Author Topic: Movies (Read 309234 times)

Sierra · « **Reply #2075 on:** May 28, 2014, 12:46:28 AM »

Captain K has it. Really this is the truest-to-source X-Men movie just because at long last there are enough of them for massive continuity changes to be made to X-Men history just the way god intended.

I thought it was good but felt it suffered from lack of a strong antagonist (Peter Dinklage was underused). Also had difficulty buying young Xavier's crisis of faith. You can walk or you can keep on helping people, pick one? All this science, I don't understand. And dude Hank you can cure paraplegia now why didn't you tell the world, yah?

Inferior to X2, leagues ahead of X3, dunno where it sits in relation to the others at the moment. Kind of a funny passing-of-the-torch parallel to ST:G--two captains, two professors, one Patrick Stewart! Except backwards in time. Well, if that's the intention (I assume it is). Re: the bumper, Okay, so we're in a desert I wonder what--waitaminute, desert = Egypt = Apocalypse, right? Aw goddammit. Well, I guess it was inevitable someday if these movies went on long enough. Dude seriously hires the lamest henchpeople though. The only X-Men villain that ever struck me as at all compelling in comics context was Magneto anyway (Stryker worked very well in X2, but I don't know him from original comic appearance).

Quicksilver is the most OP temp.

Cmdr_King · « **Reply #2076 on:** May 28, 2014, 01:47:15 AM »

Wellll, they already categorically fucked up Phoenix/Dark Phoenix, and this movie is Days of Future Past, so Age of Apocalypse is really the only big time X-story they can adapt. Besides, it's an excuse to have more original cast shenanigans while still having the First Class people as the primary movers.

X-Men: Days of Future Past- cluster nostalgia bomb. Very nice all told.

Captain K. · « **Reply #2077 on:** June 10, 2014, 01:23:50 AM »

Groundhog Day 2/All You Need is Kill/Edge of Tomorrow: Good movie, I enjoyed the humor injected into the story (I've read the manga already) and Tom Cruise wasn't bad. Ending was too happy, and doesn't even make sense, but whatever.

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #2078 on:** June 10, 2014, 01:59:15 AM »

Quote from: Captain K. on June 10, 2014, 01:23:50 AM

Groundhog Day 2/All You Need is Kill/Edge of Tomorrow: Good movie, I enjoyed the humor injected into the story (I've read the manga already) and Tom Cruise wasn't bad. Ending was too happy, and doesn't even make sense, but whatever.

Indeed. I really liked it. The ending totally agree with you for the most part. It makes sense in terms of he is getting the blood of the Omega on him, and it's been established that's how the power is passed, but the starting point he reverts to is pretty arbitrary and the Mimics staying dead is whatever. Would like to see his trip to the General's office on that run-through though...

I want one of those Mimic This shirts.

metroid composite · « **Reply #2079 on:** June 14, 2014, 06:08:49 AM »

How to train your dragon:

Good, but there's this moment where all the sudden the number of people riding dragons jumps from one to like six very abruptly.

How to train your dragon 2:

Better. Introduces my favourite character in the series so far. Is really solidly written the whole way through. Does stuff with the story I didn't expect from a "kids movie".

Lady Door · « **Reply #2080 on:** June 14, 2014, 06:34:42 AM »

I don't know what a kids movie is anymore.

In my theater, there were 0 kids.

0.

Every single person in the audience was between 18 and 35.

(It was a good movie. I liked. And Toothless is the most adorable awesome character ever.)

Meeplelard · « **Reply #2081 on:** June 14, 2014, 01:15:18 PM »

I think that's the problem both of you are having...

How to Train Your Dragon, alongside most of Dreamworks animated movies, are not "Kid's Movies." They intended for General Audience, "For the entire family", "For all ages", those kinds of things. IOWs, they're made in a way that both children and adults can enjoy them equally.

Yes, this is being technical.

AndrewRogue · « **Reply #2082 on:** June 14, 2014, 08:38:51 PM »

Honestly, it is a slightly pedantic distinction, even though I use it myself. Also one used erratically by the public at large, making it even weaker. At best, Kid's X vs Family X is used as a rough measure of quality. Kid's stuff sucks, family stuff is good. Which doesn't make it any less weird to be surprised by the evolution of audience or themes.

Ultimately, while it is stuff intended to be appealing to adults watching as well, the core demographic is still children.

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #2083 on:** June 23, 2014, 08:35:48 PM »

Djanjo Unchained- Wow. Mind blown. This was powerful. Doesn't cut any corners either, geez the gory. Watch out for your nuts. Also I guess Dr King reeeally didn't want to shake hands >_> Was there some trick to that, like Calvin would have unleashed poison during the handshake or something? Also I didn't think his sister was so bad at first <_< Was a bit disappointed Broomhilda wasn't a bit more assertive or that she didn't join in the fighting too, think something's been getting to me, at least she was trying to get away from the plantation behind the scenes and stuff~ On the other hand I'm not convinced all that death was necessary, but yeah not cutting corners, no compromise here.

