Repo! The Genetic Opera

Repo! The Genetic Opera is somewhat of a cult icon among people who like to watch "underground" or "indy" movies.  I myself belong to this crowd so the fact that, until now, I haven't seen Repo! even though it came out in 2008 is blasphemy to some.  Unfortunately, I read a premise and it didn't really appeal to my taste in movies so I rented something else instead.  But, after four years of hearing about how great it was and reading on movie blogs about how everyone needs to see it I finally decided to bite the bullet and watch it.  So, how is it?  I give it a resounding "meh."

Repo! comes from the producers of Saw and it shows, the whole movie is drenched in blood, gore, organs, and surgical scars.  The setup, which I'm sure many people are already familiar with, a wave of organ failures in the near future nearly wipes out humanity, however one company, GeneCo, offers artificial replacement organs at exorbitant prices.  People have to take out loans to get the surgeries and if they miss their payments the organs are repossessed by the Repo Man.  The plot revolves around Shilo, the daughter of the Repo Man who is beckoned by the owner of GeneCo, Rotti Largy, to take over the company when he dies.  The Largo family is composed of a drug addicted embarrassment of a daughter, a psychotic murderous son, and another son who is addicted to wearing other peoples faces.

The plot is decently interesting and conveyed easily enough through the lyrics of the songs.  The characters are all quite unique with both Rotti and the Repo Man played as a middle ground between friend and foe.  They both have good sides and both have monstrous sides with Shilo caught in the middle.  Some of the music is also quite good and goes well with the post-apocalyptic, neo-Gothic art style.  Repo! makes use of the same washed out look that worked for Ink and YellowBrickRoad, however it doesn't work here.  Repo! had a lot of promise but the art director never new when to stop.  This movie is drenched in neon with bright flashes and stage lights; stark white actors and actresses barely stand out from the background.  The music in some spots isn't any better, just relying on grating, almost digital sounding guitar riffs which only adds to the bland brightness of the art style.  Repo! is a movie that reeks of sensory overload causing everything to blend together.  It's almost like dubstep.

It's almost admirable how boring Repo! is despite it's uniqueness.  Ultimately, Repo! The Genetic Opera is a failure that wasn't able to garner much of my respect or enjoyment.  A fairly run-of-the-mill "indy" film that most likely only got popular because it appealed to moviegoers who happened to be high on drugs and the bright colors and techno-rock soundtrack enhanced the effects of the drug.  That's how dubstep became popular after all.

6.5/10

Ink

Ink is a 2009 science-fiction/fantasy film by unknown writer/director Jamin Winans produced for a minuscule budget of $250,000 and starring a cast of actors nobody has ever heard of.  The story revolves around two factions in the spirit world: the Storytellers, guardian angels that give good dreams, and the Incubus, corrupting demons that give nightmares.  A rogue spirit named Ink steals the soul of a little girl, Emma, to present to the Lord of the Incubus as payment to become an Incubus himself; in the human world Emma falls into a coma.  A small group of Storytellers, including Emma's guardian angel Allel, must fight to reunite her and her estranged father who is a vicious stock trader.

Ink is what modern moviegoers would consider an independent film, technically it isn't because it was produced by Double Edge Films, but with it's meager budget, unknown cast, and art house charm it definitely fits the bill of an independent film.  Ink was made with a very low quality camera and looks fuzzy and washed-out most of the time, despite that Ink manages to be incredibly beautiful and uses the faded colors to it's advantage.  The lower quality images add to the surreal feeling of the spirit world; the movie feels as if the spirit world and the human world exist on the same plane with merely a sheet of separating them.  As such the main characters see the human world as faded and gray and they can't interact with it because it's in a different plane of existence.

Many of the sets and props were also made out of ordinary objects.  The lair of the Incubus is lined with garbage bags, hung up in squares, and even the sacrificial chamber for Emma is just a bath tub sitting in the middle of a concrete room.  The CGI is also very cheap, but used perfectly to create villains and worlds that fall well within the uncanny valley and make the Incubus, truly, the stuff of nightmares.  The Incubus wear sheets of glass suspended in front of their faces which distorts their features and filters out all of the color; they also wear green rubber aprons, like a serial killer, and the way they're presented is unsettling and demonic.  The storytellers are the exact opposite: they wear clothes from different time periods (whichever time period they died) and have no distortion, however they are noticeably brighter when compared to other things in the human world which gives them a warm, welcoming appearance while still maintaining the fierce looks of the warriors they're presented as.

