Let me start this off by saying that this sequel did not feel outside of what we remember.
Blade Runner 2049 maintains the mood and feel of its predecessor. The visuals, the sound... the dystopian future, it's all there.
| FIRST THOUGHT |
I love writing reviews, it comes somewhat naturally to me after watching something that I learn to feel passionate about.
This movie taught me to be passionate.
But... it's really hard for me to express judgment. And I'm going to explain why:
Actually, it's very simple. This was a 3 hours movie. Of these 3 hours, 2 were simply... air. Now, don't get me wrong, that isn't always negative, like in this case. It was refreshing air, but still... it doesn't (at first glance) hold anything on the plot.
Because of this, the viewer (me at least), is left with a lot of questions, the picture doesn't explain itself. Also; as a side note - you most definitely need to watch the first one. The great majority of the runtime is inexplicably useless.
The longer it goes, the longer it begins to add new stuff, and then some, then it seems somehow related to what's actually going on, but right after it deviates the actual story on an ideal from the characters involved, that at a certain point, evaporates. I'm really conflicted about this because it looks to me like the screenwriters and director wanted to leave all of this to theory and the fans.
Why is this confusing? Because it's a very strange mixture of linear narrative and non-linear narrative. One is focussed on one objective, the other starts a bunch of other objectives and then it simply dies. No explanation was given, no closure was given.
And this is aggravated by the fact that it's a 3 hours movie, of which 1 hour of the actual story is spread and mixed amongst 2 hours of absolutely nothing. VISUALLY IMPRESSIVE NOTHING. A VERY INTERESTING BUNCH OF LITERAL VOID.
This is actually the only thing I did not like about the movie. Which, again, if you are like me and enjoy movies that aren't patently explaining themselves, it's not a bad thing. I just feel like it could've been much more interesting if they explained somehow what happened to all the side characters, or just cut them out.
|STORY & ACTORS |
Aside from what I've mentioned before, the more "linear" part of the story is actually not that bad. It's nothing impressive. A part of what I said earlier connects to the fact that this movie constantly keeps juggling between what is real and what is not. Be it by robots, or actual reality that the characters are living. So it came out pretty obvious that the movie would have a twist at some point, somewhere. I will admit that I did not get it until the very end, so, don't be discouraged.
Ryan Gosling was great, also because he as an actor was perfect for his role. Being so that he has this way of being and looking conflicted, and so it portrayed really well on the protagonist.
Harrison Ford had less value to this movie than he did in the last Star Wars.
Jared Leto's character is a mystery to me, but he did a phenomenal job talking random shit.
All of the other actors, Jared Leto included, were there to push the story forward (or to add random bullshit) and that's it. They did a fantastic job, but unfortunately, as mentioned above, at first glance it looks like they don't mean shit.
| CINEMATOGRAPHY |
The movie is visually pleasing, it's bliss for people with OCD. It's perfectly round and at the same time perfectly square. It keeps smooth lines combining great color combinations in the palette, and utilizing great solid colors at the same time.
As I said before it holds perfectly a spot near its predecessor, the mood and feel are almost identical. (Having watched the first one only an hour before going to the theater to watch this one)
I have to say, this one looks A LOT, like A FUCKING GIGAZILLION LOT more gruesome and splatter than the first one. The fighting scenes are brutal, they do not go into dramatic effects, they just are what they should be. A punch in the face, exploding heads and blood.
There is no doubt that this movie looks fucking amazing.
It sounds amazing as well. It has a collection of deep, pure sounds. There is not a lot of music, but when there is it's powerful and present and it makes you wake up and amaze. Same goes for the special audio effects: I have watched it in ATMOS and I have to admit, they did not utilize it at all, except for one scene later in the movie, but the way it goes from absolute silence to seat trembling sensations it's really amazing. The sounds were so powerful I could literally see the movie screen shake and the subwoofer hit made the whole room shake.
I would also like to add that in the Italian version, you can clearly see that they used "incorrect" words grammatically, they used a lot of anglicisms, I guess they've done that to express how language is evolving? It's actually current of our generation, I see a lot of people adapting English words in Italian, so I was very impressed by that.
| FINAL THOUGHT |
I feel like everyone needs to understand, before watching this movie, that you need a time, a mood and a place perfectly fit to sit for a 3 hours movie that it's going to feel like a 6-hour long journey into colors, shapes, and absolute "living" silence.