Captain K. · « **Reply #2084 on:** June 26, 2014, 12:43:59 AM »

How to Train Your Dragon 2: Good, but the human designs really weirded me out. Just strange-looking. Dragon designs were cool though! I think I said the same thing about the first movie.

Quote

Introduces my favourite character in the series so far.

Obviously Eret, son of Eret! His muscles are so dreamy!

Actually I'm surprised mc liked this movie. The mother abandons her infant son for her political agenda. Astrid lost all of her fieriness from the first movie. And Ruffnut was just used as a sex object and to treat others as sex objects.

Captain K. · « **Reply #2085 on:** June 29, 2014, 12:32:33 AM »

Divergent: Not bad. I read the books recently and this is a fairly faithful adaptation. Suffers from the source material itself not being that strong. Four was very well cast, Tris not so much.

Shale · « **Reply #2086 on:** July 02, 2014, 03:53:55 PM »

Despicable Me 2: Good beginning, good ending, WTF was going on with the middle. Lots of weird-bordering-on-creepy sideplots going on, especially the date scene. That song at the end makes up for a lot, though.

The Cabin In The Woods: A bunch of fun, whether or not you're especially familiar with the horror tropes it plays on. It's much more gory than suspenseful, and not even that gory - comedy is pretty clearly more important than both. It's also not exactly subtle about how it's satirizing the genre, but then the genre itself isn't exactly a bastion of subtlety to begin with.

Meeplelard · « **Reply #2087 on:** August 01, 2014, 02:53:54 AM »

Guardians of the Galaxy: Was lucky enough that there was a place playing the movie a day early near me so here we are! Anyway, movie is freaking hilarious and a hell of a lot of fun.

Congrats Marvel, you put Rocket Raccoon into a big summer blockbuster, and didn't screw it up. I still find it hard to believe they actually went through with it despite seeing the movie myself!

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #2088 on:** August 02, 2014, 01:15:37 AM »

GotG- Great, but not amazing. I think I hyped it too much to myself, but it was still really good. They hit the right balance of levity and seriousness. The characters were good but the interaction felt forced a lot. I think what the movie was missing most was momentum. Plenty hilarious but the action didn't really thrill me much. Either that or Redline set the bar waaaaaay too high for sci-fi action for me.

On the plus side I've been humming Come And Get Your Love since I came out of the theatre. Great use of the classics. Much better balance than Watchmen used.

EDIT: A friend of mine put their finger on it. Ronan is a terrible villain. He really sucks the life and momentum out of every scene he's in. Thanos is in the movie for like 30 seconds and outshines him.

Cmdr_King · « **Reply #2089 on:** August 02, 2014, 08:33:39 AM »

I sorta feel like they intentionally made as generic a villain as they could and I'm not sure why. I feel like having him be intentionally bland could have worked if Nebula were used more effectively, or if more focus were on the Nova Corps/The Collector/Yondu, but while all of them have a better presence and are more interesting than Ronan they definitely aren't the focus at all. Maybe they just figured trying to wedge villain development in there with all the main characters having to be introduced was too much, so "fuck it, nationalist zealot with a genocidal grudge is easy to understand" and let it go was their solution? Eh.

The coolest part of the movie was watching it with an audience. It's kinda amazing to see regular folk see a walking raccoon as a main character and just roll with it. Although biggest audience pops were definitely for Groot making "I did good? I did Good!" faces.

Meeplelard · « **Reply #2090 on:** August 02, 2014, 04:38:15 PM »

Thing about Ronan is that, as a villain, he's kind of boring in the comics too. He works better when he's being a hero or anti-hero, but that requires establishing the Kree and establishing a whole situation that makes Ronan into a good guy (basically, it means we'd need Annihilation the Movie, which isn't going to happen.)

I know it was pointed out that, in general, Marvel doesn't focus much on villains in most of their movies. Their movies focus more heavily on the heroes and their side characters, and the villains are mostly there for conflict. Oh sure, we have exceptions like Loki who is great, but I think that was more Tom Hiddleston Hamming it up and thus owning every scene he's in, as well as Hugo Weaving's Red Skull being quite good, but generally, Marvel movies put more focus on the heroes.

It contrasts like every Batman movie ever, where they seem to like to put a lot of emphasis on the villains, and only limited emphasis on Batman (Batman Begins is the main exception here.)

In any event, yeah, Ronan is kind of bland for a villain in this, though his last scene was pretty hilarious due to just how it felt like the movie having self commentary on itself by depicting how much Ronan completely clashes with the movie's tone. Pretty much every reviewer I've seen, no matter how much they praise the movie, seem to agree that if there's a weak link in the movie, it's Ronan.

