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Kateo (2022)
Otherwise decent action focused film ruined by camera work.
The film isn't about the plot the politics or the acting. It's about the action. In and of itself, despite some wonky parts that are just not believable, the action is decent.
But the whole thing is ruined by the attempt at a constant one take attempt constantly jostled about by the shaky camera effect.
If you mixed Kingsman camera movement and spinning and pov changing with Blair witch project handheld shaky cam footage it would be the camera work on this movie.
Absolutely unbearable after a certain point while you're just trying to focus on the action scenes unfolding.
Its worth a try if you think you can withstand that. Otherwise it's hard on the eyes and brain with the constant camera shake.
Moonfall (2022)
Actually Good.
Let me start by saying that I am very critical of films that I watch, even those I do like. And, I would recommend that when you read someones negative reviews on a film, you should go read their other reviews of other films to get an idea of what kind of thinker they are. There are many reviewers that like to write negative criticisms of other films decorated with fancy drivel to seem like some sort of an expert in film. When, in reality, it all boils down to personal preference and not every film should be graded by arthouse or criterion collection checklists. If youre judging modern movies by such strict guidelines youre probably not any fun to go to the theater with.
As for the film
The movie was quite good. It was better than I expected (due to how terrible most of the last 12 months films have actually been: carnage, the new matrix, the new resident evil, and the list goes on)
The film was in fact better than I hoped. Perhaps my expectations were tainted by such poor productions in the last year but still.. this movie was everything I asked for and then some.
Yes, there were a few silly actiony moments but what else do you really expect from a film like this where humanity isnt obliterated and the earth totally destroyed? You have to 'roll with it' on some of these types of films. Impossible car jumps, surviving disastrous situations on pure luck, all that is to be expected in this type of film. It is what it is.
Outside of those moments, and what i feel tends to be subpar acting from HB, the rest of the film was a spectacular ride.
There were enough scifi elements to scratch that itch. The CG looked quite good. There was an interesting (though not 100% original) twist/addition to the plot that I thought was appropriate and done well enough despite being perhaps predictable for some. BUT EVEN THEN: it was done well and still quite good.
The only things that I would change about it would be a bit more time spent on the lore and history they give you in the film. And perhaps some extra bits of action regarding certain... pieces of technology... left behind that the main characters discover and acknowledge but ultimately ignore.
And maybe some more exposition on the epilogue of the story. What was it like in the next decade or century after the events taking place, how did they handle the revelation and new knowledge about the moon.
Even then, even missing that, the film was still a good watch, fun time, exciting, nice to look at, touched on decent plot points, and didnt consume a full day for nothing like many films to come out in the last 12 months.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
A poor attempt at RE Canon, Not for ACTUAL RE Fans. Canon Referenced, Possible Spoilers
Firstly, let me start by saying I own most of the resident evil games on PC on steam, and have played through most of the OG games on console. With the exception of obscure titles, the only main us release title i havent played was code veronica.
Secondly, I love resident evil. I even like the Mila Jovovich movies and the CG films like damnation etc. I like these films because, though not being a canon representation of the games, they dont really try to be. Theyre just 'other things that happened or could have happened in the resident evil / biohazard universe' and i'm fine with that.
Now, About this film:
Pros:
The way the film was shot was pretty good. Had this sorta late 80s mid 90s atmosphere to it.
There was a good bit of tension.
Cons:
They did a poor job of accurately representing the characters.
The only person who really wasnt officially trained at all at the time of the original racoon city incident was Claire. She only had minimal training from her brother Chris during visits to Racoon City while Chris was serving on STARS with Barry Burton. Leon was a rookie, yes... but had been through training at an academy to become a cop. In the film, many of the characters are botched terribly and I will explain how below.
1. Leon: Leon is a ultra-moral, do the right thing, lock them up at all costs, let the courts and the justice system serve the justice. No vigilante antics, only track them down, bring them in, and dont die in the process.
-- But in the film, hes a binge drinking douche lord, coward. Acts like he can barely handle a weapon until the one time he needs to use it then all of a sudden he's decided its time for him to man up... so lame.
2. Chris: Chris spent time in the air force and had extensive training. He was very at-odds with his superiors due to his strong convictions and was very much the 'justice served cold, by my hand, on a plate of vengeance' type.
