The Curious Case of John Carter: Secrets and Synchronicities. It's generally a tradition here on The Secret Sun to look at movies long after they've been in the theaters, usually because I like to take the time to analyze them on my computer screen.
I also like to be able to post screenshots with captions, since what's being said is often as important as what's being shown. The takeaway with John Carter was what a bust it was for Disney, who took a 200 million dollar writeoff on the film. But the film grossed almost $300 million worldwide, hardly a flop, especially for a March release. The problem was the budget, but the real problem was the promotion.
The film's writer/director Andrew Stanton is responsible for some of the biggest box office hits of our time, including the Toy Story films, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, and A Bug's Life. The title said nothing about the film, with wags citing a so-called "Mars curse" for dropping the "...Of Mars" from the marquee. There's also new mysteries to puzzle over, as there after every mission. Elysium (2013) Her. All Critics (74) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (69) | Rotten (5) One of the more original, hilarious and even heartbreaking stories of the year.
It's hard to imagine any actor of his generation who could have carried off the lead role in Her other than Joaquin Phoenix. What gives the film a significant upgrade is Mr. Jonze's gift for understated poetry, with intimations of philosophy. Lyrical flashbacks illuminate the love its hero once had, and lost. It's a measure of Jonze's grace as a filmmaker that scenes that might have come across as satiric or smarmy are instead deeply resonant.
Johansson's vocal tour de force is award-worthy. The film's genius is how it grounds the notion of a man falling for an artificially intelligent machine with reality. Wonderful performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Scarlett Johansson bring Spike Jonze's fanciful, strange sci-fi tale to vibrant life, though the film's delicate poetry prevents it from properly detailing the intriguing world it presents. Inception. All Critics (290) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (248) | Rotten (39) | DVD (6) An astonishment, an engineering feat, and, finally, a folly.
It's only the latest indication that Christopher Nolan might be the slyest narrative tactician making movies today. Pretty good, not bad, but brilliant it surely ain't. Inception is a boldly constructed wonder with plenty of -- as one character describes it -- "paradoxical architecture. " I found myself admiring the movie's stubborn adherence to its own universe and logic. Nolan, like Cobb, is an assiduous extractor, and he knows how to wow audiences. Inception is the best film of the year and one of the best films of the decade, this is Nolan's masterpiece and it is perfect in every regard. Nolan's eyes here were a little too big for his stomach. A smart and inventive thriller, this drama is one of the year's best movies. Nolan has cemented himself among the great filmmakers of our time, not only with this film, but with most of his other works as well.
District 9. All Critics (262) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (235) | Rotten (27) | DVD (17) You don't feel bamboozled, fooled, or patronized by District 9, as you did by most of the summer blockbusters.
You feel winded, shaken, and shamed. Perhaps we're witnessing a new dawn for politically engaged sci-fi and horror, with Blomkamp as a latter-day George Romero. Either way, this is a stunningly impressive debut. To call this the best shrimp-from-outer-space South African apartheid allegory ever made does not begin to do it justice.
What an achievement in filmmaking. The backstory beats the hell out of the present-tense plot, a routine affair in which a well-meaning doofus working for the Man is infected with a virus, starts turning into an alien himself, and falls in with the oppressed creatures. If the basic idea is provocative, District 9 never lives up to the promise of its allegorical freight. Ghee whiz, how abusive can you get with a movie camera? District 9 isn't without its rough edges.