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josephd-18087
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Leave the World Behind (2023)
Avoid this movie, do not waste your time
To start, I like slow, psychological movies. They're some of my favorites. I like smart movies that take their time and allow things to progress naturally.
This is not that kind of movie.
I've seen some people talk about how this is a "thinking man's movie" and "heady". Maybe it's baby's first psychological thriller but it is in no way deep. With themes like "phone bad" and "you rely on your GPS too much" and "people are mean" it really makes you wonder what kind of person would actually find this deep or insightful.
The movie itself is boring. Not because it is slow but because NOTHING HAPPENS. Sure things happen around the characters but the characters remain preserved in stasis. They do not change in any meaningful way from the start of the movie to the end. As an example, the boy starts this movie being kind of a dick to his sister... and ends the movie kind of a dick to his sister. I mean seriously character arcs in this movie are: "I used to use my GPS to get where I'm going but now that I don't have a GPS I can't find my way anywhere" and "I used to not like you and was forced to tolerate your presence but I now still do not like you and will continue to tolerate you." It's astonishing. And the characters suck so watching them learn absolutely nothing is infuriating. This movie feels like the first third of a good movie that got drawn out way way way too long.
The acting is fine, the movie is pretty and the camera work is cool. The music is good and appropriate. That's all the pros.
Just save yourself the time and read the Wiki plot synopsis.
Extraction (2020)
(slightly) above average action movie
It's fine. Probably worth the time if you enjoy modern action films. The action is solid and there's a lot of it to go around. Everything else is acceptable enough around the action. Don't go into it expecting much.
Plot- Eh. It's coherent but doesn't really do or say anything. The bad guy is a comically evil dude who probably murders puppies in his off time and the hero is a "I'm not the good guy" but constantly takes the moral high ground. The movie spoils the last like idk 8 minutes in the first scene only to cut back to 2 days earlier. It doesn't belong in the movie and kills any tension.
Acting- Fine. Nothing offensive and nothing to write home about. Chris Hemsworth sells his character well enough.
Setting- Fine. It's focused and contained compared to some other action movies that just jump between like Paris, New York, and Tokyo or whatever.
Action- Good but doesn't reinvent the wheel. It feels kind of like John Wick with gunfoo, long panning shots, and lots of hand to hand combat. But unlike John Wick it doesn't get particularly creative with weapons, style, or environment.
Watch it. Or don't. Your life won't change much either way.
The Midnight Sky (2020)
A beautiful, well acted, predictable slog
Do you know how many people have died during a spacewalk? Zero. Do you know how many people die during a spacewalk in any movie with a spacewalk scene? At least one.
I'll start with the positives. It looks great and the acting is great.
Okay now with the negatives. There are two stories occurring at the same time. George Clooney and some little stowaway girl try to reach out to a space ship and warn them about Earth's mysterious apocalypse to tell them to turn around and go back to the moon of Jupiter they visited. There is also the story of that crew. Without getting into spoilers, Clooney's story line ends up being entirely pointless. Legitimately his actions cause no actual significant change in the actions of the space crew. That's cool.
It's also incredibly predictable. Like I mentioned earlier, there's a spacewalk scene. You can predict how it goes just by knowing that one fact if you've ever seen any movie with a spacewalk, down to the timing of the ominous music.
It also has some of the most funny cliches I've seen in some time. Two of the characters previously thought to be unrelated are actually... related??? No way. One of the characters was actually... in the imagination of another character??? Shocking.
With the interesting concept, quality acting, and great effects, it could have made for a relatively compelling drama even with the predictable and cliche plot you've seen a thousand times before. My biggest issue is that certain choices made by the writers of this movie just make you go, "what? why?" As an example, some other reviewers mentioned that the actual cause of the apocalypse is not mentioned in the movie. Normally that would be fine, often things are scarier when left to the imagination. But it is obvious there is something released into the atmosphere that is making people sick, hell there are even shots of the Earth showing it covered in some weird yellow clouds. The issue with the exact cause not being mentioned is that you as the audience have no clue how severe it is. I thought it was literally world ending but some characters make decisions that lead me to believe it may be more of a "screw with society" issue than a "kill everyone on earth" issue. And it is so obvious the effort they put in to AVOID saying what caused it. It's not like they don't happen to mention it, it's that the screenplay does everything in its power to skirt around mentioning it.
It's just things like that which make it harder for me at least to get invested in what the characters are doing and saying. Some people seemed to have really enjoyed this movie, good for them. It was entertaining, a perfectly average movie if you're just looking for something relatively inoffensive to watch with family or friends. 5/10 stars, meh.
