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I've just made the mistake of watching the latest Netflix sci-fi movie, Duncan Jones' Mute, before checking out the reviews. This was his pet project, what he had been wanting to make as long as he's been a director, and it's absolutely horrible. Makes no sense, looks monotonously drab, Paul Rudd is somehow terrible in it (and he's always reliable, until now anyway), and the child abuse subplot was vomit-inducing. Moon was so good, and now he's making this future-gangster shite? It's a real shame.

I didn't think it was as bad as you make out, just not good. I'd give it 5.5/10. The abuse was implied rather than shown. It dragged at times and was puzzling as to what was going on. Future-gangsterism doesn't have to be shite, it's a pity DJ's pet project has turned out to be such a let down.

I wouldn't damn it for being drab, I thought it was deliberate and (for some of the time) effective cinematography. I like flying cars but the ones here weren't used to good effect. A bit Blade Runnerish alright but not up to that standard. The ongoing Afghan war in the background and US troops deserting was interesting. It might have improved the film if it had been more subtly integrated into the plot/script.

Anyway, I don't feel existential despair at giving up two hours to watch Mute.
 
Mute: I didn't think it was as bad as many critics make out, just not good. It dragged at times and was puzzling as to what was going on. Future-gangsterism Noir in a Blade Runneresque Berlin, set in 2060. A tale about a mute bartender (
Alexander Skarsgård) whose girlfriend (Seyneb Saleh) goes missing. They both work in a club whose mafiosi owner has links with underground surgeons, and e-identity fakers. Convincing performances by Skarsgård and Saleh but Paul Rudd doesn't convince as an on the run Army Medic who seems to do everything he can to call attention to himself.

I wouldn't damn it for being drab, I thought it was deliberate and (for some of the time) effective cinematography. I like flying cars but the ones here weren't used to good effect. If you direct a Blade Runner style noir future thriller it will inevitably be compared to the exemplar. The ongoing Afghan war in the background and US troops deserting was intriguing but also baffling. It might have improved the film if it had been more subtly integrated into the plot/script.

Some great cinematography in softened, dark tones by Gary Shaw, with eye-catching art direction and set design by
David Scheunemann and Bernhard Henrich. But this cannot compensate for the wooden direction by Duncan Jones and a chaotic screenplay by Jones and Michael Johnson.

It's a pity this pet project of Duncan Jones has turned out to be such a let down. Anyway, I don't feel existential despair at giving up two hours to watch Mute but much as I wanted to like it I can only give it 5.5/10. On Netflix.
 
Yebbut, a 5.5/10 for Ramon is a 0/10 for almost everyone else. Blade Runner 2049 totally stole its thunder, in fact I'd be tempted to observe the reason this went more or less straight to the internet was because of how badly BR shows it up.
 
Yebbut, a 5.5/10 for Ramon is a 0/10 for almost everyone else. Blade Runner 2049 totally stole its thunder, in fact I'd be tempted to observe the reason this went more or less straight to the internet was because of how badly BR shows it up.

Well, I gave my reasons for the 5.5. It has 5.4/10 on IMDb after 4,913 ratings.
 
If you read enough of a reviewer's work, you get to know what their preference are!

But it's not an 0/10 from virtually everyone else as you stated. It is still 5.4/10 after 6,333 ratings on IMDb.
 
But it's not an 0/10 from virtually everyone else as you stated. It is still 5.4/10 after 6,333 ratings on IMDb.

I was looking at the comments under the Guardian's review, and half of them seemed to think the critic had a grudge against Jones. About a quarter liked the film, with caveats. There were a lot of "what is this shit?!" reactions to the film, though, along the lines of complacent Netflix viewers watching any old rubbish, etc. I still like some of their TV shows, so I don't think they're as bad as all that, though I have been stung by the movies they have exclusive rights to, or have put money behind. It has put me off trying Altered Carbon, I will say.
 
I was looking at the comments under the Guardian's review, and half of them seemed to think the critic had a grudge against Jones. About a quarter liked the film, with caveats. There were a lot of "what is this shit?!" reactions to the film, though, along the lines of complacent Netflix viewers watching any old rubbish, etc. I still like some of their TV shows, so I don't think they're as bad as all that, though I have been stung by the movies they have exclusive rights to, or have put money behind. It has put me off trying Altered Carbon, I will say.

