ArchStanton1862

I honestly didn't think that Spielberg had another crowd-pleasing actioner left in him. For the last decade or so his focus has been on more realistic period dramas and character pieces. His attempts at grand action spectacle (the underrated Tintin aside) were underwhelming. But who knew he had this left in him?

This film is an absolute blast. It seamlessly combines reality and animation into one big, exciting adventure. I'm still not completely sure how it pulled it off. I was absolutely amazed at how seamlessly the film merged animation with reality (I'd say only perhaps 1/3 of the film takes place in the "real" world) and gave the obviously digital environments emotional and kinetic weight. That's a very hard balance to pull off and this movie doesn't even raise a sweat. In fact, some of the best scenes revolve around the absurd mix of online and real existence. Pretty much every scene in Sorrento's soulless corporate HQ is a riot because of the seriousness with which they take their involvement in this silly online world, made even more ridiculous by the motions they all make in their VR suits as they react to unseen perils like well-dressed mimes.

I have no doubt that this film will receive a lot of flak for its reliance on pop culture artifacts. And there's some truth to the criticism. The best scene in the movie is when one of the characters waits in an almost meditative trance during the fight scene until he cries out "form of a gundam" in Japanese and awesomeness ensues. Would this scene work as well if it hadn't been a recognizable brand? No question it wouldn't. And that goes for an infinite array of references, from the Iron Giant to the Delorean to an absolutely perfect Overlook Hotel to Chucky ("Oh God, it's f*%@ing Chucky" has got to be the second greatest line in the movie).

But to say that this is nothing but leaching off others' success is unfair. The references are there for a reason. This is a Geek movie, and for geeks this sort of referencing is how they approach the universe. It'd seem odd if there were no open pop culture references in a free-for-all online world. More to the point, the film has a lot to say about online culture and the isolating effect it has on people. The film isn't all pretty colors and film references, it deals with issues like how real the connections we form online actually are, the ever-decreasing distance between fantasy and reality, the importance of community involvement, and all sorts of identity issues that arise when we can hide behind avatars. Not that I'd call the film overly deep or anything, but it's certainly more than just a collection of pop culture references thrown together with minimal plot.

The characters are all good fun. Parzival and his mate Aech are just like a lot of friends I know online, although Parzival's shallowness gives him a good obstacle to overcome. Art3mis is a bit more driven and has goals that take her further than just being the best at a video game. Parzival has a major cyber-crush on her, which is something of a problem. Daito and Shoto are somewhat more distant online rivals. All of them have great moments, but most come after their true selves get revealed around 2/3 of the way through the film. Some of them are very surprising (don't look at the cast list) and they are all funny together. Krennic's director Sorrento is a great villain. He's so full of himself and contemptuous that his appearance in-game as a muscular brute in a business suit dealing with mystical things he cares nothing about is a blast. And when he's cornered he can be hilariously practical. His online minion i-R0k is also priceless, the sort of super badass dude living in his mom's basement that you can only find in video games. Mark Rylance steals every scene he's in as the vaguely Wozniakian creator of the game. He's a rather sad figure, one who could never handle reality with such aplomb as he does the world he designed. I was surprsed to see Simon Pegg as his co-founder, a somewhat wasted role but nicel different from his more usual fare.

And I really really didn't think Spielberg could pull this off. It's hard to write a love letter to your favorite films when you're the creator rather than consumer. I'd have been more comfortable with some younger director who grew up on these films. I mean, his works aside I can't recall Spielberg ever displaying much interest in video games or Japanese pop culture (post-Kurosawa at least). Yet this film depends on its immense love of such elements. Perhaps a lot of it comes from the screenplay by the novel's author and Kal Penn, two people eminently qualified to pull this off. But it could never have succeeded without the passion of the maestro himself, and succeed it does. I went in with low expectations and had an absolute blast. But more importantly: I understood that reference.

This wasn't a great film. Clearly it was trying to be, but somewhere along the way they forgot to figure out what they were trying to say. Is it an anti-war film? Is it pro-war? Is it about man's inhumanity to man? Is it just supposed to be good fun? Having the answer to all that be ambiguous might make it seem like this film is taking a more realistic approach but it doesn't feel realistic, just lazy. I honestly don't think they ever thought about what kind of message they were trying to convey. And that's why despite having a few decent battle scenes and an interesting setting it never really seems to catch your attention.

