The New Cinema and Movie Thread

[Bartimaeus]

14 minutes ago, majestic said:

It ain't over until the fat lady sings you're through AvP and the new Ridley Scott films.

You know you want to. AvP 2 in particular, that one is so bad even people who enjoy cheesy stupid action films hate it.

Prometheus is the first Alien film that I ever saw. My main impression of it (now, ~10 years after having seen it) was that Noomi Rapace was good in the starring role. There were, I understand, just a couple of writing and creative decisions that people took issue to, . No chance on Alien vs. Predator, I'm afraid: it's so far outside my wheelhouse that it would serve no purpose for anyone.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Lexx]

Damn, you people are such a bunch of haters. : >

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

Damn, you people are such a bunch of haters. : >

In all fairness, I am probably the biggest hater of...everything, out of everybody here on the Obsidian forum? Like, I play maybe two to three new (usually short/indie) video games a year, I dislike or at least don't care for the vast majority of movies and shows that I try, most music induces strong misophonic reactions from me, I'm very selective about what I'm willing to put in the effort to read... I mean hell, I almost definitely even have the largest ignore list on here! Intolerance and indifference is pretty much what everyone should expect from me as a default at this point, . In spite of that, I'm still somehow able to find stuff that I enjoy (and because of my dislike for everything, I also have a tendency to keep what I do like extremely close to heart for a very long time)...but in the context of specifically Alien, I have a pretty noted extreme aversion to pointless action and corny acting/dialogue, so really, the only surprise here is that I enjoyed Alien 3.

Now, as for everybody else being "haters"...they can make up their own explanations for themselves.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

Prometheus might be the most frustrating movie of the last decade. On the one hand, the cinematography is splendid, as I expect from Ridley Scott. On the other hand, the narrative is utterly baffling and so full of plot holes that it's more hole than plot.

As for Alien movies vs Predator movies:

Alien > Predator > Aliens >>> Predator 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> bunch of crap.

[Sarex]

9 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

In all fairness, I am probably the biggest hater of...everything,

I think some people in the Ukraine thread would like a word with you.

[Bartimaeus]

11 minutes ago, Sarex said:

I think some people in the Ukraine thread would like a word with you.

I said everything, not everybody. I am anti-nationalist, generally accepting of ideas and identities wherein they do not infringe upon others (wherever their basis may lie, whether it's ethnic, religion, personal, ideological...), and am only just somewhat misanthropic, so I certainly don't qualify for that, . My intolerance for certain types of people is, I believe, much more reasoned and limited than my intolerance for most other things.

17 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

Prometheus might be the most frustrating movie of the last decade. On the one hand, the cinematography is splendid, as I expect from Ridley Scott. On the other hand, the narrative is utterly baffling and so full of plot holes that it's more hole than plot.

As for Alien movies vs Predator movies:

Alien > Predator > Aliens >>> Predator 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> bunch of crap.

I don't have a good enough memory of Prometheus to talk about its plot, especially given that I obviously lacked the context of the rest of the Alien films when I saw it. Perhaps that's a reason to re-visit it after all...

Edited July 30, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

7 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I don't have a good enough memory of Prometheus to talk about its plot, especially given that I obviously lacked the context of the rest of the Alien films when I saw it. Perhaps that's a reason to re-visit it after all...

There is no amount of context in the entirety of the infinite multiverse that allows Prometheus to make sense. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

Damn, you people are such a bunch of haters. : >

Damn right.

41 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

In all fairness, I am probably the biggest hater of...everything, out of everybody here on the Obsidian forum?

Yeah that's true. Tbh I'm hesitant to recommend things to you without caveats because I know how your tastes can be very specific. To use an example I expected the scene you disliked in EEAAO to turn you off from the film at large.

Though in this specific case I agree with you for the same reasons. Alien is a very good horror film that feels personally terrifying. In terms of sci-fi horror, I think only Event Horizon or Magnetic Rose capture the same feelings for me.

41 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Now, as for everybody else being "haters"...they can make up their own explanations for themselves.

Edited July 30, 2022 by KP wants Blue Velvet

[ShadySands]

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

Damn, you people are such a bunch of haters. : >

The AvP movies are my favorite of the Alien movies but my least favorite of the Predator movies.. though let me qualify that by saying I haven't seen them all, Alien or Predator.

