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Reviews
Life (2017)
Finally a scary horror movie
Life (2017) is a sci-fi/horror movie that tells the story of a team of scientist charged to analyzed sample from mars soil from the confine space of space station in orbit around earth. The discover in one of the sample a simple cellular life form that will soon evolve into something far more deadly
The film's context might not be the most original you've ever seen. Yet, in my opinion, Life (2017) has a lot of things going for it that makes quite special in the modern horror genre.
What I mean by that is that he movie never falls in many of the easy old tricks we are so used to in horror films : There are no so-called suspense scene that drags for long minutes, where you're supposed to be scared but in fact you're bored to death because nothing happens. There are no jumps scares. It is not overly gory (just enough). And last but not least, it's a monster movie where the monster doesn't hide off camera or in the dark for 90% of the film.
Instead, everything happens in plain sight of the viewer.
The fact that, without using any tricks, Life (2017) managed to be so scary is, in my opinion, an achievement that very few horror movies have reached.
This is mostly due to the creepy nature of its creature.
Without giving anything away, just know that it is a strong, smart-ass piece of filth that will make you reconsider your positive opinion about extraterrestrial life and squids.
The movie is also served by a good cast, excellent cinematography, a creepy yet discrete score and top notch special effect. It is clear that everyone involved put a lot of care and effort into it
Of all the horror movies I've seen in my life (a lot), I can count the finger of my right hand the ones that I can consider really scary. Life(2017) is one of them.
I really hope it will get the credit it deserve, but it's already a favorite of mine.
Video Games: The Movie (2014)
A cheap documentary that looks like a 90 minutes apple commercial
What is presented to us as a documentary is in fact a propaganda film that consists mostly in a series self satisfactory interviews of people of the industry who tries to convince you that video games is the greatest, most sophisticated, most advanced form of art. They will tell you that you can get married and form a family by playing world of warcraft, that if you are at the edge of death at the hospital, playing a Nintendo DS can save your life and that your kid will become the greatest artist if you let him play Candy Crush. I am exaggerating a little bit but not so much.
In between, this moments of galactic void, a few uninteresting statistics and facts of common knowledge are quickly presented.
Another controversial aspect of the movie, is the presentation of video game as the ultimate evolution in storytelling experience. In my personal experience, a story is almost never what makes a game interesting. I have played hundreds if not thousands of games in my life, and I can count less that 20 games with decent story-lines. One of the most still played and loved game in the world, Tetris, has no story at all.
I think this really demonstrate the failure of the director to understand his subject and to really capture what separate video games from other forms of media.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Time for another reboot
Only 5 years after the last episode of the outstanding first trilogy , it was a strange decision from Marvel in the first place to launch a reboot of Spiderman.
But the marketing surrounding the film lead you to think they knew what they were doing : A darker, more realistic Spidey and a new take on the origin of the hero seemed attractive enough.
Yet, strangely, the movie is less dark and far less realistic than the original and the story of the origin is confusing and uninteresting at best.
The major problem is that every aspect of this film (the acting, the characters, the love story, the villain, even the opening credits and the cliffhanger...) is too generic and flat to raise any interest.
Even Andrew Garfield's strange acting, that fit so good in other movies, was so forced here that I felt embarrassed in many scenes.
The plot is sometimes very confusing and often completely illogical.
There were a few interesting ideas but they are too briefly or poorly exploited.
If you are, like me, a fan of the Sam Raimi's trilogy, do yourself a favor and crush this unnecessary spider.
It is just another triumph of marketing over substance.