No spoilers promise. Others have commented on the excellent direction and stunning cinematography so I won't repeat all of that. I will say that this movie seems inspired by Children of Men, Her, film noir, even Citizen Kane and of course the original Bladerunner. This film does stands on its own. And it's worth your time. The sets are gorgeous and I'm sorry but green screen CGI sucks when it's overused (looking at you George Lucas). Villeneuve understands that you have to give actors a context in which to interact with their environment. Gosling's K is so central to the film that you wish some of the supporting actors were given more time to develop. But you're not going to get too much warmth here. It's a bleak landscape populated by people full of existential angst. Like the original much of the dystopia centers around societal collapse. But unlike the original you don't get the sense that the rich are leaving in droves "off world" to Eden planets while the poor remain to cope with a hellish Earth. It's implied of course but there's so much more claustrophobia here and the sense that everyone – rich and poor alike – are all trapped in perpetual shadow and rain. For me the film is at its best when it shows us how technology can isolate us from ourselves and each other. The big weakness here is the plot. A central plot point, revealed relatively early in the movie, is supposed to be so game-changing if word got out humankind would revolt. This plot point drives the antagonist. But it just didn't seem like such a big deal for me. In a world that feels on the edge of collapse the complications revealed in the plot wouldn't seem like much of a game changer were I to live in that world.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Prometheus
(I) (2012)
Bad, Really Bad
2 July 2012
Most of the positive reviews of this movie must have been mass generated from people who were paid to do so. How else to explain it?
I love sci-fi in general and intelligent sci-fi in particular. And I'm willing to forgive an awful lot if the writing is good. This film is visually stunning but the writing and character development is so bad that you end up not caring about the visuals. I can think of not one single character that I cared about. And why was Theron in this movie? She didn't do anything but walk around in a jumpsuit. Minor spoiler: Let's say you're an archaeologist who has spent his entire adult life excavating and uncovering evidence that aliens visited earth thousands of years ago. And then your dream comes true and you travel to their planet and discover ancient ruins. Do you spend exactly ONE DAY looking around the ruins and then go back to your tent and pout and get drunk because you can't find a living descendant? Even Indiana Jones would have stopped to read and study some petroglyphs for a few minutes before smashing up the place. The whole movie was frustrating, juvenile, and ridiculous.
I love sci-fi in general and intelligent sci-fi in particular. And I'm willing to forgive an awful lot if the writing is good. This film is visually stunning but the writing and character development is so bad that you end up not caring about the visuals. I can think of not one single character that I cared about. And why was Theron in this movie? She didn't do anything but walk around in a jumpsuit. Minor spoiler: Let's say you're an archaeologist who has spent his entire adult life excavating and uncovering evidence that aliens visited earth thousands of years ago. And then your dream comes true and you travel to their planet and discover ancient ruins. Do you spend exactly ONE DAY looking around the ruins and then go back to your tent and pout and get drunk because you can't find a living descendant? Even Indiana Jones would have stopped to read and study some petroglyphs for a few minutes before smashing up the place. The whole movie was frustrating, juvenile, and ridiculous.
District 9
(2009)
Disappointing...
6 September 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I had heard enough about this South African film to know that it was an allegory about the Apartheid period. And I'm a huge fan of intelligent sci-fi. What could go wrong? Everything. Can I have those two hours back? The first 20 minutes was interesting. The lead character is portrayed as a passive-aggressive racist who is a part of the problem, smooths over police violence in front of the press, and fails utterly to comprehend the situation around him. In short, he's marked for death. He's the red-shirted security guy beaming down with Kirk and you just know his minutes are numbered. But when something bad does happen to him the movie's logic goes off the rails and melts into a steaming pile of a cheap Chuck Norris action flick where rifles blaze, grenades explode, and there's no motive to any of it other than just to blow sh*t up for the twelve year old kids in the audience.
Question. If you were making an allegory about Apartheid why would your clueless, selfish, white guy racist jailer be the hero and liberator of the oppressed black people? I should think that in the 21st century old ideas about the White Man's Burden is more than just offensive; it's also a tired cliché. The jailer bureaucrat's only motive seems selfish: he just wants to go back to his old self.
The sadistic villain is like a bad penny. He just keeps showing up in every other scene, fires off about a million rounds without hitting the hapless hero, and doesn't have the horse sense to call in enough backup to handle the escalating violence.
I'm supposed to believe that the Most Wanted Man in the Universe, with his picture all over television, can use his old access codes to break into a maximum security biology weapon lab and run off with alien rocket fuel? The plot holes get bigger and bigger, which is forgivable if the story is reasonable. Yet, the problem here is that there are no likable characters at all in the entire film. Also, the violence is way too gratuitous and serves no purpose.
I can't think of anything good to say other than to save your money and don't waste your time on this one.
Question. If you were making an allegory about Apartheid why would your clueless, selfish, white guy racist jailer be the hero and liberator of the oppressed black people? I should think that in the 21st century old ideas about the White Man's Burden is more than just offensive; it's also a tired cliché. The jailer bureaucrat's only motive seems selfish: he just wants to go back to his old self.
The sadistic villain is like a bad penny. He just keeps showing up in every other scene, fires off about a million rounds without hitting the hapless hero, and doesn't have the horse sense to call in enough backup to handle the escalating violence.
I'm supposed to believe that the Most Wanted Man in the Universe, with his picture all over television, can use his old access codes to break into a maximum security biology weapon lab and run off with alien rocket fuel? The plot holes get bigger and bigger, which is forgivable if the story is reasonable. Yet, the problem here is that there are no likable characters at all in the entire film. Also, the violence is way too gratuitous and serves no purpose.
I can't think of anything good to say other than to save your money and don't waste your time on this one.
Very Disappointed
2 March 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I was excited to see Wilder's take on good old Holmes but after having just watched this film I'm very disappointed. If you're a huge fan like me and you've read the original stories as they were printed in the Strand Magazine then I'd stay away from this one. Gone is the sober, thoughtful Watson only to be replaced by a bumbling fool who never stops talking. Gone is the brilliant Holmes who misses nothing to be replaced by a literally clueless and pedestrian hack who misses pretty much all of the basic plot points. He's just as surprised by the mystery and its resolution as we are. Ice skates? Come on! Holmes would have known it was a wheelchair right away and he probably would have known the approximate weight of the woman in it just by looking at the tracks. I love how this Holmes yells at women and tells them to shut up. And the Holmes I know would not have missed the way in which the enemy agent signaled to the monks on the bridge. And what's with Lee's Mycroft? The subtlety isn't there and the character is all wrong. Save the Q schtick for James Bond. One last complaint: your typical American grandmother has more royalty about her than the petulant squirt in this movie. She looks like someone just off the back lot from a Western that they enlisted last-minute to play the Queen.
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