About Thoughts of a TechnoGeek: This is where I'll post my thoughts, interesting articles, or anything else I want to. If you don't like it, don't read it. David L Brenner my email Subscribe Links
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Thu, 19 May 2005
Let me start this post by saying I fucking hate George Lucas!!! That should set the tone. I won't ruin it for those who haven't seen it yet. Let me just say that the story, what there was of it, was uneven and poorly told. We all know that Anikin becomes Darth Vader and Padme is the mother of Luke & Leia. It's how we get there that is the interesting part. That's why I wanted to see this movie. The problem was, Lucas wrote himself into a corner with the crap that he put out for the first two movies, and then needed to tie it all up with this one. There was just too much disparity between the story we all grew up with and the new movies. There were some cool battle sequences. But between them was too little story. You find people on all sorts of planets for no clear reason. Characters are introduced, but then nothing is done with them. Fucking Chewbacca was in it and he didn't have anything to do. It was a waste. One of the funny things is I really wanted to like this one. I was really looking forward to each of the films and was disappointed again and again. After the initial positive reviews, I thought, okay he's going to redeem himself and fix things. I was expecting way too much. I was disappointed yet again. Tue, 12 Oct 2004The second film we saw on the honeymoon was Shark Tale. This is the latest entry from Dreamworks for a full length animated feature. The animation was really good. The story sucked. Plain and simple. It was really weak in dialog and story progression. They spent too much on the animation and screwed up the story. This is the big difference between Pixar and everyone else. Pixar is serious about making solid films using new techniques. Everyone else seems to be enamored with the technology and skip out on the parts that make it worth watching. I can't wait for The Incredibles
While we were on our honeymoon, we saw a couple of movies. The first of them was Sky Captain. It was a fun film. Not a really deep plot, but fun. It was done very much in the style of an old serial. The really cool part about the movie was that almost all of the scenery was computer generated. The pseudo-black & white feel was awesome. If you are a sci-fi fan and fond of light plots that are fun, like Raiders, then you should like this. Sun, 15 Aug 2004
If you have two good movies with great villans on their own, why not combine them to get a totally awesome movie right? This is what the makers of AvP must have been thinking. Needless to say, they didn't accomplish their goal of creating an awesome film. If you are looking for a mindless movie, this is the one for you. I expected it to be stupid and I was right. G refused to go see it with me. There was a lot of potential here, but they went cheap on it. The problem with cheap CGI is that you think that you can make a mediocre movie good by throwing dollars at it in post. The good think about good old fashion F/X was that you put a hurdle there that if you wanted to make the movie, you at least needed to come up with the money for the effects. Now you don't. There were a couple of funny bits that were thrown in if you are a fan of the Alien films. "The Company" is still represented in the present day. The head of the company seems to be the prototype for the Bishop unit in the 2nd movie. Just little things like that. I guess the biggest disappointment was that there was a lack of good fight scenes. It was handled much more like the first Alien movie in that you don't get a good look at things, the biggest reason I'm sure is it costs less to make really dark, low detail creatures, than well lit, high detail, very animated creatures. The only reason I wanted to see it in the theatre was that I thought there might be really good action that you need a big screen for... not the case. Fri, 06 Aug 2004Michael Mann's latest movie is Collateral. It stars Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. It is the story of an unfortunate cab driver that picks up a hitman and is forced to drive him from hit to hit. While the plot is far fetched, it is entertaining. I liked the cinematography especially because it definitely added to the feel of the film. The handheld camera with prolonged scenery shots added to a slightly disconcerting atmosphere. I am a big fan of grainy film as well, and this had it in large quantities. The ending is not particularly surprising. It is very "hollywood" for this type of film. I think that a foreign version would end very differntly. There were some amusing and more realistic parts to this film. One thing I particularly liked is that Jamie Foxx's character is not very versed in the use of firearms, and it was portraited that way when someone that probably has never fired a gun tries to under stress. It was a light moment in a tense sequence. Overall, I really liked the movie. It was an interesting study of how people interact and what might happen in unusual situations. Some have criticised the movie as unrealistic in that there are too many coincidences; I don't see it that way. All human interactions are highly improbable, but something needs to happen, so any particular sequence of events has a low probablility of happening when looking at all of the possibilities. If that is the strongest criticism of the film, go see it. Thu, 05 Aug 2004The latest film from M. Night Shyamalan is The Village. As with his other films, he really tries to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat. This is a thriller, like his other films. It is set in a 19th century village. The residents live in a careful balance with creatures that live outside of the village. The villagers don't wander into the woods. The creatures don't come into the village. This is the setting for an interesting love story between two of the main characters. I won't say too much because it would spoil the movie. Anyway, I can't say much without ruining the surprise ending. I will say that I think it was telegraphed much more than it was in the other films. I did also like searching for where he was going to show up; Shyamalan likes to do cameos like Hitchcock did. Overall, I think that this is one of his best movies. I still prefer The Sixth Sense. It will be interesting to see if this movie holds up to repeated viewing like TSS does. This review is a little late. Everyone has probably seen the film at this point. I must say that I loved it. I think it was every bit as good as the first. The character development was much better... and they finaly got the camera angles under control. One of the things that bugged me about the first movie was the fact that they decided to move the camera following Spiderman in such a manner as to make you motion sick. I think they did it just because they could. Now they are trying to make it look good. The only real complaint that I have with the movie is the science. Not that a comic book is going to have realistic science, but make up terms if you are going to. Don't reuse actual scientific terms for your own purposes... it only disctracts the smart people in the audience. Come on... there is a lot more than 25 pounds of tritium on the planet, and its not that rare. Its also not a metal. Sat, 19 Jun 2004
The third installment in the Harry Potter series is probably the weakest of the movies to date. It picks up during summer break, just like the other movies and books. The events in the movie were reflective of the book, but in this instance the things that were left out detracted significantly from the quality of the movie. If I had not read the book I think that I would have been left scratching my head wondering what happened. In my opinion, this was also the weakest of the books, so it's not a surprise that the movie lacked a quality that the other movies had. It also didn't help that the actors had aged significantly and were much older looking than the characters that they were portraiting. This being said, I eagerly await the next movie and the next book. The next movie should be very exciting because it sets things up for the fifth book, which in my opinion is the best so far.
It wouldn't be summer without a sci-fi movie with little plot and a lot of action. So far this summer, this is "The Chronicles of Riddick", the new Vin Diesle movie. This is a follow-on to the movie "Pitch Black". Riddick is a murderer on a transport ship. The ship crash lands on a planet where it is almost always day due to multiple suns. Subterrainian creatures, that by the way are only nocturnal, hunt the people on the transport and Riddick needs to save the day. Chronicles is a sequel set several years later. The acting isn't great. The fight scenes are cool and the CGI is pretty good. It was a great action movie. If you are looking for a wonderful, Academy Award nominee, this isn't your movie. If you want a fun time, it is. Fri, 18 Jun 2004
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