The MOVIE Thread

[TheRedPriest]

I'm a pro guy!

[Speed Racer]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a lot of fun and a good movie. The first 10-15 minutes of the film felt very disjointed, almost like Disney stepped in and was like "JJ, you're directing a Star Wars film, not one of your Star Trek reboots. Calm your tits." Rest of it was great. Probably going to see it again for my anniversary.

[TheRedPriest]

I concur.  Force Awakens is solid.  It does have some issues, but it's got that proper Star Wars vibe the prequels never did.  Episode 7 is more Star Wars than a single second of the entire prequel trilogy.  The practical effects made a SIZABLE difference in the the movie and made if feel real.  Not some 90% green screen garbage.

[Speed Racer]

Oh, definitely. While the all-CGI thing was an interesting experiment, it did royally screw the movies. Meanwhile, the new movie just looked fantastic and real.

Posted on: December 28, 2015, 08:49:37 PM

I saw Spectre and Deadpool. Spectre was a good Bond movie, but they completely wasted the character of Mr. Hinx, and John Logan needs to drop the father/son issues in his writing. The dude literally can't write a movie without parental issues in it. Not every #####ing movie is going to be a Greek tragedy.

Deadpool was excellent. Well done and funny as hell.

[TheRedPriest]

Deadpool was every bit as good as a Marvel film.  I hope to GOD Fox learns from the massive success of it and applies that level of faithfulness to the X-Men next tim... oh who am I kidding.  At least Deadpool was gold.

[Speed Racer]

The only thing that Fox learned is that audiences will go see an R-rated film based on a comic book. Everything else is ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

I just saw Gods of Egypt, which was not a particularly good film, but highly entertaining. The concept itself is ridiculous and it took me about half of the film to buy into it, but once you do, it was a very fun ride. The acting is mostly terrible, with Gerard Butler pretty much carrying the film by himself. The 3D was gorgeous. I'd be up for watching it again.

[StatiicX]

you guys ready for Batman Vs. Superman? Me and the wife will be there night 1...im nervous of Afleck but I give him the benifit of the doubt based on the extended trailer they showed of him fighting..im looking forward to it me and my wife

[TheRedPriest]

BvS looks like dog #####.  Seriously, it's so god damn grimdark and "realistic" and "not comic booky" it hurts.  It's a "mature film for mature film goers like me and not some kiddie comic #####" just like Man of Steel, which is one of the single worst comic book adaptations ever made.  And that's what BvS is based on/building on.

It will still make hundreds of millions of dollars, so by that measure, it will be a "good" movie.

[Majikn]

I haven't liked anything Snyder since 300...

I'm still going to see it probably. I don't have anything against the tone of the movie. I liked The Dark Knight, but Rises was godawful in my opinion. I don't think being "comic booky" is inherently better because it's gotten old with Marvel lately. I haven't really liked much from Marvel since the first Avengers. "Grimdark" might be boring, but it's at least a contrast to when I've gotten bored of a lot of Marvel's recent attempts at humour. Deadpool notwithstanding.

[TheRedPriest]

If it's a comic book, it should have that tone.  Most of DC falls into that.  The BEST animated DC stuff is that in spades.  It doesn't have to be ##### just because it's live action.  Marvel has absolutely NAILED the tone of it's comics in it's movies.  They're far from perfect, but they're generally good and loyal to the source material in both tone AND content.  DC can not say the same thing, at all.  As a fan of these characters, it makes me extremely sad to see them portrayed with such a deafness to tone and style of the source material for the sake of making it "mature" or "not comic booky".

But as I said, this is Superman and Batman.  That ALONE will make half a billion, regardless of if it's good or bad.  And make no mistake this is a BAD movie.  Period.  Can you imagine if they'd nailed the tone and style?  They'd have easily made billions.  Marvel has done it, and with C and D tier characters because they respect the source material and it's style and tone.  DC does not and does not.

