Scatterpulse Reviews

District 9 (2009)

An Utterly Phenomenal Experience

[9/10 · 16 August 2009]

After only having seen one trailer for District 9, I went into the film expecting an enjoyable yet predictable no-brainer. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised to find so much more.

The reason this film is so successful on so many levels is pretty obvious: it has heart. You can tell by watching it that everyone working on this movie was pouring themselves into it. From the amazing CGI to the acting to the unbelievably complex and convincing clicking language that the "prawns" use, nothing seems to come up short. And best of all, the plot isn't at all predictable. It's true that this film is big, loud, and action-packed, but I found myself truly feeling for the aliens as well as the humans, and the narrative takes a number of surprising twists that keep your eyes glued to the screen. And when you find yourself empathizing with creatures that look like enormous, ugly, mutated prawns, you know the filmmakers have done SOMETHING right.

The only criticism that I can envision someone making has to do with the cinematography. The director chose to use a documentary-style approach to filming that makes a lot of it look like it was shot with a hand-held camera. I happened to like Cloverfield, but those who didn't shouldn't worry; the director obviously isn't a purist and he knows when to back off and switch to more conventional techniques that make the narrative flow very smoothly. It isn't anywhere near as choppy and jarring as Cloverfield or The Blair Witch Project, but it does pull the viewer in and add to the atmosphere of confusion and terror that the characters are experiencing.

Going into this film, I wasn't aware of the District Six inspiration, a sickening event in and of itself. I've seen one review that claims District 9 is insensitive to the Apartheid experience, but personally I don't think that's the case. While it doesn't seem that the director is explicitly referencing or criticizing the District Six horror, it doesn't glorify the incident either. The oppressors in this film are painted in revolting, cruel shades.

While leaving the theatre, I was tempted to just head back in and see the next showing as well. It's also making me itch for a sequel, which, in this day of crappy sequel cash-ins, is really saying something. So go see it! If you're anything like me, you'll be glad you did.

Pulse (2001)

Probably my favorite movie

[10/10 · 3 July 2009]

This movie is very touching. In fact, almost painfully so. I would recommend it to anyone in the mood to engage in a thought-provoking narrative about the human condition.

I have to admit that when I first saw this film I did not expect it to be what it is. The basic premise involves a haunted website, so when I sat down to view it I was expecting something at the same level of terrible as fear.com; instead, I was shocked to find a truly provocative story full of surrealism and drama that examines the concept of isolation and the deep fear that all people have of loneliness.

This, of course, means that the fear that Kairo invokes is not typical of the horror movie genre--at least not the North American horror movie genre; I can't speak for the Japanese--because it isn't really scary. It's disturbing and eerie, and frankly I wouldn't watch it alone in the dark, but I'll admit that I'm a bit of a coward (The Grudge still terrifies me, so make of that what you will). If you go into this movie wanting to see people being hacked apart, or if you want to be jumping out of your seat every few minutes by fake-out scares, you will probably be pretty angry by the time this one's over. Seriously--you'll probably be more freaked out by the original version of Dark Water, and that's saying something.

However, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. This film provides a very moving portrayal of people's inability to truly connect with one another. It offers a bleak examination of human nature without being heavy-handed or pretentious; it doesn't come off as condescending and the creators obviously aren't trying to be snobbish or "intellectual". It simply asks the question: can we ever truly connect with one another, or are we doomed to be alone by our very natures?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Most predictable. movie. ever.

[6/10 · 28 May 2009]

Okay, my title is a little unfair; this is by far NOT the most predictable movie ever, but it was extremely annoying to be sighting the "plot twists" a mile away at every turn. I mean, seriously:

1) Logan's wife is "killed" off screen. Did anyone actually think she was dead at this point? Really? When a key character is killed off screen, they are NEVER really dead.

2) Stryker is manipulating Logan. It's obvious. Evil military sp00k is never on the "good" side of the film. Predictable movie conventions 101.

3) Kayla is manipulating Wolverine. Come on! She tells the story of the trickster! What'd you think was going to happen?

4) The big fight scene at the end. Oy. This isn't a general movie convention so much as an X-Men movie convention. In every X-Men film there is a huge fight scene wherein a bunch of adolescent mutants are rounded up and freed/rescued by the good guys. When Logan initially begins exiting the facility I was actually genuinely impressed for a moment because I thought the director was bucking convention and opting out of the huge, dumb fight sequence. But then it happened. I could only sigh.

