It's terribly sad to see comments that are taking the "story" for what it is worth at face value and outright dismissing the movie entirely
As loathe as I am to watch "arthouse" movies, this one certainly struck quite a few chords. The journey of the young, unsure, foolhardy knight and his misplaced sense of honor and the turn he takes into fully accepting his destiny was one I enjoyed very much. The visuals and the sounds did play a large part in it, completely selling the atmosphere of a magical kingdom with swathes of unknown and unexplored mystery. The performances, too, were excellent and Dev Patel was very convincing as Sir Gawain
I'm sorry to say but the story is very, very obvious. As with these "artsy fartsy" movies, the way it is told is what elevates it and here, I feel it was justified and used to great effect. Instead of giving us the straightforward story of Sir Gawain in the ballad, something that has been told for centuries (and something I looked up afterwards because I'm not British or European at all), this movie instead attempts to recontextualise and shroud the entire thing in an air of magic and I found myself enraptured by it
It's the classic tale of a straightforward story told in a convoluted way. As King Arthur says at the very beginning, it was always just a game. What mattered was the journey Gawain took that changed him into someone who would accept what was coming because of his honor. The fox and the mansion were distractions and tried to keep him from achieving his destiny. The sash, given by his mother and returned by the witch in the mansion, was to prevent him harm but it prevented it by making him a coward. What happens after the Knight swings his axe is just the future that awaits for him for his broken oath. He removes the sash, thus letting go of all fears and the Green Knight, satisfied with the man he sees before him, lets him go. The Green Knight was never truly harmed and there was never a reason to harm Gawain either
I loved this movie. It blended the mystical and made for an enthralling journey through beautiful lands and forests and was something truly unique that I appreciate and left me wanting more
Way too on the nose and too much fluff. Not nearly funny enough IMO. Plus "Trump"-esque caricatures are just not funny enough and fairly low hanging fruit even if it's actually realistic at this point. Even the scientists, who we're supposed to be rooting for, are supremely unlikeable and unsympathetic. At least give me someone to root for
Honestly, feels like the writing let down the entire movie cause there's not much else to this
This is a really dumb movie. Funny as hell. Enjoyable for when you really don't want to think
A pretty entertaining and funny mystery. The ending was a little weak but the movie was mostly great. Great performances all around
There are tons of scenes that are entertaining as hell; all funny, heart warming and action packed
Unfortunately, the movie just does not flow well. The whole multi-verse thing makes everything so incredibly messy and muddled. People do things with extremely weak motivations just because the plot demands it. Sure there's a lot of great callbacks to the history of the series but it's really not executed with the finesse that it really deserves. The pacing is completely off in large portions and I cannot help but feel like the movie was created around a solid concept but all the ancillary construction was just cobbled together
It's fine. It tries harder and flies higher than most other Marvel things but unfortunately fell flat for me. But it's fine
Without spoilers, this is a very well constructed movie that I felt wasn't written as well as it thinks it is but it's still a good watch
Now spoilers:
I'm really not particularly a fan of "it was all a dream" endings and this movie seems to have been made in the height of that phenomenon following The Sixth Sense. Despite that, I suppose what elevates this movie significantly and makes the ending work is that the movie never really lies to you. It makes it very apparent very early on that it is a dream. The choices made by the director in the editing, the clever scene transitions and the easter eggs peppered throughout make it very obvious that all is not as it seems and it disorients you constantly
In that way, the movie is very well made. A lot of very clever choices were made and the movie tells a lot just by showing. For eg. for the most part, every scene set in a stairwell is always shown with the characters going down, the use of morph transitions occasionally makes you mistrust what you see and so on
I suppose my big problem is with the writing. Now I didn't really like that the primary POV, that of Doctor Sam was fake. It seemed quite disingenuous that we see Sam losing his mind more so than Henry who gets very little screen time yet is the one who is dreaming. The movie also gave itself away far too early. Maybe it's just me having watched so many movies but it was highly apparent from the first scene of the car crash and Henry walking away that that was what had happened. Any other attempts at trying to convince me, the viewer, that maybe Sam was losing his mind really made no sense and I was expecting Sam to be a figment of his imagination. This meant I was pretty severely disappointed that Sam was a bystander helping out the dying Henry. The ending of Sam asking Lila out was also a very contrived moment that I really disliked and would have worked better if they'd exchanged numbers as witnesses to an accident. The whole movie could have tried to be more subtle but I felt the writing was trying way too hard and going "YOU GET IT YET? YOU GET IT? IT'S A DREAM DO YOU GET IT?" at me without really earning it
I'm going to pretend that I know nothing of what Alex Garland himself has said about this movie and his motivations while writing it. All I've heard is vague bad misinterpretations of what he's said anyhow and I have no interest in doing any further research.
