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chadroman82
Reviews
Ready Player One (2018)
A product of the Hollywood machine
Ready Player One is a decent book. It has some flaws, but overall it works as an '80's nostalgia trip and a good read. Ready Player One is a bad movie in terms of being a movie, an atrocious adaptation, and fails even as a vehicle for '80's nostalgia. There are more easter eggs, shout outs, and throwbacks for people born in recent years than there are for people who grew up in the 1980s. The plot is as formulaic as anything ever produced by Hollywood. It is distinctly and safely structured to be everything the audience has ever seen before, to the point that the end result is dull. A good adaptation will keep what works and fix what doesn't. This movie changes everything regardless of its functionality, and the result has so many gaping plot chasms and is so devoid of charm it's a wonder if Steven Spielberg and company wanted to make this adaptation at all or if they were being forced to fulfill a contract they signed in years past. After having seen this on the big screen, I wish I had waited for it to come to Netflix. It's not even something I would want to own and have on my movie shelves, while I could have the book on my book shelf and be okay with that.
Gnaw (2017)
Scant on horror, but a satisfying creature movie
I'm a sucker for creature movies, and I enjoyed the creature in this movie. The special effects were sometimes quite adequate and other times a little silly (usually while stationary). The film itself never fully commits to being a horror movie, but I still found it enjoyable enough. The story was solid, more so than most of these kinds of movies.The acting was solid. The characters were solid. The logic defying stupidity that plagues characters in horror movies was fairly light. The creature was a cross between the pixies from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the creatures from Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and I loved it. Should you see it? I have a wall of horror films, and if I were to buy this on DVD and add it to my collection the overall quality of my collection would increase slightly. If you like creature movies, then I'd say give it a try.
Prometheus (2012)
Absolutely no reason for existing
I walked out of Prometheus feeling drained and unsure how I felt, which is how I felt throughout the entire movie. As a movie watched for entertainment value, Prometheus was a complete failure. Thus, I had to think hard about why I felt so underwhelmed and indifferent. Piece by piece the realization came to me. Prometheus was awful. There was no reason for it to exist. It's never entertaining. As a thoughtful intelligent piece of science fiction, it is neither thoughtful nor intelligent. Characters are bland and their actions contrast to how any real human being or modern scientist would behave in a similar situation. Dialogue is full of terrible almost quote for quote shout outs to previous films of the saga, and it is cringe inducing. It felt like their wasn't a single drop of scientific research conducted for the film, which makes this movie feel more like a fantasy flick with technology in it rather than true science fiction. No one behind the film's creation seems to have any clue how human beings think or behave. The story is straight forward and yet incomprehensible. Prometheus doesn't answer a single question regarding itself or the universe it is a part of. It only creates more questions and cuts the legs out from behind what was established in the only 2 good things the Alien saga has going for it. The only thing the film gets right is visuals, and some of those get horribly heavy handed. The end result is a film that brings nothing to the Alien universe, nothing to the genre, and nothing as a form of entertainment. It comes down to being a 2 hour tech demo and special effect reel. If you like special effects, this is a movie for you. If you like intelligent movies, good characters, good story-telling, solid science-fiction, or creatures, this isn't the film you are looking for. The creatures are amazing in this film, but they occupy 2 minutes of a 2 hour film.