Receiving the Dystopia: THE GIVER (2014)

FINALLY!
Last post in my dystopias series and, I should note, I'm actually surprisingly pleased with this one. Typically these movies and shows are things I've already watched because I was curious about this one, but today's topic I actually stayed up and watched last night because it was crunch time and I was stuck, and, despite a lot of flack my fiancée was giving it, this is actually a pretty good movie.

TITLE: The Giver


DETAILS:
            DIRECTOR: Philip Noyce
            LEAD ACTOR: Brenton Thwaites
            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Meryl Streep

SUMMARY: 

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

There are a lot of things that put me off about this movie at first glance, for starters, the opening does not do a lot to grab attention, except in explaining that the characters aren't in the real world. I guess, you kind of have to go into this movie with the intention of enjoying it, it's not a movie that will grab your attention when you flip through channels and happen across it. Due to the overall plot, the first quarter-hour of the movie is dull, we're introduced to our characters and what seems to be anxiousness, in a world without emotion that seems strange, but this world, for whatever reason, makes a distinction between emotion and "feelings," feelings being the temporary spurts of...well they're emotions darn it, temporary spurts of emotion like pride, joy, happiness, anxiety, fear, and other such nonsense. But, "emotions," are different, they're the extremes basically, like love and hate. This is one of those things that becomes very irritating about the whole experience. One of the rules the characters must follow is speaking with clarity of purpose, and for clarity's sake, I don't think any statement can be more clear than "love." Sure, it has a lot of applications, but love is generally a pretty good term for endearment, pride, happiness with another, and a lot of other ideas. Yet, every time a character uses the term love, they're asked for clarity, and the phrase is treated as if it has no meaning, but the characters then make statements that directly relate to feelings of love, even if the attachment isn't there.

Moving on from the terrifying idea that emotions and feelings are different things, the setting itself is pretty sound, drugs that suppress emotional response, employment opportunities decided based on capability and need, not just randomly decided by the person, everyone has a niche they need to fill, and they do fill it. No artists that want to be actors, no nuclear physicists out designing video games, everyone does what they're supposed to. Except the main character of course, he's practically an exile in nature as he receives forbidden information as a necessity for his position. Nothing about the movie can really be attributed to the movie though, can they? After all, it's all the fault of the original novel, right?

Maybe that's true, but at least the characters could be more devoid of emotion if they were meant to be devoid of emotion! Instead everyone seems anxious, curious, and occasionally downright angry about something.

Y'know what? I'm done.

RATING:

Nine out of Ten Givers would give this movie Two memories you're not ready for, out of Five.

Blame it on the book or poor directing, but this movie did not seem coherent at all. It wasn't terrible as far as its core ideas go, but I would not suggest you go out and throw a theater party for it.

The False Peace of Dystopias: THE HUNGER GAMES (2012)

WORK HARDER
Maybe I could, bug I haven't so far. I needed to have rewatched this movie, and watched one other movie to finish the list over the weekend, but I didn't, instead I chose to play video games all day, not even video games that helped me with My Arcade either. So whatever, anyway, here it is, dystopia #4, the Hunger Games.

TITLE: The Hunger Games


SUMMARY:

Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games, a televised competition in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to fight to the death.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

This is, despite my prejudice against teen novels, a pretty good movie, good enough to attach me to the series and make me want to watch the rest. It's a little late, I'll grant you, but not as late as some of my others. We've got characters that are pretty well developed, in a setting that definitely has a plot boiling in it, although in the first movie we don't get exposed to all of that. It does exactly what the first movie in a series ought to do, introduce us to characters, and set the setting. 

We are introduced to our heroine Katniss Everdeen, who will evolve into memetic perfection with the one scene that makes this character:

She sacrifices herself to save her little sister from the horror of this dystopian world, the titular competition that rules the peace of the world, the Hunger Games, 24 children enter, one (or two) child leaves, and that is what the remainder of the movie centers around, her and her potential boyfriend entering the Hunger Games and surviving. No, no spoiler alert there, because there are four movies, and she is on the cover of the last one at the very least, so you know she survives. 

Good, well-fleshed-out setting, decent characters, and Haymitch, as portrayed by Woody Harrelson. I love this character, their alcoholic mentor who somehow survived the Hunger Games previously. He's fantastic and basically made the movies for me. That and the violence. The violence makes it even more bearable. 

RATING:

Nine out of Ten child tributes would give this movie Three mockingjay pins out of Five.

I said I enjoyed the movie enough to watch the sequels, but that doesn't actually take much. Sure it was a good, popular movie, but it's far from the best. Enjoy it if you watch it, if you don't, you can just watch any other teen novel movie recently made.

Inside a Dystopian Mind: PSYCHO-PASS (2013)

My Dystopia:

In my dystopian universe I struggle to write blog posts, even though I actually get excited about writing it. In my dystopian universe there are three less hours in the day than everyone else has. In my dystopian universe people wait until the last minute to complete anything, making everyone else's jobs harder.

Start the review:

TITLE: Psycho-Pass

SUMMARY:

Psycho-Pass follows Akane Tsunemori in a cyber-punk 2113 Japan, as joins to police force and seeks justice. The Sibyl System, a super computer system that measures the citizens' mental states, helps to prevent crimes from happening, by judging the guilty in advance, but one man breaks every notion of this supposed justice and challenges detective Tsunemori's own judgement.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE: 

Hope you guys don't mind the personal summary, I couldn't find a good short one to just copy and paste. We've reviewed that one of my favorite media forms is anime (that and video games), so of course anime are going to crop up in my lists. Particularly this list though! There are plenty of good dystopian future animes to choose from, but Psycho-Pass definitely stands out to me, because it reminds me a lot of Death Note actually. Follow along, if you will:

We kind of discussed the Sibyl System in the summary, basically it judges criminals before they act on their desires, obviously a broken system. At first glance, that sounds great, sure, no more rape, murder, arson or jay-walking. The thing is, we're judging them before they commit the crime, not only that, it's not fool-proof, very often criminals are not tagged before-hand. There are just a lot of issues with it, and, so that I don't have to throw up a spoiler warning, in the very first episode we see a potential flaw. The guns used by the police (called Dominators) have a lock on them, they will fire based on the criminal's level of danger, a green hue means the person you're aiming at is perfectly normal, they're no threat, so the gun will lock; a yellow hue means they are divergent from the normal state, liable to or are currently committing a crime, the gun will paralyze; a red hue means they are dangerous to society and must be eliminated, the Dominator converts to lethal elimination mode. Mind you, these people aren't necessarily murderers. In fact, based on the way the anime lays it out, people may not have the will to do evil things, but if they find evil things intriguing, or fantasize about them, they're capable of doing them, and therefore they can be put to death.

