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jerfrog
Reviews
Apt Pupil (1998)
Wasted Potential...
Unlike many people, I enjoy adaptations that stray from their source material as long as it lends a different perspective or tells the story in a way that both the adaptation and source can be enjoyed on their own merit, but this film completely misses the point of the Stephen King novella that it is based on.
Aside from this point, the acting was unbelievable and actually quite laughable throughout and you could tell that this was not the fault of the actors, but the direction of the actors and possibly a rushed production. And it is a very rushed production because the story is over and told before we can even completely feel, see and understand what drives the characters to behave in the way they do.
The novella is about human corruption and the evils of human nature and explores how the evil of the holocaust transcends just those events and could lead to something of greater if humans allow themselves to become corrupted. Although this film adaptation seems to acknowledge this theme, so many shocking things happen in the source that are completely lost in the film that the viewer is not allowed to see the weight of the corruption.
Many things simply make little or no sense in the film because the story is so rushed. Dialogue is often quoted verbatim from the novella, but lose their power and are actually somewhat confusing because other parts of the novella that are crucial to the characters' development are not even mentioned. Things happen in the film that make you think, why did they do that? That's strange, no one would do that in real life without motivation, unless they were crazy, of course. But we haven't established that anyone is crazy. Stupid perhaps, but not crazy.
On the subject of stupidity, it's important to note that throughout the film, I get more of an impression that the 'apt pupil' is actually pretty stupid and is not even convincingly academically intelligent.
The ending of the novella was unsettling and provocative, but the ending of the film was just a reminder that you wasted an hour and a half of your life that you will not get back. And the way it ended, what was the point? I won't say what happened although I can't say that this film can even be spoiled because nothing really happened in it, but the whole film was pointless. It was like the series finale of Dexter all over again...
It's such a shame because Ian McKellen really looked the part of Dussander and played him very well as much as Bryan Singer let him... I think I'll watch Shawshank to cleanse my film palate..
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Overrated
I did not think this film would be great, but I thought it would be at the very least, entertaining. This film was not. Absolutely nothing happened in the film. Yeah, the ending was interesting, but not good, especially because I was not invested in the characters at all. I think I saw a shadow and a door shut, which I also saw on the trailer, and that was it nothing out of the ordinary, except for a horror film, which should ordinarily have strange, bizarre, or otherwise horrifying events take place. There was promise of a demonologist, but that didn't go anywhere, at least that might have been funny. If I got anything out of this movie, it is that using the occult does not solve ghost problems, too bad none of the characters in the film were too dense to catch on.
Avatar (2009)
Terrible disappointment of a film
There was no character balance in the entire movie. I was either blasted with quasi-save-the-rainforest sermons that will serve only to inspire those who are already green and environmentally conscience, or you were blasted with horrible stereo-typical characters that embody the ignorant evil of humanity. Because of this horrible imbalance, any characters I kind of liked at the beginning convinced me to hate them at the end. If you want a good movie with a good message about the environment and man's destruction, watch a Miyazaki film like Princess Mononoke or Ponyo, you're face will not be red from the preachy backhand of the message if you watch those films. I also thought that the 3D was supposed to be extremely good, if not groundbreaking, and it was mediocre at best, but maybe that was my local theater. The graphics were good, but to be honest, they were not as spectacular as people say. There were some beautiful environments, but that was art direction, not so much envelope-pushing graphical mastery. Also, the characters crossed the CGI valley horribly throughout the entire film. The Lord of the Rings was amazing and avoided this problem, and yet Avatar is supposed to have groundbreaking graphics. The best and most under-used part of the movie was the mechs, but I can't give the star a good rating because there was about ten minutes of awesome mech action.
Pandorum (2009)
Amazing! Totally unexpected!
I went into this film not knowing much about it to be honest. I was really only interested in it when I heard it was set in space. This film is one of the most terrifying action/horror/sci-fi movies I have seen in a very long time, but that's not the best part! The best part is the intriguing story with some amazing twists! Some are obvious and at least one is just completely unexpected, but none of them feel overly typical. Ben Foster is really really good in this and I must say that he is getting much better at picking roles, with 3:10 to Yuma and now this! One thing that really stuck out to me also, was how much some of it reminded me of the game Dead Space, don't read into that too much as far as story goes, it's just that there are a few elements that I think were inspired by the game, and if you have played Dead Space, I think you will know what I mean when you see it. This movie was good, really good, and finally gave me the space horror/fiction fix I have been craving since the last good space movie, Sunshine, by Danny Boyle. Go see this movie!