In honor of tonight's 'super moon', and because my brother has been asking me to watch this movie for months, I decided to watch the 2009 film Moon. Directed by first-time director Duncan James, Moon stars Sam Rockwell, Robin Chalk, Kaya Scodelario, and Kevin Spacey as the voice of GERTY. In the movie, Rockwell plays Sam Bell, an astronaut working for an energy company on the moon to help harvest helium-3 for use on Earth. Bell's only contact on the station is with a supercomputer called GERTY, and as such he leads an existence of near solitude. But things are looking up for Bell, as the end of his three year stint is coming soon, and Bell looks forward to reuniting with his family on Earth. However, a crash in a lunar car complicates things, and Bell is left to wonder whether he will ever return to Earth. A few notes about this film, and there probably will be SPOILERS, so read carefully.
- From the start of the film, you can tell that Jones was greatly inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. For one thing, both films are set on the moon, with space stations that look somewhat similar to each other. Also, the sense of loneliness in space is a theme explored in both movies. But the most obvious similarity is that both films have a super computer running the space station, as GERTY is quite similar to 2001's HAL 9000. In interviews after the film, Jones admits that he was greatly inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey (and other films). Also, Jones's father was inspired in his musical career by the same film. Jones's father, by the way, is David Bowie.
- GERTY, voiced by Spacey, is not just a simple HAL 9000 clone. True, the computer has a giant glowing light (blue in GERTY's case, compared to the red light in HAL 9000), but GERTY also comes with a smiley face emoticon screen that can mimic emotions based on how Sam is feeling at the moment. At one point, GERTY even sheds an imaginary tear. More importantly, whereas HAL became self aware and started doing things to serve it's own purposes, GERTY remains completely loyal to Sam throughout the movie, even if its action hurts the company that designed him. A question for those that have seen this movie: Do we ever find out what GERTY stands for? I mean, I just watched the film, then tried to look it up on the internet, but I've come up empty. How peculiar.
- With only eight actors in the entire film, and every other actor either only supplying a voice or on the screen for less than two minutes, this is a vehicle entirely driven by the acting skill of Sam Rockwell. Whereas some actors may take a role like this and drive the movie off a cliff, Rockwell not only stays on the road, but he also wins the big race with his performance here (enough driving references for you?). Rockwell is given a challenging role, with little or no on-screen help, and excels at it. Rockwell's so good in this film that it makes me wonder just how in the world he didn't get at least a Best Actor nomination from the Academy in 2009. I mean, surely Rockwell did better in this film than Morgan Freeman in Invictus or George Clooney in Up In The Air? Besides, they already have their Oscars.
- Despite a budget of only $5 million, Jones and his special effects crew did a fantastic job of showing their vision of a moon populated by an energy plant. Jones and crew are able to create a setting that looks both futuristic and realistic, and use the blank surfaces of the moon and the empty feeling of the space station to add tension to the film. As for the plot, Jones and writer Nathan Parker come up with a story that is kind of hard to follow at the beginning, but ultimately starts to make sense towards the middle of the film. However, there are a couple of plot holes that I found somewhat unexplained, which I won't discuss here because I don't want to spoil the film too much.
- Here's another question for people that have seen this movie: Is it just me, or did anybody else find the ending to be a bit rushed and anticlimactic? Personally, I was kind of interested in what would happen after the climatic event, but other than a few voices gabbing, we don't really get a whole lot of answers. Also, did anyone else find that song that they kept using in every major scene a bit annoying? I know I started to get tired of it after the seventh time I heard it.
Overall, Moon's not the perfect movie, but it is a movie definitely worth seeing. Jones did a heck of a job as director, especially considering this was his first feature film, and Rockwell gives the best performance of his career as Sam Bell. Overall, I'd give Moon a 7.95 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this review, or ideas for a future review, then please feel free to share those thoughts either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Canon Movie Review: The Matrix Revolutions
Here is a review of a movie I refused to see in theaters after being so disappointed in the film's predecessor, Matrix Reloaded, although I did see it later on DVD. However, that was like five years ago, so I decided to give The Matrix Revolutions another chance because, honestly, I really didn't remember a lot about it. Anyway, The Matrix Revolutions is the final film of the Matrix Trilogy. Released in 2003, the movie was written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers (although now one of them is technically a sister, but that's not relevant here) and stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Hugo Weaving, and a whole lot of other people. In The Matrix Revolutions, Neo (Reeves) and his girl Trinity (Moss) choose to stop the evil that is agent Smith (Weaving), who seems hell-bent on destroying everything in its path, while everyone else retreats to the great city of Zion to defend the town against the invading machines that control the Matrix. A few notes about this film, and there will be SPOILERS, so if you haven't seen the movie, read carefully.
