Author: ozgurovic

JOKER

Poster of Joker

“I will tell you how I became like this. Don’t forget, if I did not exist, you would not exist. Hahahaha!!!”.

These are just the starting lines of another Joker story, told by Joker, usually towards Batman. Even if you listen to it in your dream, or you see it in a movie theatre, don’t believe him. He is trying to fool you! This is his biggest weapon: to make you believe that he has the right to become such a criminal, and all his behaviors have a very-well justified reason. For example, he robs the banks because this money is already insured by companies and he spends this money to boost up the economy. He kills criminals who would kill him; so, he defends himself (don’t get into small details such as a gun was pointed to these criminals!). He helps many other people, so people support him.

But is this one true?

His story may not be whole of it, so what? He is the funny part of Batman. He has his sense of humor. Serious people also don’t tell you the whole story. This is Gotham, so you must already know these dark politicians, police managers. They never tell you that they spend your taxes to rescue their own companies which got bankrupt, because it is necessary for the economy. They also wait for Batman to catch all the ‘bad’ people. Besides, they are boring. Why should Joker bore you with all the details of the truth? Batman is the dark side of Gotham, whereas Joker is the fun side! Just enjoy him.

This is Joker. So, if you are making a movie of him, people should have a pity for him; and they would say that he is right at his actions. This is the delirium of hopeless people. That is why you will read many reviews which will say that Joker is a movie which praises violence. Don’t lose your hope. If you have the determination of Batman, you will realise that he is not telling all the truth. So, this movie does not show Batman, but rather it gives the opportunity how Batman is feeling when he is told a story by Joker. You will have the chance to get into the shoes of Batman. You will need to realize what is wrong and what is right. Even Batman cannot always realize!

Is it a breakthrough for the cinema?

From a cinematographic point of view, Todd Phillips makes references to many other movies, but the strongest reference is to Taxi Driver (1976). However, in Taxi Driver, the shots of the main character were not from a close distance; therefore, we were not in close relation with the feelings of the character. It seems like Todd wants to be in the shoes of Joker and makes us believe what Joker is telling and he tries to bias us towards Joker’s innocence. There is nothing experimental or innovative with the cinematography of the movie. Joaquin Phoenix seems to have a deep understanding of Joker. If the academy members liked DC, he would have gotten an oscar for his acting.

Overall, if you like comics, and a fan of Batman, I would recommend to see this movie. No movie really reflects the spirit of a comics, but I would place this one after the Nolan’s Batmans.

If you haven’t watched it yet, have a nice time!

October 27, 2019
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Episode VIII is the second movie made by Walt Disney in the Star Wars series. Its name is Last Jedi. This time, it is not a very similar copy of the previous episodes, where in The Force Awakens, nearly everything was like a carbon copy of the previous movies.

We already met the new characters in The Force Awakens, so I will not get into details. We have a new Jedi Candidate, Rey. A new Darth Vader: Leia’s son Kylo Ren. New R2D2: BB-8. Of course we have characters from old series as well, e.g. Leia, Luke, Chewbacca. So, you have the copyrights, you have the characters, let’s make money! Sorry, let’s make the movie 🙂

When you talk about Star Wars, you must be careful, because there are millions of fans. They know every detail of the Star Wars universe. I am sure the writers are also one those fans. (I say writers, because although there is only one author credited, I am sure many people contributed to the final script). However, it may not be sufficient to be a fan of the Star Wars. You must have a good story to tell, because original Star Wars had a descent one. Just imagine, your father is on the dark side, and you convert him into the light, the good side of the force. There are space ships everywhere for the nerds, force for the spiritualists, a fight for freedom and peace for the activist, Yoda for the conservationist. You have lots of new stories in the emptiness of the space. You have nice visual effects.

So, what does the new Star Wars have in it, or does not have in it? Again it has a bad character who is on the dark side, Kylo Ren. WE don’t know if he will convert to light or not. There is balance or Ying Yang for the interested spiritualists. The last jedi vs darkness. The rebels fight for their freedom against the evil forces. Of course again we have Yoda and the old books of Jedis. We have better visual effects. Wait, did you realize. We have everything that we already had! It seems like a rephrasing of the old star wars series. The new series does not have much novelties to tell.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything worth to see. First of all, this is a big budget movie, which means that technical issues are correct. The scenario also doesn’t have big problems, except not being creative. There are some details which will be probably explained later, e.g. Master Codebreaker‘s role, who is advised by Maz Kanata. It is also worth mentioning that there will be new Star Wars spinoffs including Solo, which is based on Han Solo. So, if you like Star Wars, keep tuned in!

