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Gojira -1.0 (2023)
A monster of a movie, just great!
Director Takashi Yamazaki has managed to create a film with a relatively small budget of 15 million US dollars that can compete with Hollywood blockbusters in its action scenes. The staging of Godzilla is creative and the action scenes are intense. Despite the impressive effects, however, the focus of the film is on the human characters and their stories, which gives it a special depth.
Godzilla is portrayed in the film as an uncontrollable force of nature, an allegory of the nuclear horrors Japan has experienced in the past. The film also takes a political stance by criticizing the government that led the people into war. The film's visual effects and symbolism, such as Godzilla's mushroom cloud-like heat ray, speak to Japan's collective consciousness and add an extra layer of meaning to the film.
Overall, "Godzilla Minus One" is celebrated as a milestone in the Godzilla franchise that is not only defined by its effects, but is also a profound post-war drama. It's a movie that captivates from the first minute to the last with its emotional story and impressive drop heights.
I just can't believe how incredibly simple and brilliantly a lost generation's own coming to terms with the past and the search for the meaning of life after a lost total war has been so simply and ingeniously tied up in a movie. I bow my head. Great cinema.
Fast X (2023)
Full speed ahead into stupidity
Help! This series unfortunately has no end! Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto must once again defend the family, he is supported by many colleagues who also can not act. "Fast & Furious 10" ("Fast X") is a makeshift continuation of the fifth part: Dante (Jason Momoa) is the son of drug lord Hernan Reyes, who was once treated badly by the Torettos. Dante now wants to avenge his father, who was humiliated in the fifth part of the franchise. He also fights for the family - but for his own. As gruesomely crude and poorly told as the film is, if you look at it as a symptom, you can easily derive a social diagnosis from it: In this film, we encounter people without a world, and in the cinema audiences sit without a film. For dismemberment and fragmentation determine the form and content of this series.
The main characters, led by Dom Toretto, are anchored in a world dominated by consumerism and individualism. They act as a private intervention force in a gray area between nation-states, reflecting society's increasing disorientation and fragmentation.
The portrayal of the family as the highest good is a central element of the film. The Torettos act in the interest of family, and this is used as a cover to mask their own selfishness and individualism. This reflects late modern socialization, in which more and more people live in a present in which they do not recognize themselves.
The film shows a return to barbarism on all levels. The characters are people without a world and the viewers are spectators without a film. This is an expression of the total disorientation and fragmentation of society.
Despite its action-packed sequences and spectacular stunts, "Fast & Furious 10" is an expression of a crisis of the individual and a crisis of the political. The Torettos are a private intervention force operating in the gray area between nation-states.
The film reveals a crisis of critique. Dom articulates a malaise, but is unable to connect this diagnosis to an analysis. He is unable to think in contexts.
The film reveals nepotism and clear structures that continue to prevail. The Torettos act in the interest of the family against the family interests of another.
The film is an expression of an obscure neo-feudalism in which the attention given to someone is legitimized by birthright.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
AI and human stupidity
One has to conclude that the new Super Mario movie adaptation is a missed opportunity and reflects the unimaginativeness of today's pop culture. While the legendary but failed Super Mario movie of 1993 at least made an ambitious attempt and even managed to enlist Dennis Hopper as a supervillain, the new animated film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is content to turn the cinema into a dull place for secondary copyright exploitation.
Although a family film or a fanservice film can be quality and intelligently crafted, the new Super Mario film sticks to old familiar plot lines and characters. The film adaptation would have had the potential to creatively integrate the unique aspects of the video game, such as level structures and longitudinal aesthetics, into the plot. Instead, the film primarily features human stupidity.
Many films these days make use of similar narrative structures, with a hero or team fighting a supervillain to save the world. It is disturbing that both children and adults in today's pop culture tend to prefer the known and familiar rather than embracing something unfamiliar and innovative. This leads to intellectual stagnation and an increasingly boring cultural landscape.
In summary, the Super Mario film adaptation shows how cinema is serving less and less to tell new and original stories, but instead exploits old familiar and established culture. The future of the film world remains questionable if audiences and filmmakers are not willing to take risks and dare to do something new.
