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Watched Gladiator (2000).

Whenever I watch Gladiator, even coming at it slightly cold, I surrender completely to this epic.

Also watched The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

What a glorious mess of a film this is. The plot is pure idiocy, there's a few too many logical inconsistencies and the pacing is completely off - it feels overlong while some specific scenes are extremely rushed. All the while, the production values are sky high, Bruce Wayne's story arc is very well done and while being such a mess it does as a whole feel like a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. It's one of those films that has a lot of great elements, some not so good but as a whole works on an emotional level. I must admit to having warmed considerably to it since it was released.
 
Just saw Interstellar. It was really interesting, incredibly beautiful, and very well-acted. However, the ending felt kind of sappy and contrived, the whole film could have been cut down by about 20 minutes, and I called the "twist" during the first few scenes.
 
Gladiator (2000) watched. Zimmer's soundtrack is a masterpiece but in terms of the story itself, not the best movie I've seen. Still glad I watched it: I've always been a Rome "fanboy".
 
I used to be all over Gladiator, and it was one of my favourite films ever. Then I watched it something like three years ago and felt that I'd grown out of it.
 
I actually quite like the story in Gladiator. It has the same kind of appeal you find in The Count of Monte-Cristo, just pure old fashioned rooting for revenge. It could have been terribly bogged down if it had been more concerned witht the politics of ancient Rome, but it isn't. It does however manage to involve both the slaves and the rulers with a simple story.

Overall, the film among other things has a lot of lines ("My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius... and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next") that a lot of people would consider bad in comparison with the naturalistic dialogue we generally favour today (because no-one would ever say something like that in real life), but in the context of the film they work exceptionally well and it's the same thing with the story. 'The gladiator who defied an emperor' sounds like a cheesy story, and it is - but it works amazingly well in the film. Who isn't fighting tears at the end?

It isn't a particularly intelligent film, but it's timeless.
 
I didn't mind the dialogue or the story that much. I prefer a well-written piece of fiction over a poorly done thing that tries to emulate reality. As such, Gladiator was fine, because it tried to carry on the tradition of Shakespearean drama, and I think it did so better than it's usually given credit for - despite the fact that the plot is pretty simplistic. It is comparatively well-written, by blockbuster standards. It also does a pretty good job at creating a visual world that draws you in, and has an intriguing visual language that is full of citations. The acting is also mostly brilliant.

It just doesn't stand the test of time really well. Not in the sense that it feels antiquated, but in the sense that it wears off after repeated watching, more than a classic film should. Maybe that's also my own problem, because I really have seen it a lot of times. I saw it in the cinema, got the VHS as soon as it was out and replaced it with the special DVD edition when that hit the stores. It's one of my most watched films, because for a while, it was among the best in historical(ish) drama that you could get. But everything I liked it for has subsequently been done better by other films.

I still think it's a good film, and much of the criticism it got was unwarranted. But as I said - I just grew out of it.
 
I guess the thing with Gladiator is that it didn't nail me to the screen, it didn't make me feel that excited about what would happen next. Storywise, the movie was not perfect but not bad by any means. Concerning dialogue though, I am a fan of (cheesy) epic lines and enjoyed them a lot. The visuals were great and didn't fail at creating an atmosphere, the camera-work very captivating (reminded me of 60s westerns at parts for some reason?). All these aspects were tied together by Zimmer's soundtrack, one of the best film scores I have ever heard, truly a genius piece of work.
 
I still like Gladiator, as Roman themed fiction and a modern take on the movie epic. The scene setting is nice, and being able to 'see' Ancient Rome is a great attraction. I've visited the Colosseum, which is impressive even today, but seeing it recreated in the film is quite magical. I have to agree, the soundtrack is a very strong one. The soundtrack to Alexander, in comparison, didn't have half as much dramatic impact.
 
Brigantium said:
I still like Gladiator, as Roman themed fiction and a modern take on the movie epic. The scene setting is nice, and being able to 'see' Ancient Rome is a great attraction. I've visited the Colosseum, which is impressive even today, but seeing it recreated in the film is quite magical. I have to agree, the soundtrack is a very strong one.
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I agree with all of this.
 
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Watched Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).

While not really a Trekkie, I grew up with Voyager and later got into TNG. Having only watched a few episodes of The Original Series, I 'm not really familiar with the backstory here but I enjoyed Abrams' first film. Enjoyed this one too. Cumberbatch makes a great villain. Abrams' films are Star Trek reimagined as modern big-budget action, and they excel at being that, and at being fun and entertaining. In the end though, I miss philosophical discussions and reflections over a cup of good old Earl Grey.

Got the DVD of Elysium (2013) at the same time and will probably watch that tomorrow. Can't get enough of science fiction at the moment - in either books or film.
 
Watched Elysium (2013).

This is one of those films that make you doubt whether the director's previous work (in this case District 9) really was that good. Elysium takes the absolute worst parts of that film in being an insanely heavy-handed political allegory, while painting a picture of a futuristic society that's completely one-sided - the 1 percenters vs the slum. (The former live in a utopic space habitat while the shantytown of Johannesburg has expanded to cover all of Earth... or so it seems.) While District 9 had a good story, Elysium doesn't have that convenience. It's unevenly paced, and it feels terribly underdeveloped. Matt Damon is good, but he's the only unquestionably good actor in the film. Jodie Foster puts on an awful fake accent and Sharlto Copley isn't really convincing as a bad guy - I would even call his performance laughable at times. Elysium is an unfortunate film in the regard that it doesn't only fall awfully short of being good on its own, it also brings the weaknesses in District 9 into the spotlight.
 
Elysium was definitely a massive letdown. The director has come out saying that he really messed up the film, that the story needed a lot more work. It's nice to get honest feedback from a director about their failure, especially when he seemed so promising with District 9. However, most reviews I've read of Chappie seem to be pretty poor as well. Looks like he may have been a One Hit Wonder.
 
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