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Kuru Otlar Üstüne (2023)
A Visual Triumph with Narrative Struggles
While I'm not accustomed to writing reviews, I feel compelled to share my thoughts on this film. The experience leaves me with mixed emotions. Visually, it's undeniably stunning, but the narrative's prolonged nature leaves a somewhat unpleasant aftertaste. With a runtime of 3 hours, the first two are rather tedious, contrasting sharply with the spectacular final hour. This is perhaps the most disappointing thing about the movie because it's well seen that this has potential. The final hour stands out as one of the best cinematic experiences I've had, but it's the initial two hours that fail to captivate. The slow pace, extended duration, and occasional loss of coherence contribute to my reservations.
Regarding the characters, the protagonist is remarkably selfish, self-centered, and outright unpleasant to others. While I appreciate the appeal of characters challenging viewers' perspectives, personally, I struggle to enjoy a narrative with such a malevolent main character. This character type represents the one I find most detestable.
In terms of character impact, none, except for the woman, left a significant impression on me. She undeniably stands out as the most intriguing character in the entire movie. The final scene, where she confronts her friend, emerges as one of the most impactful moments in the film.
Despite being a polarizing film that either garners love or disdain, I encourage individuals to give it a chance. Maybe not solely for the characters or the storyline, but there's a potential for valuable lessons to be gleaned from this cinematic endeavor.
Speak No Evil (2022)
"Salute" to stupidity
The main question is why? The movie itself is beautifully filmed and presents an interesting unroll, although you understand quite well, from the beginning, that something is wrong.
Let's be honest, not anyone ever, in the history of human kind, is that physically inept to act for themselves. Seriously, even the female child seemed to be sharper to her surrounding stimuli than any other character. Watching this movie is like looking at a kindergarten. No one acts for themselves and they all look very confused in life ("let's just do what everyone else says").
When you watch a movie in which its main protagonists are all bland and obtuse you question your choices. Yet, you keep watching it in the hopes of finding a deeper meaning. When you reach the end and understand that your choice wasn't as you expected it to go, you get undoubtedly disappointed. This is the movie for you. Don't get your hopes high, it's not like the characters' intelectual traits will get more sophisticated with time. Damn, I should have said this earlier.
So, why am I so disappointed with the choices presented in this movie? First of all, not only they are unrealistic, they're also, let's be frank, quite questionable. So these two Denmark guys come across some very obvious run-away hints but they can't minimally grasp what is happening. There are many examples to this, as the bizarre guy who looks at their balcony at 3am to that same guy sleeping naked with their underage daughter... Unless they have a brain disability, which they can very possibly have, I don't see why they'd continue doing the same mistakes.
Finally, we reach the end of the movie. The girl gets her tongue cut out while the parents just watch her like statues (perhaps they were just grateful the girl was going away; how peaceful it is to not have to care for a girl who is always asking for a wool-made toy instead of acting her own age). And, of course, the parents die in the most idiotic way, waiting for the "bad guys" to do something. "Oh, a stone was thrown here
Let's just wait for the next one to come. Are we dying now? It seems like we are". No need to fight watsoever or run. Good job giving these people this fantastic role.
Well, you expect to take something valuable from a movie when you decide to watch it. Well, perhaps people should be more attentive to what's happening around them but I think this is such a clear notion that we don't really need to say anything else.
Also, the plot-convenience in this movie is absurd. Everything happens in the antagonists' favor. Too many coincidences that seem to fit well for the benefit of the ending.
Interesting movie nonetheless. However, I'd like to see something a bit more structured.
The Lion King (2019)
Poor cast
I remember The Lion King as one of the most famous animation movie there was. I watched the first movie a long time ago but I remember my country's dub for The Lion King being recognized internationally, as it was appointed as one of the best.
To be completely honest I thought that this new remake was crap. It had its major, strong points and I am not going to deny that but when it comes to the final result it simply couldn't reach the public, generally. The voice acting, the most problematic topic in this movie, was a disaster. I don't think the directors behind it (or whoever chose these people to act on this) were trying to select the best cast for it. I think the whole decision was somehow rushed, or worse... They simply casted the "voice actors"/singers simply because they were mad famous.
Due to the terrible voice acting I think that the emotions of the characters were poorly developed and that hit me hard when Mufasa died. There was simply no emotion present in that scene coming out from the characters. Therefore, I think that people need to understand that voice acting really matters or otherwise we, the audience, will never be truly immersed while watching a movie or a series.
The music wasn't memorable, yet it doesn't mean that it's bad. It just wasn't outstanding or close to its original form. However, I thought some tracks were rather annoying and should have been put out, taking into account that some of them were sang by non-singers.