If Jamin Winans has one Achilles Heel, it would be his conversational dialogue.  When two people talk in this movie about something that isn't directly related to the plot they sound very awkward and stiff.  This is particularly noticeable in the opening scene which depicts Emma and her father playing near some train tracks.  However, Winans seems to know this so he limits his use of conversational dialogue as much as he can and his eccentric, unusual character dialogue is on the spot, particularly with Jacob, the path finder.

In terms of story Ink is an astounding, inspiring tale.  It's very poetic in the way things play out and while some of the more important parts of the story might be guessed earlier than intended it doesn't detract at all from the surge of emotion you'll have when the credits roll.  On a structural level the beginning of the movie does tend to drag a little bit but when it starts to pick up speed it keeps the pace going.

Ink's few flaws, mainly in the conversational dialogue and the pacing at the beginning of the movie are easily overlooked as Winans played this movie to his strengths.  Ink is amazing and everybody should see it, particularly people with a taste for the unusual and the beautiful.  One of the best movies I have ever seen and one of only three movies to ever earn this score from me:

10/10

The Dark Knight Rises (Spoilerifiic)

I'm going to apologize in advance: this movie is full of so much symbolism and depth that I would have to watch it several times and make a few charts before I could present this information in an organized fashion.  Instead I'm going to do my best with what I have because I think the first impressions after leaving the theater, even if they turn out to just be the rantings of an insane film critic, are more valuable to the average customer.  So without further adieu:

The Dark Knight Rises goes back to the beginning.  The main villain is Bane, an outcast from the League of Shadows, also known as the place where Bruce Wayne learned to be Batman.  At the end of Batman Begins Batman kills his former teacher the leader of the League of Shadows, Ra's Al Ghul.  The importance of the League of Shadows is that they fight for what they consider the greater good.  In the past by attempting to destroy a city that they thought had fallen beyond repair and into corruption.  Batman, doing what he does best, stopped them.  However, just as Batman is a symbol and a legend that cannot die, the death of Ra's Al Ghul did not destroy the League of Shadows.  A new heir, the daughter of Ghul, leads the assassins, with the help of her friend and bodyguard Bane.  Just as the torch passed for the league, it also passed for Batman (more on that later).

Christopher Nolan takes the concept of the greater good and brings it crashing into reality with the Taking Wall Street movement.  Bruce Wayne, being one of the only comic-book super heroes to truly be in the one percent is the perfect character for this message.  In fact the entire first part of the movie is dedicated to Bruce Wayne losing everything.  After an attack on the stock exchange and some fraudulent deals made in his name, Wayne loses every penny of his fortune.  His fall from grace as a symbol has now been mirrored on his public life and it also shows the idea of the one percent becoming the ninety-nine percent.  Falling even lower, Batman's back is broken by Bane in an ill-fated sewer fight, and Bane finally drags Bruce (his mask now shattered) back to the hellish prison Bane himself came from.

The prison is a very deep pit with an open air top and a climbable wall.  As Bane says, "people need hope so that they can truly suffer."  The climb to the top features a nearly impossible jump that no one had ever succeeded at before, except for one child.  In this prison Bruce Wayne is nursed back to health and eventually climbs his way out.  By the time he returns to Gotham, Bane has already trapped nearly three thousand policemen underground and taken control of the entirety of Gotham with a nuclear bomb.  Bane, having come from literally nothing, and representing the ninety-nine percent, gives the city to it's citizens.  Some take up refuge in their homes and hide while others seek to punish the wealthy business owners, CEO's, and stock traders who have lived off the sweat and blood of the working class.

The citizens, lead by none other than Scarecrow from Batman Begins, form a makeshift court of the people to sentence those who have bankrupted the good people of Gotham to either exile or execution.  Even public displays like hanging the wealthy on the streets are seen from the outraged workers.  But, the League of Shadows still intends to destroy Gotham, turning a nuclear fusion reactor that was designed to provide free, clean energy to the people of Gotham, into a bomb that would wipe out the city.

