Movie - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The following text will likely contain spoilers.

Movie - Triangle (Analysis)

Please note that this blog entry is going to be full of spoilers on the movie Triangle; it is an in depth analysis both of the plot, and the strong and weak points of the movie. If you would like to read a review of it that is spoiler free, please proceed to my review of Triangle.

Movie - Triangle

Although it is labelled as a horror, I wouldn't call Triangle such. It is not really scary, and although several elements common to horror movies do happen to exist in the movie, the way the story plays out is quite surprising. I would classify this as a really good psychological thriller.

The movie has quite a fair amount of shock value, and before the movie is half over, at least one of your pre-conceptions about the way this type of movie should play out will be shattered. The plot twists and bends and continues to mess with your mind, and for me, I was pretty much on the edge of my seat until the end of the movie.

This is a movie that benefits coming in with a blank slate. The trailer does contain a fair amount of spoilers but is presented in such a way that they are not what they seem - a good twist in my mind, although I would recommend seeing this without watching the trailer first if possible.

The most difficult part of describing this movie is doing so without giving away any spoilers, so in that sense let me just say that the plot of this movie has to be seen first hand to fully appreciate. If you know what to expect, a lot of the "What the!" moments of the movie will not quite have the same impact. Luckily, even in that case, the movie itself is a big puzzle, and it doesn't quite tell you how all the pieces fit together, so there is still entertainment value if you know what to expect.

This movie isn't without flaws though. In my rumination over the puzzles, I have found at least one of what seems like a logical flaw to me (or at least, a piece of the puzzle that leads to a less satisfying answer). Furthermore, some of the character development was not as strong as you would like - although then again, the reason for this is part of why the movie was so shocking to me and so I'm not entirely sure how they could have done this differently.

In Depth plot analysis - including huge spoilers

Trailer:

Movie - Ever Since The World Ended

Ever Since The World Ended is a fictional documentary that takes place in a future where plague has ravaged most of the human race, leaving behind only a small group of survivors. It takes place in LA, where the population has been reduced from millions to less than two hundred.

The atmosphere is perhaps the most interesting part of the movie, although it is obvious in some parts the tricks they used to make LA feel more empty than it actually was. Regardless, if you just accept it, it really does make the world feel a lot more bleak and dangerous.

The people are of course the driving elements of the story, and the film gives a good impression of both those who lived before the plague and who are coping with the world they are left with and all that they've lost; and those who were born or grew up after the plague and never knew anything different. I think this is the most interesting point of tension in the movie, the difference between either groups approach to the plague and their goals for the future.

The movie also does include a couple of subplots, one involving a member of the community who had been dangerous in the past, and another about an expedition by several of the community members outside the city.

Despite this, the movie does come to somewhat of a dull ending, with no interesting conclusions being drawn or observations being made at the end. At the end of the film, there is a clip of the documentary being premiered, and the director says: "I tried to find a conclusion, but couldn't - so hopefully you'll draw your own as well." Unfortunately, like the filmmaker, I was not able to draw any conclusion from the film either.

Overall a film with some really interesting world building, a few interesting sub plots, that does a good job of feeling like a documentary but doesn't come to any satisfying conclusion.

Trailer:

Available At: Amazon