Awake not Woke!

Very enjoyable movie with a strong, history-revision, agenda

Atrocities were committed by Whites. Atrocities were committed by Indians Yes, I mean North American Indigenous people. My brother-in-law and good friend is full-blooded Indian. He actually gets upset when people use terms like Native-Americans, etc. This movie strongly emphasizes one side, while ignoring or justifying the other. When one tribe fought another, the narration described it as a noble battle for survival. Before the European migration, this was an extremely violent and dangerous land. War between tribes was constant. Women and children were often targeted while the men were on hunting or raiding parties. Torture was used to intimidate and destroy morale. The early settlers found that out the hard way. We cannot fully understand the brutality they lived with in those days. It was a lawless existence. History is fascinating to study. Historical drama can be good and educational. It can also push an agenda. As enjoyable as this movie is, it has a very strong, biased agenda. It should be recognized as such.

I have a weak spot for shark based movies and this was still a big disappointment. For fans of action war movies there is virtually none of that so despite the setting you will be let down. As a horror/shark movie however, well also a letdown. The movie starts with a group of recruits in boot camp and these scenes for some reason they had them all acting like immature children. Actually the entire movie has them acting unrealistically and a lot of it is so silly it almost wants to be a comedy half the time. It's clear this was made on a very small budget, as all the night scenes are shot very dark and then the day scene conveniently has a thick dense fog bank roll in so you can't see anything. The shark while visually looking very well done they chose to do it with animatronics instead of CG. Normally I'm a fan of minimizing CG, however when doing something like a shark it just doesn't look good. It's painfully obvious it's not real in every shot as the shark is so slow and barely moves at all. There is a big over use of slow motion throughout the entire movie in general. Pretty much all the shark attack scenes are either done in slow motion or are plainly telegraphed and you can see them coming far before it happens thereby nullifying any sort of scares or tension. They also decided to have the ships faulty air raid siren get stuck in the shark fin giving off a weird sort of screaming sound. This clearly supposed to be terrifying but just comes off as gimmicky and dumb. Now for the woke. The cast consists of a whole bunch of white male's and 1 aboriginal. You know where this is headed. Naturally the DEI is the main character and focus and the only one with any sort of backstory. He is smart, capable, good and all the white females love him. Race is naturally a part of the story with one of the white characters being a huge racist and hating him, and of course all the white characters seem to act like idiots or stupid children. There is another strange thing here that I wasn't going to mention under woke but it seems to be done on purpose so I think it might actually be. The very first scene of the shark the DEI genius instantly says that it's a female because of it's size and the males don't get as big. This is based on him seeing only the head for about a second in the dark during an attack. All of them then always refer to the shark as 'she'. I may be wrong but it seemed like an odd unrealistic thing that nobody would care about in the moment and forced in just for some kind of gender nonsense.

An interesting movie about Japanese culture and a critique of actors.

Straight to the point: is it woke? No. Does it have woke elements? Yes. That’s why I add a point for how much of that it has. That said, the movie stands out mainly because of its subject matter. The woke content it includes is lightly woven into the story to help it move forward and build the narrative, not to shove a political message down your throat, even though the core theme is rooted in a socio-political critique of Japan. Even so, it’s handled with respect. Other films have already tackled the idea of “rent-a-family” from a Western perspective, like Lost in Translation, but not like this—and honestly, this one is much better. On top of that, the lead isn’t a smug actor just playing himself, like Bill Murray. I mention that movie because it touches on depression too, which is also explored here, but in a much more positive way and from a more authentic viewpoint, since the director is Japanese. You can feel the love for her country, coming across as constructive criticism rather than the destructive kind we’re used to in the West. A solid drama. Not perfect, but watchable.

Good telling of a good story

The woke: Toward the end, it was revealed that the French, rival, number-running gang, is matriarchal. The boss is an attractive, black woman. I doubt that's realistic. It seems like maybe it's just checking the box for production. I think all MPAA rated movies need that. It's not too bothersome to enjoy the movie. I'm a big fan of single scene movies. This one takes place entirely within the Cutter's shop. The acting and story line are showcased this way. Both are exceptional. There's obviously more to Leonard than meets the eye. When the story finally gets through all the layers, the ending is worth the wait. I recommend watching.