Cat Woman on the other hand was a poor, beggar who got in deep with the wrong people and had to become a master thief to survive.  Her story arc is much more archetypal: selfish to selfless culminating in making the final choice of saving herself or going back to save the city.  Cat Woman's character is not all that interesting; it's just a vessel to provide another side of the ninety-nine percent: to be a foil to Bane.  What is interesting about Cat Woman is that she becomes Bruce Wayne's love interest and eventual wife (as far as we can guess anyway, they're shown together at the end of the movie) and this seems to mirror Sherlock Holmes (a fad that seems to have been popping back up in modern culture recently thanks to Dr. House).  Batman, once known as the worlds greatest detective (Adam West anyone?) falls in love with a thief, just as Holmes was in love with Irene Adler, another master thief.

Finally, Batman returns to Gotham just in time to, with the help of Commissioner Gordon, free the trapped policemen and form an army to take on Bane and the League of Shadows.  Batman rises from hell to save the people, sacrificing himself to the bomb instead and ascending into legend.  But, he doesn't sacrifice himself and manages to survive, changing his identity and forming a new life with Selina Kyle (Cat Woman).  He passes the torch onto a new hero, Robin, and leaves Gotham forever.

That's everything I can think of for now.  I'm absolutely sure I missed plenty more symbolism but unfortunately I won't be able to re-watch it again and catch anything else for quite a while.

The Dark Knight Rises (Spoiler-Free)

When I got out of The Dark Knight Rises I hadn’t yet decided if I liked the movie.  Christopher Nolan’s movies, particularly his Batman movies, are packed with symbolism, references, and perfect characters.  In The Dark Knight Harvey Dent is the perfect “good guy” foil for Batman, he’s even referenced as the “White Knight” of Gotham.  Dent is the Lawful Good to Batman’s Chaotic Good, while the Joker is the Chaotic Evil, and through his evil, the Joker brings Dent down to the level of Lawful Evil, a fall from grace that nearly mimics Batman’s own.  The problem when analyzing the symbolism in a movie such as this is that it requires the entire story arc, therefor I will be writing two reviews for The Dark Knight Rises, the first (this one) will be entirely spoiler-free, and the second one will be spoilerific.  So hold on tight, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

I would immediately hesitate to say that The Dark Knight Rises is better than The Dark Knight (man this is going to get confusing) because, as dark a note TDK ended on, TDKR begins on an even darker one and it only goes downhill.  TDKR is one of the most immensely dark and bleak movies I have ever watched.  But, that’s Nolan’s point.  The Dark Knight Trilogy, like many before it, follows the story of Jesus; the rise, fall, and resurrection of a savior.  The DKT is one of the best modern examples of this pattern, while other trilogies like The Matrix or Pirates of the Caribbean follow this pattern, the DKT uses it so much Nolan saw fit to title the movies after it and TDKR is a movie about hope and ascension.  But, I’m losing track here.

The Dark Knight Rises is a brilliant movie.  I would say that it is the best movie Christopher Nolan has ever made.  It isn’t perfect.  Nolan took Batman, or Bruce Wayne, from a rather static and boring character in the other Batman movies and turned him into a beautiful, tragic hero.  Every movie sees him face challenges both external and internal, increasing in scale every movie.  TDKR returns to the theme of fear from Batman Begins and takes it in the only direction he could take it.  Bruce Wayne is an amazing character however Bane is less than amazing.

Bane is hulking, menacing, dark, and made entirely of symbolism.  Unfortunately, despite the initial shock of such a blatantly dark villain and the deep layers of meaning and message behind him, as a character Bane is boring.  He never seems to have a personality of his own, unlike the Joker, who is a true anarchist; Bane seems to only do what is necessary to fulfill his plan with no ulterior motives and no real character arc.  Even the motives Nolan shows us don’t entirely satisfy his reason for doing.

Nolan has also increased the amount of symbolism in the movies as they went on.  In TDK he struck the perfect balance between entertainment and symbolism, while in TDKR he loses a lot of the entertainment value in favor of literary value.  The problem is that, even though it's for a purpose and it makes sense, the bleak tone of the movie may just be too dark for mainstream audiences to enjoy.  Still, from a guy who loves literary symbolism, I had a blast and loved every minute of it.

