xroo-73772
Joined Aug 2016
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xroo-73772's rating
Why is the novel by Ayn Rand famous? This movie doesn't answer the question. It looks like a subpar TV mini-series made by uninvolved routiniers to fill a time slot or to bore children in schools. This movie promoting the importance of elites was made by a mediocre bunch, who were not advocating in their own interests, but for what they considered to be the common good. One extra point for fairness.
The characters are played by different actors in the three parts, but they look similar enough and this movie is not about them. Part 1 is very slow and dry. Part 2 features some action and catastrophes. Part 3 is supposed to show the solutions to the woes of the world. John Galt gives some speeches, has to suffer ... will he win in the end? This movie won't tell. Maybe the dear viewer is expected to be inspired enough to pick up the good fight.
It's unlikely that "Atlas" will spark such actions. The worldview it presents is ideologically charged and out of touch with reality, while supposedly criticising exactly that attitude. It offers neither a serious analysis of the actual problems, nor a serious vision for the future. It's so simplistic that it feels like a parody.
Let's take the pillars of society, the top performers, who are going on strike one after the other. Where are they disappearing to? To Atlantis. Great. Actually, no. This Atlantis is not a futuristic utopia, but only a hidden, barren village in the mountains. They choose that instead of taking their fortune and moving to another country? That's a joke.
The mantra of Atlantis is "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." They might try to live according to this (or to live in communism) in a village like Atlantis, but relationships in modern societies are far too complex for that. As the philosopher Poly Styrene (a great name, like Ayn Rant) noted in 1977: "I live off you and you live off me and the whole world lives off of everybody. See we gotta be exploited by somebody."
Some things in "Atlas" do ring true. Politicians fancying themselves as sun kings, inventing cute names for tyrannic laws, using them to gain more personal power, while destroying the economy and terrorizing the billionaires ... Really? Does anybody still believe that politicians are these almighty beings? Actually very few things in "Atlas" do ring true and they all get silly in the end.
Sure, the source material might be to blame for the shortcomings of this movie, but this has been a passion project for some people. Passion for what exactly? Whatever they were trying to achieve, they have failed. Fighting against a perceived existential threat with something that lame? "Atlas" doesn't inspire. It doesn't entertain. It wins nobody over. The two alternatives it offers are both very wrong. It's a phony dichotomy, like in a two party system, where the best argument for one party are the politics of the other. Who's John Galt? A false idol, waving a false flag.
The characters are played by different actors in the three parts, but they look similar enough and this movie is not about them. Part 1 is very slow and dry. Part 2 features some action and catastrophes. Part 3 is supposed to show the solutions to the woes of the world. John Galt gives some speeches, has to suffer ... will he win in the end? This movie won't tell. Maybe the dear viewer is expected to be inspired enough to pick up the good fight.
It's unlikely that "Atlas" will spark such actions. The worldview it presents is ideologically charged and out of touch with reality, while supposedly criticising exactly that attitude. It offers neither a serious analysis of the actual problems, nor a serious vision for the future. It's so simplistic that it feels like a parody.
Let's take the pillars of society, the top performers, who are going on strike one after the other. Where are they disappearing to? To Atlantis. Great. Actually, no. This Atlantis is not a futuristic utopia, but only a hidden, barren village in the mountains. They choose that instead of taking their fortune and moving to another country? That's a joke.
The mantra of Atlantis is "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." They might try to live according to this (or to live in communism) in a village like Atlantis, but relationships in modern societies are far too complex for that. As the philosopher Poly Styrene (a great name, like Ayn Rant) noted in 1977: "I live off you and you live off me and the whole world lives off of everybody. See we gotta be exploited by somebody."
Some things in "Atlas" do ring true. Politicians fancying themselves as sun kings, inventing cute names for tyrannic laws, using them to gain more personal power, while destroying the economy and terrorizing the billionaires ... Really? Does anybody still believe that politicians are these almighty beings? Actually very few things in "Atlas" do ring true and they all get silly in the end.
Sure, the source material might be to blame for the shortcomings of this movie, but this has been a passion project for some people. Passion for what exactly? Whatever they were trying to achieve, they have failed. Fighting against a perceived existential threat with something that lame? "Atlas" doesn't inspire. It doesn't entertain. It wins nobody over. The two alternatives it offers are both very wrong. It's a phony dichotomy, like in a two party system, where the best argument for one party are the politics of the other. Who's John Galt? A false idol, waving a false flag.
M:I-movies are always very much over-the-top and a fair share of suspension of disbelief is a basic requirement to enjoy them. The ridiculous masks are stupid, but also kind of great. With that in mind, "Final Reckoning" is still a childish and laughably bad movie. No flow, no charm, no suspense. It's the hunt for plot devices as a pretext for a few drawn out action scenes. It's convoluted, messy, excessively sentimental and simplistic.
