Kevin_K Reviews

Solaris (2002)

Call It Something Else, Because It Ain't Solaris

[5/10 · 3 June 2008]

Having read the book before I saw this I though it was a huge disappointment. They completely missed the point of the story, which was philosophical rather than emotional. Basically, the movie took an awe-inspiring "what if" thought experiment - of finding a very advanced non-human intelligence (which, surprise surprise, doesn't have two arms, two legs, a body and a head) and the problems of trying to communicate with such a radically different being, especially when it doesn't seem interested in communication, and how we can relate to it with our own limited human experience, and squeezed out all the juicy intellectual bits. Solaris was supposed to be the real star of the story and the screenplay instead turned it into background wallpaper. All that was left then, was a sappy love story set in space. It is frustrating to think about the potential that was wasted. Mr. Soderbergh could have made a classic sci-fi film here, if only he'd made an honest attempt.

The funny thing is, if I hadn't read the book I would have liked the film, because it is well directed and has a nice atmospheric mood. There's nothing inherently wrong with love stories either. Just.. call it something other than Solaris, give the characters different names, don't do anything to remind me of the original story and I'd say it is a good movie. But as it is, it's an extreme disappointment.

Blade: Trinity (2004)

Terrible

[3/10 · 19 January 2005]

I don't know what happened on the sets but Trinity is amateurish in all aspects and doesn't come anywhere near close to the first two Blades. Scenes jump into each other without much care for pace and flow, the music is constant and instead of adding to the mood just gets in the way, and the whole thing just seems like someone's first attempt at film-making. Which is probably rather close to the truth looking at director Goyer's IMDb resume. I've read a few rumours of Wesley Snipes' behaviour on set and after seeing the film I can only guess that it stems from his disappointment in the way the film was developing. Hopefully if there were to be a Blade 4 a more competent crew will be hired.

Verdict: Very disappointing. 3/10

Dark City (1998)

Too much style and not enough substance

[4/10 · 6 September 2003]

Science-fiction is almost a love of mine, because it is a genre that can produce works which inspire awe and wonder and at the same time ask daring questions about the nature of our world and of ourselves. Dark City had the potential to be one of those works, but failed rather miserably because it was too busy worrying about how it looked and forgot to flesh out its premises enough to ask daring questions. Instead it caved in to tired old cliches of evil overlords, the greatness of humanity, individuality and of the human soul, and a savior human who just so conveniently happened to be more powerful than all the forces of the aliens combined. Skip it if you're looking for something that will actually challenge your mind.

Two stars out of five.