- What's strange about The Matrix Revolutions is that hardly any of the film takes place in the actual Matrix itself. About 85 percent of the movie takes place in the 'real' world controlled by machines, most of it either concentrated on the machines' attack of the dock of Zion or Niobe (Pinkett-Smith) and Morpheus' (Fishburne) attempt to sneak their ship into Zion through a mechanical line. As a result, this film is probably the least impressive of the three Matrix films as far as action is concerned, and unfortunately, the story is not nearly compelling enough to make up the deficit.
- In the original Matrix movie, the plot revolved almost entirely around Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus. In the second film, it was pretty much more of the same. However, in The Matrix Revolutions, Morpheus and Trinity take a major step back, as all Morpheus does for the most part is co-pilot Niobe's ship and sit back while everybody else goes to war, and Trinity is merely a supporting player in Neo's flight to the machine city. Even Neo is not immune from this shift, as he goes at least 45 minutes straight without being featured in a scene. Instead of focusing on the characters we all know, the Wachowski brothers focused large amounts of screen time on such characters as Sati, Captain Mifune, and the Kid (yes, that's what he was credited as), characters that either serve no purpose (Sati) or we have no idea who they are, so we really don't care what happens to them.
- For all the talk about how philosophically deep The Matrix trilogy is, this movie bludgeons the viewer over the head in explaining it's underlying themes. Neo is presented as a Christ-like savior, as a lot of the dialogue is spent on characters either expressing faith in Neo as the 'Chosen One' or people doubting that he is what he's supposedly proclaimed to be, and the film even has Neo assume a cross-like pose towards the end of the movie. Also, every character in the first thirty minutes or so just can't help but mention that Neo and Trinity are so in love with each other that they'd die for each other, and Agent Smith spends most of his screen time mocking human emotions such as love. There's also a lot of allusions to the importance of choice and free-will, as the Oracle spends most of her time in this movie telling characters to make their own decisions.
- Even though this movie seems to try it's hardest not to let their best actors shine, there are a couple of highlights to speak of. Weaving as Agent Smith is just as evil and compelling as ever, although after a while his ad naseum talk of the inferiority of humans becomes a little tiresome. Also a highlight is Ian Bliss as Bane, the soilder who is taken over by Agent Smith in the real world. Bliss does a nearly spot-on impression of Weaving, and seems even more menacing in doing it. What's interesting about Bane's metamorphasis into Smith is that it takes forever for Neo to realize what's actually happened. You would think he would get after the sixth time Bane calls him Mr. Anderson, but not our man Neo. As far as Reeves' performance, it was about what you would expect.
- As I mentioned before, the action sequences in the Matrix Revolutions were the weakest of the three Matrix movies. The shootout with Trinity and company at the Merovingian's nightclub was poorly-lit and the camera shook so much that you couldn't tell what was going on. Meanwhile, the climatic fight scene between Smith and Neo looked cool, but basically followed the same pattern for 15 minutes (exchange of strikes, big punch that knocks both men back and causes an earthquake, flying towards each other, repeat). The best action scenes were probably the scenes where the machines come in to Zion's walls and meet resistance by these giant robot looking crafts with machine guns called APUs, although it kind of lost its luster after 20 minutes or so.
- Before I conclude this review, I want to talk about the ending, which although it's presented as happy and all seems to leave the humans back at square one. Yes, Smith is dead, but so is their Chosen One and while the machines retreated from Zion due to Neo's actions in getting rid of Smith, they still not only killed lots of people and destroyed a huge chunk of Zion, but also still have the majority of humans plugged into the Matrix and still harvest them for energy. However, it does somewhat leave the door open for a sequal when the Oracle mentiones to Sati that perhaps we will see Neo again (even though I don't see how that's possible).
Overall, I will say that I liked this movie more than The Matrix Reloaded. Then again, that's damning with faint praise since I strongly dislike Reloaded. Both movies would have probably been better as one movie and at least half the scenes in each movie could have been cut out, but sometimes art is sacrificed for profits, and this is the case here. As far as Revolutions goes, the main problems were that it decided to shift the focus away from the characters so vital to the Matrix franchise and center large parts of the story around characters which they really didn't even bother explaining their importance to the story. Plus, the whole idea of the humans and machines somehow teaming up to save the world flies against the original notion of the series, which was basically man vs. machine, and really makes the machines' attack on Zion seem like a waste of energy in retrospect. The action scenes were hit-or-miss, the acting was decent at best, and the film was as subtle as a sledgehammer. Overall, it's not the worst sequel ever, but it's not all that great either. I'd give it a 4 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you any ideas for future posts, or thoughts about this post, than either leave a comment on the blog or send them to me at e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
- What's strange about The Matrix Revolutions is that hardly any of the film takes place in the actual Matrix itself. About 85 percent of the movie takes place in the 'real' world controlled by machines, most of it either concentrated on the machines' attack of the dock of Zion or Niobe (Pinkett-Smith) and Morpheus' (Fishburne) attempt to sneak their ship into Zion through a mechanical line. As a result, this film is probably the least impressive of the three Matrix films as far as action is concerned, and unfortunately, the story is not nearly compelling enough to make up the deficit.
