Stellar sci fi (Twelve Monkeys (DVD))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	Twelve Monkeys (DVD)
Date:	19/09/09 (2 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Impressive crafted

Disadvantages: Confusing

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room

Terry Gilliam is known for his visually impressive and flamboyant, even slightly campy films like Brazil, and soon, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, but he's also created some very different beasts altogether, such as Twelve Monkeys, a classic in the science fiction genre, and one that gets arguably the very best performance out of star Bruce Willis. It's also visually stunning and very inventive, like most of Gilliam's films.

The film revolves around James Cole (Willis), a criminal who lives in a very harsh and dystopia version of the late 1990s, where a virus has virtually ravaged the Earth and the survivors have to live underground. However, Cole is offered a mission - to travel back in time and find out the cause of the virus, and if he can do so, he will be pardoned of his crimes. His only lead, though, is that the virus's release links to a group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.

When he travels back, though, he winds up being placed in a mental institution by Dr. Kathryn Railly (Stowe). However, it's more fortuitous than he expects, as here me meets Jeffrey Goines (Pitt), who appears to be in the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, and may therefore lead him to the answers that he is looking for.

This is a very clever and complex film that tackles the same sort of issues that The Terminator did many years before. It's strucutrally complex, and a little confusing at times, but this is just the film's necessary conceit, for by the end, everything wraps up nicely, with a few neat twists, some deep characterisation and astounding visual work, directed beautifully by Gilliam.

An intelligent, highly-engrossing sci-fi with great performances from Willis and Pitt in particular. A great ending also.

Summary: Disorientating but great