Movies

[DjinnAndTonic]

Iron Man 3:

That was... REALLY violent!

[Meeplelard]

I think people misunderstand my Mandarin point...

I actually like everything they did with the character, I just question why they named him the "Mandarin."  It comes off as a huge cock-tease to all comic fans (AND FANS OF THE ANIMATED SERIES IN THE 90s!!! ...feel free to ignore this...) and is bound to piss more of them off than is worth, which I feel is the reason you put the Mandarin in the movie (he may be Iron Man's arch-nemesis or something, but he's not on par with the likes of Joker, Doc Ock, etc.  so casual fans are likely to not give two shits.)  Just felt like a way of opening the doors to an angry mob.

It hardly ruins the movie...heck, again, just about everything besides the name is well done.  You'll notice I acknowledged "This is probably a nitpick"...or a pet peeve if you prefer.  It's not something I'll hold against the movie too strongly.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Iron Mang 3 - Playing with expectations is good.  Solid.  Do recommend.  I watched the credits and came out of it stunned that there was no Matt Fraction involvement.  The humor is amazingly spot on, the comic is compelling story with Tony not in the armour for the vast majority of it and it is all things told quite intelligent.  Then that ending credit sequence.  No Matt Fraction?  Wow.  They hit a lot of the same beats I associate with him.  I see a nod to Warren Ellis in there (amongst others) in the special thanks, so they clearly had some good comic scene input, just not the one I expected to see.

There's multiple Fraction nods, but they're in cut scenes. That said, it was Ellis who created Extremis, so if they do, say, a World's Most Wanted adaptation I'd expect more Fraction.

They should do a World's Most Wanted adaptation.

[NotMiki]

Haven't seen the movie, but Regarding the Mandarin...it seems like movie adoptions often fail to capture just what it is about certain villains that make them memorable in the first place.  Deadpool in Wolverine Origins is probably the most extreme example.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The Mandarin is certainly memorable. Kingsley crushes it. Plus, the Mandarin as rebooted by Fraction is basically an elaborate collection of images designed to project a carefully designed image anyway. This just plays this that.

[Meeplelard]

Well, the difference between Mandarin and Deadpool is at least Iron Man 3 did good with what they did with Mandarin, just at the same time, this act is going to piss off anyone expecting to see something resembling the character.  As I said, remove the Mandarin name, and pretty much all my complaints go wayside.    It was very clearly an intended design decision, and a bold one, just arguably not a smart one.

Deadpool felt more like the directors doing whatever the hell they wanted with the character, only so they could create a SUPER OPPONENT!!! for Wolverine to fight in the most un-creative way ever, and slap "Deadpool" on there so they could get people to see the movie by saying "Hey guys, Deadpool's in the movie!" and technically be telling the truth.


You could argue Deadpool was the same mindset, except the difference is that Iron Man 3 showed competence everywhere else that this came off as a "neat idea that WILL have polarizing reactions"; X-men Origins was anything but consistently competent.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Die Another Day - The villain has SPACE LASERS. 10/10 would watch again

[AndrewRogue]

The Great Gatsby: There's always a lighthouse, a man, and a city... Generally, decisively, decidedly okay. 5/10.

[Grefter]

Was the book better?

Trolololol

[AAA]

The Great Gatsby: There's always a lighthouse, a man, and a city...

Booker believed in the bloom lighting, the steampunk future that year by year becomes more over the top racist. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will shoot faster, search more trashcans for food. . . . And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, mouse cursor against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the last checkpoint.

[superaielman]

The  book is unreadable garbage, so if the movie is average that is like a 100000000000000% jump in quality.

[Sierra]

Andy, Baz Luhrmann movies are love it or hate it affairs, you are not playing by the rules.

[AndrewRogue]

Andy, Baz Luhrmann movies are love it or hate it affairs, you are not playing by the rules.

I'm a rogue, man. I don't play by YOUR rules.

I mean, it is in my name and all.

[Captain K.]

Iron Man 3:  They had me at A.I.M.

While I do enjoy RDJ and his Tony Stark, in the end I go to superhero movies to see superhero stuff.  I had been feeling the movie was lacking in this regard.  And then they threw the Barrel of Monkeys scene in.  Wow.  Just fucking wow.

[Lady Door]

Andy, Baz Luhrmann movies are love it or hate it affairs, you are not playing by the rules.

