CSHaviland
Joined Dec 2001
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Ratings1.2K
CSHaviland's rating
Reviews48
CSHaviland's rating
Movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Haunting, John Carpenter's The Thing, The Mist, Night of the Living Dead, The Blair Witch Project, The Wicker Man, Hereditary, The Ninth Gate, and Vivarium belong to a class of horror some people have nicknamed BleakCore, which is as good a name as any.
Unlike the more classic Catharsis horrors such as Jaws, Alien, Aliens, Tremors, Poltergeist, or The Lost Boys, the key feature of BleakCore is a dire, hopeless ending, subverting the expectation of a triumph or payoff. In between these two extremes are Bittersweet frameworks, wherein the hero's death defeats the evil, such as with The Exorcist or An American Werewolf in London.
Vivarium is a solid BleakCore nightmare that intends to destabilize your sense of reality and bury its answers instead of reveal them. Other movies that tap this flavor of mild surrealistic ambiguity include Under the Skin, Videodrome, Cube, Donnie Darko, Mulholland Drive (or just about any movie by David Lynch).
Vivarium is therefore a cocktail of these two forms of mood horror that only appeals to a niche. I belong to that niche.
What I enjoy about the film is the way that its menace (we never quite learn what it really is) uses what it thinks attracts humans but doesn't quite get it right. It's a clinical interpretation of human aspirations, perhaps suggesting that our desires are shallow and meaningless; a psychological bait-and-trap we are incapable of escaping.
If that is your kind of movie, I recommend it! I've watched Vivarium three times now, and despite some scenes are annoying (as they are intended to be), I find it to be compelling fun.
Unlike the more classic Catharsis horrors such as Jaws, Alien, Aliens, Tremors, Poltergeist, or The Lost Boys, the key feature of BleakCore is a dire, hopeless ending, subverting the expectation of a triumph or payoff. In between these two extremes are Bittersweet frameworks, wherein the hero's death defeats the evil, such as with The Exorcist or An American Werewolf in London.
Vivarium is a solid BleakCore nightmare that intends to destabilize your sense of reality and bury its answers instead of reveal them. Other movies that tap this flavor of mild surrealistic ambiguity include Under the Skin, Videodrome, Cube, Donnie Darko, Mulholland Drive (or just about any movie by David Lynch).
Vivarium is therefore a cocktail of these two forms of mood horror that only appeals to a niche. I belong to that niche.
What I enjoy about the film is the way that its menace (we never quite learn what it really is) uses what it thinks attracts humans but doesn't quite get it right. It's a clinical interpretation of human aspirations, perhaps suggesting that our desires are shallow and meaningless; a psychological bait-and-trap we are incapable of escaping.
If that is your kind of movie, I recommend it! I've watched Vivarium three times now, and despite some scenes are annoying (as they are intended to be), I find it to be compelling fun.
Compared to movies of this kind (All is Lost, etc), frankly this is probably the most tense.
This actress carried most of the movie and was exceptional job at making me really believe in her.
The most implausible aspect was that her cell phone battery seemed to last forever, and her ability to make calls out on the open ocean without nearby cell towers is also impressive -- although I got the impression via different clues that she was never actually that far from land, even though she couldn't see it.
But suspension of disbelief is easy when you are so caught up with her situation. Absolutely NOTHING goes her way. She has to fight for survival with every minute of screen time working against her.
If you have problems with anxiety, I'd steer clear. Or stay on your meds, because you'll need it!
But if you want to watch a really good ocean survival movie that doesn't involve sharks or soccer balls, that takes the stakes to the brink of hopelessness, check it out!
This actress carried most of the movie and was exceptional job at making me really believe in her.
The most implausible aspect was that her cell phone battery seemed to last forever, and her ability to make calls out on the open ocean without nearby cell towers is also impressive -- although I got the impression via different clues that she was never actually that far from land, even though she couldn't see it.
But suspension of disbelief is easy when you are so caught up with her situation. Absolutely NOTHING goes her way. She has to fight for survival with every minute of screen time working against her.
If you have problems with anxiety, I'd steer clear. Or stay on your meds, because you'll need it!
But if you want to watch a really good ocean survival movie that doesn't involve sharks or soccer balls, that takes the stakes to the brink of hopelessness, check it out!
I have mixed feelings about this one.
On the one hand, the actors all did a fantastic job. Harrison Ford even seemed to try a lot harder in his new role than he did in the last two Indiana Jones movies, The Call of the Wild, Bladerunner 2049, or Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens.
And I really appreciated the attention to detail in cinematic choices to sell the scenes, with the lighting and camera work and special effects. Sam Wilson's costume and wing-work was spectacular.
But the whole movie was a continuity nightmare.
It tried to be a semi-sequel to The Falcon & The Winter Solder, The Avengers: End Game, The Eternals, and most problematic of all, The Incredible Hulk, all at the same time.
Firstly, while from a budget perspective The Incredible Hulk was a Phase I MCU project, it had been unceremoniously diced out of the MCU continuity all the way through End Game, perhaps mainly because they completely recast Bruce Banner from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo, and then took the opportunity to completely redesign the Hulk himself so that he didn't look "rubbery."
I was really fine with this until they introduced Tim Ruth's Abomination as a cameo in both Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the embarrassing She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series. This gave us ties to The Incredible Hulk that didn't need to be there, despite that Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross was played by William Hurt throughout. But that could be ignored, since Ross was a politician all of the MCU except for The Incredible Hulk where the character was still a General.
