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The Eye
Starring: Jessica Alba
Released: 2008
Watched: At home, Sky Anytime TV.
Sidney is a concert violinist who lost her sight aged 5 and has been completely blind every since. She is given an operation to restore her sight using the corneas from a donor.
However the donor corneas belonged to a Mexican witch. And as soon as Sidney starts to regain her sight she starts to see things that are not there. These start off as shadows and movement, but soon become clearer as she realises it is the dead she can see, reliving their moment of death, or having just died, being taken away.
Later into the film there is also a nice twist in the story as Sidney looks at her "own" reflection in the mirror.
Verdict:
Normally remakes of JHorror films don't tend to be as good as the originals, but I normally still enjoy them. However I've not seen the original of this one so can't comment on how closely it follows the original, but I enjoyed it. While the story wasn't really anything new and we have seen this sort of JHorror inspired plot, it was done well and remained quite gripping and suspenseful to the end.
The last part of the film reminding me a lot of the beginning of Final Destination 2.
Score: 7.5/10
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I didn't see the remake yet, but I like the original from the Pang Brothers, very good. But forget about the 2 sequels, The Eye 2 and The Eye 10.
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Transformers 2
Watched: Cinema
The content of this film doesn't really need much introduction. Following on from the first film, the US military have joined forced with the autobots to hunt out and eliminate the remaining decepticons hiding on earth.
Meanwhile the rest of the deceptions are orbiting Earth and observing transmissions, searching for something hidden somewhere on Earth, lying in wait for the right time.
Events happen which alert the deceptions to the location of the artifact they have been searching, and a race is on to stop them activating it and destroying our sun.
Verdict:
The action is great and all the additional transformers on both sides are great to see in action. However they didn't spend any time introducing any of the new ones, and hardly any letting the main autobots talk or do anything except combat, which was a little disappointing.
The original couple also don't seem to have quite the same spark as the original film, and apart from a section near the beginning where she saves his life, Megan Fox's character doesn't seem to have much purpose in this film other than to keep a mini transformer under control.
Worth watching if you enjoyed the first film. The action is great, as is the transformations. However it just doesn't have the wow factor of the first film and feels like a bit of a franchise cash in.
Score: 7/10
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The Day The Earth Stood Still
Synopsis
Keanu Reeves is an alien representing a collection of races intent on preserving life-sustaining planets. He comes to Earth and sees how Man is driven by war and hate and is destroying the Earth, and starts a cleansing process to rid the Earth of man so that it may survive. A female doctor tries to show that mankind has another side, that of loving life and living selflessly, and that the current situations of war and environmental damage are at the turning point for man's evolution to becoming a peaceful, superior race. She shows it's not as simple as making a judgement, and he learns what it means to be human.
Verdict
I enjoyed this. It only has a few key scenes in, spread throughout the film, but you need the space in between for them to have their full effect. I'd probably only watch this once as it's more of a learning/journey film, but it's worth watching.
Score
7.5/10
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Starring: Shia LeBoeuf, Megan Fox
Seen at: Cinema
Plot synopsis:
Not much of a plot, actually. Megatron is brought back to 'life' and is more pissed-off than ever. On top of that, another, even more angry Decepticon is hiding out there somewhere, out to exact his revenge. Again, it's up to Sam and the Autobots to save the Earth from total annihilation.
Verdict:
I like my share of action, but Transformers 2 was a tiny little bit over the top when it comes to that. Basically, out of the 150 minutes of running time, at least 140 minutes was action. I'm not even kidding here. Coupled with the insanely LOUD soundtrack and bombastic music, I found myself suffering from ringing ears and headache after an hour had passed.
The special effects were top notch (again), and Megan Fox hot as ever, but that alone isn't going to make a good movie. I really hoped there would be a little more character development. How about, for example, properly introducing the new robots, as well as having more than 5 minutes of screentime for the rest, save Optimus Prime?
And again, in the battle between good and evil, the humans seemed to be doing quite well against the supposedly all-powerful Decepticons. In fact, during the final confrontation save for the very 5 minutes, the Autobots hardly seemed to contribute anything against the dozen+ Decepticons, yet the humans still held their own. I expected more out of the bad guys, honestly, especially considering they were numerically superior.
All in all, I thought it was an entertaining enough flick, but sadly, a missed opportunity to develop the franchise into something more than a mindless action romp.
Score: 6.2 out of 10
