Reviews

The scene of spider girls fighting a spider guy is a dream sequence. It's about 30 seconds & is shown early. The rest of the time, the girls are teenagers. Dakota uses her newly discovered ability to see briefly into the future (think Nick Cage in Next), to run from the spider guy. He's trying to kill the girls due to his recurring dream of them killing him in the future. Of course, it's never explained why they would kill him. His criminal exploits all revolve around finding the girls. He's clearly been looking for them for a long time. Outside of that, it doesn't appear he's wanted by the police or anyone else. So what is going on? We get no answers. Also his audio is dubbed, badly. Dakota is a neurotic mess for most of the film. We see glimpses of what she sees using her abilities, and they mostly confuse her. Then suddenly, with 5 mins left in the film, mid scene, her entire demeanor shifts. She suddenly has full confidence in her abilities and how it all works. We stop seeing her visions. And she starts talking like the Madame Web character. She knows everything that is happening and will happen. Including the death of the villain, and ensuing accident which blinds and cripples her. Then the next scene, a few days later, she's in a wheelchair, with reflective glasses on, and starts talking about the girls like they are her beloved children. The dialogue is cliched & cringe, and delivered completely deadpan. The change is extremely jarring. It makes you feel like you missed something. 3/10 don't bother.

Ok. This films has a great premise. Unfortunately Diggsy is a neurotic entitled jerk & Suzette starts off as a series of 1-dimensional female movie tropes. And all of that is vividly highlighted when Gwyneth enters the film. She's charming, funny, sweet, beautiful, & quirky. She's completely interesting, highlighting how bland & uninteresting Diggsy is. Then that universe's version of Suzette shows up & she's now a 3-dimensional character. You actually feel for her. Then he comes across another version of Daphne & you see how great a character she is. So it's just him. He isn't likable or relatable. I don't know if it's how he's written or the actor, but Diggsy is a terrible lead character for this otherwise interesting film.

Slight spoilers I guess.

I went in with low expectations. The scenes copied from every other super hero film, the terrible CGI sets (how did the scene of the JSA flying out of their underground base look worse than a very similar scene from the 1st X-men film, 22 years ago? How is that even possible?), the CGI monstrosity "villain" at the end... Really derailed a decent film. Adam's true origin was a nice twist. I really liked Hawkman & Dr Fate. Just wish we'd gotten more time with them. Adam Smasher & wind girl were ok but ultimately forgettable. I feel like they needed to allow more time with Adam, the woman, & her son 1st. Establish the city villains fully. Then have the JSA come in. Also the hypocrisy of Hawkman yapping at Adam when he works for AMANDA WALLER? Like, really? Fate knows everything, but doesn't know they work for one of the worst people on the planet? Would have been much better to explore that than the video game boss at the end. Lost opportunity. 5/10.

The acting is meh. The editing & dialogue are borderline terrible. The ambiguous ending would be far more acceptable if the overall film was better. But it's still good enough to discuss, simply because of the premise.

I would love to see this film remade with a better cast, director, & editor.

This movie was slow, boring, & painful. But at least it was long! They took some of the basic story lines of Poltergeist & the Exorcist & made a "new" movie out of them.

The beginning is way too long & drawn out.

Then the rest is goofy &/or predictable. The assistants coming to evaluate if the situation was real is pointless. The medium already knew the father's history, so she knew it was most likely real. Was she testing her assistants? What was the point? Couldn't it have been for the audience's sake? We've already seen proof by then, as have the parents. So all that was a waste. It felt like it was just so they could "shock" us with blaring music notes while we see "creepy" ghosts in corners. We've seen all that before. It's a cliché & it wasn't needed.

The father not realizing he was actually asleep & outside his body has also been done before. Several times… So much that's it's expected. When it's expected, it's not scary or shocking, it's boring. Him walking thru the realm of darkness wasn't bad. But again, it seems like it was so they could shock us with more extremely loud music notes & ghosts with creepy smiles. How many times has that been done before? Seriously.

Simply a bad movie! Go watch the Exorcist & Poltergeist. You'll see what they were trying to do here, only better.

