Megalopolis Review


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Lachlan's Movie Reviews


my littles cuties, today we're going to be talking about Francis Ford Coppola's new movie Megalopolis

starring
And a bunch of other cool people that I won't mention because I don't want to find photos for all of them.

Anyways this movie is pretty doodoo, I would recommend not seeing it in theatres because wow it's NOT worth spending 20 dollars on, please do yourself a favour and watch it whenever it's on Netflix or something.

But yeah, this is a pretty baffling movie? Without spoiling too much, the story is basically about Adam Driver's character Cesar wanting to progress the city of New Rome forward using his new "Megalon" substance, and the city's current mayor Cicero, Giancarlo Esposito's character, opposing it due to his previous hatred of Adam Driver and his assumption he's ruining the city.

This a genuinely interesting start to the story imo, it's cool to see these two ultra powerful city builders go toe-to-toe trying to figure out what's best for the city. Plus the movie adds in a bunch of other factors like the mayor's daughter siding with Adam Driver, and there's an ultra-rich banker who everyone's trying to get money from, and for the first like hour of the movie, it's super interesting to see the plot develop and see where these stories go. But there's also a lot of parts of the movie that I think are meant to develop Cesar's character, and they're just like, confusing? This is part of the baffling part, because during these scenes, Cesar is shown freezing time or going into a drug/alcohol induced trance and they just seem... strange? Maybe I'm supid, but I didn't understand what these scenes were trying to convey. Can he stop time because of his massive intellect or a unique way of thinking? Is it because of his Megalon substance? Is he in a trance to distract himself from stress, or because of his mommy issues, or because this helps him creatively? They're just very strange scenes that, while making Cesar more interesting, just make me more lost on who he is as a character. And before you ask, Giancarlo Esposito does not get this kind of development. He stays opposed to Cesar the entire movie but then spoilers happen and maybe he changes his mind. And there's also the issue of Cesar's dead wife, which kind of just muddies the waters of the plot. There's a point to it but I don't think I quite understand the full scope of how. Once again, maybe I'm stupid, but I genuinely think this is a failing on the movie to clearly convey its ideas.



Oh yeah but the second half of the movie is a complete mess. It's super disorganized and it fast-tracks the plot like they had to cut the script down to 1/4 of its original length (which they probably did ngl this movie's production was a mess from what I heard). A lot of characters and events just happen, and before they really get a chance to be built on, their part of the plot is over. It overall ends on a very unsatisfying note, and I think this could have been alleviated by just giving the movie more time to breathe. 2.5 hours feels pretty short for what they were going for, and I think giving it another hour would have cleared up the story a bit more. Would it have made the overall movie better? MAYBE, but I think it would've been a strange watch no matter what.

Also the acting is so strange. No hate on the actors, they perform the best they can, it's just the direction they were all given. Everyone speaks in this grandiose, shakespearean way, but very awkwardly. It's genuinely jarring when the actors break and speak like normal humans for like 2 seconds before going back to their strange speech patterns. I honestly think it's kind of engaging after a while, like the director is pulling you into this seperate reality simply by how the characters speak, but it's also just, strange and kind of uncomfortable, so it's a bit hard to sit through for the whole movie. Super interesting but also super weird.

Finally I want to say something about the way the movie looks, I really like it! Everything feels lightly surreal, and the whole movie is baked in these golden hues that emphasize the setting, that it's the big players we're following, the rich and the powerful, the ones who will either keep this city gold, or doom it to ruin. Everything is framed really nicely and everything is pretty to look at. The effects are a bit underdeveloped for sure, but I think that adds to the charm of the movie, how this isn't reality, it's a fable like the movie says. It's also well edited, which helps move along the messy pacing of the movie very nicely.



Anyways I'd rate this movie 3/5 stars, it sure is an interesting movie but it sure isn't a good one.

