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.
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
This was a huge step down from the previous film. I thought the first act was straight-up bad and not at all enjoyable. The COVID mentions felt dated and overly forced, and this film only just came out. That doesn't bode well for how this film will age. However, once the film gets going it gets better and is enjoyable, and they drop the COVID stuff, which in turn, actually makes the COVID mentions at the beginning feel even worse and more pointless than they had felt initially.
I thought that the plot felt far more simple and extremely predictable compared to the first film. I also thought that the characters (aside from Blanc), were largely much worse - both in writing, and performances given by the cast.
Daniel Craig and Benoit Blanc is just as good as he was in the first film, and he absolutely steals the show every time he's on screen. I also found Janelle Monáe as both Andi and Helen to be decent. Edward Norton's billionaire character, Miles Bron, was a mixed bag, and although he started out quite interesting with some potential, I found his character to inevitably be overly shallow and poorly written.
As far as the rest of the cast went? It wasn't so good. Most of them, such as Whiskey, were simply bland and forgettable. But others were downright awful characters that were overly shallow and just plain annoying. Kate Hudson's 'Birdie' was probably the worst offender here, and I found that her character lowered the quality of every scene she appeared in.
I realise that this review has been largely negative, but what I will say is that Glass Onion is still a mostly fun and entertaining experience for the majority of its runtime. I had a lot of fun watching it (aside from the first twenty minutes or so), and I don't regret it at all. I'd recommend watching it if you enjoyed the original film, but I just don't think it's anywhere close to being anything great like its predecessor was.
I believe that RLM in their review of the last one compared these movies to Taco Bell.
Everything has the same 5 ingredients, just placed in a different order.
It’s hard to argue with that after seeing this film.
It’s plagued by the exact same problem as the Terminator franchise; the creatives behind it are clueless on how to expand the franchise beyond the lore of the classics.
As a result, you get these rinse and repeat movies that are high on the nostalgia bait and devoid of anything interesting.
This somehow manages to be the worst one of the trilogy, I’d say it’s about on par with something like Jurassic Park III.
It’s somehow the dumbest Jurassic film (no, I haven’t forgotten about the military subplots in the previous 2, but this one literally introduces a new dinosaur nicknamed the ‘Giga’ and an evil company called ‘Biosyn’) with some of the cringiest dialogue and acting I’ve seen in a long time, none of which is embraced by the filmmakers. I think it’d play much better if this material was treated like a spoof, or at the very least more tongue in cheek (could’ve used more hallucinations of a dinosaur screaming “ALAN!”). It’s trying so hard to be sincere and Spielbergian, but it doesn’t work.
Moreover, the new characters are still either boring clichés or annoying, it looks too glossy, it’s way too long given how little’s going on, action’s alright but nothing that’s truly impressive or visceral; it’s just a bland mush of forgettable nothingness, and Jeff Goldblum’s charisma can’t save any of it.
3/10
Well, I do not even know where to start! The Grand Budapest Hotel was one of my most anticipated films this year. My expectations were very high and I can say it exceeded everything I was expecting.
Wes Anderson is a very peculiar and original director, there is no one like him and his style is unmistakable. With an interesting filmography is great to see his improvement over the years. This film is a good example of that. All his usual filming techniques, color palette, the history, quirky characters and scenarios always full of details keep getting better with each film. I would like to give the main highlight for the set design that will get you literally gaping!
Wes Anderson wrote this film based on the books of a writer named Stefan Zweig and the entire universe that he created around this story is absolutely fabulous! The Grand Budapest Hotel is a famous hotel in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka in the European Alps. In it we follow the adventures of the important concierge Gustave H. and his recent apprentice Zero Moustafa, who go far beyond the Grand Budapest. Gustave H. has the particularity to like seducing older and wealthy hotel guests. After years of involvement with one of these ladies, she is murdered and Gustave is the prime suspect of her murder. Then it starts all this great, crazy and hilarious mess!
