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Triangle (2009)
Decent attempt at a Loop-Mystery, flawed by holes in its inner logic.
Triangle is an okay attempt of a time-/purgatory-loop mystery story. It shares a lot of similarities with Time Crimes, but ultimately goes more into the direction of Stay. Camera work and direction are quite good and the cast does an ok job. The effects can be bit cheap at times (the bad CGI of the storm and the approaching Ghost Ship), but that's neglectable.
The whole time loop interaction is done well at first, but ultimately the whole story construct turns out to be inconsistent in the end. The movie can't decide what kind of inner logic it wants to follow.
The most obvious interpretation is that the protagonist Jess has mistreated and killed her autistic Son (and herself?) by accident and is now trapped in a purgatory-loop for eternity (like Sisyphus from ancient Greek mythology, who is mentioned aboard the ghost ship that is named after his father Aeolus, and who is punished for cheating death by having to roll a stone up a hill only to watch it roll down over and over again). This is the interpretation I would deem most likely, but there are a number of contradictions to this in the movie.
Two variations of that interpretation would be, that Jess is in a coma (after the car accident) and this is all a dream, or that she just died, but her soul can't accept that and is dreaming up this endless loop until she can make peace with the death of her son and herself and move on to afterlife.
Another possibility would be, that she is actually in some kind of time-loop, caused by the Bermuda triangle (hence the movie title). The ghost ship Aeolus is a cruise ship from the 1930s. But this seems unlikely, and therefore the title may be disappointingly misleading for some viewers.
A very funny interpretation I found in an online comment, that really made me laugh: The whole loop is a scheme of sea gulls who want to take revenge on Jess for killing one of them with the car and also want countless bodies to pile up on the Aeolon on which they can feed.^^
Now let's get to the inconsistencies:
- At the end of this incarnation of Jess's loop that we follow through the movie, she has killed her abusive former self and later her son in a car accident. The taxi driver seems to be death/Charon, who offers her to pass over to an afterlife, but she (always) seems to decide to try the loop again, to save her son. But what happened before the very first loop? If the real/original abusive Jess killed herself and her son in that car accident, what sense does the whole boat trip make, since she never experienced that? If only her son died and she went on the trip, how then does she end up in purgatory (the Loop-Jesses on the ship never actually die or kill each other)?
- Why does Jess lose her memory when completing and resetting the overarching loop, and just keeps a vague déjà vu, while after the loop resets on the Aeolon she can remember everything?
- What continues to exist and what disappears with each reset of the loops is very inconsistent as well: the 100s of notes, necklaces, bodies of her killed friends and bodies of the sea gulls before the car accident keep piling up. At the same time though, there seem to be only 3-4 parallel Jesses at work on the Aeolon and only one Jess around her house. Shouldn't there be exactly the same number of Jesses as there are bodies and objects? It would make more sense if the objects would reset with each loop.
- The Aeolon: The first reset of the sub-loop aboard the ship starts with a hanging gramophone record, that seems synched with the looping/stuttering happenings aboard the ship at that moment. Also the clock of Jess is synced with that of the dining hall, but different from that of her friend Greg. In the first loops the food in the dining hall is fresh, later its suddenly rotten. How does this all add up?
- The behavior of Jess: Why is Jess hiding all the time instead of talking to her friends or the other Jesses? Where does the notion that killing everybody will reset the timeline originally come from? Why does she just accept that and goes on a killing spree?
- At one time she actually tries to change something and stops the hooded Jess from shooting the couple. That alternate hooded Jess now takes the couple to Room 237 (nice Shining reference btw. and it's also the address of Jess's house) and stabs the guy. His wife escapes only to end up dying on a pile of bodies of former iterations of herself. The problem here: The Jess we follow, never becomes that alternate hooded Jess that she stops, so where does that Jess come from and what happens to her? She also stops the first Jess from killing the guy with the headwound. What happened to him in this alternate loop?
As you can see, this movie really gets you thinking. It's still mostly enjoyable to watch and I would recommend this movie to everyone who loves these kinds of stories. But it isn't as clever as it believes itself to be and can't decide on a consistent inner logic.
Stargate (1994)
Epic, but naïve sci-fi adventure, that is fun, but could have been so much more.
