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Great Film overall

Good movie but grossly overrated

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

defining contemporary society. or new form of fairy tale. or, just, a sketch of ways to survive against world pressure and against yourself. a film who could be reduced, in easy way, at the fascinating special effects. a story who could be defined as pretext for the technique solutions. or, it could be perfect gift for the fans of computer games. but, in strange manner, maybe, just the story is the only significant aspect. and the performances. and the slices from the old well known myths. and the possibility to discover it as an interesting parable.

David Cronenberg's typically weird film is a multi-layered story of reality versus a virtual world, mixing the two so thoroughly that you'll no doubt end up being confused before the explanatory ending. Released at around the same time as THE MATRIX and exploring many of the same thoughts and ideas, EXISTENZ is less a crowd-pleaser and more of a low-key thoughtful affair which still manages to be packed with bizarre imagery and grotesque creations from Cronenberg's decidedly warped mind, except this time in a film more appealing to a larger audience than his older grue-fests like THE BROOD.In the end, EXISTENZ fails to become a great movie by being too annoyingly clever for its own good, and is flawed by being too cold in its depiction of characters and situations, a problem Cronenberg has felt throughout his career - he's just too detached (with the exception of DEAD RINGERS, I believe). As realities switch and characters change allegiances, the film does isolate itself from the audience, although the wealth of ideas and imagination keeps it totally interesting throughout. Here, Cronenberg's obsession with "body horror" crops up in weird games consoles which are plugged into sockets at the base of the human spine (once again Cronenberg dwells on the sexual subtleties of the act) and pulsate and cry as organic lifelike creations.There are a couple of very well-realised situations, particularly the restaurant scene where Jude Law's character assembles an organic gun (which shoots human teeth!) from the remains of his meal and uses it to shoot the waiter, or another scene near the end when a diseased console is burnt, releasing thousands of spores into the air. The diseases in the film hark back to earlier Cronenberg creations like RABID; although his films all look and feel a lot different, the same underlying obsessions and principles can be felt in each. The special effects are excellent and frequently disgusting, and there are brief flashes of the graphic gore and carnage which Cronenberg used to use so much.EXISTENZ also benefits from a strong cast of accomplished actors, although some only appear in cameo roles. Jennifer Jason Leigh is the strong-willed and powerful female lead, and her pairing with Jude Law (as the film's "audience" type character, a complete novice who is sucked into the virtual world) is an inspired one, with the two setting it off really well together. Ian Holm appears as a mad inventor, and Willem Dafoe shines in another of his demented turns as a gas station assistant who has ulterior motives. Christopher Eccleson also cameos as a teacher, sporting an American accent along with Law which was a bit disconcerting for me! Although not one of his best movies, EXISTENZ is a good introduction to Cronenberg's work as it covers most of the themes and ideas closest to his heart while providing enough thrills and spills (as well as an almost obligatory twist ending) for the modern audience.

If you are to enjoy this movie you must first throw all criticism out the window. Complete and utter suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite.You must not wonder why a gun made of bone that fires square teeth out a round hole without any form of propellant makes a bang, or how people with an open dime sized hole leading directly into their spine don't succumb to infection or spinal fluid loss. Nor why the lead developer/creator has no idea what her 45 million dollar game is about and only has a single copy on a device that can be corrupted simply by using it on a person who is slightly nervous.These are not inevitable problems in film making like entry wounds looking like exit wounds. This is just bad writing. And before you cry "But the ending makes all your points moot because it was all just a game!", no, no it does not. Even taking into account the fact that all but the last 5 minutes took place in a game within a game doesn't negate the fact that any semblance of a coherent plot must have remained in the soiled depths of Cronenberg's mind. Even assuming all these mistakes were foreshadowing doesn't excuse it.I remember enjoying this film when it released, but I must have been extremely high not to pick it apart scene by sloppy scene.

