Beno-17 Reviews

Oblivion (I) (2013)

A Hopeless Plot

[3/10 · 13 April 2013]

Let me start by saying that the visuals in the movie are great, acting is reasonable, and although the general story is slow, it has a lot of potential. That is where the positivity ends. For me, the abundance of plot holes / inconsistencies completely ruined the film. Whilst some of these might seem like nitpicking, when you add them together it really detracts from what could have been a great movie. I was asking questions like;

• The machines seem to have amazing technology, except being able to keep consistent radio transmission.

• How did Jack and Victoria figure that their control centre / home was built with no humans? If by the machines, then surely the machines are capable of handling drone maintenance themselves, making their roles totally redundant?

• Why does the machine mother ship's communication go offline constantly?

• Why are the machines always short on drones?

• Jack has an obvious disposition toward protecting humans, yet the other humans constantly wear armor that make them seem non-human? There is ample opportunity to approach Jack whilst he makes repairs or is on his own.

• Despite Jack / Victoria's control center / home being somewhere in the stratosphere, it seems to have swimming temperature and calm wind conditions.

• Why does Victoria's character have her head completely in the sand, whilst Jack appears to be quite free-thinking?

• Why are the drone cameras not visible to the machine control? This would have exposed significant intelligence about the humans numerous times. It is standard even with drone technology today.

• How can the flight log still hear what the NASA flight crew are saying whilst they fly into the white light? If it was in the crashed ship then it must have been disconnected with the sleeping passengers (this is a clear error)?

• The machine mothership didn't consider that maybe Jack was smuggling something into the ship? Especially after it was clear he knew that they were not human?

• Broken drones are easily repaired with chewing gum.

• How did Jack build an entire home on the lake with no obvious access to building equipment or resources?

• The machines could scan Jack's ship upon entry (presumably by some sort of infrared) and see that there was another passenger, but were not able to distinguish a male from a female? Despite them at times being able to match Jack's DNA on visual recognition?

• In 2017 suspended animation seems to have been perfected?

• Why were Jack and Victoria due to go back to Triton in two weeks?

• The aliens seem to have not nailed memory wiping technology at all.

I could go on and on, but this is just the tip of an iceberg for a truly ridiculous plot.

Wrath of the Titans (2012)

Just Terrible

[1/10 · 3 April 2012]

A friend and I saw this the other week and quite frankly I'm astounded that anyone could rate this higher than 1 out of 10. It is definitely the worst movie I've seen all year, I can only imagine very young children finding it enjoyable and even their mental capacity might be too great for this one.

The characters are unconvincing, Sam Worthington was terrible in contrast to his performance in Avatar and the screenwriter should be taken out to pasture. The worst part is that you never really care about the story or any of the characters at all.

Toward the end we were actually laughing at some of the lines and the direction that the story went! I don't know how Liam Neeson gets involved in this trash! Lets all hope they don't make a third!

Shutter Island (2010)

Even Better The Second Time!

[9/10 · 19 February 2010]

I was lucky enough to see this film on opening day and like a lot of people I was interested to see how Scorsese would tackle this new genre. I must say that the movie was nothing like I expected, but in my opinion is one of the best films to come out in a very long time.

That being said, I lined up the very next day with a different group of friends to watch it a second time to see how different the perspective would be having that I already know the twist. I really believe that it's not until you watch this film the second time (or that you have an extremely good memory) that you can't really appreciate just how good this film is.

A lot of people have been bagging out the film saying that the twist is predictable. Well yes, obviously it's not a stretch to work out that Leonardo's character is somewhat psychopathic given the constant flashbacks and how overall unstable he appears to be. Although, Scorsese does do a good job of trying to throw the viewer off the scent (e.g. the second meeting with Rachel). However for me, the actual twist was not the fact that he was unstable, more the fact that the entire film had been a set-up by the institution and Leonardo was, as so aptly put by a patient, 'a rat in a maze'.

The thing I really liked about this film (and again, watching a second time I highly recommend) are the subtleties across the entire film that suggest the twist. Things like Mark Ruffalo struggling to get his gun out of his holster early in the film (obviously because he's never had to unclip a holster before). The institutions flat out refusal to hand over records of staff. The joking and lack of attention when Leonardo is interviewing the staff. When the axe lady was asked about Dr Sheehan, she mentions that he is good-looking and a very quick shot is then taken of Mark Ruffalo (who we later find out is Dr Sheehan) glancing back at her with almost a smirk. The constant dropping of various lines across the film to try to spark Leonardo's memory. Various glances between staff working at the institution. The first Rachel scene where they try to jog Leonardo's memory about his wife murdering the children. The warden's obvious dislike towards Leonardo claiming that he is violent and knows him well. Theses truly are the things that I believe make this film (and there are a tonne more) a cut above most other Hollywood trash.

This was a brilliant film and whilst I don't believe this is something for everyone, I feel it really challenges the viewer mentally and you can't help but go through the psychosis with Leonardo, wandering if he is actually insane or whether the institution is setting him up. Throw into the mix some first-class acting and this is a real winner in my books, watch out for this as a contender for some big awards.