Film Review

    Okay, I admit it. I was wrong about Roland Emmerich. I had previously known him to be the master of making bland spectacle movies with cardboard characters. Let's look at his films:

Stargate: I haven't seen it, but most people say it stank.
Independence Day: Whatever.
Godzilla: Shoot me!
The Day After Tomorrow: Okay, but whatever.
2012: Sucked. (Special effects are the only good part)

    But I was wrong when I though he could never make a good film. Imagine my surprise when I watch The Patriot and find his name on it. Holy cow! This film was great. It had great characters and some serious drama that actually spawned from the characters choices and actions instead of special effects. I don't have a favorite actor, but if I did, Mel Gibson would be a candidate. He is truly a force to be reckoned with in this film, playing a complex man who wants to keep his family away from the war, but can't because not only does his oldest son (Heath Ledger, in a great performance) enlist in the war, but the war itself seems to find him and hurt what he loves most.
    In another incredible feat, this film actually made me hate and fear the villain. True, the villain was pretty much one-dimensional, (like the five year-old archetype from Avatar) but it's his few shreds of development that make him interesting. His father squandered his family's estate and left him nothing. Therefore, he seeks honor in battlefield glory and in killing as many settlers as he can. He has a goal and motivation. This makes him work where other similar villains have failed.

    The combination of all these made me root hard for the main characters to succeed in winning the war and if a film can get a guy like me to root for it, it does its job well. The Patriot was a great movie.