As an example scenario that the entire internet can relate to, if you're Adolf Hitler, but you never actually act on your desire to create a perfect race, you just sort of fantasize about it, the gun will switch to lethal eliminator mode, and kill you. Done. 

As a side note, the hue colors I mentioned aren't exactly correct, like the main character is supposed to have a light-blue hue I think (the best around?). Anyway, did I get off on a tangent? Anyway, suffice it to say I can easily justify this being a dystopia in that everyone fears that they'll be judged negatively and get kicked out of the system, permanently. In fact, it's possible to worry to much and get labeled a divergent! Like what the heck?!

Anyway, aside from that, the anime does a good job of giving us a detailed setting, with a lot of backstory to the surprise ending, and a collection of awesome characters. More specifically the main character's sidekick, Shinya Kogami, who actually acts as sort of the main character. There's also a particular scene that tore me up from the inside out, and reminded me that sometimes I get way too attached to characters in tv series. So yeah. The final arc of the anime serves to wrap everything up nicely, while also ensuring everything is kept fresh, and the show itself isn't long enough to get stale. Loved it.

RATING: 

Nine out of Ten system breaking psychopaths would give this one Five Lethal Eliminations, out of Five.

Seriously, this isn't my favorite anime ever, but it's definitely concise enough while being super detailed to earn a five star rating. I'm pretty generous, sure, but IMDB gives it an 8.3, MyAnimeList.com gives it 8.5, and so does TV.com, so it obviously did something right. A lot, it did a lot right.

Repossessing Dystopias: REPO-THE GENETIC OPERA (

INCOHERENCY!!!
I realize now my mistake, as I update this log of ideas accessible by the entire world, I find myself misunderstanding the terms I use. Dystopia, as defined by Webster's, is an imaginary place where people are unhappy and usually afraid because they are not treated fairly. This doesn't negate my previous uses of the word, just broadens my idea of what can be fairly called a dystopia.

I had this bizarre idea that a dystopia had to sound good on paper, but ultimately be revealed to be horrible, but based on this description the place doesn't even have to sound good on paper, it just has to suck all around. So yeah, I don't think that will adjust my list much, but it does bring a bit more light to the idea for me, so thanks internet!

TITLE: REPO: The Genetic Opera


DETAILS:
            DIRECTOR: Darren Bousman
            LEAD ACTRESS: Alexa PenaVega
            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Paul Sorvino

SUMMARY:

A worldwide epidemic encourages a biotech company to launch an organ-financing program similar in nature to a standard car loan. The repossession clause is a killer, however.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

This one I can see a lot of people not enjoying (so, just like most other movies really) but I personally really enjoyed "Repo!" It's an opera (as designated by its title) centering around a seventeen year old Shilo, as she will insist on pointing out any a rather off-setting number, who simply wants to be free of her father's obsessing. She's sick, dying of a blood disease she inherited from her mother, and is forbidden to ever step outside their home.

Meanwhile her father Nathan, played by Anthony Head, is contracted to serve GeneCo, the mega-corporation that may as well own the world, as a Repo-Man (the Repo-Man?) who must retrieve organs from the poor saps who can't afford their payments. That's right, organs on payment plans, that can be repossessed if you fail to pay. These two's fantastic performances are all wrapped up in a world dominated by darkness and envy, as every one on earth with a dime to their name seeks to get "better" organs and features.

The setting itself is fantastically done, early on we're introduced to our narrator who acts as drug dealer and harvester. He trades in an illegal form of a drug called Zydrate, which he harvests from the brains of the deceased (not the recently deceased either, cat goes through mass graves full of rotting bodies). Additionally, we're treated to the ignorance of those in the setting as they praise GeneCo for allowing them to obtain these perfect bodies, all good things must come to an end of course, but hey, perfect bodies are fun while they last.

SPOILERS!!!

Okay, so I can't say a lot of negative things about the film aside from Shilo's over the top musical number about her age, but there is one thing that kind of bothers me. We follow a plot where we learn that Rotti's three children are all incapable of running GeneCo, but Rotti is on his last leg, due to cancer of some sort. I don't quite remember what kind of cancer, but it seems to me that if you can just tear out and replace any organ, why not just replace the cancer infested one? I mean we have treatments that are generally successful at treating cancer, surely in a world like Repo!'s we can cure the stuff. But, whatever, they needed a feasible plot, and cancer is probably the best way for Rotti to die naturally.

Agree or disagree? Is this actually a utopia in disguise, a perfect society hidden behind one really crummy law and a dark setting? Maybe.

RATING:

Nine out of Ten singing grave robbers would give this movie Four shots of Zydrate, out of Five.

Get your musical fix with REPO! The Genetic Opera.

Vaudevillian Veteran: V FOR VENDETTA (2005)

DISTRACTIONS!!!

A few notes before we get into the current topic, first of all, this week we're going to cover films and shows that take place in dystopian worlds! I thought about it a bit yesterday and I think I can come up with five things to cover under that theme. Meanwhile, over on My Arcade, we'll be covering some overpowered things I've found in games, not like, things that make PVP unfair, just things that make games a lot easier than they're supposed to be.

Secondly, I've found myself a bit distracted from my blog for the time being because FNaF World recently launched and I've been watching MatPat on Game Theory play it! Alongside some other games released this year (Pony Island!). Not much in the way of cinema distracting me though...unless you classify Youtube as cinematic- Oh! Got my theme for next week!

A final note, Blogger has approved my AdSense application! So there'll be some ads on the side of and bottom of the blog soon. Just, kind of noting that because I've been a little disappointed by the lack thereof! Anyway, onward!