The plot of the film is pretty basic. The Aussie light horse is in Palestine fighting the Turks. Sooner or later there's going to be a major cavalry charge, but there's no real anticipation for it. Most of the film is the soldiers dealing with each other, engaging in minor skirmishes, and other stereotypical soldier stuff. There's also the painfully stereotypical nurse love interest, who falls for the hero instantly despite not knowing him and having hundreds of other soldiers to choose from. Most of the rest of the incidents, while generic war film tropes, work significantly better. There's a soldier who isn't able to kill people who's crisis is generally handled well. The new guy introduced into the tried and tested unit is another. The film is taken up with these and there are more hits than misses in this regard. The big battle at the end of the film is the battle of Beersheba, the last successful cavalry charge. A subject like this seems perfect for a gung-ho war film about the high point of the ANZAC cavalry forces to counter the anti-war approach of Gallipoli, but as I said before the film never really settles on what it wants to say.

One nice thing about it is the relatively low amount of Pommy-bashing. There is a bit of conflict with the obligatory stiff-necked and humorless British officer, but they also feature a scene where the British soldiers cheer the Aussies on to the embarrassment of the men who are looking for a fight. Furthermore my favorite character in the film is a British intelligence officer. He's every bit the cold and aloof officer you'd expect, but he's smarter than the rest and actually plays up the Aussie perceptions of him to good effect in one hilarious scene. The rest of the characters are somewhat hard to distinguish so this man stands out the more.

A few more minor problems with this film: the scenery which is supposed to be in Israel is really obviously southern Australia. All deserts do not look alike, and Beersheba isn't nearly as deserty looking as they seem to think. The other minor problem that occasionally becomes a major problem is the choice of how to portray the enemy. Both the Turks and the Germans speak perfect English. Since this is World War I and the uniforms aren't as distinctive or imprinted in common memory this occasionally makes it difficult to tell which guys are the good guys. Especially when they're not facing the camera. They don't have many scenes, but that just makes it harder to tell when the film has switched focus to the villains. Also, the final charge goes on forever. I was reminded of Monty Python and the Holy Grail when Lancelot keeps running up the hill never getting closer.

Overall not a bad film. I know I've gone on about the negative points, but that's just because they are the most notable things about this movie and some of them would be so easy to fix. Most of the film is decent enough. Certainly it's worth watching if you're interested in the time or just like war films or Aussie movies in general. I certainly can't think of another film that spends so long with the cavalry. Just don't go in expecting a masterpiece.

Loosely translated as Assault on Rome this is the second part of a duology that takes place in Italy during the Justinianic era. It's been 50 years since Rome fell to the Goths and now their rule is slipping. King Theodoric is dead and his two daughters fight for the throne. The slimy Cethegus plots for the rise of Rome while the Byzantines aim to reconquer Italy. It all sounds confusing but they make up for that by ignoring it and focusing it on a cheap romance. It's really too bad because all the compelling parts come from the twisted machinations.

Since this is the second film I can reveal some spoilers from the first one. Actually, just one big spoiler. So stop reading now if you don't want the surprise ruined. The spoiler is the way in which they treat Belisarius. They make him out to be a kind of big bully instead of Justinian's penultimate general. They have him utterly outmaneuvered by everybody, including Wittigis who defeats him in hand to hand combat outside Rome. And then he dies. And at that point I just wondered why they even bothered trying to fit this into history at all. For those not in the know, Belisarius did NOT die in Rome. Or in battle. Or anywhere close to that time. He died of old age about thirty years after the movie. The ahistorical killing off of a minor character (which he really is in this movie) years before his time would not be so bad, except that Belisarius shouldn't be a minor character to begin with. He was the one leading the Byzantine forces in Italy. He conquered the nation only to be recalled through fear of treachery. So by changing it they remove all connection with reality. This is just after he arrives in Italy too so it really does change everything. It would be like having Caesar die in battle before he marches on Rome and then expecting the audience to take it seriously. This has become a fantasy film set in a world that (loosely) resembles ancient Rome. Nothing more.

It's really rather annoying to be disappointed after working so hard to find this film. It's impossible to get ahold of. Worse, it actually IS impossible to find it in English. There aren't any English subs available for it either. Which is rather funny since at least some of the actors were filming it in English. They had Orson Welles and Honor Blackman in it, and the lead actor is British. So unless your German is good you're not watching anything. But you're not really missing anything either. I suppose it all balances itself out.