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #2091 on:** August 03, 2014, 01:08:05 AM »

The first part... not really an excuse or an explanation really.

And I dunno. I also kinda liked Obediah Stane. Jeff Bridges acting the smarmy cunt businessman worked. And yes, Ivan Vanko was terrible in IM2... but Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer was fantastic. Plus they did a great job with the Mandarin misdirection in IM3. Thor (and Avengers) works yes because of Hiddleston. Hugo Weaving's Red Skull was good. Gee we're at the majority of Marvel movies now. You can't really make excuses at that point. Because all it means is this time around they were okay with lazy writing for the villain. And damn I'm usually an easy lay for being entertained! I liked IM2 more than most here for crying out loud. (Sidenote: This movie is still better than IM2)

The movie also needed to cut down on the Marvel-speak a bit. And figure out what to do with Gamora. Not sure if it was the writing or just that Saladena was overacting (plus the chemistry between Gamora and Quill was forced and wooden). It feels like Marvel meddling actually tripped this movie up, but I don't read GotG so I can't really confirm that/say it with authority. But these are more just minor quibbles than the full out criticism against Ronan.

superaielman · « **Reply #2092 on:** August 04, 2014, 09:06:40 PM »

Dear Mr. Watterson- Interesting, if a bit thin for a 90 minute documentary. Talks about Calvin and Hobbes obviously, and about how the changing nature of media will prevent any other comic from reaching that level of mainstream popularity. It's a love letter from C&H fans to Watterson.

Captain K. · « **Reply #2093 on:** August 08, 2014, 06:20:21 AM »

Guardians: Decent but *way* overhyped. Probably my least favorite Marvel movie of the past couple of years. Definitely had its moments though, the danceoff was amazing. Rocket and Groot were good in general. Thanos looked and sounded horrible, hope they don't keep him like that when he's a major part of a movie.

Also, how weird was it seeing most of the movie set on Xandar and no mention whatsoever of Nova the hero? Nova Corps was just generic military.

Sierra · « **Reply #2094 on:** August 08, 2014, 08:47:20 PM »

For once my opinion on a movie is perfectly in sync with the Captain's. Yeah, it was fun, good but not great? I don't really get where the raves come from, my brother came back all Best Marvel Evar and I'm like whuh? I enjoyed it, but...with caveats. Maybe people just had low expectations that it exceeded (certainly true in my case). Kind of Avengers-- in lacking that movie's established characters and chemistry (hard to hold this against GotG for having to introduce an entire cast, and I am impressed they made the gamble at all) and superior writer/director. It worked well enough for being entertaining while introducing audiences to an unfamiliar quadrant of the Marvel universe. I'm glad no romance got shoehorned in (beyond the obligatory flirting you get with a protagonist liable to hit on anything with tits) because yeah, movie and cast really couldn't have supported it.

Also wasn't really impressed by Thanos's appearance but hey, he was onscreen for like thirty seconds. I'm actually quite fond of the character in original context--sardonic sense of humor, brutishly intellectual, utterly deranged goals, pretty fun combination makes for one of Marvel's better villains. None of which was really apparent here, but with this brief a cameo I'll reserve judgement until a movie requires him to actually do something (and hope they don't screw it up then). Josh Brolin's a weird casting choice, though.

Ronan's bland, that's been covered. Mild bummer due to lingering affection for Lee Pace just because he was in The Fall (god dammit why am I the only person who's watched that movie).

I really really wanted to freeze the screen to read those rap sheets.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #2095 on:** August 09, 2014, 10:56:45 PM »

Peter Quill's got "Known Alias: Space-Lord" on his

Sierra · « **Reply #2096 on:** August 10, 2014, 02:53:11 AM »

I definitely noticed he had "Manipulation of a Countess" listed among his infractions. Smooove.

metroid composite · « **Reply #2097 on:** August 11, 2014, 12:07:14 AM »

Guardians of the Galaxy: typical marvel movie; mixture of serious business and humor. Better than average music. Didn't strike me as more humorous than say, Iron Man. But good marvel movie.

Dragonball Z Battle of the Gods: it was entertaining. Pretty good humor. Don't regret seeing it.

Captain K. · « **Reply #2098 on:** September 02, 2014, 01:19:19 AM »

Expendables 3: Enjoyable, much much better than the second one. Antonio Banderas steals the show.

superaielman · « **Reply #2099 on:** September 12, 2014, 06:30:32 PM »

LA Confidential- Still rules.

Back to the Future 1-3: Rewatched this on my weekend off. Lots of fun, though I had forgotten chunks of each movie due to not seeing them since childhood. The second is likely the weakest movie due to Jennifer but all three are pretty fun.

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Author Topic: Movies (Read 309234 times)