At long last, in terms of the final product, it simply seemed somehow rushed (specially on the important parts). To contrast with the rushed story, though, the CGI looked very good making this film way more appraised than it should be. Anyway, if you take out the bad dub this movie isn't as bad as I'm seeing it right now. I think it simply needed a bit more work. Also, make stories matter, not CGI.
The Circle (2017)
Laughable
The circle is one of those films that conveys a necessary message about the social networks and the internet but that, in contrast, is badly represented. There's no depth that can be externalized from this film.
The topics should be used as a component of showing people the consequences of having no privacy or no respect for other human beings but no, it explores the theme in a fun and idiotic way, in order to sell more.
I understand the world they live in is a "make believe" but even at the end, when there's a real opportunity to change things and a chance to transmit a good message, the main character simply continues the project (but) in a worse way.
The inevitable death of Marcer, that was meant to be dramatic and the end for The Circle wasn't realistic enough. The emotions were exaggerated and even the car crash felt unreal.
Marcer's death should wake people to see the limitations and the effects of initial plans of The Circle. Does that happen? No. Nobody seems to give a damn, in fact, and no laws are created after this. Psychologists, sociologists and human rights' security look like things that have gone extinct.
Also, the whole purpose of the transparency scheme didn't make any sense. Why would someone abdicate of its own privacy? No one that I know. And it doesn't stop there... Mae goes transparent and because of this she earns many followers, people watch her life 24/7 without getting bored. There's no real explanation to why people care that much - there isn't even anything interesting happening in Mae's life.
The end felt rushed with no moral message to share. Many things weren't answered and all that's left was an emptiness feeling.
The Breadwinner (2017)
Raise your words, not your voice
This film is the proof that not all animation films need a stunning visual to be great.
The way the story was told was captivating, in a very good way. The Breadwinner tells the story about a girl who has to face the unfortunate reality of her country, while her family struggles to live.
In a country considered to be one of the most dangerous places for women, Parvana disguises herself as a boy in order to provide food and money to her family.
Despite the violence being not explicit, the emotions and the message in this film are still very strong. It touches people, or at least it touched me.
The production and editing were very good, I could hardly get bored.
The saddest thing is it didn't win the oscar for best animation, which of course is understable because the oscars often focus their attention in films with an enormous budget but not so interesting story.
This is the best animation film I have seen in two years or so, I will proudly have it on dvd if I see it.
Shadow of the Colossus (2018)
A must play
For many years I have been totally uninformed about this game, only last year I had the opportunity to finally get to know the game. A friend of mine told me it was one of the best that he had played for the playstation. After one year, I bought the game on its release date (a remaster for the PS4) and I absolutely loved the experience. I passed the game after 5 days of having it because the style of it was just addictive.
Few days before I bought this game I finished The Last Guardian and I was a bit disappointed - fortunately Shadow of the Colossus made me realize the potential of the Team Ico.
Story:
The game starts with Wander, the protagonist who wants to revive a young lady. He begs to the spirits of the land to make her alive again and with this the spirits tell him that he needs to complete some tasks before they can accomplish his wish. The tasks involve him killing the colossus or the idols of that place.
After Wander defeats all the colossus he proves to the spirits that he's the strongest in that area, so he becomes the last colossus. All the other colossus were previously people who tried to compete for a certain wish, being the last colossus the last person who defeated the latest colossus and so on.
Wander's fight seemed to be meaningless at the end - he ended up being used, transformed into a colossi and then losing the girl he wanted to "save". The girl, however, revived but it's not known what she did after she revived (we understand that she doesn't feel the presence of Wander and we never understand the relationship between them). In other words, a life was exchanged for another.
Just like in our dimension asking to revive a body is considered a taboo and Wander just paid his price.
In terms of story I thought this one was simpler than in The Last Guardian but the other proportions of the game made it better and something amazing to play.
Technical dimension:
I was a bit afraid that this game would be difficult to handle in terms of the technical gameplay due to it being so old. I believe that the people behind it really tried to fill the previous gaps so it could be played in the rightest form on the playstation 4. But actually, my fear was for nothing because in terms of fluidity and movement, etc. this game was way better than The Last Guardian.
The battle gameplay was amazing and so unique. I loved to battle the different colossi in the many different settings.
One of the gaps I could state right now is the horse's movement (besides it, I didn't find many more problems during the game). In order to keep running with it, you need to press triangle over and over again or the horse will stop or walk slowly. Also, when you're not controlling the horse while it's running you'll end up crushing into walls. Although the horse could make the turns he couldn't dodge walls. That could be a little bit frustrating when you wanted to speed up.
