+1

Watched: September 25, 2013
Rating: 2.9
Duration: 1:36:12
Genre: Sci-fi / Thriller

“The weirdest Doppelganger movie”

I have been watching movies with wild parties and I feel I’ve had enough of “party” movies. The last “party” movie I watched was the loud and messy Great Gatsby, which I found to be highly entertaining but was void of content and emotional satisfaction

Back to +1

The CONS

I have a serious problem with the movie’s plot. While the movie got us interested at the start with its unique idea, it turns out too weird and with a lot of unnecessary violence going on. The whole movie concentrated and got confined to this one college party, which was good because anything can happen at a college party. But then it got too weird. The movie went on to focus on the protagonist’s attempt to win back his girlfriend, but weird things continue to happen (as they should because that’s where the movie’s heading) and they didn’t tie up to the romantic pursuit of the lead guy. When the story starts to unfold and we now understand what’s fully going on, things become messy, with the movie having no clear direction of resolving the denouement. And with the movie’s last chance to redeem its mess, it fails and ended with a total disappointment. We would have suggested a more effective and well-thought ending

The PROS

Like I said, anything can happen at a college party, and things did happen. There were sex scenes and frontal nudity, and they’re not there to make a soft porn out of this movie (although it somewhat did), but more on showing us what college parties are like, show the audience wild stuff that can happen at a party filled with drunk and horny teenagers. I enjoyed the frontal nudity, haven’t seen that many pairs of breasts in a long time, haha

VERDICT. 2.9 rating. If you are to use similar rating in accordance to Customer Satisfaction score, this means it’s barely passing, or almost watchable

Elysium

watched: September 19, 2013

rating: 4.2

genre: Sci-fi, Action, Thriller

duration: 1:49:03

“Without a doubt, the best sci-fi movie of this year so far”

The CONS

Matt Damon was on a mission to save himself after being exposed to lethal radiation, giving him about 5 days to live. Part of his mission was to steal data from the guy he used to work for, but then it means the guy’s life is terminated because of some cerebral defense mechanism that was not fully explained in the movie. I am not the type of moviegoer who analyzes sci fi movies. It is futile to do so, since the main purpose of sci fi movies is to entertain moviegoers, and not to make core scientific explanation on every theoretical futuristic setting that the filmmakers are presenting. But this one dragged on till the last part and I kept puzzled: how does that cerebral defense thing work? Why is the host killed after the encrypted data is hacked, and not prior? Isn’t it supposed to prevent the hacking procedure itself, much like when one tries to diffuse a bomb and it explodes because he cuts the wrong wire?

Another con is the scene involving facial reconstruction. I’m sure we’ll come to a point where future medical technology can cure all type of illnesses, but doing complete facial reconstruction of a blown-up face in about 10 seconds is beyond me

The PROS

When sci fi films showcased social class struggle on their plot I just shrugged my shoulder and decide not to dwell on that premise. One example is the awesome movie “In Time” starring the very talented Justin Timberlake. I didn’t have to bother myself with the big gap between the rich and the poor in this movie, although it was worth noting since the main currency was the remaining amount of time a person’s got. With Elysium, the viewer has to take a second look on how social class struggle is presented, given how the movie relies heavily on that premise to retain its plot. Neill Blomkamp did a wonderful job in presenting this predicament in the movie with the power to elicit compassion for the protagonist, without having to give too many details on the complexity of how the Elysium social system actually works

Although I find the facial reconstruction scene too farfetched, I find the movie’s use of med-pods to be refreshing amongst the recent waves of sci fi flicks. Nothing beats personal motivation to survive better than having the ability to be “technically” immortal by having machines that can cure all types of illnesses. In one emotional scene, when the med-pod says “No Citizen detected,” I was reminded of one incident where my colleague got denied from clinic consultation because his healthcard didn’t have that coverage. On the context of the scene, the pod is physically there, it’s just not working because the wrong person is inside

Another pro – Jodie Foster. That’s it, that’s the pro, Jodie Foster is in this movie. Go watch it if you haven’t yet

