timo-hellmund Reviews

Warcraft (2016)

The film Warcraft fans deserve

[8/10 · 26 May 2016]

First of all, the important question: Am I a fan or not?

I am not a die hard Warcraft fan besides some characters from Warcraft 3. I do not know the entire lore. I never read a Warcraft book, I only started playing with Warcraft 3. I played WoW in 2005, dropped it after a month or so and only joined again in 2015.

That said: I do not get the critics AT ALL. This movie is by far better than the critics want it to be.

This movie has so much love and details, it is breathtaking. You can tell, in every scene, how close the film is to the source material. Especially for the fans who know all the small pieces and were like: "OMG! It is exactly like in the game."

The acting was okay, far from being as horrible as described. I actually liked Khadgar's more clumsy appearance which visibly lightened the overall very dark tone of the movie. And Ben Foster as Medivh actually played surprisingly convincing. The orcs all acted flawlessly via motion-capture.

The CGI was top notch. The orcs look better than Avatar, so does the overall CGI (for the budget). The CGI environments were a feast for the eyes. Again, the fans will love it because they recognize every single detail of it. Stormwind, the forest, Deadwind Pass, Dalaran. Everything looks so familiar.

The set pieces were lovely crafted and there were more than I expected. Every interior was at least partly real.

The pacing was no problem for me, as I did pay attention throughout the film. I got myself into the setting and some concepts and then it works.

The overall story was okay with some nice twists. Not Oscar-worthy, but compelling. It is a good vs. evil story but with some heavy twists to the standard fantasy formula.

About the orcs. Oh boy. The orcs are all outstanding. Very likable ( or not ;) ). Gul'dan and Blackhand are just as bad-ass as Durotan and Orgrim. And fans will see a VERY important character in the background for future films.

There are emotional scenes but they could have been a tad more emotional. The death scenes especially were too emotionless.

Yes, it can get confusing if you do not know anything about the Warcraft universe. 10 minutes more would have been okay to explain some stuff a bit more. And would have guaranteed higher ratings.

I do not trust the US critics anymore. No a single one. They clearly do not know what they are reviewing. They are far from being realistic. Everything that is 'only' okay is panned. This is unrealistic.

"Unrealistic movie" - It is HIGH FANTASY! "SMB The Movie is better" - Eh what?! "The movie is racist" - There are at least 3 black actors (Soldier, Taria, Garona). "The movie is too serious" - Is LOTR or GoT that humorous? And there is no Trump in the film either, dear The Guardian.

The European foreign language reviews (german, french, danish, Swedish) are correct in this case, they are all favorable. They range between 5-9 with some exceptions which is fair for the film. The US reviews are NOT fair.

It is a feast for fans and still okay/good for non-fans. The film still works if you take away the huge fan service it has to offer.

Of course, it is not the next LOTR. None of the fans expected it. Not a single one! But those critics, which make them unbelievable. They do not even give this movie a chance. Warcraft: The Beginning is far from being perfect and even if you are a fan it still has some flaws. Therefore no perfect score.

For fans: 9/10. For non-fans: 7/10.

As I am a fan, somehow, I still give the film an 8 because I, personally, had a blast.

Interstellar (2014)

A modern Sci-Fi masterpiece

[10/10 · 9 November 2014]

Hands down. This is a masterpiece. I feel like Nolan achieved a modern 2001 - without being too much 2001, despite having some similarities. Saw it last night with a bunch of people in a German cinema on a big screen (non IMAX) and a very good sound system. This is a film made for the big screen and you really feel it, especially in the space sequences.

This movie is visually astounding, with some visuals even being relevant for science, as they rendered the most scientific accurate black hole to date. The actors all did a fantastic job and you really feel they had a lot of fun acting in actual sets. Yes, the set design is brilliant. Especially the "real" spacecraft set.

