seanmartin-97794 Reviews

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Authentic

[10/10 · 15 May 2022]

I've seen most (good) horror movies and become desensitised to most jumpscare fodder out there. However, Blair Witch remains authentically terrifying due to its unique constitution.

As it was made from so little, with nobody actors abs no major studio behind it, no other film could recreate how real this feels, as the Hollywood lenses are stripped and the footage looks like something you could shoot at your local woods.

This enhances the horror, as by being so grounded in reality, the anticipation of seeing the witch is so much higher as it feels more real, and therefore something that could exist in real life, only exacerbated by the richly cultiva d backstory.

Every jerk of the camera, every noise, every sudden silence only raises the tension. The minimalism of the threats they do encounter only make it feel realer, as instead of flying broomsticks or things to be dismissed as fiction, the clues the witch leave behind remain supernatural enough yet also real enough to play on your mindThis is the first movie to scare me in a long time, remaining in my mind long after the final unforgettable frames.

Best watched 12 at night in pitch black.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)

(Go) touch Grass

[7/10 · 15 May 2022]

In a nutshell that's it. That's the ending. The whole movie is a metaphor to stop using evangelion as escapism and go outside, with Shinji ridding the world of evas in whatever impact is the last one and creating a new world - our reality - without evangelion.

Though I found this revelation quite funny, this extended metaphor means the movie slowly abandons any decent storytelling and becomes too 'meta.' It's a shame as it almost feels like the equivalent of episodes 25+26 to the rebuilds while the first 2/3 of Thrice and other 3 rebuild movies promise an outcome more grounded in reality akin to End of Evangelion.

Also the Mari character is pointless as her entire character has no arc and just acts as an ex machina/Mary sue when the story deems fit.

Overall not a bad movie, and a funny message, but goes waaaaay too metaphorical to provide a satisfactory ending. If you want a fulfilling ending to a incredible franchise, End of Evangelion remains superior.

Scream (I) (2022)

Requel inception

[2/10 · 15 March 2022]

The trend of Absurdist/painfully meta movies in Hollywood has produced some of the worst movies this past year including Matrix 4 and Don't look up.

Though the plot has some decent ideas like making her the bastard of Billie Loomis, it leaves these ideas undeveloped for a run of the mill scream movie. However, though other run of the mill scream movies like 3/4 were just mediocre, this was borderline awful. The characters have zero depth, the dialogue and one liners sounded like they were written by studio interns and the final act reached a level of 'requel inception' where it passes the point of being clever to unbearable (Jamie scene).

The satire is just obnoxious by act 3, and the killers if you singled out every character are literally the 2 most boring picks as they are given the least back story and basically have the same motive as in scream 2.

They wasted bringing back the og cast for such a godawful script, as this entry could have been forgetton if not for killing Dewey for no real reason. The only way scream 5 could have been justified is by fulfilling the Dewey was the third killer theory which filled the plot holes in the first movie. The motivation was there, as they make clear at the start of this film, and you could've thrown in his obsession for Sydney too. This could have lead to some original ideas and better satire, like how they ironically ripped off the end of scary movie 1. Instead we got this piece of garbage.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997)

The Good Ending?

[10/10 · 28 February 2022]

Though tonally it is very bleak, and the human instrumentality project comes to fruition, the ending in the series episode 26 is far darker below the surface as though it ends on a happy note with Shinji accepting himself and coming to peace with everyone around him, humanity has effectively ended without the audience even seeing how.

As dark as it is, end of Evangelion showcases the Instrumentality project In all its morbid detail, but even though Shinji decides to end humanity, it arguably has the happier ending from my perspective.

Throughout the last few episodes of the show and start of this movie, there is a sense of nihilism and acceptance the world is ending, with this ongoing theme of rebirth reminiscent of the 1991 masterpiece Akira. Most the characters we come to care about die fulfilling deaths in this finale, but unlike in the show Shinji and Asuka survive instrumentality - with Asuka coming back from the dead - with the opportunity for other humans to rematerialise too, and the hope humans can understand - and love each other, like the 16th angel tells Shinji, a far more poignant relevation than shinji merely learning to love himself in the series finale.

Unlike the rebuilds which demote Asuka to a side character, or the original run that leaves her arc unfinished, EOE builds her up into a fully fledged protagonist, and the completion of her arc yields one of the best moments in the entire series. The exploration of her dynamic with Shinji is much more interesting than Gendo/shinji which 3.0+1 focuses on instead, as they have a multifaceted relationship built up over the series which determines the course of instrumentality, while Gendo/Shinji's relationship simply boils down to dead wife/daddy issues.