This movie is somewhat different from most horror movies. It doesn't follow the typical patterns, other than the main character (the mother, Radha Mitchell) being a complete moron. Like most main characters in horror movies, the decision making & danger recognition parts of her brain must have been surgically removed. (I don't think this is a spoiler, but just in case, I checked the box) Just to give an example: If your daughter was having nightmares about a town that she could never have possibly been to, & then you find out the town is real, & it's know to be a ghost town where all the inhabitants died in a fire! & is thought to be one of the most haunted towns in America; WOULD YOU TAKE HER THERE?!?!?!?! But other than that... This movie is well thought out. It leaves a lot open to interpretation, which in my opinion is always a good thing. If you enjoy movies that will have you discussing the possibilities afterwards, check this one out!

*** Spoilers, if there can be such a thing with this piece of crap ***

This is the worst movie I have seen in recent memory. Jeepers Creepers manned that post in my list until last night. This movie is long, boring, predictable. There is a conversation between Ivy & one of the Elders about 15 mins into the movie, which gives away the so-called "twist" at the end. A few mins later... Lucius sees one of the "monsters". It's looks so bad & is so obviously a person in a suit that the entire movie has been given away in the 1st 25 mins... but you sit there for the next 90 hoping something else happens... Well... it doesn't... You've just been had... this is movie is worse than Taking Lives (a similar movie in that it gives away the ending 20 mins in) but at least there are some interesting things happening later on. The Village has nothing. No interesting side plots. No interesting characters other than Ivy... She does a good job, but her character doesn't have enough depth to carry a movie. She is the ONLY part of this movie worth seeing. How can you have a 2-hour so called thriller, but give away the only 2 "thrilling" points of the movie 25 mins in. M.Night had a gem in Sixth Sense. People keep wondering why he brought that out 1st, & then the rest of this crap, i.e. Signs, Unbreakable, & the Village, afterwards... the reason is simple. If we had all seen any of those movies 1st, we would never have paid to see any more... much less paying to see Sixth Sense. So instead, he brings out the best 1st. Forcing us all to go see is later films in the hope one of them will be as good as the 1st. Well... they aren't... Not even Close. We have been had by a con artist on a mass scale... He suckered us in with that 1st great one...

& has been cashing in with crap ever since... All the money Unbreakable, Signs, & The Village have made should be tacked on to the total income of Sixth Sense... Where it all belongs...

***** Slight spoilers contained herein *****

A lot of people like this movie, but seem to be confused. It's easy to see why you can get confused, but it really isn't that confusing. At the beginning, Joel (Carrey) leaves his home to find his car dented, & ends up taking the train & seems aimlessly lead to the beach. On his way, he meet's Clementine (Winslett) & seems again, aimlessly drawn to her. They speak & hit it off instantly! They get along so well that, as a movie viewer, it is somewhat confusing. Because after their encounter that day & the following sequence, the next scene shows him go to her job, but she doesn't know him & he is obviously hurt. But what needs to be understood is, when the movie actually starts off, it is **AFTER** both Joel & Clementine have had their memories erased.

The key to this is Elijah Wood. He works at the clinic & meets Clementine when she goes there to have her memory erased. But he shows up at her house the day after Joel meet's her at the beginning of the movie & is wondering what Joel is doing there! Elijah Wood's character is your clue that this is after both have had their minds erased. She doesn't know why Elijah Wood is so drawn to her, but she doesn't really like him. & Neither she nor Joel understand why they are so drawn to each other. They have an undeniable kinship even thou they apparently just met. The other key to understand this is the twist at the end with the doctor. (All I'm going to say) But when that scenario plays out, it is basically explained that the mind erasure procedure is not perfect. It can't erase your lower, subconscious brain. Thus, Joel & Clementine know each other, thou they don't recognize each other.

That is what makes this movie so good. This is very realistic in my humble opinion. We don't know enough about the brain to dig deep into the subconscious subsystems of our brains, but the mind erasure procedure is pretty simple to understand. They don't go deep. They have you bring in everything you own that reminds you of the person, & then discuss each thing & explain how you feel about the relationship & the other person. During which, they do a cat scan on your brain & analyze the area's of your brain that are reacting! They have you explain the pieces in order, so they can make a road map thru your mind, & basically damage each small section in order. Erasing the all memories of this person. But this is all pretty much visual memory! So, you don't know the person physically or consciously.

