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What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

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29 Jun 2017 13:51 #250627 by Jackwraith
I didn't have a problem with the casting. I think everyone suited their role. I just thought the characters were one-dimensional, as Shellhead pointed out. Zoe Saldana is probably the best example. She's a decent actress and showed some capability in the first Star Trek reboot, where she had to play the aspiring officer candidate who still had emotions for a basically emotionless man. So she's confronted in two areas that tell her to not give in to emotional "excess", but there's genuine tragedy happening around her and she has to try to navigate that. The role of Gamora presented exactly none of that. She was cardboard hardass who somehow becomes softened into the "love interest" of the goofball lead. Can we be anymore freshman-at-USC-film-school than that?

Superhero comics are a character-driven genre. You have to care about the people making the explosions. If they're not interesting, you don't care, and the whole thing falls over. That was Guardians for me.
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29 Jun 2017 16:39 - 29 Jun 2017 16:41 #250634 by Black Barney
it's hard not to view the casting of Grax as pretty brilliant. That's a HUGE risk putting that guy in that and for it to be a believable character. it totally works.

John C Reilly is so great in his small role in the first one too. And I really like Daryl's brother as that bounty-hunter with the whistle-arrow thing.

Casting is everything in ensemble casts like this and Avengers. They didn't miss the mark...except maybe with Zoe a little bit. She looks good painted up but it stops there.

Anyway crapping on Guardians is cool, i get it.


but yeah Zoe was pretty boring. She's boring in every role she does. I'm not a big fan. She plays a high school girl in every movie.
Last edit: 29 Jun 2017 16:41 by Black Barney.

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29 Jun 2017 17:32 - 29 Jun 2017 17:34 #250636 by Shellhead
Maybe my expectations were too high. I was a fan of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, of which only Yondu (blue guy with the arrow trick) appeared in the movie. Though I haven't read much of the modern version of the Guardians, I knew and accepted the various individual characters. As a teen, I even read both of Groot's 20th century comic book appearances, as well as Rocket Raccoon's only appearance. I didn't get around to watching the first Guardians movie until a few months ago, but I kept hearing that it was fun. Personally, I found it mildly fun and at least 20 minutes too long. Good cast, weak story, but nowhere near as disappointing as Prometheus.
Last edit: 29 Jun 2017 17:34 by Shellhead.

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29 Jun 2017 19:34 #250646 by Not Sure
I liked Guardians a lot. I think I liked Guardians 2 probably even a bit more.

I'll explain, not that it matters. I don't give a fuck about the MCU. I haven't watched most of the movies, and the main line of Avengers movies bores me a lot. I've started some of those and not finished them. The reason I don't like them is that they're very much targeted at the fans. They don't do an especially good job of characterization, because these characters are mostly 40-50-60-year old archetypes now. They need no introduction, especially to the movie-goers.

However, I don't care about the subtext of Stark talking to Captain America, the conversations aren't that interesting to me. I also don't care about the superhero punching parts either. It's cool, and people like it (because they keep going), and that's fine. I never really liked superhero comics that much, although I read enough to keep up in conversation.

I actually liked Guardians because it wasn't serious. It hit a sweet spot in the middle of B-grade Marvel Comics and B-grade 80s sci-fi movies, but with A+ modern production. The biggest flaw in GoG1 to me was the whole Ronan/Kree bullshit, which makes little to no sense without a comics background. I'm still not sure my kids understand or care about that background plot. Doesn't matter, we all enjoyed the film.

I think GoG2 was better in that regard, because its plot was more self-contained, and it spent its limited character time (between explosions) on stuff that mattered a little more than the pure introductions of the first film. Sure, it was mostly all "fatherhood is heavy" stuff, but I can relate to that.

Regardless, I found them to be fun in way that science fiction films really haven't been in a long time. Those get greenlit so little now that they have to be very serious affairs or Star Wars (which is also srs bizness now, with no fun left).

My wife watched and enjoyed both of them, and can't be bothered to go see Star Wars films anymore. That says something about their appeal to me.