- In the original Matrix movie, the plot revolved almost entirely around Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus. In the second film, it was pretty much more of the same. However, in The Matrix Revolutions, Morpheus and Trinity take a major step back, as all Morpheus does for the most part is co-pilot Niobe's ship and sit back while everybody else goes to war, and Trinity is merely a supporting player in Neo's flight to the machine city. Even Neo is not immune from this shift, as he goes at least 45 minutes straight without being featured in a scene. Instead of focusing on the characters we all know, the Wachowski brothers focused large amounts of screen time on such characters as Sati, Captain Mifune, and the Kid (yes, that's what he was credited as), characters that either serve no purpose (Sati) or we have no idea who they are, so we really don't care what happens to them.
- For all the talk about how philosophically deep The Matrix trilogy is, this movie bludgeons the viewer over the head in explaining it's underlying themes. Neo is presented as a Christ-like savior, as a lot of the dialogue is spent on characters either expressing faith in Neo as the 'Chosen One' or people doubting that he is what he's supposedly proclaimed to be, and the film even has Neo assume a cross-like pose towards the end of the movie. Also, every character in the first thirty minutes or so just can't help but mention that Neo and Trinity are so in love with each other that they'd die for each other, and Agent Smith spends most of his screen time mocking human emotions such as love. There's also a lot of allusions to the importance of choice and free-will, as the Oracle spends most of her time in this movie telling characters to make their own decisions.
- Even though this movie seems to try it's hardest not to let their best actors shine, there are a couple of highlights to speak of. Weaving as Agent Smith is just as evil and compelling as ever, although after a while his ad naseum talk of the inferiority of humans becomes a little tiresome. Also a highlight is Ian Bliss as Bane, the soilder who is taken over by Agent Smith in the real world. Bliss does a nearly spot-on impression of Weaving, and seems even more menacing in doing it. What's interesting about Bane's metamorphasis into Smith is that it takes forever for Neo to realize what's actually happened. You would think he would get after the sixth time Bane calls him Mr. Anderson, but not our man Neo. As far as Reeves' performance, it was about what you would expect.
- As I mentioned before, the action sequences in the Matrix Revolutions were the weakest of the three Matrix movies. The shootout with Trinity and company at the Merovingian's nightclub was poorly-lit and the camera shook so much that you couldn't tell what was going on. Meanwhile, the climatic fight scene between Smith and Neo looked cool, but basically followed the same pattern for 15 minutes (exchange of strikes, big punch that knocks both men back and causes an earthquake, flying towards each other, repeat). The best action scenes were probably the scenes where the machines come in to Zion's walls and meet resistance by these giant robot looking crafts with machine guns called APUs, although it kind of lost its luster after 20 minutes or so.
- Before I conclude this review, I want to talk about the ending, which although it's presented as happy and all seems to leave the humans back at square one. Yes, Smith is dead, but so is their Chosen One and while the machines retreated from Zion due to Neo's actions in getting rid of Smith, they still not only killed lots of people and destroyed a huge chunk of Zion, but also still have the majority of humans plugged into the Matrix and still harvest them for energy. However, it does somewhat leave the door open for a sequal when the Oracle mentiones to Sati that perhaps we will see Neo again (even though I don't see how that's possible).
Overall, I will say that I liked this movie more than The Matrix Reloaded. Then again, that's damning with faint praise since I strongly dislike Reloaded. Both movies would have probably been better as one movie and at least half the scenes in each movie could have been cut out, but sometimes art is sacrificed for profits, and this is the case here. As far as Revolutions goes, the main problems were that it decided to shift the focus away from the characters so vital to the Matrix franchise and center large parts of the story around characters which they really didn't even bother explaining their importance to the story. Plus, the whole idea of the humans and machines somehow teaming up to save the world flies against the original notion of the series, which was basically man vs. machine, and really makes the machines' attack on Zion seem like a waste of energy in retrospect. The action scenes were hit-or-miss, the acting was decent at best, and the film was as subtle as a sledgehammer. Overall, it's not the worst sequel ever, but it's not all that great either. I'd give it a 4 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you any ideas for future posts, or thoughts about this post, than either leave a comment on the blog or send them to me at e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
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