LOL okay real update time



So as can be seen from the "Where am I" tag, I've finally made it to Adelaide! Wow! South Australia's biggest city! It sure is one. I've only been here 4(?) days, and it's kind of a bummer. Just one of those deals where I haven't found any real friends yet. It's kind of crazy how much of an impact my friends in Cairns made on me. It's like "holy crap, these are people I genuinely have things in common with and want to be around", and not just people I hang around because we get along. So hopefully I can find people like that but we'll see. It's nice being in a hostel again for multiple nights rather than just sleeping in my car. Even if people are snoring, having a warm bed is so nice... You really miss it sleeping in your car for a month or so. The hostel is pretty crap, but it's cheap so I can't complain to much.

But yeah, I've explored a decent amount of Adelaide and it's pretty alright. It has a really cool design where the CBD is sectioned off from the rest of the city by these huge parks, and it's honeslty really pretty. But the contents inside are just okay. Not interestingly designed like Sydney, no crazy events like Melbourne, it's just kind of a blah city like Brisbane but with less resources. I'll check the nearby beaches out soon, but we'll see if they're nice, I'm a bit of a beach snob after all.

Also trying to sell my car has been a not great time. The fact I'm missing a thermostat right now plus the window situation make people not want to deal with it, and like, I don't blame them, but please someone buy my freaking car LOL. Neither of the issues are a difficult fix, I just don't have the time to wait for a shop to have space to accomodate me right now. I'm hoping I can sell it for 6k since it has the tent and everything, but apparentlty the issues make it a little unattractive, so I think I'll drop it to 5.5k and then further down if need be. As long as I can sell it for at least as much as I bought it I'll be happy.


But yeah, on the way here I managed to make it both to Wilson's Promontory and the Great Ocean Road! I had to make it to Wilson's Promontory, since it was the main place the old man I met in the airport on my way to Australia suggested to me. It was okay! Very decent nature, and saw a TON of kangaroos and even 2 emus! That was super cool, definitely my highlight. I was still super out of shape for that though, I went for a 3 hour walk the first day, which normally I could handle with a bit of difficulty since it wasn't super steep or anything, but oh my GOODNESS I was dead afterwards. I literally went back to my campsite and fell asleep in my chair, it was that bad. This was when I could barely eat anything on a daily basis though, so I thought I did pretty well considering the fact. Then the second day I went to the Wildlife Walk and saw a TON of kangaroos, a couple emus, but no wombats :( that was a bit sad, but I did see one on the side of the highway when I was troubleshooting my car. I saw his butt wiggle from the side of the highway into some nearby bushes, he was pretty cute. I also saw an echidna the exact same way on the Great Ocean Road haha.

But yeah then I drove to Melbourne, stayed a night there, and then made my way to the Great Ocean Road. It's SUPER pretty, there's super cool beaches everywhere you go, and I finally saw more koalas! My koala count is now up to 4. 2 I saw sleeping in trees, and the 3rd I almost hit with my car as it was crossing the road. Luckily he made across perfectly safely :D But yeah the GOR is pretty decent. The 12 Apostles rocks are alright. This part of the country is not very interesting aside from the koalas though, not gonna lie. NSW and QLD are much more ecologically and geographically cool, they have way cooler mountains and cassowaries and beaches and stuff, it's awesome. Anyways here's a photo dump, here u go :)





Looking forward to coming home though honestly. My visitor visa expires the 11th of November, so I reckon I'll be back on the 9th, there's a cheap flight that day haha . IDK, Australia is super amazing, but going into another spring/summer season is a bit exhausting. It'll be nice to come back to a real fall and a real winter instead of just 30 degrees every day. In the meantime, I want to play some good Autumn games, so please recommend me your favorite Autumn games. I think I might download Harvest Moon for that cozy autumn feel. Here's some good artworks for the VIBES

But yeah, excited to see most of you guys again (meaning the Canadians, sorry all my friends in Australia and other countries I won't be going where you are) and live my terrible canadian life again. Just putting that there so I don't hype myself up too much. I am excited though.

Okay, I think that's everything. I hope you all have a pleasant day and drink lots of water to stay hydrated in these trying times. Bye bye!!!