Because of all the great reviews I decided to give this one a go. Definitely not one for me though
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Even though it is a good movie, I did not really enjoy it as much. It tried to set up a realistic image of small-town boys in a situation you usually don't end up with at that age.
They did a good job acting and story wise, but i simply could not identify with the main characters. This was probably because of multitude of things like the independence of the kids and how they were treated like adults as if it was 200 years ago. But also the completely twisted way they viewed women and relationships. I know this is all to create a certain environment, but I just did not like that environment.
My rating is therefore mostly based on my opinion rather then a technical judgment.
Shitty.
The first one was already bad, but it was unique, fun too watch and had some unique acting and features.
This one is everything the first movie was, without it's positive points and all aspects done a tad worse.
If acting alone would make a movie a 10, this one would get it. Unfortunately, it is slightly above average at best for all the other aspects in the movie.
As with all racing movies, this is not a good movie on itself.
But keep in mind this movie is a tribute to the games, and not an act to try to make a movie that can stand on itself. So do not expect anything about story or characters. This movie is all about fast awesome cars and racing them.
It was easily better than any of the Fast and Furious movies, mainly because they used better scenery, cars and camera work. They definitely have people more experienced with car filming than the crew from FaF.
The main pleasure point about the movie are the references and camera actions that came straight from the game. I did think they could've added a bit more cockpit views and 'behind the car' looks like in NFS itself. The constant shifting from left to right behind the car disappointed me.
I would give the movie a 4/10 but the racing shots + the NFS experience are really giving the movie extra points. So I will give it an undeserved 6/10 from me.
"Be careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it."
'Transcendence' is a science fiction movie about Artificial Intelligence with some classic themes in it. After a tragic event someone is brought back to life by copying his mind to a (quantum)computer. When the program spins out of control, it is up to the heroes of the story to stop the machine from destroying humankind.
Story
So far so good. A basic AI story with all kinds of possibilities, and this is where they went wrong. It looks like they could not really decide which theme(s) they really wanted to go with, so almost every theme is hinted at: Self-consciousness, Technology as a life form, is a machine able to Love, is the world holistic or based on reductionism, Could a machine ever overpower us, post apocalyptic world, struggle of morality, devotion and faith et cetera. None of these themes gets the proper time to get deepened out, so we end up with a movie with a lot of unsatisfying development.
Secondly, the first scene of the movie already betrays the end of the movie, which was a very bad decision, because it took out all the suspense from the movie and made you aware of the ending from the beginning.
Some plot holes which made me think the creators think I am dumb, but in the end made me think they are dumb:
1. I thought it was weird the 'virus' had to be uploaded by 'the wife' Evelyn, since it was basically working like an antidote (a bit weak imho) and since the AI's main goal was to "improve" everyone, not kill them, dosing people with the virus would make them invulnerable for hostile takeovers.
2. Also, the main power source of the AI was his solar park. Even though he operated on the complete Internet and everything connected to it, including the power grid itself (which is literally named in the movie.) So shutting down that solar park should not have any effect on him at all!
Characters
Besides a few 'errors in 'judgment', the cast is overall pretty good and does a nice job. Nobody will probably win an award for this movie and some characters are so anonymous I cannot even remember their characters name just after watching the movie (I seriously had to look this example up: Paul Bettany as Max Walters.)
Visuals/Music
The music in the movie was pretty decent. Nothing special, just like the movie in it's whole, but not bad either. Visuals were neat, but no megalomania was added, so you won't really be able to enjoy big massive visual spectacles on the screen. But this is not a film for that anyway.
Overall/Enjoyment
In contrary to the many negative points I wrote down, it is not bad of a movie at all. It does not reach classic heights or big majestic scenes, but you will be interested in it as long as you like the AI kind of Science Fiction. I especially liked how the movies seems to have a bit of a slower pace than is the standard nowadays, which I can appreciate.
Real good cast and visually very cool to watch. And it even has some decent dialog thrown in here and there.
It is very predictable, but I guess that's something everyone already expected from this film.
Very entertaining, just like all Tinker Bell movies.
I wasn't expecting much, and it was what I expected.
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. Fun for kids, too silly for adults.
There are many more beautifull, age transcending movies out there to watch with your kids (or solo.) Only 4 or 5 jokes made me smile, all others were pretty lame or cliche. I guess when this movie would have been unknown and stayed in obscurity, it would've been fun to recommend. But with the massive amount of 'fans' this one is getting, it surely is greatly overrated.
Batman is easily the favourite from the movie, and the fun poking at Green Lantern was a funny inside joke.
This one surprised me positively. I suspected a meager story with some lousy science background, but it turned out to be a story with more depth than I ever suspected.
The characters are very well written, and even some of the smaller side characters (the best friend, uncle D or Rupert) are very interesting and worked out to a detail you don't often see with such characters. Oh, and they are very well translated to the screen by their respective actors too!
