themattman2

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I’ve finally reached “that age.” Most actors and actresses I see on screen are much younger than I am. I find myself saying, “those kids are too young to be doing stuff like that!” And yet, they aren’t. I’m just getting older. The movie takes place in the 50’s and that makes me feel old. There’s all these old cars driving around that were state-of-the-art back then, and kids dating reminds you that your parents and your parent’s parents were once young. But in some ways, things are exactly the same. The ocean is still powerful. I heard an interview once with a guy who used to be in the navy. He said the biggest lesson that he learned and knows to this day is that, “The ocean doesn’t care about you.” It is a huge “force” that’ll snap a boat in half like it was a toothpick. That’s what happens here. Two oil tankers, mountains of floating steel, broken in half by a raging ocean. It was a wonder of human perseverance from two ends. A crew on a broken ship trying to stay afloat and a crew on a tiny rescue ship trying to find them. It had all the makings of a riveting tale. In the end, it was just pretty good. I liked it, but I probably won’t see it again. It was funny during the credits to see the real people from this tale. They looked very different from the Hollywood “pretty people” that played them. If I’m ever in a film adaptation, I want my part to be played by The Rock. Can we put that down? When it comes to matters of the ocean, I don’t know that a ton has changed since the 50’s. The ocean is still a deadly place at times. That was cool to watch. Sure, the drama was retelling a 60-year-old story, but it could have just as well been today. Well done, Disney.

All I can say is, “Wow.” The best movies to me are the ones that make you sit and think afterwards. A good action/adventure movie is good, but a really good drama can really hit you. A girl is kidnapped at 17 and forced to live in a locked garden shed. Now it’s 7 years later and she has a boy (played by Jacob) who just turned 5. To ease his life, she has led him to believe that their “room” is all that there is to the world and reality. They do eventually get out. That’s not a spoiler, because the trailers and even the movie description says so. Don’t worry, that’s not ruining the ending. Though exciting and suspenseful, it’s not the end of the movie. Imagine writing a review for The Great Escape without dropping the bombshell that the prisoners escape at some point. Spoiler Alert. The best part of the movie is in the acting, particularly the young Jack (played by Jacob). You see a full range of emotions in him that would be expected on an older actor, yet at the same time he is innocent, as a boy should be. You see fear, anger, and best of all wonder. You can see when he’s trying to puzzle out an idea. You feel triumphant with him at times. The movie makes you want to cheer out loud at parts. There were even some scenes were I wondered if the young Jacob would be able to pull off the needed performance. He does, and quite well. And then you can feel the tragedy in the whole situation. Young Jacob isn’t the only top-notch actor here. The mother and the entire supporting cast are quite good. The movie shows wonder when it needs to show wonder and it shows pain when it needs to hurt. The cinematography is wonderful. Most scenes are shot from the young Jack’s view, sometimes too close, off-angle, or slightly out-of-focus. Here it adds to the emotions that Jack is showing. I don’t know about a “feel good” movie, but it is certainly a “feel” movie.

The trailers made it look like a movie I would like to see. A post-apocalypse action film. Cool! Like Terminator or Independence Day, right? Why are they showing that one girl so much? I want to know what’s happening with the adults. Why are we back with the girl? No, it’s a teenage thriller! All right. Advanced aliens show up and try to get rid of humanity so they can have the Earth. They send “wave” after wave of attacks against us. The first wave is an EMP pulse which knocks out all of our electronics. It also knocks out running water, to which I say, “Waaa?” In most cases, your running water will work in most cases during a power outage. But I punched myself in the head until I could accept that and kept watching. It was disturbing to watch a plane slowly tilt in the sky before falling to the ground. The second wave brings a literal wave. Earthquakes (unshown) cause tsunami waves on all coastal areas. The main character says they only survive because of their lake (instead of the ocean). Can a lake have a tsunami? A Google search confirmed that it can happen. All right, movie. You got me that time, but I’ve got my eye on you. The third wave is disease in birds that crosses over to, and kills most of, humanity. I had visions of the television show The Last Ship on this one. The 4th and 5th waves are a bit more muddy. By the end of the movie, you’ve figured out the 5th–being the whole point of the movie. What exactly was the 4th. Well, I looked it up online, but it’s not entirely clear. Is now the 4th? Now? How about now? I guess the first three waves were so dramatic. The 4th wave is less so. I guess they didn’t want to name the movie The Fourfifths Wave. And then there’s the teenage girl love-triangle. I guess every teenage girl longs to be loved by two men. One is not enough. Neither should there be four. Five is straight out. And then the character has “thank you” sex? Really? Has this generation devalued sex to the same level as a handshake? I suppose the sex is only implied and not shown. They could have lowered themselves off-screen for a snuggle. That was probably it. Whoa. She’s what, 16? The leading man looks a healthy 25. Ages on either side aren’t defined. I’m sure they were only snuggling. The whole time I was thinking, “What about the man of her dreams that she is a scene away from meeting?! Can’t she wait just a little longer?!” But that is the teenage angst getting to me. Maybe you’re supposed to feel this way (if you’re a teenage girl). I don’t want to drop any spoilers on you. I’ll just say the ending left much for me to desire. The entire thing was very “Meh” for me. The movie as a whole was like watching survivalists tromping through a forest. Occasionally, Dick Cheney shoots at them. The movie has a few, “What?” moments and a few, “Why not?” Moments. Those may or may not be intended. Yes, if you’re a teenage girl. No, if you’re not. Hey, it’s better than Divergent. That’s pretty high praise.