Ralph Fiennes shines in this film, his performance is magnificent as the concierge Gustave H. In each scene he enters he steals the show! His performance is the one with the most spotlight but he is always supported by a whole cast that play their roles genially. The young and recent actor Tony Revolori is also very good and all the scenes between him and Ralph Fiennes are wonderful, the two had a great chemistry and that is transmited beyond the screen. Big names like F. Murray Abraham, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson and many others are all excellent in their small roles and sometimes we wished to see this talented names have a little more time on screen but each one has its importance in history.
Fun, colorful, with great dialogues and hilarious scenes, also leaving an important message about loyalty and friendship. Wes Anderson now elevates the bar very high, after this brilliant The Grand Budapest Hotel we are waiting to see what this great and unique filmmaker will do next. I think I can say that this happens to be my favorite film of him, because I think it is definitely his best and will also certainly be one of my favorites this year.
I had heard good things going in, and I was still thoroughly impressed. This is definitely my favorite movie I've seen this year, and quite possibly in the past few. While he is at some of his best in the movie, very little of that has to do with Nicolas Cage.
There is way more substance than the trailer gives you clues to. Outside of the rich narrative, the film is a masterclass in "less is more" to illustrate complex subjects through well executed inference. Michael Sarnoski's writing and directorial debut demonstrates some of the best storytelling skills I've seen in a long time. This will be a piece I point to for a while on effective filmmaking.
Underneath the novel premise of the movie is deep subject matter and one of the more mature explorations of grief and purpose in life. I wouldn't call this a feel good movie, but rather one that lays out a difficult but healthy and necessary path to dealing with tragedy and loss. I called Manchester by the Sea on of the best movies on grief ever made, because it showed how broken it can make people. Pig is an answer to it that shows the health of acceptance and recognizing the value in what we chose to spend our time doing.
The German nihilists, the feminist artist, the porn manager, the crazy phedophile, the crippled fake business tycoon, the Vietnam-war obsessed psycho and off course the Dude: a lazy deadbeat lowlife. The Big Lebowski sure has a lot of colourful personages which in my opinion is one of the reasons this movie is one of the best i have ever seen.
This is one of the many masterpieces from the Coen brothers, i wish i could congratulate them myself because they are geniuses. The music, the script and the cast are beyond fantastic. This is a masterpiece that only comes along in movies a few times in a decade. This is one of those movies that is and always will be a cult classic. I cannot say that this is the best movie that the Coen brothers ever made, but only because they made so many exceptional movies. But its definitely high up the list.
My favorite part is Gutterballs, when the Dude has some kind of hallucination. The music was just perfect together with the show Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore put on. I can't tell you how often i saw that part, that was just awesome.
Anyone should see this movie at least once in his lifetime. But once you've seen it i can guarantee you that you want to see it again.
Technically, IT was a good movie. The effects, the cinematography, actors, pretty much everything was objectively good. But as a horror film, it doesn't have an impact on me.
The film was definitely designed for the kind of people that go into horror movies WANTING to be afraid. It is filled with clichés and typical stupid behaviour from characters, such as choosing to slowly walk into a trap just so the audience can say "DON'T GO IN THERE!". And most of the "scary" things that happen in this movie, aren't really scary because they aren't REAL. Which is what bugged me most about the movie.
Most of the horror scenes are nothing more than a figment of the character's imagination. Why should i be afraid when a zombie spawns out of nowhere in the middle of the street in broad daylight when i know that it isn't actually happening and no one other than the kids can see it. Pennywise does prove to be a physical monster when we see him kill people, but it isn't clear what the writers of the movie were thinking when they created him. How am i supposed to believe that he can casually teleport around public spaces without anyone noticing, or that he can somehow make himself appear in old photographs and pre-recorded television shows. His capabilities aren't consistent and it just feels like a compilation of cheap scares. Like the writers used a slot machine of horror tropes to create his character.
Still, i am looking forward to the sequel just so i can see how adults would deal with Pennywise. Maybe they will be a lot smarter and spend less time running from things that aren't real. But who knows, IT is a pretty basic horror flick.
A few things I was after this movie:
- impressed by the animations: They really burned cash with this one.
- confused by Japanese folklore: They didn't explain a lot of the mystical stuff. Maybe it was clearer for Japanese?
- emotionally moved by the story: The basics are pretty run of the mill - coming of age mixed with a little bit of romance. But the deliverance is really packing a punch.