Stargate breathes this lighthearted and naïve 90s blockbuster feeling, an innocent a bit childish attitude you just can't be angry with. It is an original story before everything was a franchise and/or a comic adaption (even though it has kickstarted its own TV-franchise). It felt fresh and original at the time and still does. The visuals, practical and special effects and the cinematography look awesome, convey a monumental scale and have aged quite well. The soundtrack feels epic and unique, perfectly combining an Egyptian vibe with a sci-fi note, a mix of wonder and curiosity with the possible perils that lurk and might find you when you leave for uncharted waters. (Ok, I admit I have a weakness for good soundtracks. They really can, to a certain degree, save a movie for me.)
James Spader and Kurt Russel fit perfectly in their roles as nerdy unworldly linguist and traumatized Colonel. They are mostly clichés, but relatable and even go through small developments throughout the mission. The rest of the expedition group is sadly wasted with the usual mostly nameless soldier stereotypes. Viveca Lindfors is intriguing as scientific leader of the project but sadly only appears in the first third of the movie. Jaye Davidson, finally, gives Ra the androgynous and godlike aura the antagonist needs.
The first 30 or so minutes until we travel through the stargate and arrive on the other side are the best part of the movie. There is suspense around the stargate mystery and curiosity for the unknown it might lead to. In the middle part, however, the plot is treading water a bit and the resolution involves too much of generic action and the old good vs. evil. It feels like the story just doesn't live up to its full potential here. The setup of a gate to the other end of the universe (or who knows where else) promises more wonders and discoveries, than the movie can deliver in the end. That is my biggest issue with the story (I was expecting something more like the video game Outcast, that told a richer story with a similar premise, but was quite obviously inspired by this movie). If you can put that aside, however, then you're in for an enjoyable and simply fun ride, if a little pulpy and trashy.
This is by no means a masterpiece, but a simple, epic sci-fi adventure with an old-school feel to have fun with. It had the potential to be more, but it's difficult not to enjoy it if you don't overthink it too much.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
A missed opportunity, disappointing and frustrating.
The Last Jedi tries to do both: adding something new to the Star Wars series and rehashing pieces of the old movies. The result, however, feels very uneven: Lighthearted humor and awesome action on the one hand, disappointing and in some parts infuriatingly frustrating writing on the other hand.
While its direct predecessor was basically a remake of the very first Star Wars movie, this one includes a lot of plot pieces of both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi: We get Jedi training on a remote planet with a cave experience, a throne room duel overseen by a seemingly almighty emperor-figure, a walker attack on a Rebel ground base and an old Jedi sacrificing himself, to become more powerful then ... well, you know the drill.
The new elements include a weird kind of humor that is borderline parodistic of the whole franchise. Is it beneficial to the story to completely ridicule General Hux and the First Order during their very first scene in the movie? Do I really have to see Jedi Master Luke Skywalker awkwardly milking a weird alien cow? Okay seeing those robot ironers working the First Order uniforms aboard their dreadnought was kind of funny. Thankfully the Porks are not as annoying as the Gungans from the prequels and actually add some believability to Luke's hideout island.
One big problem of this longest of all Star Wars movies is the casino-plot involving Finn and Rose. It is dragging, the setting doesn't quite fit the Star Wars look and the slapstick and pseudo moralistic snippets regarding slave kids and captive animals feel forced. In the end it will turn out as totally pointless and even detrimental to the resistance's escape plan (which Admiral Holdo keeps secret from Poe and the rest of the crew for no reason until the last second). Another downer here is the total waste of Captain Phasma, who was already underused and disappointing in the last movie. The whole side quest could just be cut from the movie without any effect on the story.
The center of the story is also the best and most interesting part, revolving around Luke, Ben/Kylo, Rey and their relations to each other. Sadly though, here also lie some of the biggest missteps of the movie. Luke's depiction as a broken man is very believable and portrayed excellently by Mark Hamill. The reasons for his exile however are very problematic, to say the least. Luke, who, despite what Yoda, Obi-Wan and the rest of the galaxy said, believed in Darth Vader, the father he barely knew, and brought him back into the light at the end. That same Luke now thinks about killing his nephew, at the first sensation of darkness in him? And after Ben/Kylo destroys the Jedi temple and joins Snoke Luke just gives up and runs, without even trying to get Ben back and/or to defeat Snoke? If he would have tried and failed, like Yoda in Episode III, that would have been a good reason for exile, but to not even try? No, that just doesn't make any sense.
