Post by Fickle81 on Apr 1, 2008 0:16:58 GMT -5
Man, what can I say about this truly magnificent film? I mean, there’s no way I can do the utter kick assery of this movie justice in words, but I’ll do my best.
First things first, here’s the plot. In the year 3000, man is no match for the Psychlos (what an awesome, clever, and original name for a race of aliens), a greedy, manipulative race of aliens on a quest for ultimate profit. Led by the seductive and powerful Terl (Travolta), the Psychlos are stripping Earth clean of its natural resources, using the broken remnants of humanity as slaves. What is left of the human race has descended into a near primitive state, believing the invaders to be demons and technology to be evil. After humanity has all but given up any hope of freeing themselves from alien oppression, a young man named Tyler (Pepper) decides to leave his desolate home high in the Rocky Mountains to discover the truth, whereupon he is captured and enslaved. It is then that he decides to fight back, leading his fellow man in one final struggle for freedom.
I mean, that right sounds fucking awesome in itself, but then combine that with the fact that it’s pretty closely based on a novel of the same name written by the king of kings himself, L. Ron Hubbard, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to be an epic masterpiece. Sure enough, it doesn’t disappoint in the slightest.
-The cinematography…one word: wow. Out of all the films I’ve critically analyzed, the cinematography of this film just blows all other films away. I love how over half of the shots in the film have this slight tilt to them. I mean lets face it, pointing a camera perfectly straight at something is just boring, but tilting it a little bit to make an imbalance in the image? That’s just classy and is artistically valued within an inch of its life (only those itching to be vaporized by the Church’s all powerful team of lawyers would say otherwise). Then there’s the use of color, which can simply be described as absolutely exquisite.
-Many of the stars should have been nominated for an Oscar for their performances in this film and it’s a huge surprise that the Academy hasn’t been taken to court yet over this appalling snub. I love the reoccurring motifs of dialogue and vocals including loud laughter from the Psychlos (man, I STILL can’t get over what a brilliant fucking name that is), ape noises from the humans, and a bunch of the humans repeating the line “piece of cake”. These repeated instances really add emotional content and substance to this brilliant piece of cinema.
-The editing of the film is just fantastic. Lots of slow motion, really innovative POV shots (the prime example being the perspective of a running horse’s legs), nice big green text (Overbearing? That’s the point jackass! You’re watching an epic here. EVERYTHING is bigger in epics), middle vertical curtain wipes galore (no doubt influenced by Star Wars, only done better), an amazing soundtrack, and some action sequences that don’t have any sound except for the amazing musical score (which kind of has the same effect as No Country For Old Men not having any soundtrack at all). Truly genius editing that is years ahead of its time.
Seriously, what an amazing fucking movie this is. Truly the cream of the crop of cinema, with the only real flaw being that it wasn’t longer. This should have been a 4 hour movie to cover EVERYTHING from the novel (there was supposed to be a sequel that would have picked up the story, but that never happened thanks to the vile scum of the world known as Scientology critics), because the hour and 53 minute runtime only felt like 45 minutes. THAT’S how much I was engrossed in its pure awesomeness. The fact that this film has gotten so much negative publicity due to the asshole critics of Scientology is a complete travesty and an outrage against nature, and all those involved should be sued into oblivion. Don’t listen to the negative reputation this movie gets because it DAMN SURE doesn’t deserve it. It deserves nothing but respect and admiration for what it has contributed to the art form of film. If you’re a movie fan, the need to see this movie should be like the need to breathe.
5/5