Oblivion (2013)

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oblivion

Link: Oblivion

Summary: After human civilization on Earth is obliterated by war or something, humans flee to a moon of Saturn.  Meanwhile, a man is stationed on Earth to help maintain technology that turns the Earth’s water into some sort of energy source they can use on Titan or something.  But when a mysterious vessel from space lands on Earth, the man discovers a human survivor, a woman he vaguely remembers, and he slowly comes to realize that the true nature of his mission and the true history of Earth are not what he thought.

Thoughts: The story was far too convoluted and left me asking a lot of questions.  It seemed like one of the driving forces of the story was its sense of mysteriousness.  Weird things happen and the main character has to piece together the true nature of his mission and the true history of Earth.  I think this would’ve worked better if the story had framed these as specific questions, and had the main character focus on answering them one at a time.  Instead, the main character is driven by a bunch of questions that all get muddled together, making his goal vague, making his actions hard to relate to.  That is, because he’s not seeking an answer to a specific question, we have no frame of reference to judge whether his actions get him any closer to an answer.  When the answers are revealed, they only inspire more questions.  It was liking watching a murder mystery in which the killer is revealed to be a robot, with no explanation given as to where the robot came from, why he was programmed to murder, and how he got away with it.  Granted, a fan of the film, or the graphic novel it’s based on, could surely come up with answers, but that I have to ask for them shows that it were not given very clearly in the film, ruining it for me.  A far superior sci-fi film featuring similar conspiratory mysteries, and a story that stays focused and followable, is Moon (2009).

Oblivion also features a complete waste of Morgan Freeman.  His character is so bland that they could’ve given the role to anyone.  That they obviously casted him just for his name makes me feel cheated.

I did enjoy the look and feel of the film (though do we really need so many crotch shots, Mr. Cruise?) and the sci-fi score, but not enough to make up for the overly convoluted story.

Now You See Me (2013)

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nowyouseeme

Link: Now You See Me

Summary: Four magic-related entertainers are brought together by a mysterious ringleader who has them perform three magic shows in which they redistribute wealth.  Meanwhile, the FBI tries to track them down and figure out how they’re doing their tricks.

Thoughts: This is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen.  The magic “tricks” involve sci-fi nonsense like 3D holograms and being able to hypnotize people to control them.  It’s hard to be dazzled by such ingenuity when we know it’s really the product of screenwriters being lazy hacks.  When other plot twists are revealed to have been part of the grand plan, they too have explanations far too outlandish to be satisfying.  The film spends so much energy trying to make each plot twist surprising that they completely fail to be meaningful, especially the film’s final twist, the revelation of who the mysterious ringleader is.  If you’re not saying, “I thought so,” or “That sure is stupid,” you’re saying, “I really don’t care.”  Take, for example, the twist at the end of The Prestige.  Perhaps you can see that film’s revelation coming from a mile away, but that’s because it’s meaningful, it plays into what the entire story is about.  This film’s final twist, on the other hand, tries so hard to hide itself that it makes itself completely arbitrary, and so has zero dramatic impact.

Aside from the ridiculous convoluted not-clever plot, there’s something a bit sickening in images of paper money falling like confetti upon happy crowds as if stealing from the rich to give to the poor is at all noble or romantic, or that it should make so many people so easily happy as they smile and jump up and catch it.  To me, it feels almost condescending, in a way.  “I know what’s important to you, poor soul!  Money!  So, here, have some!  Yay!  You’re happy now, aren’t you?”

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

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intodarkness

Link: Star Trek Into Darkness

Summary: Kirk and Spock try to stop a mysterious terrorist villain who has an evil plan.

