Change Your Image
jgc5060
Reviews
Prometheus (2012)
Best movie of the year: The Tree of Life meets Alien...possibly the best sci-fi since Planet of The Apes
This review contains spoilers:
First off, let me say that their were a lot of deep philosophical references in this movie and if you didn't understand those, it's understandable why you may have been upset you weren't watching Alien 3d. It's not just all about the horror and suspense like Alien is for the most part. It's about a story much bigger than in Alien. This makes the Alien sequels look like Jason X. The only thing wrong with it is that it isn't an hour longer to give the characters more time to develop. Hopefully there will be a longer Director's cut or something. Noomi's acting was incredible and Oscar worthy, while Fassbender and Theron were great too. The story was great and really fun to watch unfold. At the ending, you even got to see a little glimpse at the Alien. There were a lot of great ironic twists in the movie, and it's arguably the most memorable science fiction film since the original Planet Of The Apes. Although some people complain that the scientist's were "dumb", you have to remember it's only 2087, and there's only certain types of people that would agree to go on a mission so far deep in space that it requires 2 years of hyper sleep. Their human beings, after all. Also, it wasn't a government mission, but from the money of a trillionaire with his own agenda. It's kind of dark in that sense, exposing deep flaws of human nature, yet celebrating them at the same time. It isn't truly ballsy, but this is Ridley Scott, so I wouldn't expect it to be. It's classy. The ending doesn't answer everything at first glance, but there are definitely some really symbolic and deep meanings that might require a really open mind or some LSD to appreciate. It's answers lie in a meaning that can't be shown because polarizing topics tend to be controversial. Say, you want the truth and all the answers? You can't handle the truth and all the answers! The answers are all in Noomi's character. The opening shows the native human eating the black alien liquid and falling into the river and dieing. He eats it fearlessly, and this is symbolic of Adam eating the apple, and then there's the alien snake. It's obviously not just a coincidence, but it's open to interpretation. Sound familiar? It's all about the meaning of life, the creation of it, and finding the answers. The truth is we don't know the answers, so it's just we choose to believe. Even if they created human beings and the earth, whom or what created them? The bible's ironic and deeper meanings are more important than believing it word for word...Stories are all about the message, not the exact history. I'm not really even religious, but I'll say this...If we ever get the chance to meet Aliens on a distant planet, we better not have a freaking stuck up android and really rich selfish old dude be the first ones to greet him.
A Horrible Way to Die (2010)
A Horrible Way to Make a Movie! Making hand-held look very bad, worse than Blairwitch Project!
A horrible way to die is nothing more than a horrible way to make a movie. It looks like they just blasted some lights, cranked the shutter speed and did hand-held to make an "artistic" movie. Well, there is nothing "artistic" about this, and this is coming from someone who is a huge fun of unique and original F-U Hollywood film making. I'm a huge fan of Gaspar Noe, and I appreciate directors who "break the rules." These guys do nothing but shaky hand-held the whole time, and man is it annoying! The acting and music is good, but I feel like the camera man has never operated a camera before! It's the same type of shot over, and over, and over. You couldn't beat a dead horse any more than they used out of focus shots to transition scenes, and hand-held shakiness to show hectic moments in the movie.
I could understand if they used some hand-held and shakiness, but maybe for 5 percent of the movie, not 95 percent! Even if your a film student, I don't think you'll like this. It looks like they shot it all in 3 days. The camera work is a far cry from human vision. Human's don't float their eyes aimlessly in a shaky haze. The only point of view shot is the point of view of a really bad camera man! It's like a really depressing and poorly made reality show.
Please don't compare this movie to anything Gaspar Noe has done. Gaspar Noe's camera style isn't shaky vision, it's Gaspar Noe vision, and isn't easy to replicate, as these guys probably found out. Everything Gaspar Noe does is delivered with an original and innovative sense of technical brilliance, which this movie doesn't touch with a mile long pole. Gaspar Noe films make you interested and actually want to watch the rest of the movie, not take your eyes off screen because you have a head ache.
This movie is not much more than a student film with a really nice camera and good actors. The camera work just makes it impossible to actually get into. The script doesn't really go anywhere, and there's not much suspense. The music, color grading, and acting are all decent but unfortunately, they don't know how to set up a tripod or dolly, so you have to torture yourself to see if the acting is good or not. Please invest in a tripod, or Steadicam, or just quit floating around like a film student trying to be artistic! Hand-held film making can be really awesome, but this is a very poor example. The camera-work in Blairwitch Project was better, and they didn't even know how to use a camera! Hold the camera against your head if you have to, the more points of contact the more stable. What a horrible way to make a movie.