But it's all just movies anyway. No big deal.
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29 Jun 2017 19:50 #250648 by Jackwraith
Just as a side note: I usually participate in this thread because movies are kind of a "big deal" to me. They're an art form as much as anything else we talk about on the Fortress, if not more. They're not to everyone and that's fine. Some people just want to see a fun story and/or escape. That's not me. I want whatever I'm watching to sell me a story. Guardians didn't do that. That's also why it has nothing to do with "being cool" to dump on the film. If anything, it's NOT cool to do so, since everyone from general public to critics LOVED the first one. It just didn't work for me. I don't really care whether people think my opinion is worthwhile or not, but it has nothing to do with trying to be "cool." I'm just describing why films either do or don't sell me and I'm certainly not trying to tell people what they should or shouldn't like. That's really not possible, most of the time.
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29 Jun 2017 20:40 #250651 by Sevej
Well, last weekend was a long weekend (with Eid-al-Fitr, my office was closed on Monday and Tuesday), so I took the chance to re-watch Matrix trilogy.

They're still great movies. The second movie is the best of the trilogy, but the first movie--if seen as stand alone movie--is better than the trilogy. It does a great job of turning cyber-warfare into easily-grasped action movie with mind blowing scenes. The idea to represent programs and glitches as people is pretty amazing. They also accomplished an unusual feat--making a GTA-like environment without making the characters douches. That allows generous amount of violence on law enforcement officers. It also got through with virtually no joke.

The movie starts off as a cyberpunk, but as soon as Neo wakes up, a lot of the magic is missing to me, and it turns into a sci-fi action movie. Everything is immediately explained, with the machines clearly penned as the bad guys. I remember back then a lot of people are confused with the movie, but it's probably one of the easiest ways to explain everything. If it was a shady organization with convoluted plot, it would have been a lot harder to comprehend (and to be made!).

The second movie contains amazing action scenes (which are allowed by the GTA-like environment). The plot starts to unravel. The encounter with the Architect makes the first movie, basically, a lie. Which is why if seen as trilogy, the second one is the best. I was amused at the use of love in the midst of all this digital war, action movie. My only disappointment in the second movie is that after the Architect made long diatribe on Neo (which, to my astonishment, I was able to understand this time--it was not that complex), he then boiled it down to two simple choices: love & destruction, or reset the matrix. I suppose this is done to the benefit of the viewers.

I like the third movie least, because it takes too much time in the meatspace, and it acts as a drawn out conclusion to the trilogy.

I had a discussion with a friend right after watching the movie. He liked the matrix-in-the-matrix theory, which is, to my opinion, rubbish. It made a lot of other things in the movie a lie (which is pointless and doesn't make the maker of the movies looks any smarter). I wouldn't be surprised if the scene at the end of the second movie is that Neo gained wireless transfer ability. Since the matrix is made to cage human brains, I think it makes a lot of sense to have the programming environment of the machines to work very similar to human brain. After all, Smith could occupy Bane's head.

(He also wondered why Neo doesn't know about EMP, and I said if you are the machines and EMP is your weakness, wouldn't you remove EMP from the Matrix or at least control it?)

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29 Jun 2017 22:05 #250657 by Not Sure

Jackwraith wrote: Just as a side note: I usually participate in this thread because movies are kind of a "big deal" to me. They're an art form as much as anything else we talk about on the Fortress, if not more. They're not to everyone and that's fine. Some people just want to see a fun story and/or escape. That's not me. I want whatever I'm watching to sell me a story. Guardians didn't do that. That's also why it has nothing to do with "being cool" to dump on the film. If anything, it's NOT cool to do so, since everyone from general public to critics LOVED the first one. It just didn't work for me. I don't really care whether people think my opinion is worthwhile or not, but it has nothing to do with trying to be "cool." I'm just describing why films either do or don't sell me and I'm certainly not trying to tell people what they should or shouldn't like. That's really not possible, most of the time.


Sure, I can be a huge film snob as well. For example, my comments about the MCU movies in general. But I think the Guardians films have one job, and they execute it pretty well. That's really the mark of a good film to me.

I love the serious scifi movies as well (and usually rage about how they're just not quite good enough). I also enjoy something more fun once in a while, that I can take an eleven-year-old to without having him do four years of background reading. If anything, I think the Guardians films manage that much better than most. Shit, having anything worthwhile to take my kids to that's not animated is nice treat in my life. If we all come out enjoying it, that's done pretty well by me.