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
Almost 2 hours of nothing happening
By the very first shot you sort of know what this movie is about. By the second shot you know how it is going to play out. This movie isn't just predictable, it's painfully average. First off this movie doesn't have actual characters, it has charactures. Dutiful cop who neglects family life for work, older jaded cop who keeps the younger, naive cop in check, crazy scientists who spout big sounding words you may remember from 10th grade chemistry. It's really hard to care about these people when they are worse done cardboard cutout movie tropes instead of... you know, humans.
So you don't care about the characters, but what about the plot? Well it's predictable down to the scene. You can sit there and go "he's gonna hug him and steal his wallet" minutes before it happens. And, without spoiling the ending, it is exactly what you predicted it will be within watching the first 20 minutes. The entire story plays out like you expected it would. And the story is the main character figuring out what you already know. It's just chock full of common tropes done poorly. Like the "main character found out something crazy but everyone thinks he is crazy" that you've seen a million times before. Of course there's never any actual tension because you the audience are already 10 steps ahead of our main character and you know he's not crazy.
People act irrationally and stupidly. "Oh this person is good at martial arts it's a good thing I have a gun pointed at them but let me walk as close as possible and oh no look they knocked the gun out of my hand because they know martial arts who would have predicted this?!"
I think the most offensive part of this movie though are the themes. The main theme is basically just "love will save the world" without any nuance but there are also is some political subtext. Protests against police brutality, riots, white supremacists, talk of civil wars, and books written by America's founding fathers that the camera just lingers on as if begging you to notice. "Look she's reading a book by Thomas Jefferson. You know him, right? Let's focus the camera on the book so our stupid audience knows it's a book by Thomas Jefferson". But it doesn't actually say anything. "Hate bad love good" wow truly the story of our times how brave.
Don't watch this unless you enjoy your intelligence being insulted and your time wasted. 4 stars because the production value is good and the execution is fine.
Black Panther (2018)
Eh, another superhero movie. You get what you pay for
If you are a fan of superhero movies, then you will get exactly what you come for when you pay to watch this movie. Everything in this movie just feels like it came straight from a checklist, but if you are okay with that, then this movie is fine. When I left the theater, I felt apathetic. I wasn't disappointed but I certainly wasn't surprised. As I said, you get what you come for. If you care about specifics, keep reading, if not, just know that it is like every other Marvel movie.
Plot: If you saw a trailer or even read the IMDB plot synopsis, you have spoiled the movie for yourself. 5 minutes into the movie you can guess where the plot will go, beat by beat. There are no twists, no turns, just your formulaic safe "go here, beat some guys up, talk, go there, beat some guys up, talk, etc." If you are fine with a predictable plot (will the main character die 15 minutes into the movie?! What?! He doesn't!) then this is the movie for you.
Effects: While the art design for this movie is frankly beautiful, the effects are far from. The whole movie feels like it was shot on green screen and some effects are cringe worthy. I am talking about PS2 cutscene levels of bad. Nothing feels real and there is no tension in anything.
Characters, pacing, cinematography, basically everything else:The characters are 2 dimensional (the stoic main character, funny smart girl, stoic bodygaurd, wack villain, serious villain who is the antithesis of the main protagonist). The style is "marvel movie". Take it or leave it.
Politics?:There seems to be a misconception that this movie in any way deals with politics. While that is technically true, the issues are handled wit the grace of "should we kill all white people?" "probably not". There are so many political issues addressed by this movie, isolationism, racism, traditions, etc. but all of them are presented in the fashion of "(insert topic here) is (good/bad)". It makes no statement that a 10 year old couldn't also make.
In all it is far from a bad movie, just incredibly bland.
Annihilation (2018)
A wonderful if pretentious movie that you very well may not like
This is not one of the greatest movies ever made, however it is one of my favorites. The art design, music, acting, and plot all draw you in and prepare you for an ending that many will find unsatisfying and a minority will adore.
I would compare this movie to cilantro in the fact that some few will love it, few will hate it, and most will be somewhat indifferent. Personally I was engaged the whole movie and the ending all but hypnotized me. I couldn't stop thinking about the movie for a week after watching it, trying to put the pieces together to figure out the ending.
I am not talking specifics because I don't really want to spoil anything. I highly recomend you watch this movie for the chance that you are one of the few who are deeply impacted by the movie, even if you run the chance of being on of the people who loathe it (as shown by the ammount of 1's and 2's).