[Majikn]

Marvel IS doing a better job. I saw the movie and I pretty much agree. All I'm saying, though, is that I don't mind superhero movies being dark or taking themselves seriously. I don't think that's an inherently bad thing, just as I don't think the Marvel style is bad either. It's just that we've gotten so much out of Marvel lately and since they've set the bar high, my expectations have gotten higher. If Batman V Superman movies was like more of the same stuff we'd seen from Marvel, I'd feel like an opportunity for variety was missed.

But yes, regardless of what path DC movies want to take in the future, they still need to do better.

[TheRedPriest]

Marvel isn't a "style" of comic book movie, it's just actually portraying it's characters far more accurately.  Making a superhero movie that is dark or takes it's self seriously is FINE, but not when you do it for something that isn't dark/serious JUST for the sake of doing that.  And that's what they did for BvS, MoS and is the general direction DC is taking it's CU.  Batman, as edge lord as he's portrayed sometimes isn't and doesn't HAVE to be as dark as he's been of late.

And that's the problem with DC, they're doing dark, serious and mature JUST to do that, regardless of if that's what the tone and characters call for.  I don't even recognize MoS/BvS Superman.  He's not Superman in any meaningful way the character has been for 60 years.  People, who seriously/unironically defend this portrayal of him or that BvS is literally a cinematic  masterpiece and transcendent comic book movie are blowing out more ##### from their ass than Galactus after eating a Jupiter sized burrito from Taco Bell.  I have no issue with people liking the movie, but it's a HORRIBLE rendition of the characters, and criminally off tone.  Suicide Squad is going under reshoots to make it "funnier".  That's entirely due to the large amount of negative feedback on how dark and soulless MoS and BvS are.  But even then, it's just another knee jerk reaction to try to catch more of that Marvel Money Train.  It has NONE of the forethought that Marvel has put into their stuff.  Just like shoving more of the cut BvS footage to make an "R" rated cut to try to piggyback off Deadpool's R rated success without ANY attempt to understand WHY Deadpool was rated R and why it worked.

I could go on forever about it but I'll end it there. 

[Majikn]

Marvel movies all conform in a way that has a recognizable style. That's all I was saying.

My only motivation for believing that allowing varying tones and character interpretations is acceptable is that I liked Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. You also might smite me for saying it, but I even liked The Amazing Spider-Man. However when it comes to your reasons for not liking BvS I pretty much agree.

[StatiicX]

Marvel movies all conform in a way that has a recognizable style. That's all I was saying.

.....You also might smite me for saying it, but I even liked The Amazing Spider-Man.

So for the record Andrew Garfield had probably the best interpretation of Peter Parker I've seen, save for this Civil War Spidey(Tom Holland is his name right?). He is unproven and I'll hold judgement on him. I feel like Garfield was snubbed because he did an awesome job and I think he wouldve fit in quite nicely considering that his rendition of Spidey/PP is from the Ultimate universe, as is all these MCU characters/movies.

[Speed Racer]

I really enjoyed Batman v Superman. I thought it was a lot of fun, although if you go in there hoping for Batman and Superman to be duking it out for most of the movie, you'll be disappointed.

Only other film I've completed lately is Trainwreck with Amy Schumer. I thought it was okay, but it fell into the generic rom-com crap at the end. Worth a watch and I'm glad I got it for free, but I don't know if I'll ever feel the need to watch it again.

Posted on: April 09, 2016, 09:07:38 PM

So I've been watching a lot of documentaries as of late because my younger son gets really upset over people raising their voices angrily or shouting, so pretty much all action, drama, and comedy films are right out the window. We are currently watching The September Issue, which is about the American office of Vogue magazine trying to get their fall fashion issue ready, as it's the biggest #####ing thing in the fashion industry. It's really well done, and as all good documentaries do, it teaches you quite a bit about the subject.

[Mikero]

Thor Ragnarok was the best Thor movie. Considering I hated the first two, that isn't saying a lot but I'm happy to say it was pretty decent movie. Spider-Man Homecoming was serviceable, Black Panther looks tight.