It's not about who's cool, it's just a difference of opinion. These are basically trashy films, made on a big budget. I'm okay with that.
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29 Jun 2017 23:04 #250661 by Sagrilarus
My boys stumbled onto Kung Fury, the most Ameritrash short film of all time. If you have Netflix and 30 minutes of free time, have a look.
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01 Jul 2017 01:52 #250734 by Michael Barnes
Watched Power Rangers...what a tonally screwed up movie! It starts out with Heisenberg dying. Then it's like a fairly serious, kind of somber, modern teen drama, kids dealing with various issues...but then Alpha 5 shows up, it's morphin' time, the Zords go running out in profile, and the Rangers are hollering at each other and announcing their actions. Rita Repulsa has a Krispy Kreme. Then the Megazord suplexes a kaiju made of gold.

I kind of liked it, actually. I'm not sure really why it was critically blasted like it was, other than because it's based on a ludicrous kids show and it has ludicrous kid stuff in it (like Elizabeth Banks totally leaning into her over the top role). It has a hell of lot more heart and actual character writing than, say, any Transformer film and it never plays to the lowest common denominator. It has some of the same positivity of the original shows, although they don't do stuff for the community center and hang out at the ice cream shop.

I think what makes it strange is that it's really a young adult level film based on a kids show...but with that said, I'm glad they didn't go full on grimdark, and understood that a good message and positive outcomes were part of the charm of the shows.

Most of what I didn't like had more to do with aesthetics. I love the classic Japanese sentai style. I like that the original zords have that wonderful super robot sort of style. I like the spandex unitards with simple color blocks. This stuff was all over-designed and over-textured.

Pleasantly surprised by it overall. I doubt there will be a sequel, but there is a fun tease for one in the credits.

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01 Jul 2017 10:58 #250739 by Michael Barnes
Ok, after sleeping on it, I think I get what was going on with the tone in Power Rangers...and it's actually really neat. I hate to play that "I got it and critics didn't" card...but there it is.

You've got these typical, modern teens. They are dealing with social drama, family drama, medical drama, and all kinds of standard pre-adult angst. That non-quite-grown up stage, where all that drama FEELS grown up and bigger than you. It was actually kind of brilliant to cast all of this VERY straight...because once they find the ship, Zordon and all of that they start to recapture BEING KIDS. They laugh and play and drive around in "costumes and Dino-cars", as Rita Repulsa calls them. The movie becomes really colorful and lightweight, almost like the sun coming out. They reconcile growing up with reclaiming childhood.

That's a pretty awesome message to put across, especially to teenagers and kids that are growing up faster than ever.

So yeah, I think this movie is somewhat underestimated and underrated.

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01 Jul 2017 17:30 #250749 by Ancient_of_MuMu
The Lobster - this is one of those love/hate movies and was a love for me. I loved it, and I can't work out why, particularly when I didn't think much of Being John Malkovich.

It did bring up an interesting discussion that now anal sex references in movies are now what blowjob references were in the 90s. It gets thrown around too often, just to prove that the film is edgy.
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01 Jul 2017 17:54 #250750 by Black Barney
I was just about to say that the Power Rangers movie could have used more anal sex

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01 Jul 2017 21:31 #250755 by SuperflyPete
Saw these two things and am utterly fucked off that no full feature exists:


Rakka


Firebase

The former is incredible. It reminds me that NB is a bad ass visionary when it comes to ET's.

The latter is awesome until the end which kind of turns into Kung Fury, or maybe really a Tarantino Grindhouse kind of deal

BOTH are exceptional

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01 Jul 2017 23:42 #250758 by Jackwraith

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: The Lobster - this is one of those love/hate movies and was a love for me. I loved it, and I can't work out why, particularly when I didn't think much of Being John Malkovich.


The Lobster was brilliant; easily one of the best films of 2015. I saw it with my girlfriend, who's far more of the "just entertain me" perspective on movies, and her 14-year-old daughter. Needless to say, that's three very different views of the average film. We all loved it. My girlfriend still cackles about the line: "If you encounter any problems that you cannot resolve yourselves, you will be assigned children. That usually helps."

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03 Jul 2017 23:29 #250808 by Disgustipater
Baby Driver. It was fine, but I didn't find it as good as some of Edgar Wright's other movies. While I understand that the prevalence of music in the movie is one of its main themes, I got kind of tired of the constant music. On the other hand, I liked how they matched the action to the beats of the music, so I'm not sure how to reconcile that.

It did have some nice tracking shots.

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