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The Dark Knight Rises 2012
Honestly, there is no way this could have lived up to the expectations the thousands of people had when they went to see this at midnight. The movie was satisfying, but honestly, the best part was the epilogue. The movie also looked really cool. Costumes and special effects looked really nice for the most part. The lighting especially. I found the pacing really odd. The movie would skip to months ahead in such a weird way that it was startling…
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Looper 2012
The Traincar. The Bloodstained Silver. Doubles. I really found myself paying a lot of attention to the images Looper used. Much like Rian Johnson's other films, Looper made heavy use of icons and archetypes. The traincar didn't go anywhere but away. The guns are just symbols of weapons.
There were a lot of things I really liked about this movie, but I'm afraid if I talk about them too much I'd be wrting this all day and I will spoil… -
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012
From what I had read, I expected The Hobbit to be long and boring due to lengthy, unneeded exposition. I was happily wrong, sort of.
Knowing that this was the first part of a trilogy, I anticipated simply the "setting" portion of the "setting-conflict-resolution" structure and The Hobbit provided that marvelously. Not only that, but it did have a conflict of it's own; Bilbo's acceptance as an adventurer by the group and by himself.This I especially enjoyed, along with…
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Fight Club 1999
Upon rewatching this film, there are two things I've realized that really like about this film, how cool it is and its irony.
I love that the Fight Club and Project Mayhem are so hypocritical. The people join because they don't want to be slaves to the corporate world. The irony comes in when they become sheep to Tyler Durden's sermons. They were faceless before and they still are faceless. Not only that, but Project Mayhem and Fight Club become…
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Cloud Atlas 2012
It is so unfortunate that I will only see this film once in a movie theater. The experience will never be the same on a small screen. In fact, a second viewing would certainly not have the same impact on me as this first viewing did no matter how I see it. I hope I'm wrong. The film is as breathtaking as it is smart and with the slick cool style of the directors, I fear that I am right in that there is no way to see this but on the big screen.
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Beasts of the Southern Wild 2012
Naive in the best and most endearing way possible.
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Oblivion 2013
Exactly what you would expect from a Tom Cruise movie directed by the Tron Legacy guy. With plot taking a backseat to visuals and action (however less so than Tron Legacy), Oblivion is an uninspired sci-fi flick that doesn't really address anything that hasn't already been said. The film functions more as a Frankenstien of of other sci-fi films, which is to say it is not entirely original. That being said, the action is adequate and, as expected, the special effects and the visuals are so very stylish.
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Gangster Squad 2013
Cheesy and cliched to the point where it should be a bigger problem, but the film works more than it should. All the actors make well with what they have and the film is visually appealing, but script-wise it was so very weak.
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ParaNorman 2012
There seems to be a trend with horror comedy in family animated features these days. Hotel Transylvania, Frankenweenie, and this, ParaNorman. Without even seeing the other two, I have a feeling this will be my favorite of the bunch. The character design and art direction as a whole was appealing and hilarious. At times, it seemed really weird (Norman's sisters hips, at some angles, looked like tumors), but I think the film as a whole was very pleasing to the…
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Attack the Block 2011
If I had to describe this movie in one word, it would be "Cool". On a purely aesthetic level, this movie rocks! Not only are the costumes and the aliens really cool, but just the cinematography overall is just stunning at points. The characters were so great too! Of course I loved the horror-comedy aspects of it, as well as the Sci-Fi. The more I think about this movie, the more I love it.
