erhen-o

Where is the mastery?

The story is simple to understand, a good start for great intrigue and action. However, after you understand the story, I was really disappointed that there was not enough mastery, and smart strategy, it's too simplistic (I know underneath it's still Disney!..). They would ALWAYS fight but "traditionally", there were effects, but I didn't see their real mastery. It was like they would win only by luck with a few tricks sometimes. Do you really need to fight body to body - even when you are out of your body (lol!) -, when you control energy and matter? Bizarre, right ! Especially, I think Tilda Swinton died way too easily. I mean, she is very "ancient" with great longevity, so she must have won a lot of big fights to have survived during all those years or centuries, and yet she just dies from a frontal stab after a 5sec fight?! Come on ! The doctor fights during 20mn we never see the end of it and bonus: he doesn't die ! She is supposed to be the "Sorcerer Supreme"... she should have saved the situation more times and fought more. She should have pulled off a magic trick that only her owns for example, like a true big master. I think it's definitely a scripting mistake. Anyway, she delivered a great performance, even if I don't understand what really motivated her to help the doctor. He never proved himself or argued his case. He just showed arrogance, and yet she taught him and told him all those big secrets, WHY? The guy is not even remotely interesting or likable. And he just drops in and takes over? Hmmm, that is just weird. I don't understand his real motivation.

Another hero based story (of course, I know, I know)

I know it's Marvel. But I'm still going to say it :) What does everybody else is doing while he is saving everybody on his own?! Why does he have to do it on his own, all the time? I wish I saw the other characters developed more. I think hero based stories where a sole person saves it all just really don't make any sense anymore in today's world. Not only does it means that everybody is weak and actually needs a hero, but also that power is concentrated in a few privileged "gifted" ones, not very positive and motivating in my sense. But that's Marvel's viewpoint. OK.

Excellent visual effects

The movie is beautiful though for the cracking power imagery. I don't get over such beautiful effects, with the city turned upside down and everything. Bravo !!!

This is a good movie, the acting is good even if I had the impression sometimes that the actress looked too normal for the role which gave the sense that she was acting this role and was not enough real. That said, I love this actress, she's excellent.

What caught my attention is that even if the story doesn't need any sexual/romance plot, and could be really more interesting without, the writer injected that in the story, and managed to encrust a scene where we see the actress full body naked. I don't mind naked bodies when it's necessary for the story, in the shower, in a love scene, in the bath... It was not really necessary here, and I don't understand why good actresses accept it. It sounds just like a pretext for the creators, because the character is a woman, therefore she has to have a sexual activity and we have to see her naked. I don't see Dustin Hoffman having to do this as rain-man, or Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump either, does that remove anything from their story? I believe it is just an artifact of our time. Adult woman stories don't need sex or nudity to be viewed as adult. Story of a plain woman without the necessary nudity and sex belongs to the future. Sticking to these ingredients is not modern, because it's like we're stuck with them, it prevents the story from developing beyond and cuts down the character's charisma and dimension.

For example, I wish we had seen the world more through her eyes in addition to the talk show, it would have been interesting to show how she interprets what people tell her, with cinematic effects or day dreaming scenes, or inner voice. The weakness of the movie is that it shows her from our point of view, not hers (despite her talk show), so all the drama in her life seems very trivial, it's almost like we mock her, but we don't understand her. We don't know how she really thinks. She just seems super crazy and it stops there. It made me think also of the movie "Requiem for a dream", what's with the craze for TV? Go to YouTube instead! There you can exist as you are ;)