I have a different interpretation of this movie. I don't think it's trying to be "apolitical" or be a centrist stance on anything. I'm not even sure it's trying to be much of a war movie as such or be a study of the United States and divisive politics. I don't even feel like it's a look into "war journalism" and I'm sure actual journalists would be fairly appalled at how they're portrayed and I'm reasonably certain that this is in no way accurate whatsoever. Obviously the movie isn't trying to be left or right wing and is certainly vague about party affiliations but it is also thoroughly unconcerned with trying to explain what happened that led to these events beyond vague, hand wavy concoctions. To me, the ending very much comes across as "you can try your hardest to not care but you will be forced to". I don't think it ends abruptly because it ends when the story does. There's nothing more to discuss because what would inevitably happen happened. The characters are forced to come to grips with what the maelstrom around them as they wade through the muck in the quest for their own brand of thrills. This is simply a character study of a unique set of individuals in an unusual and dangerous situation with the setting simply as set dressing.
Before I go any deeper into my thoughts that are filled with spoilers, I'll give my spoiler free opinions. This was an incredible movie but not without its fumbles. The dialog is not always good and some lines come across as quite goofy. But when it hits, it very much hits it right out of the park. The battle scenes are tense, the music choices are excellent and the performances are absolutely wonderful. Kirsten Dunst is obviously a highlight but Cailee Spiney was a revelation, not having seen her in anything else before this. Jesse Plemons' small role has already been memed into oblivion but with good reason because it certainly is one of the most memorable sequences I can think of. The movie is shot beautifully and it very much is one of the most gorgeous, well shot movies I've seen in recent memory. All that said, it's so hard to recommend this movie to anyone. It's not straightforward or plot driven like most of Alex Garland's previous works (barring Men that I have not watched as of writing this review) but to me, this would certainly count as required viewing if you want to watch a movie unlike any other with fairly unique subject matter and for a masterclass in building tension. Watch it if given the opportunity but do not go in expecting payoffs and action set pieces. This was an extremely thought provoking piece but I don't think it was for the reasons I was expecting. I think I will be thinking about this one for a long time.
Now with the spoilers:
The moment it became clear to me that the movie wasn't trying to be apolitical was when they went arrived at the town out of time. Joe asks the cashier if she knows what's happening around them to which she says "we're trying to stay out of it". This clearly initially comes off as the naive and arrogant retort of someone privileged enough by geography to afford to say that but soon after, the movie shows that the town has taken the violent steps to keep it that way and it did not come about by accident. The town is no apolitical anachronistic paradise but a haven that is enforced through guns and blood spilled conveniently off screen. In a similar vein, none of the characters by the end remain neutral or disconnected from what happens around them. Lee is clearly shaken and can barely do her job in the moments leading up to the invasion of the White House. We do know that she is not immune to the affects of her work but what changes through the runtime is her affinity for Jessie and protecting her as she figuratively passes the torch to her. Lee tried to move with the times and keep herself focused as she adopted the digital camera, struggling to upload her shots through broken wifi, as the new generation comes in with the old film camera to take up her mantle. Joe and Jessie can clearly no longer stay neutral in the conflict as they leave behind Sammy and Lee's corpses and direct their ire towards the President who they probably feel is the reason for their colleagues' deaths and they take satisfaction in almost joyfully covering the President's final moments. "War is bad" seems almost like a trite message to have to be covered in 109 minutes but ultimately that is what I feel the movie is about. It does not matter how many photos you take, the moments that will deeply affect you will remain in your mind forever, needing no reminders and war is a powerful force that will leave an indelible mark on anyone
An incredibly messy and janky script that doesn't know what it wants to be. It's stuck between trying to be a neo-noir detective story and a superhero movie with a supervillain and fails spectacularly at being either and both. So many scenes that are supposed to be tense that have zero stakes set up including the finale, which comes out of nowhere, dramatically raises the stakes with no setup at all and is executed awfully. And so. many. plot. holes.
