan".

If you're like me, after watching this, you'll go out and find the rest of Chan-wook Park's library.

So to be honest, I'd normally give this a 3/10 for the general feel of the movie, but I bumped it up a bit because I thought the concept and attempt deserved some bonus points. While it is definitely an amalgamation of previous time / space travel ideas and won't really provide anything new to any fan of that genre, I think this film had a unique flavor.

With that said, the rest of the movie was definitely lacking in polish. There were a couple scenes where you could see the shadows of the film crew (I thought someone with a gun had walked into the room, but after rewinding I'm pretty sure it was the boom operator), guns with suppressors aren't suppressed in the audio track, stuff like that. The acting is mediocre at best, but I wouldn't say it's horrible. The major issue is the execution of the plot. The scenes seem to jump around a lot in time, and it really wasn't necessary. It was hard to tell if they were trying to go for some Memento-style reveal at the end or if they were trying to trick the audience into thinking related things weren't related and vice versa, but failed to do both. It's definitely not a movie to mindlessly watch, because you'll lose track of what's going on very quickly. But if you're desperate to see something that isn't the same Hollywood blockbuster as last week, then this might do it for you.

OK, technically there should be some high school film projects that are worse, but excluding those, this is the worst movie I've ever seen. It's probably because plot holes and continuity issues drive me crazy. If you can laugh at that kind of stuff, then you'll love this movie. The best part will be when everyone is in a forest, runs off in completely different directions, wanders aimlessly while being chased by monsters, and then all magically end up finding each other at the same time on the other end of the forest. Or when one guy decides he'll sacrifice himself to slow the monster down and buy the others some time, even though his sacrifice is completely unnecessary and doesn't slow the monster down at all.

And that's not even getting started on the miserable acting, writing, and CGI. I guess the sets aren't bad and the music is OK, but that's about all the positives you'll find.

This is the movie that I compare every other bad movie against.

At face value, this seems pretty cool - the Martians return to Earth years after their initial invasion attempt and face off against Earth's newly advanced armies. Animation isn't high grade but it isn't bad either, and the 3d-style robots are great if that's your kind of thing.

But execution is pretty miserable. The writing isn't the worst I've seen, but it's not great. The worst parts is the lack of consistency. For example, as is common with a lot of movies, the monsters alternate between being invincible to laughably weak depending on the needs of the heroes. On top of that, they seem to determine in the beginning of the movie that heat rays are the monsters' weakness, yet they continue to throw barrages of bullets and missiles as if they do any good. Then there's the outrun-the-chain-explosion sequence. And what really drives me nuts, in one sequence they're fighting 3 monsters, they shoot 2 down and are fighting 1, then suddenly they're fighting 2 again, then 1, then 2, then they shoot down 1 of the remaining two and fight 1 until they kill it.

So I guess I was expecting too much out of this movie. Maybe it's more of a kids movie, but the flesh melting scenes made it feel a bit adult to me. If you hate plot holes, this movie isn't for you, but if you just want to watch some anime action sequences, then it's right up your alley.

But it was close. If you're interested in watching a widow in a veil walk around with a knife while a 'suspenseful' heartbeat sound thumps in the background, this movie is for you. That's probably a third of the movie.

There's a 4 minute scene (I was so amazed, that I went back and timed it) that alternates between the widow walking around and a guy in the shower repeatedly washing his armpits, which apparently were very dirty. 4 minutes. Nothing else happens the whole time. Just the heartbeat thumping, widow walking, and dirty armpit guy. So yeah, that's what you're in for.