Prisoners

Ratings: 8.2/10

Film Class: B+

Genre: Thriller

When the police releases the prime suspect behind the kidnapping of Keller Dover's (Hugh Jackman) daughter, he takes matters into his own hands and captures the suspect, effecting his own methods to force the truth out of him. But is the suspect really responsible behind the kidnappings (the town has a history of child kidnaps)? Or is he merely an innocent man who just happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time? 

That's the big question mark presented in the trailers. We already know what's coming... the kidnapping, the capturing of the suspect... but we don't know if the suspect is guilty or not. The first 45mins or so was the expected buildup, and though it took that long to progress into the storyline proper, it didn't fail to keep its audiences at the edge of their seats. 

I love the filming style, and the dull colors filling this dreary looking town played a huge part in creating the mood for this film. The cinematography during the first 45mins was rather artsy; out of focus split-screen-like shots, slow zooming-in shots of what looked like still-life images of trees and houses etc. All made to mimic the first-person view shots. 

The next hour or so was Saw-like, when Hugh Jackman started torturing this poor bugger... and the director skilfully played around with the audience's repulsion and sympathy for the suspect by presenting ambigous clues. I almost ran the risk of emotional schizo. *major spoilers ahead* I especially liked how the suspect whispered something to Hugh Jackman when he was being assaulted at a parking lot, and the chinese subtitles flashed so fast, words so incoherent it got me thinking, s*** what did I miss? Well, aparently it was intended... and to make matters worst, somehow the chinese subtitles in this movie were very tiny. Yes, tiny, like ants moving on a log tiny. 

Both Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman gave stellar performances, but there's a haunting question about Jake Gyllenhaal on my mind - is he on drugs? His strong blinking reflex was very prominent in this film, I'm not sure if it was intended, but I don't recall picking this up when I caught his other movies such as Donnie Darko, Source Code, Prince of Persia, Jarhead, Love & Other Drugs, Zodiac, The Day After Tomorrow and the recent End of Watch (yup, I've watched that many of his films... I think I'm a fan).

But he's still likeable nonetheless, despite his irritating blinking reflex. Hugh Jackman dominated the screen most of the time. Do not expect a fast-paced action thriller... There's lotsa dialogue in this, the music almost hypnotising and might not make such a great movie after a long day's work, but everything, the setting, the color scheme, the dialogue, were all crucial in creating the empathetic feel towards the devastated dad. Hell, if it was me, I'll prolly do the same. 

Did I mention that the plot rocks? It was solid. The entire story development was well thought of, and it became clearer piece by piece. Unlike most thrillers, when the twist hits, everything falls into place. Not for this, there were twists here and there, but like pieceing a jigsaw puzzle, even when left with the last few pieces, it wasn't that easy to figure out where the pieces fit in. 

The ending... *warning: major major spoilers alert* was one of the best cliffhangers out there. Normally cliffhanger endings would leave its audiences unsatisfied, but unlike most others, even the ending was so well thought of it blew me away *pun intended*. Towards the end, I wondered, how was the movie going to end with one huge portion of it uncovered? And when the ending scene came on, it wasn't the director's convenient way of saying, ok let's not elaborate this, you should know how it ends. Instead, I knew immediately (though I was stunned for 2 secs just like the rest of people in the cinema) what the director intended... made obvious by the clues he left us throughout the movie. Hugh Jackman is a hunter, he always prepare for the worst, and Jack Gyllenhaal has a perfect record for solving cases... 

The title, though seemingly literal, to indicate that the 2 kidnapped girls were the prisoners, taking into account how well thought the plot and development was, I would think it also refers to the suspect being a prisoner. This is pretty straight forward. But delving deeper, it's not just the 3 individuals, even Hugh Jackman was a "prisoner" himself. The way he keeps asking for God's forgiveness and yet did the things he did, it just goes to show how conflicted, and trapped he really feels. 

I could be overthinking it, but I'm almost as positively sure as Hugh Jackman that it's the case, even though I may not be spot on, I'm sure I'm close to the truth...

Oblivion

Rating: 7.7/10

Film Class: A

Genre: Sci-Fi

A battered Planet Earth remains, where most of its human habitants were wiped out by an invading alien species. The remaining survivors now reside in a space station. Jack and his partner were tasked to protect the power stations which extract Earth's remaining resources that powers up the space station, and also to maintain the drones which protect the power stations. However, when their drones keep disappearing and one of their power stations destroyed, it's up to Jack to hunt down the remaining alien survivors still on Earth and uncover their real motive.

I had thought Oblivion was just another modern day post-apocalytic tale, but it turned out to be a true-blue (or white since the color theme for this movie is obviously white) sci-fi action flick. It had great graphics, realistic setting, story packed a pow wow, and the only thing it fell flat on was the scripting. Not a major issue though, I easily overlooked the bad (extremely bad) scripting cos of the plot.

There wasn't many main cast, and a whole lot of Tom Cruise in this. It was refreshing to see "Jamie Lanister", from Game of Thrones (ok his actual name is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and he did good whatever little screentime he had. Even for Morgan Freeman, his few main appearances I believe was intended to add extra "coolness" to the film. 

Both female leads were gorgeous, literally, especially Olga Kurylenko (who gained popularity after being cast as the Bond girl). There was something about her this one, she made the film "complete", despite being given her bad lines. A particularly memorable scene was when she was in this shuttle plane with Tom Cruise and they had to battle some drones (3 to be exact). There was something very corny and unconvincing about both their acting, even a top-rated actor like Tom Cruise lost some points there, but I can only imagine how silly they must have felt facing a green screen, digging deep and trying hard to express whatever facial emotions they could churn out - which needless to say, failed terribly. 

The first 20 mins or so felt like a horror movie, and there was a hugh twist in the storyline. It wasn't original though, the first thing that came to my mind when the twist hit was that it ressembled another sci-fi movie, the title I wouldn't disclose here. However, it wasn't the originality but the impact of the twist which made it for me. For you curious folks out there, a hint would be that the title of the other movie has something to do with what is "broken" (ok, to be less subtle, destroyed - not the power stations) is in this film. 

Coincidentally, Tom Cruise's name is Jack Harper is in this film, and in his most recent film Jack Reacher, he starred as, Jack Reacher (duh). Perhaps there's something Jack about Tom, because he does fit the name, somehow... and both movies were pretty awesome. 

It turned out way better than I had expected, because the story nailed it. A must watch for sci-fi movie fans! Easily one of the better sci-fi films out there!