Meeting Evil (2012)
An ugly, soulless movie not worth your time
If you are perusing Netfix only to stumble across this movie and wonder "maybe I should watch this to pass the time", don't. Unlike most of the crap on Netflix, it isn't even passable or entertaining, it is just draining. Nothing is bad enough to actually upset you, it is just bad enough for the plot to unfold across your glazed eyes as you stare on, uncaring. I cannot possibly understand how anyone could give this anything above a "good" rating let alone the bountiful 8's and 9's out of 10 that you will see here on IMDB. Don't listen to those people. There are plenty of other movies similar to this one that are much better. If you care to hear specifically why I disliked this movie so much, read further. But honestly just save your breath and go find a good movie to watch.
It is ugly. Just really ugly. Even for those who don't care about things like cinematography or editing (which make this movie look like a damn soap opera I might add), it is just colorless. As if someone said "it is a sad movie, so we'll make it look depressing by turning the saturation down a childish amount." By the end I was struggling to continue watching due to just how visually draining it is.
The music may not even exist for all I know. If it ever played, it was so toned down and generic that I never actually registered it once aside from the over the top and cliche "something scary is gonna happen so here's a violin".
Aside from Jackson, none of the characters in this movie are likable to a point when you would rather them die or get arrested so it will just end. Samuel Jackson's lack of caring is almost infectious and is the only enjoyable part of the movie. He is so over the top that you can't help but smile when he opens his mouth. The only other good thing was a line from the mother that actually made me grin. Aside from that the characters are lifeless and painful to watch. The kids don't have a single line of dialogue and they are in this movie a good amount.
The plot is unusual for the worse. I'm all for an unconventional movie but this movie pretends that its kind of unusual formula is enough to actually make it good and it just comes off as either incredibly lazy, incredibly pretentious, or probably both.
In conclusion I will forget this movie in a day and my life will be better off for it. Just don't waste your time with this poor excuse for a movie.
Black Panther (2018)
Eh, another superhero movie. You get what you pay for
If you are a fan of superhero movies, then you will get exactly what you come for when you pay to watch this movie. Everything in this movie just feels like it came straight from a checklist, but if you are okay with that, then this movie is fine. When I left the theater, I felt apathetic. I wasn't disappointed but I certainly wasn't surprised. As I said, you get what you come for. If you care about specifics, keep reading, if not, just know that it is like every other Marvel movie.
Plot: If you saw a trailer or even read the IMDB plot synopsis, you have spoiled the movie for yourself. 5 minutes into the movie you can guess where the plot will go, beat by beat. There are no twists, no turns, just your formulaic safe "go here, beat some guys up, talk, go there, beat some guys up, talk, etc." If you are fine with a predictable plot (will the main character die 15 minutes into the movie?! What?! He doesn't!) then this is the movie for you.
Effects: While the art design for this movie is frankly beautiful, the effects are far from. The whole movie feels like it was shot on green screen and some effects are cringe worthy. I am talking about PS2 cutscene levels of bad. Nothing feels real and there is no tension in anything.
Characters, pacing, cinematography, basically everything else:The characters are 2 dimensional (the stoic main character, funny smart girl, stoic bodygaurd, wack villain, serious villain who is the antithesis of the main protagonist). The style is "marvel movie". Take it or leave it.
Politics?:There seems to be a misconception that this movie in any way deals with politics. While that is technically true, the issues are handled wit the grace of "should we kill all white people?" "probably not". There are so many political issues addressed by this movie, isolationism, racism, traditions, etc. but all of them are presented in the fashion of "(insert topic here) is (good/bad)". It makes no statement that a 10 year old couldn't also make.
In all it is far from a bad movie, just incredibly bland.
Destiny 2 (2017)
A Very Well Made Game That Holds Your Attention
Destiny 2 is the sequel to Destiny, the FPS made by Bungie Studios which received heavily mixed reviews. Some hated it, some loved it. Most agreed it was well made but lacked some important features, namely a coherent story. To some it scratched just the right itch that let then play it for years.
