colossus34 Reviews

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

Huge Dissapointment

[2/10 · 23 December 2021]

It's not the worst film I've ever seen, but I just don't understand why it had to exist.

I think you can tell just watching it that there just isn't the passion behind it that there was 20 years ago. Nothing about this is as well crafted as the original trilogy. Not the cinematography, not the plot, not the editing, not the dialogue, not the acting, not the action scenes, not the sets. Not the music, I'd maybe even say the same about the effects. The themes that ran deeply through the original trilogy of destiny and personal choice are barely given lip service, and not replaced with anything else resonant or of substance.

It doesn't further any of the main characters arcs, and it doesn't seem to start any new ones beyond the simplistic fan-service of "Look, Neo and Trinity are back!" and "Look! The humans are allies with some of the machines now".

I would have liked to have seen where else they could go with the franchise, but none of what I saw in Resurrections seemed necessary. None of it feels worthy of waking the franchise from its long slumber.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

Wow wow wow so bad

[2/10 · 19 December 2019]

Mary Ray Sue and her band of friends are a complete utter disappointment. The whole thing sounds like eight year-old me wrote the script while playing with my Kenner action figures after seeing RotJ in 1983.

"And then Emperor comes back! And he had a granddaughter whose good, but Han and Leia's son was evil. And there are like a hundred thousand star destroyers and pew pew pew! And then she dies, but she comes back to life and he dies because he was evil and had to die to redeem himself and she heads back to Luke's house..."

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Woke Fate Broke Fate

[2/10 · 14 December 2019]

A disaster from start to finish. Killing John Conner? Really? Really? Get Woke Go Broke.

Honey Boy (2019)

Terrible movie

[2/10 · 10 December 2019]

Another entitled hack...your movie didn't get nominated because it sucked, not because of your gender.

Trauma Center (2019)

Tense lil Thriller

[10/10 · 7 December 2019]

Sort of reminded me of those old school 90s Die Hard in a "insert xxx place" scenarios. This one is a female waitress on the run from two corrupt cops in a hospital. Lots of tension/suspense set pieces that were well executed for the limited location and were the highlight of the film. If you're gunning for Bruce he's not in it much but the few scenes he's in there's some decent chemistry between him and Madison(played by Nicky Whelan) Worth a check out if you're into a cool/tense action programmer.

Knives Out (2019)

A Lazy Rehash of Clue

[3/10 · 20 November 2019]

Saw this at the festival circuit and was left completely unimpressed. An all star cast like this is usually a red flag for me that the story is going to be weak and I wasn't surprised. The Dialogue and characters are all super pretentious, and don't speak like real people so it's hard to care at all what happens. The twists feel cheap and unearned and sometimes it feels like things that are setup are never paid off in satisfying ways. Overall, AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS! Major Pass!

War of the Worlds (2005)

One word...WOW!!!!!!!!!

[9/10 · 1 July 2005]

I just walked out of a packed screening and all I can say is WOW!! Spielberg has created a movie that literally had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! It instills an accompanying sense of awestruck wonder, and delivers long stretches of heightened, delirious excitement that remind you why people started going to the movies in the first place. It truly holds the audience in a grip of fear and doesn't let go! I feel like I really experienced and know what it must feel to go through an actual alien invasion! Spielberg was sooo good at making it feel real, authentic and identifiable to modern audiences. Its as if you strap yourself into a theme-park ride and don't get off until after 120 minutes of thrills and suspense. Not to mention the CGI is breathtaking! I wish you internet fanboys would actually go see a REAL movie directed by a REAL director instead of that self-conscious, pretentious garbage called SIN CITY and KILL BILL. Which wasn't made for a real audience, but for fanboy nerds who sit around and analyze Tarentio's references to bizarre Kung-Fu cinema. Ugghh! Thank god the greater portion of the American mainstream audiences still like their movies only the way Spielberg can make them!

Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot (1958)

Eisenstein's UNFINISHED SYMPHONY

[10/10 · 1 November 2004]

Ivan the Terrible marks the final stages of the cinema's greatest creative genius: SERGI EISENSTEIN. It is the work of a director, a supreme artist who never ceased in probing new boundires, striking out uncharted paths, and searching the outer limits of his art. In the work, Eisenstein has gone eons beyond his earlier methods of film creation and for the first time approaches a true synthesis of dance, music, poetry, painting, photography, architecture, and all other forms of aesthetic communication.

The trials and tribulations surrounding the production and distribution of Ivan have become legendary in there own right. The film drew sharp criticism from Stalin and Eisenstein was forced to publicly announce his ''formalist errors.'' Subsequently, the film was banned in Russia until 1958 and Eisenstein was ostracized for what many saw as a film full of ''excess.'' It took many years before the world would come to realize it is nothing short of his greatest masterpiece.

A true cinematic realization of the ever elusive ''total work of art.'' A concept that originated with the Ancient Greeks and was further formulated by Richard Wagner in his epic masterwork, ''THE RING CYCLE.'' The Gestanmueack or ''intragel work of art'' as Wagner called it was in essence the synthesizing of every artistic medium into a single polyphonic experience. In the 20th century Eisenstein saw Wagner's music dramas as predecessors of cinema; a cinema that synthesized elements of all of mankind's arts into a single majestic, visceral and emotional experience which could transform and transfix the spectator. Together with the world renowned composer, master Sergei Prokofiev, and his lifelong cinematographer Eduard Tisse, Eisenstein labored for years researching and planning out every camera angle, lighting scheme, musical note, costume, color palette, gesture, and perspective; until every scene in Ivan becomes an intricate and complex world of its own. A world where actors twist and bend their forms to the limits of the plastic frame, shadows conceal and light reveals, the musical notes flow with the rhythm and tempo of the visual image and in the famous banquet scene, colors are used by Eisenstein to delve into the psychological states of the character's mind and state of being. It becomes a universe composed so precisely and diligently that every frame is infused with hidden metaphorical and symbolic meanings, and serves to create the epitome of cinematic achievement.

Tragically, like Schubert's great ''Unfinished Symphony'' or the Venus di Milo, Eisenstein passed away before completing the final part of his epic masterwork. What remains of Ivan the Terrible will live forever as a testament not only to the genius of Sergei Eisenstein but also to his unparalleled contribution to the world culture of the 20th century.