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m.v.hermanni
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Minority Report (2002)
two flaws that let the movie fail
The whole idea is pretty interesting but the movie introduces at least two flaws into the story that killed it for me: 1 the prevented murders are not murders, the victims live, period. Society could treat the suspects different to actual murderers and probably would, eg. psychotherapy, counseling, social help/adjustment program etc.
That they - without difference and as it seams without trial - put the suspects in an artificial coma is not made plausible, especially as this whole thing happens as an experiment in one state of the united states.
2. Another real obvious flaw is to me, that that the trick to cover up a murder by "blinding" the clairvoyants/the precrime system with some reenactment (or whatever, it does not matter) to actually commit the murder without being caught *before* just leads to: a committed murder. Did this justice system just assumed there are no murders and stopped investigating missing persons? So for me 5 stars for the effort.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Much to positive regarding the mafia.
In my opinion, "The Godfather 2" is much to positive regarding the mafia, even sympathetic to it.
With the two layers of the narrative, the rise of Vito Corleone, caring and with a loving wife, cut against Michael Corleone, struggling and living in disharmony, the movie actually portraits the changes to society that had taken place between the pre-war and post-war society and between Sicily and America as something bad. It follows a "The Good old times "cliché, which is in itself already ideology of the mafia.
This motive is already present in the first movie, but more subtle: Michael finds his true love in an uneducated, maybe underage Sicilian women, that is pimped by her parents to this mighty man and he only returns to the educated, working girlfriend in America because a) his true love has been killed and b) after 1 year he found no other option in the USA.
Especially the portrait of Michael's wife shows a huge anger against women, who are not completely obedient to their husband: This women performs an abortion, because she does not want to give another air to her husband.
This is the same kind of stuff the trials against witches of the middle ages are made off: it is pure hatred and an attempt to link independence of a women to wickedness and insanity.
So in my opinion, the movie is poisoned by the material it tries to put on screen - and this is a warning to every cinematographer, that the subject of a movie is not to be taken easy, the subject might dominate. If it is about power like with the mafia, it might taint the whole result.
Funny Games (2007)
This movie is frustrating,well acted, directed and photographed.
I am not impressed by films, that, like some comments phrase it: "do exactly what they intend to do".
This movie is frustrating, because it simply mocks the audience for their suspension of disbelieve.
Ususally, you would expect to get something back from a movie for the time you spent on it and the suspension of your knowledge, that it is just made up. Why should you, the audience, pretend at all, that it is not simply a silly farce? The director and writer have to deliver that answer with their work.
This one - like too many others - just is a mockery and makes fun of the audience for following the movie at all. The writer makes his attitude quite open, when he gives his leading villain the super natural power, to reverse reality with a remote television control.
It is well acted, directed and photographed though.
300 (2006)
fantastic visual style in every detail and a questionable ideology
While 300 delivers beautiful pictures, the story told and the means chosen follow a rather questionable artistic vision: The characters are either warriors, born, beautiful and eager to sacrifice their life or corrupted.
The Persian emperor Xerxes is shown as the great tempter to corruption just like the biblical devil. This corruption is reflected in physical degeneration to the point that the army of Xerxes largely consists of beasts, cripples and monstrosities.
For example: Some Priests that the Spartan King visits to get a hint what to do by their oracle, are struck by a skin disease and the narrator describes them as old, diseased, inhuman, rotten and finally moral corrupt. One points to the other, from the obvious to the hidden. Of course the priests are in league with Xerxes and deliver deceptive advise.
In opposition to that, the Spartan Warrier Elite are male Superheros with perfect looks and superior faith, prepared for any sacrifice.
This idea of fitness, that (only) in a perfect male body a perfect soul lives, is something that is attributed to the antique Greece. But this idea stands in strong opposition to modern western ideology.
300 is aware of that opposition and this is shown by the struggle of the Spartan Queen at the Heimatfront against the spartan Council. In this Parliament so called politicians are listening to deceptive speeches while the King acts and dies for their freedom. The Queen succeeds only by stabbing her opponent in the Council to death, who has been bribed by Xerxes with gold.