Thoughts: I’ve never seen anything else from the world of Star Trek other than this film and Mr. Abrams’s previous Star Trek film, so I can’t compare this installment with past incarnations of the franchise.  So my reaction to this film comes from experiencing it in and of itself, and as a sequel.  I can’t say I much cared for it.  It felt like it was trying to create something emotionally between Kirk and Spock’s relationship, but it falls completely flat.  Spock, with all his logic, should be able to, you know, actually use it to understand how other people feel, even if he lacks much natural ability to empathize.  Similarly, Kirk, as a human, should also be able to use logic and empathy to understand Spock’s position.  The fact that neither character can figure things out makes them both seem incredibly stupid, unrealistic, hard to relate to, and certainly impossible to have any emotional interest in.  And this pretty much ruins the story for me, which is otherwise a pretty standard sci-fi action film.  And without any emotional depth, it all comes across as bland.  And as this seems to be a consistent problem with Mr. Abrams’s work, I don’t have really any hopes for the next Star Wars film.  (Though at least it’s guaranteed to be better than Episode 1, for even the worst Abrams film is a masterpiece compared to that.)

Memories of Murder (2003)

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memoriesofmurder

Link: Memories of Murder

Summary: Cops try to track down a serial killer.

Thoughts: (Spoilers ahead.)  Netflix claimed I would love this film, but it was wrong.  The humor and grittiness were a bit raunchy for me, and the ending annoyed me because, as it turns out, they never catch the killer!  All their leads go nowhere.  All the twists and turns in the plot lead to a complete dead end.  The climax is a complete dramatic let down.  (Although the music was good.)  It left me feeling like I had wasted time.  I realized afterwards that the story was based on the true story of the “Hwaseong serial murders”.  Of course, a lot of the film was fictionalized, but the murders really do remain unsolved crimes, which is rightly aggrivating and disconcerting.  But I don’t know why someone thought this would make great material for a film.  Maybe a documentary.  Anyway, the film was a success and is in IMDb’s “Top 250” (at position 214 as of this post), so a lot of people like it for some reason.  There is probably some Korean cultural and/or political subtext that is over my head.

Amour (2012)

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amour

Link: Amour

Summary: An old man cares for his dying wife.

Thoughts: (Spoilers ahead.)  Though it’s obviously a pretty feel-sad film, the artistry of the filmmaking was fantastic.  I loved the gentle pacing, the gentle camera work, the use of classical piano music, and the subtlety of the mood changes.  The ending annoyed me a bit as it seemed to portray assisted suicide as a difficult but morally acceptable decision.  I suppose one could argue otherwise, claiming it was just how those characters responded to the situation, but I’d still argue that because the film portrays no negative consequences of the action, it’s portraying it as morally acceptable.  It’s as if the characters forget the point of their lives when death is imminent, which is odd, since it’s the title of the film.  Killing people to put them out of pain (or to put yourself out of the pain of watching them suffer) is not love, it is fear of pain.

The Host (2013)

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believe what?

Link: The Host

Summary: After an alien invasion, an alien tries to take over a teenage girl’s body, but the girl’s mind fights back and they end up sharing the body.  The girl forces the alien to find her loved ones, rebels who are resisting the invasion and hiding in the desert.  Meanwhile, the alien develops a love interest of her own, because apparently being a 1,000 year old alien is very similar to being a teenage girl.

Thoughts: I wanted to check this out as it was directed by Andrew Niccol, who wrote and directed Gattaca and In Time, and wrote The Truman Show, all of which I enjoyed.  Would he be able to turn something by Stephanie Meyer into an enjoyable sci-fi?  The answer is a resounding NO.  This film was awful.  I could’ve forgiven the stupid girly romance nonsense if it had created any interesting conflict, or made any sense in the first place.  (Why is such an old alien falling in love with a random earth dude?)  Instead, the conflict is just “oh no, the human part of me loves this guy, and the alien part of me loves this other guy, I guess I should just make out with both of them!”  For example, what if she was forced to save only one or the other?  That would’ve been interesting.  But no twists like that are explored.

Secondly, the aliens made no sense.  They’re at first portrayed as these morally elite beings who don’t believe in lying or cheating or stealing or killing, yet they have no problem killing most humans by taking over their bodies.  No explanation is given as to why they think this is perfectly morally OK, yet strongly oppose the rest of humanity’s moral weaknesses.

