Movies You've Seen Recently Thread

[algroth]

 

I was personally not too big on The Martian. Though entertaining I can't really call it any more than enjoyable fluff, and by all means what it absolutely failed to generate in me was any form of tension.

 

 

There's a problem in Mars? No worries, Matt Damon will science the **** out of it and in five to ten minutes it'll be solved. He seemed to have it pretty easy, all things considered, to the point it was very jarring to see him at a later point in the film, when he's ready to start his extraction from the planet, coming out of his room all haggard and withered. When did all that harshness manifest itself? There was really very little that he didn't seem to have absolutely under control, or which did not go exactly as planned.

 

 

If anything the safeness in his approach to all his films of late, Prometheus included, is what worries me the most about Covenant. Horror has a way of working best when it's labouring on the fringes of formal convention and genre expectations, and it's in the cues it can take from the more avant-garde currents where it can find the most effective means to disorient and unsettle its audience. Giger's art was strange at the time, but it has since become the staple for the franchise's aesthetic. I'm not sure there was anything in Prometheus that deviated from this, and I doubt there'll be in Covenant either, and in turn I can't imagine it'll be more than just another workmanlike sequel to a popular and established franchise, no different than the recent MCU films are for their own.

 

With all that said, if the narrative is coherent it'll at least very likely turn out just fine. On the upside, Damon Lindelof is also stepping down from the screenwriter's seat for it. On the downside, the original draft was by Jack Paglen, whose previous film was possibly even dumber than Prometheus as well, that being Transcendence.

 

Now I know what people think if I write "the book was a lot better", but it's true. In the book you can feel how he tries to survive and how it gets harder for him, while in the movie it's like... nope, no problem. Got them potatoes, got them explosions, all is fine and dandy. They had to cut a lot from the book to make the movie run in time, and it totally shows. It's not like in Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter where stuff from the book is missing in the movies-- the movies still work nontheless. For the Martian on the other hand, it really does not work.

 

Maybe they should have made the book into a 6 episodes tv show instead. That probably would have turned out a lot better.

 

Oh, I think it could have been made to work. I haven't read the book so I'm not sure how much has been cut out, but a couple of strands or challenges could have nevertheless been taken out in order to give greater predominance and threat to some of the more pressing ones instead. The issue I had with the film personally is that it ultimately felt like a Sparknotes cinematic edition of a novel, with plenty of scenes and key moments thrown in but resolved all too quickly only to make room for the rest while keeping it within a controlled runtime.

[Amentep]

 

 

 

 

I really, really hope this won't suck but I'm not optimistic.

 

 

http://youtu.be/PxH45ivUomw

was that beyonce.

 

 

pffffft.

Maybe she'll be playing a Ruby Rhod type role? I'm not sure if Beyonce has the acting chops to nail that type of role as perfectly as Chris Tucker did, though, despite her decades of experience in the entertainment industry.

 

I can't say the trailer leaves me inspired, apart from the visuals, but I'll hold out a tiny flicker of hope based on how freakin' awesome The 5th Element was.

Are you all referring to Rihanna in the VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS trailer?

[Keyrock]

Yeah, I guess that is Rihanna.  She falls into the same category as Beyonce for me: Attractive singer whose music I don't particularly care for and has done some "acting" (quotes for sarcasm).

[Orogun01]

Yeah, I guess that is Rihanna.  She falls into the same category as Beyonce for me: Attractive singer whose music I don't particularly care for and has done some "acting" (quotes for sarcasm).

Singers generally don't do well as actors, they have a brand to protect  and are unwilling to commit to the roles. To put into context; Chris Tucker didn't have a singing career to fall back on, Beyonce will not let acting hurt her image as a singer/celebrity.

[ShadySands]

Suicide Squad. It was better than I was expecting it to be and I really didn't mind the Joker at all, I actually wanted more of him. What I didn't like is how quickly they killed off one of the crew and how much it focused on Smith and Robbie

[algroth]

Suicide Squad. It was better than I was expecting it to be and I really didn't mind the Joker at all, I actually wanted more of him. What I didn't like is how quickly they killed off one of the crew and how much it focused on Smith and Robbie

I might watch that tonight. Not a whole lot of hopes but I need to put my mind off work for a moment.

