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Salinui chueok (2003)
Overrated, doesn't follow it's own rules
As some other reviewers have pointed out, a significant portion of this film is basically a comedy, including comedic stooges-esque slapstick juxtaposed with a murder-rape victim's corpse in near-proximity. It doesn't fit with the film, is arguably in poor taste, and at times was just downright silly.
The comic detective versus the serious detective plays out well enough. But then they reverse roles in the climactic scene for apparently no reason. The serious cop was adamant about the reliability of documents, but then he suddenly says "I have no need for this document" when it didn't fit his narrative. But they had established him as someone who was attentive to the facts. Why did he suddenly become a completely psychotic emotional wreck in the climax? \(°_o)/. Supposedly seeing a victim he knew personally triggered him, but that was alien to his establishment as a level-headed character who would not have wanted to seek revenge on someone that documented DNA evidence cleared of guilt. There was no explanation or buildup as to why the comic and serious detectives switch personalities. Only the comedic guy was prone to manipulating the solving of a case for his own glory. Earlier in the film, the serious guy explicitly avoids such motives, and yet does a 180.
Then, as others have pointed out, there were the inconsistencies in the murder profiles. At first it was single women wearing red in the rain. Then rain became optional. Then it even included a child. There was one scene where they interrogate a girl who wasn't killed, and she claimed it was because she didn't look at the guy's face. Was that accurate? \(°_o)/. All we know is he didn't kill her for some reason, which was another anomaly in the profile. By the end of the film, the killer was including mutilations and random objects in his killings that are never built out. There is never a coherent profile of the killer.
Again, as others have pointed out, one of the key "clues" was a completely random deus ex machina where a side cop randomly noticed the same song on the radio exactly on the nights that 3 of the murders took place. This is never explained. One of the suspects admits to placing the song requests, but there is never any explanation of why that guy - who is later vindicated by DNA - made those song requests at those times. During an interrogation of that same suspect, the detective starts counting the number of peach pieces at the crime scene, and this clearly upsets the suspect, who starts screaming to shut up. So why would he be so emotional by that description of the crime scene? That suspect was cleared by DNA. Are we supposed to believe the DNA was wrong? If so, there was no indication given that it was. And if the DNA was accurate, there was no logical reason for an otherwise staid suspect to freak out suddenly at a detective counting peaches - other than to try to trick or confuse the viewer with random character behaviors, which is just lame writing.
In the film's postscript that takes place in 2003, the comedic guy decides to visit the first crime scene which is in the middle of a gigantic empty field. He ducks down to look at where the body is and when he pops back up again, wouldn't you know there happens to be a young girl there by herself *in the middle of the gigantic empty field* who tells him she recently talked to a guy looking at the same spot and this guy looked "ordinary" and comedic guy ends the film breaking the 4th wall. This is supposed to be some profound end to a masterpiece? Another deus ex machina of encountering this girl - who also encountered the killer - who himself apparently visited that spot recently - in the middle of a cornfield twenty years later? Seriously? And he looks ordinary so the detective looks into the camera, cuz it could be anyone. That's not profound. That's what follows a film with no coherent puzzle to solve.
The clues don't add up. The killer has no consistent MO. The detectives have inconsistent personalities. Nothing fits together nicely.
From a cinematic and acting perspective, the film is solid. It doesn't follow the predictable "Disney" protagonist rise-fall-redemption arc, so that's a plus of any film anymore. None of that is enough to give this a favorable score.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Avengers: Trainwreck (spoilers)
****SPOILER WARNINGS FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME****
Disney's apparent quest to make male characters less traditionally masculine and female characters more so, results in a convoluted tale whose biggest sacrifice is a coherent story.
Start with the disasters that are Thor and Hulk, the two characters above all known for their great strength. Both of them are castrated of their power in this film.