But Captain America: Brave New World brought The Incredible Hulk fully into the MCU timeline with numerous references and even bringing back Liv Tyler as Betty Ross and Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns.
So now we're left with the massive character continuity shift where Bruce Banner, Hulk and Ross look COMPLETELY different since The Incredible Hulk. Yes, William Hurt died. Yes, Edward Norton was untenable as an actor because he's a notorious interventionist. But there are better ways around these problems.
For one thing, they could have ditched the idea of bringing Red Hulk to screen at all. That would have avoided the Ross problem, and they could have allowed the character to fade away. They also did not need to use Leader (Samuel Sterns) as the main villain-behind-the-curtain, though I love how Nelson plays him. Which means they should have just had an entirely different conflict.
For another thing, I really wish they did not go with the renaming of Falcon. Just call the Falcon "the Falcon" and let go of the Captain America mantle. So what if he's got the shield.
The Captain America movies should have stopped with Steve Rogers. (To be honest, I would have invited another Captain America movie with Chris Evans in the role showing his adventures in returning the Infinity Stones and reconnecting with his crew from the original WW II era movie. I would have loved to see Dum Dum Dugan and the others again. They could have used another legacy villain for him to fight, like Crossbones. It could also explain how Captain America, after he had grown old in another lifetime, somehow did not return to the Time Machine where the Avengers were awaiting him, but on a park bench. But I digress.)
So the movie just makes for lots of complications that stress the suspension of disbelief (worse than the recasting of Rhodes from Iron Man to Iron Man II) and makes it a confusing mess. My mother was so very confused when she saw the movie, because she doesn't track or remember the MCU installments (nor has she seen some of the TV series), because she said she doesn't remember Captain America being black or having wings, and didn't know who Ross was from the other movies.
And before you dismiss that it's because she's old and isn't in the right demographic, I have teenage sons who gave up on MCU and haven't seen Captain America: Brave New World because they are lost too. They missed some of the movies it's based on, and don't care for all the weird changes anyway.
So Disney/Marvel goofed up this installment pretty badly in my opinion. What a shame.
On the one hand, the actors all did a fantastic job. Harrison Ford even seemed to try a lot harder in his new role than he did in the last two Indiana Jones movies, The Call of the Wild, Bladerunner 2049, or Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens.
And I really appreciated the attention to detail in cinematic choices to sell the scenes, with the lighting and camera work and special effects. Sam Wilson's costume and wing-work was spectacular.
But the whole movie was a continuity nightmare.
It tried to be a semi-sequel to The Falcon & The Winter Solder, The Avengers: End Game, The Eternals, and most problematic of all, The Incredible Hulk, all at the same time.
Firstly, while from a budget perspective The Incredible Hulk was a Phase I MCU project, it had been unceremoniously diced out of the MCU continuity all the way through End Game, perhaps mainly because they completely recast Bruce Banner from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo, and then took the opportunity to completely redesign the Hulk himself so that he didn't look "rubbery."
I was really fine with this until they introduced Tim Ruth's Abomination as a cameo in both Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the embarrassing She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series. This gave us ties to The Incredible Hulk that didn't need to be there, despite that Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross was played by William Hurt throughout. But that could be ignored, since Ross was a politician all of the MCU except for The Incredible Hulk where the character was still a General.
But Captain America: Brave New World brought The Incredible Hulk fully into the MCU timeline with numerous references and even bringing back Liv Tyler as Betty Ross and Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns.
So now we're left with the massive character continuity shift where Bruce Banner, Hulk and Ross look COMPLETELY different since The Incredible Hulk. Yes, William Hurt died. Yes, Edward Norton was untenable as an actor because he's a notorious interventionist. But there are better ways around these problems.
For one thing, they could have ditched the idea of bringing Red Hulk to screen at all. That would have avoided the Ross problem, and they could have allowed the character to fade away. They also did not need to use Leader (Samuel Sterns) as the main villain-behind-the-curtain, though I love how Nelson plays him. Which means they should have just had an entirely different conflict.
For another thing, I really wish they did not go with the renaming of Falcon. Just call the Falcon "the Falcon" and let go of the Captain America mantle. So what if he's got the shield.
The Captain America movies should have stopped with Steve Rogers. (To be honest, I would have invited another Captain America movie with Chris Evans in the role showing his adventures in returning the Infinity Stones and reconnecting with his crew from the original WW II era movie. I would have loved to see Dum Dum Dugan and the others again. They could have used another legacy villain for him to fight, like Crossbones. It could also explain how Captain America, after he had grown old in another lifetime, somehow did not return to the Time Machine where the Avengers were awaiting him, but on a park bench. But I digress.)
So the movie just makes for lots of complications that stress the suspension of disbelief (worse than the recasting of Rhodes from Iron Man to Iron Man II) and makes it a confusing mess. My mother was so very confused when she saw the movie, because she doesn't track or remember the MCU installments (nor has she seen some of the TV series), because she said she doesn't remember Captain America being black or having wings, and didn't know who Ross was from the other movies.
And before you dismiss that it's because she's old and isn't in the right demographic, I have teenage sons who gave up on MCU and haven't seen Captain America: Brave New World because they are lost too. They missed some of the movies it's based on, and don't care for all the weird changes anyway.
So Disney/Marvel goofed up this installment pretty badly in my opinion. What a shame.
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