This isn't a bad movie but it had no right being as long as it did. A tight 2 hour script that ended at a certain point would have made for a perfectly fine detective crime movie with a little bit of the Batman sprinkled in. As it is, it's a really meh film that ruins its own good parts with an equal amount of bad
I'd recommend watching this with subtitles
The story is of course not an original though it's been slightly changed here with some additional characters, some plots removed and some added. Still, not much to talk about the story itself since it's one for the ages and adapted a hundred times. But here it's executed beautifully, dripping with style and incredible performances by all involved, especially Frances McDormand who does a stellar job as Lady Macbeth. It's a classic tale, told well and with panache and flourish
This is genuinely funny at times but during far too much of the movie all I could think of was the subreddit FellowKids. It's fine for what it is and I see some young kids and teenagers having fun with this movie. And I did too to an extent. But the bland, tropey, standard family drama plot of it just didn't sustain my interest. I had a much better time with "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" than this one. This movie is only very slightly "cynical" but I feel CWACOM was just a bit more genuine with its message than this. I think this would be fun for most people but it wasn't for me
One of the worst movies I've had the displeasure of seeing
Acting was probably the only relatively decent thing about the movie. Most of the actors did a good enough job of it
The writing was laughably stupid. I could write a novel with a list of all the plot holes and unexplained events that happen here. The dialog is legitimately terrible at times. The characters behave wildly inconsistently making absolutely brain dead decisions at almost every single moment of the movie. You'd think a zombie movie would have interesting zombies but they're overwritten and somehow overacted. This is nowhere close to being a simple zombie heist movie as was advertised. There's too much going on with so many unnecessary subplots and forced emotional moments trying their hardest to make this a serious movie. The humor is just more crap to the pile that's done poorly
The movie looks awful too. At least with Snyder you sort of think that you'll get a visual spectacle. So many scenes look blurry and out of focus and some of the CGI is legitimately ugly. As is on-brand for Snyder, none of the music is in any way subtle
All in all, this is a Snyder show and it's evident that the guy is a hack who can't write or direct and has continually failed upwards consistently. It's overly long at 2.5 hours which could just as easily have been a more digestible 1.5 hours. And all of it wasted on some of most disgusting, unpalatable writing I've seen in a movie
An absolutely dull and lifeless, joyless remake of a classic. There's really no reason you should be watching this. The choice to make it live action with actual animals completely ruins the emotional weight of anything because the characters barely emote at anything. Obviously the reason you anthropomorphize these animals to an extent is so you connect better with them which is completely gone in this movie
This is just another one in a glut of live-action Disney trash and has no business existing
A great mix of fun and pulpy murder mystery that harkens heavily to the days of Agatha Christie's enthralling mysteries. Unfortunately, while evocative of that type of roller coaster, it falters in its execution with a less than ideal pacing and some weird choices in editing and direction that take it a little too far in that direction which makes it seem almost farcical. If the direction was held back just a tad, it might have been one for the ages. Alas, it was a bit too self-indulgent which gave the game away
Pretty funny and entertaining first half that gives way to a boring, trite, rushed second half. It's ok. It's really not as bad as people say but it's not particularly good either. I think the worst thing about it is how poor the action is compared to the originals. At the very least, it's not a brainless cash grab. It's an extremely self aware movie, using an almost mocking tone for the first half, being quite vicious at people worshipping the original trilogy. That stuff makes for a very fun first half. I suppose if you can watch this at home with your subscription, give it a try
Fairly simple romcom with some twists. It doesn't do anything particularly original but is simply a predictable but fun romp. Pretty damn funny at times. Instead of the usual meet-cute stuff it's a bit more of two mildly shitty people finding out about each other over some time. Fun and cute
Watching this in 2021, so many movies have done a similar concept better especially because the movie isn't scary now. But props have to be given for the film that got the ball rolling. A fairly well written, well constructed, sad story with a lot of great performances that deserves a watch at least once for all fans of film
An extremely fast-paced action packed high concept spy thriller that masks its utterly mundane and bland story with time travel shenanigans and not ever really explaining itself. But entertaining for what it is and enjoyable enough. Score was excellent but for some reason, the editing was actually AWFUL in certain parts.
I'll say the movie is actually not all that confusing though it does try to confuse you. People who watch sci-fi and read other time travel stuff will see the twists coming a mile away. The rest of the plot is relatively easy to follow if you just accept the premise
So many action set pieces where I am in complete awe at even trying to think of how it was accomplished. A non-stop intense thrill ride that starts at 60 and only stops at the very end.
Another work of visual and aural art par excellence by the famed Studio Ghibli. Do not come in expecting linear, standard plot or narrative because the movie does not bother with it. It is entirely based on vibes and is mostly an allegorical tale of overcoming grief and sparing the next generation the sins of the past and leaving them to build themselves a better future. A lot of the themes beyond the personal struggles of a young, lost boy are fairly explicitly anti-war and anti-nationalism with the writer pushing for the new generation to imagine a world beyond what the ancestors of yore struggled created.
The pacing could have used some tightening since almost all of the first half is very slow setup that soaks in WW2 era countryside Japan which is only tolerable because of the beautiful, signature Ghibli aesthetic. The second half picks up and never really stops until the very end and this could have been two thirds of the movie with a shorter runtime. I can't say I was ever really bored but I did find myself wondering when the movie would move to the next major plot point for a significant chunk.