[Bartimaeus]

42 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

Yeah that's true. Tbh I'm hesitant to recommend things to you without caveats because I know how your tastes can be very specific. To use an example I expected the scene you disliked in EEAAO to turn you off from the film at large.

In Everything Everywhere All at Once's case, the justification is really twofold: I will forgive a lot of ridiculous silliness that might really bother me elsewhere if I love the character stuff...in fact, there's even a chance that my tastes might literally change as I watch it so that I am more accepting of whatever precise type of silliness it's engaging with. Characters trump everything else - they are the foundational backbone of almost all types of fiction/entertainment for me. I will also forgive what should be unforgivable if the film manages to resonate with me on a personal level, and Everything Everywhere All at Once very strongly resonated with me on a personal level from multiple angles, which is very rare indeed.

I've always said that I don't really care for themes and other kinds of big ideas in entertainment, but that's because they generally stand extremely little chance of affecting me on a personal level: without characters that I like, it's virtually impossible for me to pay enough attention to even fully understand the plot of something, and never mind looking deeper for the themes. So when you have characters that I like while being able to interweave ideas and themes that I like, you've really got potential for something special. And then I watch Aliens where the characters are completely one-note meme-worthy non-characters that can't even deliver their lines properly, and people wonder why I'm not impressed with it. I'd like to turn to my friend George Lucas here...

...who, although he would completely and utterly forget what he said fifteen years or so later while making the prequel trilogy, pretty much hits a home run on my feelings here with regards to not spending your time on the proper elements.

42 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

Though in this specific case I agree with you for the same reasons. Alien is a very good horror film that feels personally terrifying. In terms of sci-fi horror, I think only Event Horizon or Magnetic Rose capture the same feelings for me.

Haven't seen Event Horizon, but obviously I love Satoshi Kon's Magnetic Rose as previously discussed. Slow, personal, atmospheric horror that builds itself through what our characters are experiencing...what they see, or what they don't see, their personal weaknesses and fears, and the terror they experience. At the most base level, I want to feel something for my characters as a result of what they're going through, and you have to make it personal to them to accomplish that. I want to become afraid and get hurt just as they do.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Haven't seen Event Horizon

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

In Everything Everywhere All at Once's case, the justification is really twofold: I will forgive a lot of ridiculous silliness that might really bother me elsewhere if I love the character stuff...in fact, there's even a chance that my tastes might literally change as I watch it so that I am more accepting of whatever precise type of silliness it's engaging with. Characters trump everything else - they are the foundational backbone of almost all types of fiction/entertainment for me. I will also forgive what should be unforgivable if the film manages to resonate with me on a personal level, and Everything Everywhere All at Once very strongly resonated with me on a personal level from multiple angles, which is very rare indeed.

I've always said that I don't really care for themes and other kinds of big ideas in entertainment, but that's because they generally stand extremely little chance of affecting me on a personal level: without characters that I like, it's virtually impossible for me to pay enough attention to even fully understand the plot of something, and never mind looking deeper for the themes. So when you have characters that I like while being able to interweave ideas and themes that I like, you've really got potential for something special. And then I watch Aliens where the characters are completely one-note meme-worthy non-characters that can't even deliver their lines properly, and people wonder why I'm not impressed with it. I'd like to turn to my friend George Lucas here...

...who, although he would completely and utterly forget what he said fifteen years or so later while making the prequel trilogy, pretty much hits a home run on my feelings here with regards to not spending your time on the proper elements.

Haven't seen Event Horizon, but obviously I love Satoshi Kon's Magnetic Rose as previously discussed. Slow, personal, atmospheric horror that builds itself through what our characters are experiencing...what they see, or what they don't see, their personal weaknesses and fears, and the terror they experience. At the most base level, I want to feel something for my characters as a result of what they're going through, and you have to make it personal to them to accomplish that. I want to become afraid and get hurt just as they do.

I've deleted this several times as I've tried to articulate my thoughts. For me I think the casts' performances are one of the most important things in a film, but I don't have to like them in order to enjoy it. I mean in Blue Velvet, which I liked enough to do a new name and avi for after rewatching it some months back, the characters are mostly morally repugnant to me. Yet I think Dennis Hopper does an utterly fantastic job as Frank Booth, as does Kale, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, and Harry Dean Stanton as their characters to create a fascinating narrative. Combined with the sound and surreal combined with ordinary setting, it's close to a perfect movie for me. Now that I type this out, I think I honestly couldn't articulate what makes a movie great for me beyond saying what gripped me about an individual film. I guess I could come up with a chart or something, but I don't have the time or inclination for that.

