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Awix (3310 KP) rated Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) in Movies

Mar 14, 2018 (Updated Mar 15, 2018)

Lavish juggernaut follow-up to 1984 original is essentially the James Cameron school of sequel-making incarnate: all the stuff from the first film, only busier, bigger, and louder. Two more time-travelling killers appear in the present day intent on eliminating future-saviour John Connor; lots of stuff blows up.

An extremely accomplished film, in technical terms at least, but once you get past all the pyrotechnic highs and gosh-wow CGI (which was admittedly game-changing 27 years ago), it's basically the same story told rather less effectively from a narrative point of view - man vs machine is a more effective conflict than machine vs slightly more advanced machine, which is what we have here, and the whole subplot forming the basis of the second half only undermines the atmosphere of inevitable doom that was so important to the success of the original film. Bigger than Terminator, but by no means better - builds off the first movie, but adds nothing to it.

Kudos

Loz Hughes (80 KP) rated Transcendence (2014) in Movies

Jul 20, 2018

Transcendence (2014)

2014 | Drama, Sci-Fi

5.1

(10 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Johnny Depp as a scientist pushing the boundaries of Ai. (1 more)

The concept of uploading a digital version of your brain

The plot could have been more engaging, more along the lines of Lucy film (0 more)

Interesting concept.

Contains spoilers, click to show

The plot is an interesting concept. Basically a scientist successfully manages to upload the brain of a Monkey in digital format and presents these findings to the scientific community, he comes into conflict with a group of Anti technology, animal activists and gets shot and slowly poisoned as the bullet is laced with a radioactive material. The film then follows Will (the scientist), and his partner, who struggling with his premature imminent death decides to upload his brain as the first human trail. Afterwards comes the questions of how much meddling is too much meddling in human evolution.
I think they could have done much more with the film than they did but overall it was a decent watch.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Mary Queen of Scots (2018) in Movies

Jan 23, 2019 (Updated Jan 23, 2019)

Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

2018 | Biography, Drama, History

6.3

(15 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

There's Something About Mary

Yet another crack at the famous life-story of Mary Stuart. It's all a bit complicated and has to do with religious conflict and dynastic succession; if I understood it better I could probably get higher scores on Crusader Kings 2. This is a period of history that everyone sort-of knows a bit about without really understanding the details, and it would have been great if the film had really got to the heart of the politics and personalities involved, but instead the director seems more interested in giving the story more of a modern resonance than it really requires.

Still, good frocks, and many incidental pleasures to be found, especially amongst the supporting performances. Saoirse Ronan doesn't quite dominate the film as you might imagine; Margot Robbie is at least as impressive in a rather smaller part. In the end it's kind of okay if you just like costume dramas, but it doesn't really bring the story to life.