Christopher Nolan once again takes scientific theories, this time supported by the famous expert physicist Kip Thorne, explains them in his film's logic and plays with them in a creative way. We know this from Inception but this time his script includes more heart, more emotions. The plot is constantly thrilling and exciting, with some scenes taking my breath away. And of course there are typical Nolan twists one might not see coming before. The score by Hans Zimmer once again makes the great scenes even better. He just knows how to increase the tension of a scene with his sound. And when the cinema shakes and hums and pushes you in your seat, you know the sound design is perfect.

This film really caught me personally. My heart was beating in the action sequences, I was blown away by the visuals, I unconsciously held my breath in the first scene in space, the climax really was rewarding and very creative. I enjoyed it a lot.

I seriously don't understand why so many critics and audience had so many issues with it whereas many more international critics and communities say it is a masterpiece. The big gap between RT critics score and IMDb's worldwide audience score speaks for itself.

For me, this is one of the best Sci-fi films of our time. 10/10

Who Am I (2014)

Finally a great (cyber) thriller made in Germany.

[9/10 · 1 October 2014]

It is not very often that a German movie tries to do something else than Til Schweiger / Schweighöfer standard comedy. Who am I is one of those very rare films from Germany which deals with a serious subject, has a serious tone and plot and can compete with international movies in the same budget range.

This movie - regarding the mediocre budget - surprisingly can compete with international films. The plot is constantly exciting, the actors are very good, especially Tom Schilling in the lead role. And the ending is something I have never seen in a German film before. A real mindfvck and very clever.

The film is unique in its way to show the Darknet (no spoilers) in a very understandable way. The chosen imagery to show what is going on behind the screen is innovative and is visualized in a way, even people without knowledge of the subject can easily understand and follow the plot.

Who am I definitely is one of the best German thrillers I've ever seen and easily one of the best German films in this century so far. It is good to see young and talented German directors get the chance to finally make movies which do not need to hide behind Swedish or french films. This movie thankfully does not feel "typisch Deutsch" but much more mature and with a better production design than the "typical" German movie feels.

Yes, this movie is not very original and has some minor flaws. However, as the first serious German film outside the boring history drama genre in years (the last one was HELL if I remember correctly), I can ignore them. I really hope this film is a door opener for more well-produced German films in the future which might even become international hits. Something, the Swedish and french cinema already achieved.

9 / 10

Godzilla (2014)

The King of all Monsters is back.

[9/10 · 16 May 2014]

In advance: I am one of the people who think Emmerichs movie was very bad.

When the first trailer was revealed, we (2) monster movie and Godzilla fans had no doubt this will be the most important film for us in 2014. This is one of the very few films which do live up to their hype - and even surpass it in some scenes.

Everyone worrying about the new Godzilla, can calm down and watch this film. It let's you forget about what Emmerich did to Godzilla 16 years ago.

The cast is great and I would say even better than in many of the Toho originals. Every actor transports the size and drama of the circumstances and events in a very believable way. Bryan Cranston plays his part with such a power and presence, you can only love his character. Ken Watanabe, although playing with a rather stiff facial expression, is believable and likable as the sometimes surprised, sometimes shocked scientist. And Kick-Ass... well he does a good job in playing the running man as well.

The plot is what you can expect from a monster movie like this. Humans cause trouble, Godzilla arrives, big monster fight scenes. However, what Edwards and his writer make out of this formula is far better than average. The characters are not too stereotype. The reason why Godzilla appears and why the plot evolves how it evolves is explained in a rather believable way.

The filmmakers made a good job in throwing all kinds of different scenes at you. Character drama, intense suspense (I just say railroad bridge), action, battles. Adding the well paced suspense curve, especially in the second half of the film, this film never gets boring.

The production design and the scale of the devastation is often caught in big aerial images. Thankfully, Edwards and his cinematographer avoided the use of shaky cam shot expect in 1st person or very close range shots. The big, calm images of Godzilla, the chaos and the destroyed cities transport a very realistic tone.