- a little unsatisfied at the end: Not every question was answered, but I guess it's a slice of life.
And here's an interesting question to ponder about:
Hodaka is the rain child mentioned by the old lady right during the interview for the occult magazine. It is said that it's raining in Tokyo since he came there. And we learn that the sun light seems to run away from him.
Therefore he may have started the whole chaotic weather by going to Tokyo, and sort of pushed Hina into her role as sun child in more than one way. The whole drama is practically his fault all along, not only because he proposed the job to her.
Or maybe he was meant to be her opposite and go to Tokyo. She became the sun child before him and therefore brought imbalance to the mystical equilibrium that is the Japanese folklore's weather system.
I'm confused by the possibilities and feel like I'm just throwing theories out there :sweat_smile: What do you think?
A real different movie. Mostly peaceful, taking place in a pretty far from civilization farm in Iceland. Not much talking, not much noise, not much action either. The couple takes care of their farm and sheep. One day a lamb is born and they just take it inside, and start treating it like if it was their baby.
Again, there's no talking there, they don't talk about it, just see it, look at each other, and take it home. Now it sleeps in a crib in their room, and she feeds it with baby bottles while the mother (the sheep) keeps screaming at their window. The fact that they had a crib and baby bed ready suggests they probably lost a child at some point (if you don't catch on it there, it's emphasized later when she visits the grave).
So ok, weird, where is it going ? It takes a while where you're wondering if they see it as a human (and only them do ?), whether they're crazy or there's something else at play, until you finally get to see it: the head and one arm are lamb, but the rest is human. It's such a good choice. Instead of having a half lamb half human baby as the starting situation, that you would easily accept as the movie premises, you spend a while thinking it's about crazy people raising a lamb as a child THEN you get confronted with the supernatural part.
Now the question is, how will this work with the rest of society ? We get a glimpse with the visit of Ingvar's brother, when the child has grown, walks and is dressed like a human. At this point you're still wondering whether it's real or all in their heads: it's real. Sadly this will be the only other interaction with someone from outside the farm, would have loved to see her sent to school, but that's not the way the movie is going.
Then comes a bit of family drama, the brother obviously having a hard time accepting this creature as a child then warming up to it and apparently a complex past relationship with Maria. This is all ok but not super interesting either. You're just aware that some danger is lurking around. More aware than they are anyway, as no one seems to care that the dog is dead...
The fx on the child are great. She has an almost human form and stance, but not quite, is able to interact almost normally with objects (like plates and glasses), but with a lamb head that still manages to conveys understanding and emotions. It just looks pretty natural, really a great job.
And when you're just wondering where it's going next, the movie just stops brutally as a creature that is clearly the child's real father, a huge humanoid goat, kills Ingvar to take the child away. Kills him with a gun, not like a beast, but like a human would do. A just retribution for Maria killing the mother. Weird. Brutal. Totally unexpected. And in complete contrast with the rest of the movie's peaceful and almost natural (despite the child) atmosphere. Perfect.
I saw this movie in a full packed cinema. Here in the Netherlands we don't walk out of movie and demand our money back, but i am pretty sure that most of those with me who saw it thought this movie was a disappointment afterwards.
The 3D feature was a joke. And that is putting it lightly. It was nothing more than an extra layer they put over the movie to make it look like 3D. It was nothing like in Avatar or How To Train Your Dragon, more like that other failed "3D" movie: Clash of the Titans. Its obvious that the only reason they put it in there was because it was the hype of the time and it would attract more visitors (AKA: more tickets, more money) to the cinema.
I have to say i was very disappointed in Tim Burton. I expected more of him, this story seemed right up his alley. But he put way too much devotion into making the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) as the star of the movie instead of Alice who seemed more to be the supporting cast than the main star.
All in all i would say: go see it once, WITHOUT the 3D effect and than forget it ever existed.
"There has to be a connection!"
Not sure why I enjoy this so much. I think it's the modern equivalent of Saw with better characters and a more interesting plot.