January 1, 2018
Mr. Robot*
Mr Robot is a TV show about a hacker who tries to make his own revolution. Although it seems like a technological show, it is much more related to politics. I would classify it closer to Continuum with less science-fiction. However, I must admit that most of the hacking staff in the movie is science-fiction. You must be psychic to be able to hack all of those passwords with a good guess.

The series has a good connection with the audience because the characters in the show are from daily life. They work in an office with many personal problems. Elliot works in his boring cubicle just like Mr Anderson from Matrix and does hacking at nights. Of course he is 100 times more talented than regular hackers, otherwise why would this be an interesting story? Indeed, the story begins when he decides to do something to make the world a better place.

Until now I have given similarities to Matrix, so if you are fan of Matrix, you will probably like this one as well. But this is not all. The series have many references from Fight Club to Clockwork Orange. So if you like to discover all the details, you will like it because each scene has a special item to discover. But more importantly, the series has its own style. It is very dark and depressive. Unlike awaken Neo, Elliot is always in a state of depression. To overcome his problems, he is deciding that the world is the reason of his and everybody’s problems and he tries to change the world to make it a better place for everybody.

This is where the main question of the show starts for me: should you change the world starting from yourself? Would this mean a solution or a surrender? Or should you change the world? Elliot selects the latter one. But will it bring happiness to the world or should he undo everything for a new start? Since the show is highly political, this brings some questions from the real world. For example what would happen if the greedy companies are destroyed. Does it make the world a better place? If no one has any debts, would this solve the problem? Although the show is negative to these questions, we should remind that the real world is negative to the other case where the governments back up the big companies after the crisis. It has been a long time and still there does not seem to be a solid exit from the economical crisis.

I will not get into details about the lack of the correct economic views in the show. But one thing is that it is trying to say to the audience that it does not matter what you do about the evil corporations, there will be another monster waiting for you under your bed. Indeed it says that control is an illusion, which is equal to saying “Don’t try to struggle. You will lose anyway”. This is not the only political message, also there are messages related to Trump (do I need to say that it is anti-Trump?), China (indeed many details from dark army) and many other small details. I believe that they have a good collaboration with experts in their fields. If you know the technological investments of intelligence organizations, you will realize that this show is doing a good job. I think Robert Redford should be a guest star in at least one of the episodes as a tribute to ‘Three Days of Condor’ .

A final note about the co-producer of the series. Kor Adana is Turkish and probably inspired the team about the room with a Turkish flag and Ataturk statue where the scene was related 2015 G-20 meetings. They are doing a great job and taking care of every detail. I guess this is one of the reasons why techno geeks are really into these series. They really make everything seem like real.

I am not sure what was the initial expectation for the duration of the series, but currently it seems like it exceeded the expectations and the story is expanding a lot more than necessary. Although it is a great story I believe it is time to wrap up the it. Otherwise the story will flow even slower which will make it darker and more depressive or the stories will become unrelated, e.g. go more into real life politics which is good when you see the actual president of US in one scene, but I don’t think favoring one politician for another is a good idea. They may embarrass you when they have power, so it is best to keep a distance to all of them unless they are retired 🙂
- Caution: This review is written in the third season, so it may contain some spoiler about previous seasons/episodes. Read it at your own risk!
December 9, 2017
BladeRunner: 2049

BladeRunner: 2049

Do androids dream of electric sheeps? It is a novel written by Philipp K. Dick in 1968, and yes, the name of the android in the movie is “K.”. So, do you still wonder about the relation between the movie and the book? You are right, BladeRunner: 2049 is a sequel to the movie made in 1982, BladeRunner directed by Ridley Scott, which was based on the novel “Do androids dream of electric sheeps?”.