I think the performance of Harry Hadden-Paton as Rupert was award worthy, and I enjoyed Bill Nighy a lot too of course, since he is awesome! :P
There is probably not enough material for a series, but I'd wish for some more screentime and background on some of the roles. Especially the sister Kit Kat intrigued me bigtime.
It is a very sentimental movie, but I couldn't really call it a love story. The relation between Mary and Tim was not the main theme of this movie for me. It felt more like the main character was trying to obtain something, but discovered something more important along the way.
By this it holds a philosophic message, but it does not confind that message in a closed subjective or life lesson. It rather sets you up to think about certain aspects of life, and makes you aware of the possibilities and choices you can make. Only to leave the choice to you in the end.
A lot of the actors in this movie usually play depth-less side charachter or have main roles in B films, but somehow they managed to do better with this one. The plot has some interesting premises as well.
Unfortunately it still doesn't get that magic touch it needs to make it magnificent. This is probably because of the relatively short length compared to the amount of story they want to tell. It will leave you with a sense of surrealism because it is hard to identify yourself with the characters. My guess is this might be as a result of poor directing choices or a budget issue.
It will probably always be banned to a cult scene or late night tv.
Extremely straightforward and such a basic plot it could be a copy-paste from a Wikipedia page. Because of that I cannot rate it any higher than a 6. But it is so funny and does not include any annoying characters, so you won't mind it at all. It also has a lot of memorable voice performances (Ken Jeong, Samuel L. Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Luis Guzman, Ryan Reynolds) which on its own makes it worth the watch.
Biggest downside is the 'snail is fast' song that is just trying too hard to be cool.
Very fun to watch. Sometimes the jokes and settings feel too staged though. The repeating of jokes from the first movie is also a weakness of the movie, as well as the fact that the overall story is quite similar.
Secondly, the character of Ron Burgondy is not really on par with his character in the first movie. Yes he is random, loud and prejudice but he seems to have lost his 'principles' what made him the man he was.
However, these things do not break the movie, just like the first movie, which also had a lot of 'errors' (it is really romanticised by a lot of people) and the cameo's are very fun to watch. There still is a lot of great original material and jokes.
And remember: bats are like the chicken of the cave, WHAMMY!
Even though this movie has a wonderful setting and some wonderful shots of the raw nature around Cornwall, the story just isn't interesting enough to keep you entertained.
The first part is rather messy with introducing the characters, so when the the story really takes off you have the feeling they skipped over a lot (which they don't.) What happens next is still very predictable and the lack of interesting dialog makes the movie pretty boring.
But they made a good choice with Emily Browning. She has a noteworthy performance with her impressive subtle acting. Being able to show so much (realistic) expression changes and emotional depth proofs how good she can be on the screen. It saves the movie from being a complete waste, and makes you realize how underrated she is as an actress.
As of now the sequels are kind of dead. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200581345270848&set=vb.152126584847695&type=2&theater;
A bit of a scattered storyline, more of a look on the story/hype of the flag rising and the homefront than the battle/war itself.
Don't forget to watch its (better) counterpart, the Japanese view: 'Letters From Iwo Jima'
I hope the Silver Surfer movie that is rumoured is going to be of the quality of this movie.
Great work of sci-fi, lacks a bit of an original plottwist or story development. But maybe I am too harsh on it since it is already over 15 years old. It does show a very realistic image of a genetically enginered future, with discrimination in a new form. The hero needs to beat the odds.
I'm not a big fan of War movies, but this one was pretty interesting.
And don't forget to watch the other part, the American view: 'Flags of our Fathers'
Watched it for the first time. A very strong movie.
Unfortunately, after so many years of people praising it into heaven every time the name 'Schindler' is said, it could not live up to it's legendary reputation. It is one of the best films in its genre but not THE best.
I had low expectations, but still I was disappointed. Thank god for eye candy Collins...
I enjoyed this one more than the 1st part. But on general: 3 movies is just too much for this story (or at least if they do it like this) and this reflects badly on scenes that are simply too long. Since the first movie simply covered less story, it tended to get very slow paced and kinda boring. The 2nd movie (luckily) covers a bigger part of the story, so this does not happen anymore. Or at least in a less obvious way. Soome action scenes are still too long, for example the barrel ride chase and the fight with Smaug.
Now here comes my critical disapproval (or the rant.)
I did not understand why, with so much time, they had to cut a lot of stories short or removed completly in favour of those long scenes. Beorn's story is cut so short that you barely get to know him (he was one of the characters I looked forward to the most.) The same goes for the conversations betweet Bilbo and Smaug. It now ended up being a massive chain of action events after the initial (good!) conversation, in stead of Biblo earning the respect of the dwarfs after stealing something from Smaug first. The dragon never met with Thorin as far as I know, and goes to laketown after Bilbo betrays his trust by stealing from him. Also, the dwarfs already learn about the ring after Bilbo saves them from the spiders in Mirkwood. Another crucial part in them getting to trust and respect him more. Thorin turning on Biblo had no emotional effect at all with the setting they chose to follow in the movie.