TITLE: V for Vendetta

 

DETAILS: 

            DIRECTOR: James McTeigue

            LEAD ACTRESS: Natalie Portman

            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Tim Pigott-Smith

SUMMARY:

In a future British tyranny, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of "V", plots to overthrow it with the help of a young woman.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

This is actually one of those movies that makes my top fifty list, that's a list of generally unnamed and unranked movies that I really, really like. It's hard to ever say that a movie is my favorite, or that they're even top five, there are just so many good movies out there! But yeah, this movie's up there in my list, and with good reason, look at who wrote the screenplay! The Wachowskis! Before they went downhill! (I think) 

Anyway, yeah, so I said the theme for this week was dystopias, and V for Vendetta takes place in a future Britain that is basically overall peaceful, but it doesn't take long to find that corruption lurks in every corner of this society, starting of course, with the police. We get a really detailed alternate universe here where a set of central tragedies that are revealed throughout the movie have shaped a new government that heavily restricts the masses, from control of religion, to set curfews, even to extreme literary and artistic restrictions. The movie does an excellent job of conveying this overarching gloom as well. We're introduced to a cast of characters that feel utterly perfect for the roles they portray, and one fanatic who truly dominates the stage (set?). 

I don't feel like I really need a spoiler section here, I'm not going to say much except that I really loved some select scenes in the movie, where characters were misled and then ultimately came out stronger for it, despite some mistrust that was bred here and there. There are these touching moments that really reach out of the gloominess and a soft side to the terrorist that took me by surprise. Not to mention, V is one of my favorite masked protagonists ever, right next to Lelouch vi Britannia of course! 

The movie is amazing, from a jaw dropping opening with a verbose introduction for a virtuous hero, right down to the entire movie ending with a big, satisfying, bang.

RATING:

Nine out of Ten women force to ally with a terrorist would give this movie Four Violet Carsons, out of Five.

Seriously, go check out this movie if you haven't seen it somehow. 

Remember, remember, 

The fifth of November

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot

I can think of no reason

That the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

The Saga Continues: STAR WARS VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Into the Tedium
Five posts a week is my goal, I know, I said every day, I changed my mind, there's not as much material as I thought and I can't just pump out three on Friday and weekends are...well...weekends. Besides, if you need seven a week, try out ten and go look at My Arcade! In which case, the two extra I did last Friday, were for last Monday and Tuesday. If I do occasionally put out more than one a day, awesome, otherwise, goal achieved!

I was saving this for my last post of the week, which will be this one, so awesome!

TITLE: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens


DETAILS:
            DIRECTOR: J.J. Abrams
            LEAD ACTRESS: Daisy Ridley
            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Adam Driver

SUMMARY:

Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE: 

Yay! Here's one I've been waiting on since they said it was happening! Actually...before they said it was happening, but whatever. Unfortunately...it's all hype. :p Not really! I hear a lot of people give this movie flack, and there's really no grounds for it except for some slight character inconsistencies.

I'll say this much, I really enjoyed this movie, they brought in some old style special effects to play right alongside CGI masterfully, they introduced new characters and revived old characters with skill. They gave us a story that was clearly successful the first time it was told! Okay...so maybe I can see where someone might complain that the idea wasn't entirely original, but then again, if it was, we (as a fandom) probably would have hated it. Before I go into spoiler territory I'll state that the cast was generally believable and the musical score was of course amazing (I mean, the same guy did it, obviously.)

IT'S A SPOILER!

Okay, even though I can give it plenty of praise, I can also bash it quite a bit, but then, sometimes a little research can go a long way. For instance, when I watched the film I spotted a flag that stood out in my mind as holding the emblem of the Mandalorian tribes. Now, at first that registered to me as the last place a smuggler who has upset a lot of people would go, I mean, it's already been stated that Solo has a bounty on his head bigger than the price of the first Death Star (space hyperbole for the win) so naturally he should avoid a group that specializes in mercenary work and bounty hunting! I did a bit of digging though and apparently the Mandalorians have aligned themselves with the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and I guess that means they may not hunt Solo so eagerly. Okay, but there are also inconsistencies from one moment in the movie to the next, and the most notable one is Finn.

Okay, at the beginning of the movie we are assured by a First Order officer that their storm troopers are the most efficient soldiers in the galaxy and have rendered clones unnecessary. Lo and behold, Finn has never been in combat to prove how efficient he is. Later on Captain Phasma assures us that the stormtrooper known as Finn has never shown any deviation from proper performance before, this refusal to fire on his part being the first of its nature. Later we hear from Finn himself that he was a janitor! A janitor! I'm surprised the guy was even GIVEN any formal training. Why was a JANITOR dispatched alongside Darth Grumpypants on a delicate mission to retrieve a supposedly extremely hard to come by artifact? The galaxy may never know.

Okay, so there's my spiel about Finn. What about Darth Grumpypants himself? Well for starters, apparently he's not a Darth, Kylo Ren is Kylo Ren because he hasn't been officially trained in the ways of the Dark Side or whatever. He's just been trained as a Jedi and turned his back on that path. So why do so many people think he's a great example of a Sith? He's a horrible example of the Sith. The Sith are supposed to be masters of their emotions, not slaves to them. The entire mantra of the Sith is that by harnessing power they are free, Kylo Ren has no control over himself, he isn't free, he's a slave. The slightest bit of bad news sends this man child into fits of rage, destroying millions of credits worth of machinery because of his own slack filled work. I've heard people say that Kylo is a greater Sith than Vader or even Sidious, and I have no clue where this idea comes from. Sure, the kid shows emotion, but that's not what's important, when you are one or two against many, you have to have complete control over everything, including yourself. If Ren was in either of their positions he would have been butchered by now, in fact, if Ren had been Palpatine, the Galactic Empire would never have existed, and all the work of all the Sith Lords before him would have gone to waste. Actually...I guess in that theoretical situation, he would have never become the master, he would have died.

Done ranting about Darth Grumpypants now...on to Rey? I actually didn't hate anything about her, except that she wields a lightsaber better than someone who was trained to use it! Sure, you can argue that she's clearly good at fighting based on her performance on Tatooi- I mean Jakku, but her fighting there was with a staff, not a sword! The two have no bearing on each other! Then there's the way she wields the force during her fight with Ren. Instead of Jedi-ing up and realizing she can't just lash out angrily, when she finally decides to "call upon the force" (which was rather poorly tempo'd anyway) she just gets more angry, definitely not the Jedi way. Okay, so maybe I lied, I did have a second problem with her.