The original movie was in a near future after the 2019 nuclear war. In that movie, the duty of our cop Rick Deckart (Harrison Ford) was to distinguish the androids from the humans. Again we have a cop (K.) whose duty is to find the illegal androids and to terminate them. Like many of the sequels, there are many similarities between both of the movies. Afterall, if you have a good formula, why not use it? Indeed, this is what I don’t like about sequels, they use the successful formula and forget to create a new story. We should also remind that the initial movie was a great success in becoming a cult science-fiction movie. But id did not have the same success for its performance in the theatres.

There are some serious differences from the original BladeRunner. First of all, BladeRunner:2049 has much more psychological explanations. The original movie had more action thanks to Ridley Scott. In the new version the characters have more time for thinking. But the plot goes very similar to the previous one.

Relation to the book?

Another important difference is that in this one, we are faced with a Pinocchio. The main character of our movie, police K., has a deep desire of feeling like a real human. You feel like he is searching for his magical fairy. If you look at the movie from this window, then you may say that Jared Leto is Gepetto. You can even find a whale where Pinocchio manages to run away from it. Furthermore, it is not only officer K., who wants to become like a human, but all the androids have this hope. They want to have similar rights to humans, because they believe and want to prove that they are similar to humans. Although this is different from the idea of the original book, it is interesting. But, it is not emphasized strongly.

In the original book, the question was not that whether the androids can have similar properties with humans or not, rather it was even if they have very same properties with humans, does it make them conscious entities. Do we have the right to shoot them if they are conscious entities? I see the new movie as simplifying this question to a level where the androids can also have same properties with humans, and so they are conscious entities, we should not shoot them. While it is simplifying the problem, it shows as if it is more sophisticated by introducing more psychological motivations with respect to the first movie.

I think there will be even further sequels to this movie if the performance in theatres is successful. This movie is not as influential as the first one, but probably it is more successful in terms of numbers. Probably we will see further in the next movie related to the independence movements of the androids, and probably they will live in peace with humans by missing the main point of the original book.

October 28, 2017
Mother!

A New Era in Aronofsky’s Style? or Yeah, Next Time It Will Be Better?

It is difficult to talk for a movie full of metaphors without giving any spoilers. Even this is a spoiler itself. But, if you are used to Aronofsky’s movies, you already know what you will face with in Mother!. So, I will not talk about the details of the movie, or try to reveal out the metaphors, which would need a few tens of pages of explanation at least. Rather, I will talk about my own expectations and the relations to the old movies of Aronofsky.

In his interview for Mother!, he tells that he was not sure for making the movie, so he sent the initial text to a few friends and they encouraged him to make it. Indeed, you get this uncertainty when you are watching the movie. The director is not sure how to connect everything. The events are unrelated to each other. Sometimes there seems to be a relation in between stories. You expect it to be established. How distant can they be in a small house occurring in a limited timeline? But he’s making it once more. Everything is happening at infinity, but you don’t realise it. To be able to really understand what is happening, you must watch it a few times. The feeling of the curiosity is increasing from time to time. However, you still have the feeling that something is missing in the movie.

In mathematics, there is something called as completeness. The official explanation is “the state or condition of having all the necessary or appropriate parts.”. Since Aronofsky usually thinks in terms of mathematics, as you may have noticed from his movie ‘Pi’, I always expect complete movies from him. Indeed, this was the case until Mother!. Even if you don’t get it very easily like in ‘Fountain’, there was always a completeness in his movies. I mean that even if you don’t get the metaphors, it is still a movie with a plot. Everything starts and finishes in the movie, there is a story in front of your eyes, and a ‘secret’ story behind the metaphors. You can enjoy it with the feeling that there was something more in it. But in Mother!, this is not the case. If you don’t get the metaphors, it means nothing. The movie doesn’t connect the stories in the plot. This is not his style. Maybe this is a new era in his filmography.

Another point is of course the musics of the movie. There are good movies of Aronofsky without Clint Mansell, I agree. However, when he works with Clint Mansell, it is a classic: e.g.: Pi and Requiem for a Dream. You can watch these movies just for the music. They force a feeling of completeness in the movies. They must be occuring for a reason. This is divine.

Of course artists will try new things, they gain different experiences and reflect these in their new eras of their life. I totally respect this. However, I have to say I like the early style of Aronofsky. There was always mystisicm in his movies, but this is more than that. For my flavor, he needs the unseen hand of divinity, he needs Clint Mansell.