This is NOT a Marvel movie, there is action, well-done action, but it's not about action. You need to sit, relax and don't think about time, because, trust me, it's going to fuck you.
Please like my comment if you enjoyed my review, it makes me really happy.
Note that all of this is driven by my personal opinion. If you think I wasn't objective in some of the parts of what I've written, you're welcome to make me notice where.
On Twitter, I review the entire world -> @WiseMMO
Everyone keeps suggesting there is a paradox concerning the 5D future humans and their ability to save humanity in the past. It's really not a paradox at all. Everyone assumes humanity survived to ascend to the 5th dimension but how could humanity exist in the future if not for the actions of Cooper.. who was guided by future humans (begin endless loop).
Did anyone ever consider the other important character in the movie? Amelia Brand carried on with the rest of her mission (thanks to Cooper). I postulate that Brand used the human seeds as intended and set up a colony. A colony that would thrive and eventually evolve beyond human. Thus Earth is of little importance, and may have indeed died. These colonists, and the generations that followed, would have been told the story of a great man (Cooper) who saved them from extinction. With the ability to manipulate space-time, they would pay homage to their hero "God" by helping him in the past so he may fulfill the mission most important to him, to once again see his daughter. Plan B worked beautifully. But the 5d humans, having the power to bend space-time, decided there's no reason why Plan A had to fail.
Nothing comforts anxiety like a little nostalgia.
If anything, Hollywood has boiled that concept down to a science over the past few years, as this film is basically a summary of everything that’s wrong with the industry in a neat, 148 minute package.
It thinks it’s meta and self-aware by pointing out how cynical and cheap franchise filmmaking is.
That might sound similar set-up as 22 Jump Street, but this film proceeds to be cheap and cynical itself without saying anything substantial beyond its own set up, so it embraces what it’s trying to criticize.
Everything in this movie is structured as an excuse to show stuff you’ve seen before, there are little to no original concepts or ideas that push the franchise in an interesting direction.
It’s mostly a rehash of the first film (mixed with some stuff from Reloaded and Revolutions in the second half), except the action isn’t nearly as good, it’s more predictable and convenient, the performances are nowhere near as memorable (that’s what you get from replacing your 2 best actors), it looks uglier and more synthetic, the pacing isn’t as tight, and it’s a lot more dull because of how much it overexplains itself.
It also ditches the cyberpunk aesthetic, and replaces it with something a lot more bland and boring, stripping the franchise from a lot of its personality.
It’s honestly quite an accomplishment when you think about it: the original is one of the best, most successful, big budget films ever made that still maintained a strong artistic and alternative impulse.
This, on the other hand, couldn’t be any more lowest common denominator if it tried to.
It’s a parody of itself and modern blockbuster filmmaking.
I suppose that was Lana Wachowski’s goal to some extent, but it isn’t very compelling to watch.
3/10
Denis Villeneuve is the man!
There’s only one word that came into my mind after watching it: finally.
Finally, a blockbuster that isn’t afraid to be primarily driven by drama and tension, and doesn’t undercut its own tone by throwing in a joke every 30 seconds.
Finally, a blockbuster that puts actual effort in its cinematography, and doesn’t have a bland or calculated colour palette.
Finally, a blockbuster with a story that has actual substance and themes, and doesn’t rely on intertextual references or nostalgia to create a fake sheen of depth.
Finally, a blockbuster that doesn’t pander to China by having big, loud and overblown action sequences, but relies on practical and grounded spectacle instead (it has big sand worms, you really don’t need to throw anything at the screen besides that).
Finally, a blockbuster that actually feels big, because it isn’t primarily shot in close ups, or on a sound stage.
And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow.
(Yeah, I know Tenet did those things as well, but I couldn’t get into that because the characters were so flat and uninteresting).
This just checks all the boxes. An engaging story with subtext, very well set up characters, great acting (like James Gunn, Villeneuve's great at accentuating the strengths of limited actors like Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa), spectecular visuals and art design (desaturated but not in an ugly washed out way), pacing (slow but it never drags), directing, one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores: it’s all here.
I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half.
It can occasionally hold your hand by referencing things that have already been established previously, and some scenes of characters explaining stuff to each other could’ve been conveyed more visually.
Other than that, it’s easily one of the best films of the year.
I’ve seen some people critiquing it for being incomplete, which is true, but this isn’t just a set up for a future film.
It feels like a whole meal, there are pay offs in this, and the characters progress (even if, yes, their arcs are still incomplete).