The Dark Knight Rises is a triumph and an exquisite end to one of the best, if not the best, super hero trilogies of all time.

9.8/10

The Uncanny Valley

Today instead of a movie review I'm going to try something a little different and discuss a phenomenon known as the Uncanny Valley.  The Uncanny Valley is a very interesting occurrence that happens when something is incredibly lifelike but isn't quite real.  A good way to explain this is with the movie Wall-E: Wall-E is a cute little robot, but what makes him cute?  He has a square body, treads for wheels, and basically a pair of binoculars for eyes; there is nothing particularly cute about any of those things, but when they are put together and imitate human characteristics he becomes more appealing and cute.  When put on a chart it is clear to see that as the number of human characteristics increases the appeal of the object to humans also increases, until a certain point, in which the appeal sharply drops to nearly zero and then returns fully once the human characteristics make the object indistinguishable from a living, breathing person.
                          
Why does this happen?  The latest research has revealed that our brains put objects into two categories: human and non-human.  When we see a non-human with human characteristics, like Wall-E or a cartoon character, we can see some of ourselves in something that clearly isn't us and it is appealing.  But, once enough human characteristics have been added our brain starts to categorize the object as human changing the way we view it.  As humans, we see and interact with other humans every day, all day long.  We've become incredibly good at distinguishing what is and isn't human, and it's second nature.  However, when we see something that almost looks human with just a few things off (slight plastic texture to the skin, awkward motions, etc...) it is disturbing because it looks almost alien in it's realism.  Objects that fall into the uncanny valley generally cause us a large amount of discomfort to be around.
   
This also happens in other mediums as well, particularly video games.  Humans evolved to use tools: hammers, spears, swords, knives, etc... Our brain has an amazing ability to almost attach the tool to our bodies, mentally.  For people who play video games a lot they will often tell you that they get lost in the game and it can feel real.  Instead of thinking "move my thumb left to move the thumb stick left to move the avatar on the screen left" we simply think "move left" and our tool-adapted brain will do everything else.  Motion controls are what fall into the uncanny valley here.  Anyone who's ever played Wii Sports can tell you that they don't feel like they're actually playing the sport, they're just playing a motion game, and the game will never become so immersive that they lose themselves while they play.  The reason for this is because our brain recognizes a classic style video game controller as a tool and adjusts its' expectations accordingly.  Motion controls however, fall into the category of almost-real-but-not-quite-there, also known as the uncanny valley.  Until motion controls become indistinguishable from the real action, they will never be as immersive as a classic style video game.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "how does this relate to movies?"  Well, the uncanny valley is incredibly effective at making us uncomfortable, and if the filmmaker wants to make us uncomfortable it can be one of the easiest, and most subtle ways.  The best example of this I can think of is the movie "House on Haunted Hill (1999)" where the villain, a ghost, looked completely normal, but his motions when he walked were exaggerated, but also incredibly precise; he moved almost like a robot or a wind-up toy, but not like a human should move.

With some very subtle, and cheap, effects we get a villain that is incredibly alien and also very close to us.  It's quite unsettling to see a creature that looks human but clearly isn't.  It also doesn't cost several million dollars in computer graphics to make them scary.  Whats more, the fear hits close to home because its so human.

In the words of Ned Parks, (a close friend and film student) "[the uncanny valley is] underutilized, and with the right minds could be just what modern horror needs to bring it back to the glory days when atmosphere outweighed gore."

Bunraku

I've done nothing but horror films on this blog so far so tonight I'm going to do an action-adventure movie.  Bunraku is about a gunslinger without a gun (Josh Hartnett) and a samurai without a sword (Gackt) who team up with a wise old bartender (Woody Harrelson) to defeat a notorious gang leader (Ron Perlman) in a lawless, post-apocalyptic world.  The general plot is very basic and the movie even acknowledges that, as it says in the opening monologue, "...and as many ways as there are of killing a man, there are equally as many ways of telling this old tale."  However, Bunraku separates itself from the crowd with an all-star cast of actors perfect for their roles, and an incredibly unique art style.