I'll be completely honest: I am a little disappointed
To get it out of the way, in terms of presentation, this movie is impeccable. The visuals, sound, music, acting, everything is perfect. The experience of watching the movie was exhilarating on every level
All my complaints lie with the pacing and the plot. Without spoiling anything, this is the second part of a trilogy and it shows. The pacing in the first 2/3rds left me wondering how much would happen in the last third and my fears were not unfounded. There's a lot that is skipped over and rushed through and some plot points make no sense because there is no time to go over any of it. The movie ends clearly setting up a grand finale and while the tone is perfectly conveyed, it is still quite messy and leaves much to be desired in terms of delivering a more structured and cohesive journey for Paul.
I look forward to the next installment and will do another rewatch of the two movies but I genuinely wish I liked it more. The presentation was enough to gloss over the flaws but I like this less than the first one
While this does pretend to have a story of sorts, it knows not to take it too far and uses it for the base purposes of building the "motivations" for the next action set piece. As is now becoming tradition for this series, the obligatory single camera shot is longer, more wild and more thrilling than ever. Had a fun time for what it is, an action thriller with brutal combat and lots of bullets
incredibly funny, uniquely brilliant and quite poignant. As usual, with most movies like this, it's about love and family and other sappy stuff. But wrapped in a bunch of complete nonsense that's hilarious and like nothing else
Every cliché under the sun and style over substance all the way. An incredibly basic story told for almost an hour too long. It's not bad at all. Just bog standard and predictable and overstays its welcome. But pretty good music all the way through
The thrilling, breathtaking science fiction movie of this generation. Characters were a bit stilted and the pacing was a bit off at times. Other than that, I can find nothing to criticize. Jaw dropping cinematography, excellent acting, amazing special effects and a score to wrap it all in mystique. An almost perfect movie and leaves you thirsty for the next one. This deserves to be watched in the theatres
Edit: watched it a second time in 2024 before part 2. What a movie oof. Simply superb
A somewhat meh third act does not ruin the fact that this film is genuinely funny throughout, unrepentantly gory, irreverent in so many ways and truly defines the "Suicide Squad". A well written, raucously fun romp through some excellent action, memorable anti-heroes and some of the most self aware comic book nonsense we've ever seen. I don't want to blithely bring Marvel into this but this is definitely the refresher that we need
An actually pretty creepy and intense horror movie. Definitely deserves to be one of the "cult classics" though the very end could have been structured a bit differently to make it more solid.
The visuals, set design and effects were top notch considering this was a film made even before the matrix and for a movie set in '97 it actually makes space quite believable. The writing was fairly solid and tight. Very few wasted scenes or dialog though some characters like Cooper really felt out of place. The actors acted the shit out of their roles and were completely believable as stranded and terrified crew in an alien situation. The plot, though not particularly smart, actually tries its best to keep things going, keep the tension building and the terror as real as possible. The premise itself requires some suspension of disbelief but for what it is, it stays fairly solid through most of it. There are barely any jump scares and instead relies more on psychological horror to keep you on the edge of your seat but the directing pretty much got in the way at the end trying to make for an explosive finale in what should have been a more slow burn of a horror ending considering how the movie tries to take its time for the rest of it. The sound design was probably the weakest aspect and the foley towards the end was pretty damn bad
I really enjoyed this one. Really tight movie and a must watch for fans of horror
The monster fights were fun and uninterrupted and extremely well executed. As usual most of the human stuff was horribly written but it felt like a lot of that was self-aware and disposable enough to easily ignore and some of the human plot was actually somewhat relevant to the story. A really fun movie with a ton of great monster-on-monster action and fights that look and sound spectacular
But please FFS can we stop with the Millie Bobby Brown character? Her cohort and her were incredibly annoying and their entire subplot could have been removed completely and it would take away nothing. Or maybe give her a better personality and something more sensible to do than what he got
There's maybe 10 minutes of uninterrupted monster-on-monster action. There's a point in the movie where I audibly groaned when the monster fight was literally obscured by the ass end of a plane filled with boring humans acting out their terrible underwritten plot. The human element only serves to obscure and obfuscate the monster action. At no point are we ever left to just watch two monsters duking it out. I understand the need for the stories of the people involved cause it brings the story of the titans to a more relatable level but you could not have a worse, more cliched, more stupid way to do it. None of the characters were in any way contributing to the movie and the dialog was awful
I watched this only for full context before watching Godzilla vs Kong. On almost every level other than the CGI it sucks
Definitely a Coen Brothers thing. A bunch of dark comedy "shorts" with a vague sense of the supernatural all ending unexpectedly and randomly without any firm answers or conclusions. Pretty original and worth a watch if you're already a fan of the Coen brothers
Not so much a horror movie as an incredibly well crafted period movie about puritanical New England settlers and their struggles in the face of adversity. The whole movie is tense and this is stretched tight at all times. Don't expect conventional "horror"
