Author Topic: Movies (Read 308634 times)

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #1500 on:** February 18, 2012, 08:07:46 PM »

Watched the first Lord of the Rings movie, EXTENDED EDITION. I've never read or seen anything LotR related so it was fun to associate all of the names that I've heard all of my teenager/adult life with people. Interestingly, my favorite character is like the one name I hadn't heard before the movie, which is Boromir. The movie was good but was rather long. (Apparently 30 min longer than the normal movie!) I had a bit of a headache by the end. <_< Aragorn is a Gary Stu, Gandalf is a surprisingly useless combat unit, Legalos kills more people at melee than the fighters do (let alone at range). Next week is Two Towers I guess.

Sierra · « **Reply #1501 on:** February 19, 2012, 01:09:35 AM »

Fellowship of the Ring I think is the movie that benefits least from extended edition treatment. You get a bunch of extra background but eh, that's more something that works in the books than in the movies (usual disclaimer that Cid didn't like much else about the books, mind).

Cmdr_King · « **Reply #1502 on:** February 19, 2012, 02:56:21 AM »

And think, Aragorn is probably the biggest area where the movie is way ahead of the books.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #1503 on:** February 22, 2012, 10:00:04 AM »

It does kinda show that he's Jackson's favorite character. Not that I would blame him. If I'd directed Lord of the Rings it would have taken all my willpower to not be "The Eomer of the Rings: The Return of the Eomer."

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #1504 on:** February 22, 2012, 05:38:33 PM »

Ah, a character I haven't seen yet. I assume I would have seen him already in your edition. <_<

Meeplelard · « **Reply #1505 on:** February 22, 2012, 11:43:46 PM »

Yeah, Eomer is someone you'll meet in Two Towers. Not much else to say beyond that!

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #1506 on:** February 23, 2012, 01:25:37 AM »

Quote from: Ciato on February 22, 2012, 05:38:33 PM

Ah, a character I haven't seen yet. I assume I would have seen him already in your edition. <_<

Well, yeah, but my point was that while you can tell Aragorn is Jackson's favorite, he doesn't go fanboy nuts like I would.

superaielman · « **Reply #1507 on:** March 04, 2012, 11:00:50 PM »

I am legend: Much better than I was expecting. Will Smith did a fantastic job and the movie was visually appealing.

The third part of the film seems to be the main complaint.

I'm neutral on the ending. The movie did club you over the head with the hemocytes retaining some type of humanity (The spring trap and Fred being moved) but Neville was in such bad shape mentally at that point that it is easy to see why he didn't figure it out. I will agree the alt ending was better.

Film wasn't a masterpiece- I could have done without most of the action and the science stuff was largely bad- but it was fun.

Edit: Today is Will Smith movie day, apparently.

Hancock: It had funny moments first but rapidly fell apart when it attempted anything besides humor. Second half of the movie was bad; not even a strong cast could save it.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #1508 on:** March 04, 2012, 11:35:41 PM »

From Russia With Love - Sean Connery has a lot of chest hair, dang. Otherwise it was James Bond, campy dude entertainment. <_<

Cotigo · « **Reply #1509 on:** March 23, 2012, 05:49:55 AM »

The amount of movies I've watched in the last couple weeks has increased exponentially.

The Room - Jesus christ.

Captain America - OK film. Action montage was kind of silly but whatever. Lots of Orange and Teal.

Scream 4 - Bland. It's been a while but I don't remember anything about this movie except some people get stabbed and it had an OK intro. Asstons of Orange and Teal.

Liar Game 2 - Colors other than Orange and Teal! Interesting movie from what I understood of it. The characters were kind of bland and the main girl was really dumb and terrible but I was entertained.

Oceans 11 - Holy crap why have I not watched this movie before? Probably the only legitimately good movie on the list of movies I've seen recently.

Also, fun thing to do with Brad Pitt movies: Anytime Brad Pitt is on screen pretend it's actually Edward Norton. Basically the best.

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #1510 on:** April 06, 2012, 12:06:13 AM »

Hunger Games: Pretty much what I expected. I enjoyed it though! It's much better seeing it all put to motion. I didn't really think it was as literal an adaptation as people kept saying it was. Woody Harrelson was perfect, and as usual the movie needed more of him. Donald Sutherland is also a perfect cast as President Snow. While the guy playing the announcer was just okay, the cut-ins with them were brilliant for interspersing needed information. I would have honestly like them to do more just to set the tone, since the dichotomy between their commentary and the action on screen was hilarious to see and defines the books and the movie. I liked Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, but his delivery felt a bit wooden. Rue was adorable.