The story of Destiny 2 is a 6/10. Lasting about 15 hours for me and probably closer to 11 for someone else, it is pretty generic. Gaul, the leader of the alien race known as the Cabal, wants the powers provided to the players by a "Great Machine" known as the Traveler. He attacks the Last Safe City on Earth and captures the Traveler, ridding your player of powers. The rest of the story is you finding humanity's scattered heroes, reuniting them, and leading an assassination attempt against the Cabal. The story is told well enough and the dialogue ranges from cringe inducing to hysterical. What really makes the story is the well acted, well written, and interesting characters. Namely the former emperor of the Cabal, Calus, who was usurped by Gaul, and the megalomaniac himself. Gaul's voice is perfect and he is a thoroughly interesting bad guy. Calus is the exact opposite, where Gaul is militaristic, brutal, and conceited, Calus is opulent, indulging, and fun. It is quite a dichotomy I wish was explored more.
The design of this game is a 9/10 or 10/10. The gunplay is the best I have ever experienced, from the feedback of the guns to the enemy deaths, it is glorious and basically what supported the entire Vanilla first game. Many say that it is copy and pasted from the first Destiny, and to that I say who cares? If you found the best possible way to do something, why change it? There is the sound design, which is just fantastic. Each gun has a specific sound and exotics specifically sound unusual but perfect for how they play. The music is second to none. The worlds are just amazing, both in design and art. From the Vex world of Nessus clanging with alien robot activity and a giant spacewhale in the sky slowly consuming the planet to the stormy and ruinous moon Titan. My only gripe is that Titan's map feels too linear. Every gun, every enemy, every corner, every effect has been tailor made to feel amazing. For these reasons alone you should instantly discredit any review below a 6. Nor There is also plentiful stuff to do, from the lore filled Adventures to the epic cooperative strikes, to the addictive and skillful multiplayer to the end all- be all challenge: The Raid. There is easily weeks worth of content to do. I personally am 2 weeks into the game, doing the Raid and the premier pvp endgame: Trials of the Nine, and I still need to complete Adventures on every world.
What puts this game above the rest is the interactivity. You do not have to be alone in any part of Destiny, nor are you recommended to. Whether it is queuing up a 3 player strike or joining a clan or just screwing around with friends, this game is best served when you are playing with friends. It is hard to describe just why it is so great. But I assure you, it is.
All in all Destiny 2 is not perfect, but it is so fun and so full of things to do that I don't see putting it down any time soon. I now see what people with +1000 hours in the first game did. It is not for everyone, but I damn well hope it is for you.
Death Note (2017)
Pretty bad- Someone who never saw the original
I don't watch Anime so I don't know anything about the original. However this movie made sure I don't care at all to see the original. As someone who sees this movie as it's own entity, it doesn't hold much water.
The concept of this movie is pretty interesting; a kid finds a book that when he writes someone's name in it, they die. Not the most thought out though. Does it have to be their birth name? What if they had it legally changed? It sounds like stupid nitpicking but a large portion of the plot is based around that kid not knowing someone's real name. Along with a bunch of confusing rules that the movie never cares to explain at all, you sit there the whole time going "why doesn't he just do _____?" Or "Why can't he do that?" It is very frustrating since the premise is all it has going for it. Well that and the death God character Ruik (Ryuk? Riuk? Ryuik? Riyk?) who was played very well and the guy I personally was rooting for the whole time. Back to the premise, of course the book falls into the hands of a kid, who though isn't exactly the "edgy misunderstood kid" stereotype (his girlfriend, however, fits the bill pretty damn well) he is pretty annoying. He is rational until the plot needs him not to be. Also can we have a teenage protagonist for once whose parents are both alive and happily married? Please.
Characters- The characters are pretty bad. Only the main character barely escapes being a poorly fleshed out stereotype. Let's see... edgy teen girlfriend, single father who doesn't understand his son, an over the top bully who resorts to punching people and slapping papers out of people hands, a teacher who doesn't give a rat's ass about his student's well being, it is like I am hitting a cliché checkbox. Then there is L. I have no idea what anybody was thinking when they made this character. He is squats on chairs, eats nothing but candy, and is supposedly a great detective, except he can't figure simple stuff out. As I said, the best character is Riuk, who is well acted, funny, charming, and cool looking. As for the acting, most of the time it is fine but it can get bad quick.
Editing- In the beginning the editing looked like something from a student film. Awful shots, cuts, transitions, you name it. By the end I didn't notice it less. Perhaps they toned it down or maybe I just got used to it.
Pacing- It was fast. It makes no wasted time getting to the book. It is pretty fast however at one point it skipped over a part that seemed much more interesting than what we got to see.
Music- Good Lord... Reread the description of this movie. Now ask yourself what kind of soundtrack this movie should have. Stop right there. You are wrong. 80's Soft Rock and Pop. I mean what the hell was somebody thinking? Now I am not a fan of that kind of music to begin with, however it was so out of place that it was laughably stupid.
