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Annihilation (2018)
Could have been much better
I have to say, i had high expectations coming in, all the trailers looked great, the reviews were great and its thrown around as a great cosmic horror movie, but i could only feel more and more underwhelmed as the movie went on. The movie movie wants to tackle an interesting theme: the destruction and rebirth of oneself, which it does fairly competently, but its really handicapped by the surface plot and action.
The shimmer is an ever expanding area where everyone and everything that has entered it has never been found, with the exception of one person who is dying and can't remember anything, and yet it feels like the people involved in this mission have no competence to speak of:
Dr Ventress is the only person who we ever see in charge of the operation, and she goes inside the Shimmer with only 4 other people out of which only one has military training while the others have zero experience in harsh conditions, none of them have gas masks, gloves, never mind a protective suit, body armors and a helmets, why didn't they at least enter the shimmer in a vehicle? Why didn't they go by boat when the lighthouse is right next to the beach? A helicopter could have reached the lighthouse in a few hours, ( i haven't mentioned but the source of the shimmer is at a lighthouse, the groups mission is to reach it and find out what it is exactly. ), they don't even have a journal or something to make notes, this could be useful in a place where people forget the things they did.
And these are questions that come up in the first 15-20 minutes of the movie, and equally as many in the rest, none of which get answered, logic wise, this movie has little.
Aesthetically its a mixed bag, cinematography and scenery are really beautiful, that is definitely the highlight of this movie, but anything that moves, creatures, mutations etc. are just...very obviously CGI, and it takes you out of the movie completely.
This movie is very confused in what it wants to be, through the movie i had to wonder, what am i watching?
Is this trying to be cosmic horror?
Is it trying to be action scfi-fi?
Or a Tarkovsky-esque philosophical drama?
Because it has elements of all of these mentioned but it never really succeeds at any of them or commits to one path, and this is perfectly illustrated by the music, one moment its dark choral music ( like the ones from 2001 a Space odyssey ), sometimes its strange synth compositions and there's a guitar song that sounds like its from the Last of Us and its so distracting and out of place you cant help but feel someone edited it in the movie when the director wasn't paying attention
Oscar Isaac and Natalie Portman both have great performances, Jennifer Jason and Tuva Novotny do as much as they can with their character, but everyone else is very forgettable, but given how little development their characters got you're not sure who's at fault there.
I would still advise people to go watch this movie, if only for the great visuals and the admittedly fascinating ending. Based on the mixed reviews its a love it or hate it movie, i certainly didn't love it but some might. Just don't go in with high expectations like i did.
The Interview (2014)
In spite of the controversial topic, its a bland film
The movie was surrounded by controversy when it released, and i'm pretty sure that controversy is why it even received attention in the first place. Having only watched it for the first time this year i can say it does not hold up.
Its an absurd movie, but in the bad way, the plot is dumb, the characters are shallow and the spirit to spread a genuinely important message is there its hidden too much behind corny jokes and cliche dialogue to really be an important part of the movie.
I will admit, there were a few jokes and scenes that genuinely cracked me up and its a fun movie to watch once, maybe twice if you're with friends, but other then that there's not much this movie has going for it.