My interpretation for why Shinji enacts instrumentality is before shinji enacts instrumentality, he has visions of Asuka and strangles her. However, as the chambers of guf (where people's souls are) haven't opened yet, and we see Asuka's death, I believe this shows Shinji is not interacting with the real her (as she is dead and her soul is not accessible) and everything he sees here is a vision as a result of his depleted mental health (which is literally at 0 in this scene). As he doesn't believe he is capable of being loved, his vision of her rejects him, so he strangles her in retaliation, commencing instrumentality.

When they both rematerialise on the beach, he believes this scenario was an interaction with the real Asuka - not his imagination - so he strangles her again as this anger resurfaces. However, her reaching out to him displays they both understand the affection for one another, and that unlike he thought, he is capable of being loved. As they both understand each other in this moment, it symbolises the hope Kaworu talks about prior to this. Though her last line to him is calling him 'disgusting' this is simply dark humour as Shinji was begging her to call him names while she was in a coma.

This Ending surpasses the rebuilds and original final episodes as it finishes the story of evangelion while remaining grounded in reality, while the other endings become too entrenched in metaphors. This, is the Best Ending of Evangelion.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996)

24 incredible episodes -

[9/10 · 28 February 2022]

• we don't talk about 25/26 though. I can't see why people take the series ending to be the 'happier' ending as though Shinji accepts himself, Humanity is effectively destroyed in the most annoyingly meta way possible, and the series becomes too far removed from itself jumping the shark during the school segment of the ultimate episode. The best way to watch Evangelion imo is to watch up to episode 24, then watch The End of Evangelion movie which consists of alternate episodes 25/26 happening in the real world. Though it does take a dive into the meta, it is more grounded and makes sense considering the subtext of the finalé. Even though tonally it is a lot bleaker, the ending itself below the surface instils a lot more hope, with Asuka and Shinji realising their affection for each other as the sole survivors of the biblical apocalypse, while in the series technically nobody survives.

No Time to Die (2021)

False advertising

[5/10 · 9 October 2021]

Bro how is Ana De Armas 2nd top billed casting and only has a solid 5 mins screen time + spearheading all the promotional material second only to Daniel Craig?

Also plot was a mess, dialogue nowhere near as sharp as previous instalments, romance with the french chick felt unbelievable as they had nowhere near the chemistry he had with the likes of vesper, and the villain just felt like a rehash of sky fall with the whole 'we are the same James' schtick. Final act was solid tho tbf so not a complete wash.

Black Panther (2018)

So sick of Marvel can't this phase just die already

[5/10 · 7 June 2021]

I went to see Black Panther along with my friends, and following the hype train we were excited to see it. However, following the showing we were all dissapointed by a mess of a movie with little plot and little thought which only served as a pit stop for infinity war.

The critics have vastly overrated this movie due to its groundbreaking cast, but the movie itself is not at all groundbreaking. Littered with all the boring Marvel clichés I have come to know and hate, such as their inability to kill off any hero's to add gravitas to their story, or the one dimensional villain who only exists for one movie so you know they will kill him off before the next, Black panther is also plagued by new problems no one but me seemed to notice. For example, the CGI was awful in the action scenes: whenever someone was even prodded, they would go flying across the screen in the most outlandish fashion, and the plot was torn straight out of the Lion King, as well as having the biggest waste of Martin Freeman since those Vodafone adverts.

Overall, I believe my dissapointment for this movie is fuelled by the marvel cinematic universe, as I feel sick of the movies they are pumping out like an industrial machine, as they all feel the same with little originality. I can only hope the bubble will burst sometime soon, and bring back true standalone movies which don't need a cinematic universe. Overrated and overhyped.

Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

Worst Sequel of all time and I've seen Star Wars 7-9

[1/10 · 10 February 2021]

I could rant about how bad this movie is but I won't, just watch pacific rim 1 instead. Hopefully Guillermo del Toro makes a real sequel as this one doesn't exist in my mind.

Sinister (I) (2012)

Chilling

[9/10 · 20 October 2019]

Watched this film on Netflix as I'd heard half decent things about it and nothing else good was one. Surprised us all how terrifying it was. The videos shown throughout the film make it feel more genuine and keep the atmosphere genuinely chilling throughout, and The minimalism of the Antagonist's prescience in the film helped bring tensions to boiling point, helped by the fact the Antagonist was one of the creepiest characters in recent horror, with the obscured images of him in the background making you feel paranoid of being watched. Ethan Hawke puts up a brilliant performance and I would recommend this as the scariest film of Netflix as of me writing this.