Only two problems I had with the movie, really, one incredibly minor, one very major.

Minor one? The cape of fire was kinda small. I mean, really? It doesn't even go to midback. If ANYTHING I expected Hollywood to embellish a bit, it was that, and instead they undersold it.

The major one? FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF SHAKEYCAM. Godfuckingdamnit what a way to muddle an otherwise good movie. Shakeycam is a fucking bane on moviegoers. Was I watching the Hunger Games or motherfucking Blair Witch Project?! I know part of it was so that the graphic scenes could be toned down for the target audience, but still, waaaaay overused and totally not necessary.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #1511 on:** April 06, 2012, 03:19:51 AM »

http://m.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-captured/posts/film-nerd-2-0-revenge-of-the-sith-devastates-the-kids-as-anakin-falls-from-grace

A dad writes about watching RotS with his two kids who have mostly just watched the cartoon and other such prequel things. One highlight is them talking about "the nice old man who is Anakin's friend," Palpatine.

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #1512 on:** April 06, 2012, 04:28:06 AM »

That's a pretty sweet article, in both sense of the word.

Shale · « **Reply #1513 on:** April 06, 2012, 06:26:00 PM »

When I have kids, I hope they're as awesome as those kids.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #1514 on:** April 06, 2012, 08:24:35 PM »

My niece is about that age, come to think of it. But I think she already knows about the Star War and its major players.

Veryslightlymad · « **Reply #1515 on:** April 07, 2012, 07:15:49 AM »

At some point in time, I watched a few movies:

Last Night: I dunno. There's something wrong with me. I am unhealthily attracted to movies about affairs. It's glurgy and weird and I feel weird. I'm not sure what to take away from this movie, to be honest, which I dunno says something more about the director or about me, but I couldn't really fathom what they were getting at, or trying to say about the nature of the content. So I guess I didn't particularly enjoy it, looking through that lens.

The People I've Slept With: Kind of a poorly acted movie, but nice in that it has a character that is an asian man and also incredibly sexy. In my humble opinion. Anyhow, movie is this: Girl who likes sex has a lot of sex with men and gets knocked up. There are four or five possibilities of who the father is. She collects DNA to find out which one. (There is one that she secretly hopes is the daddy. Hint: It's the sexy Asian man.)

Crazy, Stupid, Love.: As far as I know, that period is in the title and not a typo. Anyhow, this movie was very.... male? I guess in the end I have to say it was a male movie. I dunno, I sort of feel a little weird when a movie showcases a supposed pick-up artist, even one as in good of shape as whatsisnuts' character. Even when they "change" in the end, or when they "learn the error of their ways" or whathaveyou. It just rings really false, particularly to someone who has, at least on some level, dealt with the PUA community. It's hokum and stupid.
Getting over that, Steve Carell is Steve Carell. I almost always find him funny, but oddly enough, not in the Office, which I guess he's most known for lately, which I can't stand. The storyline with the son and his babysitter was creepy and uncomfortable, and the resolution to it was arguably EVEN MORE creepy and uncomfortable. Very, very male. Like "God, if this happened to me when I was thirteen it'd have been the best thing ever." Very wish fulfillmenty and just sort of put me off.

No other movies lately.

Sierra · « **Reply #1516 on:** April 22, 2012, 03:11:09 PM »

Green Lantern: Well this was a big pile of mediocrity.

Really, I can't be too surprised at this. The core idea of Green Lantern is such pure silver age silliness to begin with that it's bound to look out of place rubbing shoulders with grittier, more grounded superhero flicks like the Nolan Batman movies, so taking anything seriously here was an uphill battle to begin with. The script doesn't do it any favors, though. Right from the opening narration (itself never a good sign) something's off. There's a lot of talk about WILL and FEAR like these two opposing forces run the universe. It doesn't seem like anyone stopped to wonder if this conceit made any goddamn sense at all, and there's so much prattle about it that you could just C+P Light Side/Dark Side and have dialogue from the worst sort of SWEU franchised writing. This just doesn't work at the most basic level because I can't grok how fear is supposed to be harnessed for individual strength. Maybe this is what GL was always about, I dunno, never read the comic. What I do know is this movie had four credited writers and that is definitely too many cooks.

All of the above also kind of makes Sinestro look like an idiot. Wasn't real optimistic about the movie going in, but I at least figured Mark Strong would be good at running the whole extremist cop too hardcore for his own good angle. He really doesn't get much to work with, though, and the conclusion just makes him look like a twit. Hal Jordan kills the bad guy all by himself, which you figure would dispel Sinestro's doubts about the effectiveness of the whole Green Lantern thing. But then he takes the yellow ring anyway. What? Why? Oh right, because they had to set him up as the villain for a sequel.