So on that subject, I'm just seeing all this now but... Better a year and a half late, with more films out as examples, than never:

Marvel movies all conform in a way that has a recognizable style. That's all I was saying.

This is 100% true and they did by design. After, I think the first Avengers movie, they started making all the Marvel films look and feel the same. In terms of writing style the Marvel films started to lean much more towards comedy, which has it's place, but has gone overboard. For example, Thor himself shouldn't be cracking actual jokes. His character is best when he says funny things out of ignorance or arrogance (or both). The recent Thor movie shows Thor acting more like Star Lord in it's opening scene, making up of his predicament and joking about spinning on a rope. It's minor, and doesn't hurt the film overall, but Thor isn't the type of character that should know he's funny. This lean towards accessible comedy directly contrasts what DC had done with Man Of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (horrible title) and it's kept Marvel's films more successful. Justice League had Joss Whedon go in and try to punch up the comedy just to compete, and Suicide Squad attempted it with reshoots, however I think Marvel should dial it back to pre-Avengers levels.

For example, Captain America: The First Avenger (mediocre title) is probably still my favourite Marvel film thus far because everything in it is perfectly measured. It has funny moments, and serious ones, and treats the character with a level of respect that I, frankly, wasn't sure they could pull off. At the time, this was a big roll of the dice--Captain America and the Red Skull on film can very easily go wrong. I feel that care for tone in Marvel films had been pushed a bit to the side for a while post-Avengers, however I think they are starting the right the ship with Thor Ragnarok and Black Panther.

Now looks-wise, we have a whole other thing. By shooting digital and adding a blue-grey wash, Marvel forced a bunch of it's films to fit a rubric of "The Marvel Universe". It makes sense in theory; Force the idea of a cohesive universe on these popcorn munching idiots. In practice however, all the movies started to look like garbage (in aesthetic terms only) when the audience wasn't THAT stupid in the first place. We don't need colour grading to inform us that Dr. Strange exists in the same universe as Ultron. I specifically noticed it for myself during the huge fight scene in Civil War. I sat in the theatre thinking "This is all I've wanted and it looks terrible, why is this not enjoyable?"

Recently they've gone back to varying the colour palette at least a little bit, which I appreciate. All of this has been done very well in Marvel's Netflix shows. There is a very well done video essay on the subject of colour grading in Marvel movies.

I've only watched two of the new era DC movies, I think they all look awful, and only one of those had 2/3 good acts. That was Wonder Woman. The other one I've watched was Man of Steel, which is one of the worst things I have ever seen and I've watched people at an apple store before.

The Infinity War trailer came out today. I don't often like to watch trailers for things I know I'm seeing anyway, but I took a look and I honestly have no idea what I think of it.

[Speed Racer]

I watched the trailer yesterday and I wasn't impressed. As you said, Marvel movies are all becoming the same to the point where Captain America: Civil War was boring (which makes me sad because it should've knocked it out of the park). I liked Doctor Strange but trippy visuals aside, it felt like Iron Man. The only deviation that seems to be allowed is GotG.

[Mikero]

Yeah, like... It's tremendous and I should be over the moon but that trailer was just exactly what I expected it to be. I guess I wanted to learn more about the story? I don't usually like that, but we already know a bunch of the AVENGERS would be in it. Probably not a trailer directed at people who were already gonna go, though.

Plus visually it's a very bland trailer. Like Iron Man in Hulkbuster armor flies in front a city that is very near to his colour palette--That's not a good look. I know the movie will probably knock my socks off (and I'll never get them back on) but the trailer didn't move the needle either way for me.

[Speed Racer]

So as you guys may know, I do reviews for video games for my friend's podcast, The SML Podcast. Each episode is long as hell, but it's pretty fun. Anyway, occasionally he is given a movie to review - last one they did was Need For Speed, if that gives you an idea. I was given this independent look at the Call of Duty franchise called CODumentary, which got a physical media release as well as Steam, iTunes, and I think Amazon.

