Film Forensics is a massively arrogant experiment in film criticism: we specifically examine how movies might be improved. We are not professionals, and are rather embarrassed by our presumption, but it's too much fun to stop now. For more details, see the Introduction, Motivation and Philosophy.
If you would like to dissect a film yourself or have a comment, feel free to visit our Forum.
| State of Body | Initial head trauma. Internal investigation showed that certain vital organs appear to have been replaced with underperforming replicas. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Once, with occasional clip viewings on cable. |
| Forensic Investigator | Michael Stangeland |
| Comments | A potentially good movie ruined by some bad story decisions. |
| State of Body | Slightly scalped. Nothing serious, really. Oh, and there’s a bit of a cut on the forehead; hopefully won’t scar too much. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | Shellshear |
| Comments | Brilliant, except very slightly implausible towards the end bit of the film. |
| State of Body | Innards ripped out and replaced with machinery that is tougher, louder and more futuristic, but ultimately non-functional. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | Shishberg |
| Comments | Impressive in some ways, but not any of the ways that made T1 and T2 great. |
One hour into Watchmen, I thought it was going to beat out Dark Knight as my favourite superhero film.
I didn’t expect much. The graphic novel is dense and long and literary, and although 300 (the director’s previous film) was visually lush, I wasn’t moved by it. I knew it was going to be pretty long, and would nonetheless have to do some fairly savage cutting to get it finished under three hours. I was prepared for compromises. That was the first surprise. It fit in far more than I was expecting, and patiently laid things out without the kind of mad rush that infected such films as The Golden Compass. It even made an improvement in discarding the giant squid in favour of the very logical “Doctor Manhattan goes nuts” scenario, tying things together very effectively.
Still, perilously close to greatness, the second half meandered into setpieces that were cool but left the plot hanging. The subplot about Black Canary’s patrimony *was* rushed and so was Doctor Manhatten’s ultimate conversion to save humanity.
For a change, let’s open the comments for suggestions for changing the film, even if it is just me in the end.
Astute readers may recall a 2006 Film Forensic about how Pride and Prejudice might be improved with vampires.
Recently, someone decided it would be a better Zombie story.
And now, please welcome to the stage: Pride and Predator. Yaaaaaaay!
I watched the first episode of Joss Whedon’s new “Dollhouse” TV series the other day. While it wasn’t particularly exciting in itself, and it doesn’t really sell the raison d’etre, I can see some good SF potential.
It posits a pretty big SF idea: that it’s possible to read and write memories and personality, and even fuse aspects of memory and personality from several people.
In the first episode, this is used purely for imprinting expertise onto people (Echo, the main character, gets to be a motorcycle-riding hottie and then a hostage negotiator). Whedon makes a strong effort at selling why people would pay for an artificial hostage negotiator rather than a real one:
“Nobody has everything they want. It’s a survival pattern. You get what you want, you want something else. If you have everything, you want something else. Something more extreme. Something more specific. Something perfect.”
…which is nice, but not quite compelling enough. However, there are plenty of reasons the Dollhouse might appeal to people with the right amount of money.
A government wants a perfect spy/infiltrator against an Enemy. A Doll is uploaded with a genuine Enemy-sympathising personality. They join the Enemies. Time passes. When the time is right, the Doll is uploaded with the Spy upgrade.
A hypothetical billionaire wishes to swap their sex for a day. They upload their own memories and personality into a Doll. The Doll-billionaire does stuff for a day. The billionaire downloads the memories from the Doll.
A hypothetical billionaire is old and wishes to not die. They pay a great deal of money, and upload their memories and personality into a Doll.
It seems unlikely that these scenarios will be played out. They highlight the society-changing aspects of the underlying technology a little too much, moving the series too far away from the initial concept. It’s very unlikely, however, that Whedon is unaware of these possibilities, and he may play around the edges of this. What’s more likely is that we discover limitations of the Dollhouse technology – perhaps the memory imprinting only works for a short time (which would gel with the stated position that Echo will get aspects of her own personality back), or that prepping to be an imprintee is time-consuming/requires surgery/only works on certain people.
Joss Whedon has opened a big world of possibilities with the first episode of Dollhouse. It’s as though somebody had invented a time machine and is using it as an alarm clock. Perhaps it has hidden limitations, and an alarm clock really is the best use for it. Time will tell.
Alternate thoughts on the ending.
Some thoughts on the ending.
Some thoughts on the ending…
Read the rest of this entry »
A few thoughts on why I should definitely not be put in charge of this kind of material…
Read the rest of this entry »
| State of body | A super-powered corpse that won’t trouble you with too many deeper questions. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected twice. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | Family friendly fun. |
| State of Body | Not so much decapitated as cut off at the knees. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected twice, with the body parts in distinctly different arrangements. |
| Forensic Investigator | Jon Blum |
| Comments | How hard is it to make a sequel when nobody watched the last one? |
| State of Body | Worked over pretty bad and then neutered. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected 3 or 4 times. Probably this time was watching it for the last time I ever will in this lifetime. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | How hard is it to make a sequel? You just have to copy the first one, don’t you? Hey, didn’t I already say that somewhere else? |
David Morgan-Mar continues his experiment, having now watched the film in the intended order…
Read the rest of this entry »
Guest reviewer David Morgan-Mar, having never seen the film Memento, watches it in the re-edited chronological order!
Read the rest of this entry »
| State of Body | Like so many other sequels this much maligned corpse can’t escape negative comparisons to its far superior progenitor. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected 4 or 5 times. Difficult to remember after such a long hiatus. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | How hard is it to make a sequel? You just have to copy the first one, don’t you? |
| State of Body | Certainly not stale, but as this corpse was always going to be a success it could have taken a few more risks. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | Fun, but can’t make it to the next level. What more could one expect with “4″ in the title? That’s what the writers, producers and director hoped you’d be thinking. |
| State of Body | Watchable. Enjoyable. Unmemorable. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | Great action. ’nuff said. |
| State of body | Oooooooh, where to start. Um, dead? Yeah. Very dead. Strange puncture wounds. Mysterious. |
|---|---|
| Detail of inspection | Inspected once. |
| Forensic Investigator | shellshear |
| Comments | So much potential! Well, I thought so anyway. A classic example of a movie playing it far too safe; of failing to properly explore the premise. |
| State of Body | Viable, but has signs of future instability. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected a few times. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | This body is in pretty good nick. If only it had kept to the cast established in the first one. I think I’m mixing my metaphors. Oh well. |