I am not looking at any trailers for this, I really want to go into this one with as little knowledge as possible and be surprised. I will go see this one OUT.
This is philosophy in film...like The Matrix. I am not sure what the message in this movie is yet, but I am sure I will. I have to wonder just how confused the movie watching audience for this movie was. NO WAY you can get it all in one showing.
A thinking person's movie. How could there be any sort of trailer made for this flick? Unless you just want to showcase some of the visuals in it, a trailer could never tell you about or even hint at the story going on in this movie.
If you "get" The Matrix, then this movie is for you. It is pure storytelling genius, and the visual part of the movie does the story justice. I think that judging this movie on anything other than its story is unfair, because although the visuals are excellent, this is not a coloring book movie like Avatar, or a convoluted fiction like Prometheus. This is philosophy anchored in the real world, portrayed in a variety of times and mindsets, all connected all the way into the characters. Tom Hanks and Halle Barry and Hugo Weaving give exceptional performances in this movie. It should have been up for an Oscar, but given that the judges panel of the Academy are just too far beneath the ability to even see what this movie is about, I am not surprised that it did not.
In fact, reading your thoughts on it just makes me want to watch it all over again. It just never gets old.OH WOW......this movie could never be properly critiqued by the critics judging crap like Prometheus and Avatar and calling those great. Sure, those movies had eye candy orgasms and action galore, but no real story. This movie is just THICK with story...layers upon layers of story. The Watchowskis can write their asses off IMO. The execution in this is also excellent. This is philosophy.
Im on my second viewing of it right now. Just WOW. My brain is all warmed up by it.
"from the trailers it looks like a spin on the "Eternal Champion" trope, but the champion bit is not required. Cross lives, cross dimensional type of stuff yeah?"
Uh, not really...
This is more like one very long timeline (hundreds of years), with the stories taking place in snips along that timeline. It is not done in a continuous fashion, but is very carefully and clearly connected throughout. It is worth the time to watch it. You would like it.
Well, the Eternal champion is not really continuous either.
An example would be Robin Hood and King Arthur which under this idea have the same "soul" but arise at different times as needed.
But yeah, it's just come out on DVD here and I was thinking of getting it anyway
Do you really NEED to ask *me* that question??
Doesn't sound challenging though...