The ending left me with goosebumps. I had a strong feeling of déjà vu and felt like the movie had actually stopped to ask me a question directly. It was like an electrical jolt that left me sitting there reflecting on the ideas still floating around in my mind. A nice feeling, exactly what you want from a sci-fi thriller.Much of the movie revolves around the simple question of how do you know if this is reality you're in right now? Maybe you're in a game. You could even be in a game within a game. How can you ever tell for sure? By itself, that question can be a bit dull. A pointless unanswerable question, only asked for the sake of sounding clever. But in the right context, it has a much deeper relevance and can be unsettling.Do violent video games make us violent? Or do we create and play violent video games because we are violent? Or can they be a healthy outlet for us with things we would never do in real life? Can we separate reality and games?In eXistenZ, the characters play games. Games that look and feel extremely real. Jude Law's character is new to them, like us. And naturally, he is a bit uncomfortable at first. It is unnerving how real the game is. I personally find many technologies far too invasive or "user-friendly" (dumbed down so I don't know what's really going on behind the scenes) for my liking. I prefer transparency and control. So I would probably hate a video-game that was too real. I like to see the pixels, I like to be able to pause and get a drink. If something's going to look real, it may as well be real.Anyway, violence occurs in the games of eXistenZ. I guess it may as well. I mean, if you're in a virtual world, why not do all the things you can't do in real life? Explore weird personal sexual and violent fantasies, or just try things out. What does it feel like to kill someone? For me, this is just a bottomless pit that I have no interest in going down. You have to stay connected to reality. You can always imagine things, think about stuff, read books or watch movies. I love video games but as a form of art. A story told with words, music, images and gameplay. Like a movie but interactive which makes them more dream-like, flexible and personal. I want to always be actively thinking and reacting, not in a trance.Back to the story. What happens when you wake up from the game? How do you know if you've really woken up? You might still be in the game, it could be tricking you. You might start doing some daily chores or work and then come out of the game later realising that all that time and energy you had spent was wasted on a virtual world.Or later you might be in the real world but fall into game habits. Eventually you might think you're actually in the game. What if something bad or dangerous happens and you ignore it because you think you're playing? Or you casually do something violent because you think there are no consequences? Or you gradually find you *need* a regular fix of violence and one day you can't login to the game?Allegra (Jennifer Jason Leigh) herself seems somewhat addicted to the game she has created. She compares it to the boredom of real life. She often seems drowsy, like her real body is getting weak from spending too much time playing (lying down) rather than living. It may sound trite but if you find real life boring, it's probably you that is boring.The ending is very interesting and ironic. It's funny to reflect on the way the movie itself is like a virtual reality game. The actors are the players and the writer/director is the game designer. It also raises the issue of protest and censorship. Does censoring something really achieve anything? Can you ban something just because you think it's bad for people? Or is that simply presumptuous destruction, is it hypocritical? If a game's popular, does that make it valuable, something that should be left alone? The issue is alive and well in 2015: GTA5 was recently taken off certain shelves in Australia which provoked a (semi-sarcastic) petition for Target to change its name.eXistenZ has an effective and fairly unique tone. Most of the movie is in close-ups, we can't escape the characters or their situations. We're in their minds the whole time. The music is suitably moody, a bit ambiguous but generally ominous. Like slow, slushy oceans of thoughts and unexplored worlds. Cronenberg once again shows off a strange imagination - there's a cute little dragon thing, gross food, a creepy futuristic organic gun and ports at the base of people's spines (similar to The Matrix). The acting is good, we feel what the characters feel but often have no idea of their motivations. We start suspecting everyone.There are interesting similarities to Inception, The Matrix and even The Wizard of Oz. Inception is much more ambitious and emotionally richer. The Matrix is more of an action film with some simple philosophical ideas that aren't really explored properly (they conveniently never question the reality of the world outside The Matrix). eXistenZ is more claustrophobic. We're stuck in the minds of two characters as they play a strange dream-like game which we don't know the rules or purpose of (like in real life). By the end, I was subtly blown away. It's both simpler and more complex than what I had anticipated.