Im Westen nichts Neues (2022)
"Woke" wars do not exist
For the third time, Erich Maria Remarque's famous anti-war novel "Nothing New in the West" has now been filmed. Lewis Milestone's 1930 adaptation is a masterpiece, but the remake is equal to that version - although director Edward Berger shifts the emphasis by depicting the tough peace negotiations between Germany and France in some scenes. Nevertheless, the focus is on Paul Bäumer, who, together with his classmates who have just graduated from high school, initially believes they are embarking on a great adventure, until the first attack immediately robs them of all illusions. Cinematographer James Friend shows the horror of war in slightly stylized and at the same time hyper-realistic images, whose coloring is reminiscent of paintings by Otto Dix. The fact that man loses his individuality in war has rarely been experienced as clearly and painfully as it is here. The film appears at the right moment, because the militarization of society is progressing merrily.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
Why I stop the LORD THE RING series after 2 episodes
"The Rings of Power" is the name of the long-awaited "Lord of the Rings" series, which Amazon Prime has produced for one billion dollars. Expectations are correspondingly high for the most expensive series in the world to date. But is it really worth it to sit through all of these endlessly dragging, thoroughly opulent episodes? No! It is a waste of time. The pictures are not original, but kitschy. They are expensive, but absolutely tasteless. Here the 90s fantasy aesthetic celebrates its revival. Added to this are the sheer endless and eerily stilted dialogues murmured by the elves, who are supplied with a lot of hairspray. However, in order to understand the aesthetics, we should be aware of the actual economic background of this series. It is not about creating an interesting series experience, but we encounter a special form of customer acquisition here.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
The end of enlightenment
The "Thor" films were never really good, they were rather enervatingly colorful. This does not change with "Thor: Love and Thunder". Taika Waititi, who already tormented us with "Jojo Rabbit", has now taken over the direction of the new part of the Marvel film, which ensures a lot of silliness, which, however, should by no means cover the serious tones that are struck. The principle of remixing and sampling is an expression of postmodern pop culture, but we should not make the mistake of equating postmodernism with the so-called fun society. What if silliness and seriousness alternate in a dangerous way? Because it's clear, this comic adaptation also pleads for victimhood and preaches the ideology of just war. At the same time, this film is religiously influenced in a special way, the afterlife is just as present as the hope of a heroic death that lets you enter eternity. Chris Hemsworth as Thor also meets his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) again - together they have to compete against Gorr (Christian Bale), the slayer of the gods, to secure the rule of the gods and thus their own existence.
Moonfall (2022)
A disaster movie of considerable ugliness
How silly can a film be? Roland Emmerich's answer: Yes. And yet we make it too easy for ourselves if we dismiss "Moonfall" as just a stupid disaster film. Of course it is, but we should by no means overlook the ideological implications. The earth is once again threatened, this time not by a comet hurtling towards the earth as in "Don't Look Up", but by the moon. Not scientists as in Adam McKay, but a nerd discovers that the moon's orbit has suddenly changed. At first no one wants to believe him, the state research institutions are overwhelmed with the situation. It will be outsiders who lead the mission to save the world. At the same time, this nerd has a private problem: he wants to finally win his mother's approval. In addition, some broken patch-work families need to be patched up - in other words, a catastrophe threatening all of humanity comes just in time. Roland Emmerich, however, does not stick to this familiar scheme, he is drawn to the transcendent. A megastructure appears in space that leads us to the metaverse.
The Midnight Sky (2020)
Clooney is incompetent!
When directors look to the stars, they often think they have to get philosophical. Unfortunately! We experienced this in "Ad Astra" or "Gravity", for example - and time and again family problems have to be tackled. This is also the case with George Clooney and his Netflix film "The Midnight Sky", in which the actor also takes the lead role. As astronomer Augustine Lifthouse, lonely in the Arctic, left behind in a weather station, he no longer expects much from life, he is seriously ill. The year is 2049, a catastrophe, which is only hinted at, has ensured that the earth is uninhabitable. For a while now, humanity has been looking for an exit strategy, and a space mission has just returned from K23, a newly discovered moon, with the realisation that life is not only possible on the blue planet. Besides these two levels, there is a third, set in Lifthouse's past. We get to know a passionate explorer who - long live the cliché - but neglected his family and never established a proper relationship with his daughter. He is able to make up for this - postponed - in the present, as Lifthouse is suddenly surprised in the weather station by a little girl who had been hiding. "The Midnight Sky" is a science fiction film and a dystopia, it wants to be an existential drama and a socio-political discourse film full of mawkishness - none of which succeeds.Instead, we see the "Actuality of Philosophy" in the form of images.
Furthermore, this film is unspeakably slow in telling its story, not knowing what it wants to tell in the first place.
Alien Worlds (2020)
Sloooooow
Veeeeery slooooow to buy time to avoid having to develop too many ideas.
Disappointing.
1917 (2019)
Gaming: 1917
The Oscars are coming closer - and with them, the more demanding films in the cinema are also piling up. With "1917" Sam Mendes presents after JARHEAD again a highly interesting war movie. The First World War is raging, British troops want to attack the German troops, who are supposedly in retreat, when suddenly the British headquarters learn that it is actually an ambush. Two young soldiers, Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay), receive the order to warn their comrades. A race against time begins, which Mendes shows without a visible cut. The aesthetics are not accidentally reminiscent of video games: Through the gaming theme, the film can tell a lot about the nature of cinema, computer games and war.