[algroth]

Alright, so... Suicide Squad... I'll comment more on it tomorrow, but right away I'll go on record to say that it's not only bad, it's very likely a bottom 5 of the decade contender for me. Was this film conceived by a twelve-year-old? It was disgustingly gaudy, it was all over the place, frequently incomprehensible and stupid beyond belief. I was actually not so down on Batman v. Superman so I was hoping that it'd hold at least some surprises and moments of interests, but nope. This was just *awful*.

[Oerwinde]

Not sure I'd necessarily look forward to a Neil Blomkamp Alien movie. After all, he did make Chappie, which was absolutely wretched, and that seems like a recipe for an utter disaster on the level of Alien: Resurrection.

 

I will say that the first half of Prometheus works harkening back to the first third of the first Alien movie (tied with the Thing for my 3rd favourite movie of all time) when they're exploring the derelict on LV-426, but after that it starts to go downhill. I alsoI got back some degree of confidence in Ridley Scott from the Martian, and it's been said that this one will be even more of a throwback to the first Alien.

 

I really liked Chappie. What was your issue with it?

[Tale]

Watching Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV as I type this. The voice acting is so bad I have to comment.

[algroth]

Just came back from Doctor Strange. As someone who is generally ignorant of superhero comics I cannot comment on what is from where or how close it is to the source material, but I really liked this and I loved its interpretation of magic. I love how they extend the notion of magic from the classic/cliché set of spells and actually work on what having potentially limitless power over reality, matter and physics can imply. In terms of visuals it's arguably the most striking of all the MCU films so far, and it more than accomplished its goal of entertaining me for a good two hours. Generally where I feel it falters the most however is in the interactions between characters, each dialogue feeling very stilted and expositional, comprised largely of bombastic statements such as "I did what was necessary", "we don't get to choose our time", "the ritual will bring you only sorrow", "you are driven not by the desire of success but by the fear of failure" thrown back and forth, all with little room for levity or warmth. There's great spectacle here but little humanity to accompany it. And, of course, this being another origin story it also feels very much like another pilot for a cinematic series opposite to its own standalone film. But these are all blind-spots in the superhero genre that only a precious few films (e.g. Hellboy II: The Golden Army) have really broken past, and I was pretty much counting on them as I entered the theatre. I had pretty decent expectations for this and they were pretty much met, which in a year with as many duds as this one is at least a good thing to be said about it. But yeah, all in all very enjoyable, highly recommended for any fan of the MCU.

[ManifestedISO]

Star Trek Beyond. Totally in agreement with Oerwinde about how Jaylah could assume Chekov's duties on the bridge.

 

Was a little confused for the villain near the end, need to watch again. Good show, though, easily best of the Kelvin timeline. 

[Gfted1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAWo9_V2qOg

[Hurlshort]

Huh, when I was at Universal Studios last week, they were doing heavy renovations to The Mummy ride they have at the park.  I was surprised they weren't just replacing it with something more current, but it makes sense that they are trying to relaunch it with a new movie coming.  

 

Looks a bit more serious than the previous iterations.

[Gorgon]

 

 

 

I really, really hope this won't suck but I'm not optimistic.

 

 

http://youtu.be/PxH45ivUomw

was that beyonce.

 

 

pffffft.

Maybe she'll be playing a Ruby Rhod type role? I'm not sure if Beyonce has the acting chops to nail that type of role as perfectly as Chris Tucker did, though, despite her decades of experience in the entertainment industry.

 

I can't say the trailer leaves me inspired, apart from the visuals, but I'll hold out a tiny flicker of hope based on how freakin' awesome The 5th Element was.

Are you all referring to Rihanna in the VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS trailer?

 

Yes I am well aware that it is Amazing that it is even getting made. THEY CAN SCREW UP ANYTHING THESE DAYS THOUGH

[algroth]

Watched Warcraft yesterday... Not being a fan of the videogame franchise in any of the iterations I've played, World of Warcraft least of all, I probably should have skipped this despite my interest for director Duncan Jones' involvement in it, considering he had a spot-on track record with me before this in the shape of the excellent Moon and Source Code. Arguably his two earlier features make him to this day the highest-calibre filmmaker to tackle a videogame adaptation and this too interests me greatly, inasmuch as what it could have meant for revindicating videogames as a valid source material for film. Alas, it was not meant to be, and what we get is a lumbering high fantasy epic with pretty much none of the charm and the humanity that made his earlier two films the success they were.

