Denis Villenueve. A solid lineup. A different take on first contact. I loved Sicario but went in expecting a cerebral epic sci-fi.
That was a mistake.
Good things:
- Some really nice visual scenes
- Interesting aliens Calligraphy aliens!
- Clear theme of communication is omnipresent
- A neat score that might be awesome in a different movie
Bad things:
- The acting
- The lack of emotional reaction to ALIENS! The students asking to turn on the TV, all of the main characters
- Lack of useful characters Only the aliens and Louise actually did anything the entire movie.
- Supporting characters are very stupid in an attempt to foil the main character slightly
- Very clumsy exposition. Genre-typical news reports, voice-overs, dumb characters asking stupid questions.
- Very slow pacing. This worked in parts of Sicario, but didn't work in this movie because there was no tension. The main characters never seemed remotely threatened.
- Lousie showing up at school thinking everyone will be there after aliens arrive and there's a state of emergency
- Why can't you translate alien language like you can translate Farsi. This is a paraphrase but in the spirit of what Colonel Weber was saying.
- Useless love interest when the costars have no chemistry.
- Ultrasecure military base lets someone steal a ton of explosives and put it in an ALIEN SPACECRAFT without anyone noticing.
- Many unbelievable plot points
- Poor dialogue Let's make a baby - real quote
- Poor handling of the major plot points Looking through time seems to undermine the fact that the aliens need help. Why did one have to die if they could see the future? Why did only one die when they were right next to each other?
- Very heavy handed moral messaging that didn't align with the rest of the movie.
- Why couldn't Ian also see into the future as he studied the language, or any of the others?
Overall extremely disappointing. I'm honestly surprised critics or general moviegoers like this. The premise was very good. It's a real shame the execution failed so miserably.
Additional Comments: I personally would watch it again. I chose to give it an 8, but that's because I'm certain that the Bluray/UHD will have some of the backstory or extended scenes, and the 3D is worth the extra point over the 6 it earns as a movie.
The visuals and style give it a definite popcorn, forgettable extravagance, that make it worth the watch, maybe not the rewatch. I like the movie a lot at times, but there are problems that can't be erased by liking the movie. I could understand someone giving it a 4 or a 5, or a 9/10 and not feel it was undue.
Music choice was poor from Clint Mansell & co, the choice to synth their way through the birth/build scene was tepid, and the choice to use the recognisable Kenji Kawai marriage song in the end credits, ruins the song's impact when it is so strikingly different to the music in the movie. I think they went with an Aoki dubstep remix version in the end though.
With the same visual setting, characters and large sprawling universe, a different director would be able to make a very clean break and a very modern movie with action, combat, noir procedural elements and strong essential conflicts, with the same crew and same material, given a handful of reshoots to re-establish characters, trim out plot and add needed tone, conflicts, plot elements. It would also be a 2hr 10 movie.
but ... this is not that movie. It may not deserve an 7 or an 8 if you find the acting stilted or the directing and plot unworkable, those are definitely glaring issues. A sequel would be infinitely better than what was produced, but, it might not get that chance either. what's left, is a mess of good ideas, great production, great actors and a hollow experience.
The casting is not a problem IMO, The actors all do a good job, despite the dubious direction notes and action oriented scripting.
I mentioned that the beginning is broken, here's why.
There's a whole year or more from ScarJo's "Character building" birth scene, to working in Section 9 that's jumped over.
We don't see the whole Section 9 team in action against a formidable threat, so we don't see how far above the plebs she is, only that she can get the job done by herself, which is not a team. We also don't get a sense of cohesion or malice from the antagonists; Kuze and Cutter are both shallow villains. Against a stronger, evolving or defining threat, Team building might have been more capable, but they never really get to go all out, which points to a flawed understanding of the material as well.
The plot, tends towards action, instead of emotion or menace, and can seem boring at times where it's trying to put you into the setting, but feels bolted on; Go here, Shoot now. Look around.
There's just a sense of disconnection between rooms and jumps where the theme or mood changes during exposition. Some of this disconnect is also because the camera always tracks the Major's location or POV when present. It also becomes the ScarJo Show as she is relearning how to act human at times, which is an unusual tone given how much time has passed since the Anime; that Androids having existential crises is not that unfamiliar for scifi or regular TV content, nor is she played as being a full cyborg and having trouble with the adaptation.
Again, it's skipped over neatly, which is a concern, especially during the 'glitches', moments where she flashes or hallucinates images, which is not treated as a significant problem or has concern shown by humans in the setting. This is perhaps a uniquely expensive cyborg system; that any significant integration or memory, visual problems are played off, is dubious.
This would be mildly disastrous in another setting. We do learn later why this is, but in the context of her being "the first" or at least, "the best" or cynically, "cybernetic weapons system that is fulfilling a lucrative government contract", it's off-putting that they don't focus or delve into the problem for the Major's benefit, or treat it as a serious problem.
Dr Ouelet (Binoche) drops the ball frequently, playing a surrogate mother and doctor for Major Mira. It's perhaps the oddest mix of distant affection and concern. Direction is quirky when it comes to these scenes as if the camera wants to pan in, but moves aside. As with Warcraft, the Editing and Direction led to character and world building mis-steps early on, where there's just a sense of confusion and odd acting choices, notably from Binoche, who is supposed to present a maternal instinct, or should have, but does not follow through.