My point was just that IMDb is a more representative statistical universe than the opinions of four people on the FTMB. I can't even say that I like it with caveats, it had some good parts but the script and direction sucked. I wanted to like as I think many critics did but it is just a mediocre film.

At least try the first episode of Altered Carbon. Please!
 
The IMDB score is a weighted one, though, and I'm suspicious of aggregates like Rotten Tomatoes, because there are plenty of inspired movies the majority don't "get", right away or ever, whereas there are loads of rubbish that are rated high because there was nothing there to offend or challenge. I will say, 5.4 for a new movie is very low by IMDB standards, usually the not so well-received stuff ends up in the 6/10 region. Maybe MST3K need to have a go at it, though the sound of three men snoring may not make for the best of instalments.
 
The IMDB score is a weighted one, though, and I'm suspicious of aggregates like Rotten Tomatoes, because there are plenty of inspired movies the majority don't "get", right away or ever, whereas there are loads of rubbish that are rated high because there was nothing there to offend or challenge. I will say, 5.4 for a new movie is very low by IMDB standards, usually the not so well-received stuff ends up in the 6/10 region. Maybe MST3K need to have a go at it, though the sound of three men snoring may not make for the best of instalments.

The IMDb score is actually the average of those 6,333 ratings. I'm not saying Mute is a good film, just that it still earns a score of 5.4 which suggests the film is mediocre. There are 49 (varied) user reviews at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1464763/reviews?ref_=tt_urv
 
Look at the score for Wonder Woman. Almost all the user reviews hate it, give it a low score, yet it's still averaged at 7.5/10. 5.4 is pretty poor, even taking into consideration the lower amount of ratings.
 
Look at the score for Wonder Woman. Almost all the user reviews hate it, give it a low score, yet it's still averaged at 7.5/10. 5.4 is pretty poor, even taking into consideration the lower amount of ratings.

It just shows that a lot of people still liked WW but didn't go to the effort of reviewing it.

5.4/10 is mediocre but it is still the average score of over 6,000 people, of whom approx .08% reviewed it.
 
It's a pity this pet project of Duncan Jones has turned out to be such a let down.

Damn, he was on such a good run (Moon, Source Code, Warcraft).

I wonder if it's Pet Project Syndrome? My heart always sinks when a creator says, having got a few hits under their belt, that they're now going to tell the story they've always wanted to tell. It often seems to turn out badly.
 
Just be glad Duncan didn't star in his pet project too - that usually means "We're going to see the director naked!" these days.
 
Trailer for 'Fahrenheit 451' HBO movie
I liked Truffaut 1966 film version, with it's slightly surreal and banal not-quite future setting, though it chopped quite a bit from the book. This is a remake that's probably fine and looks to be taking a different angle on the book.
 
It's not science fiction.
 
I'm putting this here because of the Secret History aspects of the film

Red Sparrow: Moscow 2017, Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence), a young Prima Ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet, is involved in an (apparently accidental) onstage incident which results in career ending injuries. Her creepy uncle Ivan (Matthias Schoenaerts), a senior SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence) officer provides her with evidence showing it was no accident and she use a golf club to beat the crap out of those responsible. Her uncle then coerces her into seducing an oligarch, using medical treatment for her mother and retention of their large apartment as an inducement. The seduction actually results in assassination and she is given the choice of death or training as a Red Sparrow, SVR General Korchnoi (Jeremy Irons) would prefer to liquidate her.

Red Sparrows (male and female) are SVR Special Forces who concentrate on seduction but are trained in all aspects of spycraft including assassination. The headmistress of their training school is "Matron" (Charlotte Rampling). Dominika graduates from the scholl after some misadventures and is posted to Budapest. Her assignment is to seduce CIA Agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) and to get him to reveal his secret contact in the SVR. But they fall in love or do they? A game of smoke and mirrors ensues and the truth provides ever more difficult to perceive.

