Oblivion never registered on my radar since its release for an off-putting reason that's not relevant to anything in this review. It finally found its way into my watchlist, nearly 9 years later, courtesy of Amazon Prime's recommendations based on my recent streak of fantasy and sci-fi viewings. I caved in and went ahead with the intention of turning it off the moment I felt the movie (inevitably) lost my attention.
I watched Oblivion not knowing anything about it. All I saw before I hit play was the poster of Tom Cruise holding a futuristic gun. I had no idea if it's an action film, a stylized fantasy drama, or some sort of a futuristic detective story. I never saw the original trailer. Never heard anyone talk about it. Didn't read a word of the synopsis. I went in with nothing.
The film blew me away. Despite a number of issues, including a flawed premise, Oblivion delivered something captivating enough to be watched again. It's a beautiful and hauntingly atmospheric film. The post-apocalyptic landscapes are a perfect combination of complexity and minimalism. The story, despite its issues, is refreshing. And the soundtrack dug right into my soul.
And then, during my post-viewing research ritual, I made a surprising discovery. Oblivion's original marketing completely spoiled the film. CinemaSins (a guilty pleasure of mine) pointed out that the audience was already aware that the scavengers are humans. Most marketing material alluded to the fact that Jack is suspicious of the mission entirely, and that command (Tet) are not who he thinks they are. I was astounded by this.
This reality completely changes the dynamic of the film. It also completely invalidates a recurring complaint (also pointed out by CinemaSins) that Jack repeating the premise of the story to Julia is completely redundant.
To me, the viewer who knew nothing about the story, the first 5-10 minutes of the film established that the story will revolve around the remaining alien scavengers' attempts at sabotaging Jack and Vika's predeparture mission. Instead, when the drones started executing the survivors of the Odyssey, I was presented with a proper plot twist. From there, despite somewhat unrefined script, everything just kept on pulling me deeper and deeper into an already very atmospheric film.
I know that marketing movies is challenging, especially to the North American audience, but I'm still surprised, even shocked, by how different my experience was compared to those who were expo
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Trigger warning: GORE.
Why is today the first I've heard of this movie?! I'm not sure yet if it gets the legendary 5 out of 4 stars from me, but it is a solid 4 out of 4 stars in that it deftly accomplishes what it set out to. Certainly should be considered for the top 5 best werewolf movies ever made. More of a terror (gore) movie, but flavored heartily with a horror ("humanity"?) plot.
Jodorowsky’s “Dune” could’ve been as influential as Kubrick’s "2001" or George Lucas’ "Star Wars" (which it would’ve beat to the cinema by a year or two). The cadre of talent assembled for this production all shared a passion for Jodorowsky’s “Dune”, and they each carried aspects of that unmade movie into their later works. Never before (or since) has an aborted film been so seminal to future science-fiction and fantasy filmmaking as Jodorowsky’s “Dune”.
Oh, and if any talented animators with connections to Warner Bros Studios have seen the documentary? Jodorowsky’s own idea of making an animated feature film based on Moebius’ storyboards remains a lower-risk, practical option of realizing Jodorowsky’s vision while he’s still around to act as consultant. Just saying…
For fans of “Dune,” science fiction artwork, and film production, Frank Pavich’s documentary of “Jodorowsky’s Dune” is not to be missed.
Hi there. I'm trying to find the title of a Turkish film I watched on a Turkish airlines flight to Istanbul in early 2013.
Things I remember:
- The film was contemporary. Couldn't have been more than 5-10 years old I think, at the most.
- It was Turkish. I watched subtitled in English.
- It was a story about a man who falls in love with a woman in maybe the 50s? Maybe pre war? Period piece, but the exact period escapes me
- They, at some point, live in a train car that's parked?
- He gifts her a bird in a cage?
- they have a son, who at the end becomes the focus of the story
- The wife/mom dies tragically and the father raises him alone
- The dad is a jovial, loving dude, reminiscent of Benigni in life is beautiful
- Dad had a flawless Turkish mustache
- At some point dad is struggling with either threats of or actually getting fired due to communist sympathies. Pretty sure he was a teacher at a school.
- At the end the boy is a teen and there is some struggle with deciding to chase his love interest and not miss his Chance which his dad supports, but I'm really, really fuzzy here
\"I think it's drawing on all mythology; comic book, religion, ancient, philosophical.\" Zack Snyder
The Man of Steel as the Beast of Iron. Released on June 14, to sync with Donald Trump's day of birth...