While Western democracy traces its roots to antique Greece democracy, 300 suggests the opposite: That the Greece fought and died to defend their honor and freedom of Kings, holy oaths and sacrifice against a weak system of personal interest and debate prone to corruption.
Western ideology draws a line between beauty and truth, to the point that what is beautiful is considered to be a lie. For us, awful and truth goes together well. For us, truth is a matter of words, not of action. Antique Greece Ideology considered a connection between physical beauty and truth, but the goal of their thinking has been truth as well and they used words to find it. That is one source of western philosophy and culture.
By turning around this relationship between spirit and body, declaring physical beauty and sacrifice a material and therefore only real sign of truth, picturing words as misleading and a means for corruption, 300 cannot convince today. Mankind has 2000 years more experience to know better than that.
Layer Cake (2004)
Well shot and directed but flawed script
The Movie is very well shot and directed, all Actors deliver flawless performances, but the Storytelling relies entirely on arbitrary Plot Twists. Every 15 Minutes (felt) the Story runs out of Material and is by mercy of the Writers saved for another 15 minutes - for example by some new People or Information of "whats really going on" dropping in.
While the Movie starts with the classic Film Noir Motive (somebody is hired to find a missing Person which turns out to be a set up), this initial motive is soon completely replaced by the Chase for some stolen synthetic Drugs. And of course more and more dead people that die here and there, to remind that this is a Gangster Movie and not a Schnitzeljagd.
Ironically, the main Character first negotiates with the Seller (and Thieve) of these drugs, that they are not worth much - then he wants to steal the drugs himself. He finally succeeds in that. In the end the original Owner of the Drugs is shown how he runs a Factory with mass Production of these Drugs in Netherlands and actually does not care at all about the loss. They might really be worthless.
To Top this, the main character is shot dead by some unimportant side kick the moment everything just seems right for him (he outsmarted everybody, left the party at the right moment, got the beautiful girl).
Maybe this is the point of this movie: Every story ends by the death of its main character, because every meaning, every success is just his interpretation and there is no other end, it could go on and on.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
The Premise of the Terminator Story is flawed
One Remark about the basic premise of the whole Terminator Series, but particular of this last episode: The last thing that would survive a nuclear war is Machines and Technology. The Authors show no clue if they know what large Infrastructure and Economy is modern day Technology based upon.
Where are the Power Supplies, Factories, Mines, where is the transportation System and the Research Facilities to give any power at all to the Skynet System? It would have nuked out its own Requirements to exist by destroying mankind with nuclear weapons. So "The rise of the machines" would have been the end of any advanced machine and technological progress on earth.
Instead, in Reality, the growing Power of Machines over Mankind is exercised through shaping Society according to the needs of Machines and Technology, not by simply destroying human Lives. I would have liked to see that Twist going somewhere into the series Finale (so eg. by preventing the nuclear War, Connor actually helps the Machines to seize Control) - well it did not and the Script stayed true to the Vision of the first and second Terminator Movie.
Trust.Wohltat (2007)
Stylish, consequent but a little bit unrewarding
The Movies narrative follows a similar premise as the Movie Gattaca: The new Society pays great Attention to Heritage, just like the older aristocratic one, but now disguised as science. The price is the freedom of the civil society. The power in Trust Wohltat lies as in Gattaca in the hand of an industrial-medical Complex.
If we move away the Science Fiction from the Movie, we discover a basic Truth about human Live: Everything a human being is, he owes to his parents and society. The story in Trust Wohltat alienates this common place by removing any love and kindness between the Generations and society regarding the single human Being.
This artistic Decision makes the Movie a little unrewarding to watch, because there are no likable Protagonists in it (the fewer Words somebody says here, the more likable he or she appears).
This Criticism aside, it is well pictured and very consequent in its Style and in the Script.