I have been considering getting a Letterboxd, maybe that will help me sort my thoughts.

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

I've deleted this several times as I've tried to articulate my thoughts. For me I think the casts' performances are one of the most important things in a film, but I don't have to like them in order to enjoy it. I mean in Blue Velvet, which I liked enough to do a new name and avi for after rewatching it some months back, the characters are mostly morally repugnant to me. Yet I think Dennis Hopper does an utterly fantastic job as Frank Booth, as does Kale, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, and Harry Dean Stanton as their characters to create a fascinating narrative. Combined with the sound and surreal combined with ordinary setting, it's close to a perfect movie for me. Now that I type this out, I think I honestly couldn't articulate what makes a movie great for me beyond saying what gripped me about an individual film. I guess I could come up with a chart or something, but I don't have the time or inclination for that.

I have been considering getting a Letterboxd, maybe that will help me sort my thoughts.

Good character writing combined with good casting and acting can overcome many faults. If I'm not invested in a character(s) and/or the story my mind will automatically switch over to picking apart any and every plot hole in a narrative. Conversely, if I'm invested in a story and/or the characters, I will automatically forgive/overlook story inconsistencies.

Extremely rarely you get a movie where the cinematography, narrative, casting, and performances are all so on point that there is nary a grievance to be had in ANY aspect of the production, even were you specifically looking to pick a nit. Alas, movies like Rashomon only come around once or twice a generation.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Keyrock

[Amentep]

9 hours ago, Lexx said:

Damn, you people are such a bunch of haters. : >

Weirdly, I tend to like most things. 

I've only ever walked out of one film, for example (and ut wasnt an Alien film). I've seen a lot of truly terrible z grade films and had a blast. I've enjoyed art films, international films and all sorts of other films.

I think, EVENT HIRIZON, MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNIHILATION,  and the AVP films are terrible films but I was mostly entertained by them, often despite themselves.

Heck I watched the original Street Fighter video game live action adaption last week for the first time in a decade, the one with Raul Julia who was actually fantastic as a live action cartoon villain, and found it to be quite amusing even if it's a poor adaption of the source material and a compromised narrative taken on its own terms.

Ultimately the worst thing a movie,  book or TV show can be is boring.

[majestic]

I liked Event Horizon, and as far as horror movies go I'd consider it a favorite of mine. For some reason it's really divisive, many people just hated the film, other consider it a cult classic. The one thing that's certainly odd watching the film nowadays is Cooper, the bumbling comic relief, constantly talking black guy on the crew with the sexist jokes (offering coffee with a quippy hey, want something hot and black in you? - yeah, that wouldn't be in the movie if it came out today, huh).

I would also argue that Event Horizon and the first Alien vs. Predator film are far from terrible as far as movie crafting goes. Actually was surprised by AvP because I expected Mortal Kombat level action trash and got a decent actiony film out of it. As long as you can accept the kooky premise and the universe welding. Prometheus one-upped that by fusing Blade Runner into it.

[LadyCrimson]

6 hours ago, Amentep said:

Weirdly, I tend to like most things. 

I tend to ... not overly dislike most things. But that doesn't mean I like them, either. My main issue is the other thing - boredom or sense of detachment.
I also tend to be bored by a lot of presentation styles of themes others may find meaningful or impactful, where I remain detached. And that leads into...

...I finally rented Everything Everywhere All at Once. For some reason I was expecting more of a light superhero movie with maybe some more chr. weight than typical or something. It is not that at all. What I got was just overt weirdness, with a heavy dose of "this is life-profoundness, don't cha get it." I neither disliked it nor liked it - it's one of those films where I keep watching because "how bizarre is this going to get" vs. "I enjoy this."  And sure, there were chuckle moments, actors were all great/fine, fun short action bits and visuals. I was not bored, exactly, but I wasn't all that interested either. It failed to make me care about the chrs. even if I "understood" them - thus detachment. So I'm left with something that makes me raise an eyebrow, go "wtf," and chortle now and then. Maybe I'm some soul-less  demon.  

