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Babylon 5: War Without End: Part Two (1996)
This is where the show crosses the line.
Up until this and the previous episode, it could be argued the Babylon 5 was just another television show. Sure, it had some long arcs and better than average writing, but prior to these two episodes it remained within the pantheon of the ordinary. Here, it vaults into an entirely different realm where few other shows have gone. It's like that brilliant moment at the end of "Being There" where suddenly everything that seemed perhaps somewhat unrelated or unfocused snaps into clarity, and it is the mark of an excellent script when this happens. These two episodes become a lens by which the rest of the series is sharpened, honed, and eventually produces one of the greatest stories told in the medium and perhaps in the top twenty-five of all mediums.
21 Grams (2003)
The weight of a moment.
Told in an ever increasing pile of fragments and chronologies, the message of this film is how the weight of moments resounds out and around in our lives, and the lives of those touching ours. Thus, instead of building characters and story arcs, as we've grown to expect from the tellers of stories for centuries now, this film focuses entirely upon the actions of the involved people, and the consequences of those actions.
The fragments are from all over the story. Some are fairly long, others are faint and short, more like the small types of things a lover might remember about their past. Indeed, much of the movie feels as if you, an outsider to these involved people, have been granted the ability to hear all of their thoughts and cries. As if this moment has been transposed upon you, each fragment of that moment screaming to the surface, jostling those around it for your attentions. Only towards the latter half does a degree of linearity form, but never to the point where you lose this sense of being the ultimate observer to an unfolding cacaphony.
Another interesting effect this accomplishes is that it never grants you any moments of catharsis. Instead, the relaxation is embedded within the grief of these characters; each existing simultaneously, almost throughout the entire duration of the film. This is not a movie where you cry once, twice, or even a few times -- but a movie where the tears are lurking behind every scene, spilling out when you least expect it, when you've been caught blindsided by another facet of the story. Yet, it does this without ever once feeling manipulative, or contrived.
As I walked the grey streets after seeing this movie, relishing the fading memories, the single, simple, haunting score stayed with me until hours later. I had touched upon a Moment in the lives of these people. And while the people were not terribly important to me, they are only fictitious characters in a movie after all, it was the weight of their presence, the weight of the mirror they cast into the lives of us all that sparked within me a reverence of tragedy. Was it heavier than this movie, or lighter than that one? I don't know, but 21 Grams seems just about right.
Timeline (2003)
A few good moments, little else.
For a "time travel" movie, it did things pretty well. I was impressed when every other scene was not a paradox, which is the trap so many of these types of films fall in to. Most of the action felt well placed, and not just thrown in for the sake of action, but there was a few things that could have easily been left on the cutting room floor in my opinion.
What really hurt this movie was the performances. It was actually a bit puzzling, because some of the roles were really played out well by talented actors, but other parts were so pitiful it was embarrassing. For instance, Lady Claire and Merek were really well done, but Frances O'Connor's, "Kate" was gut wrenchingly bad.
Unless you read the book, and really liked the story, I cannot recommend this film. The fleeting moments that were good were spread too far in between stretches of mediocre story.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
What on earth happened!
I walked out of the theatre stunned. I had gone in without high expectations, but in no way did I expect Revolutions to be as bad as it turned out to be. I mean, literally, they took the easiest possible solution for all of the problems and paradoxes they had created in Reloaded, and just let it sit with that. There was not a single clever move in the entire movie. It was like watching somebody set up a series of interesting puzzles, and then "solve" them by just smashing them to bits and saying, "Well, the puzzles no longer exist, do they? Thus they are solved."
I still can't believe it. There was so much possibility at the end of Reloaded. They opened so many doors and left things in such a state that we could have been in for the same big surprises and mind benders the first movie held. Instead, it was all about smashing things.
I left wishing that this was somehow a big joke, that a week from now the brothers will pop up and say, "ha ha, your reality has been foiled, now here is the real version." Then I realize what an awfully expensive joke that would be and sigh resigned. This truly is the way it is going to end, and that's that.
So what made Revolutions such a stinker other than the above? Well they still can't direct a love scene, period. Every time Neo and Trinity were about to kiss, it was as if they had both been stabbed in the back and were still in shock as they mechanically, almost corpselike, clutched at each other. Watching them try to kiss was the most frightening thing this halloween.
You know, I just don't even have the energy to finish this. If this were any other movie than the third installment of the Matrix, I would have just scored it low and forgotten about it. See it if you wish to, there are some neat special effects, but you'll probably end up wishing you never saw it, and that you could erase all of the cheap endings from your memory -- and somehow go on believing that the mysteries in Reloaded and the original are yet unsolved, complex, and introspective riddles.
The Deep End (2001)
Suffers from poor pacing, unbelievable situations.
I'll admit, I wasn't expecting a lot from this movie, but I did think it would be a bit better than it ended up being. Sloppy editing caused the entire middle portion of the movie to drag on at a slower and slower pace until it was easy for me to lose all interest in any of the characters. By the time it picked up again, I really didn't care what happened, and ended up reading a book while it finished. I didn't even need to watch the screen -- I knew precisely what was happening.
Some might say I just don't appreciate a slower movie, which would be pretty far from the truth. In general, I'll take a slower movie over a quick slash cut movie any day. The problem isn't how slow it is, it is the fact that really nothing interesting is going on during the slow parts. The characters perpetually continue on their predetermined routes. The story just gets more and more ludicrous and unbelievable. I won't point out all of the flaws, others have done that just fine -- suffice it to say if you are going to slow things down, you need to make it worth it. Slowing down a second rate story only exaggerates every flaw in the writing.
The Trigger Effect (1996)
Technology - Minor Spoilers
To a prior comment about how this was a movie about the fragility of society, and not the technical aspects. Well, you cannot have a good movie about the fragility of society where it relies upon the collapse of something that isn't really all that fragile. Sure, it is just a plot device, but because of its inability to explain itself, or even use a realistic device, it subtracts from the premise.
Secondly, I've been in multi-day power outages before, and I have never seen society go to rot so quickly! This movie acts as if the moment we cannot withdrawal money out of an ATM machine, we start to froth at the mouth and become homicidal maniacs -- dispensing with all other forms of morality along the way.
This contains all manner of implications, the best of which are just plain silly. In my neighborhood at least, the effect was pretty much the opposite. People didn't have "anything to do" so there was a lot more time spent just hanging out together -- a truly rare event in modern suburbia.
So not only is the plot device absurd, no matter how abstract you try to make it, the result from the device is just as contrived.