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Reviews
Superman: Red Son (2020)
Anti-Soviet propaganda in 2020?
At first, when it showed the more realistic humanity of the Russians, I got excited, thinking this movie might actually show a more balanced view on history.
I can only imagine the timing may relate to renewed animosity towards Russia or the rise of "Socialism" in the USA with Bernie Sanders. But as usual, propaganda is full of lies and half-truths.
A history in which socialist USSR became the corrupt oligarchy it became under Capitalism, and US has been declared a flawed democracy under Trump, with the founder of world's leading monitor for fair democratic elections, Jimmy Carter, calling the US "an oligarchy with unlimited bribery".
It was not communism that slaughtered innocent civilians in Vietnam, and used agent orange that still to this day devastates families due to birth defects. It's not communism that lead to the illegal invasion in Iraq, that destabilized the region, lead to the rise of ISIS and spread to Syria via Afghanistan.
Cuba did just fine under USSR, but suffered economic downturn after the end of USSR, same way Capitalist countries in Europe and Asia will suffer if the American empire they have become part of, would collapse, as China rises. Add to that the economic sanctions US has imposed on Cuba and Venezuela (since 1998, in anticipation of landslide victory of Hugo Chavez in 100% fair democratic elections). We all know sanctions can destroy economy of countries regardless of their economic and social system.
Fact is that both Capitalism and Socialism are sub-optimal, full of flaws due to dogmas and false-assumptions, simplificaiton of reality. That's why Capitalism needs to be controlled with a lot of laws and regulations, antitrusy laws, labor laws, food safety laws, environmental protection, etc. Without them, if you go by only the fundamentalist rules of capitalism, you will see more atrocities and injustices. The reason US doesn't make top 10 countries with highest living standards, despite higher GDP per capita than most European countries in that list, is because European countries have more social provisions than the US to balance things more optimally. That's why they are more successful at lifting people from poverty, while the US has to fight wars for oil to maintain its (lower) living standards. It's completely unsustainable to be so wasteful and inefficient with resources.
So this movie kinda sucked for being propaganda spreading dogmas of the 60'ies. I thought we had become wiser and more critical since then.
A.I. Rising (2018)
Missed opportunity
4 years before this movie came out, I had seen "Ex-Machina" and loved it. Perhaps that's why I was so disappointed in this, which seems to be inspired by Ex-Machina. Even the cover picture is remarkably similar and looks more like the actress in Ex-Machina than in A.I. Rising. I appreciate that this is most likely a really low budget movie, but even so, it seem it had all the props the be a really good movie, and even the concept of the movie had much potential, but the emphasis on sex was so much that it drowned the whole idea behind it. Human relationships aren't just about sex. It was an extremely shallow interaction that did not feel human to me at all. It felt like a sex doll. In ex-machina there was also this element, but in the right way and dosage. This movie however felt like a cheap erotic movie while the whole AI thing was like the pizza delivery boy story in a porn movie. And then there was the acting, which was horrible. The protagonist guy was very unlikable as he behaved very disrespectful and sexist. And tried to look like a bad-ass like the guy from the video game DOOM, but was too girly to speak with such a heavy voice. But I give it 2 instead of 1 star because I assume it's very low budget and it really did have potential, the setting, the concept. Most non-hollywood movies have low budgets for special effects and such so they depend more on engaging stories and great acting. This movie seems to have spent all its money on the special effects, and saved on everything else. Watch Ex-Machine to see how this knock-off should've been made 20 years before ex-machina, not 4 years after.
What Happened to Monday (2017)
The first science-fiction movie that made me shed tears
When first reading what this story about, the story sounded like that of a cheap budget movie. If I hadn't been bored out of my mind, I would never have given this movie a chance based on that.
Boy, was I wrong. The movie initially looked like confirming my prejudice, though it already started to look less budget, more like a Stan Lee type of movie. But it got better and better, and wow... action, love, romance, it was all there. The acting by Noomi was so superb, it made me look her up on IMDb just to see if I was right about her slight Spanish accent. And while she has Spanish blood, I guess it's more Swedish. But she's indeed a great actress.
I expected to find a very high score for this movie, but was surprised to see a relatively low score. I think the story could've been better, which is why I gave this only 9 out of 10. But the great acting and even the special effects made up for it. Since I didn't know much about this actress, I was surprised but believed the twins were real, only to read in the credits that they were all one. I could've known by the small scar on the left above her upper lip.
Definitely worth seeing, if you can focus on the acting, the love and romance, and aren't too bothered by the somewhat simple and unconvincing story line.
War Machine (2017)
Based on a true story?
I have noticed that movies that claim to be based on a true story generally have very high IMDb scores. It seems that people are so tired of special effects and senseless action movies that they are seeking for some meaning, a morale, a spiritual journey or otherwise something more connected to real life. The problem I have with this is that most of the time people watch those movies like it's a documentary, not realizing that claiming it is based on a true story says nothing about the extent in which it is actually the case. It can be less than 1% On the other hand, this movie did not claim to be based on a true story, yet there is more truth to the realities of war than many of these movies claiming to be based on true events. We depend so much on media, and this media is so self-censored to not put off viewers or patriotism that the public simply does not get to see what happens on the ground. Clean war does not exist. There is nothing more civil about high-tech nukes than cutting heads off or suicide bombings. The end result is the same, just seems more appetizing when all they show on TV are the fumes of smoke rather than the body parts scattered all over the place.
Face it, the Iraq war was started based on lies of WMD, and as a result the middle east has been destabilized, set on fire and the fire has spread and eventually lead to ISIS. Were those who started the Iraqi war on false premises with hundreds of thousands of deaths as a result, ever brought to justice? What legitimacy do we have left to call ourselves the good guys if we can't even bring our own crimes against humanity to justice? How can democracy possibly work when media is failing to show truth? It's a farce. This movie does not even come close to showing the true ugliness of war and the industry that it is. After all, it was still supposed to be funny, and it was. But it was far more than that and for that I give 9/10.
Spoiler alert: There were a lot of memorable moments in the movie, but the one I will remember is where the guy finds out that the grenade he had launched had killed the child. People are slaughtered like its a video game, and for what? Nothing is more absurd than the reality of war. And nothing is more ugly and anti-civil than war. No society making profit off of war van be considered civil, by definition. The bad guys are among us.
Their Finest (2016)
Just dreadful
What was this? The story line was completely uninteresting, the characters, their concerns and emotions, I couldn't relate to any of it and I don't know what life one must have lived to be able to do so. It was soooooo slow.
I gave up halfway.. because I couldn't care less about how the story would end. It was really about nothing. The most boring movie I have seen in a very long while.