It's also one of the plot and character mis-steps that Kuze, an italian actor, and Major... Mira Killian (i.e. like Aldrich Killian from Iron Man 3), an irish name and a scandinavian actress (sic) could have been explained as a design choice by Ouelet. Given that they can craft any imaginable face, it should have been a plot point for continuity that these bodies are her creations. But they skimmed over it, as with the choice of Major, a military rank, which begs questions the movie glosses over as well. They aren't shy when it comes to exposition later on or spending time on 'individuality' or 'consent', concepts that date the movie and feel as if they came from an earlier script that played on these ideas more.
Unfortunately, where the movie tries to invoke thought or concern, it does not work. The best ideas are cribbed from the Anime, and presented as visual motifs and eye candy. Yes, it works well, but it does not gel into the story, especially in the final act where dubious choices are made on behalf of the Major, that don't feel earned at that time, although they are satisfying within the setting. The ending, works. The middle, works, and you do get used to the world setting.
Given modern Sci-Fi ideas, any straight adaptation would fail to have a resounding feeling of accomplishment, given that The Matrix stole all of the uniqueness, and dressed up those elements to make them cliche. What's left that stands out, is the Noir and the procedural elements, both of which they drop the ball on. Noting in the movie feels original unfortunately, because it is playing it safe.
Admittedly the visuals are knockouts, the CG is top notch, you wouldn't know it was filmed in New Zealand with Hong Kong features, buildings and ambient settings, Several times i've had to remember what was supposed to be Japan in the movie, since it strays so far from Japanese cultural settings.
I've also since seen and read about 20 reviews of varying quality and content, and while each have their fair share of complaints and advice, none really define the problems or give it fair criticism.
I'd like to see a sequel with the same cast, and same production teams, with the freedom to move around more, to explore the japanese setting, more than the H.K. skyline, and have some quintessentially more unique protagonists. Laughing Man 2.0 with a touch of Wikileaks flavored revelations, would probably work exceptionally well, as it allows for the buildup and the team to work together, more politics, and more antagonists, more action, and more tech noir.
Original review:
Saw an Advanced screening.
It looks okay, not sure what I'd give it as a rating though.
Some CG is a bit wonky with driving scenes sic., they also pulled a ton of homage scenes from the original anime movie, the new movie, arise, and the SAC series. More than it should have at times, because they murdered the intent of the original scenes to pay respect. The beginning of the film feels Very, Very broken, but it gets better after about 20 minutes once you get settled in the world. Almost as if they reassembled or cut it a few dozen times and forgot what it was supposed to be.
Overall it is a bright and sunny blade runner in HK.
Odd mix of visual and audio and tech/world building styles and direction as well. Good, but a little bit of a compromise with the source material(s) to get 3 or 4 anime movies worth in 1 movie.
It doesn't feel as wonky as the Warcraft movie although the similarities are there in the frequency of CG to actors. Design looks practical and shadows, skin and effective suspension of belief that the Warcraft movie did not pull off.
Plot is amalgam of kuze and puppet master stories, and it's good. They pulled the punches on the metaphysical aspect of 'the dive' into cyberspace or the digital brain, but it was inevitable. It was the weakest part of the movie in some ways.
Will edit if I think of anything else. Probably give it a watch with someone who hasn't seen ghost in the shell to compare their experience with the material.
I honestly don't understand all the hype and high scores and positive reviews on this movie.
To start off, the 20yo "high school students" are nowhere near believable, but at the same time they're such stereotypes-on-legs that one feels the urge to just punch them in the face. Not only their personalities, but their every single interaction as well is so sterotypical and predictable that they're literally painful to watch.
Once they get into the game, it doesn't get any better. The fact that they're sucked into a game only serves to negate any and all sense of danger they may face during the "adventure": with three lives, you just know that whatever happens to them will have no consequence whatsoever - if anything, they manage to utilise "death" as a game mechanic to help them along the way; heck even their weaknesses become strengths, if not just butts of jokes. Their transformation only goes the most predictable way too: turning into their own "inverse" versions, with one or two character traits preserved to make everything else about them a joke. The world itself is poorly utilised as well: the source of the main dangers isn't nature but bandits on motorcycles, with some bad CGI animals only occasionally getting in their way. Even the story is non-existent, with a huge timeskip after a short intro, because gods forbid they actually continue where it was left off, or just bring it to present days right from the start.
The actors at least try to make an effort to do something with their characters, but quite frankly the ensemble of a muscle-brained G.I. Joe, a middle-aged unkempt Indiana Jones, a black valet, and Lara Croft has too little originality to it (ie. none) for those efforts to make much of a difference. Not to even mention the pilot, who couldn't be more generic if he was actually cut out of cardboard. But hey, at least Jack Black gets to play a teenage girl.
I'm not sure who felt that making this movie was needed. I'm not sure who thinks walking clichés and d××k jokes constitute a "fun family movie". Take away the title, and there is quite literally nothing to see here that stands out from any similar "lower tier" flick - none of which ever gets this ridiculously overrated.