Thirdly, we’ve got what Blake Snyder would call “double mumbo jumbo” — that is, more than one crazy thing the audience has to accept.  First we have to accept that aliens have invaded and have taken over human bodies.  OK, we can go along with that for the sake of a story.  But then we learn that the rebels are hiding in this huge bigger-than-a-mansion desert cave, where they have electricity, water, a huge farm powered with giant mirrors, a medical room, room for vehicles, and a room for clap-off lightning bugs that seem to exist only to look cool and romantic.  It’s just ridiculously far-fetched.  We are told that there is only one secret entrance to the place, yet sunlight is pouring in throughout the place, lighting all the rooms and halls.  Only one entrance?  The place is full of holes!

Fourthly, how incredibly dumb do you have to be to accidentally slice your leg while reaping crops?

Really horrendous film.

Russian Ark (2002)

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russianark

Link: Russian Ark

Summary: A 90-minute film made entirely in one long take.  The camera follows a ghost or spirit as he wanders around the Hermitage museum (and through different time periods, from the 1700-somethings to modern day) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, now and then stopping to talk to people who can see him and making philosophical observations.

Thoughts: Some parts were interesting and poetic, but overall, without a real overarching plot (which I suppose would’ve been very risky since they were filming the entire thing in one take), it was rather meandering and I found myself phasing out every now and then.

Phantom (2013)

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phantom

Link: Phantom

Summary: Based on the true story of a Soviet submarine that sank after it mysteriously went rogue and tried to fire a missile near the US, the movie tells the story of a submarine captain who battles against rogue Soviets who are trying to start a war between the US and China.

Thoughts: Here’s a good example of what happens when filmmakers don’t seem to know their Blake Snyder beats and get the pacing all weird.  What should’ve only been the midpoint event comes way too late and is actually the climax, making it seem as if the problem was really not that hard to solve.  Pretty bland film.

Despicable Me 2 (2013)

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despicableme

Link: Despicable Me 2

Summary: The super-villain-turned-peaceful-father is hired by an anti-villain group to track down an evil villain.  Meanwhile, his minions are being mysteriously kidnapped, he might be falling in love with his eccentric female coworker, and his eldest daughter might be falling in love with the son of a suspect.

Thoughts: A worthy sequel to the first Despicable Me.  The story is a bit cliché (characters always seem to start finding love interests in sequels), but it makes up for it in its over-the-top cartoony comedy, which I very much enjoyed.  Fun movie.

Babette’s Feast (1987)

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babettesfeast

Link: Babette’s Feast

Summary: When her family is killed, a French woman flees the country to Denmark, where she is taken in by two old religious ladies in a small village.  Her only hope of returning to her home country is if she wins the lottery, which she does.  But before she leaves, she has one last request: to cook a rich extravagant feast for the small village, which perhaps might change their spirits.

Thoughts: A very slow-paced film, but it works rather well.  The premise reminded me a bit of Ratatouille, as Babette views cooking as an art.  In Ratatouille, the cooking plays a minor role in a larger plot, so the cooking scenes themselves are rather rapid, usually presented in quick musical montages.  In Babette’s Feast, the delicacy of food preparation is given much more time to linger on screen, so you can see just how much attention and patience goes into the chef’s artwork.  It forces one to think: is this extravagant meal being wasted on this small village?  After all, they don’t have the experience to appreciate the mastery of the food they’re eating.  It says some very interesting things about an artist’s love for his (or her) art, as well as his relationship with his audience.  Great film.

The Hunger Games (2012)

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hungergames

Link: The Hunger Games

Summary: A possible future USA, I mean, a fictional totalitarian government forces young adults to fight to the death on a televised gladiator-style competition for some reason that really doesn’t make much sense.