The age old Superman story ‘Man of Steel’ features themes that relate to world domination and the take-over of Earth by an outside force that yet again is looking to rescue its own source of power, its ‘own world’ by trashing another planet, in this case our domain - Earth.
The original story of Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, both from Jewish migrant families, tells of an alien child (a god) born to Earth from a distant planet called Krypton. In fact, the original ideas for the story were more about the ‘reign of the Superman’ from the comic The Advance Guard of Future Civilization #3, a fanzine published by Siegel in 1933 (below). The German Nazi obsession for ‘the Supermen’ is worth noting. Of course long before Superman was a comic book concept, the 'arch black magician' Aleister Crowley was writing about ‘Supermen’ in 1917 in his work Moon Child. Just like Superman, Crowley seemed to get all over the world at the turn of the 20th Century. The character Lex Luthor (played by Kevin Spacey) looks a bit Crowley-like. Fact and the fiction have merged here. More on that can be found in this sub.
The Magician, genius, arch villain, scientist is interested in the Superman.
According to the story Superman, or Kal-El, was born on the planet Krypton, before being rocketed to Earth as an infant by his scientist/Leader father Jor-El, (more on EL later) moments before Krypton's destruction. The latest depiction of Jor–El (played by the actor Russell Crowe) and Krypton’s high council are visually symbolic of the Ruling El-ite that we find on ancient Earth, from Sumeria to Egypt and beyond. The regalia and thrones of the High elders of Krypton are no doubt inspired by the imagery and history of the ancient El-ite bloodlines on Earth.
https://preview.redd.it/gwdgfvj8i1381.png?width=955&format=png&auto=webp&s=a822c3f254b319d0982c7cd47a74ead021822db4
Krypton and the Genesis Chamber
The film starts on the Planet Krypton, where Lara LorVan, t
... keep reading on reddit ➡Just watched this movie thinking it was gonna be another terribly made horror film, but wow. This movie slaps!
It starts off pretty slow but near the midpoint of the movie I found myself really invested. But man, the last 15 minutes of this film is actually some of the best horror I’ve seen in a while. It’s one of the first films that made me feel disturbed by the end of it.
Would highly recommend if you don’t mind found footage!
One of those 'you can't miss this' links in Flipboard talked about Coherence. It's on Prime so I checked it out. Wow! Glad I did. Well written, well acted, well shot; it sucks you in and doesn't let go. No spoilers from me. Check it out. Highly rated and worth all the stars. Emily Foxler stood out for me. Some actors use facial expressions instead of acting. She is an excellent actor AND uses expressions to let us know what she's thinking or seeing.
Parts of it seem adlib but it's hard to tell what's scripted and what's just tossed in. Either way, it works. There's one thing that is a bit dated but that's it. I think it will stand the test of time. It's a 'do not miss ' in my opinion.
Going through Ethan Hawke's filmography, I realized that the man has had 19 positively reviewed films between 2013 and 2020 [and that's not counting the commercially successful and well liked Purge (2013) or 10000 Saints, which was moderately well-received (58% on RT)]
I've watched at least a half of these films and Good Kill, Born to be Blue, Maggie's Plan, In a Valley of Violence, 24 Hours to live, Truth and Adopt a Highway are all good to great films that are severely under-watched.
Richard Doty, a special agent for the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, would push disinformation using the online persona "Request Anonymous". He tricked many in the UFO community into believing that the deep state was in communication with aliens from the planet "Serpo". I see this as similar to QAnon which also adds the Satanic Panic aspect.
https://preview.redd.it/11x5r4pq8n781.jpg?width=1240&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30112cdfb2e907c078cccaf051a6b5e242624b76
With the crazy popularity of Squid Game, I thought I'd recommend one of my favorite movies that stars Lee Jung Jae (and other big korean names). The dynamic and events between the undercover cop (jung jae), his handler (min sik), and another crime boss (jung min) keeps you so invested in the plot , and the whole thing wraps up with a IMHO really satisfying and poetic ending.
For anyone who's just getting into Korean films, or just loves the Infernal Affairs/ Departed flavor of concept, I'd recommend checking it out. Not to mention it's free to watch on Youtube right now. Just make sure to sick around for the after credit scene - it's a real cherry on top.
Edit: lol it's not actually a post credit scene it's just at the end. I'm a dum-dum. (watched it years ago).
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