Thanks to the perfect sound design, the audience can feel the strength and the scale of Godzilla and [...] (No Spoilers, right? ;) ) and the devastation. His scream, every step, every crashing building is perfectly sounded. The bass is so intense, it pushes you in your seat. The seats were shaking. Go watch this film in a cinema with a very good and bass-y sound system. You won't regret it.

The CGI effects, and now we come to the master himself, are outstanding and simply perfect. If the Academy were open to this kind of film, I'd say we got our CGI Oscar winner here. Godzilla himself looks breathtaking, even with his gained mid-life-crisis pounds. His presence alone are great scenes and his fight with [...] are the icing on the cake. Those scenes are so good, I wish they had more screen time. Which is my only complaint worth mentioning for this film.

Godzilla himself gets two, three very strong scenes in this new film. I'd even say some are the best ever in the series. His full size reveal is an outstanding scene and made the audience cheer in my screening. Those scenes truly are "HE IS BACK, B*TCHES!" moments.

In my opinion, every scene in this film destroys the complete Emmerich film. Even better, in some scenes, it seems to make fun of the 98 film.

For me (us 3) as monster movie fans, this film is one of the best Godzilla movies to date, one of the best monster movies in years and it does not need to hide behind the Toho originals (as they were involved in some basic decisions).

9 / 10

Oblivion (I) (2013)

Better than the critics say

[10/10 · 21 April 2013]

This film is a feast to the eyes for every SciFi fan around the world. Kosinski once again showed us that he is one of the most visionary directors in Hollywood. After two movies. The visuals are stunning and the huge camera pans over the landscapes show Iceland in all its beauty. Yes, there is a place on earth which really looks like this. Most of the landscapes were no CGI, they were real. The set design is interesting as well. Very sterilized, clean but high-value. This also counts for the design of the bubble ship, which every helicopter fan would love to fly with.

M83 and Trapanese made a fantastic soundtrack which fits to the film perfectly and even is very enjoyable when listening to it separated. It differs from TRON Legacy in its style. The electronic elements are far more in the background, the orchestra is more in the front. Which is fine, despite the fact that the theme / melody is not as catching as the TRON Legacy main theme. Other than that, M83's score is on par with Daft Punk's work and I hope this time, the score will be a candidate for the award season.

The story is good as well. First of all, it is better and quicker and with less slow-downs in it than the TRON script. The SciFi elements are nice and interesting and everything is explained within the movie though some are clearly SciFi and only make sense within the movie's logic. Some questions however need to be interpreted by the audience. The film wants the audience to think about it after the movie is over. Which seems to be a problem for film critics. "Needs more than 1 brain cell? That's a PLOT HOLE!" In fact, there are no plot holes if you just pay some attention to what's going on.

The action sequences do their job quite well. The camera is not as shaky as in other action films in recent history and the sequences are well paced and well positioned during the 2 hours length.

The plot has a lot of references to older SciFi classics (those critics interpret them as rip offs, which is not true). However, the film still has its unique feeling, although you can pick out every reference quite easily. For me, the final climax is no rip off. It is just a huge tribute to one of the most iconic SciFi films of all time.

The characters are above average, though some actors could have done a better job. Some emotional scenes do not add up because of the very 'dry' acting.

Oblivion is better than Tron Legacy for me and I hope the film will become a success despite the unfairly bad reviews by "top critics".

Shame on the (american) film critics who only seem to be able to bash Tom Cruise and the 'full-of-tributes' plot. This film is way better than its Rotten Tomatoes score. It is a great, not perfect start to the 2013 blockbuster season and one of the best SciFi films in the past years.

Visuals 10/10, Soundtrack 9/10, Story 8/10, Characters / Actors 8/10

Prometheus (I) (2012)

Ridley Scott did not forget where he comes from...

[9/10 · 18 August 2012]

This is one of the most interesting SciFi films in recent history.... maybe the best since Inception. The atmosphere is so intense, you could cut it with a knife. It alone creates the thrill of the film almost on its own.

