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will-bloor
Reviews
Bezbog (2016)
Sublime debut feature by an accomplished story teller
This film has clearly divided people - like all good art should, but I am happy to say I am on the side of those who loved it.
This is a gritty tale, no doubt about it. But I found a grim black humour and a core pillar of redemption running throughout this film that I found inspiring.
The casting, of the characters particularly Irena Ivanova, was perfect. Her carefully observed stillness and expression held the narrative perfectly throughout.
The story itself was uncompromising, but I felt it left enough room for hope through redemption. In Godless redemption doesn't mean happily ever after, but perhaps that the world has a way of evening itself out.
10/10
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
It's not worth more than 6 out of 10
Clearly it is not a bad movie. On a Sunday afternoon you can do much worse than tuck in to the under 2 hours of rampaging silliness that is x3. However, sitting in a crowd of many 12-16 year olds the biggest gasp of amazement came from the trailer of the new superman movie. The bullet in the eye moment of that trailer summed up what being a super-hero means than nearly any point of the x-man trilogy. The awe of the impossible.
In a world of superhumans X1, X2, and X3 forgot to investigate fully the relationship between the power the mutants have any why feared by man. We have to assume that the position of the US government is again the position of all mankind.
The existence of mutants in the X-men challenges all faiths. The Angel character alludes to this in part. He is god-like in manifestation, but cinematically becomes a soft by-word for a Christian-like redemption. Jean Grey becomes a God on Earth, and a bridge between good and evil. But ultimately none of this amounts to anything as really, it isn't explored.
Hollywood can make good films, but like the Matrix, X-MEN fails to move above average by not clearly positioning the characters place in the world.
Eat pop-corn, then leave. 2 days later you will struggle to remember the plot.