Movie Thoughts Bundle (2010) #1

In this collection of short reviews, we’ll explore the year 2010 where Denzel Washington continues to prove why he's the quintessential movie badass, vampires take over the world (they have their own Starbucks!), social network relationship dilemmas get mixed in with the found footage genre, and I learn a valuable lesson about movie marketing tricks. 

1. The Book of Eli - 7/10

I do have to say right out of the gate that this movie had a bit of an uphill battle within the excitement department for me considering the crowded “post apocalyptic thriller” genre market. However, what made The Book of Eli a little different and unique in some way is the main theme of religion being heavily involved. Religion plays a big role in this movie and I dug the whole general idea behind the story showing how powerful religion can be to a society that has no god to look up to. Aside from that, I enjoyed Denzel Washington in the movie as the titular character Eli playing this badass wandering protagonist in a wasteland setting. 

This is a personal thing for me as it took me back to one of one of my favorite anime characters, Vash the Stampede (the Trigun series). I guess I've always found these types of character archetypes "the mysterious gunslinger or samurai moving through different towns" to be equally alluring and intriguing and this movie certainly plays on that element a bit. Now I won't spoil anything regarding where this movie takes Denzel's character, but there is a major twist that surrounds his entire perspective and journey that I really enjoyed once it was revealed later on in the movie. It’s a pretty crazy revelation that added a whole new layer of fun speculation in retrospect. These types of plot twists almost always seem to get me whenever something gets revealed to the audience later on that changes the entire viewer's perspective on the narrative. 

Now, as far as negatives go, it’s kinda tough to pinpoint a specific notable issue in this movie, but what I can say is that I simply didn’t find it as exciting as perhaps it tried to be. The visual direction is decent, the central cast is great, and the story is solid. However despite all of that, I just left the movie never really thinking too much about it afterwards nor ever having the desire to revisit it.  I suppose you can say that it's one of those “seen it once, now onto the next” situations where re-watchability just isn’t as strongly encouraged. 

2. Daybreakers - 8/10

Daybreakers takes the overly utilized vampire mythos and finally does something fresh and creative with it for the mainstream audience. The change being the idea of presenting a future where the world has been almost completely taken over by the vampire race. Now wait, before some of you start immediately referencing movies like I Am Legend or 28 Days Later where it’s a post apocalyptic wasteland of monsters chasing people, this isn’t really that at all. That would've been the easy creature feature horror-thriller route to take, but what Daybreakers decides to do is instead showcase a world where vampires literally run everything by altering things from societal norms, racial hierarchy  and even technology to suit their survival needs. This concept made for some interesting and creative use of vampire lore extended through its stylistic futuristic setting. 

Honestly, this is the real highlight of the movie that kept me personally invested more so than the actual story itself. Now that's not to say that the narrative isn't intriguing in its own right, but this is one of those movies where the ideas being explored ends up being the primary hook factor for me while the storytelling and characters just drives things along. As for any cons, similar to my experience with The Book of Eli, there’s certainly enough to admire and enjoy here, but there's also a slightly lacking sense of excitement imbued. This results in Daybreakers simply being a decent one-off watch with no notable reasons to revisit. But now that I think about it, perhaps it's perfectly fine for some movies to be exactly that and nothing more...a decent enough "one and done". 

3. Catfish - 8/10

For the majority of this movie, I found myself entertained, interested, and completely immersed in the situation that the main character was going through. This is due to solid character development and an engaging enough establishment of the journey and conundrums being explored. Catfish displays a great life lesson that relates to the use of Social Network sites and how people can taint the concept of a trust-worthy online relationship. In that way, I’d say the themes were well defined from beginning to end and certainly made for an investing experience. 

Now where this movie's greatest flaw comes in funny enough isn't necessarily with the movie itself but the marketing that preceded it. This is where for me it gets kinda tricky because how much can one penalize a movie's experience with its marketing campaign just simply doing its job to hype up the release? This has always been a slippery area with film for a while now and Catfish sort of (though not heavily) falls into that camp. I’ll never forget watching the official trailer when it first released getting amped up at that highlighted final quote that said "The final forty minutes of the film will take you on an emotional roller-coaster ride that you won't be able to shake for days." This is the quote that sold me to see this movie and, though I found the movie to be engaging overall, I never felt that anything truly lived up to that marketing hook. 

It’s not a knock on the movie per se but the bold expectations being pushed that just wasn't met. Yes, there is a big revelation that happens in the final act, but certainly nothing that remotely comes close to living up to what the official trailer was building up. Putting that all to the side, I do still very much believe that Catfish is worth a watch for anyone looking for a found footage style (let's call it more of a documentary?) film that isn't leaning on anything supernatural but a very real issue that has plagued many people in the world of online relationships. 

4. Skyline - 4/10

Skyline is one of those classic instances in film history of a movie having a highly promising marketing campaign that promises a big budget Hollywood release standard of quality but ends up revealing itself as being the antithesis. I immediately think back to all of my years scouring through the aisles at Blockbuster picking up every single VHS or DVD in the horror and science-fiction sections that had a cool cover art. I'd immediately rent the one that looked the most visually alluring only to find out seconds into the film that what I'd rented was some low budgeted B-movie that somehow made its way on the same shelf that held mainstream released titles. 

Embarrassingly enough, some of those movies were not too far off from almost being considered "softcore porn" and yet had the type of high quality looking costume design centered cover artwork that would imply otherwise. This is something that has plagued film fans for years and Skyline is officially the latest in that long line of misdirects. Only instead of the cover art doing the work, it's the spectacle heavy teaser trailer. Now just as the trailers promised, Skyline certainly did deliver on many of its visual elements from giant alien ships and alien monsters filling the screen with bright blue alluring lights attracting victims like a moth to a flame. As a sci-fi nerd, it’s hard not to at least admire some of the imagery being shown off in this movie in certain parts. 

There's also the last 5 minutes which shifts the direction into becoming an interesting and excitement-worthy science-fiction blockbuster once a major character twist happens. Everything else before that point however…well like I said initially...this is yet another misdirect movie. Despite the first couple of trailers pitching this as an epic alien invasion spectacle to behold on the big screen, Skyline ends up being one giant boring mess. No matter how much “cool looking imagery” gets tossed around onscreen, you still have to contend with dull and forgettable characters, terrible performances, and an empty sense of personal stakes. Skip this one like the plague.