Johnny Mnemonic

I'm too much of a William Gibson fan to not like Johnny Mnemonic, even if most of the acting is horrific. There are so many cool ideas, costumes, and characters, you just have to look past the line delivery.

I loved William Gibson's books in high school, although I don't actually remember them anymore. This was the second time I've seen Johnny Mnemonic. I did remember the book the first time I saw it, 11 years ago. I gave it a 3/5 then. I don't think I recognized how terrible *all* the acting was. I knew Keanu was bad, but this time I saw that everyone else was, too.

I still like the atmosphere and idea of it, the characters, and the costumes. They should do a remake with good actors. Keanu and Henry are atrocious. Everyone else is just flat. And some of the CG is really cheesy.

It definitely works a lot better if you've read the book. I still think all the stuff about implants and enhancements is cool, and the idea of the low-tech underground counterculture, and the whole "ghost in the machine" digital consciousness concept.

Ready Player One

Ready Player One is a really simple movie, and there are a lot of things about it that don't make sense, but it was still fun to watch.

I haven't read Ready Player One. A lot of people hated the movie, but it seemed like something to see, anyway.

Blade Runner 2049

The entire atmosphere of Blade Runner 2049 isn't my thing, a lot of the musical cues are totally off, and there are some really annoying scenes where you know exactly what's going to happen.

I didn't like the original Blade Runner, but it's been about a decade since I've seen it, so I don't remember why. I did give it a 3/5, so I guess I didn't hate it.

Blade Runner 2049 was okay. It was kind of long and boring. I wasn't really interested in it. I had a problem with the first half, because with most AI movies, there's a moral dilemma. But with this one it was so cut and dry. The replicants are humans, so we don't have the right to kill them, end of story.

Moon

I can't really say that I *liked* Moon, but seeing how things played out was interesting.

It seems like everybody I know has seen Moon. Somehow I didn't hear anything about it until seven years after it came out. I didn't really know what to expect. All I knew about it was basically "a guy on a space station, something something AI."

2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey is one of those iconic movies that you kind of have to see whether you want to or not. I can’t exactly say that I enjoyed it, but it did have a couple of cool moments.

I had seen parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey before (who hasn’t?), but I hadn’t ever watched the entire thing, and it seemed like a movie one should have seen, in general.

Strange Days

This was either my third or fourth time watching Strange Days. It might just be because I first saw it when I was young and unjaded, or because I love William Gibson’s stuff and it’s cool seeing it come to life, but it’s still one of my favorite movies. The dystopian cyberpunk atmosphere is great; there’s romance and action; all of the characters are compelling; and Ralph Fiennes’ performance totally steals the show.

This was either my third or fourth time seeing Strange Days, and I still love it, even if it does look dated as hell these days. I wonder if someone who hadn’t read William Gibson’s stuff would have the same affinity for it, though. There’s just something cool about seeing something you read about being brought to life. The whole cyberpunk dystopian atmosphere is great.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Repo! The Genetic Opera is just really, really bad. It looks cool some of the time, but the terrible music kills it.

Back around the time Repo came out, a friend watched it. For some reason I wasn't interested, or he was watching it when I was about to go to bed or something, because I saw about the first third of it and not the rest. People seem to like it, though, so I thought I should see the whole thing. It turns out the first third was the only halfway decent part and it's all downhill from there.

I did like the Graverobber. He's easily the best part. I like his aesthetic. And he has the best song, about Zydrate, which is the only good song. The music is really terrible. Shilo's punk interlude was the worst. It didn't make any sense at all. Rotti's children were so weird. They didn't have any depth at all, which I guess was the point, but it made them really hard to get into.

Mad Max: Fury Road

You know from the trailer exactly what you're getting with Mad Max: Fury Road. The action isn't that spectacular, but the world of Mad Max is always interesting, I liked the characters/actors, and the plot was fine.

I have a lot of nostalgia for the original Mad Max series, from forever ago. I'm pretty sure I watched it about 15 years ago and didn't like it. But I don't remember that anymore, so it's basically just back to the nostalgia. I didn't see the point in watching Fury Road. It didn't seem like the movie was necessary, or anything that was going to be that great. I do like Tom Hardy, but I'm not a huge fan of Charlize, and "Furiosa" is the dumbest name ever. I guess it *might* kind of fit in with the Mad Max univerise, though.

The opening of the movie is pretty cool. It's hard not to get behind Max's narration. I did like the look of the war boys. And the canyon people's outfits were cool, too. I thought Nux looked like Nicholas Hoult. I keep confusing other people for him, but I was like, "No, this time that really *has* to be him." Some of the car stuff was cool I guess. I wasn't super impressed with it, or the guitar player, although I did like the war drums. I could've done without the sped-up footage effect.

