Details: About two hours and sixteen minutes long. Stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving.
I watched this movie again the other day and I decided to write a review. I thought a lot about whether or not to include spoilers in this review and decided that this movie had such a profound impact upon me, that the reveals in this film were so integral to the film that this needed to be spoiler free.
I first watched this film back around the year 2000. I did not watch it in theaters, but on video. Somehow, despite the ridiculous popularity of this film at the time, no one spoiled it for me. When I eventually did watch this film, it was in it’s whole, unspoiled glory. I then understood why everyone I knew was buying Matrix sunglasses, wearing black trench coats, and admiring overpriced cell phones. This movie was transformative for me. I must have watched this video over one hundred times. I watched this film to the point where I memorized every single word of dialogue spoken by any character. It was insane. I had never seen such a movie as this. Fast forward to a few nights ago when I decided to give it another watch and this movie still holds up wonderfully. Despite its age, this movie is still one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen.
The premise is this: a hacker (played by Keanu Reeves) is contacted by a mysterious figure named Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne) who offers to reveal the truth about this world. That’s really all you need. There are so many reveals in this movie that anything more might take away from the film.
It’s been so long that many people likely forget the impact this film had on the movie industry. This film was one of the first films to truly show what computer generated effects are capable of. This film coined the term “bullet time,” where we not only go into slow motion, but the camera moves around while the characters are moving in slow motion. This was something that before this point had never been done nor been done this well.
However, where this film shines and truly elevates itself to a timeless classic is in its practical effects. I’ve watched the behind the scenes featurettes on this film and what they went through to create some of these scenes is amazing. Reeves, Moss, Fishburne and Weaving spent months with legendary fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping and his team training in martial arts and wire work in preparation for this film. Their efforts are apparent in this film and add an authenticity and realism that is often done wrongly in other films. There are not a lot of Western films that can portray Chinese style martial arts action well, but this is one of them. It is a joy to watch these action scenes.
I’d love to talk more about the action but I don’t want to spoil this film if I can help it. All I can say is prepare yourself for guns and kung fu.
And we haven’t even gotten to the performances. While Keanu is certainly a wet blanket, the rest of the cast do an incredible job. Most notably, Hugo Weaving does one of the most iconic performances of a villain in cinema history. His performance reminds me of Carl Sagan with a little more evil added in.
It’s just such a great movie with such a unique, memorable tone. This movie oozes style and throughout the film, I was reminded of ideas and images from comic books and anime that I’d seen before. It just attempts so many things and had so many imitators subsequently try to copy what this film achieves.
If you have any doubt whether or not you should watch this film, don’t. Go watch this film. Do no ask anyone about their opinions nor should you go and search the internet for anything regarding the film. Rest assured this is a great movie and one of the greatest action movies ever made. It is so good, so forward thinking that it easily holds up, even now.
Details: Over two hours long. Stars Felicity Jones and Diego Luna.
The first thought I had after watching this movie was… why did they make this movie? I know it’s obviously for money. Disney paid a billion dollars for the Star Wars franchise so they have to milk that cow, but I don’t think this movie needed to be made. It didn’t tell a story I needed to hear.
The premise is this: Jyn Urso is found by the rebel alliance and sent on a mission to find her father who has information on the empire’s new super weapon. In the overall Star Wars timeline, this takes place after Revenge of the Sith and before A New Hope.
I felt like this movie should have been a book or a comic book, not a full fledged movie. It’s just a side story that doesn’t push the overall Star Wars narrative in any direction. I feel like nothing was accomplished here.
I can see that they were trying to achieve a grittier, more realistic, more personal story. Unfortunately, there are so many characters we barely get to know anyone. I think in genres like science fiction of fantasy, character development is the crux of these types of stories. Character development was severely lacking here and I didn’t feel anything when bad things happened to the characters.
The actors give fine performances. The weakness of this film was just the story. The whole film felt like one big wink wink, nudge nudge towards existing Star Wars fans with constant references to the other movies. This movie is fan service. Unless you are a hardcore Star Wars fan, I probably wouldn’t recommend this movie.
Details: Released in 2016. Runs for around two hours. Stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.
Arrival is a movie that relies entirely on its big reveal. It’s like The Matrix or Fight Club in that if the big reveal/ending is somehow revealed to you, watching this movie becomes infinitely less meaningful. This movie only works because of the big reveal. Accordingly, I will do my best to avoid any narrative elements and plot points in this review.
So what can I talk about? Well, this film is undoubtedly classic science fiction film. Starwars, despite arguments to the contrary, is not classic science fiction. Starwars is fantasy that takes place in space. Star Trek is science fiction as is Arrival. Classic science fiction takes thing like space travel, time travel, alternate dimensions, aliens, etc., and not only takes us on a journey to the fantastic, it is introspective. Science fiction is supposed to take a fantastic idea and use it to examine the themes of our own lives. Classic science fiction says something about the state of our existence. In the Arrival, there is not only aliens, but there is a clearly message being conveyed about the nature of our own existence. I greatly enjoyed this message or how the film tried to express it.
The premise is this: a renowned linguist is recruited to try and communicate with aliens that have landed on Earth.
The film goes into some elements of how language works, but not to deeply. I think this was the right approach and avoided the mistake Interstellar perpetrated. Most people are not experts in language or physics, so what a film should do is to lightly go into a subject, just enough to give the audience a taste but not enough to bore the audience. Arrival achieved this balance.
The cinematography is great. Some great shots of the space ships and landscapes. The film felt very epic at times.
In regards to the editing, I’ll just say that while most of it is good, some of it felt gimmicky. This film attempts and achieves something that I both appreciate and felt gimmicky to me. After seeing what was done in this film, I’m probably not going to appreciate any other films that attempt something similar for the near future.
The actors are fine. In order to convey the tone and message this film attempts, their performances needed to be a little muted. I get that. I don’t think anyone should win any Oscars for their performances though.
Score: 7.3/10 It’s hard to say whether or not I’d recommend this film. I enjoyed it, but it is a one trick pony. Once you get the reveal, you may want to watch it again to see it from a different perspective. Otherwise, it’s a one and done, kind of like Cloverfield. The entertainment value of this film lies in watching it in that first, unspoiled viewing.
Of the three Star Trek reboot movies (including Star Trek Beyond), I think the first one is easily the best. When going to see it, there was this anticipation of what J.J. Abrams was going to do with this franchise. What we got was a welcome, modernized re-imagining of Star Trek with a healthy dose of heart. Star Trek: Into Darkness stepped away from that to retread some old ground and retell an old, but fan favorite story. Star Trek Beyond steps even further away from the heart in the 2009 Star Trek film and delivers a films that feels like an episode of the TV series, except with a bigger budget.
The premise is this: the Enterprise crew answer a distress call in an uncharted nebula, then plot twists occur. It’s a basic story.
I feel like there were an inordinate amount of jokes in this movie. Which is fine as long as you throw in the requisite amount of drama to buttress that. They did not. I walked away from this movie entertained, but ultimately feeling like this was a pointless movie. There was no real overall progression or meaningful character development with the crew.
Some additional notes:
Interesting that Sulu is now officially gay married and has a kid. I’m sure George Takei is happy about that.
Lot of dead red shirts in this movie. Kind of odd how little the primary cast feels so little for these dead extras. Also promotes that TV show feel rather than the feature film feel.
Villain had an interesting plot twist, but not enough to make him matter.
Inclusion of modern music and calling it classical was a nice attempt at a joke that fell flat with my audience.
Special effects were on point. Nice job.
Score: 5.8/10 Ultimately, this was an entertaining movie. In my opinion, there were no narrative reasons for this movie to be made. Clearly a film made just for the money, not because there was a story that needed be told.
I loved the prior episodes with Ashildr. Maisie Williams was great and the introduction of her character made her episode my favorite of the Capaldi era. That changed this past weekend with Heaven Sent. This is my favorite episode of the Capaldi era.
To recap the prior episodes, the Doctor’s companion has died and he has been sent to an undisclosed location, as a prisoner.
It’s a great bottle episode. Capaldi is largely the only actor here and he performs wonderfully. He carries the episode and the mystery.
And the mystery is grand. My favorite part of good science fiction is, as always, the character development. This episodes does a great job showing further insight into the Doctor. His strength and his weakness. It’s a great exploration into the brilliance and tenacity of the Doctor.
Score: 7.8/10 Hard to talk about this episode without revealing too much. Safe to say this is a great episode that needs watching.
I think most people would agree that Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the best Terminator movie of the whole franchise. And since that movie came out, every Terminator movie has tried — and mostly failed — to capture the tension and suspense of that movie. Further, no movie has managed to capture the serious tone of that movie and most have relied more on comedy than horror in the subsequent movies.
Terminator Genisys is no exception. While this film is entertaining, it is often cheesy and lacks the tension of Terminator 2. Regardless, it is a fun, entertaining movie that’s worth a watch.
The cast is decent, but they aren’t very good. Schwarzenegger is showing his age and — even though they try to incorporate that into the story — it seeps through into his performance. None of his line are particularly convincing and he’s really there for comedic effect and to help the viewer remember and reminisce about the Terminator franchise.
The action is good with a lot of set pieces to gawk at.
The strongest part of this film is the surprises in the plot. The makers of this film know the audience is familiar with the Terminator timeline and deliberately starts throwing in plot twists that mess with the events of the prior movies. You’re always trying to guess what happens next as the writers take the foundations of the franchise and turn them on their head.
Score: 6.8/10 Fun film. Don’t expect too much from it and you will have a good time.
I did not love Guardians of the Galaxy. I thought it was too funny, too jokey. I felt the same with Age of Ultron. Too many jokes, no gravitas. What I was looking for was a more serious kind of superhero movie, similar in tone to the Daredevil television show. With Ant-Man, I change my mind. Ant-Man is a hilarious, fun movie and I enjoyed it very much.
Basic premise is this: Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) — an accomplished thief — is given a suit that can shrink by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) who tasks Scott with performing a heist that will save the world.
The jokes come fast and in great succession. This is a superhero movie, but also a comedy. Paul Rudd is a perfect protagonist as his time in comedies clearly help toward creating a very funny Scott Lang.
While Rudd and Douglas are great in the film, as is Lilly, I must take note of Michael Pena’s performance. That guy is hilarious and truly steals the show with every one of his incredibly funny lines. This movie would be substantially less entertaining without Pena.
The action is also hilarious in that every time things start feeling tense, we zoom out and see that — unlike other superhero films — the only collateral damage done is with toy blocks being knocked over or a pack of lifesavers being opened. Ant-Man is small and really doesn’t knock over too many buildings when he gets into his superhero fights.
Score: 8/10 Funny movie. Better than Guardians of the Galaxy in my opinion. I would still love to see a more serious tone in a Marvel film, but this was great nonetheless.
So the final Fantastic Four trailer has come out and some people are saying its all right, some people are saying its terrible. I think it’s okay. It hints at a number of things, seems to take cues from the Ultimate line of Fantastic Four comics, and brings in some things relating to Doom that aren’t in the comics. It’s all well and good, but when I heard they were rebooting the Fantastic Four movies I had a very specific idea of what that should be, of what the Fantastic Four represents to me and I’d like to share it (this story takes massive inspiration from the comics, the movies, and the trailer above).
So what is the Fantastic Four? The Fantastic Four is a group of four superheroes, but to a greater extent they are defined by their leader, Reed Richards. Then who is Reed Richards? Reed Richards is a genius. He is a brilliant physicist, scientist, and engineer. He is an explorer with an insatiable hunger for knowledge and discovery, but not just for his own benefit. Reed seeks to use his knowledge to make the world a better place. And the main thing that distinguishes Reed from any other superhero/genius? He’s a family man. The Fantastic Four is his family and — if forced to do so — Reed Richards would gladly sacrifice the entire universe if it meant protecting his family. Thus, a good Fantastic Four story consists of two things: fantastic science fiction and the values/dynamics of a loving family.