October 10, 2017
Logan – Wolverine Finali

Wolverine’i de vururlar. Veyahut kurt kocayınca köpeklerin maskarası olur.

Logan – Hugh Jackman’ın canlandırdığı Wolverine serisinin son filmi. Tabi bu kadar fazla sayıda hayranı olan bir kahramanın hepten ölmesi söz konusu değil, ancak en azından bu filmin sonunda Wolverine huzura kavuşuyor.

Film çok uzak olmayan gelecekte, 2029 yılında geçiyor. Xavier bunamış, Logan’ın kankası Gambit dahil X-Menler ortadan yok olmuşlar. Çizgi-roman takipçileri için bir başka alternatif gelecek senaryosu. Sırf Logan için yaratıldığından mıdır bilemiyorum, oldukça yapay bir dünya söz konusu. Logan’ın sarhoşluğu şaşırtıyor mu, aslında hayır. Ama tamamen iyi karakterlerin belgeseli haline dönüşen bir aksiyon filminde kötü karakterleri çoluk çocuk dövüyorsa insan olmaz olsun böyle Wolverine demeden edemiyor. Logan zaten oldu olası depresif bir karakter. Kendini jiletleyince derisinde iz kalmaması en büyük derdi. Her hafta birilerini öldürdüğünden kederlenecek bi şey bulması da zor olmuyor. Yapımcılar da oturmuşlar, düşünmüşler, bu Wolverine’e etmediğimiz ne kaldı, bari gömelim de helvasını yeriz demişler. Çok afedersiniz, ne anası, ne bacısı ne karısı kalmıştı. Bari yattığı yerde huzur bulsun.

Filmin konusu kısaca: Eğer Wolverine iyileşme yeteneğini de kaybederse ne yapar? Bir de üstüne çocuğu için ölme şansı olursa, daha nolsun. Film gelecek nesil x-menlere göz kırpayım, Logan’ı ağır abi göstereyim, önceki x-menlerin çanına ot tıkayayım derken ortaya karışık yapmış. Bir x-men aksiyonu için bile çok zorlama bir senaryo. En güzel tarafı hiç kuşkusuz Johnny Cash’in ‘Hurt’ şarkısı. Şarkı X-men içindeki (belki de yaşından ötürü) en felsefi karakter olan Wolverine’e ölümü göze alan mahallenin sığ bıçkın delikanlısı muamelesi yapılması ile tezat oluşturuyor. Christopher Nolan bir de Wolverine’e el atsa fena olmazmış dedirtiyor insana.

“I will let you down

I will make you hurt

I would keep myself

I would find a way…”

May 16, 2017
T2 Trainspotting 2

Trainspotting 2: Bir baltaya sap olamayanların hikayesi.

Eğer ilk filmi izlediyseniz zaten bu adamlardan bi bok olmaz demişsinizdir. İşte bu ikinci hikaye ilkini doğrular nitelikte. Tabi Star Wars gibi aynı senaryoda sadece karakter isimleri ve macera süreleri değiştirilmemiş. Karakterler aynı, maceralar farklı.

Aynı oyuncuların 20 yıl sonra tekrar bir araya gelebilmesi hiç kuşkusuz ilk filmdeki hikayenin herkes gibi oyuncuları da içine çekmesinden. Trainspotting’in devam kitabı niteliğinde olan ‘Porno’ kitabındaki gibi 10 yıl değil arada 20 yıllık bir süre var. Yönetmen Boyle bunun sebebini oyuncuların iyice yaşlanmasını beklemesine bağlıyor :). Aslında ilk filmin sonunda arkadaşlarına kazık atıp paraları alıp kaçan Renton bu filmin başında bir kalp spazmı geçirmese 20 yıl sonra bizler de eski mahalleyi biraz zor görürdük. Filmde denildiği gibi, dünya değişmiş, herkes ona ayak uyduramasa da. Tabi burada bir parantez açmak gerek. Filmde dünyayı kimlerin ne yönde değiştirdiğine dair bazı göndermeler var, ancak detaylar yok. Dünyayı filmde izlediklerimizle aynı kuşağın değiştirdiğine şüphe yok. Google, Apple gibi şirketler aynı jenerasyonun şirketleri. Ahlakları da filmde izlediğimiz karakterlerden çok farklı değil. Neticede aynı devrin çocukları. Bir baltaya sap olmuş olmalarının belki de en büyük sebebi biraz daha uslu çocuk olup büyük patronu kazıklamamış olmaları. Neyse parantezi kapatalım.

