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The Matrix (1999)
Controlled by machines
Spoilers herein.
I have a really hard time to accept the message in these films. We are all slaves under society and there are two ways of cope with this fact. The first is to wait till a saviour comes; the other is to create your own reality and realize that we all have the potential to change the world.
The Matrix is without a doubt not a film about new-age-religions, this is a film about Jewish faith and how we shall submit ourselves to other who know better. But it is with our blood these high powers fight. The fact that young people always have liked this is because they always think of themself as a savior figure. How-ever, they are not.
The Zionic message of the film is also questionable. In the second film (Matrix: Reloaded) we learn that Zion is--and has always been--under the machines control. What does that tell you about your zionic savior?
The third film was truely stupid. It lost itself in the shallow depths of religion. Neo actually becomes a machine in the end--or rather--he becomes the matrix. So, now the 'new' world is the matrix where everyone is happy. I don't get this muddled message. The endnote is that the matrix is good at heart and that we should want to be there because when we have someone to manipulate the matrix, who we believe is good, we will be happy. What the hell is this?
I don't like the Jewish and Christian faiths, they are elitistic and manipulative. They regard humans as mear vessels for their propaganda.
For more than mere action films these are not worth one's time.
Saru gecchu 2 (2002)
Monkey see , monkey do'h.
Today video games are either inter-active movies or they are game play engines. The problem is that the industry doesn't take its sweet time to integrate the two. Since the success of Grand Theft Auto III, which did combine the two, motion has begun.
This game is purely a game play engine. The whole concept of catching monkeys with various gadgets doesn't make for a very appealing flick. It goes back to the roots of video gaming and is its biggest strength, focusing only on fun game-play.
There are 300 monkeys to catch in the game and the only reason you do this is to be able to say you've caught them all. The reason why this is considered entertainment is because of the names. You see, the monkeys are all named after the characters in familiar franchises, like Star Wars and The Matrix. Which makes this a dork fest.
The game itself is not very extraordinary since it only features true and tried concepts like jump, double-jump, crawl, and so on. No surprises here. This is how-ever quality. None-the-less it is still just routine for video gamers.
Lost in Translation (2003)
The Need of Translation
People today have become more and more stupid, easy things need to be translated into even more easier things. This film draws from peoples willing of not knowing, so everything is translated into something they can understand.
We get pretty pictures, but nothing special, we get visual actors to translate the words of the screenplay to pictures. We have a unexperienced director with a great idea but too complex for her to understand so she loses some of the genius in the translation there as-well.
The use of pictures is clever, but not necessarily remarkable, since you don't really need to translate pictures, you only need to translate the token confined in the picture, such as culture, but token-to-token translation is easy.
In my mind this would have worked better with a more experienced director. The other thing that didn't work for me was Bill Murray. I think that Kurt Russell was better suited for this part. Largely due to the fact that this isn't what we would expect from his, just picture him doing the kareoke scene.
The point of the film was lost in translation. Since it is based on the target audience not understanding Japanese or Japanese culture. This alienation of people is dangerous.
We also have different media in the film, as video games, commercials, kareoke, and the play with-in the play is a bleak shadow of that played in In the Mood for Love.
This is a film in a row of wannabe-deep-films, Ghost World is one example, but since the directors aren't experienced enough it's pointless.
Devil May Cry 2 (2003)
Action is the core concept
Action comes fairly easy in to the mind of the videogamer since it is all about timing. Much like tetris is action in the sense that you have to time it. This is much more advanced and less complete working from the frames of movies.
Camera is a core concept in action. You can either approch it with editing (e.g. Once Upon a Time in Mexico) or without (e.g. video games where the edit is impossible, or as we say in these circuits "Tarkovsky-ish", we are still waiting for this to be done great!). Devil May Cry was the first game to explore the camera issue that has been the biggest problem of videogaming since it's been compromising the artistic view. Say; if a director of a film doesn't have the money or people to make a big parade scene he can use objects to block the view so that 30 people look like 300, that cannot be done in videogames since you can "swoop" the camera yourself. Devil May Cry actually tries to capture the directors vision of action, Devil May Cry 2 does this aswell but since the new director only tries to mimic Hideki Kamiya the vision is not original.
However, this game is good. It's entertainment. It's that simple. It's premiss is simple it's execution is simple the controls and camera are responsive and does what they're told.
To comment on the plot would be to lower myself to a degree unworthy of a serious critic and is not of essence to the gameplay.
8/10 - Worthy of your time if you like videogames for videogames and not for interactive movies.