In the end this movie is mediocre at best but is worth a watch if the premise sounds interesting. Don't go in with high hopes (or expecting the next Battlefield Earth as some of these reviews would have you expect). All in all it is pretty bad, but nowhere near the travesty followers of the source material would have you believe. Quite honestly the premise of this movie is interesting enough that it could have been much better had it not been chained to a source material, no matter how good that may have been.
Life (2017)
A Surprisingly Good Film If You Don't Look Too Deep Into It
Life is a perfectly adequate movie. I saw it not really not knowing anything about it past it being a thriller/horror film set on the International Space Station involving alien life. If you plan on watching this movie, I recommend you do too. I have heard a lot of different opinions on this movie and I would like to give a comeback to some. There are a good chunk of people giving this movie unrealistically low ratings like a 1 or a 2. I understand the points of view of people who dislike this film, however giving it such a low rating is insulting to the intelligence of anybody reading the reviews of this movie. Even if you hated this movie, you must still admit that there are plenty of things that would elevate this movie above the lowest possible ratings. I will talk about he good, the fine, and the bad about this movie, however the good alone is enough to keep this movie away from cinematic trash like Avatar The Last Airbender and the likes. Also this movie has definite flaws so a 10/10 or even a 9/10 isn't too warranted either, even if you were overjoyed by the movie. Basically I am saying don't listen to either extreme.
Before I get into my lists of positives and negatives, I would also like to address one specific complaint; the professionals act stupid. I personally am the exact kind of person who watches a movie ant thinks, "oh don't go back to save the cat when the ship is about to explode you idiot" or "the chances of that happening are so low it is funny". Hell, when I watched Arrival for the first time (and this isn't really a spoiler because it is literally the opening scene of the film) I thought "oh yay this woman's daughter died of cancer so now they want us to be emotionally invested in the heroine without putting any effort in." And now Arrival is one of my favorite movies of recent memory but I digress. In Life there are plenty of stupid or unrealistic decisions made by people who should know better, but more often than not you have to be actively seeking that kind of stuff to notice it. Unlike many other horror movies where the poor decisions are so blatantly obvious that it could make you laugh (think Prometheus' running in a straight line to avoid a crashing ship when you could run 50 feet to the left or right and be safe) most of the poor decisions made are less obvious. They are certainly there but if you go into this movie wanting to enjoy a movie most will fly right beneath you. Only if you go into this movie looking to actively dislike it will you find the reasons to do so in the first place. The surface stuff is really no more than your average fine to good horror movie.
Now I'll get into the good, the fine, and the bad.
Good: Plot- While the idea of finding alien life and realizing that it doesn't like humans sparking the events of a horror movie is nothing new, however it was done in a new enough manner so I didn't feel as if I was just watching the same movie I have already seen countless times before. Horror- The horror/suspense is actually pretty good. The movie refrains from easy jump scares (there are probably some in there that I have forgotten, however they were never used as a crutch or to the point of being annoying). Back to my point earlier, the suspense and horror mainly derives from the thought of what will happen to our characters. The actors do a fine job of making them likable and if you don't seek to dislike them, you will have an easy enough time attaching to them and worrying for them. Even if you manage to not like the characters, than there is the whole "what happens if this gets to Earth" thing. Effects- There were plenty of special effects in this movie, and at no point did I actively dislike them. Even the big scenes taking place out in space showing the station were good enough to not break my suspension of disbelief. The design of the alien is commendably unique and the effects are enough to do the design justice. The zero gravity was also done very well. Tone- The movie starts off relatively light heatedly enough, showing you the whole "we just found proof of life outside of Earth" elation you would expect. At some point relatively early in the film, there is a scene where it takes the expected turn towards horror/suspense. This particular scene was quite good and it makes that transition feel quite natural. Past that it was pretty consistent.
Fine: Music Pacing Acting Cinematography
Bad: Sound design- There were odd jumps between music and no music, volume got dialed in or back way too quick, and that sort of stuff. At times you couldn't hear what someone was saying and that was quite jarring. Decisions- Some of the more obvious poor decisions made were actually understandable, like under extreme stress, however there were points when characters just did the dumbest stuff without reason.
All in all I would give this movie a 6.5/10 (but IMDb makes me do whole numbers so I will give this movie the befit of the doubt and raise that to a 7). It is a good movie to watch while you are bored on a rainy Sunday. Just don't go into it with any real expectations of it being good or bad and you will get the most enjoyment possible out of it.