-- But in the film, hes a weak, beta, douche bag who will follow orders without talking back, doesnt act like he had any real military training, doesnt display any of his weapons expertise or marksmanship, and is somehow blindly devoted to his 'fake father' who turns out to be William Birkin, the guy who took him in and raised him in an orphanage briefly shown in the RE2 Remake, and made a significant part of this film. Yes chris and claires parents died but the orphanage was never really a thing until 2019. And William and Sherry Birkin had nothing to do with it prior.
3. Wesker: Wesker, by the time of the raccoon city incident, was a long time employee of the Umbrella Corporation. He was raised by its founder, Dr. Spencer, and was actually part of a eugenics program where special children were given the progenitor virus. Wesker was employed by umbrella in 1977. He and William Birkin had worked together for nearly 20 years before the racoon city incident. Wesker also served in the military as a mole for umbrella, and in other organizations, and was assigned to stars in 1996, two years prior to the RC incident. He received orders to sacrifice S. T. A. R. S. To the mutants to provide combat data, eliminating them as witnesses; to collect the remaining B. O. W. Embryos, and to finally destroy the Arklay Laboratory itself to wipe out all trace of the virus.
-- BUT IN THE FILM: Wesker is some douche lord, and has no apparent connection to Umbrella or Birkin until he gets some random order via text to secure the virus for a quick payout. Wesker in the Mila Jovovich films is more canonical in behavior and role than the Wesker in this film. Wesker is canonically a cool headed, serious, charismatic, mysterious individual. In the film, hes just an oversized frat boy. Wesker ends up shooting Birkin in self defense, causing him to inject himself and mutate, unilke the games where umbrella sends in USS alpha squad lead by Hunk to retrieve the virus samples, injuring Birkin, and leading to his mutation. This is, canonically, the direct cause of the racoon city incident because Birkin ends up in the sewers and he contaminates some rats and the water supply with the virus samples leading to the infection of the city. However in the film, there is no mention of that, and the city is already infected by the time Birkin infects himself.
4. Jill: Jill was the most 'military minded/acting' character in the film, despite the entirety of stars having deep military backgrounds. In the early 1990s, Valentine served in the United States Army and got the attention of recruiters for Delta Force, the nation's primary counter-terrorism unit. Despite her sex, Valentine was allowed to take part in the six-month intensive Operator Training Course, where she excelled in bomb disposal and lock picking and was known for her delicate though precise work, resilience, courage, and discernment amid the danger.
-- But in the film: she doesnt really display any serious level of being a badass. She's just a classic action movie tough girl... kinda.
Scene and Setting:
The game really doesnt show much of the mansion, any real puzzles, not much fighting for your life, no gardens or tunnels, misses out on a few iconic points of interest from RE1 and 2 like the main dining hall with the clock, Barry Burton, Many of the 'boss' like experiences, No Tyrant, No Nemesis, No Kendo's gun shop, No iconic meeting between claire and leon, no clock tower..
Its late and thats all i can think of for now..
In short: the characters were not portrayed accurately. Its one thing to make them look totally different (leon, short dark and handome, brown hair and goatee, presumably alcoholic party boy trying to drink away his past, and jill a half black/ half white mixed chick with curly hair, and wesker being some young, silly frat boy turned sergeant) but its another thing to have them so far removed from the characters their based on in terms of how they act and their roles in the film.. that it seriously ruins the entire experience.. and thats not even including the ruined plot points, forgotten plot points, artistic liberties, etc...
If youd dont really know anything about the Resident Evil universe, if all youve played is RE4, RE5, and the RE2 and RE3 Remakes... you will probably like this film... Better yet, if you havent played any of the games...
But if you have, if youre an OG fan like me, whos played through almost all the games, or who owns most of them... this film is a major letdown and disappointment.
Morgan (2016)
Things wrong with this film:
Ill just write out everything that is wrong with the film. If you see these as non-issues then by all means enjoy the movie~
Actual Plot: SynTech sends out a fixer from risk management to evaluate and clean up when an android attacks one of the scientist care-takers.
(the name is only said in the film, never written out for you. I spelled it this way for Synthetic and Technology though it could be SinTech because they are 'playing god' if you will by trying to create synthetic life) ...
Issues i found with the film:
1) the scientists: theyre not very scientisty. theyre in love with the android. they arent shown becoming attached to the synthetic as it grows other than ONE of them and shes a behaviorist so that would be the obvious pick. this is their 'first success' but they for whatever reason treat this droid like the golden child when according to their science they figured it out and should be able to reproduce this outcome infinitely, making the droid even less significant and important i.e. no reason to not be detached enough to not get murdered.