Then there was that whole scene with the lightsaber battle! Finn jumps up, gets knocked right back down, Rey runs in, fights poorly, decides that she's a Jedi, everyone stops. Just stops. The planet stops blowing up, Ren stops aggressing, Rey stops defending, and after she closes her eyes for a minute, she goes back in full power, and suddenly she's better than Ren. Latent force powers or not, she fought the same and won against someone who should have gotten stronger on the defensive when he got madder!

But hey, at least they included Luke in there! Man, loved seeing him throughout the movie. Anyway that's my critique on this one.

RATING:

Nine out of Ten emo kids who wanna be Sith would give this movie Four misused guards on swords, out of Five.

No seriously, those things on Ren's lightsaber? They're guards, designed to defend the hands! They never saw use like that, kid seemed to think they were extra stabby parts or something.

Fabricating a Mask: Code Geass (2007)

New Subjects and Old

I've made a sort of personal resolution to research android development a bit, maybe put out my own little apps eventually. Takes time to learn, but I'll start today hopefully and pick up quickly with any luck!

That's a bit of a side note, which these openings tend to be. Aside from that, on My Arcade yesterday, I explained some uses of masks, I also stated that I basically had a plan for today's post. And I do. I wanted to save this for a point where I could tackle a whole anime week, but this seems appropriate, so here we go.

TITLE: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

DETAILS: 

            DIRECTOR: Goro Taniguchi

            LEAD ACTOR: Jonny Yong Bosch

            MAIN ANTAGONIST: Hard to pinpoint

SUMMARY:

Lelouch, the exiled son of the Emperor of Britannia, wages a war for liberation on behalf of the Elevens, Japanese citizens downtrodden by the empire's take over. Lelouch uses the power of Geass to seek justice for his late mother and assemble an army to crush Britannia.

I feel like that's a pretty good brief, there's not a reliably short one on IMDB...

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

The best...around. Okay, probably not actually, I can see it being a little hard to follow occasionally (I never had any trouble, but I can see where the multiple plot lines might lose someone), but in my opinion it's one of the most well put together and animated animes ever. Aside from a good bit of science fiction in the anime (giant robots, new WMDs, strange energy sources) Code Geass earns its position this week due to the nature of the protagonist, he's a masked man. In all fairness the story follows two protagonists, Lelouch Lamperouge (vi Britannia) and Suzaku Kururugi.

Lelouch served as our masked hero who seeks to usurp his father, restore the Japanese people to their proud state, and a lot of other things. Man's got goals. To do this he uses two key tools, the first is his Geass, the power of the king, which allows him to issue any command to a person and they will follow it absolutely. (there is some debate about this and I may post a follow up mini post about this) His second tool of choice is his alternate persona, Zero. If you checked out my post yesterday on My Arcade, you will have noticed the mask I spoke of helped the character to become someone else and hide their own identity. The mask of Zero serves much the same purpose, but without any magic behind it, just good politics and a lot of charisma.

You see, Lelouch was exiled from his homeland after his mother's demise, in order to unmask the people behind the assassination the young prince (youngest I believe) sets out on a quest to overpower the Britannian military, and what better group to use than a pre-existing terrorist cell in Tokyo (I think). Being a Britannian Lelouch would generally not find any reception from the Japanese, or Elevens as Britannia chooses to call them, but when he saves their near forfeit lives more than once he is able gain their trust, but not as Lelouch Lamperouge the school boy, rather as Zero, the masked hero. (whom everyone presumes is an Eleven, or at the very least a Number, not a Britannian noble) 

Anyway yeah, I did my little tangent about the power of the mask, but the series actually makes several underlying references to masks, and I realize I'm reviewing this one detail a lot more than the series in general, suffice it to say I think the series was terrific, with an amazing plot line, great animations, and...well...Johnny Yong Bosch voices Lelouch, so I cannot seek better voice acting!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

There are a lot of masks in the game actually, it's just not as obvious as you might think. The series makes a point though that the mask of Zero is not the most important mask there. It's the lies that Lelouch always wears that really matter. His lies, and those of everyone else. You...stopped reading before the spoiler mark right? Or you've seen the show and this is basically redundant? Or...you don't care to watch the show and just wanna hear what I have to say? You're so sweet! 

One of the biggest lies in the show is never actually outright stated, a mask is worn in front of Lelouch for the entirety of the series and he never realizes until the mask is removed. Why should he? According to Charles and Marianne (Lelouch's parents) everything is according to plan. Seriously? You planned for your own son to accuse you of the assassination plot against his mother and then seek you down to the ends of the Earth after making a contract with a witch that gave him a very limited source of unlimited power. (the Geass has some very specific limitations) Not only has Charles been basically maintaining that facade, but he proclaims very plainly that the entire world is just a mask, or rather, God is a mask. God is a web of lies constructed by humanity to hide them from the pain they're meant to feel, or something like that, but ultimately the only reason any pain is felt is due to these masks. So Charles and Marianne plan to kill God (the lies of the world) by using the Ragnarok weapon, but Lelouch says "No way, I like masks!" and kills them...or banishes their spirits...okay that scene is a little off the wall, I'll grant you. 

There's also this huge ordeal with Lelouch's girlfriend Shirley where she realizes that all along Lelouch has been Zero and it was his actions that caused her father's death. This is a really emotional and fantastic story arc in and of itself, and it plays out very well and tugs on your heart strings until the last order she is given. As she runs through the school looking for someone to confide in she realizes that everyone is wearing a mask, everyone has something they're hiding and she doesn't know who to trust anymore. It's basically true too, of her closest friends, three were terrorists, one was in the military specifically to die, and even the student council president lied about being perfectly content when she was far from it. Rivalz on the other hand...was just a ditz, he may have been perfectly innocent.

Ah but the anime ends with this fantastic idea, Lelouch puts on the ultimate mask, by taking off the Zero mask and passing the title on to Suzaku, he has the savior of the world bring an end to the greatest evil Earth has ever known, himself. In order to save the world Lelouch becomes the ultimate lie, he fabricates one final mask of pure evil in order to plunge the world into peace, it works too. I'm sure ultimately there will be war again, every story like this ends like that eventually, but in the epilogue we don't see that. Instead we see that no one is wearing their masks, they all lead happy, normal lives, lives even more normal than you might expect. Ex-terrorist generals and super weapons owning orange orchards, going to school, and joining in peaceful debates. Well, everyone except Suzaku drops their masks, but Suzaku must live on as Zero.