Renton mahalleye dönünce arkadaşları hem dövüyor hem seviyor. Eh haksız sayılmazlar. 20 yıldır insan bir arayıp sorar. Gerçi onun da haklı sebepleri var. Amsterdam’a gitmiş, evlenmiş, iş güç sahibi olmuş. İşsiz kalmasa zaten dönmezdi. Arkadaşlar bir araya gelirse ne yapar: eskileri yad ederler. Hele bunu yeni neslin önünde yapmaları ayrı bir tat. Eskiden atari vardı, ne biçim oynardık diye bir nostalji gibisi var mı? İşte o sırada dışarıdan nasıl gözüktüğünüzü bu filmde görebilirsiniz. Ama tabi ben öyle yapmıyorum, benimkilerin hepsi çok ilginç ve eğlenceli anılar.

Eskiden gençlik vardı, tek dertleri biraz uyuşturucu ve alkol için para bulmaktı. Bu sefer ekmek elden su gölden değil. Para bulmaları şart. Karakterlerimizden hiçbirisinin iş güç sahibi olmadığı düşünülürse bu zor işin üstesinden gelmeleri bir film konusu oluyor. Tadınızı kaçırmamak için şu kadarlık bir tüyo vereyim: Avrupa Birliğinden kerhane açmak için kültürel miras projesi geçirmeniz film hilesi değil ;). Saçma sapan işlere para almak için Avrupa vatandaşı olmanız ve işin içine kültür katmanız muhtemelen yeterli. Peki film nerede karışıyor derseniz şiddet yanlısı dostları Franco hapisten kaçıp kendisini kazıklayan Renton’un şehre döndüğünü duyunca diyelim.

Choose life demeden Trainspotting olur mu, olmaz. İlk filmi izledikten sonra ODTÜ kütüphanesinden bulduğumuz senaryodan ezberlediğimiz bu replik için şimdi internette bir arama yeterli:

“Choose life
Choose Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and hope that someone, somewhere cares
Choose looking up old flames, wishing you’d done it all differently
And choose watching history repeat itself
Choose your future
Choose reality TV, slut shaming, revenge porn
Choose a zero hour contract, a two hour journey to work
And choose the same for your kids, only worse, and smother the pain with an unknown dose of an unknown drug made in somebody’s kitchen
And then… take a deep breath
You’re an addict, so be addicted
Just be addicted to something else
Choose the ones you love
Choose your future
Choose life”

Bu filmden ilk filmin etkisini beklemeyin. Belki de siz yaşlanmışsınızdır, olamaz mı?

PS: İlk film uyuşturucuyu özendiriyordu filan diyorsanız bunu izlemeyin. Sonra istifa filan edersiniz, şantaj videoları çekmeye kalkıp filmin üstüne atarsınız 😉

March 12, 2017
Christmas in Wien – Noel’de Viyana

In this, you can find my visit to Wien in English and Turkish: “Christmas in Wien – Noel’de Viyana”.

Last Christmas I visited Wien. I can now find some time to upload images. I will try to describe some possibilities. But I have to warn you: during Christmas in Wien, most of the places are closed ! (Even museums). So you must really plan what you will do. On first day I visited St. Stephans Dom.

It is one of the biggest places to see. If you will visit historical places, this is a must. You can also go to its roof to see the city.

Along the Karntner Strasse you can see many shops. However all of them except the souvenirs are closed during Christmas. But you can listen to nice musicians on the streets.

Even though it is Christmas, you can find many people on the roads. Both 25 & 26 December are holiday in Austria. (Christmas and St. Stephans Day).

But museums are open on 26th. On 26th I went to Schonbrunn palace. There was still a Weichnacht Markt (Christmas Market) in its garden. You can see different products specific to Wien here, and drink some gluhwein while waiting for the museum.

