Tying Up Loose Ends

Before I get to Godzilla – which was awesome – I’d like to review the other two great movies I mentioned before, which are Oculus and The Machine, as well as The Amazing Spiderman 2: Rise of Electro which I completely forgot I had watched. How could I forget that I have watched a movie, and said movie being Spiderman 2 of all things? That’s simply because while it was great, it was pretty unspectacular and thus forgettable, and here’s why. Spoilers alert. Duh.

First off, and this is not exactly the fault of the movie, but if you’ve seen the trailer, you can consider that trailer as a trailer for a different movie. This is because, as far as I can recall, there are only three notable scenes in the trailer that’s actually in the movie, which are the Electro releasing charges in the middle of Times Square scene, the clock-tower Goblin fight scene and the final Rhino fight scene, which, incidentally happen in chronological order in both the trailer and the movie. Other notable scenes like the dialogue between Peter and Harry – “My father has spent more time watching you than me.” “Why?” “Is not the question of the day.” – or the one between Peter and his Aunt May – “There’s something you’re not telling me, Aunt May.” “I once told you that secrets have a cost. The truth has, too.” – are missing. So yes, problem number one is false advertising. This movie is by far the guiltiest one in that respect.

The movie itself starts off good. Showing how Electro became Electro. And I really like this Electro. This is one of the few characters that I prefer the movie version over the original. But after that, it’s mostly about Peter Parker finding the truth about this father and dealing with his relationship with Gwen Stacy while Harry Osborne tries to prevent his imminent death. In fact, you wouldn’t be lying if you told your friends that you came out of the cinema having just watched The Amazing Peter: Rise of Harry Osborne.

Then there are the fight scenes, which are extremely short. I liked the clock-tower Goblin fight because it shows Spidey fighting by jumping around while spinning his web, trying to limit the space in which the Goblin can fly around, although there isn’t much impact to that tactic. Or at least, the movie doesn’t show it. Then there’s the Rhino. The damn fucking Rhino. When the movie finally shows the Rhino, I was thinking to myself, is there really enough time for there to be a third villain showdown? Sure enough, there wasn’t. The movie ended with the stupid scene you see in the trailers where Spidey swings the manhole cover at the Rhino. And speaking of the Rhino, why must the Rhino be a robotic suit that has machine guns and missiles? Why? Why ruin it the way The Wolverine ruined the Silver Samurai?

So there you have it. While it’s a good movie, there are enough problems that pull the total score down to a mere average, comparable with other titles in the cinema. The Machine and Oculus, on the other hand…

Oh and since I mentioned The Wolverine, I’d also like to mention the fact that there are quite a fair number of people who think that name is based on a wolf, without realizing that there is a standalone creature in the animal kingdom called a wolverine – which isn’t an expansion or sequel, to use modern gaming and movie terms, to the wolf. I thought I should get that thought out of my head.

So yes. We continue with Oculus first. While it isn’t particularly very scary, especially for a horror movie, and the plot details are fairly simple, thus leaving me with nothing much to talk about, the concept of the story is very radical. Very Original. Very Unorthodox. Very Daring. Very New. Very… You get the idea.

Picture this: An older sister and a younger brother, both still children, had their family wrecked by a ghost/demon/fiend/whatever inhabiting an antique mirror in their house; mom was possessed and dad was driven insane, causing them both unspeakable trauma. The whole affair ended with both parents dead, the father putting a gun in the boy’s hand with what’s left of his sanity, asking the poor kid to shoot him. Kid complied. Cops arrive and take the boy away, diagnosed with mental disorder for shooting dad and blaming it on a mirror and lived till adulthood in a mental institution, while girl lived in a foster home. Both kids make a promise to exact revenge on the evil entity when they grow up. That’s right. How often do you come across a horror story where the victims SEEK VENGEANCE instead of just simply getting brutally murdered right away, run in fear and forever burying this dark chapter of their lives in the deepest depths of their memories, or have an exorcist come over to read a few lines off a holy book, and proceed to live happily ever after?

Actually, other than the exorcist, (spoiler alert) the other two did happen; one did get brutally murdered in the end while the other initially tried to forget everything, thinking that everything was made up by the imagination of children. But the fact that they actually tried getting back at a supernatural entity against all odds, despite failing, was enough to sell the movie to me.

The story too has an interesting way of progressing. Being trapped in the mirror, naturally (wait, what?) the supernatural force of evil will have to resort to indirect means of causing harm and protecting itself, and it does so by consciousness and memory manipulation. It makes you remember things that didn’t happen or forgets things that did, and makes you do things you naturally won’t by diving into your consciousness and actually making you want to do it of your own free will, without you realizing of course. At least, not until it’s too late. This leads to a very confusing mix of hallucinations and flashback sequences. That said, as confusing as it is, it’s a very rewarding feeling when you concentrate, and as a result get the story and are able to tell which is the present and which is the past. Well, for me anyway; some others would just say that movies are not meant to make you think too much during the movie and state this method of storytelling as complete crap.

All in all, good stuff. Poor value as a horror movie, but amazing in terms of fresh idea, content and concept. I say go watch it, if it’s still showing in cinemas. If not, watch it anyway through any other means.

Next in line is The Machine. THIS IS A DAMN GOOD MOVIE! If you think you have even one cell in your brain that you use when you think, then you owe it to your own intelligence to watch this movie.

Premise is this: instead of the usual AI being programmed to respond to a wide array of questions and situations appropriately, someone actually manages to replicate the brain; empty at birth but learns through imitation and analysis, is conscious and aware of its own existence and attempts to learn the moral code of other humans around it. Needless to say, it passed the Turing Test with flying colours. Unfortunately, its creator was killed, so it was left in the hands of an AI expert, who entered the field to create a digital version of his daughter who is dying of Tourette syndrome. Scientist continues to ‘raise’ the AI, simply called ‘The Machine’ or just Machine which is also given a militarized humanoid female body resembling its murdered ‘mother’. As the learning progresses, said scientist is conflicted whether to treat is as a super advanced AI that can be weaponized or to actually acknowledge its humanity.

While the core of the story is too complex for me to spoil, I will say that the ending is the complete opposite of that in 3 Days to Kill. While the latter ends with an unrealistic but happy ending, this goes out with an anticlimactic but very real and thought provoking epilogue. The movie itself was halfway tearing my insides with conflicting feelings, and the ending just dealt the finishing move *Que Fatality from Mortal Kombat*. What else can I say? WATCH IT! I DON’T CARE HOW! PIRATE IT IF YOU MUST!

And on that bombshell, adieu to y’all.

P.S.: The promised Godzilla review is up next. Stay tuned. And keep your flamethrowers ready.