Rollerball 2002 at least attempted something
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
When looking at the poster of 2002 film Rollerball you ask yourself 2 questions: 1) Why somebody thought it would be a good idea? 2 ) Why this somebody is John McTiernan, the filmmaker that brought us classics like Predator and Die Hard? ↩ Reply
Rollerball is a good example of good intentions mixed with studio greed gone wrong. And to be frank, this is a very poetic example of studio interference. Because the film is technically about studio interference. ↩ Reply
I decided to take a look at this movie after I wrote a review for Le Grand Bleu. In that film one of the prominent roles was played Jean Reno and the music was done by Éric Serra. In this film, the music is also done by Éric Serra ( but not a lot of it to be frank ). And one of the villains is played by Reno. Which is an interesting change of pace for the actor. Also the fact that is was directed by McTiernan, means that I already had a prior knowledge of this movie's existence. So the stars aligned for me to see it finally. ↩ Reply
The film feels like McTiernan is trying to out-compete Bayhem! ( the technique of Michael Bay ) without actually understanding it. So what you get is a lot of shake and crazy editing of some very complex scenes. The Rollerball game itself is a complex and violent team sport, which involves vehicles ( from roller-skates to a motorcycle ) ridding around a tight 8 shaped track, chasing a metal ball. This is already way too complex and required the film to ( if I understand it correctly ) shoot some additional scenes, to just explain the rules. And yet despite all this the action is chaotic to an unbelievable level. ↩ Reply
Maybe McTiernan was trying to give the audience the Adrenalin similarly to how Bayhem! achieves it. But with Bayhem! the action is either very clearly established, or not important for the plot. In which case Bay can go crazy. For example: It could be a chase scene. Michael Bay shows who the bad guys are, who the bad boys are and adds a complication ( like that one of the sides can throw stuff at the other from a truck ) and you get yourself an easily understandable premise with which you can go crazy. McTiernan attempts to do it here with a stupidly complex game. ↩ Reply
For me specifically the film felt like a challenge I need to go through. My brain kicked into figuring out mode and got super-focused, which gave me an opportunity to enjoy the film. But I can see how those people that usually watch Bayhem! movies will not be able to do the same here. ↩ Reply
Speaking of legendary stuff, McTiernan did something in this movie that in my opinion requires balls. There a whole action scene in this film shot in infra-red night vision mode. This is some interesting film-making there. Usually those kinds of scenes would be lit by artificial lights so that cameras could see the faces of the actors. But McTiernan chose to not light shit, and instead use night vision. This, in my opinion, was the best scene in the entire film. It was tense, it was intense. And it was ultimately very brutal. And this night vision aesthetic just adds to the appeal. It does feel strange though. And I think regular people would find this scene too artsy fartsy. Or would not get what happened to their screens. ↩ Reply
It is frankly ironic that the film is about a TV game-show where the studio heads interfere with the game to gain more ratings ( and therefor more money ). The main character Johnathan ( Chris Klein ) is trying to solve the interference issue, first through regular means, then through desperate ones. Ending up breaking the law multiple times to do so. McTiernan on set experienced similar studio interference, which ironically even got him jail-time. Because the situation was so desperate that he needed to hire somebody to illegally wiretap the producers, to even have a chance to fight. ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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