I thought the movie offered up plenty of food for thought.
honestly, I personally was understimulated by the movie. It barely gave me anything to think about. So I'm honestly curious to hear what stimulated you, since it didn't do anything for me.
I had a substitute teacher my senior year of high school who did as well. I'm pretty sure he represented the beginning of the hipster movement. I got in an argument with him about it in physics class. He said it was just a Braveheart redux. I kind of agreed with him to an extent, but, I mean, read some Joseph Campbell. The stories we tell are often extremely similar. He also said that Braveheart sucked. At that point, I realized that, despite the fact that he was probably in his late 20s, and I was only 17, I was pretty sure, if I needed to, I could kill him with my bare hands. In fact, I probably would've put money on my sister if the two of them were fighting. That was my first encounter with the thought that later became applicable to almost all hipsters: that some men's absence of masculinity leads them to trash "traditional" masculinity, and the things that honor/respect/uphold it, because, if it came down to it, they would likely get their ass kicked by most athletic girls.
sadly, I was very enamoured with Braveheart when it came out, but as time passed, I ended up feeling that Rob Roy (which was understated) was a much "better" movie in terms of sheer realism and characterization. Braveheart, I guess, does what it does well -- it seems like an ENFP wet dream, to be honest, with very broad philosophical and humanitarian themes promoted heavily, and the ideas weren't bad, but it seemed a bit over-dramatic upon repeated viewings to me and over the top.
I, personally, very much like Gladiator, but I know there are a fair number of people who will criticize it, and I don't think it's completely out of the realm of "criticizeability" (although, in general, I think the people who will criticize it will do so mostly because they don't like those kinds of movies).
I think the more realistic approach to similar themes to me leaves me calling it a "better" movie than Braveheart in my eyes, although I know some were likely not as inspired by it.
I can agree more with this.
She probably could've been better utilized.
But, I mean, the story is the story; what more did she need to do?
I had a big issue with the story and thought it was rather stupid. I would rather have story flow from character, rather than characters be dragged along in the wake of the plot.
But maybe that's the writer in me coming out. I even like to have my villains fleshed out; I want readers to actually feel something when something happens to the characters. I want it to be meaningful.
I read this really lousy fantasy book in the 80's called Wizard War or something. There were three wizards who were all kind of cliches, on this quest. About 3/4 of the way through, one of them broke his arm in a routine mishap, got pneumonia, and died, all in the space of maybe a page or two.
It was one of the worst books I've read in my life.
Me neither.
I love the first one; saw the second one before I ever saw the first one, when I was really young (same thing for T2 vs T1), and loved it, so, while it's definitely hokier than the first (once again, just like T2 vs T1 [although T1 has some hoke, too]), it's still an enjoyable film to watch, and I give it two thumbs up; the third I remember kinda watching a bunch of times, but I always thought it kinda was crap; the fourth, I just have/had absolutely no desire to see (and I saw
both AVP movies!).
I actually saw both AVP movies too. Since I wasn't expecting much, they actually didn't bother me much, and I could enjoy them on that level.
I think Joss Whedon did the script, didn't he, for Alien Res? Apparently there was a huge "tone" issue -- he wrote one kind of script from which someone tried to direct a very different kind of movie. Result: Kaplooey.
I'm a big fan of the first two terminator movies. I saw T2 at a midnight showing either Wednesday or Thursday night when it was released, the theater was packed. It was so bad-ass, until that point moprhing (in computer terms) didn't yet exist and Cameron created the tech for that movie. watching the t-1000 do its thing was just mind-blowing even if today it seems old hat. And the director's cut of the movie was even better. Cameron's usually good with that.
So T1 was meaningful (with Reese to me being the central drama of the story -- this guy who loves this girl and is faithful to humanity's cause and John Connor comes back to save Connor's mom and ends up being his father, and Connor knew it all along when he sent him back), but a little dated due to the tech at the time. Still, just an awesome movie... and somehow T2 managed to take things up a notch and keep the intensity coming.
And then T3 was just someone's rip-off of the first two movies. I thought T4 actually was a bit better, and dealt with the theme of "what makes someone human." People's fates are a theme throughout all the T movies -- "our fate is what we make it" -- so it was nice they kept some continuity there.
I don't think the Alien franchine fared quite so well, after the first two movies were in the hopper.
I agree with everyone who nailed Vicks as an extreme Self-Preservation. Very very clear on that count.
Some viewers have suggested she is an android herself, for bits of evidence (such as her slamming David with ease against the wall in one scene). i don't really think that's the case, since Wayland needed to have a son apparently enough to build an android son for himself, and wasn't happy with having a bio daughter... plus the entire med unit which was one of 12 in existence and costing lots of money would have been completely useless for an android woman. It doesn't make sense for her to be anything but bio.
EDIT: I will also state that before I saw the movie, I wasn't even aware of the possibility of a second one. That never crossed my mind until I left the theater and/or saw the very end of the movie. So that also has factored into my perception of the movie, that the entire viewing I was judging it as a standalone piece. It certainly didn't help my attitude toward it.