Do you agree that it's the greatest anime ever? If not you should go watch it again until your eyes bleed from those exact scenes we discussed above!

RATING:

Nine out of Ten Men in Masks would give this show Five Orders to Live out of Five

I seriously cannot express how much I enjoyed this show. If Ender's Game is my favorite book, Code Geass is my favorite series to which no spin off can ever do justice. Thanks for reading everyone, and see you tomorrow!

Treasure Planet this is Not: HARLOCK: SPACE PIRATE (2013)

KEEP IT UP!
How much longer until I run out of material? Well, yesterday, actually. I had intended on writing up my weekend posts throughout the week, but then I realized I didn't know what other material to cover! So excuse me if the material becomes a little subpar.

I was...going to post Jupiter Ascending...but I pulled the boxart from IMDB and saw the rating of the movie...and realized I probably didn't remember the movie too well. Then I watched the nostalgia critic's review (there's a first time for everything I suppose) and became utterly convinced I had no business posting about the movie at least until I re-watched it.

So, instead, you get to see my first anime post! Sort of...Harlock: Space Pirate! Because I'm in a Space Opera mood.

TITLE: Harlock: Space Pirate


DETAILS:
            DIRECTOR: Shinji Aramaki
            LEAD ACTOR: David Matranga
            ANTAGONIST LEAD:

SUMMARY:

Mankind is dying. Only one man can do anything about it, Space Captain Harlock, but the Gaia Coalition will stop at nothing to end him.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE: 

I sat down and considered re-watching Harlock, and believe me I will at some point because I did enjoy the movie, but not right now. So here's the best impression I can give from one semi-uninterrupted viewing. It is a steam-punk-esque space opera anime about an immortal pirate and his search to save humanity or something. Sounds like anime movie material to me. Evidently there's a manga and anime series out there, I don't know if I'll ever sit down and delve into those though.

There are some particular things that set this movie off, like an issue with lots of things being lost in translation. I don't know how major the differences are, but it's notable that I watch movies with subtitles, I like to read along to reinforce what the characters are saying, and it's particularly helpful with whispering characters. Not in this case, as with many anime the english dub and subtitles from the Japanese dub don't quite match up, generally this will be the addition/absence of small descriptive words, or even articles of little import in other languages, but in the case of Harlock, there's a mass of dialogue changes from the very beginning of the movie, with the narrator telling two different stories.

Harlock: Space Pirate has a terrific atmosphere and really brings out a detail about space opera that seems to draw the most attention, huge space battles. Which was basically the reason for the special effects in Ender's Game as well. Centering on a plot that may be a little outlandish (super outlandish) Harlock jumps into an epic story without much explanation behind how it's possible. Seriously, we hear a lot about there BEING dark matter engines, but no explanation of how it works really except that it doesn't stop working. And...

SPACE SPOILERS!!!

We know that there are aliens, but we don't get a lot of info on their origin or when they were met. Maybe all of this is divulged in the manga, but not in the movie...so that's kind of what I have to base things on. Even though we don't get a TON of detail, we get enough for things to be explained away, which is perfect, I don't think space opera is intended to be Hard Sci-Fi. It's...intended to be space opera.

Benefit of the doubt handed out, we have an awesome immortal protagonist, with a standard issue viewport character who serves both as key plot element, and binding point for both sides of a pretty well told story. Even though we're dropped into the middle of the action, we get plenty of background information to build the world without having read the source material, even if we don't get absolutely everything. There are plenty of characters in the space pirate's crew that avail themselves to a name and rank, and each of them is deserving in their own special, unique way.

All in all, not a bad shot at a sci-fi anime movie. 

RATING: 

Nine out of Ten Immortal Space Pirates would rate this one Three signs of life on a barren planet out of Five.

If you're into anime and sci-fi, this will probably float your boat, I know it floated my gravity distorting, dark matter driven, deathclass cruiser. (Deathclass...)

Just High Enough: DONNIE DARKO (2001)

Keeping up!

Basically one post per day since last Thursday, and just started My Arcade yesterday (you can click that pretty link there if you want). So doing pretty well, last week (sort of) we had a scary movie theme going, this week we seem to be tackling science-fiction. By coincidental choice.

TITLE: Donnie Darko


DETAILS:
            DIRECTOR: Richard Kelly
            LEAD ACTOR: Jake Gyllenhal
            ANTAGONIST LEAD: James Duval

SUMMARY:

A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

Time travel! That's what this movie is all about! That, and freaky bunny rabbit suits...and pot. But no, really, the story centers around the idea that time travel is a real thing. I guess. See we follow Donnie Darko as he struggles with some kind of mental illness and barely survives a plane engine crashing into his home. There are lots of different reasons that might explain this, but its played off at first as just good luck, as he happens to have sleepwalked (is that right) to a golf course instead of lying in his bed and getting crushed by a plane engine! I have a bad sense of time when it comes to movies, or this movie does a bad job looking like it was filmed in the 21st century, I'm not really sure, but I honestly thought this came out in the early 90s until I read up on it today to refresh myself. I actually read a majority of the screenplay online before I watched the movie too. I was, to say the least, intrigued. 

Donnie Darko did not let me down either, despite what I felt was subpar cinematic appeal, the movie itself drew my rapt attention as I attempted to follow the little tidbits of detail dispersed throughout. Did I mention it's about time travel? No joke. Oh, and this guy:

Seriously, Frank the Rabbit is what nightmares are made of! Although, having watched the movie, he strikes significantly less fear in me and more intrigue, because I don't know who he is!

FUTURE SIGHT SPOILERS!!!!

By the end of the movie we do see someone remove the Frank mask, twice in fact, if I'm not mistaken. The thing is, it makes no sense for that to be the case because it would have led Frank to die if he went back in time and saved Donnie from fate. Then again, I think there was some underlying plot that if Donnie didn't die the universe was going to fall apart in a system of diluted causality or something like that. So maybe Frank was meant to be an element of chaos leading toward the end of the world. But this kind of stuff really intrigues me and is kind of why I plan on watching the movie again in the near future, because I love to see characters interacting with the past to change outcomes and trying to figure out what exactly they're attempting to achieve. I'm not sure if Frank achieved what he was aiming for anyway.

