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Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Brilliant movie and Christ allegory
Superbly acted by Tom Hardy (Shinzon) and Patrick Stewart (Picard), this movie should be compared more with Blade Runner rather than with the others in the Star Trek series.
Although this is obviously a sci-fi film with a lot of special effects and action sequences, it's the message behind the plot that make it stand out as something special. And in this review I'm going to skip over many of the details to discuss this sub-theme, or perhaps supra-theme would be a better description.
During the course of the movie, Picard is presented as a man who is confident in the correctness, even the righteousness, of his own beliefs. He is the man searching to spread the message of peace and good, attempting to improve both the universe and himself at the same time. However, circumstances suddenly force him to confront a younger clone of himself (Shinzon), a man whose experiences in life have made him a self-interested and villainous alter ego.
Throughout the film, Picard tries to avoid the idea that anything about this evil twin protagonist could ever have been part of him. He's also asks this of his crew members and they confirm that his character is totally unlike Shinzon's. However, in the dramatic death scene at the conclusion of the movie, as Picard faces his clone in a death embrace, he finally realizes that he and Shinzon are one character, and that he himself has all the evil potential that is displayed in his twin brother.
As he stands stunned by this conclusion, Data who acts as a Christ figure, sacrifices his own unsullied life so that Picard can be saved, both physically and spiritually. In the final scene, the allegory is made complete by the physical return of Data (Christ) in the character of B4.
I hope that this adds to your enjoyment of the movie, and I'd be interested to read anyone else's comments.
Dave
Junebug (2005)
Fabulous movie with a wonderfully understated meaning.
None of the first 20 user reviews properly understood this movie.
Critical to deducing out what's going on in the plot is, of course, understanding why the movie is titled as it is ... Junebug. A Junebug appears for a very, short time in the middle of summer, flits around above the grass, reproduces, and then disappears until next year. It's just concerned with it's own life, finding a mate and having sex.
The two visitors, George and Madeline, are Junebugs. They pop up in the middle of Junebug season in North Carolina to see George's family for a brief visit, primarily not to see the relatives, but for Madeline to sign up a new painter for her art gallery. They are just like the temporary insect visitors.
The fascinating element is that, at first, Madeline and George appear to be the one's who have it together emotionally speaking. They appear to both express how they feel without problems, to be the same on the surface as they are underneath, i.e. their real personalities seem to be expressed openly.
Whereas, when we meet George's family and friends and neighbours in N.C. they seem to be the weirdest bunch of suppressed individuals you could possibly meet! However, as the movie progresses, you start to realize, in the most wonderfully understated way, that the opposite is actually the case.
Slowly but surely, you begin to understand that it is the North Carolinian family and friends who know and understand each other on a level, and with a true depth, that George and Madeline could only wish for. Some examples? Both George and Madeline smoke cigarettes, but both keep it a secret from each other. A very basic element of both their lives is a secret.
Madeline doesn't even know that George likes loads of mayonnaise on his sandwiches, and that he likes to play road games in the car, and that he cheats in the games.
George doesn't realize that Madeline isn't as bound up in her career as an art dealer as he suspects, instead she becomes emotionally involved in his family's issues and problems. He misunderstands this during the scene in the hospital where he tells her over the phone that "family is important". In fact, she is more aware of this than he is.
During this last scene in the car where they are returning to their Northern city life, it is George who says, Hey, I'm glad to be out of there. Yet it is Madeline who has been more deeply changed and affected by the events she has witnessed among George's family.
It is they who turn out to be the Junebugs, involved in George's family life for a brief short time, and they will probably return the next year for another fleeting, flitting visit. Instead, it is the family, who seemed so out of touch with each other initially, who turn out to be the ones with the on-going commitment to each other, through good and bad, despite their flaws and problems. The family members are the ones who really understand and communicate with each other on a level that George wants to avoid by leaving again, and although Madeline has realized some of this internally, she is also leaving to return to her all-consuming career. They both choose to leave real communication behind in N.C. with George's family.
There are so many "hidden" aspects that speak of this underlying plot throughout the movie, that I can't mention them all here. But some are George and Madeline's sex life which is graphically portrayed. It seems that they are very much like the Junebugs, here to have sex and procreate, and then come back to do the same next year. That's all they seem to do, true communication is out the window. Another is when Madeline finds Eugene's screwdriver hidden under some furniture, just before she is about to leave and go home. It's as if she has finally discovered something about what Eugene is looking for in his life, but chooses to flit off after she discovers it. I could go on, including the very brief scene of the Junebugs flitting above the grass in the garden, but I'll let you find the others yourself.
Happy flitting! A true 9 out of 10 movie. Very enjoyable and profound.