
My first review for movies of the new year! Vice: a well-filmed but unfortunately not very compelling piece of action starring Bruce Willis and... a bunch of other people. Thomas Jane plays the detective, the hero, and is pretty much the only strong personality in the movie.
If they wanted to make the artificials seem inhumane, they succeeded. The artificials, in particular the main one, all feel somewhat impersonal (so impersonal the names seem irrelevant) and lack that necessary appeal to make you empathize with, or at least sympathize with them - an element that seems necessary to create an interest in their accomplishments.
Ironically, most movies that present artificial beings lacking that core essence of whatever it is that makes us human, still make them feel human, or seem human, or want to be human in some way. Unless it's unintentionally bad acting and script - this movie does the opposite, with interesting effect. Unfortunately, it's also it's big flaw. When it's all over I don't relate. I see the victory but... it doesn't feel victorious, and this not because the big bad Bruce seems to be more inhumane than not. I applaud the new approach, but regretfully conclude that it's not working!
When you delete something form a computer, it doesn't actually delete that information. It just removes your ability to access it.
Flawless logic. The plot twist presents itself with utmost clarity. Vice, a place where people go to live outside of the law, an area populated by cybernetic clones, residents, artificials, who live their days in an eternal loop - day, after day, after day, after day. But what happens when that loop is broken? This happens.
I'd have liked to give this a higher score, but apart from some very nice action sequences and a gritty main character, the movie just doesn't have much appeal. The sceneries are gray and lifeless, the characters devoid of merits, and though the plot seems great at the beginning, the potential quickly drifts away. Worth a watch, but not too raised expectations.
rated 3/5: not bad