VERDICT: 4.2 rating. Best sci-fi film I’ve watched this year so far

Riddick

watched: September 17, 2013

rating: 2.8

duration: 1:59:57

genre: Action / Thriller

image courtesy of collider.com

“you keep what you kill… but if time is killed for wasted movie, afraid you can’t keep that”

Vin Diesel is the perfect cast for Riddick. Hell, I think the Riddick franchise was created for the sole purpose of giving the man a role to portray, where he could be mean-looking, ruthless, and a real badass. On the last scene of Chronicles of Riddick, when he sat on the throne, I knew there would be a third installment, and I knew it would be something big. But I guess the production peeps were on regression, and got stuck to the Pitch Black ensemble.

Back to Riddick.

The CONS

There are great movies. There are good movies. Bad movies. Baaaad movies. Horrifyingly baaaad movies that are created to insult the intelligence of a small portion of moviegoers. And then, there are movies that have no reason to exist. Riddick is one of those movies. Riddick is highly entertaining, but unlike Chronicles and the Pitch Black, it didn’t retain the legacy and tradition of the true Riddick adventure. On the crucial moments of the movie, Riddick managed to escape by getting extra help from outside forces. This is not the Riddick I know, he shouldn’t be reliant for him to survive, as it makes him weak. The movie appeared to be just a prelude to the actual third movie, like a transition phase. Because “nothing” actually happened in Riddick. He got stuck on some planet and got out on a ship, that’s it. Maybe he’ll fly off to Furya, Helio, or better, bump into a Star Trek Enterprise ship, we’ll never know, until we see the equivalent movie to the third act of the Riddick saga

The PROS

I did say that Riddick is highly entertaining. It may have no reason to exist, but since it’s there, might as well enjoy it. Anyone would enjoy the impressive visuals. Since the setting is an unknown exosolar planet, filmmakers had to be creative and come up with alien life forms and weird looking animals. The fight scenes are mediocre, but I particularly liked the one with Santana on it, with enough gore for the audience to pick up from possible boredom

One more pro – Riddick’s awesome sunglasses. I know they’re rare and may be auctioned on eBay for gazillion dollars, but I would wish to have a pair, even if I have to shave my head to complement the look

VERDICT: 2.8 out of 5. Watch it when you’ve got free iMax tickets. If you have to pay, well, better just save those for badass Riddick sunglasses

Europa Report

courtesy of insidereel.com

watched: September 14, 2013

rating: 3.7

duration: 1:30:14

genre: Sci-fi

“much appreciated after watching National Geographic’s Journey to Europa”

I have always been a fan of sci-fi movies. Some of my favorites include Avatar,  Oblivion, Prometheus, and Star Trek: Into the darkness. You see I’m leaning towards sci-fi stuff that involves space and space exploration. Much of my interest is anchored on visuals. I don’t put much weight on the movie’s explanation on how science factors in to the movie’s plot. This is why I still love Oblivion despite of its absurd twists.

Back to Europa Report.

The CONS

Poor visual effects. Understandably, you cannot expect stunning visuals from a low budget sci-fi. When one of the crews stepped out of the craft to venture on the surface, I thought the surface looked like the production design of our theater set back in high school. Alright, given those are video footage and you cannot expect them to be cinematographic, still, the audience would have expected something that looks very out of this world

courtesy of aceshowbiz.com

The PROS

If you like space stuff, this movie is for you. It uses documentary style which worked because it somewhat patterns from how Nat Geo or Discovery would have made a documentary about traveling to one of Jupiter’s fascinating moons.

It is likely to resemble the movie “Sunshine”, minus the human psyche and drama. We all know that the crew is doomed from the very start, but we want to stay glued to know what exactly happened. You will not treat this as an “Aliens” movie because of the documentary format. Because the movie feels like you are watching a NASA documentary and that it feels all too real. It also helps that the cast didn’t include popular ones, as it adds to the “realism” and the documentary factor.

VERDICT: 3.7 rating. Watch it when stuck in traffic, or after watching a cable documentary about space and Jupiter’s moons