Thor's last two films have been a comedic spoof of his character. Late night television couldn't even spoof him anymore, for they have done it themselves. The god of thunder is now a useless, emotional wreck drunkard, not just for one gag, but for the entirety of the film. Hulk, made famous for his struggle with violence and bouts of destruction likewise is reduced to comedic fodder, including a joke about his inability to Hulk-out with rage anymore.
To a lesser degree Captain America is another emotional wreck and runs a counseling group. In it, we are sure to have Disney praise gay dating to check all the PC checkmarks. At the end, he passes his shield to Falcon and the five-pointed star is clearly inverted in the shot, which doesn't help Disney's reputation for adding devilish or cultish symbolism in films.
The main women in the story, with the exception of Nebula, are depthless, Mary Sues - the new business model of Disney and other uncreative Hollywoodians. Danvers, Natasha, the witch, Okoye, Gamora, Wasp, Valkyrie, all overflow with competence. There is little to say about them other than they are all clones of the same character, filled with all the strength and competence lost by Thor and Hulk.
The film drags on for seeming hours while we are shown what an apocalyptic wreck the world has been for five years since The Snap. Why is it apocalyptic? Who knows. There are still 3.5 billion people on earth. Has everyone just been in counseling while baseball stadiums collapse and are overrun with foliage?
The movie, devoid of originality in every scene, is filled with cliches about how "it's gotta work" and other painful dialogue. The climactic moment, where Stark *literally pickpockets* the stones from Thanos in about two seconds, is a cliche overdone ad nauseum. The protagonist scuffles with villain and is defeated in the fight-but surprise! The protagonist produces the thing he snuck from the villain. And the villain has his mouth hanging open. And so do the viewers who can't believe they paid to see *another* movie with that climax.
In short, Disney has about killed the Marvel franchise.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
Spectacularly, comically bad
As others have said, this is an awkward attempt to remake episode 4, but a poorly done one, at that. There were many times I laughed at the ridiculousness transpiring on screen.
SPOILERS FOLLOW.
The bad guy Ren. His mask apparently serves no purpose but to intimidate. When he finally takes it off, you realize he's just a long haired emo kid who probably dropped out of a boy band. He's supposed to be the First Order's (aka the new Dark Side on the block) best warrior, following in the footsteps of Vader. He powerfully wields the force early in the film, but come crunch time, for the sake of the lack of a way to write their way out of it, he becomes about six shakes of useless.
Rey, the heroine. She only has one special skill: Everything. She weighs about a buck-five, but don't let that fool you. Early in the film, she beats up a pair of dudes trying to rob her, a la Bruce Lee. Then, she slugs Finn, the guy trained as a soldier since birth, with her stick, knocking him clear on his rear. Did I mention she weighs like a buck-five? Abrams often gets some kind of jolly out of female characters knocking bigger men around. Think Sydney, Kate, Juliet, Ana Lucia, Rey... She does all this during a time when they established that she doesn't even use the force. But Rey does it all -- she's a scavenger, pilot, mountain climber, sharp-shooter, fighter, linguist, mechanic, martial arts expert, etc... People who say she's a "Mary Sue" exaggerate - she could beat Mary Sue at anything. She even knows the Millennium Falcon better than Han Solo. After she was in it for a few minutes. No joke. How many times does she save Finn? When she hits someone or lands after jumping, Abrams throws in this low-pitched bass sound effect like a semi-truck just hit a building. Like Abrams is trying to imitate when Thor lands with his hammer. She's a combination of Dr. Manhattan, Rambo, and Superman, minus the blue skin, kryptonite allergy, muscles, and at least 120 pounds. In advertisements, she is called "tough." Right there with a picture of baby-face Daisy Ridley. We are supposed to look at that and think, "Now there's someone tough." It's one of the poorest casting choices in a while - at least since little Tom Cruise was cast as the hulking, intimidating Jack Reacher. It doesn't work. If you think about it, the reason Michael J. Fox was never cast as Rambo is because everyone would have laughed and said, this is ridiculous. I guess the 21st century's blinders are opaque enough to make people think Ridley is convincingly "tough." Disney and Abrams merely advance one of the insulting stereotypes that women are weak on screen unless they are acting like they are jacked on testosterone.