The one part where I thought Jackson did a good thing with expanding an unrelated story was with expelling the dark force (Sauron) from his hideout. This is barely mentioned in the book and imho merely an excuse for Gandalf to leave the party (since LOTR wasn't written yet.) In hindsight of the big LOTR trilogy Tolkien published later, and of course the movies, this is a nice extension in the story.
I did miss Saruman though, I thought all the wizards helped fight Sauron/The Necromancer and barely defeated him (but I can be wrong about that.) My point being, if P. Jackson wanted some awesome action, he just had to put an all out wizard fight in it, in stead of the 'itunes visuals' battle between Gandalf's light and Sauron's darkness.
Concluding; with 2,5 hours and 3 movies there is plenty of time to get these vital plot points in the movie. If they had placed more of the story in part 1 and leave out the completely irrelevant Elven women Tauriel for example. First use the crucial information, if you have screentime left after doing that, than expand scenes or throw in extra characters.
I have no idea how long those battle scenes are going to be in Part 3, since we only have the battle of Laketown and the battle of the 11 armies left, but I am afraid it is going to be a very different ending, or just a very stretched out (read: boring) one.
The main point Peter Jackson missed in this story, or so it seems, is that this is Bilbo's story, and not the story of a group of dwarves that coincidentally have a Hobbit in their midst.
Well, that's as much as the story goes, obviously that's my main point :P
Now on the the positive things:
Smaug was very well done, loved his voice and how he behaved. Great job. Really satisfactory how he turned out to be on screen. Loved every second of him. He is intelligent, cunning, strong, vengeful, selfish and greedy. Pretty much how I imagined him.
Martin Freeman was doing a fantastic job too, such a respite after 3 movies of Elijah Wood moaning. No flashbacks to Sherlock Holmes, where he does an amazing job as well.
And also the visuals and sound are top notch once again.
Least amount of words used in a movie I have seen.
Beside 1 short monologue at the beginning of the movie and a very short radio conversation. The only things the lead actor is saying are 'Shit' 'Fuck' and 'Help' (a few times.)
Intriguing movie that stayed interesting until the end. You get a lot of pitty for Redford with all the bad lukck he has throughout the movie. They did not make him a 'conveniently' smart individual, just an old man who has experiences with being at sea and realistic responses on the situation he his in. I constantly wondered what went on in his head.
It is a bit repetitive and slightly predictable though.
The idea for this movie is pretty simple, and so is the storyline for the best part. But somehow I cannot think of a single movie that did the same.
The strength of this movie lays in a combination of settings that are very unique, and all have an influence on the movie. The movie combines emotions, dick jokes, soul searching, love and friendship in a very subtle way.
A simple but strong movie!
It wasn't horrible, but nothing special here.
Most used word and sentence in the script: "Jesus"
I couldn't believe the low rating with all those great actors, but it's true.
This movie is as boring as they get.
The only amusement came from the stupid stories Javier Bardem told.
I don't know what the fuzz is about.
The visuals are really good yes, but it's not that ground breaking. It does have some amazing views though, so that's 1 of the main reasons I didn't turn it off. The second reason is the sound. They really managed to get the silence of space on screen, without the movie turning boring (a risk with those long shots.)
What bothered me the most about this movie is the amount of convenience to the story (including the seeming lack of knowledge of the scientists on and off screen.)
A barrage in space because someone (actually a whole nation's science department) faultly blew up a sattelite? What is that civilian (Bullock) doing in space? (I mean not noticing or responding to the fire in the ISS, really?)
And those were a lot of casual talks during critical situations. If regular plain pilots already have such a strict radio script, I doubt an astronaut talks like that during (critical) communications.
Also, ALL communications are down and both ISS, the Chinese station AND their shuttle are just a few 100 miles apart? I guess that's lucky, since she just had barely enough time to make it to each 'save haven.' The fact Clooney wasn't coming back was actually more of a surprise with all this coincidence.
I do have to say that most scientific parts of the movie were pretty accurate as far as I can tell.
Conclusion: She must have been the most luckiest astronaut ever but with incredible bad luck.
3rd and (imho) final installment of the Bourne trilogy. It has the same pace and action oriented directing style as the 2nd part of the movie series. It couldn't keep up with the 2nd one in it's originality and outstanding action scenes, but that's no shame. Nonetheless a great piece of work, with some really nice development, and of course the final closure.
With this movie, the Bourne Trilogy went instant classic. One of the best chase scenes I know of, a much deeper view on the identity of Bourne himself and the memorable 'magazine weapon' fight scene. Worth of a longer review, but I am too lazy today.
A modern James Bond movie. Very cool to watch, even though the 'Bourne Trilogy' is the exception on the rule that sequels are always worse.
The first movie follows a relatively basic story development, and never realy has a memorable impact on the viewer. It does manage to wrap it up in exceptional action and chase scenes, especially for it's time.
