divert-1 Reviews

Sunshine (2007)

What I hate about Hollywood

[6/10 · 8 December 2007]

I wasn't sure what I was going to see when I went to see this movie. I had no expectations at all, but when the terrible end titles' music went off, I realized I was profoundly angry, but in an oddly puzzled way.

The main plot line for "Sunshine" is the perfect counterpart to one of my favorite sci-fi short stories: "Phoenix" by Clark Ashton Smith. The short novel, which I read for the first time at the age of 15 but still stays, has a simple but very moving, brilliant idea. Rebirth and death come together in a very poetic way, through the late realization of a goodbye. The conscious suicide of the beloved one will literally make the sun reborn, bringing back hope and life to a shivering humanity. I didn't like to spoil so much about the short novel, but I wanted to point out that this movie "Sunshine" tells basically the same story, but seen through the eyes of who leaves: the hero that "comes back in the sunlight".

It's the other half of the plot, so to say, though if almost certainly by chance.

And here comes the pain.

I can't figure out how a monster is necessary here. I just can't. Yep, a monster. OK, there's a good but dangerous (and ultimately disastrous) theological angle that explains it all. The sun was always god through history, men's days are over, and and and. But I still don't get it.

I mean, there's a very promising young talent, a soundtrack that is often a perfect match to the images, an incredible sense of wonder instilled by the grandeur of some sequences... and you put there a zombie.

It could have worked? I'm not sure, but here it sure didn't.

What I understand, is the compulsion and necessity to pack a sci-fi movie with action sequences. It's business. Most sci-fi people want action, you put a half-transcendent corpse in a spaceship. It flows.

It's a shame that such a powerful idea in the main plot line went down the hill this way. I keep awkwardly projecting in my head that other movie, the one that this would have been without all the unnecessary and sometimes crappy add-ons. Honestly, my heart beats more when I understand the long term consequences of a malfuncion or a hazard, than when I try to decode a chaotic escape from a biblical-talking zombie prophet.

Double shame, that other movie will never exist now. Hollywood and its mechanisms have obliterated that chance. What we got here, is an average movie with some points of interest and some major flaws.

And I keep thinking about other stories, books especially, raped by these mechanisms. One for all, "The neverending story" by Michael Ende. Who's read the book and seen the movie, understands my sadness. I'm not saying this movie's all bad like "The neverending story" was, but it had a big potential that got wasted all the same.

How sad.

Lost (2004–2010)

The unkept promises of a lost island

[4/10 · 2 January 2007]

When the pilot of this show was broadcasted, I was astonished. I still think it's one of the best ever. Intriguing, thrilling, extremely well shot. As the story started to develop throughout the first ten episodes, the show kept the pace. Some story lines seemed to have been left behind, but everything appeared to make sense.

It was only with the second season, that the whole thing showed up for what it was: a massive, insulting swindle.

Apparently, something must have happened with the cast or the production. Sometimes writers have to adjust the plot to real-life incidents: a pregnancy, an actor who dies or leaves, some characters whose relevance is downsized because the audience dislikes them, or vice versa... Sometimes you can twist the plot a little, sometimes you actually have a great idea and take benefit from the incident, sometimes you do your best but the outcome feels just awkward.

Well, this show seems to undergo these incidents (third kind) on a daily basis, or so I hope. Story lines abandoned and completely forgotten, useless characters that become pivotal and then disappear with no reason. Actually, everything seems to happen for no reason at all, and the audience is skillfully tricked into believing that there is something really interesting going on somewhere under the surface. Problem is, under the surface there is nothing at all.

LOST forces you to try and give a meaning to what you see. Except that the writers can't keep track of what they do. It tries to create loads of "extra tension". Except that splitting a very important scene in two or three parts, and placing them randomly across four episodes, isn't a very smart way to increase tension. It tries to give a progressive insight on the characters. Except that filling every episode with a bombardment of flask-backs isn't a very smart way to do that either.

I could go on this way for an hour, but I think I made my point. This show could have been great, interesting, amazing. But it's not. It's just an experiment on how much a viewer can be deceived before he realizes he's watching a massive bunch of crap.

The Wild (2006)

Clone wars

[3/10 · 19 April 2006]

I never posted a comment on IMDb, mainly because I'm not mother tongue English and I guess it shows, but enough is enough. I can't explain the amount of messages, stating huge differences between this movie and Madagascar or Finding Nemo, but presuming that the whole Disney staff mobilized their families and friends to saturate the site with such messages. This is a clone of the worst kind. I think that if any other company dared such a shameful plagiarism, it would be flooded in legal actions by Disney itself. The character design (oh yes, the giraffe is female and single instead of male and hypochondriac - come on!), the jokes, the plot itself sounds like an awkward copy of those movies plus perhaps The Lion King. While watching the movie I felt outraged and mocked. I guess it'll amuse 6yo boys, and sure it's an interesting rehearsal in 3D modeling and animation. Thus I give this film a 3 out of 10 instead of a 1. If you're older than 6 and aren't looking for just about anything to hush your kids for a hour, don't even consider this movie. It's a waste of your money and time.