8.5/10
This is one of Marvel Studios’ riskier projects, the hyperlink structure combined with the villain being the main character immediately makes it stand out in the genre. It’s because of those two aspects that the film works as well as it does. Thanos is a great character with an interesting motivation. The animation is so detailed and lifelike that it never fails to bring out the emotion, in fact I’d argue that the scenes between him and Gamora have the most emotional punch (courtesy of Zoe Saldana and Josh Brolin, who both put in a really solid performance). The balancing of all the different plot lines is also quite well done as there’s a relevancy to each one, nor does the tone feel too disjointed at any point. Some transitions or the sudden pop culture riffing during serious scenes can be awkward, but it’s handled about as well as it could. The exposition is handled tastefully and kept to a minimum, it instead chooses to focus on unexpected interactions between characters from different branches of the Marvel universe, which is the more exciting part. I’m less into the action and filmmaking, however. Not a lot about the camerawork or score jumps out to me, I feel like what little vision the Russos brought to their previous MCU projects is completely lost here. The washed out colour palette (which for some reason is slightly more vibrant during scenes in space) and obvious music embellishments don’t evoke all that much. The staging and editing of the action is a little too quick for my liking, the moments that are meant to be memorable don’t leave much of an impression because the editing doesn’t take its time to punctuate the stunts properly. Some of the CGI also feels a little weightless, for example Stark’s suit looks and feels like its made from paper. The resulting scenes, such as the final battle on Titan, feel more like small scale, digital mush than the big epic scenes they’re aiming for. Once the film decides to slow down for the dramatic conclusion, I find its intent to be manipulative and disingenuous. I felt that way after watching it the first time in the cinema, and after every ‘death’ in this movie having been retconned in one way or another, it turns out I was right. Even in its riskier films, Marvel will find ways to take most of the edges off. Overall, it’s still decent but it’s lost a lot of its flavour for me over the years.
6/10
For someone who was born in 2001 and not being able to watch Matrix in theaters this movie has a special meaning to me.
Edit: Never mind this was film was a piece of crap
Looks like Power Rangers meets Transformers meets Chronicle meets Fantastic Four reboot.
I've seen Batman Begins yesterday for the first time and I didn't like it that much. i rated it 5/10. thought this one might be better but it didn't. i've watched the first hour then jumped right into the last 20 minutes or so. I just couldn't watch more. clearly, it wasn't made for me.
"White people are better at everything – even things which are unique to other cultures."
This is a crappy ripoff from MIB. Dont bother. Not funny, not original, not worth your time.
The friend zone has been taken to a whole new mechanical level.
I do not understand why this movie is being so universally panned. I loved everything about it, even if it's not the most unique story of all time. I felt like the casting was absolutely perfect. Rebecca Ferguson took my breath away almost every single second she was on screen. Hugh Jackman effectively portrayed an intelligent technologist and expert who betrays his own instincts about the capabilities and consequences of the technology. The music was awesome, especially Rebecca's singing and the way that it is eventually woven into the plot. The noir-like overlay of the narration was awesome. The environment was unique, intriguing, and believable. The slow-rolling unravelling of the mystery seemed to be perfectly paced for me. I was so busy taking in all of the details of each scene that it never really felt slow to me in the way that others are criticizing it for.
I loved this movie.
Clearly destined to be an underrated, under appreciated masterpiece by Lisa Joy, who clearly understands film noir better than most directors working today.
I first watched this when I was too young to truly get the most out of it, and loved it to bits. The music, the comedy, the action.
It's low budget, but it has fun. It has some of the most amazing musical talent you will ever experience. The biggest musical scenes. And at the time, the biggest car crash ever put on film.
Every time I watch this movie, I find new levels of love for it. It truly is my favourite movie of all time.
How is this movie getting such glorified reviews??? While the action scenes are fine, the story is somewhere between illogical and ridiculous.
None of the story lines make any sense, it's just one fight/chase after the next up until the idiotic finale. And yeah, let's connect the laptop of our villain super-hacker to the local network, what could go wrong.
okay, let me get this straight: It's not the best movie ever. It's no LotR 2.
But: When the Movie starts and you just watch the first scene, you are IN the movie. Totally! Storytelling, smart pacing and a genius Ian McKellen. Also Martin Freeman as Bilbo is just lovley.
I watched the movie as a normal movie. no 480p and no 3d and i missed nothin.
