Reviews

I don't understand anything about this movie, not one bit. Is realism and common sense of so little importance that people buy anything presented to them as long as there is action?

If I was in some kind of combat squad that was attacked by snipers, I would not react by drawing my sword. That much I can guarantee. I'm pretty sure I would not even have a sword in that situation. Or knife for that matter. Why would I?

This is a space war scenario in the future, with extreme range sniper rifles, rocket launchers, helicopters protected with forcefields etc. But the knife/sword is the preferred weapon? It's like opting for a javelin over a bazooka when fighting a tank.

To quote the Chewbacca defense: "that does not make sense!"

I also don't understand why most of the actors only have one or two facial expressions. I know that several of the actors are capable of acting, so I guess it's down to the director telling them not to "act".

What a shame to butcher a good story like this.

I just don't get it. You are basing the story on a brilliant classic book (that I just re-read) and you take from it is perhaps 20% and then re-write the rest of it? Why?

You had a great book with critique against a possible future society where people are bread for their expected jobs, including limiting their intelligence for them to be content with their lot. And then. The only one that had the free mind to question the society was someone that came from without it.

And instead you create a story with violence, uprising and a demand for justice Nothing of this was present in the book. Nor did the "savages" have cars, guns or any inclination to change their society. They were poor and caged, but they kept their traditions and lived as best they could, in peace with nature.

Also, the "savages" area was based on a native american reservation. So why are there mostly white trash living in them here? John the savage was an outsider in the reservation because he was not a native indian and didn't share their beliefs, and he suffered a lot for it.

The book presents the society both from an insiders and an outsiders point of view. That's what it's all about. If you are inside the system you can't detect the absurd conditions, because you have been conditioned to accept it. It takes an outsider to judge it impartially. Or, a high enough controller, who's job is to maintain the current status.

Why not stick to the story, it's a lot better than what you came up with.

The main characters are so awkwardly played that it just feels embarrassing. Wooden, I would say, sums it up pretty well. I'm happy for you people that can enjoy it, but for me it's a big no.

After 2 minutes I was cringing in my seat. After 5 minutes I felt embarrassed for all the people involved in this production. After 15 minutes I felt embarrassed that someone of the same species as me would do a horrible thing like this to one of the most popular art form of our time.

Honestly, several actors in the movie act so bad that they don't even look like humans. Their body language is so wrong that the movie would have been a lot more plausible if they were impersonating aliens posing as humans. Well, maybe that was revealed to be the case in the end, but I felt that it it's more important to write this review than to finish watching the movie.

The most important thing a book, a movie or a TV-series needs to do to be successful and appreciated is to engage the audience in a way so that they feel that the story is plausible and that they can identify with the characters.

There are several ways to do that, and unfortunately Defiance fail on all fronts. - The background story of the whole situation is very vague, we hardly get any information about how all the characters ended up where they are and what motivates them. - There are hardly no character development, what you see the first time you encounter them let's you know exactly how they will act in the future. - The characters (including both humans and aliens) are total clichés and act so different from normal human beings that you can't identify with anyone no matter how hard you try.

I have one question to the production team: In the future, can you please state what age group your work is aimed at here at IMDb? That way I could have skipped this right away since it's apparently aimed at kids between 10 and 12 years of age.

I didn't expect much from this film and unfortunately I was right in doing do.

The story is quite poor which makes it very easy to figure out the connection between the characters and therefore most of the plot/twist long before it is revealed.

The stereotyping is just appalling, almost about as bad as in the movie Midnight Express that was mentioned in the movie; the Turkish "bad-guys" were either pictured as steroid eating muscle bulging mountains or sly and cowardice rats.

I can't really go into the moral issue of the story without ruining the (attempt of a) plot, but I can say that it didn't make up for all the other awful aspects of the movie.

As a final remark, Mark O'Neal is about as good an actor as an average couch potato sports fan is at being one of the elite athlete he/she's watching. Just awful to watch.

This one got it all, beautiful camera work, a great plot, superb actors and an excellent story.

This is eye candy, and mind candy! You get funny moment and suspense, thrilling moments and some gore! The only movie I can think of to rival this masterpiece is Joint security area (also starring Kang-ho Sung) and that's saying a lot.

I had the chance to see it during a film festival in Sweden a few years ago, and I've watched it 3 times on DVD after that, and it gets even better the more I watch it. The film present you with a lot of gags together with several deep moments of sharing the pain of the victims. So don't just expect a heavy Asian flick, filled with understated emotions, try this and you will go on a roller coaster of emotions, from total happiness to complete sadness within a few minutes.

JSA is a masterpiece, no doubt about it. The story is really something to ponder in the modern day society. People that are forced to take sides because of national interests meet and find out that they are not that different at all.

The characters are clearly defined with great depth, the way it's filmed is just awesome and the story is an important lesson to us all.

If you walk out of the theater after watching this movie without being deeply moved, you probably don't have any feelings at all.

Chan-wook is a master and with this film he confirms his place on the throne.