Zoe and Ben return in the sequel to Escape Room. Zoe is too scared to fly after her mother's death in a plane crash and so she and Ben decide to drive to New York following the revelation at the end if the first movie, showing the Minos logo is a really a set of coordinates.
I really liked the puzzles, I liked the tension, the interwoven clues in the rooms were so well crafted and create something complex yet not so hard that the audience can't solve it (considering Zoe is a physics student or something, right?). The story progresses much in the same way as the previous film yet the threats are much more dangerous.
I liked the mix of characters, it's more thrilling to have a good span of backgrounds and skills. I did feel, however, that there wasn't enough time devoted to the other main characters as there were to Ben and Zoe. The movie shows their bond of friendship and the characters' growth through their circumstances. It even reinforces the traits we saw in the last film. Zoe is selfless. She always tries to save someone else and whenever they solve a puzzle she always let's the others go through first.
Ben has picked up these traits from Zoe and he works together with her to supplement her skills. They know each other so well that Ben can tell immediately when something isn't right.
Really just an amazing and believable friendship through trauma (yikes).
If I have to criticise something, it's that the puzzles do unravel much in the same way with a couple of setbacks, lots of short time deadlines and yelling. I also felt like the priest character was definitely the least developed and one-note type of character.
Given a part of the film reveals that off screen deaths are not deaths and Ben sinks into the sand as the priest does, they really dropped the ball on Nate.
I don't even care if this franchise outlived itself, I really enjoyed this one.
8.5/10
Well this was different and as I am a sucker for anything BlumHouse I will say I really enjoyed this.
Didn't quite know what to expect but as the story unfolded with The Grabber I was like okay he's messed up in the head on another level, show me more. But they kept me in the dark mostly with that which is cool and for a change they had kids in a movie that actually didn't annoy the Hella out of me.
In fact for me that Sister was a scene stealer and I would have liked to have seen her with more screen time and an even bigger role because for me that's when the story and movie was at it's best as she Brought the hole thing to life and made it super interesting, she was so cool and fierce,
That acting scene in the kitchen and her
ability to sell that to us the audience was
off the charts
for how great she sold it..
I did enjoy how you saw them as well as
hear them on the phone, that was cool
and I loved the jump scares also.
Very engaging movie that holds your interest
not really seen one done quite
like this before and now i have it on
Blu Ray i will definitely enjoy watching it
Multiple times, Because as I said
BlumHouse is my number one favourite production
so I will lap up almost anything with their stamp on it.
VERDICT: Really Great Movie
With some solid writing and acting
Good Scares and one Hella of a twisted
thought provoking story set in a
SINISTER universe.
What more could you ask for...Enjoy!
The mysteries just keep unraveling
Just been to the cinema to watch Escape Room 2 the tournament of champions. Like the name suggests this is putting six people together like the orginal movie into different Escape Rooms, but this time it is people known as the champions basically people who have beat the game before, but obviously Zoey and Ben are the ones from the previous Escape Room movie and the only ones that where both of them made it out alive due to Zoey pretending to be dead when gassed in the hospital in the previous film. Then fighting to save Ben as well so both of them made it out unlike the others where there is only one winner per Escape Room. In Escape Room 2 these champions now face it head to head as they are tricked into participating in this Escape Room like last time, but with interesting twists and turns along the way. The Escape Rooms got even more creative with them becoming more complex, however I did feel like they kind of rushed over them unlike the first movie. Obviously this maybe intentional by the writers as it sets up Zoey and Ben's next chapter as Minos controls the game and only makes you think that you have some kind of control, which overall makes for an interesting watch and nothing is ever what it seems. Hoping for a third movie to tie it all off, which I hope the writers have taken this into account. I highly recommend this film a very fast paced continuation from the last movie with amazing set design incorporated into the VFX. The plot twists just keep on coming well done to Taylor Russell and Logan Miller for your amazing performances as well as the rest of the cast and crew on making this movie so mind bogglingly entertaining as well as leaving us on the edge of our seats wondering what happens next. Also one last thing is I have never seen a film do a previously before it was like watching a TV show, but I appreciated the recap at the start preparing us for the mysteries that is about to unravel. I definitely think movie movie sequels should do this as people can easily forget key details. :astonished::grinning:
