Shutter Island. I'll admit, it's certainly much, much different than what I was expecting for a 1950's-esque film noir detective movie but with Scorsese behind the wheel, I was not disappointed. The movie stars Scorsese's long time favorite actor Leonardo DiCaprio as the gritty Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels taking on the case of a missing psyche patient on the isolated mental institution of Shutter Island. The island itself is built as an institution to rehabilitate the criminally insane headed by Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) whose medical practices appear not only questionable but as the film progresses even morally objectionable from a psychological standpoint. Along the way, Teddy Daniels discovers a conspiracy among the inmates and staff set to shake even his own fragile mental state.
Scorsese does an excellent job of working in elements of the unreliable narrator into this film that begs for a second viewing to really savor the seeds of doubt present in the film's climax. We have an excellent cast of actors. DiCaprio gives, once again, a compelling performance along with fellow actor Ben Kingsley. In some ways, I have to lament on the career of Kingsley because he is a notable actor who every so often ends up appearing in some awful movies (*cough*-BloodRayne-*cough*-The Love Guru). This isn't to say he's an awful actor but when you've won an Oscar for playing Mohandas Gandhi then perhaps you can skip the script where the protagonist is based on a video game character who made her fame on being a bisexual dhampir who kills Nazi vampires.
In any case, Shutter island is certainly not for every viewer. It starts out as a detective drama but builds much more into a psychological drama. Likewise, Scorsese creates enough twists and turns in the psychological journey of DiCaprio's character that ultimately makes him an unreliable narrator. Most audiences don't like a narrator that is untrustworthy. This doesn't mean that DiCaprio is playing a liar in the conventional sense but given the fragile state of his character, you will certainly be confused as to who is ultimately crazier, the protagonist or the other residents of Shutter Island. With the build-up of hallucinations and the deeper DiCaprio gets to the truth of Shutter Island, the harder it is to sometimes follow who is sane and who isn't but all this is done intentionally and even artfully so. In the end, you will leave the theater in a more somber tone than you had originally entered.
4 out of 5: Certainly an enjoyable piece of psychological drama with an atmosphere so thick you could cut a knife with.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Avatar (2009)--James Cameron and Blue Face
Why do I do this to myself? I debated opening up my first review on either this or one of two other foreign horror films. Instead, I resigned myself to reviewing this 2009 science fiction directed by James Cameron. With a budget around 250 million or so, one would expect that if you threw enough money at a project, perhaps something magical will happen. You may be familiar with his previous movies like Titanic or Terminator. If not, well, your life will not be poorer for it.
This brings us to this recent CG blockbuster, Avatar. The story is set on the alien world of Pandora, a lush and rather beautiful little moon inhabited by a race of blue-skinned, cat-like humanoids called the Na'vi that live in harmony with the land. Enter in the humans, who at this time have mastered space travel, and have seen that this tropical paradise is housing a large deposit of a rare and valuable ore known as Unobtanium (really, I'm not kidding, this is the best name James Cameron could come up with). Of course, the largest deposit of a rare and valuable ore could only exist smack dab below a Na'vi village. The humans have one of two options: attempt to negotiate with the natives to move or annihilate them all with good American militant know-how. Taking on a more diplomatic path, the humans take on what I call "blue face" to gain the natives' trust by manning these biological dummies made with Na'vi and human DNA. They're called avatars. Okay, it's simple. I get it.
Enter in our protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). He's a paraplegic marine called in to man his deceased twin brother's intended avatar in exchange for an operation to fix his legs. During the course of the film he switches back and forth between his life among the people reporting back to Colonel Miles (Stephen Lang) on the progress of the mission to exploring the land and learning the Na'vi's culture with the help of Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the tribal leader's daughter. Along the way, Jake falls in love with Neytiri and sympathizes with the Na'vi and their ways of life, As such, he then goes "native" by uniting the various tribes into war against the humans.
James Cameron's message is as clear as it is cliched with a heavy moral hand bitchslapping it into you on its pro-environmentalist, anti-capitalist, anti-militant message all throughout this almost 3 hour long movie. Even though the movie is a technicolor rainbow of CG glory, the story itself is cut in black and white in a way that is not only predictable, but also painfully uncreative. This movie is merely a flashier version of Dances with Wolves meets Fern Gully only with a more ridiculous budget that rivals most third world countries' yearly spenditures.