Art:
This game didn't strike me as hard as The Last Guardian in terms of art. The settings were really cool and well done but I didn't get amazed with the design of the colossus. They all looked like rock parts with a face. The language though was better than in TLG, at least it seemed more complex.
Soundtrack:
The soundtrack is okay, it's not really memorable besides the main theme. I prefer this type of soundtrack than the really outstanding ones. The tracks are quite calm and will make you somehow relaxed, however I think my favorite track from the list is "Final Battle". I also liked a lot "The Sunlit Earth" and "Swift Horse".
Overall:
This is a game to keep playing, even after passing it. I won't say it's one of the best games like people say but it was very good. After passing the entire game, you automatically unlock a new mode.
Ranking: 8,5
Hitokui no ôwashi toriko (2016)
It contains spoilers
I just have gotten the amazing opportunity to finally complete The Last Guardian, a so anticipated game that came out last year. I personally didn't know about this game until its release but receiving it on Christmas 2017 was something fantastic and I couldn't have waited to play this game. I love puzzle type games with an artistic side of it so I definitely liked this experience.
Story:
The game starts with Trico (or Toriko in Japanese) kidnapping a young boy out of his village and when the others become conscious of this they refer to the boy as "the chosen one". Trico then flies away to his preterit place but before he arrives to his destiny, he crushes into a huge stone and loses his consciousness.
After this, he gets caught by some guardian armored puppets who bring him and the boy (who is inside of Trico's body) to some sort of cell. When Trico awakes he throws out the boy but because he is so fragile he can't move properly. The boy then starts to feed Trico and they soon form a relationship that is going to be maintained during the entire game.
Meaning of the story:
Unlike many games, The Last Guardian has a profound message which isn't explained directly. There are various theories about the story of this game and I also came with my own. During the course of the game we are confronted with some objects that are important to the story. There are the barrels which serve as food to Trico, the butterflies, the armored puppets, the other Tricos, etc... At the ending of the game, some of these are explained indirectly: We face the Master of the Valley - a mechanical brain that controls the Tricos. Now this is when I will start to explain my vision. At the very begging Trico had an armor that got destructed during the fall from the rock. This armor seemed to control his movements because when he lost it he stopped caring about kidnapping the boy and he became friendly. All the other Tricos, contrarily, had their armor and they wanted to kill Trico and the boy. So, in my sense of things, this armor controlled the Tricos and the armor was controlled by the mechanical brain or Master of the Valley. Look at the armored puppets, they also have an armor and they are, without any doubts, controlled by the same Master who controls Tricos.
Talking about the barrels now: at the ending of the game, we understand that the barrels are made from people (the sacrifices). Controlled Tricos bring children to some sort of machine who rewards them with barrels. They give the children to the Master of the Valley and in exchange they get food (this food seems to contain some part of the children's life energy). This children's life energy is what makes the system continuing. The origin of the Master of the Valley is uncertain, the only thing there is to know is that it has been living for a long time, consuming human lives to stay alive.
The barrels also contain blue goop, encountered in pots, cauldrons and inside the armored knights.
Now, what do the butterflies mean? In Japan, butterflies often signify the souls of the dead or marked for death. In the game they are always near barrels and sometimes seen in open areas.
Now, Trico's race is a mutation, a chimera. They share parts of birds and parts of cats or dogs (I'm not really sure about dogs). If we put together the name Toriko and translate it to Japanese we understand that "tori" means bird and "ko" is a diminutive of "neko" that is the Japanese name for cat. Since "inu" in Japanese means dog, I will assume that Trico's race is a mutation of bird and cat.
Every time we start the game, we get the chance to see beautiful illustrations of different chimeras like the unicorn or the phoenix. Trico is just another example of a chimera.
The boy's tattoos weren't there before he was kidnapped by Trico. They appeared after he stayed inside of Trico's body. They make reference to the Maori and Samoan tattoos, meaning that the boy is from a similarly tribal village. Maybe this was a way to mark the boy.
In Ico, a play station 1 game from the same company, we can see that one of the characters has similar tattoos to the boy in The Last Guardian.
The mirror the boy finds in the beginning of the game can be used to attack things and it is affiliated with Trico's body, specifically his tail. It's then used to kill the Master of the Valley at the ending. I don't know the real origin or explanation about the mirror but it is important to unroll the game.
The blue doors, where the armored knights bring you if you don't fight back, look like a portal. Perhaps it is a portal to where the Master of the Valley is located. This is never explained and it will be always known as a mystery.