I did, however, really like the brief bits with the rocks, especially with googly eyes. I think it reminded me of some stop-motion short I saw as a kid somewhere. That and I recently saw some video about those Pet Rocks from the '70's - which did not come with googly eyes.

Edited July 31, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[rjshae]

We watched the film Archive this weekend. It was a pretty good classic sci-fi movie. The pacing and style reminded me a lot of Moon, and if you liked that movie you'll probably enjoy this one. There were parts of the movie that didn't quite make sense and left me scratching my head, up until suddenly it all made perfect sense.

[Chairchucker]

I watched the movie The Princess over the weekend. Starring Joey King of The Kissing Booth (I haven't seen it, apparently it is bad cheesy fun) fame, it is basically Die Hard in a castle tower with Joey King playing the role of The Princess, who is the John McClane stand in and makes her way down the tower, killing guards with swords and stuff.

It received fairly middling reviews, which may have been a bit generous.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Amentep]

Looks like WB-DIscovery just scrapped the already filmed, 90 mil BATGIRL film.

[Zoraptor]

Kind of surprised it wasn't the Flash movie getting the chop since it's very late- not quite Gilliam Don Quixote level, but still- and Ezra Miller has had some, uh, issues recently. Would be ironic if his only (?) appearance as a standalone Flash ended up being in the TV show.

[kirottu]

On 8/3/2022 at 1:38 AM, Amentep said:

Looks like WB-DIscovery just scrapped the already filmed, 90 mil BATGIRL film.

I don't like to brag, but I bet I could me something so bad no one would want to publish it for even less than 90 mil.

[Amentep]

6 hours ago, kirottu said:

I don't like to brag, but I bet I could me something so bad no one would want to publish it for even less than 90 mil.

It tested poorly from what I've read, which is why they did allegedly around $20 mil in reshoots and were re-editing the film.  That said studios have dumped absolutely horrible films to theater, home, cable and streaming. However they've also dropped the SCOOB! sequel, and a lot of the industry reports are indicating the issue is that WBD is looking to release mammoth budgets and prestige to theater and smaller budget to streaming, and these two films at mid-budget wouldn't make their money back (they think) with a traditional theater only or streaming only release (ie they were made for day-and-date delivery, that WBD promised creatives not to do in order to win them back*) and there is a tax incentive that allows them - if they use it - to write off the entire cost of the film (under the condition the film never be released).

Some cynics have thought that perhaps WBD is trying to generate their own Snyder-cut press; leak they're taking the tax break, then relent due to public outcry and release it and get more eyes on it than they would have due to controversy.  I also admit I'm not surprised they haven't sidelined the Flash film as well.

*Not sure how hiring people to create a film and then canning it so no one ever sees it will go over with creatives, so this bit seems to be a bit short-sighted, perhaps.

[Gfted1]

All the actor and staff were paid, so what do they care? "Muh creative vision wont be seen"?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

On 8/2/2022 at 5:38 PM, Amentep said:

Looks like WB-DIscovery just scrapped the already filmed, 90 mil BATGIRL film.

I haven't been interested in superheroes for a while now, but this is just mind bogglingly dumb.

16 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Kind of surprised it wasn't the Flash movie getting the chop since it's very late- not quite Gilliam Don Quixote level, but still- and Ezra Miller has had some, uh, issues recently. Would be ironic if his only (?) appearance as a standalone Flash ended up being in the TV show.

There's still time.

43 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

All the actor and staff were paid, so what do they care? "Muh creative vision wont be seen"?

From a purely monetary perspective, actors/writers/directors could be missing out the residual payments that would come from the movie playing on TV, not to mention the potential prestige that comes with a mid-budget film doing well. This movie getting scraped could impact their career prospects by associating them with a failed project and laying the blame on them.

The creative vision not being seen is also an issue, because some of those art types want their stuff to be seen. Shocking, I know.

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

All the actor and staff were paid, so what do they care? "Muh creative vision wont be seen"?

KP beat me to it, but yeah, actors tend to get work based on previous work, so big project is locked away and never seen, they've basically sacrificed that time to build their career. I guess you can think of it like when a pro-athlete is stuck on a team when the owners have decided to tank the season. Sure, they are getting paid, but their reputation will suffer.

Edit: Thinking on it, it would be more like getting benched so that the team can tank, since the player doesn't even get to showcase their own talent.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Hurlsnot