M_Exchange

Unfortunately, when one discusses this film, he must mention politics. We are all exhausted by the injection of politics into films, and it's seemingly one-sided. Left-wing characters are portrayed as bold and heroic, and right-wingers are portrayed as dolts. The right-wingers are almost always white--I was hoping that America's last presidential election disproved that myopic idiocy. And so it goes in this film. In this film, EVERY person who opposes illegal immigration is white. ALMOST every revolutionary who rebels against deportations and ICE facilities is brown or black. The white people who lead the charge for deportations are depicted in one- or two-dimensional ways, and they even have a war cry of "HAIL SAINT NICK," which is someone's moronic implication of "Hail Satan."

The themes and terms in which illegal immigration is explored are as paper-thin as you would suspect for such a movie: OBVIOUSLY people who oppose it are white supremacists who care only about eradicating anyone who isn't Aryan. OBVIOUSLY, the people who want unfettered illegal immigration support as much diversity as possible, and they're fighting evil. Who could possibly view unfettered illegal immigration as possibly allowing a vast number of criminals to set up shop in a country? Who could possibly view illegal immigration as crowding the native population's hospitals, schools, and freeways and causing a massive financial burden on its native population? WHY, ONLY THE PEASANTS WHO ACTUALLY EXPERIENCE IT, MY FRIEND. WE MULTI-MILLIONAIRES WHO WATCH IT FROM AFAR IN OUR PALATIAL ESTATES KNOW BETTER. We know that we are correct.

Sean Penn's character is especially laughable. His character is among the most cartoonish portrayals of a right-leaning military figure that has been committed to film.

If you watch it, you will definitely FEEL its overly long runtime. 30-40 minutes should have been omitted. At least. I went to the concession stand early, then I went to the bathroom one hour later. I missed absolutely nothing.

I will give two stars to it only because Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro never miss the mark with their acting.

But this thing is trash.

I like AND hate this game. Its controls are garbage, it's buggy, some elements of its gameplay are nonsensical (i.e.: you can't level up during a mission-- you must wait for extraction, among other things), and perhaps worst of all, its storyline is bad. If you showed its opening scene to me then told me to write the hackiest backstory for the villain's motivation, I would have nailed it.

BUT I like that it's a break from the usual first-person shooter, and I like that it's a rare decent single player game. It has engaging tactics, and you must think while you play it. You cannot do the usual button-mashing sleepwalk. The environment is usually immersive, and sometimes you might even get nervous while you're playing it.

Overall, it's somewhat good.

When "Whiplash" was released ten years ago, many people were appalled by how many people thought that it was a sort of blueprint for how to live life. Some of the foremost intellectuals of our time (cough), including Arnold Schwarzenegger said that it was inspirational even though its director Damien Chazelle outright stated that he disagreed with such interpretations. Zendaya's character in this film is the epitome of a "Whiplash" figure--an obsessive, soulless husk who is willing to sacrifice decency, family and friends on The Altar of Me. She was insufferable, yet well-played. She served as the engine for the movie.

Even though I personally did not understand some of this movie's themes completely because I am not bisexual, I appreciated it, and I loved its brilliantly subtle comedic moments. I laughed quite a few times. As many people have stated, although a lot of the cinematography and the editing techniques that the crew used were outstanding and possibly even innovative, I absolutely hated the sluggish pace of the third act--far too many slow motion shots. The final scene is a bit underwhelming as well.

But overall, it's a solid film.