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
I do like the show, but it's not Star Trek. If this was just a new sci-fi show that existed in its own universe, it would be incredible. However, the fact that they've tried to pass this off as Star Trek when it's clearly not sullies the experience.
If it wasn't already apparent, Paramount and CBS have no idea what made Star Trek great, and don't care either. The simple explanation is that the world of Star Trek is supposed to be optimistic; this is pessimistic. And I do enjoy pessimistic sci-fi, but there's so much of it, and to see one of the few optimistic sci-fi worlds turned into something pessimistic is a shame.
Fortunately, we now have The Orville, which is doing Star Trek better than anything has since Voyager ended in 2001.
The show is supposed to take place between Enterprise and TOS, but the technology is very different. For example, there are holograms everywhere. Why try to do a prequel again? Why not set this after Voyager? That would make a lot more sense, and they'd be able to add whatever technology they like, and not be constrained by existing continuity. Fortunately, it's not too late for the showrunners to say "hey, we made a mistake, this actually takes place X years after Voyager".
Last, they fucked up the Klingons. For almost 25 years, they had the look of the Klingons figured out perfectly. They're iconic. But this show (and the reboot movies) messed them up and made them look like generic sci-fi bad guys. What happened to their hair and beards? Also, the costumes are ridiculous, and their ship interiors look like they're made of coral. I do like the idea of having an albino Klingon though.
And I applaud their desire to use the Klingon language on the show, but it's pretty annoying having every Klingon scene subtitled. The previous shows used a common sci-fi conceit: the actors speak a language that the audience understands, but it's accepted that they're really speaking a different language. The viewer effectively has a universal translator so they can understand what's being said.
Also, it looks nothing like Star Trek. Once again, The Orville got that right, and this didn't.
All of that said, I do like the show. The characters are interesting (especially Doug Jones), I've enjoyed each episode, and I think the storyline is pretty interesting. But goddamn it, why did they have to try to make this Star Trek when it's not?
I've had an amazing experience watching the movie premiere in Venice, I've been waiting for this movie for a long time and I was not disappointed in the slightest.
It's a gorgeous movie, it's disturbing but moving at the same time, violent at times, but also subtle. It's a different and fresh spin on the character and on the cinecomic genre as a whole and Phoenix delivers an amazing performance portraying a version of the Joker we've never seen before, he's not the villain of someone else's story, he is the hero and villain of HIS own story, and the audience can be orrified by him, but we can't help but feel for him at times.
Without giving anything away I would recommend to go and see the movie not expecting to go and see an action packed, but gritty cinecomic, I suggest going in and watch it pretending that it's not even about a famous comic villain, but simply a movie, I think that people will appreciate it more in that way, not comparing it to the cinecomics we've seen before, but thinking of it as a normal movie.
P.S.: People will of course compare Phoenix to Ledger, I don't think it's possible, they give a totally different percormance because they portray totally different versions of the character, and I think it's going to be hard to compare them, you either prefere Ledger's version or Phoenix's but only based on the character, the actor's performances cannot be judged by comparison, they're both great. Just enjoy the movie