Additionally, this movie is supposed to be amazing when you're high. Not my cup of tea, but its a notable aside. Donnie gets involved in some pretty trippy scenes and there are plenty of characters to enlighten us as to the metaphysics of time-travel. (Seriously, I think I'm using all these words wrong.) It has evolved from a cinematic failure to a cult classic, so it has something going for it right? 

RATING:

Nine out of Ten guys in freaky bunny costumes would give this movie Three time-travel theories out of Five.

I plan to go back and rewatch it of course, and Donnie Darko definitely captured me, but it is far from the greatest cinematic experience I've had.

The Enemy's Gate is Where?: ENDER'S GAME (2013)

Consistency!

Okay, so here's a Monday update after a weekend away and three updates on Friday, almost as if a repetition would give me a full week of updates! Wow! So today we hop right into a different genre too, science-fiction! Because that's what I like. Probably my favorite genre! Not to mention this movie is probably based off my favorite book!

But, as with all good books, the movie doesn't quite do it justice. (Okay, maybe not all, but a majority.)

TITLE: Ender's Game


DETAILS:
            DIRECTOR: Gavin Hood
            LEAD ACTOR: Harrison Fo- Asa Butterfield (Sorry)
            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Harrison For- Moises Arias (I guess)

SUMMARY:

Young Ender Wiggin is recruited by the International Military to lead the fight against the Formics, a genocidal alien race which nearly annihilated the human race in a previous invasion.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

Too biased to post here, sorry.

Although that's basically true, I guess that's why I label it personal, that and I'm not a professional critic and don't actually know a lot about critiquing movies! On the other hand, the movie does a good job of compressing Ender's story into a feature film. Which is...kind of what I hate about it. I've stated this was my favorite book, and part of the reason was the background information we got beyond Battle School and Command School, which we don't get in the movie. Instead the movie completely removes focus from Earth and what goes on there, leaving us in the dark about Ender's siblings. And...that's about as much as can be said about the movie without spoiling things, so...

SPOILERS!!!

We never get to see the story of Peter and Valentine play out on Earth, causing Peter to remain a purely antagonizing force in the movie, in reality, by the end of the book Peter has become a political leader with the help of Valentine's counter-balancing alter-ego. They do, on the other, hand allow Ender the brief respite that reaffirms the only thing that keeps him functioning is Valentine, his love for her and fear for her safety. I was genuinely surprised at the end of the movie when Ender received visions of the alien queen and found the formic egg, this was a detail I expected to be left out to shave more off the movie's end time. Fortunately, it wasn't, making it a big redeeming factor.

There are portions of the movie that actually overdo the technology Ender has access to, the most notable being the final battle, in which Ender finds himself immersed in a holographic representation of the battle, very much unlike the description in the books. But I get that and can set this detail aside, it's just capitalizing on the technology we do have, versus what Card envisioned when writing the novel ages ago. This final battle scene does culminate properly, with the eventual reveal that Ender has finally brought an end to the war, and the character's reactions are believable and on point! So kudos on that note.

Here's the kicker, most of the cast I thought was well-chosen, the unknowns still seemed like they did their characters justice. Except for one of the knowns...Moises Arias. I know, I know, nitpicky, but Bonzo Madrid gives off an intimidating, bigger kid, image in the book. And unfortunately, Moises is not that. Also, the fight goes slightly differently, with Bonzo's head smashing into a sink or toilet instead of Ender jamming the older boy's nose into his skull (potentially because they picked an actor who was TOO SHORT!) not only that but he doesn't even die, which is a key element to Ender's progression! Wait...he doesn't-

Well thanks wikipedia. I'm not sure how accurate this is, I don't remember it being referenced directly in the movie, at some point I'll have to buy the DVD and watch it again to verify, but generally wikipedia is accurate. And what the heck?!

So there's all of that, and granted I name mostly negative things, and they mostly pertain to the end of the movie. But still, I couldn't come out of it hating it, so there's always that.

RATING:

Nine out of Ten Children forced to become soldiers would give it Three Ploys for genocide (Xenocide?) out of Five.

I enjoyed the movie, but there were enough changes to set me off, and besides, I'm still waiting for the rest of the Ender Saga and Shadow Saga to make appearances on the big screen.

Musical Murder: SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (2007)

ONWARD AND UPWARD!

Okay, I realize I'm posting a lot, from a rapid decline to rapid posting, but this one is a bit different. I still feel like writing so I am, but I kind of ran out of scary movies I recently seen, or at least new ones (would do Krampus if we had actually gone and seen it...). So, I asked my fiancée what she thought I should type up and she said Harry Potter (because we watched The Prisoner of Azkaban and I fell asleep to Goblet of Fire last night). The problem? I haven't watched them all and I'm honestly not a huge fan, I prefer my wizard main characters few and far between or animated (because that's how I grew up with them and have been most exposed to them). But, we watched those in honor of the passing of Alan Rickman, so I thought, I'm a pretty big fan of another movie Alan Rickman performed in, so let's start there.

TITLE: Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

DETAILS:

            DIRECTOR: Tim Burton

            LEAD ACTOR: Johnny Depp

            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Alan Rickman

Yes! Just yes! Can we stop real quick? Tim Burton, probably one of my favorite directors, I mean, I really like his work. Johnny Depp, probably my favorite actor, seriously? He's Johnny friggin' Depp. Alan Rickman is just a stunning antagonist, even when he's not pure evil (but uh, here he is, so yeah.)

SUMMARY:

The infamous story of Benjamin Barker, AKA Sweeney Todd, who sets up a barber shop down in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett. Based on the hit Broadway musical.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

First of all, every movie I posted before this one, I have watched only once, so pardon Sweeney for getting a bit of love from the 3,000 plus times I've watched it. Secondly, every movie I've posted before this was directed by people I'm unfamiliar with, or generally dislike, (The exception being Guillermo, but I didn't even know what he did, except for movies I hadn't watched before hand like Pan's Labyrinth and the Orphanage.) so forgive Burton his high position on my list. And number C: those other movies I featured actors I was mostly unfamiliar with, but the honorable Judge Turpin is Alan Rickman, so get over it.

