Sunday, October 11, 2009

wow. basic instinct 2.

i resisted going to review sites before i watched it. now i've watched it and then i've read the reviews and im glad i watched it first. critics didn't like it one bit lol. maybe just maybe it was too similar to the first and there was less thrill/suspense? some ppl even suggested renaming it something else rather than call it BS2. hmmm

actually i thought this movie being named BS2 gives it a different.. flavour to it? no doubt it contained less suspense because we know who the killer is. but that makes it even cleverer i thought. we KNOW the identity of the killer, but the movie plays around with the evidence and characters' perception and doubt, and shows how clever manipulation of of human minds can be achieved. honestly if we were the ones in the movie rather than viewing it from outside (like a higher dimension lol) we'd probably be thinking believing suspecting as well. ppl who are overly sure of themselves or ppl who let emotions and passions rule their actions often get manipulated easily.

the character of catherine tramell was absolutely brilliant. so cool headed so rational, so intelligent and such a good reader and manipulator of other people. its makes her so omnipotent, its very spooky. and her favourite tactic seemed to be to allow herself to be of some suspicion and then clear her name with some clever cover up or perfectly logical deduction- and putting the blame on others at the same time. that actually causes the initial ppl who suspected her to clear whatever doubts they might originally (and correctly) have. maybe becoz they feel guilty about accusing the wrong person? their ego would not have them risk being wrong about the same person TWICE. human manipulation at its best. "mind-****ing" was the phrase the movie used.
an amazingly liar, but only on rare occasion does the explicitly tell a lie. mostly she allows others to form their own conclusions. so ppl who're too sure of themselves often come to the conclusions that she intended for them - the wrong one.

yes and of course the uses her powers of seduction, but imo thats her secondary weapon no matter how powerful it is. her best skill is still reading of others' character and personality and bending them to her will.

but everyone thinks its a porno show. oops ><

kinda remind me of palpatine. i feel most ppl (even some star wars fans sigh) have wrong perceptions of various aspects of star wars >< on the part about the rise of the empire, yes, palpatine was a crazy old power hungry insane corrupted sith lord, but the truth is, his rise from common senator to supreme chancellor had little to do with his dark Force powers. in fact he rarely used them i think. he climbed all the way up through clever reading of others around him - their strengths and weaknesses, their beliefs and ego and their greed, and manipulating them carefully to bend to his will. mostly by playing around with their egos he managed to get the right favours done at the right time. and tada slowly he was emperor.

i have a suspicion on how human ego is and will always be the ultimate downfall of mankind. have been expanding it in my thoughts for a few months now. will put it down into a full thesis (haha :p) when i have the time :)

8:48 PM

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