One of the other objects found in The Last Guardian is the eye symbol. Trico is afraid of this symbol for some reason. I believe this was created with the purpose of maintaining Tricos away from the final tower, where the Master of the Valley is located.
The last question to be asked is: "Who is the The Last Guardian?", Is it the boy or the creature? After the credits, a small Trico is shown next to a bigger Trico, meaning that there is more than one Trico. On the other hand, the boy is known to be the last chosen one because he was the one who defeated the Master of the Valley. So, why is he a guardian though? Does this mean that he was a guardian of the valley? I don't know and I believe that many people, if not all, cannot respond to this question. Either way, we can say that, in a sense, both the boy and Trico served as "guardians" to each other, so who knows if the last guardian is actually both of them.
Technology:
In terms of controllability and game mechanics, this game is still far from being very good. In my opinion, it is a shame since the story had so much to give. We know that this was postponed for seven years which is a long time... The developers needed to stay in touch with the newest technology all the time (I think in terms of graphics this game was splendid). What it failed was the fluidity of the boy's movements, whereas he was just too slow to respond to command or even the way he moved sometimes. Every time I was climbing Trico, the movements didn't feel right, sometimes I ended up being teleported magically to a different place in Trico's body, other times the boy was moving upwards but not really climbing Trico.
Some other times the command just failed, I often tried to make the boy do things and sometimes he couldn't, for whatever reason. This really disappointed me in the game, I knew it was a possibility since this game was originally planned for PS3 but it still put me in shock. It even became frustrating sometimes.
The other really disappointing feature in this game is the fighting the boy needs to do in order to get rid of the armored knights. It's the same thing that appears on loading screens. To me, that's a really bad idea and I cannot understand the meaning and the joy behind it. It takes a lot of time and it can certainly decrease the controller's life.
The last thing that made me wonder was the final trophy Though We Are Far Apart which I didn't receive. I receive the other final trophies such as "Spry Emissary" and "Fleet Emissary" but I didn't get the real last one. I've seen that other people had the same problem so I'll consider this as probably a glitch. I don't take trophies as something required but I know that for other people who take trophies seriously this would be a big problem.
Art:
I don't have any problems about this parameter. The art is stunning, the settings are stunning, everything feels creative and I love that! The illustrations in each introduction look amazing and give the game a better felling, especially if you like art. I also loved the design of Trico and the tattoos on the boy's body. Whether Trico's design was taken out of some place or not it still looks brilliant.
Soundtrack:
The soundtrack fitted the game nicely. I can't say that I love every soundtrack but it was definitely thought out by the compositor. They can be relaxing and they were made to fit the journey. My favorites are: Finalle II Escape, The Last Guardian Suite and Epilogue
Overall:
I found this experience unique and I think the game has definitely a lot to give that others don't. Unfortunately, the technical aspects of the game dropped my ranking by two points in a scale of 1 to 10. Anyway, I still think this is a must try that has the possibility to make you love the game. If you like the indie style, I recommend it.
I don't believe I will play the game again because there are just so many more to explore. The game is beautiful to play it once, it won't have the same impact on later tries. Just like Journey.
I'm really happy with the experience I had with this game and maybe it was not for the technical aspects of it but was definitely for the story and art!
Ranking: 7.5/10
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2001: An Endlessly Tedious Odyssey
I cannot describe how much I disliked this movie. It was supposed to be a fun ride, not a tedious one. The lack of dialogue, the repetitive scenes and the absence of emotion made this almost unbearable to watch.
The movie is entirely based in space (except for the first boring half hour) and it presents the evolution of the human species in an allegorical way. The technical parts (CGI) and the movie's edition was, in my opinion, brilliant. Other than that, I don't understand the enormous praise that this movie has.
The classical music seems to have been used to distract the audience from the long standing monotonous scenes. It looks and sounds inconvenient for the most part. It felt like there was no purpose behind the entire movie, just a bunch of people trying to be creative and the result ended in disorder. This is a movie cult for the appraisers of modern art, lovers of simplicity and incoherence or psychedelic scenarios. The movie feels lost and dead, just like seeing a white painting with a red circle in the middle.
The plot is incredibly vague and audacious and because of its incomprehensibility it's often designed as being a masterpiece (after all, incomprehensibility for most people means "profundity").
Well, it was certainly my mistake for watching this because I never liked Kubrick's movies. His confidence was always bigger than his creations, too bad that he's gone now.
With this said, I would like to append that Space Odyssey's theme music is the sound of my brain after watching this overrated movie.