This is a movie I actually want to post more of the cast for, mainly just Helena Bonham Carter, but how about that Jamie Bower- WHAT?! You don't know Jamie Bower? Cool, I didn't either until I looked him up and found out he later starred as Jace in the Mortal Instruments, and Caius in Twilight. (I did not care for Twilight, I am biased against vampires that aren't vampires.) 

Stop fanboying and get to the point! Okay, so the point is I like musicals, and I like this cast, so naturally I like this movie. It has some terrific musical numbers which I have listened to probably more than I ought, even the worst of them earning a spot somewhere in my playlists, and the plot is dark enough to almost quantify this movie as a horror movie. 

SPOILERS!!!  Do I even need that here?

Y'know, a dark plot, something like, killing people for the sadistic pleasure of it and then baking them into pies and serving those pies to people who will probably later also be turned into pies. Sweeney is a barber, properly named Benjamin Barker (BBB), who was separated from his wife by the honorable Judge Turpin in an attempt to win the lady's heart. Turpin eventually raped Todd's wife (as is heavily implied) and adopted his daughter, as part of an evil plan to marry her once she comes of age. Step forward several years (like a lot, sixteen I guess?) and BBB has escaped from prison into the sea and is rescued by Anthony. Boom, the song that sets the setting, the characters are at "a hole in the world like a great black pit that is filled with people who are filled with-" whoa Sweeney, let's keep it PG.

Also we get the backstory I just described, but in song, with slightly less details, which will be provided a little later by Mrs. Lovett, who makes meat pies. But, they're the worst pies in London. Umm...wait, I'm not supposed to summarize the plot am I...sorry, I really like this movie. 

Anyway, everyone in this movie is an alcoholic, and all the actors do an amazing job. It's really not fair that Burton and Todd are in such big letters and Rickman goes basically unnoticed (at least as far as box art is concerned) because he does a terrific job as the vile and corrupt judge. Seriously, he was born to play the part, or maybe just raised to, whatever.

RATING:

Nine out of Ten gin drinking orphans would rate this one Five bloody razors, out of Five.

I can't say that this isn't biased, I love this movie, and although I'm sure there are flaws in the movie, there are none that I feel worth pointing out, or even noticing. There is one mistake though, no sequel featuring Anthony and Johanna escaping London, only to be hunted by Toby who wishes to end Barker's family line since he killed the only mother figure the orphan had.

Now Trending, Horror Movies: CRIMSON PEAK (2015)

TOO MUCH! Too, too much.

So I'm still sitting here typing, it doesn't take much for me to compose these, they're not even solely my ideas, and a majority of the writing is just spoilers, so I take the info right out of the movie itself. I suppose technically you're supposed to avoid spoilers and just talk about your own opinions, to which I say- scary movie time!

TITLE: Crimson Peak


DETAILS: 
            DIRECTOR: Guillermo Del Toro

            LEAD ACTRESS: Mia Wasikowska
            LEAD ANTAGONIST: Jessica Chastain

SUMMARY:

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds - and remembers.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

Need I point out again how easily I scare? No? Awesome, but see, this movie didn't scare me as much as some others, and not for the reasons that you're thinking. It's not like The Visit, where the movie was just a total disappointment, and it wasn't just some terrible gore-fest that served no purpose, it was...a Del Toro film, and unlike Shyamalan, Guillermo seems to do things right all the time.

Now in fairness, this does not touch the scare factor of some of Guillermo's previous films, it has basically nothing on the Orphanage, but it makes up for it with what I think I enjoy most about his movies, a compelling story and some fantastic film-work. The characters each have their own little charms and the setting is unique in its own right. Sure, it's a classic scary movie setting, a house in the hills with nobody around for miles, but it's different. I watched some video about how the colors in the film help to set the mood and how there's this close attention to detail, and while I'm sure that's true, I didn't actually notice it, so I'll just say the movie had a very good ambience that really put me on the right path.

Are you ready to hear about it? No? Skip the...

Sorry, real quick, I was going to put an actual image of the super spooky ghost of her mother, but then I saw this, and I was like "Why the heck does that exist?!"

SPOILERS!!! ...then.

Okay, so Victorian England, a man with a plan, a man who had a plan and succeeded, and the latter's daughter. Sound good enough? The latter man gets killed by presumably the former man, and the daughter runs away with the dashing heir to a dying family. Stereotypical enough to set the story, but you're wrong. First of all, the former man did not make the kill, it was his crazy sister. Alright, let's move forward:

The heir to the dying family who has exhausted all of his riches on a supposedly good idea, marries a rich woman after offing her dad, we all see where this is going, she's going to be killed. Big surprise when she starts finding mementos of his previous wives. Oh, and his crazy sister is force-feeding our heroine porridge. Good enough to get the drift? It's poison.

The former gentleman resists his sister's urgings, blah blah blah, knife fight, death. Running, running running, more death. It's all very predictable and every time I see it I get a little more upset that these women don't recognize what's going on! Blinded by love or whatever. But clearly, first of all, this lady is not getting EVERY detail like we are, and just as important, she's never watched a major motion picture (I think, I'm pretty sure those weren't around until the 1900s and this movie was set pre-20th century). Now Guillermo did nail one scary thing, the little girl's ghostly mother coming back and haunting her, and then the handsome lover's ex-wives' ghosts haunting her. But these things are much less scary when it's relatively clear they mean only good. I mean, the spooky ghost mommy out right tells her to "beware the Crimson Peak," even in the trailer! We know before we even watch the movie that one of the two siblings are up to no good, and the ghosts aren't actually evil. Well, I mean, we can make that assumption. We can also assume I guess that she was warned against the Crimson Peak because of the other ghosts haunting it, but, unlike other ghost movies where there's some ridiculous story about ghosts having to feed off your fear or whatever, or them just not being strong enough, these ghosts have been living in this house with two people for an extended period of time, they clearly aren't out for blood or they would have drawn it already.

Also, there's a semi-romantic ploy at the beginning, and then much later, that implies she should be with the doctor who comes to save her life instead of with the villain's brother, but...I felt like he was almost glossed over. I nearly forgot he existed until he came back into the movie. In fact, I typed this part up as an afterthought because I forgot he was in the movie.

