A hypothetical viewer going into The Bourne Legacy who hadn't seen any of the previous Bournes, and had no idea who Jason Bourne is, would be confused to the point of irritation by this movie.
That's not meant as a criticism, exactly, but an observation. Legacy assumes from the get-go that you're at least kind of familiar with the Bourne franchise, and I suspect one would get more out of it if one had a better memory for the details of the previous films than I do.
You know how sometimes a movie sort of comes out of nowhere and blows you away with its originality, wit, and unique perspective—e.g. Evil Dead II? When that happens, have you ever wondered (as I often have) what such a film might have looked like if it emerged around the same time, had a similarly unique perspective, but was somehow just…not successful at all?
Phantasm II is an example of the latter.
Horror aficionados of the Fangoria-subscriber variety seem to have a fondness for the Phantasm franchise (of which I have now seen only the first two films). I attribute this fondness mainly to the following:
Though it's a solid translation from text to screen, the 1984 film version of Orwell's 1984 is really only worth seeing for two reasons: John Hurt and Richard Burton.
I say this because nothing in the film is more effective than (or even an impressively-accurate realization of) anything in the book—and much of the best stuff from the book is missing or only hinted at in the film.
In short, if you have interest in the film but you've never read the book, then what the hell is up with that. Seriously, read the book first. I know people say that all the time about movies based on books, but this is Nineteen Frickin' Eighty-Four. I feel so strongly about this that the rest of this review is going to be spoiler-free, which I don't usually bother to worry about.
When it comes to Nazis-on-the-Moon movies, I can't finish that sentence.
Iron Sky involves a colony of Moon Nazis who get discovered by near-future astronauts, capturing one and accelerating their Earth invasion plans as a result of the encounter. They are opposed by the U.S. president (an unnamed Sarah Palin analogue), her campaign manager, the captured astronaut (he escapes—not a huge spoiler), and the "nice Nazi," whose existence is again not much of a spoiler.