It's just not very good. It's one-sided, a lot of talking heads, you don't really learn anything unless you know absolutely nothing about the series, and the last thirty minutes is about how COD is God's gift to eSports and focuses on a bunch of players who we aren't given reasons to give a ##### about them. It's just plain bad, and worse there were three storylines that they could've followed that would've been infinitely more interesting (even if it meant we got three short documentaries!), but drop them as side notes. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

[TheRedPriest]

CoD is ALWAYS an "avoid".  You don't need to tell us that.  But we appreciate it none the less.

[Snare]

The only good cod is the kind served on a stick and dipped in caramel.

[TheRedPriest]

Who eats fish with caramel?

[Speed Racer]

CoD is ALWAYS an "avoid".  You don't need to tell us that.  But we appreciate it none the less.

This was about five years ago, but I took a marketing survey about how I played Call of Duty, and one of the situations they asked about was about releasing the single-player campaign as a standalone download for $20. I was really enthusiastic about it, because I couldn't give a ##### about multiplayer, but they never bothered doing it. Disappointed by that, really.

[Mikero]

Maybe they're like current EA and they think no one wants single-player anymore.

[Orange Devil]

Did anyone see The Last Jedi? I thought it was pretty cool. I'm hearing lots of complaints but I think that's bound to happen with Star Wars.

Spoiler:
Do you think Luke had those Banthas imported because he just loves blue milk so much?

[White Shadow]

Those were not Banthas...

[Johncarllos]

Those Walrus cow tiddies were a little bit too much like human tiddies and not enough like cow udders.

And the look of pleasure on it's face, weird.

Also good catch with the blue milk.


Also I was disappointed by most aspects of the film, but it did have some of the coolest scenes in star wars yet.

[Majikn]

This movie didn't COMPLETELY knock my socks off because it had its weird moments, but for me it was a fun ride throughout. It's hard to make a long movie really feel like an epic without making it just plain boring; I think they pulled off the pacing very well. That's partly my attitude, though. I bought tickets to this film to enjoy it, even if I had to see it as more of a "ride" than an actual film.

I almost laughed aloud at Luke's character... at least once. For the most part I thought Luke was very entertaining but I'm not sure I understood his motivations.

Oversensitive spoiler tag that doesn't spoil much just in case you still accidentally click on it:
[spoiler]I feel like the "twist" at the end should have been obvious to anyone who has an inkling to what the Jedi are all about. And if you're asking which one, I mean the one involving a character and a lot of explosions. It surprises me more that anyone was surprised. I still thought it was cool though.[/spoiler]

[Mikero]

I thought it was pretty good. I was really high on it coming out of the theatre. I haven't really cooled down other than people trying to make me. Overall I dug it, I could just use a few less jokes (felt a bit like a Marvel movie at the start, and I've already ranted about the jokes therein).

[Majikn]

It had all of the things that I would say a Star Wars sequel should have; I'll give it that. I felt pretty much the same way about the latest Pirates movie. Though I felt that Star Wars was overwhelmingly on the better side of fun than Pirates was, I enjoyed both. I may decide to watch it again, and of course I probably inevitably will, and maybe then I'll have a better understanding of how I feel about... some of the things that happened and whether they make sense to me or not.

But I guess for every overpowered character or weird lucky thing that happens you can justify it as "the force wants them to succeed" anyway.

Those Walrus cow tiddies were a little bit too much like human tiddies and not enough like cow udders.

And the look of pleasure on it's face, weird.

Every time I check this thread and read this, I chuckle a little.

[Johncarllos]

I'd say I enjoyed Thor: Ragnorok about 3 times as much as TLJ.

Definitely want to see Ragnarok again, it was just FUN.

[Speed Racer]

TLJ was pretty great, but I'm going to need to see it again to absorb everything. Disappointed I never got around to seeing it in IMAX 3D, but it has hit the cheap seats, so maybe I can see it multiple times?

