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Lou Grande (148 KP) rated Upgrade (2018) in Movies

Jun 15, 2018

Upgrade (2018)

2018 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

8.1

(45 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

The best William Gibson movie not written by William Gibson

My boyfriend and I saw this the other day, and I can't believe how poorly it's doing at the box office! This was a great movie. The feel of it was very cyberpunky, but not so in-your-face as the very awful Ghost in the Shell adaptation. Leigh Whannell directed and produced, so it has some of the same Saw graphic violence, which I think sits well with the cyberpunk genre. The entire concept is based around human and machine adaptation, and where the line should be drawn--or rather, the dangers of letting it go too far.

The atmosphere is really well developed: we see the poor parts of the city being grungy and dangerous, while the upper crust benefits from the best technology. Almost all humans have been modified in some way, except for our protagonist. In the beginning, anyway. Anyone who has watched the trailers knows that he becomes paralyzed, and then his spinal cord is "reattached" using Stem, a "widget" that allows his brain to communicate with his limbs. It also makes him a ninja.

But that's not really the core of the story. At its heart, Upgrade is a mystery wrapped in a cautionary tale. I'll take this over Johnny Mnemonic any day.

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Skyfall (2012) in Movies

Jun 22, 2018

Skyfall (2012)

2012 | Action, Mystery

8.0

(41 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

You almost get the sense at the moment that Eon (makers of the Bond films) quite enjoy the cachet and prestige (and huge box office) associated with these films but would really secretly rather be doing another kind of film. Hence the effort, throughout the Craig movies, to get away from the trusted and (when well executed) lucrative Bond formula and do something different.

Hence this, which is not as earnest or obviously Bourne-inspired as Quantum of Solace, but still departs from the playbook in a number of key ways. It's a very introspective Bond film, quite glum and dark (though Bardem tries his best to have some fun with his role) - there's no main Bond girl per se (unless you count Judi Dench), and the exotic location for the finale is eschewed in favour of the London underground and foggy Scotland. As a change of pace it is striking, but if every Bond film was like this I think people would soon get sick of it (as the reaction to SPECTRE perhaps proved). Still, much good stuff here, Naomie Harries, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw make good first impressions, and there's some well-staged action. Whatever the influence this film ends up having on the franchise, on its own terms this is a fine film.