Another aspect are the hand-crafted sets. They are incredibly impressive and huge and have some kind of a nostalgic feeling so every SciFi fan just need to be impressed. It is good to see directors still know what real set design is and do not create everything in the computer, which mostly looks artificial. Not to mention, the real sets have big impact in the plausibility of Prometheus.

The cast is chosen well. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender do a great job and you really feel with their characters. Seriously, I don't get why so many critics think those characters are not memorable. They are. Even if they are quite flat and mostly are written in standard alien film clichés. Yes, you got those "the stupid guy", "the nerd", "the freak" characters. However, even those have some good scenes which they do not get in other Alien / slasher films. Even those flat and useless characters find or reveal something useful for the plot or for the myth.

The images of the landscapes are mind-blowing. Island really is a beautiful country. It must be inspiration for the whole planet's CGI. You really want to see how everything looks in this foreign place.

Thanks to the clear and non-shaky camera works (thank god!), the 3D is one of the best since Avatar. It is used for building up depth and atmosphere, not for stupid "grabbing the audience" effects. Which is great and makes the film even more believable.

Of course, there is some action but this is not the main aspect. If you want to see Alien bang boom shock slasher, you really won't like this film. Everyone else, who is bored by non-stop-action, has to go watch it.

The ending is great and makes every alien film fan cheer. It is a good ending and I don't care what other critics say. They mostly have no idea what they are writing about, nowadays.

AND! The most satisfying part: The music! This film has a melody! There are still film melodies on this planet. Praise the composer for having more talent in making a score which is very memorable than a lot of others of his kind.

This film is great. Not perfect, but if you don't care about flat characters and some minor mistakes, you will enjoy it. Please go revisit this film. It deserves way more box office sales.

Thank you Mr. Scott for coming back to the SciFi genre. You have been missed.

Hell (2011)

Good German post-apocalyptic thriller

[8/10 · 2 January 2012]

To start my review: "Hell" means "Bright" in English.

It is a rare thing, even nowadays, a German film studio realizes a serious, dark film which has nothing to do with World War 2 or family drama.

Hell plays, without giving away any spoilers, in an post-apocalyptic scenario in which the sun burned everything down. People try to survive. You know this kind of scenario from movies like "Mad Max" or "The Book Of Eli". However, the sun aspect gives it an unused touch.

The actors do a great job in making us believe they are in big trouble. In the bright parts as in the dark parts of the movie. The antagonists are also believable in the movie's logic.

This is the first feature film directed by Tim Fehlbaum. On the one hand, you can argue he is copying big Hollywood films, which I would not disagree. On the other hand I find it kind of brave to show the German audience that a post apocalyptic movie can also be made in Germanym, with near Hollywood quality and with a small budget of about 5 million Euros. The style is amazing, the scenario believable.

Plus, the film does not show any CGI effects beside the extreme sun bloom, which is done digitally and very good. Everything else is based on the characters and their "path" to survive and find better places to live. The story itself is not very innovative but decent to watch, thrilling and without major flaws.

As a conclusion: This movie is underrated in my opinion. It is brave to make such a movie in Germany, if you compare most of the other German movies from the past 5 years, excluding "Die Welle (The Wave)". "Hell" is well-paced, has good actors and a good director who knows what he is doing. If you like films like this, you will not get bored.

Sure, "Hell" never reaches Hollywood-big-budget blockbuster quality and the sets are pretty limited. However, as a genre film, which are SO rare in Germany, it works and it is sad this film did not have success at the box office. It deserved better. Especially when looking at the future of German filmmaking, which I do not want to be Til Schweiger-only.

8 / 10

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

The big surprise movie of 2011!

[10/10 · 23 August 2011]

What District 9 was in 2009 - a sleeper hit in quality - is Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011. Especially the key scene of the film was just breathtaking and I have never seen something like that in such a movie. At least not as good as here. The whole theater was silent for those 5 seconds! Then I knew, this film works and is as good as I believed it is in the 60 minutes before.