Rey's use of the force was especially comical. Somebody tells her the force is real and around her. A few hours later (or maybe it was only minutes), she outduels Ren in a mind force battle in her first time ever even *trying* to use the force. Then she faces the dark apprentice in the climactic light saber fight. She's never wielded a light saber until that moment. The fight is close. So how does she tip the scales? Ta da! Abrams and his writers call on the deus ex machina! She channels the force, grits her teeth to show the audience she's really gonna use that buck-five body for a beat-down, and does just that to Ren a few seconds later! No training with the force. Ever. At this point, training will only harm the perfection of her abilities. Then, after the fight, in the snow, in the woods, she doesn't have a hair out of place. She doesn't have a scratch. Not a peck of mud. Nothing. Her face still looks 11 years old, pristine and with a healthy shine to boot. Like those comical James Bond moments of yesteryear where the suit isn't scuffed a bit and he saunters away all cool and unrealistically.
The choreography in the film was also poor. People can complain all they want about Episode 1 in general, but Darth Maul, thanks to a talented Ray Park, delivered some of the best saber duels we've seen on screen. With Rey and the Emo Kid, we get all the clumsy action of waving a sword around with a lack of dexterity that we haven't seen since Alec Guinness was 63. When we first see Rey running in the desert along a shipwreck, Ridley's so awkward, and it looks like her center of gravity is gonna give.
The storm troopers still aren't accurate, though. Too tough to write around that, I guess. This story says storm troopers are trained from birth. You see, that's why Finn defected. His conscience pricked him. That's all it takes. And so one storm trooper defected. ONE.
Let's not forget other ludicrous moments. The lack of bad guys' defense, once again, to the one area of the death star that can destroy it. They didn't even try to write something new. There's a point where someone says something like, "Another death star?" In the film. But then, someone says something like, "No, this thing is much bigger!" Ah. That makes it original then. It's like a death star. Only bigger. And then how Phasma shuts down the shields so easily. The shields on the whole "bigger" death star. The whole thing in like 5 seconds. Shut down by some lower ranking captain's keystroke.
This movie will have value in the future as fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Oculus (2013)
Deus ex Machina ending
The 2 stars are for what was an intriguing setup that positioned itself to resolve by way of a clever or satisfying ending based on the rules the film setup for itself.
Disastrously, however, the finale of the film completely abandons all the "rules" it setup for the situation.
Possible spoilers follow....
The protagonist establishes that this evil mirror has "predictable" behavior and the entire film fortifies that theory. In the current as well as the historical cases, the plants wither on cue, people dehydrate for some reason before this thing, and it protects itself if someone attacks it, etc...
However, just as another commenter pointed out, they knew the thing had a range of "power" of about 30 feet, inside of which, it would use the power of suggestion or whatever to make the person miss-hit or just not strike. So why not take it out with a rifle?
Additionally, the very last few minutes of the movie shifts into a huge film violation, which is to simply create illusions. What the viewer and characters are seeing aren't really there, but sometimes, it is really there. There is no consistency as to when something is there but really isn't or when something is really there but we and the characters can't perceive it. There is no consistency with using a camera to see what is real or not either.
So basically, the writers of the film created a canvas from which they allowed themselves to do absolutely anything they wanted. This is Deus ex Machina to the extreme. So they just write the characters perceiving themselves to kill the mirror when in reality they are hallucinating and one of them ends up getting killed. It is simply poor writing, and a disastrous, unsatisfying ending. Frankly, with all the hallucinations and illusions the writers set up by this point, we, the viewers, don't even have good reason to believe anything in the movie really happened. What's to stop them from making a sequel that says the last 10 minutes of the movie were just the protagonists' daydream, they snap out of it and resume the movie where they snap out of it. There is nothing to stop the story from going that direction if the writers' feel like it because they established anything goes, we can fake anything you see, etc....
Besides all that, the acting was generally flat as well. I can't recommend it.