@Expenseroso, thank you. I feel like I've been taking crazy pills today. I really did have high hopes for this film, but as soon as Cage gave the utterly wrong-headed description of what determinism was in the first few minutes of the film, part of me gave up. I knew I wasn't going to be watching something serious,…

*is* pretty galling.

I've been bitching about it…
…but I will say that Proyas saves the best effects for the finale, and the scene with Cage driving through the city with Beethoven s Symphony no 7 (2nd movement) is pretty potent stuff. Proyas certainly knows how to storyboard a sequence. The big setpieces in this work very clearly, as…

It's totally using Rapture imagery, though. Whether or not the film is making any attempt to directly equate the aliens and our belief system is kinda moot, because the amount of information we're given about the aliens is pretty much zero. Knowing is all about making you feel the awe of the Biblical imagery, which,…

It's telling that Proyas makes the Whisper People manifest "wings" at the end. Plus, Alien Garden of Eden with the Tree of Knowledge in the final shot. I actually said "Fuck's sake!" out loud when I saw this at the cinema.

Well, the stuff about the phones and whatnot *are* nit-picking, but the stuff about why the Whisper People are doing what they do isn't. The majority of the movie is based on decoding these numbers. Firstly, an astronomer can't? And secondly, why are beings of such great power wasting our time like that? Just take the…

Yes, mbs is right. Pointing out that the film uses pointless obfuscations and narrative trickery - that make no sense on any logical level - to bring us to a finale loaded with scary Biblical imagery in place of actual content, and therefore is an utter failure as a meaningful emotional experience, existing more as a…

Spoilery complaints
Cage's explanation of determinism at the start is totally off. It's not that "The chaos of the world actually has an eventual reason." It's that our futures are determined at the point of the Big Bang, and nothing we can do can change that. Any "reason" this has is assigned by us, not by the…

I like how Nicolas Cage, in that scene, is utterly unfazed by objects whizzing past his face a couple of times, and cannot be burned by the fire he is practically standing in at one point. A for story boarding, C for execution.

From great to terrible
From Love and Death:

Manhattan is his masterpiece, Sleeper is essential viewing, and Husbands and Wives is his last great (or even good) film. You should definitely catch those, and probably a bunch of others (Hannah and her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose).

Not everyone did. If that's a comfort to you.

::salutes::

Wikipedia has it listed as forthcoming for Rock Band 2, along with an Anvil trackpack. And ABC by The Jackson Five.

The only Cronenberg film I've ever not loved was Eastern Promises, which bored me, much to my immense disappointment. Everything else, especially Dead Ringers, Videodrome, and Crash, are purest filmgold. He's my favourite director by far.

Especially as they've already released Dead Ringers and Videodrome.

Temeraire
Oh to be a dragon rider in Naomi Novik's alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars. The best bits of Patrick O'Brien and Anne McCaffrey smooshed together. Bring it on.

Surely you could only live in Nemesis' world if you're an alien. The humans are fuckheads.

Definitely. Altman's Popeye is fantastic.

Sheltie FTW. The Culture was always what I hoped the future would be like, even though they are arrogant and naive and generally dicks. But they're dicks with a great life. I'd sell out in a second.