This is a story of secret histories where the Cold War never ended and KGB style spy/assassin academies continue to exist. There is an ethic of service and loyalty to the State which is equivalent to that of the old days of the USSR. Actually it's almost as if things never changed, to Korchnoi and Matron defence of the Russian Motherland appears to be their raison d'être.

Lawrence, Edgerton, Schoenaerts are convincing in their roles but Irons seems to be just there for the paycheck. Lawrence in particular shines as she has to suffer indignations during her training but is never the victim, when she is attacked in a shower she rips a lever off and batters her assailant with it. She later undergoes torture which shows a tad more than what is necessary. Another torture scene involving Edgerton makes you think you've seen more than you actually have, similar to the "ear cutting" scene in Reservoir Dogs. But these scenes are of short duration.

Director Francis Lawrence has put together an effective spy thriller but at times the script by Justin Haythe is confusing. The film could also have lost 19 of its 139 minute running (especially most of the the torture scenes). It has received mixed reviews but then so did La Femme Nikita when it was first released. In any case Lawrence's performance has been generally praised. 8/10.
 
Director Francis Lawrence has put together an effective spy thriller but at times the script by Justin Haythe is confusing. The film could also have lost 19 of its 139 minute running (especially most of the the torture scenes). It has received mixed reviews but then so did La Femme Nikita when it was first released. In any case Lawrence's performance has been generally praised. 8/10.

Saw Red Sparrow today, then came home and rewatched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) which has some similarities to Red Sparrow. Unfair, perhaps, to compare the two as they're different beasts, but TTSS is such a model of how to do things, and comes in at 1 hour 55 min, none of it dull. With Red Sparrow they could have saved run time by (as you suggest) trimming the tortures, and also I would have cut most of the training school sequences, which added grimdarkery rather than plot, I think. Ditto with her first outing as a sparrow, that sequence went darker than I thought was necessary to show.

I didn't follow all the pieces of the concluding pieces of the plot, so I'll rewatch on dvd one day. Overall well-made and acted, but not a film I particularly liked. 6.75/10
 
Saw Red Sparrow today, then came home and rewatched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) which has some similarities to Red Sparrow. Unfair, perhaps, to compare the two as they're different beasts, but TTSS is such a model of how to do things, and comes in at 1 hour 55 min, none of it dull. With Red Sparrow they could have saved run time by (as you suggest) trimming the tortures, and also I would have cut most of the training school sequences, which added grimdarkery rather than plot, I think. Ditto with her first outing as a sparrow, that sequence went darker than I thought was necessary to show.

I didn't follow all the pieces of the concluding pieces of the plot, so I'll rewatch on dvd one day. Overall well-made and acted, but not a film I particularly liked. 6.75/10

I saw Red Sparrow again last night with a Ukrainian friend. She thought it likely got things wrong about how the Russian Spy services work, they would more likely use professional sexworkers, male and female and that while they obviously have spy schools they wouldn't have a seducers training college. Also that the Hollywood impression of Moscow seemed to be a mixture of Soviet/Modern Era. But she also pointed out that the James Bond films are hardly realistic so just take both as entertainment.
 
I watched Annihilation on Monday night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I though it had a bit of a The Last of Us vibe to it (for those who have played the game), both the atmosphere inside the Shimmer and the soundtrack. In fact, it would have made an excellent game. The plot's a little thin, but I think deliberately so, and it has a wonderful dreamlike quality throughout. Also very refreshing to have an all-female team heading into the danger zone (© Bernard Righton).
 
I watched Annihilation on Monday night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I though it had a bit of a The Last of Us vibe to it (for those who have played the game), both the atmosphere inside the Shimmer and the soundtrack. In fact, it would have made an excellent game. The plot's a little thin, but I think deliberately so, and it has a wonderful dreamlike quality throughout. Also very refreshing to have an all-female team heading into the danger zone (© Bernard Righton).

I enjoyed Annihilation but don't play computer games, do you think The Last Of Us would make a good film?
 
I enjoyed Annihilation but don't play computer games, do you think The Last Of Us would make a good film?

Not as it stands, no, although it is a wonderful game (due to the atmosphere created, mostly by the music used and the driving of the story and character interaction through nicely structured cut-scenes). I suppose it has the basis of an idea that could be worked into a film, but I'm not sure that means it should.
 