Everything in Bunraku is designed to look like a pop-up book, buildings are made out of folded paper, trees are paper-mache, and almost everything is a flat, solid color rather than something textured.  This visual flare makes the movie pop out from the screen in a way that has been lost by the modern "grim and gritty" action movie.  Every frame in Bunraku is absolutely beautiful and the well choreographed action is over-the-top and exciting.  Along with this fantastic choice of art direction, the movie also has a sense of humor, with some scenes playing out like a video game, and other scenes accompanied by a humorous chorus.  One early scene has members of the enemy gang called Red Suits walk in, as they step through the door the narrator says "Enter, Red Suits" followed shortly by a high-pitched chorus of "Red Suits."

The action scenes create a lot of variety as well with the villains consistently varied and unique, with their own interesting fighting styles, like one fight that happens on a giant bouncy net inside a circus tent.  Every fight scene is different as the contrasting fighting styles of the cowboy and the samurai match up with different types of enemies in the movie.  There is even a mirror-match (Mortal Kombat players will understand).

Beyond the action, all of the actors are perfectly cast for their roles, Gackt as the disgraced samurai, Hartnett as the mysterious stranger, Harrelson as the bartender with the tragic past, and Perlman as the dark and dangerous Nikola the Wood Cutter.  Each character feels archetypal but they go beyond that and bring a depth and humanity to what could have easily been as one-dimensional as the paper used to make the sets.  Ron Perlman is of particular note because his portrayal of the man who has everything yet finds enjoyment in nothing is absolutely stunning.

Bunraku is a perfect example of how to breathe life into an old story, and an excellent movie.

9.5/10

Fingerprints

So far I've been rather nice to every movie I've reviewed on here, so I guess that means it's time to hate a movie.  Fingerprints is a movie I found on Netflix and it had an interesting premise: a teenage girl fresh out of drug rehab moves to a new town to find a strange superstition.  The superstition is that, because of a bus crash 50 years previously that killed a group of children,  if you stop your car on the railroad tracks and put it in neutral the children will push the car forward and off the tracks.  Naturally, the girl must investigate and soon finds the whole story wrapped up in a conspiracy for the entire town and nothing is as it seems.

Unfortunately for this movie it falls flat on it's face.  After a decent start establishing all the archetypal horror movie characters: the good girl, the bad girl, the jock, and the nice guy, Fingerprints only goes downhill.  about 30 minutes into the movie it turns into a poor excuse for a slasher and I began to think that this movie would fall into the trap of mediocrity.  But it didn't.  This movie got worse by the minute with overbearing and crazy parents, predictable pop-out scares, pathetically stupid police officers, the occasional run-of-the-mill murder, and a laughable villain.

Fingerprints just gets worse and worse the farther into it you get, my suggestion is to watch the first 25 minutes then go do something else and pretend the rest of the movie was good.

3/10

YellowBrickRoad

YellowBrickRoad is certainly a very interesting movie.  I won't say that it's scary because it isn't, but it does have an incredibly creepy atmosphere.  Interesting color and camera work make it stand out visually even though it doesn't have a lot of CGI flare like a Zack Snyder movie, but the colors take what could be potentially boring scenery a elevate it to a very surreal state that works incredibly well with the films premise.

In YellowBrickRoad a group of journalists are investigating a mysterious nature trail in a backwoods town where 70 years previously the whole population of the town just walked along the trail and disappeared leaving only a few dozen mangled bodies and one lone survivor.  The main characters have packed food and hiking gear as well as positioning and mapping equipment. As the team get deeper into the trail they realize that something is out of the ordinary and the collective sanity of the group starts to break down.

YellowBrickRoad is a very character driven film as we, the audience, watch the sanity of characters slowly deteriorate and become enthralled by the mystery of the trail.  The movie has some very interesting ideas and makes excellent use of sound, and particularly gore.  The gore in YellowBrickRoad is very sparse and very well used to create its' atmosphere.  One scene in particular involving a scarecrow reference to "The Wizard of Oz" is very unnerving.  YellowBrickRoad is very aware that it is a movie and never tries to go for the hyper-realism that many other movies strive for, instead it uses the audiences inference that everything going on is real and slowly leads them down the rabbit hole with the characters.

I won't say that YellowBrickRoad is a perfect movie, it has some pacing issues and I do believe there were a few too many characters, but overall it is a very interesting journey into a world of insanity and the supernatural.

8.5/10