 

To Jones' defense it is probably not for the lack of trying - the film opens right away with a 'casual' dialogue between the orc protagonist and his pregnant wife, discussing the name of their child. There are moments throughout the film where the action effectively comes to a halt and we're given a little breather where we can see characters interact with eachother in ways meant to be casual and natural, get a feel for them as actual human/humanoid beings and not as mere ciphers with which to keep the standard fantasy plot rolling. And for all the attempt at trying to play down the bombast and fantasy jargon during these sequences, I could honestly not get into any of these characters or believe any of these scenes whatsoever. Largely, I suspect this is a product of one of my greatest grievances with the film, being that everything we see here feels as if it's been post-produced to the point of utter lifelessness, the visuals all having that particular AAA-videogame sheen and luster to them that is at once allegedly "cinematic" and at the same time plastic and artificial beyond belief, if anything the absolute antithesis of how a proper film should feel. To add insult to injury, the CGI is also not only over-abundant but also always one step short of effectively meshing with the live-action context, at once impressively detailed yet on the other hand also overstylized to the point of weirdly distancing itself from the elements that are real, and seeming all the more uncanny and jittery for it. The movements, the emotions, all remind me of the way cinematics in videogames still look like to this day, all two steps short of actual naturalness despite how impressively detailed the graphics are.

 

To all this, I wonder if part of the issue has to do also with the WoW aesthetic it opted to follow. Personally I've never been a fan of it, I find it incredibly gaudy and juvenile, overstylized rather than colourful or interesting, but if you wish to carry on with this aesthetic at least have the decency to take the plunge and go full-animated, and not this sort of garish CG-animation/live-action hybrid that benefits neither side, marked worst by the absolutely *laughable* elf costumes at the only point in the film they make an appearance, that only distract from what should have been a sombre and tense moment in the story (the king attempting and failing to rally the other races against the new threat to their lands and so on). I was in all honesty hoping the aesthetic would have been toned down somewhat for the live-action context, adapt it to a different medium; but as is usually the case with blockbuster fare, greed got in the way of better judgement.

 

There's not much to say other than this, really. Storywise the film feels like yet another pilot to a huge cinematic series that will likely never happen, made mostly out of a collection of stock fantasy scenes that set up the usual world-threatening conflict between two sides which, in the tradition of all post-9/11 narratives, are both grey shades of good and evil. All in all it's a lot of grand statements and bombast with very little meaning to it all, which would be fine were this less of the uncharismatic slog it happens to be. In light of the atrocity that was Suicide Squad I can at the very least say it is not terrible, but I can't find a reason to recommend it either.

Edited December 2, 2016 by algroth

[Hurlshort]

I am watching Batman v. Superman, which is not great, and has taken me a couple sittings to get through.  But I did have a funny thought when Lois Lane picks up the Kryptonite Spear, she's gotta be thinking, time to take back some control in the bedroom.  

[algroth]

I am watching Batman v. Superman, which is not great, and has taken me a couple sittings to get through.  But I did have a funny thought when Lois Lane picks up the Kryptonite Spear, she's gotta be thinking, time to take back some control in the bedroom.  

Which version are you watching? Though not particularly good in either form, the extended cut is miles above - not to mention a whole lot more comprehensible - than the theatrical one.

[Hurlshort]

I'm watching whatever was on HBO.  I've never liked Superman.  Also when did Batman start shooting so many people?  I mean he killed a ton of folks in this movie.  

[Calax]

Fantastic Beasts.

 

Felt like the movie wasn't sure what the main thread of the movie should be. I mean there's the named plot, but there's like six other's going on. Was to many things going on and the plots just straight up bounced off each other half the time. It felt like it needed a re-write or four to unify things better.