Thoughts: I didn’t think this was a great adaptation.  Although the book is written very film-ish-ly in its pacing, as if the author knew a film would come of it, the main problem with the adaptation is that the pacing gets messed up because of how exposition is handled.  The story relies on a lot of background knowledge, and you just can’t handle the required exposition in a film in the same way you can in a book.  So the result of trying to stay true to the book results in something that is both bloated in length, yet still feels rushed.  I would’ve changed the storyline much more liberally.

Secondly, the mood and atmosphere made it seem as if the film took itself far too seriously, as if we need sad music when watching how District 12 lives so that we know to feel sorry for them, or overly sentimental music in scenes of love and loss.  It just comes across as rather forced and contrived.  I would’ve been much more subtle about it.  I think the totalitarian government and its media would’ve seemed much more sinister and ominous had they been played much more directly, presented plainly, instead of spoon-feeding the audience that the powerful government is evil and knows it.  (I do not mean without its over-the-top personalities and fashion eccentricities; I mean the tone in which these characters’ relationships with the rest of the world are portrayed.  That is, they should’ve been portrayed as caring about the world and the poorer districts.  It makes it more personal.  It’s the same reason people can feel horribly insulted when someone else tells them that they’ll pray for them.  It’s the sense that it’s a condescending lie, that the apparent good intentions are a cover up for something more sinister.)

Lastly, unneeded shaky cam.  There still seem to be filmmakers who think this gives a film a cool gritty look.  It looks stupid and incompetent.  Stop using shaky cam.

All the King’s Men (1949)

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kingsmen

Link: All the King’s Men

Summary: A humble and honest man runs for governor to help his fellow men, but discovers the only way to win and get what he wants is to become the sort of power-hungry swindling politician he loathed at the beginning.

Thoughts: A bit of a Citizen Kane sort of story, but much more bland.  Really, not a very interesting film.  It could’ve been a short story, but instead is drawn out to an almost two hour film.  The guy’s change from a humble and honest man to an evil politician is neither believable nor subtle.  In one scene, he’s good, and then BOOM, he becomes evil, as if it’s just one simple arbitrary choice, and spends the rest of the film being evil.  And we get it right away.  OK, he’s evil now.  But no, the film pounds it in your face.  “Look!  Look, he’s evil now!  Do you see?  Here, let me give you another example by dragging on the story for another half an hour with this subplot, because look how evil he is!”  Boring film.  I can appreciate the overall theme they were going for, but they fail.

Evil Dead (2013)

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evildead

Link: Evil Dead

Summary: A remake of the classic 1981 film, which I’ve never seen.  A young girl and a group of her friends retreat to a secluded cabin out in the woods, where she hopes to finally quit the deadly drugs she’s addicted to.  But when one of her friends reads from a mysterious book he finds in the basement, they all find themselves battling each other as demons take over their bodies.

Thoughts: Less of a horror movie and more of a ridiculous gore-fest, in which the goal seems to be not to horrify or scare viewers, but disgust them.  The only moments that felt genuinely creepy to me were the mirror scenes.  Because mirrors in the dark are very creepy.  The film did, however, feature a fantastically creepy musical score worthy of the horror film it could’ve been.  I love the sirens in the score; I don’t know why those are so effective at sounding terrifying, but they are.  Bruce Campbell makes a surprise appearance at the end of the film, doing nothing.  OK, thanks for that.

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

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jackgiant

Link: Jack the Giant Slayer

Summary: When a beanstalk grows and takes a kingdom’s princess with it to the land of the giants far above, the young Jack climbs up to rescue her, only to get mixed up in a deadly battle between the giants and the kingdom below.

Thoughts: While I am very much enjoying the current string of fairy-tales-re-imagined films, this film is not a very impressive contribution.  The story was all over the place, character motivations were either non-existent or made no sense, the ability for main characters to fall from heights and not get hurt was ridiculous, and hardly any of the humor worked for me.  The only thing epic about this film was its fail.  My only guess is that their target audience was children who would not be as critical as me.