My wife and I saw Justice League, and while it wasn't great, it was a lot of fun. It throws a lot of stuff at you with only a couple of chances to breathe once things start moving, but that's possibly because Warner Brothers was adamant to keeping the film under two hours. There were only a couple of scenes that felt like they were Joss Whedon's touch, so I'm curious what all he added or reshot. It still wasn't the most coherent movie, but it was a fun ride. I'm a little disappointed that we don't have an extended or director's cut, but of course that may come a few years down the road. Not sure IMAX or 3D would've added anything. I'm stoked for the rest of the DCEU movies.

Watched an Australian drama called John Doe: Vigilante, which was like Anonymous (the group back when they were SJWs), Boondock Saints, and Jigsaw from Saw mashed together. It was interesting enough, with the main character breaking the fourth wall a few times during the end. What I find really odd is that the movie's website is long gone, but the Facebook page for it is still updating. They haven't discussed the movie since 2014, but it regularly updates with social justice stories in a "You need to get pissed about this and do something!" kind of way. I'm really curious who's running the page.

[White Shadow]

like Anonymous (the group back when they were SJWs)

Feels like an eternity now.

[Johncarllos]

Finally watched Wonder Woman. Hated it.

Watched Black Panther, it was really good. Killmonger's theme was one of my favorite parts of the film. Got me so hyped.

[Speed Racer]

I watched CHiPS. Went in with low expectations because it was universally hated, but I really dug it. Not great, but there were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for me, and it was fun. I'd be down for a sequel, but the disastrous box office ensures there won't be.

[Mikero]

Black Panther was a lot of fun. Over time I could see it getting high on my list of these movies. It had more depth to the story than most of Marvel's latest ones combined, especially considering that while Thor: Ragnarok was fun it was ultimately thin in plot.

[TheRedPriest]

I saw Black Panther last night, and I agree.  The plot and themes in it were surprisingly deep, and relevant.  It was a solid movie, one of Marvel's best for sure.

[Speed Racer]

Watched "Midway", which is about the decisive US naval victory against the Japanese in WWII. It was okay, but some of the acting was crappy, the real footage used was not as exciting as one would've hoped, I wasn't thrilled that there was no epilogue given for the surviving characters, and I'm pretty sure this movie was a last-ditch effort to persuade the public that what we were doing in Vietnam was right (that also came out after the war was over). The timing of the movie, the amount of real footage they got to use, and the fact that bunch of heroic Americans are killing a bunch of Asians feels very much like expensive Pentagon propaganda.

Posted on: February 21, 2018, 09:26:01 PM

As far as animated comic book movies go, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight was pretty damn good.

[Majikn]

I saw Deadpool 2. I might never have seen it but an opportunity came up. I actually think I like it more than the first movie.

I didn't have high expectations going in. It somehow managed to come out more creative, at least in my view. The first Deadpool seemed to rest on Deadpool's novelty in terms of a movie audience. It worked, and everyone loved it, but I kind of came out thinking, well... I think I enjoyed the humour most of all, but the villain and like half of the plot was just uninteresting to me. The second Deadpool seemed to have a lot more of the stuff that works.

[TheRedPriest]

I was surprised I ended up liking Deadpool 2 more than 1, by a bit.  I still dislike the casting/random race changing for Domino, and Cable was short and not makeuped well, but for what both characters were, I liked them, and honestly, Deadpool himself is just so god damn perfect I can't not love it.

[Xero]

The plot of Deadpool 2 seemed more like one of those 5-part episodes that 90's marvel cartoons like the X-Men & Spider Man did back in the day, and it's so perfect. 

Man I missed the 90's cartoons like X-Men & Spider-Man.  Those were the days.

[LCrazy11]

i may not have been around in the 90's but those were good shows, along with beast wars

[Majikn]

I'm glad I never knew who Domino was so I could go ahead and not invest any energy into forming an opinion on her race. I thought she was awesome though. I should also get the OST at some point because the music was another one of the high points.