This movie would be less cliched if Cameron made any attempts at rounding out interesting characters on both sides of the conflict. Instead, James Cameron merely spits out two-dimensional character after another on the "bad" side. The Colonel is a cartoon caricature of the military. This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the Colonel because there is certainly something warming to the heart to watch the man sternly drinking coffee while the Na'Vi ineffectively shoot arrows at his armored fortress of doom as the humans torch and shoot 'em down.
I will make note that James Cameron makes no real explanation why the Na'vi's arrows are unable to penetrate the humans' armored forces early in the film but magically are able pierce through reinforced armor and windows later on. I get it that the Na'vi have reinforced arrows but why does it work in one instance and not in the other? Why do we bother to master intergalactic space travel and cloning but are unable to make a window outlast an arrow shot? If so...then how does anyone travel through space when even the tiniest threat of flying debris at high speeds could smash a window and threaten a whole spaceship by destablizing the pressure as well as the oxygen levels of the ship? What is Cameron even thinking? Likewise, why do we even bother fighting the Na'vi on ground level at all when we can simply just launch missiles from space at them? Didn't we learn anything from the Vietnam War? Why not just raze the forest with fire since we know that the ore will remain intact if we already confirmed that we don't need the native life alive? Military strategist James Cameron is not.
The only other antagonist to Jake Sully is Neytiri's fiance Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso) who is next in line to become tribal leader and rightfully distrusts Jake in blue face. Of course, like any cliched rival situation, Tsu'tey begrudgingly respects Jake and even calls him his brother when he masters their ways but in the end conveniently dies off thus paving the way for Jake not only to win Neytiri without consequence but also become tribal leader once even her old pop pops off too in the same battle. Again, cliched.
In the end, the Na'vi win only through unification by Sully and the cooperation of Pandora's plants and animals to fight back against the evil military folks. Rather than executing the humans taken captive, Sully sends them back as a message to all people to leave the noble savages and their planet alone. As Sully's reward, while he is unable to have working legs in his old body, he gains full acceptance into the tribe by becoming fully one with his blue face body through a magical ceremony held by the Na'vi and in the end becomes king of the tribe with his dream cat-girl at his side.
The only merit that this film has is its special effects and excellent use of CG to beautifully convey a stunning, fictional world. When you watch this film, you truly believe that its a living, breathing world full of life from its glowing fauna and flora. True, Cameron fails at being original time and time again throughout this film from the fabled "Unobtanium" ore to two-dimensional characters, to a painfully predictable storyline. However, in light of these drawbacks, you will in the very least be treated to a stunning bit of special effects and a believable world rare in many CG heavy films to date. Likewise, if you like mother nature, perhaps then this movie will only reinforce your sentiments.
As for me...I think I'm going to continue to not recycle just to spite Cameron.
2 out of 5: A sub-par film. Recommended if you want to see shiny stuff and don't care if the story itself is worth watching.
This brings us to this recent CG blockbuster, Avatar. The story is set on the alien world of Pandora, a lush and rather beautiful little moon inhabited by a race of blue-skinned, cat-like humanoids called the Na'vi that live in harmony with the land. Enter in the humans, who at this time have mastered space travel, and have seen that this tropical paradise is housing a large deposit of a rare and valuable ore known as Unobtanium (really, I'm not kidding, this is the best name James Cameron could come up with). Of course, the largest deposit of a rare and valuable ore could only exist smack dab below a Na'vi village. The humans have one of two options: attempt to negotiate with the natives to move or annihilate them all with good American militant know-how. Taking on a more diplomatic path, the humans take on what I call "blue face" to gain the natives' trust by manning these biological dummies made with Na'vi and human DNA. They're called avatars. Okay, it's simple. I get it.
Enter in our protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). He's a paraplegic marine called in to man his deceased twin brother's intended avatar in exchange for an operation to fix his legs. During the course of the film he switches back and forth between his life among the people reporting back to Colonel Miles (Stephen Lang) on the progress of the mission to exploring the land and learning the Na'vi's culture with the help of Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the tribal leader's daughter. Along the way, Jake falls in love with Neytiri and sympathizes with the Na'vi and their ways of life, As such, he then goes "native" by uniting the various tribes into war against the humans.
James Cameron's message is as clear as it is cliched with a heavy moral hand bitchslapping it into you on its pro-environmentalist, anti-capitalist, anti-militant message all throughout this almost 3 hour long movie. Even though the movie is a technicolor rainbow of CG glory, the story itself is cut in black and white in a way that is not only predictable, but also painfully uncreative. This movie is merely a flashier version of Dances with Wolves meets Fern Gully only with a more ridiculous budget that rivals most third world countries' yearly spenditures.
