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Film reviews

Jaws the IMAX Experience Review

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The 1975 classic Jaws is back…in IMAX. With restored imagery and revamped sound, the IMAX experience makes the Steven Spielberg classic even more immersive and grand with exciting suspense. In my fourth big screen experience with Jaws, the IMAX experience had me in awe with all the classic moments that fans will never forget. The frightening and terrorizing scoring of music, the underwater sequences, and the shark attacks are back in new dimensions. I cannot get enough of Jaws. I know that its die-hard fans will not want to miss this experience. They will not just love it for its classic nostalgia, but they will also love it with how much invigorating the experience is in IMAX.

The suspense before, during, and after the chaos and danger of the shark creature is taken to new heights in IMAX. With the digital restorations, the shark up close is more realistic and frightening. However, the scenery and the ocean aspects are just marvelous throughout the IMAX experience. I felt I was in a world of pure Spielberg sensations as I was watching Jaws in IMAX. Spielberg knows how to work a camera to capture sequences of importance. He even knows how to do this when it comes to capturing sequences of danger.

To recap the plot of Jaws. These are the important characters. There is Brody (played by Roy Schneider), Quint (played by Robert Shaw), and Hooper (played by Richard Dreyfuss). Brody is the local sheriff of a beach community, Quint is a seafarer, and Hooper is a marine biologist. As a dangerous shark is going all around the waters of the beach (which Brody oversees), these three men must team up to defeat the shark. The challenging thing though, is the shark may be bigger than they can handle. But with a boat, lots of gunpowder, and tons of water knowledge, they may have a chance.

The IMAX experience brings the action and interest up to a whole different level. I felt more in tune with the character development towards the initiatives of the shark plans. That is because With Spielberg’s filmmaking, his style is in-depth, and in IMAX it makes Jaws feel like a reestablished revisit to its classical scenarios. With the classic quote, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” The boat is bigger, but the shark is bigger as well. That is because it is IMAX. I felt I was in the bigger boat with the world’s largest screen along with the world’s largest beast in Jaws.

This is an experience to not be missed. Jaws is only an IMAX for a limited time. It is an amazing classic to be revisited, but also even more exciting for those who have never watched it before. The first timers watching this in IMAX will experience a cinematic ride that is one for the ages. A classic redefined in the many technological brilliance in IMAX. Four stars for Jaws the IMAX experience.

Film reviews

Orphan: First Kill Review

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People often question why a prequel would be made many years after the original movie was made. They also ask themselves whether it lived up to the expectations of the original movie. I have seen many prequels, and I’ve been impressed with some and disappointed with others. Orphan: First Kill just left me feeling neutral.

The first Orphan, from 2009, focused on terror and shocking discoveries. Orphan: First Kill adds in-depth detail and backstories about the discoveries in Orphan. It also lays out the foundation surrounding the evil Leena/Esther; Leena being her real name, and Esther being her imposter name. Isabelle Fuhrman is back as the evil and demented Leena, and this revival is one of the few exciting parts of the film.

In Orphan: First Kill Leena is in a mental institution in Estonia and she finds a way to escape. As a ravenous and evil person, she creates an escape plan from Estonia and makes her way to the states by pretending she is someone without parents, a girl named Esther. A family, the Albrights, takes her in. The Albrights include parents Tricia and Allen, and their son Gunnar, played by Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, and Matthew Finlan. Esther begins exhibiting strange behavior and there are increasing signs of troubles, but she’s initially more mentally scary than violently scary. Mrs. Albright begins to realize that Esther may be an impostor and Orphan: First Kill becomes a cat and mouse game of questions and answers. The Albright family does not want to believe what may be true about their Esther, and the film begins to feel more like a big family crisis rather than a pure horror flick. So the disturbing factors are toned down many notches in Orphan: First Kill, compared to Orphan.

Director William Brent Bell has an eye for a chilling, child terror premise. One of the more bizarre features of the film is that due to a rare hormone disorder Esther looks like a child, but she is actually a grown woman. A woman who looks like a young girl is repulsive and scary for many, including myself.

The foundation of Orphan: First Kill is in tune with Orphan, but It was just a little too obvious—a girl who is a killer escapes and finds a way to be an impostor, and then tricks a family into taking her in. Fuhrman’s return performance as an evil princess type is again daring and beyond deranged in an enticing and haunting way. So although Orphan: First Kill is obvious, it’s still a fun adventure of suspense. Overall, though, I give the film just two and a half stars.

Film reviews

Three Thousand Years Of Longing Review

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Three Thousand Years of Longing is a film where the premise seems promising. That is because its trailers and ads make it look extraordinary or revolutionary. Sadly though, the storyline and the concept are arbitrary. The dynamic of the characterizations in Three Thousand Years of Longing is spot-on. That is because there are intriguing character backgrounds. I will say though, that the backstory to the film’s continuity is strange and twisted.

When the film begins, the concept of the Disney classic Aladdin (from 2019) came to my mind. It is practically an Aladdin themed premise taken to today’s world. With Idris Elba as the Genie type of character, his performance is brilliant. The film does display brilliant performances. It is just that the film’s labeling and backstory seems to have more stereotyping than a fantasy premise. To an extent, I felt all the blame of errors was being labeled onto Elba’s character. That is beside the point though.

This is the plot of Three Thousand Years of Longing. Tilda Swinton is Alithea. She is a scholar that is going solo on a trip to Istanbul. Her background involves research on life and creatures for reason. Despite her loneliness at this conference, A man that seems like a wizard comes into her life, and he is The Djinn (Elba). As Alithea is taken by surprise, she begins to grow close with the Djinn in deep conversation. However, her closeness becomes questioned as The Djinn offers Alithea three wishes. The three wishes are granted because of how she gave him his freedom from an art-type of antique. There are problems though with the wishes for Alithea. The Djinn may not be real. Also, with Alithea’s background of mythology, she knows tons of stories of wishes going awry. Three Thousand Years of Longing is a tale of curiosity towards wonderment of the three wishes for Alithea.

The three wishes in Three Thousand Years of Longing does not present happiness. It does not even have much elaboration on positive uses of the three wishes. The film tries to be more poetic than finding a fantasy with wishes. From this, I felt that the film’s artistic filmmaking is more of like a love tale than a breathless cinematic experience. However, it is not breathless.

Three Thousand Years of Longing may be symbolic. The film may also be a fantasy. As I have said though, the continuity and backstory of events keep seeming to be stereotypical. There are multiple moments where when Alithea tries to understand her choices, that she questions the harshness of The Djinn’s past. I just felt it made it look like The Djinn kept on having the negative label. The film may have tried to be experimental and surreal, just its approaches were off-putting.