Schonbrunn is a nice and big museum. You can figure out their love for Sisi. You can feel the souls of the Monarchy in the corridors. You can find its audioguide in many languages, including Turkish. On the afternoon I have taken the ring tram and visited the ring street with this tram. If you don’t have much time, you can use it to see this street. There are many places on the ring strasse that you need to see! On the night of the second day I visited Prater (amusement park).

It has a famous ferry wheel. There was even a nice small band playing in the park. You can see the city at night from the wheel. I definitely advice it. For transportation, I suggest using public metro, so that you can see one of the first artistic metros of the world, and interesting stations.

On the last day I have visited the Upper Belvedere, which is the palace of the Savoy Eugene. It has another importance for Turkish: he is the commander who stopped Ottoman at Wien. This is an art museum, and again it is a definitely must. It has original Klimts, Kokoschas, Schieles, etc. You can also find older art and sculpture as well. It is fascinating !

Don’t forget to do the following in Wien: visit Cafe Central, visit Karntner strasse at night, go to Schonnbrunn, visit at least one art museum, visit a big Dom and get on to the ferry wheel.

Gecen sene noel zamani Viyanayi ziyaret etmistim. Fotograflari yuklemek icin simdi zaman bulabildim. Orada yapilabilecek bazi seyleri aktarmaya calisayim. Ancak sizi uyarmaliyim: Noel’de Viyanada cogu yerler kapali (muzeler bile). Bu yuzden ne yapacaginizi iyi planlamalisiniz. Ilk gun St. Stephan Katedralini gezdim. Sehirdeki en buyuk tarihi binalardan birisi. Tarihi yerleri dolasmayi dusunuyorsaniz mutlaka gorulmesi gerekir. Ayni zamanda catisina cikarak tum sehri izleyebilirsiniz. Karntner Caddesinde pek cok magaza gorebilirsiniz. Ancak hedieylik esya satanlar disinda hepsi kapali. Sokaklarda piyano, balalayka calan muzisyenleri dinleyebilirsiniz. Noel olsa da, sokakalrda insanlari gormek mumkun. Avusturya’da hem 25, hem 26 Aralik tatil. Ancak muzeler 26’sinda acik. Ben de 26sinda Schonbrunn sarayina gittim. Sarayin bahcesinde hala devam eden bir Noel Marketi vardi.Viyanaya ait farkli urunleri burada gormeniz mumkun, tabi muze siranizi beklerken bir sicak sarap da icebilirsiniz. Schonbrunn buyuk ve hos bir muze. Sisi icin olan sevgilerini gorebilirsiniz. Ayrica kraliyetin ruhunu koridorlarinda hissedebilirsiniz. Turkce dahil olmak uzere pek cok dilde sesli rehber bulmaniz mumkun. Ogleden sonra ring trami ile Ring caddesini dolastim. Eger sizin de benim gibi fazla zamaniniz yoksa bu tramvayi tavsiye ederim. Cadde uzerinde gormeniz gereken pek cok yer var! O gunun gecesinde Prateri ziyaret ettim. Donme dolabi ile meshur bir lunapark. Parkin icinde bi seyler calan hos bir grup da vardi. Donme dolaptan tum sehri gorebilirsiniz. Kesinlikle tavsiye ederim. Sehri donme dolaptan gece isiklariyla gorebilirsiniz. Ulasim icin toplu tasima, metro kullanmanizi oneririm. Hem kullanimi kolay, hem de tarihi bir metroyu gorme sansini kacirmamis olursunuz. Kimi istasyonlar cok ilginc. Son gun yukarı Belvedereyi ziyaret ettim. Burasi ayni zamanda Eugene Savoy’un da sarayi. Bizim icin bir baska onemi daha var: Savoy Viyanada Turk ordularini durduran komutan. Burasi bir sanat muzesi, ve yine kesinlikle gorulmesi gereken bir yer. Orijinal Klimtler, Kokoschalar, Sciheleler var. Tabi baska pek cok eseri, resmi, heykeli bulmaniz mumkun. Buyuleyici ! Viyana’da yapmayi unutmayacaklariniz: Cafe Central’e gidin, Karntner Caddesini ziyaret edin, Schonbrunn sarayini ziyaret edin, en az bir sanat muzesine gidin, buyuk bir katedrali ziyaret edin ve donme dolaba binin!

December 23, 2014
Arzler Alm – 29 May

May 31, 2014