Act 1 – Reed Richards and the Baxter School
So our story starts with Reed Richards. Reed is twelve and your classic pale, nerdy, friendless kid. Well, friendless with the exception of Benjamin Grimm, his childhood friend. With only one real friend, Reed spends most of his time alone dreaming. He dreams of the stars and of all the mysteries of the universe. He dreams of a better world. When Reed isn’t dreaming, he builds. He builds things no twelve year old should know how to build. Things that never seems to work. Things that often explode and get him a scolding from his parents.
While Reed may be a dreamer and a genius, Reed’s parents are profoundly ordinary. They want Reed to go out and play, to make friends, and maybe chase some girls. His dad is a man’s man and often gives Reed a tough time. His mother babies him and encourages him through hugs and kisses.
One night after school, Reed invites Ben over to his garage to look at his latest creation. Ben comes over and sees Reed’s creation: a jumble of wires, metal arms, and what look like nuclear reactors. In the middle of this jumble are two platforms. Reed explains that he has built a teleportation device. With this device an object could near instantaneously travel from one point in our universe to any other point. Reed discovered that the distance between two objects in our dimension is larger than the distance between two objects in separate, but parallel dimensions. Upon this premise, the machine sends an object from point A in our dimension, briefly through a parallel dimension where the laws of time and space act differently on matter from our universe, towards point B which is once again in our dimension, thus lessening the distance and time the object travels. In fact, the distance has been so shortened that the travel time is near instantaneous from our perspective.
So Reed demonstrates the machine. Ben is scared and hopes the thing doesn’t blow up the block. Reed places Ben’s baseball on one of the platforms and turns on the machine. The machine starts charging up and as the platforms start glowing, the lights blow and the neighborhood promptly blacks out. Reed takes out a flashlight and finds Ben. Reed’s dad is yelling from the house and Ben bids Reed adieu and runs out of the garage before Reed’s dad yells at Ben, too. Reed is left alone and fearing the arrival of his father when he points his flashlight at the platforms. The experiment worked; Ben’s baseball teleported from one platform to the other. Reed has finally built something that works and raises his arms in triumph. At that moment, Reed’s dad comes in, grounds him for the next sixty years and takes him off to bed.
The next day, Dr. Franklin Storm shows up at Reed’s house and asks to enroll Reed into the Baxter School for the Gifted. The Baxter school is a school for brilliant children, funded by the United States government, and located in a skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. Dr. Storm detected the outage and asked the U.S. government to not arrest Reed for his dangerous experiment, but to speak with Reed first. After some discussion, Reed’s parents agree and Reed enrolls. This is an opportunity for Reed to learn at his level while truly being able to make the world a better place. Reed later says goodbye to Ben and promises to stay in touch. Ben promises that he will always have Reed’s back.
At the Baxter school in midtown Manhattan, Reed begins his orientation. He learns that the Baxter school is a school for children as brilliant as he is. He meets Susan Storm and Johnathan Storm, Dr. Franklin Storm’s children. Sue specializes in biology/medicine and Johnny in mechanical engineering. The school has the feel of Hogwarts; a magical school were anything is possible. The students are brilliant yet still immature; a great place for shenanigans. Reed, Sue, and Johnny get into shenanigans and quickly bond, with ample flirtation between a self-assured Sue and an introverted Reed. For the first time, Reed has found a girl he can really open up to. Reed also starts to realize that even among a school of brilliant children, he is especially brilliant.
Act 2 – Reed and gang explore Universe 106, they get powers
One year goes by. Reed is a sophomore. Reed has built numerous prototypes of his teleportation machine. He sends various objects through and they teleport perfectly. In his latest experiment, he decides to send a video recorder through. The recorder goes through instantaneously. However, when Reed goes through the footage, he finds that there is about thirty minutes of video on the recorder. While most of it is static, there is a moment when a humanoid figure walks over, picks up the the recorder and looks into the aperture with green, human eyes.