The movie starts as a laboratory science film, then becomes a family drama, after that it is a prison-break drama and the finale is pure sci-fi action at its best - with a satisfying ending! So I think every viewer will have his / her favorite part.

For me, Rise is on par with the 60s classic. For the young audience, it is even better. Rubber masks are still cool but do not look realistic anymore, at least for apes. Though the original from 1968 has more social criticism and still a strong storyline, the new one catches the audience with great emotional scenes. Serkis' expressions and gestures are outstanding and Caesar wins the battle against Gollum for the best CGI character to date. In every single moment, you can understand why Caesar is behaving like he does.

It surpassed my low expectations by far, after the Tim Burton disappointment in 2001. I would love to see this movie at the Academy Awards 2012. Camera, Caesar, Rupert Wyatt (director), screenplay and CGI at least deserve a nominee. However, it might be too special even if the screenplay and Andy Serkis actually deserve to win awards.

I cannot decide between 9 and 10. Why? Because, in my opinion, Will Rodman (Franco) talks too little to Caesar in the most important scenes. I don't know if the writers did this on purpose. My thoughts on that in the upcoming short spoiler:

!!! SPOILER!!!!

A simple sentence like "I love you" is missing in two scenes: 1. 'Will visits the shelter for the third time, still cannot take Caesar back home and Caesar loses belief in him' 2. Last hug scene.

Plus, he should have explained the situation to Caesar in detail instead of just telling him everything will be fine.

!! SPOILER END!!!

I want to see a sequel - with the new "gene-manipulation / virus-stuff" explanation of how the planet, the humans and the apes change. This might be very interesting. Wyatt and his writers need to continue the strong bond between Will, Caroline and Caesar. Even if the next film might be about war. Those two/three are the entry point to the new time-line of the series. Rupert Wyatt can lift this franchise to old strength or to even become better than it was back in the 60s / 70s. I am glad to see that many of the "new" directors do such more-intelligent movies nowadays. They bring the quality back to Hollywood!

'Rise' is an amazing film if you engage in the scenario and in having CGI instead of rubber masks. It is emotional, it pushes CGI character limits further, it has jaw-dropping moments. Everything a good SciFi movie needs. Go watch it!

Tron: Legacy (2010)

A highly underrated movie

[9/10 · 23 August 2011]

As an old TRON fan, I had to see this at opening weekend. So I did (started 1/27 here).

The visuals of the classic TRON were very well captured and transfered to modern standards. The more cute and colorful look morphed to a grown up and darker setting. I liked that since the grid was created 20 years ago. Plus, the CGI was brilliant. Same with the score by Daft Punk. Holy sickness, this is amazing! I wonder why it is not nominated for an Oscar. What a shame! Its powerful, thrilling, makes the film better.

The characters are flat. OK! I totally agree to the critics. However, the overall story is not bad! It is way above sci-fi average with some in between tones and stuff. It is never as predictable as Avatar.

The references to the original TRON (e.g. the Bits on the fireplace) were nice and the disc wars and the light cycle race made me feel nostalgic, which was awesome. The CGI was just amazing.

I agree, Legacy really misses some potential in story and telling but they can proof to make it better in TRON 3. And some questions still have to be answered.

It is not the directors or actors fault that Legacy is bad in critics opinion. They just did expect way too much. They totally underrated this movie.

After watching it on BluRay again, even the LOST writers did a decent job. The whole world of TRON is brilliant. Do not forget that despite some flat characters!

The weak story sequence at Flynns hiding hole actually is none. It was just destroyed in 3D theaters by the massive action before and after... and maybe by the crunching popcorn around. If you look closer and have the silence of your living room, you see that the plot is not as bad as you remember it from cinema. Even the ISOs are explained somehow.

I cannot believe why this movie only got 49 / 100. It is better than that. It is good and maybe the best, and of course most original, live action film from Disney in years.

Legacy is a worthy sequel to TRON and every fan must see it and needs to buy the BluRay to make another sequel possible. This movie deserves it, like it deserves a better TRON 3.