I read a review of this movie which called it “visual poetry.” It was definitely that. Everything about the movie was beautiful to behold. The entire movie was shot from low angles, either at waist-height or lower. Combined with the low angle, most shots were very close up. The resulting combination made you feel up close with the action and story. You may be afraid of the camera shaking a lot, but that wasn’t the case. All shots were easy to make out… just low and up close. The central theme of the movie is survival. The main character (played by Leo) has to endure so much, and yet he keeps going. It was tough to watch everything he endures (no spoilers). The pacing of the movie was slow. That was fine, because it allowed you to soak in the cinematic beauty. But on occasion, the movie seemed to crawl. Near the end, the movie completely shifts gear, becoming more of an action/adventure film. That’s more my speed. It was like going to visit a beautiful park, spending some time in deep meditation, and then deciding to stay for an extra 15 minutes. The first part of the of the park visit was great. The last part? Not so much. The movie dripped beauty. Usually, it stayed on the cusp of being relaxing and not boring. Occasionally, it crossed that line. It was a good film. Really, it was.

If you’ve seen any of Quentin’s previous films, you know he’s pretty loose with his language–like the f-bomb is just another adjective. If you’ve seen Django Unchained, then you know he’s pretty loose with the n-word, too. Some people called it “authentic,” but I felt it was a little jarring. There was a point early in the movie when one character drops the n-word and another character says, “You know, black people don’t like to be called that.” At this point, I wondered if this film would be free of the n-word, or at least very light on it. Psych! The rest of the movie is very heavy on the word. The movie itself seemed like a stage play. One character walks up to another character and spills his entire life story as an introduction. The second character responds by spilling his entire life story. Both stories serve as an introduction for the audience, but come off as un-natural. I had a writing teacher describe this as “soap opera dialogue.” It was odd to see it on-screen. The Broadway production of The Hateful Eight is gonna be huge. The gore was heavy… In some parts of the movie I would consider it over-the-top. There was one scene that caused all of us to gasp. If you’ve seen The Kingsman, and you call that a “ten” for violence, I’d call this one an “eight.” It sneaks up on you, too. For the first part of the movie, little to no violence. Then BAM! Violence is hot and heavy. There’s at least one scene where I think there was violence just for violence sake–I don’t think it was realistic for that character to act that way. If you put the language and gore aside, how was the movie? Well, it’s quite a lot of both to put aside, but I’ll try. It definitely put you into what Wyoming during a blizzard in the Old West would feel like. The sets and costumes looked terribly authentic. You see characters ride in a stage coach, and you find yourself marveling at how rough it seems in comparison to modern automobiles. The characters wind up in a trading post cabin in the middle of nowhere on their way to a town in the middle of nowhere. It oozes authenticity, and is an eye-opener to what life was like in the Wild, Wild West. But the language and gore… It was tough to stomach. Was language really that rough at that time? I thought language of today was a product of hip-hop, street culture. Am I just being racist? I need to do some Googling now and find out when heavy language became a “thing.”

The movie reminded me of when kids get together and try to appear macho by cussing and being the most crude. Every crude joke is taken to the extreme. Even the aging parents are not spared. Are we supposed to be scandalized when the two are just as crude as the kids?

The joke of the movie (good guy vs. bad guy) escalates in just about every way it can. Will’s character is looked down on by his kids, his boss, and his acquaintances. Mark’s character is the exact opposite. He has what appears to be an easy time in all he does. This being the crux of the film tends to run out of steam about half way through the film. OK, how much horrible can you make this guy’s life while boosting this other guy? Finally, near the end, the joke does an about-face which saves the joke and the movie. It’s like an SNL skit that was allowed to run for too long (and we’ve all seen those).