Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Oblivion- Pretty good. 70's bleak hard-ish scifi by way of 80's scifi spectacle and synth-ish score.

The drones were particularly brutal given the rating. Jaime Lannister seemed extraneous though- and the movie would have been better if we hadn't known Miogan Freeman was in it ahead of time (but that would have been impossible to market...).

Overall, a nice change of pace. The one larger twist is easy to anticipate but there's another significant twist that's still a surprise.

I often describe the senses evoked by Tron Legacy as noble and nostalgic. While Oblivion has a thread of nostalgia also (of honoring the loss of the past versus Legacy's restoring the past/fighting what that past has become), it's more about an odd mix of yearning and contentment.

However I can't be the only one who thought the director had probably hoped to bring Olivia Wilde over to this movie after Tron Legacy, given the female lead resemblance...

 

"First rule of government spending: why build one, when you can have two, twice the price? They still want an American to go, Doctor- feel like taking a ride?"

 

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

This was a really good film. A sort of character piece examining men and their legacies as fathers, showing how the consequences of their actions inevitably affect their children. I have to say, the trailers were very good at concealing a major plot twist, which I won't give away here. But it was a good story, very multifaceted.

All of the acting was top notch. Bradley Cooper really shows his range with films like this and Silver Linings Playbook. Ryan Gosling was great, and I really liked Ben Mendelsohn. Ray Liotta was good, as was Eva Mendes. And the film looked great too. Schenectady was a great setting.

Kind of an aside, but I think the poster looks kinda weird. Gosling looks like someone straight out of the US Civil War for some reason.

 

Looper (2012)

Caught this On Demand. I really liked it, really liked the concepts it tackled and thought it used time travel in a really cool, creepy way. Parts reminded me of The Terminator and its first sequel, about changing the past vs accepting fate, and I liked how these impacted the characters, especially JGL's character. Time travel was a means of character growth, and raised a lot of questions on morality and ends justifying means.

The acting was good all around; even the kid who played Cid. I imagine he'll go down as one of those kid actors in the league of the girl from the Exorcist and Haley Joel Osment from The Sixth Sense. I liked the future setting. It was clearly futuristic (duh), but also seemed like a realistic look at our future, more akin to Blade Runner than, say, I, Robot. The time travel stuff was a little wibbly wobbly, but at least it was fairly consistent.

 

The Dark Knight Rises.

I liked this one better than The Dark Knight. I liked the references to Batman Begins, including the reappearance of Liam Neeson. I also found Bane to be a much more interesting villain than the Joker, and I liked the symbolism of Bruce Wayne "rising" from the prison of depression. The ending was really sad and profound, and I wonder what DC will do with Robin now that he's been introduced.

And I am soooo coming back as Catwoman in my next life. You heard it here first.