Her

"Her" kind of gets more interesting when you reflect on it. The relationship stuff is slightly profound, although it does mostly just make you think again about things you already knew or realized. It's cool to see an imagining of the near future and the evolution of AI, though.

I'm a bit late to the game on "Her," but I wasn't really interested in it. Everyone kept saying it was good, though, so I checked it out. I do like Joaquin Phoenix. Not sure what everyone's doing with the Chester mustache and the super high pants in this movie. I guess it makes sense – the wardrobe as a whole is kind of futuristic and at the same time reminiscent of the past, and fashion always references the past.

There are a lot of good quotes in the movie. Although I couldn't hear half of it, so I'd probably have a better feel for it if I had been able to. "The past is just a story we tell ourselves" is a good one. It is true. Nothing's objective; you never really know what other people's feelings or motives were. I read something once that said every time you remember something, you're actually just remembering the last time you remembered it, so the memories you think of the most are actually the least accurate.

And specifically Samantha was referring to how something Theodore said about her made her feel, which means she was actually talking about "our perceptions of ourselves are a story we tell ourselves," which is also true. I've always thought that you create your own reality, though.

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is one of my favorite movies (and books). I love the aesthetics, from the framing to the costumes. The dialogue is brilliant, especially the use of Nadsat. The soundtrack is amazing, and the plot is visceral and thought-provoking. Burgess' writing in combination with Kubrick's vision created something truly iconic.

This was the third time I've seen A Clockwork Orange. It's one of my favorite movies, and books. I love languages and different lingo, which is probably why I like it so much. There are so many lines that just strike a chord with me, maybe because they've been reinforced a few times.

Ender's Game

Ender's Game is well-made. The acting, writing, and production value are all fine. It's mildly interesting, but it doesn't really pick up until the end, and I wound up wondering why I watched it.

I haven't read any of the Ender's Game series, but the movie kind of looked interesting, and Roeper gave it a B at least. The acting was fine, and Asa was likeable enough as Ender. I'm not sure I would've kept the last name "Butterfield" if I were Asa. I guess he likes it.

The movie more or less held my interest, and it moved along at a quick pace. Probably too quick of a pace; in the book I imagine they had more time to draw things out. The pace made things seem a little choppy in the movie. It was well-made; it looked good, and the writing/dialogue was good. It was still a little flat, though. People on IMDb described it as "too linear" and "rushed," and I guess I'd agree with that.

Elysium

Elysium focused too much on the heavy-handed theme and not enough on the actual story elements. It wasn't exciting, believable, or worth watching. 

The trailer for Elysium didn't sell me on it, and neither did Roeper's review, even though he gave it an A-, which is pretty high. It's from the same guy who directed District 9. He really needs to lay off the heavy-handed themes. He's not changing the world with these movies. He's from South Africa, though, so I guess that explains where he gets it.

Looper

There are a lot of plot holes in this movie. There are also a lot of prosthetics on Gordon-Levitt's face, which were rather distracting and unnecessary.

I liked a lot of the concepts presented here, and I really enjoyed the first part of the movie, when we got to see a bit of the Gibson-esque future. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. Some of the quiet moments didn't work, and the ending was unsatisfying.

I don't like Emily Blunt. She doesn't do anything for me. This is the first movie where I noticed Paul Dano, though, and I loved his character.

9

Terminator Salvation

Christian Bale..first Batman, now John Connor. What's next, fucking Mad Max? The movie may have been more interesting if the "big reveal" hadn't been revealed in the trailer, but that's alright; I guess they had to give us some reason to go see it other than "the machines try to kill John again." It was appropriately loud and action-packed, and the casting was pretty good. I enjoyed it, although it would've been nice to know more about Marcus' past, and the ending was slightly detrimental and completely unnecessary.

Rollerball

I liked the international aspect, Chris Klein was not as cute as he should be, and Rebecca was completely unrecognizable. As a whole, it went by pretty fast, but the ending was less satisfying than it should've been because there was no reason for most of the characters to act the way they did.

RoboCop

The best out of the series. The plot is engaging, and you've got lots of good characters to be interested in, too.

Babylon A.D.

When I saw the trailer for this a while ago, I thought it was another Riddick movie. But it's not. The first half was really interesting, but then it took a turn. It's lousy with plot holes, but it's great visually..at least until everything goes to shit two-thirds of the way through.

Death Race

It had a few flat moments, but it was everything I expected and more. The characters were likeable, the action was exciting, the story and ideas behind the race were simple but interesting. The soundtrack was surprisingly awesome, with the exception of one horrible choice at the end. And I did finally like Jason Statham in something, yay.

WALL-E

Touching. I loved what they were able to do in the first part of the movie completely without dialogue, and it's always good to get an anti-consumerism message out to the kiddies.