59% on Rotten Tomatoes
This film is relatively recent about an air marshal who, in the middle of an international flight, starts receiving text messages saying from a terrorist demanding $150 million, else a passenger dies every 20 minutes. Since it stars Liam Neeson, you can pretty much guess how it's going to end.
I will firstly say that overall it was a great and intense action-packed film. The beginning and middle are set out really cleverly and you really wonder who the terrorist is and how he is doing all of this killing. They had some clever twists thrown throughout the film that just added to the intensity of it and it was a pretty good thriller.
However, a huge down side is the ending. IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE! When you find out why the terrorist was doing what he was doing it doesn't make any sense at all. That really detracted from the clever writing of the film and you kind of discard all the good points you just saw. Another thing was that it had a great supporting cast including Lupita Nyong'o and Julianne Moore, however these characters didn't do anything! Like they could have replaced these actors with random actors and it still would have been okay since their roles were so minor anyway!
All in all, it was a good film that was very exciting and thrilling; it had great action scenes and was really clever... UP UNTIL THE END. I would still recommend watching it, but don't expect to be amazed at the end because you won't be.
I think the CRAZIEST thing though was that I watched it Thursday night and was like so scared of going on planes and then on Friday morning I woke up to hear the news about the MH17. I was actually freaking out, I don't think I'll be going on another international plane for quite some time now.
8.0/10 on IMDb
90% on Rotten Tomatoes
Okay I watched this film like ages ago so I can't really remember it but I'll try my hardest.
This film came out in 2009 so it's kind of old and I think a lot of people watched it because it was quite hyped up.
So the story is about these alien creatures that find their way on planet Earth and eventually end up living in Johannesburg in a huge slum area called District 9. One government worker, Wikus van de Merwe, unfortunately ends up having accidentally sprayed some sort of alien juice onto him, which then slowly transforms him into an alien himself. The movie then proceeds to follow Wikus as he tries to escape from the government (who wants to conduct experiments on him) as well as from the Johannesburg community (who thinks he's a freak and wants him killed).
The storyline is alright I guess, but I didn't really like it. Firstly, the beginning bit was very chaotic. For about 30 minutes the film takes on the style of a news report or just has a montage of clips of news or documentaries about the aliens. It's all very confusing and there's a lot of shaky cam and very headache inducing. Thankfully, the movie then proceeds as normal. It's a bit chaotic though, which is probably what they were after since the characters and the whole situation is very chaotic.
I think the actor for Wikus was a first-time actor, so great props to him, but his character was so annoying. Like I know this is deliberate but I was just so annoyed at him. Usually I love African accents but I just wanted to punch this guy in the face.
Anyway, back to the movie, I think it was okay and the storyline was very very unique and interesting but it's not something I would watch again. I think it just depends on the person though, this film is probably a very polarising one where you either love it or hate it.
6.7/10 on IMDb
68% on Rotten Tomatoes
I actually watched this movie before District 9 and so when I watched District 9 I thought that it looked so much like Elysium, then I realised they were directed by the same person.
The film is actually quite similar in many respects, such as the dystopian slum-like setting, the themes of power/government and discrimination, as well as the idea of the main character getting injured/infected in some way and needing to change it.
So the premise is that Earth is now a huge slum where all the poor people live. Where do all the rich people live? Well they live in this artificial planet in space called Elysium. It's beautiful, it's perfect and it has everything (including a body scanner called a Med-Bay in every home that can fix any health problem you have). Black markets exist where the people on Earth try to get smuggled into Elysium on space ships to get a shot at getting healed by the Med-Bay. However, most space ships get shot down and only a few get through, but when they can, they break into a home and fix their problem. To fix the problem, you need to be scanned as a resident of Elysium, so these people go to the black markets to get barcodes done so that they can scan as a resident.
We follow Max Da Costa (Matt Damon), who gets injured in a way that will ensure his death very soon, so he reluctantly tries to go up to Elysium by striking a deal with the leader of the black market, who asks him to steal information from some Elysium CEO who has just made a visit to Earth.
I guess it's a good idea, but you wouldn't watch it for the plot. It's a good movie for entertainment but probably nothing more. I think it had some good themes and symbolism though, such as the leader of the black market having a disability but not choosing to get it healed obviously because there's a huge risk of getting blown up in the space ship.
However, some of the plot elements don't really make sense or are just way too convenient, so it shouldn't be something to take seriously.
On a side note, I liked how they called it Elysium, which refers to the mythological Elysian Fields (or sometimes Elysium) located in the Underworld. According to Greek mythology, heroes and good people's souls come here to rest after death, whereas bad people go to Tartarus, the dungeon in the Underworld where they are tormented. In this sense it's relating the artificial planet of Elysium to heaven, as opposed to the hell that is the wasted Earth below.
How did I know that? WELL *cue segue*:
I conned my brother into buying me this Usborne book of Greek Myths as my early birthday present.
It's so cool! It's got most of the main Greek myth stories with a few illustrations and little facts throughout the book. It's got a large font as well so that helps (yes I am a granny), but yeh I love how they put it all together. And even at the end they have an extensive list of definitions and information on all the Greek mythology characters. Some of the stories are pretty cool and for the ones that have journeys (e.g. Heracles/Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts) they even include a map.
Definitely a fun read and I'm considering getting more books on ancient myths or just ancient history in general.
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