Cellar Door

I've seen a lot of smart movies. The Shining, Inception, Moon, Fight Club, etc. I'd like to think that I know my movies, I try to fully understand them and I make effort to research even minor details. The most recent one is of course Inception, everyone knows about that one, and I absolutely love it. But there's this sort of underground movie with a semi-large cult following and it blows Inception out of the water for me. Of course I don't want to make a comparison because you can't really, it's two completely different movies. So let's cut to the chase.

I never seen a more intelligent, surprising, unpredictable and deep movie such as Donnie Darko.

I'm fully aware that I'm quite late for the party, ten years late to be precise, but what can I say. I had the opportunity many times to see this movie, I just couldn't bring myself to do so. Partially because I wasn't really interested, partially because some opinions kept me away from it. Opinions like it's nothing but shallow melodrama, an emo wetdream and a mess plotwise. Man... I was an idiot for listening to those other, even bigger idiots. But to be honest, I'm glad I didn't see it back when it came out, because I was too young to comprehend the plot, let alone the sheer complexity of it. Now that I'm in my early twenties I can safely say that I get it. Even though I had to spend a few hours thinking about it and re-watching a few scenes.

It's quite hard to describe what it's about without spoiling it and frankly (see what I did there?) I wouldn't really know where to begin without being absolutely blunt. It's the kind of movie you have to see with your own eyes, preferably without any prior knowledge regarding anything in it. It's an experience, a journey if you will into a plot so deep that you have to pay attention to every minor detail. You won't really get it until the last ten minutes or so when everything unfolds.

Returning to the first half of the post, allow me me explain a little why I like it better than Inception. You see if you thought Inception needed more explaining, you sure never seen Donnie Darko. After watching it, I seriously thought that everything was blatantly spoon-fed to me in Inception. In Donnie, nothing is explicitly explained, only vaguely hinted at, everything is really subtle at least in the theatrical cut. Said version has it's downsides however, because it feels like it's a little too subtle and it doesn't explain some fundamental elements of the plot. Because of this it's easy to get confused and you won't really understand it. If you're planning to see it, I strongly recommend the director's cut version for various reasons. While it keeps it's subtle tone, it explains way more about what's going on, but it still manages to make you guess until the very end. If you pay close attention, and take your time to read what's needed to be read (you'll see), everything will come to full circle. So the director's cut version is highly superior to the theatrical release, because you'll actually understand it at the very end, provided you pay attention.

I wish I'd seen this movie a few months ago, because I could've declared it my best movie experience of 2010. But kicking off the year with something of this calibre is not too shabby either. I strongly recommend this movie to everyone who likes complex storytelling, subtle but great acting and deep plots.

What planet is this?

I love science fiction movies. They give the opportunity to let loose your imagination and the possibilities are endless. It's a genre you have to approach with an open mind and suspend your disbelief to truly enjoy and appreciate it. I could go on for ages about Sci-Fi movies from the 30's to this generation, but that's for another time. Today, I'd like to talk about a certain sub-genre and a certain movie from that sub-genre. It's an alien movie and a pretty unique one.

District 9.

I know it's more than a year old and most of you probably already seen it, but hey, I'm not here to talk about all the new movie releases, there are other sites for that. For those of you who didn't see it go and do so, or read on at your own risk because I'll give away a few things. In other words: SPOILERS.

Here's the story:

In 1982 a massive alien ship parks above Johannesburg, South Africa and just chills there for three months without giving any sign of activity. After a team enters the ship and find more than a million starving and beat down insect-humanoid aliens, they relocate them in a camp named District 9. Two decades pass and in 2010 the government hires a private military company, the Multinational United (MNU) to relocate all the aliens to District 10, another camp far from Johannesburg. Of course the MNU aren't so eager to help because they're such nice guys. District 9 is the home of alien weapon technology. Problem is, the weapons can read DNA signs and they only work in alien hands. The official reason behind the relocating of the aliens, is that the people can't stand them anymore near Johannesburg, protests and riots break out with violence and all that "good" stuff. The task is not so simple, because the alien inhabitants of District 9 don't really think as individuals, more like a hive. Only a very very few aliens are capable of fully individual thinking and can make intelligent, consistent decisions. Not to mention the Nigerian arms dealing gangs that settled in the district.

This is where our main protagonist comes in the picture, Wikus van de Merwe an Afrikaner bureaucrat. He's appointed by the head of MNU and his father-in law to lead the whole relocation operation. His job is to make the aliens sign the eviction papers, confiscate any weapons or other illegal stuff, and do whatever to settle things without violence, even use deadly force provided by the MNU soldiers. That's not hypocritical at all.