Reed makes two conclusions from the video. First, when an object is sent through the alternate dimension, even though the teleportation is instantaneous, the object spends more time in the alternate dimension than in ours. The ratio is about thirty minutes for every tenth of a second. Second, there is life in the alternate dimension, humanoid life. Reed decides it is time to build a machine that can teleport people, not for the purpose of teleportation, but to explore this alternate universe.
After much argument, Reed convinces Dr. Storm and the Baxter school’s representative from the U.S. government to approve of a project to send Reed and two others into what Reed is now calling Universe 106, based on the frequency at which the matter of that universe seems to vibrate. The team he picks is Sue (for her specialization in biology/life forms), Johnny (to assist in any repairs that may be required, Johnny also helped build the prototypes), and Reed since no one understands the science or function of the machine better than him. The machine is massive, but the key components consist of two platforms; one for arrival and one for departure.
On the day of the experiment, Reed invites Ben to come witness it. They spend some time catching up before the experiment. At the experiment, various people from the school and the government/military are present. The plan is this: Reed, Sue, and Johnny will teleport in the latest prototype and in the thirty minutes they spend in Universe 106, they will gather as much information as they can.
During the experiment, something goes wrong and Reed, Sue, and Johnny seem to be getting electrocuted and locked into their platform. No one can abort the experiment. Ben runs to the platform and tries to tackle Reed and the gang off the platform. At that moment, the machine initiates and teleports Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben to Universe 106.
Reed and gang wake up in what is a post-apocalyptic wasteland. They go over their situation and find that the machine worked perfectly. They are in Universe 106. They have about thirty minutes to explore before they are transferred back to their home universe. They are all wearing space suits except for Ben, who is in a t-shirt and jeans. Ben seems to be fine however, and this world seems to supports life. They will check on Ben when they get back. There doesn’t seem to be any signs of life around, just a vast wasteland of cracked earth as far as the eye can see. Reed and gang begin exploring.
They find mostly nothing and Reed begins to doubt himself and the footage from the recorder. Then they find some signs and some structures. They are all in English. After some more discovery they learn that where they landed was not an alien world, but an alternate Earth. They arrived in the ruins of Manhattan. They wonder if they didn’t travel to an alternate dimension, but into the future? Reed promptly shuts that down. The nature of matter in this universe is similar, but very different from our own world. This is an alternate world, one where all life seems to have ended.
At that moment they see a humanoid figure walking in the distance. It looks like a person, but also like a machine; metallic with eyes glowing green. The humanoid turns to face them and emits a loud noise, like the horn from Inception. The earth begins to shake and and even further in the horizon, an endless number of metallic humanoids are running at them, like a stampede of rabid animals. Some run like animals using their arms and legs, some run on their feet. It’s like a scene from a zombie movie, except with machine-esque humanoids with glowing green eyes. Reed and the gang start running for their lives.
As per the time limit, Reed and the gang have about 3 minutes before they are sent back to their world. So they run. The following happens: Ben falls into a hole and gets buried, Johnny and Sue get caught in a geyser explosion that spews fire and electricity (Johnny gets hit by the fire, Sue by the electricity), and Reed falls into a pool of goop. As Reed is sinking and blacking out he sees a figure floating above the hoard of machine humanoids, wearing a green, hooded cloak. He recognizes it as their leader.
Reed wakes up strapped in a hospital bed. He slips/stretches out due to his new powers; Reed can now stretch and bend like water. Guards show up and a government official with Dr. Storm show up and explain what has happened. According to the telemetry recorded in their suits, Reed and gang were in Universe 106 for approximately thirty minutes, then they teleported back to the Baxter building, where they all are now. Each of them seemed to be alive, but with fantastic changes to their physiology. It was as if they merged with the matter from the alternate universe. Reed can now bend/stretch like a liquid, Sue can turn invisible and make force fields, Johnny can turn himself on fire and throw fire, and Ben is now a rock like monster. Unlike Johnny, Ben cannot seems to turn off his powers and is seemingly stuck that way. Reed hypothesizes that the matter from Universe 106 interacted with each person and altered their biology. Ben was not wearing a suit so his changes match his greater exposure. Reed meets with each and speaks to them. His conversation with Ben is more somber and he promises Ben he will fix this somehow.
