AI clashes with humanity in a futuristic sci-fi action film while a different sort of conflict powers an intense drama about workplace romance under pressure.
"(Eddie Marsan, terrifying)" is enough to sell me on any movie. And I think Alden Ehrenreich's gotten the short end of the stick since Solo. He's been so fantastic in so many things, especially Hail, Caesar!
Very much here for the Ehreneich-asance. Hopefully SOLO will look like a sidetrack. (And it's not like he's bad in it, either.) Dynevor is good in this too.
Yeah, Ehrenreich just wasn't as good as everyone remembers Harrison Ford being at his absolute peak in a character that perfectly captured his essence. That's basically an impossible thing to live up to.
Enjoyed it but I wish the last 15-20 minutes opted for something better/smarter. I was hoping it would be as smart as Sanctuary, but it was more like Fatal Attraction Lite. I suppose the bloody beginning presaged the bloody ending, but a shame. I wished it could've been more about war of words and psychology than relying on physical brutality. Like I was really hoping Luke, at the engagement party, would've been 100% not drunk and determined to make Emily descend into hysteria, but no, it was just more of the same.
The amount of alcohol Emily consumed and then was 100% sharp the next morning...again and again...I guess she was much superior in the alcohol tolerance department as well...! She earned that $575K 100%. :)
I right there with you, though I really do like the final scene of them together at the apartment, with her rejecting his attempt to exit her life nonchalantly. "Clean up the floor and get out" (or something like that) is a cool way to assert herself in that moment, though I don't really like the scene in the bathroom that precedes it. The whole thing feels like WAY too much, and I'm not sure I'm sold on Luke's devolution overall. The film is very blunt when it needn't be, given how this scenario offers an opportunity for subtler but no-less-devastating shifts in the power dynamic between them. Luke just becomes a pathetic, inept worm from the moment she gets the promotion.
That final scene is good, absolutely (her laughter and the "mike drop" of the knife clang), and her rejection of his suddenly enlightened epiphany is on target...but I wonder if it was earned. A few scenes ago, she was trying to get him back...which just made zero sense to me...I mean after his nutjob scene in the office with the potential Russian client, why in the world...I know she loves him, but really? After all that and what came before it?
I guess it's disingenuous for me to compare this to better movies, but Dangerous Liaisons is another one.
Maybe the movie doesn't go far enough. After she drops the knife, Luke picks it up to shiv her like the coward that he is, and then she gets him good with a Patrick Swayze "Road House" roundhouse kick to the head?
Another thing, too: I don't feel like we see enough of his mind getting poisoned by the masculine program that he enters after she beats him out for the promotion. You imagine something like Tom Cruise's seminars in MAGNOLIA or something, with a guy convincing the aggrieved white businessmen in the room that they've been wronged and can take the power back. (Though I'm not sure he takes that much from it, given the embarrassing scene of him beginning his boss for the next PM slot that comes up.)
It never even occurred to me that the seminar was a pro-patriarchy program, but yeah, I suppose it was. See, here's where I almost wish Emily goaded him into making that Hail Mary speech to Campbell -- after she learns of Luke's hiring in the first place (that's really the reason why Campbell hates him so much -- he was never supposed to be a part of Crest in the first place, he was hired as a favor), she deliberately withholds that info from him (the closest she comes to telling him is "I think there's a target on your back" or something like that), I guess because she wanted to save his ego? But what if she withheld it for her advantage to getting the job?
Maybe the real issue I have with the movie is that she gets the job and then it unravels. What if they were both equally good, both are in love with the S&M aspect of their machinations, and the more they hurt each other, the more it turns them on, and yet they are both hurting their chances at the job...but they also just want to have more love/hate sex? But then I'm describing a wholly different movie (maybe a dark comedy), so I should probably either write that script myself or shut the hell up. :)
Edwards proving himself a marvelous world-builder but lacking any voice once the drama is sorted out is basically the perfect summation of how I feel about Edwards first film, Monsters. I’m still excited to see it, but from what I can glean from the reviews I’ve read so far, I’m anticipating being very much in awe of the technical prowess displayed, while also wanting for more from the characters and plot.