Great Actors, great movie.
9/10
I absolutely love this movie. I realize Tom Cruise is not everyone's cup of tea but a true movie aficionado can remove himself from that and see that the acting, cinematography, story telling, pacing, music, scenery, art production and last but not least the insight in the rich Japanese culture is nothing short of awe inspiring. A beautiful piece of film making that deserves your respect, even if you don't like the man in the leading role for whatever reason.
There's not a clear consensus on this one by the critics and some complain about the plot, but I thought this movie was very well done. The cinematography was beautiful and the actors were great; add in an emotional story along with amazing fighting and that definitely makes it worth watching. If you liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, then you will like this movie.
Every time it's over I feel like I got punched in the fucking heart. And I basically start counting days till I'll be ready to watch it again. There will never be movies more soulful, profound, engaging and gripping with everything from fights and visuals to the deep meaningful connections between the characters and the explorations of grant purposes and philosophical differences. Never. I will love this eternally. I wish I could rate it more than ten. There are movies and then there's Lotr. To be honest I have no fitting words to describe this, no funny remarks or beautiful epithets and definitely no slights. I'm just thankful this exists and I got to experience watching it. I'm out.
Humanity at it's worst. Oh look, new island let's blow it without knowing anything about it, oh look a big monkey let's blow it up too!!! The actors are great, the graphics amazing, the storyline? HORRIBLE
When thinking about who to partner a Neeson character up with, they come up with someone like "Gurty"? That is quite laughable.
What an awful, senseless movie. Acting, even for a Liam Neeson movie, is garbage.
Exposition is as little as possible and as much on the nose as possible.
Villains of this movie are cardboard characters, no depth, no charisma, no background.
They only exist to give this movie some suspense. But since they are depthless characters, you do not care at all.
Fishburne was in this for a quick paycheck, he gets killed off very early on.
Several scenes make no sense, like the end scene, or the scene after the bridge collapsed. You are pressed for time? Let's take a look at the collapsed bridge, because we need to kill one more character off that has no impact at all.
Fighting scenes are lame, Neeson's age is showing hard in this.
The cutting is all over the place. Directing? Doesn't seem to exist in this movie.
While other mediocre movies of Neeson are a nice time waster, this is just an entire waste of time.
this is one of the most overrated movies I have ever seen. It's boring as h*ll. Even the sex is boring... tedious, too much talking about nothing (and the dialogues aren't all that super either), predictable, drugs and sex to be an end isntead of a means for the story to be told (and as I said, even the sex is boring). Even DiCaprio could not save this incredibly crap movie.
Edge of Tomorrow surprisingly worked. The Tomorrow War unsurprisingly didn't.
The 1960's, a time when east and west didn't get on; not much different to now really! Loved the comedy in this, it makes the movie. When it ended, I was honestly surprised, I was waiting for the next scene... sequel please!
Well...
Instead of reading reviews, the best thing to do is just go and watch it
I didn't find it REALLY good, but I enjoyed it nonetheless !
the main problem (sorry) are the actors... especially Jennifer Lawrence ! Don't go watch it if you want a serious SF movie !
I didn't count the number of times there were "sexy" shots on her body, but at the end I was like "come on ! Not again !"
Also for physics friends, the director made quite a good job ! Of course, there are some flaws but there is a lot of actual physical content, so the ship, the technology and everything is not pure imagination (or wandering).
also I'm still wondering some things, like why is there only a single medical pod or bartender for 5200+ people ? Why there is still a need for propulsion when you keep at 50% of light speed ? What a glass preventing humans from being roasted by a fusion reactor is made of ? How strong Chris Pratt really is to make an amount of force equivalent to the force with which he got ejected by the energy of that reactor, simply by throwing a door ?
Finally, the music is fair and the design is good, the only big problem here is too much romance but hey, that's what people want now ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Epicly brutal battle scenes, heroes dying suddenly quickly, as in life. Pathetic commanders and little people who only want to survive. And 100 meters from the battle, spectators literally looking at death through a lorgnette. It’s strange that this happened. There are gaps in logic , but it's a good movie about war - shit☮
Thought this was much better than I'd been led to believe, or than the trailer made it out to be. Fan of the book, and it is utterly unfilmable, so this could only ever be 'inspired by' really, and it does a good job in that respect.
Took Brad a long time to figure out what the weakness was though! Considering his reputation he really should have seen it when they met the soldiers in Korea... Massive signpost.