This movie would be less cliched if Cameron made any attempts at rounding out interesting characters on both sides of the conflict. Instead, James Cameron merely spits out two-dimensional character after another on the "bad" side. The Colonel is a cartoon caricature of the military. This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the Colonel because there is certainly something warming to the heart to watch the man sternly drinking coffee while the Na'Vi ineffectively shoot arrows at his armored fortress of doom as the humans torch and shoot 'em down.
I will make note that James Cameron makes no real explanation why the Na'vi's arrows are unable to penetrate the humans' armored forces early in the film but magically are able pierce through reinforced armor and windows later on. I get it that the Na'vi have reinforced arrows but why does it work in one instance and not in the other? Why do we bother to master intergalactic space travel and cloning but are unable to make a window outlast an arrow shot? If so...then how does anyone travel through space when even the tiniest threat of flying debris at high speeds could smash a window and threaten a whole spaceship by destablizing the pressure as well as the oxygen levels of the ship? What is Cameron even thinking? Likewise, why do we even bother fighting the Na'vi on ground level at all when we can simply just launch missiles from space at them? Didn't we learn anything from the Vietnam War? Why not just raze the forest with fire since we know that the ore will remain intact if we already confirmed that we don't need the native life alive? Military strategist James Cameron is not.
The only other antagonist to Jake Sully is Neytiri's fiance Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso) who is next in line to become tribal leader and rightfully distrusts Jake in blue face. Of course, like any cliched rival situation, Tsu'tey begrudgingly respects Jake and even calls him his brother when he masters their ways but in the end conveniently dies off thus paving the way for Jake not only to win Neytiri without consequence but also become tribal leader once even her old pop pops off too in the same battle. Again, cliched.
In the end, the Na'vi win only through unification by Sully and the cooperation of Pandora's plants and animals to fight back against the evil military folks. Rather than executing the humans taken captive, Sully sends them back as a message to all people to leave the noble savages and their planet alone. As Sully's reward, while he is unable to have working legs in his old body, he gains full acceptance into the tribe by becoming fully one with his blue face body through a magical ceremony held by the Na'vi and in the end becomes king of the tribe with his dream cat-girl at his side.
The only merit that this film has is its special effects and excellent use of CG to beautifully convey a stunning, fictional world. When you watch this film, you truly believe that its a living, breathing world full of life from its glowing fauna and flora. True, Cameron fails at being original time and time again throughout this film from the fabled "Unobtanium" ore to two-dimensional characters, to a painfully predictable storyline. However, in light of these drawbacks, you will in the very least be treated to a stunning bit of special effects and a believable world rare in many CG heavy films to date. Likewise, if you like mother nature, perhaps then this movie will only reinforce your sentiments.
As for me...I think I'm going to continue to not recycle just to spite Cameron.
2 out of 5: A sub-par film. Recommended if you want to see shiny stuff and don't care if the story itself is worth watching.
Mission Statement
After watching one too many movies and engaging in one to many rants and criticisms among friends, I realized I may as well try my hand at this so-called activity of reviewing movies. In concerns to my qualifications to reviewing movies, well, I've no degree to speak of in concerns to film and the arts nor have I tried to make films myself but I do attest to this one, simple truth much like how one does not need to be a master chef to know when the food is burnt, one does not need to be a master filmmaker to know that a movie sucks.
This isn't to say that I won't find movies to be decent or even excellent in some cases but this certainly won't be a blog pertaining to every horribly written movie on earth either. In any case, movie tastes are purely subjective so let this be a fair warning if I dislike some movies more so than others. I'll rate movies on a scale of 5 with 1 being poor (god help if I ever discover a movie that goes below that) and 5 being excellent. I'll certainly take movie recommendations into consideration for future movie reviews but this is assuming that this little blog finds itself an audience. Until then, this is merely a hobby of sorts.
This isn't to say that I won't find movies to be decent or even excellent in some cases but this certainly won't be a blog pertaining to every horribly written movie on earth either. In any case, movie tastes are purely subjective so let this be a fair warning if I dislike some movies more so than others. I'll rate movies on a scale of 5 with 1 being poor (god help if I ever discover a movie that goes below that) and 5 being excellent. I'll certainly take movie recommendations into consideration for future movie reviews but this is assuming that this little blog finds itself an audience. Until then, this is merely a hobby of sorts.
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