Sedem

The way that this film couples Tom Howard’s descent into insanity with the gradual revelation that Thomas Wake has some of supernatural pull over the sea is done so well. It wasn’t until after this film that I actually learned about Proteus, and looking back, Dafoe played the gatekeeping, wise old man of the sea extremely well. > ***Don’t leave me!*** This was one of the most important lines in the film for me — it carries the theme of loneliness so simply and yet so well, and the viewer sees throughout the film the lengths that Wake went to in order to keep Howard around. He latches onto Howard’s most primal desires — to feel at peace (drinking with him into a stupor) and to release his sexual frustration (giving him the carved mermaid and thus attaching him to the physical mermaid). That line is the one moment of genuine emotional weakness we see from the lighthouse keeper, showing just how lonely he is with only the mystical light as his company. Very solid film, and the almost instinctual fear of the sea (or nature as a whole and its unpredictability) works as a fantastic lens through which to watch it.

This film turned out so well and I’m so glad that it did. Watching Spider-Man 2 just before this has only further proven to me that the best Spider-Man stories are the ones in which he *suffers*. In my opinion, this is the best MCU Spider-Man film so far, and I hope that they keep his films street-level like they’ve done here. It was really great to see the ACTUAL Hulk and not the fraud that they had in the latter stages of the Infinity Saga too, and I hope we see more of The Punisher on the big screen too. My only gripe with this film is that I wasn’t really moved by Sadie Sink as Jean Grey — maybe I’m just a hater but I found that she herself didn’t feel threatening, it was more just her power in the story (although I debriefed with a friend and he mentioned that she’ll probably become more threatening in future films which is a very good point so for now I’ll let it slide). Aside from that though, BANGER of a movie with a bunch of moving parts that they can definitely take forward for future Spider-Man films — need to increase my ball knowledge first but it might be time to ask if this is the best live action Spider-Man film full stop 🫪

A friend of mine told me that people are comparing *Brand New Day* to this film in terms of how good it is, and given that I'd never watched this before, I had to watch this for "pre-reading" (any excuse to watch a film). This film is a fantastic depiction of why so many people love Spider-Man — he's what happens when you give superpowers to the average (albeit very smart) student. Genuinely I had my hands on my head every 5 minutes for the first hour as I saw the poor kid's life fall apart piece by piece — his job, his situationship (don't worry I am going to COOK Mary Jane soon), his friendship, his living situation, you name it, everything is going out the window. His admission to Aunt May that he was partly at fault for his uncle's death was surprisingly heartfelt, and I think it really speaks to Tobey's mastery of this role. Alfred Molina also gets a special shout-out from me; he did a fantastic job of making Doc Ock an incredibly dislikeable villain whilst portraying Dr Octavius as a very likeable man. Also I'm not sure if it's just me but it feels like Sam Raimi loves to have women screaming, I can't remember how it was in the first film but in this film I wholeheartedly believe at least half of the female cast were screaming in terror. NOW ONTO MARY JANE WATSON. The villain of this film is NOT Dr Octopus; it is HER. WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE? I have NO QUALMS about how you dealt with Peter; you weren't perfect, but neither was he. However, how do you tell him to KISS YOU when you are ENGAGED WITH SOMEBODY ELSE??? Then, not only does she claim that she "knew" he was Spider-Man (CAP), she LEAVES HER HUSBAND-TO-BE AT THE ALTAR FOR THE MAN WHO ALREADY TOLD HER NO. At this point maybe I need to start reading the comics to see if MJ is actually this insufferable because this is madness. The only other female character I've seen written this badly in superhero live-action media is Iris West ("We are the Flash, Barry"), but everyone knows that the CW Flash fell down a hill eventually. I don't know how MJ is getting away with this, we need a referee or something mannnnn Either way, great film that shows us the weight of such responsibility; sometimes we just can’t do it all, and as we see here, Peter didn’t gain *everything *back. He’s still jobless (just like me fr) and he’s lost his best friend. Interested to see how they’ll end off the trilogy, but for now, time to enjoy *Peak New Day* 😮‍💨

Love is like gravity — it binds us all, we can't touch it, and yet, we cannot survive without it. Thus, in *Interstellar*, gravity becomes love, and this becomes the key to saving humanity. It's that simple, and yet this powerful film commands your attention for all of its 169 minutes as it presents the human experience as something more than just feeling. Hans Zimmer's score elevates the film tenfold, and is one of the few soundtracks I've heard that could inexplicably be better than the movie itself. In my opinion, the score is what did most of the emotional legwork — I wasn't as touched by the story as I expected, and I think it might be because there is a *lot* of exposition in this film. Everything is explained to you, and I wish this wasn't the case, because the film takes the liberty of telling you what it's about, stripping away opportunities for interpretive depth. After watching *The Odyssey*, in which it seems that small titbits are left for the viewer to catch and interpret themselves, this was a bit disappointing. Then again, I think this just shows me that I prefer Nolan for his direction rather than his writing. This film, however, is incredibly, incredibly ambitious, and it seems like that's what Christopher Nolan does best — pushing the boundaries with every big project he does to create magnificent scale and wow the audience every single time.