One of the Best

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2015)

I can't believe it took me so long to finally see this film. It is a true masterpiece. But I read some reviews and listened to a few friends and they all declared it to be something a little below average...maybe a failure.
What?!? I should have suspected that they might be failing to do the one thing you really need to do in order to enjoy science fiction--you have to think. If you just blow into this movie after a few stiff drinks and fail to engage your brain, maybe it won't work for you. I don't know. But the ideas here--the imagination--it's incredible! Everything that clunkers like "Tomorrowland" or "Ex Machina" got wrong this movie gets right. Super performance from Joaquin Phoenix, super, subtle and amazing special effects (if you didn't see any you need to sleep it off and see the movie again). At every point where the filmmakers could have chickened out, they said "sail on" and this kind of integrity is a rare and beautiful thing.
Truly one of the top science fiction films of all time--this movie deserves to be discussed, argued over and maybe even fought over at the next science fiction convention in my hometown. I might even set up a little panel discussion on it--but I do know that science fiction without bug-eyed-monsters or stupid, fascistic wars is a little hard for some folks to accept.
Well so what? Who needs them? A final word--if the basic premise, that a guy falls for his operating system, is something that you just can't accept and really hate and want to kill--then stay home, or dial up Star Wars on streaming. This movie makes no attempt (and it SHOULDN'T) to convince you that this is real. It just is.