The "Jedi training" also feels a bit disappointing. Luke's lessons don't seem very helpful to Rey, who nevertheless is able to juggle several rocks at the end of the movie like master Yoda himself, without ever training it. And what about that dark side cave vision? Just an endless row of Reys. Pretentious and meaningless. This could also have been the chance to expand on the force. How about Luke seeing the flaws of both the Jedi and the Sith and breaking the never-ending cycle by becoming a grey Jedi, between the dark and light side of the force? That would have added a whole new dimension to the series.
What did work well was the evolving relationship between Ben and Rey. Them teaming up against Snoke and his Praetorian Guards resulted in an awesome fight sequence that felt earned and ended with so many possibilities. But then they played it safe again, let Rey refuse to join Ben and made Ben the new supreme leader. The whole scene also comes with the loss of Snoke of whom, or his history with Ben, we know nearly nothing of and will probably never learn now. It works as a surprising shock moment, but it totally wastes the character of Snoke for the trilogy. It seems like director Rian Johnson wasn't sure what to make of some things established in The Force Awakens, like Snoke, Phasma, Ben's helmet or Anakin's lightsaber, and so he literally (in the form of the lightsaber handed to Luke) threw them away.
The escape plot around the Resistance fighters also feels very contrived. First of all, how can a single Rebel starfighter destroy a giant Imperial dreadnought? Secondly, why are the Rebel bombers flying so close to each other, that when one of them is shot down it takes all the others with it except for one? What a coincidence, that the Rebel cruiser apparently has the same speed as the Imperials and can stay just outside of firing range the whole time. Why isn't the First Order just sending some destroyers in front of the Rebel cruiser through hyperspace to stop them right away? Oh, I forgot, because they are totally incompetent, as established in the first scene, and therefore there never was a real threat after all, right? Say goodbye to logic and suspense.
Another huge disappointment is the end of the movie which also marks the end of Luke Skywalker. He pulls some Jedi hologram trick on Ben and buys the Resistance enough time to escape. Fine, but then he dies anyways? Either let him unearth his X-wing and fly there for real to face Ben in an awesome last duel, or pull that trick and let him join the Resistance. This way, however, it just feels like the writers had to get rid of Luke, because he is to powerful, which would make Rey unnecessary. A very disappointing end for Luke. The following epilog about some slave boy felt weirdly meta and out of place with the rest of the movie.
Of course, the cinematography looks impressive, as do the CGI and the practical effects. The casting and acting, especially by Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley are excellent and on point (with the exception of the overacting Hux). The same goes for sound and music, but unlike The Force Awaken for which John Williams created some beautiful new themes, like Rey's Theme, The Jedi Steps or the Resistance Theme, he cannot add anything new here and just varies familiar themes.
The movie feels like a rough draft that would benefit tremendously from a few more cuts and changes: Cut the casino plot, cut the weird humor scenes, cut the death of Luke and the epilog and include that Luke went to face Snoke to safe Ben and failed and then went into exile. With that it could have been a much better movie.
The way it turned out, however, it's neither a bad nor a good movie, but a very frustrating and ultimately disappointing one. It cannot be viewed as an individual movie, because it's part of a trilogy and a series. And as part of that it fails. It's a missed opportunity to really tell a new and believable story, while also respecting what happened in the past.
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Uneven, unscary Prometheus-Alien-Hybrid with a lot of issues.
Alien Covenant starts quite promising. It's very reminiscent of the original Alien (1979) movie (in a good way), while also including the cinematography and wide landscape shots of Prometheus. The sets look awesome, feel real and believable and are a nice mix between the run-down industrial look of Alien and the top-of-the-line high-tech aesthetics of Prometheus. Another great thing is the soundtrack. It immediately manages to evoke memories by incorporating themes from the original Alien movie and Prometheus, while also adding something new and unique of its own. In the first (and best) third of the movie there is tension and curiosity and some intense action scenes full of suspense (that will never be achieved again for the rest of the movie). But then it goes awry.
Shortly after meeting David, the movie starts explaining things no one asked about. What is revealed about David and the Xenomorphs simply demystifies these horror-icons! And while certain parts are overexplained, other questions, still lingering from Prometheus, are left unanswered. The movie should have been (as originally planned) about David, Elizabeth Shaw and the Engineers, not some random colonists with no character (or brain)! This just feels like a filler episode before (or after) the really interesting story.
Prometheus had its flaws, but it felt original and was pursuing its own story, somewhat independent from the Xenomorphs. The big question of where we come from made for a strong motivation. It was not really a horror movie, but more an exploration story gone wrong. I enjoyed it for that. Yes, some of the characters did one or several stupid things that eventually got them killed, but David and Elizabeth Shaw were interesting characters I was willing to care for and curious how their journey would continue.