Here's the spoiler part: an unknown alien liquid sprays over him while he's searching a shack, he gets ill and starts to turn into an alien and he has to seek refuge in District 9 after he escapes from the MNU research facility where they experimented on him. The liquid turns out to be the fuel for the alien ship that an alien named Christopher Johnson gathered in the past 20 years. The only hope for the cure for Wikus is to help Christopher get to the mother ship. Now I won't spoil the ending, let's just say it's pretty epic and moving.


My opinion:

This movie rocks plain and simple. It's so unique, even by Sci-Fi standards. I love how it switches things up, making us humans the bad guys. If you really think about it, things would probably play out the same way in real life because, well... we're selfish assholes. We can't get along with our own species, how could we do so with a whole new intelligent one? Especially when they're at our mercy. It's a masterful statement on xenophobia and social segregation a mirror we should look into.

I like how they shot the film, I really dig this whole mock documentary style. The first half of the film is filled with news reports, handycam shots, but not to the point where the action becomes a messy, shaky closeup filled blur like in a bad Micheal Bay movie. The second half was shot like a more traditional movie, so it balances out well.

The guy who plays the lead, Sharlto Copley is a complete new face to the movie world, this was his first major role in a feature film and he does a wonderful job. He really makes the character come alive, he's believable in the role. At first he's your typical bureaucrat, white shirt with tie guy, a little awkward, shy and whimpy. But as the film goes by he becomes more and more of a badass and it's a believable change, you really see how he gets more desperate and determined at the same time. Wikus is a really human character and Copley pulls it of flawlessly, probably because nearly all of his dialog and acting is improvised.

I want to mention that this movie had an unbelievably low budget, around 30 million dollars. In comparison, Avatar's budget was 237 million $, Terminator Salvation cost 200 million $ and Transformers RotF also needed 200 million $.

The reason I mention this is because District 9 looks better than any of the above mentioned movies. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I never seen such convincing and real looking CG in my life. It's a thing that you can make super colorful and high definition blue aliens on a fluorescent planet or giant robots unconvincingly beating the shit out of each other. It's a whole other thing to actually make it look and feel real. The amount of detail is mind blowing, you really have to see with your own eyes. It doesn't even need all the bullshit 3D or tons of special effects to make it look better than it actually is. The reason why it looks so good is that it's not perfect. Everything has flaws just like in real life, nothing is crisp clear or too gritty, nothing is too shiny or plastic like, everything looks as it should look. The aliens are organic, the mother ship looks like it's made out of metal, everything feels natural and convincing.

I really recommend this film to all Sci-Fi lovers it's a must see. If you like social commentaries you should also see it. If you like eye candy and action I also recommend it. Just go see the damn movie whatever taste you have and whoever you are. You won't regret it.

Don't pick it up

So just yesterday I watched one of Uwe Boll's most recent "movie" titles called Rampage. Fortunately, I had the company of Microwave Jellyfish so I didn't have watch this travesty of a movie alone, a fact from which my sanity benefited greatly. Now don't think I'm a rabid Boll hater, because I'm not. His movies often fall in the category of "so bad it's good" and I like that, I like crappy movies that can entertain me with their crappyness. I only wish he would leave alone my beloved game franchises.

The movie is about a kid in his early twenties (played by a 29 year old actor) who gets fed up with the world and it's deep running problems, so he builds a full body kevlar armor suit, gets a few automatic guns and a few hundred pounds of explosives. Don't ask how he manages to get his hands on military grade stuff like this because it's never explained, just roll with it, it will be easier that way. So one day he completely snaps because his parents want him to move out because he's a good for nothing dipshit and... because the coffee is like shit in the local Starbucks apparently. He tells his asshole dad and one hell of a MILF mom (who looks younger than him even though she's played by a 45 year old actress) that he'll stay home filling some school papers, but it's a lie of course. After that it's just one boring and repetitive shootout scene after the other. Oh, and he robs a bank and burns the money, but not really because he keeps the majority of it and frames his friend to... oh dear lord, do you really care about this shit? I sure don't.

All in all the movie is not so surprisingly pure crap. I don't know why or how it's holding a 6.4 average on IMDB with over two thousand ratings, but I bet everyone was on crack while voting. The movie does have some redeeming qualities, like the scene where he eats a sandwich in full gear, in the middle of a big bingo game and nobody even pays attention to him. Or the scene where... wait, that's about it. I also felt really really sick during this movie because every scene seems to have terrible shaky camera control, as if the camera-man was caught in the middle of a mosh-pit and never got out.

Sadly, this is not a Boll movie that's entertaining because it's bad. It's almost unwatchable, due to the camera, the inhumanly boring action scenes and the crap story. It could've made a decent half hour short movie, but sadly this isn't the case.

The ending theme was nice, though.