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3/10
Improbable and boring
26 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The premise was interesting and could have been a good story. I generally like thoughtful SCI-FI, dystopian films and George Clooney. The visuals and cinematography were good (obviously a decent budget). Unfortunately, the script was a bit boring and improbable, the story familiar and predictable.

The space side of this story was just silly. A spaceship on a long journey from A to B doesn't suddenly fly off course. In space (which is a vacuum with no friction), there's initial propulsion and then months or years of just moving at speed. Unless something hits the spaceship or it's trying some maneuver around a body, there's no chance of flying off course. The moon they visit has breathable air for humans. One crew member is hit by flying ice while on a spacewalk, but somehow doesn't know that her suit, which is pressurized, has been punctured and that she has been fatally wounded. The spacecraft is moving at 10,000 km/h and a human hit with anything at that speed (more than two times the speed of a bullet) would be pulverized. Radio communication between the spaceship and earth is instant, despite the vast distances. Even assuming some amazing future communications technology that travels something close to light speed, it would take minutes.

In the end, when it's clear that earth is uninhabitable and the Saturn moon is humanity's last hope, two of 4 remaining crew members decide on a suicide mission to return to earth, taking with them one of the 2 landing vehicles and 50% of the crew. No thought or debate about how they will be dooming the remaining two (one of whom is very pregnant) to almost certain death (and our species to extinction). And the captain allows it. Right.

The Arctic is shown to be in constant blizzard conditions, even while the ice is suddenly melting under their feet. The snow vehicle (which exposes its driver to the elements) can go for days without additional fuel or recharging. The main character falls in frozen water and swims around like it's a tropical pool, then somehow not only survives in his wet clothes and shoes but walks for what looks to be a couple of days in whiteout conditions without shelter.

I could go on and on. Ignoring these improbabilities doesn't help the story, because the story isn't interesting enough to compensate for the assault on the viewer's intelligence. The big twist was entirely predictable as well - the person who's not really there device has been overused in recent years to the point that it's now the first thing you consider.
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Gettysburg (1993)
5/10
Romanticized war film that hasn't aged very well
16 May 2020
War is dirty, ugly and desperate, especially a civil war, in its 3rd year, fought by conscripts and volunteers. Among the troops on either side there are differences in class, means, power and origin. While there is plenty of violence and battle scenes, you don't get much of a sense for the power dynamics, the passions and hatreds, the gritty ugliness of a nation tearing itself apart. It's as if the film is holding back, so as not to offend or put off audiences. It's a film about an bitterly fought civil war but this film offends no one.

The dialogue between characters is interesting. The location and cinematography very good. Mostly, I found the soundtrack overwrought and dated, making the film feel overly romanticized and out of step with the subject matter. Sometimes it seemed like a bunch of reenactors got together to make a movie.

Perhaps this movie should be remastered and updated, stripping the film of the musical score. A version could also be paired with some commentary from history experts, to provide some context that feels missing at times.
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1/10
Really dumb
30 April 2020
Loved Close Encounters of the 3rd kind as a kid. This movie is nothing like it. Happy to engage in a little speculation and fantasy but this movie tries to be serious yet is so dumb and unscientific it hurts my brain. The tinfoil hat and conspiracy crowd will no doubt eat it up. Btw, preparing briefs for presidents is not the same thing as actually briefing presidents (no one grantedthis guy a meeting). Just because credible and intelligent people in positions of responsibility reject this nonsense doesn't make it a conspiracy.
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