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Primer (2004)
Interesting but simple ideas presented in an unnecessarily confusing format
I enjoyed this film. For what it is, it is quite good.
However, as other reviewers have surely pointed out, the plot quickly becomes confusing. This, in itself, is not a problem. However, after I figured out what actually went down, I came to the conclusion that the confusing presentation was masking a pretty simple, if not linear, story. It honestly seems like it is being confusing for the sake of being confusing - the ideas that are presented are ultimately quite simple, and if the film had been extended by perhaps ten minutes things could have been much better explained.
Overall, this is an original film and worth watching. I just really don't think its worth watching more than once, which is unfortunately somewhat necessary for understanding.
Cloud Atlas (2012)
The weaving is better than the threads
This movie was very unusual. The individual stories, of which there were 6, had very little of interest between them. Somehow, however, it managed to keep my interest for 3 hours with the smooth and rapid transitions, the wonderful visuals, and the excellent music. I even empathized with some of the characters, despite the simplicity and clichéd nature of their stories.
I think it a shame that the individual stories were not better crafted, although I understand that drawing from a book brings about limitations. The weaving was very well done, and if the stories being woven had been of high rather than middling quality, this could have been truly incredible.
As it stands, nothing about the components of this film are complex or new, but together I found it to be quite the spectacle.
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011)
A strange combination of the obvious, the preposterous, and some legitimately interesting ideas
This is overall a good documentary. It begins with a list of what is wrong with our society, and makes some good points. However, none of these ideas are even remotely new - they are simply a foundation for the later parts of the film. Included in this section are some questionable exaggerations and misrepresentations of facts, but not many and not in ways that invalidate the thesis.
Then the film moves on to proposed solutions. The propositions are almost good - almost - but they are way to simplistic. It seems that all the nuance of understanding presenting in the beginning has been thrown aside. We KNOW that optimal resource distribution would be great, and we also know from our attempts that it is very, very difficult. Our system sucks, but its better than almost anything else we've tried, and throwing it aside for something untested and idealistic will result in inevitable disaster. Still, many of the ideas presented in this part of the film are interesting, and if not new, at least presented in new ways.
Overall, I would recommend this movie. However, I think they creators are wrong in some very major ways, and ultimately all this film has to offer is more reasons why change would be nice but no realistic change proposals.
Elysium (2013)
Excellent visuals and a dark, if heavy-handed, message
The first thing that struck me about this movie, and continued to strike me throughout, was how damn good it looks. It takes the slums as seen in District 9 and makes them much, much cooler - then contrasts them with the immaculate perfection of Elysium. The other components were admittedly not as good, but it still stood up. The characters are strong, if not particularly vivid (except for Kruger, who steals the show as the villain). The story is strong, though it moves slowly at times. Ultimately the film has a nice dark message, but it feels a bit to force-down-our-throats to add to the film, in fact it takes away a bit from the rest. I would certainly recommend this picture, but it was by no means perfect.