This is the first in an occasional series where I give my opinion of films I have seen. The reviews are not going to be long and not going to be that insightful. Writing is not a gift of mine. I originally started this many years ago on this Previous Films.
Warning – general plot and theme spoilers.
So, this communication is about the Tom Cruise vehicle that is Oblivion. Let’s start off by saying this film is alright. It’s not stunning. It’s not ground breaking. It’s just alright. Many of the themes the film pushes have been done before. While watching it you can almost put together the films the director/writer grew up with. If you want to watch a decent film with similar themes I suggest you buy or rent Moon, The Island (not a good film), Bladerunner, 2001 etc.. They are generally far better and more organic with better acting.
The special effects in Oblivion are seamless and so you don’t really notice them. The female actors are pretty, as you’d expect, and Tom just cruises around, but then you don’t expect wonders from him. I also feel as though Morgan Freeman is now a cliche of himself! It’s no surprise to see him popping up half way through, there are plenty other actors who would have been better and less recognisable in the role.
Overall, this film is a reasonable starter into science fiction but if you are already a nerd then it’s not worth your money. Watch the classics and philosophise all you want.
Prometheus aaarrrgghh
I have some serious issues with Prometheus! About two months ago I saw a trailer and knew nothing else about it. Wow, space stuff with Ridley Scott! That’ll be a really interesting film then. Put head into “protect” mode and don’t look at anything connected to ensure the pure film experience. Persuade wife that it’ll be a great film to see on one of the three times a year we get out to the cinema. Booked the tickets online and as far in advance as I could, even coughed up for gallery seats at Bluewater cinema. Now I could say I’m not grumbling but about GBP45 for two cinema tickets is a bit steep, even for a double leather sofa and as much coffee as you can drink. I even booked a 3D viewing and I think that is mostly a con.
The actual day came along and I was still persuading WW that it’ll be ok and not that scary or gory as it’s only a 15. Little did I know how horrified I was going to be.
Glasses – got
Free nachos – got
Free celebrations – got
Free coffee – got
Adverts and trailers – over.
Film start. So excited.
Big white man, ok. Ancient drawings point to a star system, yeah, bullshit but ok. Man, that looks good. The whole thing just looks so bloody sexy. Oh, he’s a robot, others sleeping, seen it before but it still looks good. Everyone wakes up and ok. Still looking good.
Let’s go and land, and just drop the ship down without circling around and scanning for a little while – now I’m starting to hurt a bit. I’m not sure it would happen like that.
Hold on. You wouldn’t do that. Film looks gorgeous. Oh dear, I think they are losing it a bit. Why don’t you map the building before going in. Why take your helmet off? Why try to pet an alien worm creature? Oh shit. I think this is causing cognitive dissonance. Wait until end of film, try to cope and tally the expectation with the experience.
I have spent the last two weeks reading reviews of this film. I have tried to find out why it was causing me so much pain and I think it comes down to the fact that it was shit. Ridley Scott has made a gorgeous looking film but the script and story line we probably just ideas on post-its that were thrown in the air and those that landed upwards were kept. It was shit.
So, so very disappointing. For a film that looks so lovely it stank. I would recommend you go and watch – Moon. It’s far better and greater in terms of everything.
I want to thank George Hrab for his thirty one minutes of PrometheusBoo on his podcast. He managed to say everything I couldn’t because I’m still in shock. I would also like to point out that this review here is a crock of shit. Man, I could link any film you care to mention to Jesus and the message of Christianity.
Oh, it still hurts. I still can’t juxtapose the gorgeousnous of the film with just how much it stank.
Cars
We tried searching for films suitable for a sensitive 2 year old and all the interwebs came up with were:
So we bought Cars from eBay.
It’s brilliant. The sons love it and have watched it about 10 times in the last week.
As expected from Pixar this film is really well written and directed. The artwork is fantastic and the detail is awesome.
I said to wonderful wife that I thought the cars suspension moves the wrong way when they go around corners. She replied
that’s your issue with a film with talking cars?
Fair enough. Although I guess they could have cool active suspension so the side of the car on the inside of the corner is lower rather than higher than expected. Essentially a car rolls to the outside of the corner not the inside, hey you could have cool lever linkage also!
Anyway, great film and sons obsessed with racing cars! Brilliant.