Before they get a chance to relax, a rift opens in the Baxter building and one of the machine humanoids appears and attacks people. The creature is strong and durable, but Reed and gang fight and defeat the creature. More humanoids start appearing in the Baxter building and even across midtown Manhattan. Reed and gang use their new found powers to fight and defeat all the humanoids. This is a big set piece action scene with a lot of collateral damage. It’s also an exploration of each of the Four’s powers and a test of their limits.
Afterwards, Sue leads an autopsy of one of the deceased machine humanoids. They learn that these creatures were originally human beings with all their human organs, except they were altered by nano technology. More horrifying is that these changes were deliberate; each machine humanoid was programmed and received instructions from somewhere/someone. Like a human drone. Reed has a feeling it is the floating figure he saw in Universe 106.
Reed and gang talk with representatives from the government, military, and Baxter school. They conclude that the appearance of machine humanoids (we can call them “drones”) is only the beginning. When Reed and gang went to Universe 106, they attracted someone’s attention, likely the person who turned Universe 106 into a wasteland. They decide that a military force must be sent into Universe 106 to subdue whatever sent the human drones. After further inspection, Reed and gang have been altered at a molecular level. They are now made of matter that consists of both Universe 106 and their own universe. This combined with the fact that they now possess power that rivals an army makes them the best candidates to be sent through. If anyone else was sent through, who knows how their physiology would change. They may be altered even more severely than Ben.
Dr. Storm knows they must do this, but he hugs his children and makes them promise to return safely. Reed talks to Ben and reaffirms that after this is over, he will spend every waking moment on changing him back. Ben tells Reed to focus on the matter at hand because they don’t know what is waiting for them on the other side.
Act 3 – Reed and gang go back to Universe 106 to confront Doom
Reed and gang teleport through again. Reed alters the machine so that they can teleport back and forth at will. When they arrive they find a massive structure that was not there the last time they were in Universe 106. They are also surrounded by the hordes of human drones, except they are all standing quietly. Reed and gang make their way to the structure and find the floating man Reed saw last time floating above the structure. As Reed and gang prepare to fight the man, the man speaks. He introduces himself as someone with many names: God, Death, Messiah, Doom. But the name he is most fond of is the name he was born with: Reed Richards. With that the man pulls off his hood and our Reed is face to face with himself, except the face of Universe 106’s Reed (I’ll call him “Doom” from now on) is a patchwork of metal, like a machine and the human drones.
Doom explains that in this universe, he also wanted to make the world a better place. Instead of cross dimensional teleportation, Doom specialized in nanotechnology/machines and human biology. In hopes of creating a world with no war, pain or illness, he created machines that could alter human physiology, curing disease like cancer and AIDS. But that was only the beginning. Doom built machines that could alter people thoughts, removing feelings of aggression, conflict, and greed and replacing them with better thoughts. The thoughts of Doom. Doom took over the minds and bodies of every person in Universe 106’s Earth, creating what he calls a paradise. Doom was content with his world until he noticed the incursion by Reed and gang. When Doom saw Reed’s face, he understood that he came from an alternate universe and began building a machine that could cross into Reed’s world. Doom intends on spreading his paradise into Reed’s world and perhaps into all the other parallel universes Doom can find. Reed is stunned. Stunned at the idea that he did this, that he could be able to do this.