All of that aside though, good movie. Not the scariest, and not the absolute best plot, but I'll give Guillermo that he definitely did his job.

RATING: 

Nine out of Ten Doctors who should have been loved, would give this movie Three dogs that disappear in the snow, out of Five.

Aokigiha-whatever: THE FOREST (2016)

AGAIN! WITH FEELING!

Am I seriously about to update twice in one week? It sure looks like it!

TITLE: The Forest


DETAILS: 
            DIRECTOR: Jason Zada
            LEAD ACTRESS: Natalie Dormer
            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Takako Akashi Whoops, I've said too much.

SUMMARY: 
A woman goes into Japan's Suicide Forest to find her twin sister, and confronts supernatural terror.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:
Critiquing myself as a person, I get scared pretty easily, seriously, place a hand on my shoulder when I don't know you're there, I'm liable to scream and stab you with whatever's in my pocket. Critiquing this movie, is hard, I peered through half-open eyes the entire time! Not necessarily representing how scary it is, just how easily scared I am, but seriously:
 
It earned them! A lot of the horror in this film is actually drudged up in atmosphere instead of imagery, don't get me wrong, there are some super spooky ghosts, but the cast did a terrific job with sound effects and lighting. Movies hardly have to work to get me scared, and this one used mere setting alone to set me off. And old women and japanese school girls, seriously-

HOSHIKO! GET OUT OF MY BLOG! Okay, are you ready to skip over an underlined portion? I'm not! So...

 SPOILERS AHEAD!

Okay so as I said, the movie didn't have to make too much effort to scare me, but it did, right down to giving me a character I knew I couldn't trust, but thought maybe I could, until she turned into a straight up demon girl. And not like, red-skinned, pointy-tailed, scantily-clad succubus demon girl, like nightmare fuel demon girl. You've got a pretty in-depth plan too, from before she walks into the forest, you have a general idea of where this may be heading, though you won't catch it until she's stabbing a completely innocent man in the chest because Michi's mantra doesn't help her "If it's bad it's not real," may not be the best advice in a forest full of dead bodies, just seeing those things without being actively haunted is horrifying! There was this one terrific portion though, toward the end, where it ended. The movie speaks on women's duty to remain in the kitchen, she can't use a knife to save her life! Literally, not figuratively, while trying to remove the zombified hand of her dead father, she cuts her own wrist like six times, and then dies. I can accept that the whole point of Aokigihara is that people who wander in and are susceptible to its charms ultimately kill themselves, but she kills herself on accident, because she cut BETWEEN the villain's fingers. It doesn't even make sense! 

Real quick, before I get any sexist flack, the comment about women staying in the kitchen is a joke, I do most of the cooking in my relationship, but seriously, everyone should know how to handle a knife.

But yeah, outside of that stuff this was actually a terrific movie! Even without going to see it as a scary movie, it had a pretty good plot overall and it wasn't ridiculously reliant on jump-scares and ridiculous tropes. (Tropes yes, ridiculous no.)

RATING:
Nine out of Ten Misunderstood good guys, would give it Four out of Five Repurposed Nooses.

This one earned a spot in my "this movie both scared me and intrigued me" list, right alongside the Village, which is slightly less scary now, but whatever.

Shyamalamadingdong: THE VISIT (2015)

So...

Let's start with, yes, I still didn't update even though I said I would, and that is because...the movie sucked. It's hard for me to write about something I don't like. Let's get this out of the way, Shyamalan, stop making movies. Especially don't ever wander off to a country home alone and decide to make a movie without consulting other professionals! Seriously?

Don't get me wrong, everything Shyamalan has produced has not been garbage...just his recent stuff. I really enjoyed the Village, though I didn't grasp all the little details the first time. Maybe that was because I was much younger, maybe the Visit actually had the same effect and I just didn't see it, but I would never associate the two.

TITLE: The Visit

DETAILS:

            DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan

            LEAD ACTORS: Olivia Dejonge and Ed Oxenbould

            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie

            

SUMMARY: 

Two siblings become incredibly frightened by their grandparents disturbing behavior, while visiting them on vacation.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

Just STOP! I can not say enough negative things about this movie! That might be a bit hyperbolic on my part, but seriously, it was disappointing, more so when we consider that the trailers actually made me want to watch it. But then again, the advertisements for the movie made me think of supernatural events, probably pertaining to possession, with a nice addition of "old people are scary." What I got was subpar at best as far as terror in plot is concerned, then again, this was probably the most realistic scary movie setting of all time. There's a positive, most of the time when scary movies are "based on a true story" it's an oddball one in one-million true story, and this presumably original idea seemed more like a one in ten-thousand chance of happening. Shall I spoil it? Let's! (So don't read beyond if you haven't seen it and want to. Or just skip the underlined section.)

Okay, so, the film starts with the two main characters going to spend a week with their estranged grandparents while their mother is off on a cruise. Seems normal so far. These children have never seen these grandparents as prior to their birth their mother had a spat with them. Not unheard of. Here's the kicker, this topic is super taboo with the grandparents, they absolutely refuse to discuss anything regarding the children's mother. I'll grant to Shyamalan that this portion of misleading information is well-constructed, because lo and behold, they are not the children's grandparents. Nope, they apparently are mental patients who escaped the psych ward and murdered the real Nana and Pop Pop in order to take their place in this delightful vacation with the kids. A lot of details that previously looked like possession scenes are then revealed to just be psychotic episodes, or whatever the correct term is for what these guys have.

There's a lot of light-hearted banter in the film between the siblings, and some less than satisfactory scenes with the young boy rapping. I don't have anything against people pursuing their dreams and I don't have anything against modernizing a movie or adding some childish entertainment, but Shyamalan seems to have forced these scenes into the film, and they have negative effects. I'm not saying he's not a good rapper, I don't really have an opinion, but I didn't feel like it belonged in the film. A redeeming quality of the use of this young character is his attempt to censor his own foul mouth, and the subsequent failures. Resolving to replace his curse words with the names of pop culture stars, Tyler provides us with some fantastic "Oops" moments. 

RATING: 

Nine out of Ten Psych Ward Escapees would give it Two used adult diapers, out of Five. 

In my opinion, this film stinks. With the exception of an unforeseen but disappointing twist ending and the oops scenes with our tiny hero, I feel like it should have never hit theaters.