I had the same "what is this film trying to say?" questions with Dumb Money. In some ways, it's obvious: hedge funders and tech bros, bad, greedy; working ppl, good, cheated, lied to. But there was so little interest in exploring the nuances of that story or any of the characters, ie, the most interesting part. Is Dano's character a genius sage, or just a guy who lucked into creating a meme? Is he honorable for holding, or crazy for missing out on life changing money? Was this a genuine populist movement or just a bunch of internet forums looking for lolz? The triumphal tone at the end was particularly baffling. There's a great 6h documentary to be made from all this, hope someone's on it.
"Once inside, though, Joshua learns that the weapon is a six-year-old girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), so he opts to name her “Alphie” and protect her from harm. "
this sounds like the exact weakness an evil AI would exploit!
I read the plot description of The Creator twice and I still don't quite understand what's going on...! No wonder the movie is lacking a purpose. "Computers becoming sentient and destroying people" has been a dystopian scifi concept for what seems like forever. I guess with the rise of ChatGPT/LLM, that future seems as close as ever, but I don't know. I'm still more worried about us humans destroying ourselves before any machine even gets a chance to do it...
I think The Creator is going to be one that audiences go back to and re-evaluate over time. I’m not sure what it’s trying to ‘say’, but, then again, I didn’t know what Blade Runner was trying to say, first time around - and that was on the weekend of its release in the UK, on the big screen. First impressions? I loved The Creator, was both excited and moved by it. Which is not a response I’ve had to any other blockbuster in recent years. As for its deeper, meaning, or otherwise? Time will tell.
The film broke down a couple of times in the screening I was at - kept returning to the scene when they bust out and the dog drops a grenade on the cops and then starting again. Is the dog an AI? Wait - was the monkey an AI? Where was the unicorn?
THE CREATOR is so absurdly short of nuance that I am angry. There is obviously a *question* whether or not AI is good for humanity and the movie's take is quite literally that AI = poor South Asian villagers and Attempts to Stop AI = US atrocities in Vietnam. To the point of lifting Platoon's ugliest scene and redoing it in this future war.
There are some neat parts of the movie and I'm glad I watched it, but jeez guys
Oh man, Fair Play sounds like MY SHIT
"(Eddie Marsan, terrifying)" is enough to sell me on any movie. And I think Alden Ehrenreich's gotten the short end of the stick since Solo. He's been so fantastic in so many things, especially Hail, Caesar!
Very much here for the Ehreneich-asance. Hopefully SOLO will look like a sidetrack. (And it's not like he's bad in it, either.) Dynevor is good in this too.
Yeah, Ehrenreich just wasn't as good as everyone remembers Harrison Ford being at his absolute peak in a character that perfectly captured his essence. That's basically an impossible thing to live up to.
He should have gotten an Oscar nod for Hail Caesar
So much so I stopped reading the review. Looking forward to letting it play out.
Spoiler alert for Fair Play below...
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Enjoyed it but I wish the last 15-20 minutes opted for something better/smarter. I was hoping it would be as smart as Sanctuary, but it was more like Fatal Attraction Lite. I suppose the bloody beginning presaged the bloody ending, but a shame. I wished it could've been more about war of words and psychology than relying on physical brutality. Like I was really hoping Luke, at the engagement party, would've been 100% not drunk and determined to make Emily descend into hysteria, but no, it was just more of the same.
The amount of alcohol Emily consumed and then was 100% sharp the next morning...again and again...I guess she was much superior in the alcohol tolerance department as well...! She earned that $575K 100%. :)
SPOILER TERRITORY, PEOPLE, FOR REAL....
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I right there with you, though I really do like the final scene of them together at the apartment, with her rejecting his attempt to exit her life nonchalantly. "Clean up the floor and get out" (or something like that) is a cool way to assert herself in that moment, though I don't really like the scene in the bathroom that precedes it. The whole thing feels like WAY too much, and I'm not sure I'm sold on Luke's devolution overall. The film is very blunt when it needn't be, given how this scenario offers an opportunity for subtler but no-less-devastating shifts in the power dynamic between them. Luke just becomes a pathetic, inept worm from the moment she gets the promotion.
That final scene is good, absolutely (her laughter and the "mike drop" of the knife clang), and her rejection of his suddenly enlightened epiphany is on target...but I wonder if it was earned. A few scenes ago, she was trying to get him back...which just made zero sense to me...I mean after his nutjob scene in the office with the potential Russian client, why in the world...I know she loves him, but really? After all that and what came before it?
I guess it's disingenuous for me to compare this to better movies, but Dangerous Liaisons is another one.