Not sure what they were going for with Hector Hammond either. He initially comes off as a modest, curious sorta guy, which you figure could be a springboard for a sympathetic villain arc, but that goes out the window the moment he gets telekinesis and starts being a jerkass pretty much just because he can. Also apparently he's kind of a stalker now, which doesn't go anywhere except the expected kidnapping of the hero's girlfriend. Again, too many cooks. Villain lameness is pretty endemic, given the antagonist is an evil cloud of I dunno evil or something. When the villain's listed in the credits (oh hey it was Clancy Brown!) down with the redshirt pedestrians, your story has problems.

Also obliged to note: criminal waste of Amanda Waller. What was she even doing here?

Okay, that was more words than this movie probably even warrants. Moving on to never thinking about it again.

Shale · « **Reply #1517 on:** April 22, 2012, 04:56:56 PM »

From what I know of the GL comics (never been a big fan), the yellow-ring power is about inspiring fear. Which is actually even less of an emotion than "will."

Edit: The Muppets. Did I seriously just watch self-insert Muppet fanfiction?

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #1518 on:** April 27, 2012, 09:43:22 PM »

Cabin in the Woods- Was kinda interested in seeing it from trailers, but a high recommendation from a friend finally forced me into seeing it. TOTALLY FUCKING GLAD I DID.

Man... so good. So good. It really is one of those movies though where I don't want to say too much about it. It is in the Evil Dead vein though. It is also Joss Wheedon.

If you are a fan of Joss Wheedon, Evil Dead or Betrayal at the House on the Hill, go see this movie.

It is still in theaters, so go see this movie. Seriously.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #1519 on:** April 28, 2012, 06:34:41 AM »

With Sopko as the third absolutely -glowing- review of Cabin in the Woods, I went and saw it tonight. I must echo that it is the best light-hearted horror movie I've seen in recent years, and I'm actually a big fan of the cheesy-horror-movie genre in general. I'd say that this movie will strike a chord even with people who -don't- tend to like any horror/suspense films.

The big "Holy Hell!" scene (there are several, so to avoid spoilers but to specify for those that have seen it, I'll call it "The First Wave of Escapes") is -really- well-timed and vivid. I'm -still- re-living it as I type this. Joss Whedon's mind is a beautiful and disturbing thing.

I really hope the movie manages to make some money. It would be nice for people other than Buffy fans to know who he is.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #1520 on:** April 28, 2012, 09:39:03 AM »

I think the movie would have been better if it had ended about five seconds earlier.

What was important wasn't the ancient itself, it was the ritual surrounding it. Leaving it open draws the focus away from the ritual itself to the object of worship, which if the point of your movie is "horror movies operate under rules very similar to ancient human sacrifices," should not be drawn away from. By adding a god, you've retroactively made everything about the god. To me, it was always about ritualized killing, and by not ever showing it you make the ritual itself the object of sacrifice.

Plus, I was expecting some kinda twist at the very end?

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #1521 on:** April 28, 2012, 04:23:34 PM »

Mind spoiler tagging those, Rob? Not that it's really spoilery, but the less people go in knowing about this movie, the better.

Not that I don't actually agree with you. It would have been great if the movie ended on "I don't even think he has a cousin." Rumble, rumble, fade to black.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #1522 on:** April 28, 2012, 10:43:02 PM »

Re:Cabin There was less of a message of "Horror movies are like ritualized killing" and more of message satirizing horror movies, the slasher genre in particular. The movie spent all of its time deconstructing "what was wrong with the Horror genre", particularly the idea that it is so cliche as to be a ritualized killing for the sake of enjoyment for an "audience". If the Great Old One/audience didn't actually appear (and therefore have an ambiguous existence in the movie's universe), it would kind of be like absolving the guilt of the Horror-movie-fan public.

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #1523 on:** April 29, 2012, 02:56:30 AM »

Djinn: Um, not that I read it (fortunately), but that text reaaaally isn't small enough to serve as an effective spoiler guard.

Meeplelard · « **Reply #1524 on:** April 29, 2012, 05:22:56 PM »

Quote from: Dark Holy Elf on April 29, 2012, 02:56:30 AM

Djinn: Um, not that I read it (fortunately), but that text reaaaally isn't small enough to serve as an effective spoiler guard.

Just echoing this. I looked at the first few words (which aren't spoilers), and they were perfectly legibly, even if you casually look at them.

News:

Author Topic: Movies (Read 308634 times)