I'm also getting pretty annoyed with X-Men films that feature fan favorites in the trailers and then give them roles that barely qualify as cameos. The reason I actually saw this film was that I was thrilled to finally, finally, FINALLY be able to see Gambit on the big screen. I knew I would be disappointed, but I hoped that I would be able to at least enjoy it a little. The whole fifteen minutes that he actually spent on screen were just painful.

I shouldn't complain, though. At least he got more screen time than Cyclops. Or Emma Frost. Poor, poor Emma Frost fans.

The plot is...acceptable, I guess. From what I gather, it's actually pretty factually sound as far as the Wolverine back story goes, what with the relationship between Victor and Logan, etc. I'm not that huge of a Wolverine fan, so I'm basing this on an obsessed friend's word.

The CGI is okay. At some points it becomes jarringly terrible, though (I'm going to cite the bathroom scene when Wolverine first takes a look at his brand new shiny claws).

The acting is good. As always, Hugh Jackman is amazing.

The cinematography is also pretty good. Not spectacular, but good.

This film can be really enjoyable if you're prepared to just turn your brain off and watch a bunch of explosions and crazy fight sequences. Which, in all fairness, is what most people want to do. But for those of us who relish character development and intriguing plot lines, this movie is a little jarring.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Meh

[6/10 · 28 May 2009]

I have to say, I found this film a little puzzling. The first thing that struck me as a little bizarre is the immense stupidity of the machines; they can apparently be ambushed with little more than a boom box lying in the middle of the road, and it took Skynet a freaking eternity to finally try to kill Kyle. I mean seriously--if killing Kyle was all it would take to end the human resistance, why in the bloody pus-spewing hell didn't the plethora of machines that came into contact with him just grind him into a bloody paste? It boggled my mind a bit. I was expecting to see a truly chilling tale of cold, calculating machines, not just a bunch of skeletal drones throwing themselves around uselessly. Also, Skynet struck me as behaving very emotionally for a supposedly "cold" and "calculating" entity.

Another thing that left me scratching my head was the character of Star. Throughout the film it's hinted at that she has a sort of sixth sense concerning the machines, but it's never explained and winds up looking like a lazy deus ex machina move.

And the cheese...oh my. As soon as Kate states that John's heart is too weak to withstand his injuries, it becomes painfully obvious that Marcus is going to donate his own. The movie up until that scene won't stop bashing the viewer over the head with the fact that his heart is human. Also, pretty much from the first moment Marcus was introduced, I thought "oh, he's a machine". I mean...he fixes all kinds of machines, he's practically bullet-proof, and he somehow takes on a Terminator scout by hurling a tire iron at it, while speeding down a highway, while the scout is zipping all over the place. He's a machine. It's never a mystery. The movie plays out the revelation of this fact as though it's some huge plot twist, but I was just left scratching my head.

And, frankly, the whole "machine with a soul" theme has been done so very many times before (and much better). In fact, it was done in the second Terminator movie. Do we really need to see this again? Really? Well, all my griping and bashing aside, this is actually a pretty enjoyable movie overall. Yes it's predictable, occasionally cheesy, and the machines are idiots, but the action sequences actually leave you believing that the characters are in real danger. The CGI is also really good; there wasn't a single moment in the movie where I was distracted by being struck by a really bad or just awkward CGI effect. The acting is great, the cinematography is great, etc. etc. Also, the big reveal about how John's entry into Skynet's sanctum was orchestrated through the beginning makes a lot of the incompetence of the machines early on in the film a little easier to swallow.

And seriously--who didn't love seeing Arnold again?

Dragonball Evolution (2009)

We Wish We Were Transformers: The Movie!

[2/10 · 6 May 2009]

I'll keep this brief.

Those who aren't familiar with the Dragonball mythos will most likely be confused by this film. Despite the many changes that the creators of this movie made to the narrative, it relies heavily upon an assumed pre-existing knowledge of the franchise on the part of the viewer.

Those who ARE familiar with the Dragonball franchise will get to experience the joy and warmth of a cherished childhood narrative being simultaneously raped and defecated upon. Case in point: the creators were obviously trying to cash in on the success of Transformers through Goku's remodeling as an angsty high school student who also happens to be sooper speshul (not a theme exclusive to Transformers, obviously, but the plagiarism is hard to ignore here). He's a horny, frustrated, manipulative young man who cares more about getting a kiss from a girl he barely knows than saving the world (this is illustrated quite literally during his attempt to master the kamehameha technique).

I'm only a casual fan of the original series, but oh ye gods this is a terrible movie.