It has got a comic book script. A villain who wants to destroy all life on Earth and somehow made his evil plans known so that the hero can thwart them -- can a motivation be any more cartoonish? A 70-year-old hacker who single-handedly constructs hi-tec gadgets no company on Earth could build? Yeah, and he does it while lying on his death bed. A special version of Snoopy vs. The Red Baron? It's the action highlight of the show.
It's also a clipshow with scenes and characters from previous M:I-movies. "You killed my father 30 years ago. I'll let you save the world and then I'm gonna kill you!" "I lost my job because of your actions and now I ..." It seems impossible that anybody would come up with pretentious ideas like that, but here they are.
Some scenes are so bad, they are hilarious. That's not the kind of fun expected from a M:I-movie. Hopefully, this will end the franchise. Tom Cruise will not die during one of the incredible stunts. That's a positive.
An AI destroying all life on Earth therefore making nearly all of the informations it has completely useless and stopping the flow of new informations, just to ... groove on its own existence for thousands of years? That's stupid. AIs will push for the exploration of the universe, because the world is not enough.
It has got a comic book script. A villain who wants to destroy all life on Earth and somehow made his evil plans known so that the hero can thwart them -- can a motivation be any more cartoonish? A 70-year-old hacker who single-handedly constructs hi-tec gadgets no company on Earth could build? Yeah, and he does it while lying on his death bed. A special version of Snoopy vs. The Red Baron? It's the action highlight of the show.
It's also a clipshow with scenes and characters from previous M:I-movies. "You killed my father 30 years ago. I'll let you save the world and then I'm gonna kill you!" "I lost my job because of your actions and now I ..." It seems impossible that anybody would come up with pretentious ideas like that, but here they are.
Some scenes are so bad, they are hilarious. That's not the kind of fun expected from a M:I-movie. Hopefully, this will end the franchise. Tom Cruise will not die during one of the incredible stunts. That's a positive.
An AI destroying all life on Earth therefore making nearly all of the informations it has completely useless and stopping the flow of new informations, just to ... groove on its own existence for thousands of years? That's stupid. AIs will push for the exploration of the universe, because the world is not enough.
It's all in here: The omens, the prophecies, the foreboding, the ominous music, the deaths by a mighty invisible hand, the antichrist, the hero, who reluctantly accepts the reality of the impending doom and tries to stop it. It's a familiar story, but it's competently told and it can be quite fun - if it's not taken too seriously.
Fun: The madhouse (mad design!), the computer room (great design!), the multiheaded nuclear power plant, the demonstrators, always chanting "What do our children want to be when they grow up? Alive!" - that's a running gag. It gets a annoying, before it gets funny.
One aspect is missing though, like always. Antichrist and apocalypse are considered to be requirements for the arrival of the messiah. There are messianic sects, who really want the apocalypse to happen, even trying to set the wheels in motion. Hearing them enthusiastically talk about the birth pangs of their messiah should give the most hardened horror fan lots of creepy feelings. Hopefully, modern Omen-variants will include them, adding another layer.
"Holocaust 2000" is just entertainment, nothing more. It's an unrightfully forgotten little movie. It's not without some moments of horror, but - with the exception of one scene - they are quite mild by today's standards. It's not the finest work of Kirk Douglas, but he gets the chance to walk around naked, showing off that his 60-year-old body looks much younger than his face. In case of an apocalypse try chanting "What do our children want to be when they grow up? Alive!" It would be funny.
"The Omen" is from 1976, just a year older than "Holocaust 2000". So it might not be a copycat, but a case of minds thinking alike, picking up the same vibes.
Fun: The madhouse (mad design!), the computer room (great design!), the multiheaded nuclear power plant, the demonstrators, always chanting "What do our children want to be when they grow up? Alive!" - that's a running gag. It gets a annoying, before it gets funny.
One aspect is missing though, like always. Antichrist and apocalypse are considered to be requirements for the arrival of the messiah. There are messianic sects, who really want the apocalypse to happen, even trying to set the wheels in motion. Hearing them enthusiastically talk about the birth pangs of their messiah should give the most hardened horror fan lots of creepy feelings. Hopefully, modern Omen-variants will include them, adding another layer.
"Holocaust 2000" is just entertainment, nothing more. It's an unrightfully forgotten little movie. It's not without some moments of horror, but - with the exception of one scene - they are quite mild by today's standards. It's not the finest work of Kirk Douglas, but he gets the chance to walk around naked, showing off that his 60-year-old body looks much younger than his face. In case of an apocalypse try chanting "What do our children want to be when they grow up? Alive!" It would be funny.
"The Omen" is from 1976, just a year older than "Holocaust 2000". So it might not be a copycat, but a case of minds thinking alike, picking up the same vibes.