[Gromnir]

I'm watching whatever was on HBO.  I've never liked Superman.  Also when did Batman start shooting so many people?  I mean he killed a ton of folks in this movie.  

our understanding is batman, the original detective comics character, were unapologetically homicidal.  more than one nogoodnik were tossed off a building by old skool batman without a cushy landing spot to break their fall. even so, am admitting we were a bit surprised by batfleck's willingness to violent break from more recent traditions.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Amentep]

Batman's original appearance he sported a gun. Which he used. In 1940 issue he used the bat plane to gun down men who'd been turned into giant monsters by Dr. Hugo Strange.

 

However there were already complaining about comics and kids and National Periodicals made a line wide mandate - their heroes didn't kill.

 

This held until at least the 1980s when comics had completed their transition to the direct market and had primarily changed to an adult oriented product.

 

However it should be noted that the 1989 BATMAN film also had Batman killing thugs during the bell tower fight (and fir the record, the people who complained about Superman killing Zod in MAN OF STEEL forgot he killed all the Phantom Zone criminals in one version of his origin - an act that led the character to adopt his no killing stance)

 

As an aside, National's no-kill stance was not the industry's norm and most Golden Age Heroes had some deaths on their hands - even Fawcett's Captain Marvel often seen as one of the most whimsical charcters/series.

[Gromnir]

our main criticisms o' bvs weren't actual batfleck. sure, we were surprised by batman bloodshed, but batman were ok... other than the fact the world's greatest detective were portrayed as kinda dimwitted and suffering from impulse control issues.  nope, our issues were with superman and lex luthor.  the choice to make lex manic/twitchy were bad.  crazy is always a terrible motivation in books and movies.  is cheap.  "it doesn't need to make sense, because ________ is crazy."  supergenius creates doomsday?  am thinking even if doomsday had killed supes, lex and lexcorp is gonna have some s'plaining to do insofar as doomsday were concerned. and cavill superman were making us regret a few o' our keanu reeves and jason patric criticisms over the years.  mopey and dour superman slouches his way through the film making us wish he had genuine died, but much earlier.

 

but for all our dislike o' supes and lex, we didn't hate the movie.  our first viewing were extended cut, and the movie, in spite o' its length, were watchable and moderate entertaining.  wonder woman and the other justice leaguers were an utterly pointless addition save for promoting future movies, but such wasted screen time didn't actual hurt the film.  we managed to enjoy film a bit even for all its many flaws.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[algroth]

I don't think Cavill makes for a bad Superman. Just about every criticism I have for Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman (and there are many) have pretty much nothing to do with his interpretation specifically. But then again, it is also true that the films make Supes into such a stoic presence that it's understandable to perceive his acting as wooden. Actually I think some of the warmest and most touching moments of the film do involve Supes, the likes of his phonecall with his mother or his tending to the bombing victims. Not Oscar-worthy moments, sure, but they do seem quite natural and believable, and do grant his character some degree of empathy and humanity whereas he before seemed completely impenetrable.

 

Lex was certainly all over the place. Wonder Woman was also the very definition of superfluous, serving no point in the film other than "setting up" in the most contrived manner possible the whole Justice League thread; and Lois I found to also be insufferably dependent in here, didn't she get saved like three times or something? It gets old quickly. And more, of course: Doomsday, the Martha scene, the Batmobile chase, all elements that were very poorly conceived or handled.

[Hurlshort]

Wonder Woman was the best part.  They merely hinted at a complex backstory for her, and I think that was for the best.  Unlike Superman and Batman, whose backstories are thrown around like a sack of bricks.  Poor Batman and his dead parents, lets show his mom get killed twice, show the gravestone of his parents over and over again, etc.  Audiences have terribly short memories, so we need to get them emotionally invested over and over again.  Also lets have Superman talk to Kevin Costner on a mountain for some reason.  

 

The movie works too hard to try and create an emotional impact.  It lacks charm and any sense of fun.    

[Gorgon]

Superman is just plain boring, that's not really anyone's fault other than whoever created Superman. Nolan gets the blame for making the CGI action sequences boring and nauseating at the same time.  And what's with the constant gloomy filter. (Man of Steel)

 

Batman v Superman was raping a comic that deserved its own movie. (Dark Knight returns) They should be ashamed that they stole such good source material and still ended up with a script which was so terrible, even if Ben Affleck was good in it. They wind up fighting the ork warlord from the Hobbit  ? what the hell was that.