2) the risk management / clean up detail: she doesnt fit the part. her dialogue is fine, but her actions dont really reflect her objective. the film tries to hide the truth from you but does it in a way that seems obvious and as a result pretty much screams out what is going to happen far too early. Why does she need a gun if all she is there to do is evaluate and make a recommendation?? Yes there was an incident but the incident didnt in any way imply a lack of security and safety.. which was compounded by the fact that the synth was contained in an enclosure and had not tried to escape.
3) the synthetic. why is she always wearing that stupid hood. why did they make her look fake when she was actually more human / organic than not. they just tricked an egg into thinking it was fertilized which still would have meant real skin etc. why was she so lame in combat despite being 'weaponized'? the film only tells you she has 'weaponized protocol' after she starts killing people. they try to focus on the droids humanity but its a weapon but they dress and treat her like she is not human. there is a conflict here with 'it has a soul' and 'its obviously being treated as not having a soul, which you can see in how they treat it'. had she wore normal clothes and had a more normal looking living quarters the attachment to her by the scientists might have been more believable rather than the drab 5 year old wool hoodie and concrete everything-else. also, shes killing everyone for keeping her like a 'thing' despite her having free access to roam about prior to the incident. meaning, the people she is killing never really did anything wrong to her, she didnt hate them, and when they did confine her she had already hurt someone. the one person she didnt try to kill didnt do anything more or less bad or good to her than anyone else. and in fact, you dont even see the affection from that character to that degree, while you do see it from others who she is quick to exterminate. very contradictory.
4) objective. did the film want to be a deep thought scifi or an action film? it couldnt decide and fails at being either. it tries to ask a few deep questions, or present ideas in a complex and thought provoking way but then tramples all over that with bad choices by characters, lack of motive of key players.
tldr:
in closing, it felt like someone who doesnt watch or read a lot of sci-fi had an idea and tried dipping their toes in, but the water was colder than they thought so despite going knee deep never actually jumped in fully. the action sequences are kinda wack. the android goes from loved child to murder droid without any semblance of motive, and it makes even less sense because youre given a scene that heavily implies mercy and compassion yet just feeds the confusion later when the droid kills those that do obviously care about her and see her as more than a science project. and then, to finish it off, a cliche ending plot twist when the incompetent fixer decides to man up and take action.
too predictable, not fleshed out well, and poor character design.
10 Minutes Gone (2019)
As im watching it..
Writing this as im watching.
Ill try to keep it simple.. Firstly the acting so far isnt so great. Mr. Willis acts like hes just there to recite his lines and do his job and collect his check. The performance from Mr. Chiklis was equal to what you could expect on the shield. TV series level... definitely not feature film quality. The worst part about their performances is that the poor performances by other actors (i.e. lack of investment/ how believable) make their roles seem far from genuine. The acting from the blonde woman with the face full of plastic surgery is terrible. Perhaps she is unable to properly reflect emotion with her facial muscles so she has to act as unmoved as her expression permanently is. Bad reactions make a bad performance worse. Most of the other supporting roles lines were delivered too 'matter of factly'. Again, it all feels very much like a TV show not a movie.
Other than that (so far), the heist was ... silly to say the least. How many times is a guy going to be looked at by hostages after saying 'face down or ill shoot you' before he actually does. Apparently, a zillion cuz it doesnt happen. Also, theres a big fire-fight outside of the bank. Lots of bullets flying. Probably 8 or 10 cops and 2 assailants. The cops have pistols. The robbers have a shotgun and an smg. Out of probably... 250 shots, only two shots hit anyone and its from the shotgun at close range. The cops were as terrible as the other actors. One lady comes out of an adjacent building amid bullets flying trying to argue with a cop about 'whats goin on out here, why are you shooting, why is there gun shots, i have family in here you need to get us out' ... i mean... no. if you hear that many shots goin off you get under a table or something lol not go outside and argue with a cop.
Really, i say it seems like a tv show but i will actually say that it felt more like the two main actors were taking time off to do some charity work at a beginners film making class at a community college.
I think that pretty much says enough. Oh, and btw, i actually do like Mr. Willis's films usually so this isnt some form of slight against him. It just wasnt done well. Audio, editing, and camera work was fine though so credit to the production crew.