And then there is another sin I cannot forgive Covenant. It repeats what I and many other viewers disliked immensely about Alien 3 (1992): Killing off characters we cared about from the previous movie off-screen in between movies! And in exchange we get a crew of two-dimensional cliché characters that seem even more idiotic than the Prometheus crew and whose inevitable deaths feel utterly meaningless.
The big exception, of course, is Michael Fassbender (David/Walter), who, together with Noomi Rapace (Elizabeth Shaw), had also been the best part of Prometheus. Fassbender owns every scene he's in and those are the best moments of Covenant. He manages to differentiate between the two androids convincingly and creates the only two really interesting characters in the movie. Katherine Waterston does a decent job as Daniels, but she and the rest of the humans just feel like side characters, while the real focus is on the androids.
These fine performances by Fassbender make the rest of the movie look even more soulless and derivative. It's sadly ironic, that the scenes the classical Xenomorph is in (the last third of the movie) feel like the most boring scenes of the whole movie. It's just the plot of Alien (1979) again, told in 20 minutes and without any horror. It seems like Ridley Scott felt some pressure to include the Xenomorph, so he stuffed some lackluster repetition of his old work into the end of the movie (however, forgetting how to actually make the Alien scary), to please FOX and "the fans" (who apparently complained about Prometheus) in order to tell his story about David. But Prometheus flaws had not been having not enough Xenomorphs in it (but rather a sloppy script).
Why Scott did not make a true "Prometheus 2: Paradise" about Shaw and David exploring the Engineers and at the same time give Neil Blomkamp and Sigourney Weaver the chance to bring closure to Ripley and the Xenomorphs in "Alien 5" I cannot understand. What did we get instead? A hybrid movie that tries to be both, a Prometheus sequel and an Alien prequel, ending up doing neither work justice. On its own, it's not really a bad movie, just mediocre. But as one with "Alien" in the title, being advertised as a frightening, back to the roots horror story (which it is not, it's never scary) and as a sequel to Prometheus, it simply disappoints.
I'm not even sure what to wish for now. Should Scott be allowed to do another sequel to maybe, finally answer the questions he asked about the Engineers in Prometheus (would he though?) and finish David's story? Or should he be shut down and another director (maybe Blomkamp after all? Alien 5? Please?) be given the chance to do something else with the Alien franchise?
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
A glimmer of Star Trek spirit again
With rather low expectations after the last two movies, I went into the theater and was actually pleasantly surprised. The exchange of script writer and director really was to the movie's benefit. You can tell that Simon Pegg, who wrote the script, is a fan of the old Trek and tries his best to bring back at least a bit of what made the old series and some of the old movies great.
There is still lots of fancy Abrams-style action (which can be enjoyable), but this time it is balanced out by quiet and slower moments for each character to be explored, for team work, for thinking and solving problems with one's wits and not (just) with a phaser pistol. The climax of the movie is an example of this.
Also, the Kirk-Bones-Spock triangle from the original series is put more in focus again, after Bones being put aside in the last movies in favor of Uhura. She on the other hand feels a little more redundant this time, but every crew member, nevertheless, gets their own moments. The villain isn't explored in too much detail though and the final revelation is not totally satisfying. Sofia Boutella's bad-ass character is a refreshing addition to the cast, she and Pegg bring a lot of humor into the movie.
There are again a lot of references to the other series and movies (a ship from the "Star Trek: Enterprise" era; a planet that hints a bit at the TOS paper rock sets; the Enterprise in "Search for Spock" and "Generations") and this time they don't just feel like fan service, but do actually make sense in the plot. It is also nice how Leonard Nimoy's real life passing is mirrored in the movie.
Some might call this an expensive TOS TV-episode and they would be partially right. But that is actually a good thing, because Star Trek was always best on the small screen, when it tried to tell stories about exploration, science, working together across boundaries and settling things diplomatically if possible. Yet even though "Beyond" does a better job than its two predecessors, it is still a long way to how Star Trek was in the old shows. But let's not forget that most of the old Trek movies were also more action orientated and/or featured a villain instead of a scientific or cultural problem. Overall, if you had your problems with the new movies as I did (though I could still mostly enjoy them as popcorn movies), give this one a chance.
Score as a Star Trek story: 6/10
Score as a (popcorn/action) movie: 7/10