Reed and gang start fighting Doom and the countless number of Doom’s human drones with the intent of destroying Doom’s dimension traveling machine. This is the big, final action set piece and should be bombastic. Each character should get an opportunity to show off their powers. There should also be an escalation where each character’s use of their powers becomes more and more powerful. Ben’s immense strength should be shown off as every punch he throws causes shock waves, craters, and the flight of human drone bodies. Sue can fly and uses her ability to create force fields to create shapes to annihilate large number of drones, all while remaining hidden, invisible, and flying around. Johnny lights on fire, flies around throwing fire, shoots beams of flame at the human drones, and when surrounded lights himself into a greater fire, like a mini-sun. Reed snakes around the drones, throwing punches that stretch forward and hit many human drones in the face. Most importantly, Reed snakes his way towards Doom who floats above the machine. Doom is assembling the machine.
Reed attacks Doom, but Doom stretches out of the way of his attack and punches Reed with a stretch punch. Doom tells Reed that he is the god of this world, that he is no longer just a man, and that Reed should not expect Doom to have any limits on what he can do. At that moment, Ben attacks Doom and Doom blocks his punch, causing a shock wave. Doom out fights Ben and knocks him a distance away. Sue and Johnny attack together. Doom lights his arm on fire and blasts Johnny with a beam of flame. Doom then turns invisible and appears behind an invisible Sue. Doom blasts Sue with a large blast of flame, making Sue turn visible and blasting the shielded Sue a distance away. Doom hovers over the dazed/injured Johnny and Sue an prepares to finish them by charging a large flame blast when Ben comes back and knocks him away. Ben and Doom continue fighting. Reed makes his way to Johnny and Sue. Reed explains that Doom is too strong. The only way they can win is with a coordinated attack. They formulate a plan.
Ben is still fighting Doom, when Sue becomes visible and puts a force field around Doom’s head, seemingly suffocating him. Reed then erupts from the ground and constrict himself around Doom’s arms and legs. Reed yells at Ben to punch Doom in his body/chest. Ben complies and pounds away inflicting a large amount of damage, chipping away metal pieces and moving Doom a great distance with each punch. Sue follows in the air while Reed remains constricted around Doom.
Doom eventually has enough and goes “nova;” Doom charges flame in himself and explodes in a massive, fiery explosion that sends Reed, Sue and Ben flying. Reed, Sue and Ben are lying on the ground. Doom walks toward Reed and goes on a super villain speech about his superiority and how righteous Doom is as Doom lights his right arm and prepares to incinerate/kill an incapacitated Reed. Just as Doom raises his hand to burn the life out of Reed, Reed opens his eyes and yells, “Now!” Reed turns invisible and Doom hears Johnny describe his curiosity at how hot Johnny can really burn. Johnny also expresses sarcastic admiration of Doom’s last maneuver, where Doom exploded like a supernova. Johnny then appears behind Doom from the invisibility Sue was hiding him with. Johnny is glowing as bright as the sun and getting brighter by the second. Doom’s metallic shell is burning away. Sue is shielding everyone else and Reed yells at Johnny to do it. Johnny now goes “nova;” Johnny explodes in a massive explosion many times larger than Doom’s. In the light of the explosion we can see Sue protecting everyone with her shield and all the metal getting burned off of Doom in a massive, bright explosion.
We cut back to the Baxter building. About two minutes has elapsed when Reed and gang reappear in Reed’s teleportation platform. Reed and gang bring back Doom who is naked and whose entire body is covered in severe burns. Armed soldiers take Doom away.
We end the film with a number of cuts between various characters and locations, conveying to the audience Reed’s new life, new family, and how all the characters are getting on. Reed’s life has changed fantastically. Though their have been dangers and losses, that is the price of exploration/discovery and Reed is ultimately better for it. However, Reed still wants to rectify any mistakes that were made. During this sequence we see cuts of Reed walking down a dark hallway, pass some armed guards, and into a dark room. He opens the door and inside is Doom, fully stretched out and restrained in a large machine, with only Doom’s burned face exposed. Reed approaches Doom face to face and asks Doom to help fix his best friend, Ben.
