MYST Q2 #2: Oblivion

Oblivion is a great example of a good sci-fi. You have a great plot, an interesting cast and breathtaking enviroments.

In the movie Oblivion we're introduced to a world that's quite different from our own. Almost everyone on Earth has relocated to Saturn's moon Titan and we get to watch the lives of two people that are still on Earth. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his lover Victoria Olsen (Andrea Riseborough. They are there to protect and monitor giant offshore fusion generators and once they stay their for a certain amount of time, they are allowed to go to Titan. This all changes when Jack detects a beacon signal coming from the Empire State Building.

The ship that Jack uses is one of the coolest looking I've seen in a sci-fi film lately and the weapons and other gadgets that are scattered and used, also capture the sci-fi feel of this film. The set pieces that Jack visits such as the decaying and worn down Empire State Building, the old baseball field, the desert, even a log cabin near a lake are all perfectly used and really give you a sense of what happened? Why is everything like this? Even the ending, which I won't spoil will have you scratching you're head and wondering did that really happen?
Oblivion is one of my favorite recent films and for that I'd give it a

  

MYST Q2 #1: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

 Writing this review is quite difficult for me because to be honest, I didn't really enjoy this film, looking back at it now I understand why.
Mockingjay in all entirety isn't a bad film, especially if your someone who hasn't read the books, the film is essentially just setting itself up for it's Part 2 big finale.

I'll just dive right into my gripes with the film and highlight what the good points at the end. My number one problem with this movie is its pacing, it's horrible, I read the books so I knew what was going to happen and before coming into the theater I really enjoyed the third installment. It was my second favorite(Catching Fire is the best imo) but leaving the theater afterwards I just had a bad taste in my mouth. In the previous films they mostly all consisted of battle royal theme where they had to fight, form alliances and hope they made it through a night in the arena alive. Thrilling right? In this film we are taken out of the arena and thrust into the open world of Panem, a bleak and apocalyptic world that is really just boring. In fact most of this film really lacked color. No more fancy suits for or bright lights it's war time so everything his either gray or black. I understand the need to show just how bad things have gotten, but even the capitol seems to have lost it's pizzazz in this film, what happened to all the fancy suits and dresses, the glitter, bright lights, neon colors? It's something that I passed over when I was reading the book but it just seems out of place in a world that had so much color at one point.

I also found it strange how long the film seemed to drag on, especially near the end. The overall message that we repeatedly got was to get Peeta back. Get him back, and I don't know about other's but reading and then watching the film , it seemed like they really made it longer then it should've been. I understand the need for this since it's a two part film although I wish they did something different with it. The film wasn't all bad however, i throughly enjoyed the actual moment of the Peeta being rescued and the whole scene that follows and I thought that the ending was the best of the film, hopefully the next one will really capture what made the first two amazing. Overall I'd give this film