6 Underground (2019)
Libertarian
Is there even a single reason why you shouldn't find Michael Bay movies horrible? Maybe one: Bay's aesthetics are closer to our ugly reality than we want to admit. This becomes clearer than ever in the Netflix production "6 Underground". In the film, Ryan Reynolds plays an arrogant billionaire who not only wants to make humanity happy with charity projects, but also wants to improve the world with private military interventions. In order to act unrecognized, he staged his own death. His six-member team supports this libertarian, completely undemocratic approach to the best of its ability - and of course Bay does not criticize it, but rather reinforces the message by aggressively promoting the products of large corporations. It's not nice, but it's enlightening.
Killerman (2019)
When the camera throws a tantrum
The film could have been a nice thriller with a drug lord, organized crime, nasty cops and so on. Then there is the money launderer's loss of memory. That doesn't help the plot at all, but rather slows it down. - - - - - - - - but it doesn't matter at all, because it's obviously a low-budget movie, which the film clearly shows. There are various scenes where nothing happens for minutes. For many minutes. The scene in the nightclub (in the trailer at minute one) lasts ten minutes in the film, and nothing happens at all in time. And when something happens, then there is only one very (!) shaky camera and many fast cuts. This is the easiest and above all also the cheapest trick, in order to compensate a missing action and to fake tension. You have the fast cuts also in the trailer, the wobbly camera was skilfully omitted there. However, the right film consists to 50% only of cut and wobbly camera. In this respect you should call the whole "helter skelter" rather than "film" rather "spectator fooling".
Hustlers (2019)
rate fluctuations
Jennifer Lopez is often underestimated, not least because she has starred in many weak films and often had to work with quite incompetent directors. But "Hustlers" shows what J.Lo can do. Director Lorene Scarfaria stages the 50-year-old as a seductive femme fatal and clever businesswoman who transfers the mentality of Wall Street to the microcosm of a strip club: "We have to think like the Wall Street guys," Ramona (Lopez) advises her colleagues when it comes to the financial crisis in 2007/2008 and the wallets of the gentlemen who amuse themselves every evening in the club is no longer so wide open. Ramona has an ingenious idea of how capital can continue to accumulate with a trick. "Hustlers" is an entertaining and intelligent film about feminism and capitalism - a real surprise in the 2019 cinema year.
Das perfekte Geheimnis (2019)
Homophobic and misogynistic
German comedies are not only stupid, unfunny and primitive, they also spread fire-threatening ideologies: Til Schweiger is not an isolated case, his colleague Bora Dagtekin has already taught the audience to despise the poor with his " Ju Göhte" series. Only those who submit to the dictates of the majority are integrated. This motif now returns in Dagtekin's new comedy "The Perfect Secret", but this film now has new victims: women and gays. Til Schweiger's film "Klassentreffen 1.0" was already homophobic and misogynistic, Dagtekin's work follows on from it, even though he proceeds a little more subtly - and thus is actually only more perfidious.
Gemini Man (2019)
Deeply inhuman
Director Ang Lee has created great movies like "Brokeback Mountain" and "The Ice Storm", but "Gemini Man" is a cinematic disaster and an intellectual declaration of bankruptcy. The action thriller could be the stupidest and at the same time most dangerous movie of the year, because the cloning of humans has rarely been so uncritically negotiated. Meanwhile, Will Smith does what he's always doing: to suppress the real problems with buddiness and emotion. "Gemini Man" relies on two technical innovations for all this madness: digital rejuvenation and 3D+.
Crawl (2019)
Climate change as an Olympic discipline
What strategies does Hollywood use to counter the threat of climate collapse? Although Alexandre Aja's disaster film deals with climate change, it never explicitly addresses it. Instead, a hurricane becomes the ultimate challenge for a competitive swimmer and her ambitious father. Together they take up the fight against the alligators and constantly spread an ideology: Only the strongest may and will survive.
Gisaengchung (2019)
A masterpiece
"Snowpiercer" was very good, "Parasite" is even better! Bong Joon-ho delivers a clever analysis of the class society in which we live today in his ingenious thriller, which is horror film, comedy and drama at the same time. A poor family invades the home of a rich family and starts working for them. But who are the real parasites? The society of the rich is characterized by friendliness and serenity - but it's precisely this habitus that you first have to be able to afford. And it shouldn't fool us about the balance of economic power. We don't see good or bad individuals in "Parasite", rather Bong Joon-ho has created character masks for his characters in order to expose the class relations. Moreover, "Parasite" is a thrilling and aesthetically brilliant movie, in which there isn't a single wrong picture.
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
No, no, no, no.
The "Terminator" series ends with a fiasco: the sixth part of Tim Miller cannot tie in with the great films of James Cameron, yes, he doesn't even try. "Terminator: Dark Fate" has nothing to say about explosive topics such as artificial intelligence, digitalization, and transhumanism; his visual language is not worth mentioning; instead, Arnold Schwarzenegger has to go back to T-800 to follow hollow showdown logic and turn the blockbuster cinema into a fairground for prize fighters. A film couldn't be more irrelevant, or even more boring.