On that scale, it failed. Maybe it was because we didn't see it in 3D, but it a serious lack of outrageous visuals and overacting and whatnot. Don't get me wrong: the colors are super-saturated, it's got some action, and the cinematography is as arty as it ever is with him. But it just never came together.

The first third of the movie was so. slow.

The other two thirds were better, I guess.

A critic said this: "It's not a satire, exactly, though many of its strongest moments are openly satirical. It is far too literal a translation to be considered an homage. And its oddly straightforward, even innocent, air disqualifies it as a subversion." I largely agree.

[Sierra]

In which case it sounds like a very confused production.

[Idun]

Iron Man 3, 4/5. Appreciate that it didn't take itself seriously. Should have opted for the Great Gatsby. I figure it'd look prettier. Haven't been to theatres since Les Mis, but have taken notice of how trailers have gone from "over the top" to just complete stupid action. The Wolverine trailer had way too much ken burns at the end. Was a bit aggravating.

[Clear Tranquil]

Dead Silence- Am disappoint. Meh, weak sauce dude really couldn't have kept that final scream in? I mean, well I suppose it was entertaining enough and there was the Billy reference and stuff and I liked the main and the cop dude well enough apart, cop dude seemed familiar, shame about what happened to him but seriously main done messed up there at the end. I dunno maybe I've outgrown the Dolls/Chucky type thing

Case 39- Was good. Could have been better. I still have some questions. Worth a rewatch, pretty well done on the whole~

Vanishing on 7th Street- Don't trust the dark, don't trust the light~ Adults dun had it all wrong, adults still have it wrong? Nevermind the adults, it's all meaningless. Don't trust that kid, do trust that kid? Oh look it's a horse! What is with this movie?~

[Cmdr_King]

Star Trek: Into DARKNESS-  Way way better than the Star Trek openbrackettwothousdandnineclosebracket.  Three main points:
- A lot less space battles, which Abrahms sucks at (... oh god they gave Star Wars to someone who can't make space battles.  Fucking fuck.)
- The plot is actually grounded in the New 23rd Century, and consequently is actually about the core cast, taking advantage of their amazing casting.
- There's a coherent main villain.

The only major problem, since the space battle sucking wasn't near as relevant, is they telegraphed the main plot wherein they weave Space Seed and Wrath of Khan into one plot and end up with a DS9-ish arc somehow way too heavily.  Playing it a bit more coy would have really made it better.  I mean, I know the marketting made it obvious, but it shouldn't have been that obvious within the movie itself.

I'd still rather watch a new series with this cast.  Although I know, they probably couldn't afford this cast on TV budgets.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I think my favorite part is watching the sort of people whose idea of "thought-provoking" is Star Trek TMP/TNG saying "what is it to be human? Feelings I guess." complaining that it has somehow lost the core of the series.

Star Trek's biggest strength has always been the dynamics between the crew. I think the new series captures that really well, and if you can nail an ensemble like that, you can carry your way through almost anything (something not exclusive to TOS. There's lots of episodes of TNG and DS9 that wouldn't have worked with a cast that didn't have the dynamics built up that they did).

[Cmdr_King]

Pretty much.  What made the other Abrams movie not work was it wasn't about the cast.  It was about the stupid future romulans and saying 'alternate continuity alternate continuity lalala' over and over rather than just giving us his new cast and letting them get to work.  I get why they wanted the time travel->alternate universe plot, I really do, but it stole too much of the movie away from what was good about the thing to start with.

[Cotigo]

Children of Men: Easily the best movie I've seen in a while. Should have listened to Grefter sooner.

[Meeplelard]

Man of Steel: First off, the important stuff!

Superman punches someone.  Multiple times.  In one scene.  Needless to say, this movie made good on it's promise!

Otherwise?  To keep it short and simple as a review, it feels like it's Jurassic Park logic applied to a Super Hero movie.  Make the spectacle damned good and people will overlook other shortcomings.  The action sequences are a lot of fun, look cool, and even last quite a while, so you won't have to deal with the plot getting in the way too much.

Mind you, it's shortcomings aren't "ruins movie" bad, just...kind of eh.  It's a fun movie in any event.  Not "WOMG AMAZING!" like, say, Marvel's better Phase 1 movies but decent enough in it's own right.

[Shale]

Oz The Great And Powerful: Well that wasn't worth the dollar I spent at Redbox.

[Hunter Sopko]

Oz The Great And Powerful: Well that wasn't worth the dollar I spent at Redbox.

I enjoyed it. Wasn't as good as it could have been though. China girl was adorable.