Now think back to old relationships. There are foods or smells or places that you have fond feelings for or can put you in a good mood, but you don't consciously know why. You have to think about it, & then it dawns on you the thing reminds you of some person you used to know... but what if you couldn't possibly remember that person. Only the subconscious feeling would be left. Thou unexplained, you would feel drawn to this smell or place or thing... OR PERSON.

I wish this could be real... This would be so great for all our long-term relationships... if we could erase all the pain & anguish, but still keep the feeling of kinship to the person, & start over. That would be great wouldn't it?

This is the statement the movie made to me! I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, & will be buying it the day it is released on DVD.

5 out of 5 stars for me!!!

I think people are upset because they don't understand, so they try to downplay how good this movie is. Are their flaws, of course there are... the entire sequence with Morpheus' empowerment speech & that ludicrously long "jungle" dance scene, as well as Trinity & Neo's love scene... all of that could have been left out.

But most of the movie is just right. If you cant except the premise of the movie, THE MATRIX IS A SIMULATION. SO THEY PRETTY MUCH CAN DO WHAT EVER THEY WANT. Then why watch the movie. Go see The Pianist or something else. The Matrix movies are for people like me. I am tired of thoughtless action movies with no plot, so they are essentially life action film of someone else's video game highlights (i.e. Mission Impossible 2, & Blade 2) & I'm tired of well acted drama's that are so boring you need no dose & jolt cola to make it thru to find out the final resolution (i.e. insomnia.. decent movie, but watch when you just get out of bed after 9 hours of sleep & have had 2 espresso's.) The Matrix Reloaded has an interesting premise, great action, decent acting by everyone except, Keanu. (he is duller than back side of a plastic knife, Keanu. Do us all a favor. WAKE UP! SHOW SOME ENTHUSIASM. You're getting $15 million a film...) Now for some interesting tidbits ***SPOILERS*** Check out the video game "Enter the Matrix' it helps explain some things & also shows some scenes that could have been in the movie, but instead were made for the game. The fight scene between Ballard (Roy Jones Jr.) & Seraph (the Oracle's protector) is very cool. Also, the way they explain why the Oracle is a different person now actually took some thought & was cleverly done. I don't know if that will be explained in the next movie, but it is in the game. Also you learn that all the things that the Oracle mentioned to Neo are in the movie: Ghosts (the twins obviously); vampires (Persephone); & werewolves (the 2 guys in the room watching horror movies. Persephone shoots one of them, comments about silver bullets, and then tells the other to go tell her husband.) The Wachowski brothers put a lot of thought into these movies & everything they have spawned. And it shows! They deserve a lot of credit for changing the industry & how action movies are made, besides setting the new benchmark. Think about how many action movies use bullet time now.

One comment said most people probably didn't understand the intriguing conversation between Neo & the Architect. Maybe that's true. Most of the people I know thought he was a human. But that, in it self is a measuring stick of how good a movie is. People can discuss the different odds & ends of the movie at length because there is so much to think about. So please, if you haven't seen this, go check it out. If you have… Give credit where credit is due!

CONTAINS SPOILERS Even with the the extremely stupid characters, the start of the movie was good. When i say stupid, I mean STUPID!! Almost insultingly stupid. NO ONE, & i mean NO ONE would have went back to that house. The main characters from Dumb & Dumber wouldn't have went back. Not to mention the incredibly stupid move of climbing down the well. I nearly walked out of the theater on that one. I'm sorry, no one on earth is that dumb. But even with that, the movie was still clinging to an "ok" rating. That is until they met the woman with the cats, that was the start of down hill. & it continued down from there. I fail to understand what the psychic ladies purpose was. Was she just there to have a black face in the movie. I really hope not. She was stupid & annoying, & no person in there right mind would have listened to her, she sounded as stupid as the siblings. She deserved to die as much as they did. I was cheering for them to die. I was absolutely p***ed that only the brother died. I was waiting for the sister and/or the psychic to join Darry. This movie sucked. Dont waste your money. Out of 10 it gets a 1.