douglasblackwell_6 Reviews

Moonfall (2022)

Stupidity isn't the worst part of this film

[2/10 · 26 June 2023]

I suspect most criticism of this film will be the lack of any real science behind the film. It is easily one of the stupidest scientifically films I've ever seen. It's true I don't watch movies for absolute believability but what happens is so dumb I was constantly cringing. There's also the problem that it's very cliched. There's always a crazy scientist who is the only one who nobody believes but is the only one who's right. The behaviour of the characters is also cliche. There's no a single original thought in the film. But cliches are also not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is the complete lack of insight into human beings. The characters just don't behave like people, but they just behave to give the director something interesting to show. The very ending is the worst example. The survivors are written like sociopaths not as normal persons. They look about the destroyed world and clearly the deaths of millions of deaths and don't shed a tear! "Well the world is given a second chance" is all they have to say!!

The special effects are fine, but the people are utterly meaningless and absurd. Please, don't give this director another movie!!

Watchmen (2019)

Fairly entertaining, but still disappointing (update)

[6/10 · 21 October 2019]

UPDATE: While the series did improve and I'd have to upgrade it from a 5 to a 6, there were still big problems. The series added more reference to the original Watchmen graphic novel which improved things, too often I found it annoying. The biggest annoyance was that the Ozymandias character appeared to be plated as a joke. Most of the rest of the series was played dead series, but I felt with him I was watching the old Batman TV show from the 60s! Also, the best character was easily Dr Manhattan, especially the retelling of the first meeting with his wife, which was fantastic. But then they kill him off in a premise I did entirely buy. To sum up, better, but still not great.

INITIAL REVIEW: Just watched the first episode of Watchmen. It was well produced with plenty of action, but the connection to the original Watchmen is limited and when it's there it seems forced and unconvincing. The Watchmen book took the superhero genre and twisted it into commentary on our society. There's minimal and perfunctory elements of the superhero. Without the imagination of the original Watchmen world, it feels nothing more than a police procedural.

Sometimes the writing interesting, but sometimes it glaring terrible. It's worrisome to see supposedly intelligent characters behave impossibly stupid only because of lazy writing. For example, at the end the head police chief goes off alone in his car. His house has heavy police protection, he knows there's an organization killing cops, but he still travels without protection. Then when his tires are flattened on a lonely road, he calmly gets out never expecting trouble. It's incredibly dumb and just plain bad writing. Not a good sign for the future episodes.

Afternoon (2007)

Oppressing banality

[1/10 · 20 May 2018]

This is a movie about a group of clinically depressed people. The director makes you experience their depression by the unrelenting boredom of the film. Little happens in the film, the people predominantly talk banality and nothing at all interesting occurs. It appears that every action and every bit of dialogue was chosen for what would be least stimulating. There's a little girl in the film and my one thought was that child services should get her out of this oppressing family. I'm uncertain if the film is of any value. I certainly didn't learn anything from it except to avoid the director's films.

Body (I) (2015)

Decent thriller

[28 December 2017]

I enjoyed this psychological thriller. It's about three girls who, bored on Christmas, break into a mansion and unintentionally find themselves faced with being blamed for a murder. I liked the characters, found their behaviour believable and was involved in their problems. I think this type of story has been done before but I still enjoyed.