After Credits scene – Welcome to the Brotherhood
We cut back to Reed facing a restrained Doom when a boom and a portal appear from the side of the room. Through the portal walk out another Reed Richards with two more Reed Richards’ behind him. The lead Reed is older, with some gray in his hair. One of the other Reed’s exiting the portal is partially invisible, like Sue’s power. The other is partially on fire, like Johnny’s power. The older Reed says, “Hello, brother. I’m here for him.” The older Reed gestures at Doom. Our Reed has an expression of shock on his face. The older Reed from the portal then tells our Reed, “You didn’t really think that — across the infinity of all universes — you two were the only two Reed Richards’ out there, did you?”
Details: About two hours long. Stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
What the hell did I just watch? Once again, Rotten Tomatoes has deceived me on how entertaining a movie is.
This movie is ridiculous. In the films defense, I generally hate these kind of scare movies because of how stupid the characters act. In my real life, I often have to deal with people who do things completely devoid of all caution or rational thought so when I see that kind of behavior on screen, it instantly sucks me out of the experience and reminds me I’m watching a badly written story. Even so, the characters in this film make stupid decisions and pay for it.
It’s hard to watch this film and not compare it to the first Jurassic Park, what I consider the gold standard of dinosaur movies. The build up of tension, the constant terror, and a rewarding climax at the end with meaningful themes strewn throughout. This film is not like that. This is your standard popcorn chewing action movie with no real explanation and some memorable set pieces thrown in. It checks off all the boxes for a B movie and that’s okay in a way. It is entertaining in its own right, if you don’t take it seriously. However, I just found it to be a half-assed rehash of the first Jurassic Park. There were also tons of product placement.
Worth mentioning is Chris Pratt. Pratt shows again that he can act with charisma no matter how thin the plot is. Applause.
Score: 4/10 I’m rating harshly because I expected more when I shouldn’t have. Jurassic World can be an entertaining movie. Just prepare yourself for some cheap thrills and turn off your brain before viewing.
Details: A science fiction, adventure film starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Run time is almost three hours.
Love transcends all. At least that’s what Christopher Nolan wants you to believe.
Interstellar is Christopher Nolan’s attempt at something along the lines of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I walked into this film hoping for something along those lines. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.
The strongest parts of this film are the visuals. However, as in the Star Wars prequels, special effects alone do not make a great movie.
The story is hard to believe. The characters are not developed all that well. The main plot points lacked emotion, force or meaning. The performances weren’t fantastic, but science fiction is hard for actors. Not a lot of points of reference to the human condition. Plus, they sound silly when they try to explain science they don’t understand.
Another weakness of the film is that Nolan has fallen into the trap of trying to explain science to the masses. The truth of the matter is that most people are too dumb or don’t care enough to want to go to a physics class during a movie. Movies are meant to be entertainment. Here, Nolan tries his best to interject real science rules into the film with yawn-inducing results.
My favorite science fiction movies focus on two things: world creation and character development. Most members of an audience are unlikely to be able to grasp the math-intensive theories of science and physics. Instead, a director should spend time making the characters relatable, showing their motivations and struggles. The character development here was not exemplary.
Furthermore, effort is needed to make that first act really express the nature and rules of this world. I don’t mean the actual natural laws, but movie rules. For example, in Inception, one needs a totem to remember that they are still within a dream. A great rule that adds to the suspense of wondering whether the protagonist is in the real world or still dreaming. Here, Nolan tries to use natural laws similarly, but the reality is that these are too boring, complex, and (ironically) unconvincing for use in entertainment. What we needed were fictional movie rules like the use of totems in Inception.
Lastly, most great science fiction films make some sort of existential statement or theme that leaves the viewer feeling as if they gained some philosophical knowledge which bettered them. Something that makes you think. The message here is that love transcends all. It felt like something from My Little Pony. I walked away from this movie feeling like I gained nothing at all.
Score: 5/10 Not Nolan’s greatest film. He tried to create a masterpiece by cramming in too many themes, ideas, and science into one film. He instead created a three-hour film that drags and disappoints. Plus, the ultimate theme/conclusion isn’t science fiction, but wishful thinking. Great visuals though.
Muse Bank 