Magically Retro: "You've seen this movie before, but you've never seen it like this"

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2011)

This movie is layered with very thick and powerful themes: the retro 80's style, the hero as a real human being, Hollywood fantasy land, what love "drives" a man to do, etc.
The movie is a spectacle: it combines the perfect duality of fantasy and realism; the scenes, emotions, and characters seem so real, yet they are placed in a Hollywood fantasy land of invincible heroes and despicable villains. This duality is tough to explain but really grasped me by the end. The characters are seemingly frozen in an 80's world that takes place in the modern era.
The acting is superb, of course, but the masterpiece lies in its moving and timingly "retro" soundtrack, the beautiful cinematography, and the unspoken scenes of silence which speak volumes.
You are drawn to love the hero, a real human being that is driven to unreal inhumanity to be heroic.
This movie is not what I expected. Some may not find meaning in the silent scenes, the 80's style, or the crescendoing action-packed intensity. You are led along carefully by the director to grasp the characters, the nuances, the emotions before he takes you up the crescendo of action and intensity that climaxes with a long focus on our hero... wondering if he is dead or alive.
A movie for the ages, destined for a cultish following. Definitely a movie I will see over and over. An action movie that is layered with real emotion and meaning. 9/10