[Mikero]

I saw Deadpool 2. I might never have seen it but an opportunity came up. I actually think I like it more than the first movie.

I didn't have high expectations going in. It somehow managed to come out more creative, at least in my view. The first Deadpool seemed to rest on Deadpool's novelty in terms of a movie audience. It worked, and everyone loved it, but I kind of came out thinking, well... I think I enjoyed the humour most of all, but the villain and like half of the plot was just uninteresting to me. The second Deadpool seemed to have a lot more of the stuff that works.

Agree 100%. I didn't really like the first Deadpool movie that much, probably because I was already familiar with the character and the movie was only there to introduce him. I felt like all the jokes were obvious from a mile away, and that he really didn't feel like Deadpool much (not helped by the fact he was barely in costume in the movie). In particular, the scene where he freaks out that girl was taken and starts yelling "get the guns, get all the guns!" felt very non-Deadpool to me.

I liked the second one so much more, his characterization was much better, the jokes weren't nearly as obvious, but more importantly it wasn't as gimmicky. I thought Domino was excellent, I couldn't care less about her race. She acted with the personality of the character from the comics just fine, and that's all I cared about. I thought Cable was really good too, though I wish they touched more on him actually being a mutant with powers and not just guns. I don't really consider 5' 11" as "short", but I guess I'm bias. Regardless, I've never read a Cable comic (and I've read a lot) where his height was even a topic, I think people are just making this a thing because hating on short people is still popular.

[Speed Racer]

Guns are Cable's main thing though. When I was a kid, my three favorite Marvel characters were Cable, War Machine, and the Punisher. Why? Because they brought the big guns. Everything else was secondary.

I watched At the Earth's Core, which is an old British sci-fi film from the 1970s. If you ever get a chance to see it, you should probably do it baked.

[Mikero]

Guns are Cable's main thing though. When I was a kid, my three favorite Marvel characters were Cable, War Machine, and the Punisher. Why? Because they brought the big guns. Everything else was secondary.

Yeaaahh... It's not like I said he shouldn't have had guns. I just would have liked if they touched on the fact that he's mutant AT ALL. I can't even remember them mentioning it once. I understand that maybe him having telepathy would have been a problem for the narrative, but it's easily solved by just saying he can't read a mind as scrambled as Wade's.

I get what you're saying, and it definitely wasn't necessary to get into him being a mutant for this movie, but I think a mention of it would have been good. His powers were a central part of the Cable & Deadpool comics, and while I don't want them to pursue those storylines in film, I just can't see his powers as ancillary. Especially when his storyline in the movie has multiple ties to the Hope storyline from the comics, which was completely about the future of mutant-kind.

[Speed Racer]

I watched Action Point last night, as it's already out on Bluray. If you're a fan of Jackass, you'll be disappointed because there aren't enough stunts or gags to make it really worth your time, and Knoxville is really starting to show his age. In the opening scenes (at Action Point), he's walking with an obvious limp, but supposedly he ended up going to the ER like 14 times during shooting of the film, so...yeah. On the other hand, the plot isn't written well enough for you to care, so it's kind of like "Who exactly was the target market for this movie?" It would've brought in plenty of 15 year-olds back in the mid 00s, but nowadays I wonder if today's kids even watch Jackass, and I can't see it bringing in older fans (which it obviously didn't at the box office). It wasn't terrible, but it's very forgettable. I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

Posted on: August 26, 2018, 12:45:12 AM

Watching Jumpin' Jack Flash as it was a favorite of my wife when she was a kid, and I've been watching The Masque of the Red Death (with Vincent Price) in chunks when I get a chance.

[Jakey]

Into the Spiderverse is the best Spiderman film and probably one of the best superhero films ever made don't @ me

[Speed Racer]

I plan on taking my son to see it when it gets to the cheap seats.

[Majikn]

It was fun and good.

Aside from that there was nothing that really bothered me about it which is a step up from pretty much any other Spidey film. Even moments that could have come off cheesy if they were handled ineptly, didn't.