I'd like to see a film based on the Fallout games. Bethesda has messed about, making it impossible.
 
A Wrinkle In Time - the new film trailer:


A Wrinkle In Time: A children's film but in the same sense that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a kid's movie. Thirteen year old Meg (Storm Reid) and her six year old brother Charles (Deric McCabe) face the fourth anniversary of their father's (Chris Pine) disappearance. Along with their mother (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) he had been working on a radical Quantum theory which could result in instantaneous interstellar travel.

All SF so far but suddenly three Good Fairies/Nice Weird Sisters (The Scottish Play is even referenced) appear and Meg, her schoolmate/admirer Calvin (Levi Miller) and Charles are off on a quest to find her father. Good for it's type. 7/10.
 
A Wrinkle In Time: A children's film but in the same sense that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a kid's movie. Thirteen year old Meg (Storm Reid) and her six year old brother Charles (Deric McCabe) face the fourth anniversary of their father's (Chris Pine) disappearance. Along with their mother (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) he had been working on a radical Quantum theory which could result in instantaneous interstellar travel.

All SF so far but suddenly three Good Fairies/Nice Weird Sisters (The Scottish Play is even referenced) appear and Meg, her schoolmate/admirer Calvin (Levi Miller) and Charles are off on a quest to find her father. Good for it's type. 7/10.


Review in Irish Times:

A young girl (Reid, very good) searches mysterious dimensions for her missing father (Pine) in a messy, wild but very enjoyable sci-fi epic. A Wrinkle in Time’scolouring-outside-the-lines is matched by an alarming sincerity. No wonder Oprah literally towers over the picture and the excellent young cast. An empowering motion picture for 10-year-old girls, this is the movieverse’s answer to broccoli: a film for smart, earnest little girls like Lisa Simpson to enjoy between recycling projects. Full review TB
 
Ready Player One: It opens with a washed out filter scene of stacked mobile homes and portacabins. 18 year old wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) descends by rope from his aunt's home, passing many people in VR goggles gaming away. This is a society without hope, pollution, climate change and economic crashes have produced a dystopian world. Wade's parents died in the aftermath of a cataclysmic cyber event when many systems failed.

The only escape is through the online VR world, OASIS. Within that universe there is a game Anorak's Quest, invented by the late creator of OASIS, James Halliday. The goal is to find three keys and thereby win the "Easter Egg" which will earn the winner half a trillion dollars and full ownership of OASIS. Wadeis Parzival in the game and has friends and fellow competitors such as Samantha/Art3mis (Olivia Cook) and Helen/Aech (Lena Walthe). But there is also Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), the CEO of Innovative Online Industries, who seeks full control over the OASIS. IOI is a video game conglomerate and manufactures most of the VR equipment used to access the OASIS. Sorrento has amassed an army of debt-indentured gamers to seek the keys.

Alike Blade Runner in some aspects, run-down cities, economic/environmental collapse but differing in an absence of androids and most of the action occurring in VR. There are many cultural references, ranging from the gamers having to fight King Kong and Jurassic Park style dinosaurs to the Iron Giant battling Mechagodzilla.There is also a game sequence set in The Shining where , Aech encounters the Twins and is drenched by the blood filled lift.

Coin earned in the OASIS not only allows gamers to build equipment and artifacts in VR but may also be used in the real world. Being killed online has serious consequences in both worlds as it reduces the gamers status and holdings to zero. "Dead" gamers even attempt suicide.

The evil IOI Corporation looks somewhat like the Scientologists. Slave-labour gamers in it's Loyalty Centres whilst planners/researchers wear suits and ties. It's Security Chief (Hannah John-Kamen) is suitably ruthless like a higher level SeaOrg Hubbardite. Evil and cruel but not pantomime villain depraved.

Steven Spielberg has directed and produced a credible Science Fiction epic, scripted by the novel author Ernest Cline (with Zak Penn) with many filters and hues by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. Too many involved in special effects to know who to thank. My only quibble with Ready Player One is it's 140 minutes running time, it could have lost 15 minutes and been a better film. 8.5/10
 
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