Maybe the movie doesn't go far enough. After she drops the knife, Luke picks it up to shiv her like the coward that he is, and then she gets him good with a Patrick Swayze "Road House" roundhouse kick to the head?
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExMDV1bGplMXBxMmsydjhnb3R5dXc3em9jZndtbGU5c2d0Y3M1bWV3ciZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/l0is5woq8mLN8Tvj4Q/giphy.gif
Another thing, too: I don't feel like we see enough of his mind getting poisoned by the masculine program that he enters after she beats him out for the promotion. You imagine something like Tom Cruise's seminars in MAGNOLIA or something, with a guy convincing the aggrieved white businessmen in the room that they've been wronged and can take the power back. (Though I'm not sure he takes that much from it, given the embarrassing scene of him beginning his boss for the next PM slot that comes up.)
It never even occurred to me that the seminar was a pro-patriarchy program, but yeah, I suppose it was. See, here's where I almost wish Emily goaded him into making that Hail Mary speech to Campbell -- after she learns of Luke's hiring in the first place (that's really the reason why Campbell hates him so much -- he was never supposed to be a part of Crest in the first place, he was hired as a favor), she deliberately withholds that info from him (the closest she comes to telling him is "I think there's a target on your back" or something like that), I guess because she wanted to save his ego? But what if she withheld it for her advantage to getting the job?
Maybe the real issue I have with the movie is that she gets the job and then it unravels. What if they were both equally good, both are in love with the S&M aspect of their machinations, and the more they hurt each other, the more it turns them on, and yet they are both hurting their chances at the job...but they also just want to have more love/hate sex? But then I'm describing a wholly different movie (maybe a dark comedy), so I should probably either write that script myself or shut the hell up. :)
Edwards proving himself a marvelous world-builder but lacking any voice once the drama is sorted out is basically the perfect summation of how I feel about Edwards first film, Monsters. I’m still excited to see it, but from what I can glean from the reviews I’ve read so far, I’m anticipating being very much in awe of the technical prowess displayed, while also wanting for more from the characters and plot.
I had the same "what is this film trying to say?" questions with Dumb Money. In some ways, it's obvious: hedge funders and tech bros, bad, greedy; working ppl, good, cheated, lied to. But there was so little interest in exploring the nuances of that story or any of the characters, ie, the most interesting part. Is Dano's character a genius sage, or just a guy who lucked into creating a meme? Is he honorable for holding, or crazy for missing out on life changing money? Was this a genuine populist movement or just a bunch of internet forums looking for lolz? The triumphal tone at the end was particularly baffling. There's a great 6h documentary to be made from all this, hope someone's on it.
"Once inside, though, Joshua learns that the weapon is a six-year-old girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), so he opts to name her “Alphie” and protect her from harm. "
this sounds like the exact weakness an evil AI would exploit!
"But of all the questions left to ponder in the end, the one that lingers the most shouldn’t be, “What exactly was the point of all that?”"
omg please tell me that we don't find out if she's the weapon
I read the plot description of The Creator twice and I still don't quite understand what's going on...! No wonder the movie is lacking a purpose. "Computers becoming sentient and destroying people" has been a dystopian scifi concept for what seems like forever. I guess with the rise of ChatGPT/LLM, that future seems as close as ever, but I don't know. I'm still more worried about us humans destroying ourselves before any machine even gets a chance to do it...
I think The Creator is going to be one that audiences go back to and re-evaluate over time. I’m not sure what it’s trying to ‘say’, but, then again, I didn’t know what Blade Runner was trying to say, first time around - and that was on the weekend of its release in the UK, on the big screen. First impressions? I loved The Creator, was both excited and moved by it. Which is not a response I’ve had to any other blockbuster in recent years. As for its deeper, meaning, or otherwise? Time will tell.
I can respect that. It certainly *feels* like a grand vision, but when it was over, I just couldn’t puzzle out its POV.
The film broke down a couple of times in the screening I was at - kept returning to the scene when they bust out and the dog drops a grenade on the cops and then starting again. Is the dog an AI? Wait - was the monkey an AI? Where was the unicorn?
THE CREATOR is so absurdly short of nuance that I am angry. There is obviously a *question* whether or not AI is good for humanity and the movie's take is quite literally that AI = poor South Asian villagers and Attempts to Stop AI = US atrocities in Vietnam. To the point of lifting Platoon's ugliest scene and redoing it in this future war.
There are some neat parts of the movie and I'm glad I watched it, but jeez guys