Movie Review and Discussion

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I thought Americans jizzed their pants at even as much as hearing the words "Classic Disney", but apparently not :D
 
I thought Americans jizzed their pants at even as much as hearing the words "Classic Disney", but apparently not :D

I think most people don't know how to feel about Disney's live action versions of their classic cartoons. I think the remakes are pretty unnecessary, because they already nailed the animated version of these films and making them live action doesn't add much value.

Not that I care about Disney movies in general, though.
 
So, here's the teaser for the new Pixar flick. And people instantly started with the "Book Of Life ripoff!" yelling. Ignoring that the guy who frigging made BoL is excited to see it. And when they found that out, they trotted out "DISNEY IS APPROPRIATING OUR CULTURE!"

In short, people need to lighten the fuck up.
 
I saw John Wick 2 last month. Good movie. As others have said, more kills (I was counting, heh), great fight scenes, etc. I still think the 1st one is the better movie. It's more direct and closer to the heart. To be honest, the sequel's villain is such an over the top kind of movie villain that he's the one part of the movie that feels out of place. Everyone and their mother seems to know how much of a badass John Wick is, so much so they all have a sort of "oh shit" moment of nearly shitting their pants at the mention of his name. But, in a world of killers, amoral psychopaths, and ego driven sociopaths, Santino D'Antonio really takes the cake.

More recently I too saw Logan. For once a good, properly good, Wolverine movie. Others have said many of the things I'd say and agree with, but here's some more thoughts I'd like to add.

X-24
So yeah, a Wolverine clone. Kind of out of place for this movie, but who/what else, and maybe who/what better, could kill Wolverine but himself? And really, a clone is much better than what it could have been, Albert & Elsie Dee. If ya don't know, Albert is/was an android Wolverine created with the intent to lure Wolverine into a trap intended to kill him. Elsie Dee is/was also an android, but a little girl, built as a self destructing bomb, she was meant to be the trap. Google and read up on the two and you see how just simplifying it so X-24 is a clone is just better.

Logan's sickness
OK, I can buy that. It's well known in the comics that adamantium is poisonous, and if his healing factor just wasn't what it was, now being taxed 24/7 fending off adamantium poisoning, I can accept outside injuries now being capable of killing him. Though I can't recall how much it was mention or stressed how dangerous adamantium is in the previous movies. Yet, Logan does a fine job of being it's own movie.

Prof. X's sickness
This is where we get the hint at what happened to the X-Men. It's merely hinted at during Xavier's breakdown as he feels guilt from recalling/remembering what he did at the school. So yeah, Charles lost control of his powers during a stroke and it caused the death of everyone at the school. Likely most or all of the X-Men and all of the students. And what is beautiful about this is that there is no flashback. It's simply briefly brought up during the sobbing of an old man's guilt and left there for the viewer to fill in. And it's made clear earlier in the movie that death of those around him is very likely if one of his strokes is left untreated.

X-23/Laura
Her simply being his daughter, with the mother unknown, and her simply having inherited his anger is a lot easier to take in that what she is in the comics. If they had tried to make her his sort of half female clone that had a surrogate birth mother, never mind the trigger scent that she was trained to go berserk after smelling, it'd just be way too much to squeeze into a movie about a dying Wolverine.

The Western influence
"This is heavy, Doc." But in a good way. You've got the old gunslinger coming out of retirement for one last ride, an unknown wanderer lending a helping hand and then defending a homestead, the protector reluctantly escorting an innocent girl across country, and, best of all, an old man dies so a young girl can live.

I think I need to go see Logan again now.

Oh, as to what DC is doing wrong with their movies. Attempting to fit in a decade's worth of movies into half the time in a bid to catch up to Marvel. That and WB going at it with no, very little, or poor planning. 2008's Iron Man was the start of the modern MCU, but before that planning started in '05. They didn't start out half cocked but took risks. Iron Man was a risk, but one with a lot of potential. And after that first film, the character jumped from being a C lister at best to a solid A lister. DC/WB on the other hand has only taken one risk and did it entirely half cocked yet also tried stuff 10lbs of crap in a 5lb bag. They can't even get their two biggest properties right, their boy scout and sales leader.

Now, to be fair, DC seems to be doing a great job on the comics side currently, while Marvel is all over the place. But, this is a movie discussion thread, not comics (we have that thread).

P.S.

If you are curious about X-23/Laura, and would like to get into the comics with her, I recommend '03's NYX, '05's X-23, and '07's Target X.
 
Logan's sickness
OK, I can buy that. It's well known in the comics that adamantium is poisonous, and if his healing factor just wasn't what it was, now being taxed 24/7 fending off adamantium poisoning, I can accept outside injuries now being capable of killing him. Though I can't recall how much it was mention or stressed how dangerous adamantium is in the previous movies. Yet, Logan does a fine job of being it's own movie.

I think there's more to it than that. Zander Rice put a chemical in the world's water and food supply that stopped new mutant births. I'm theorizing it also weakened existing mutant powers. If Wolverine's healing factor is being suppressed by a chemical, it would explain how the adamantium is starting to poison him now, after decades without a problem.
 
I think there's more to it than that. Zander Rice put a chemical in the world's water and food supply that stopped new mutant births. I'm theorizing it also weakened existing mutant powers. If Wolverine's healing factor is being suppressed by a chemical, it would explain how the adamantium is starting to poison him now, after decades without a problem.

That's a possibility, but I don't think it's likely. With how much the movie puts an emphasis on time and age catching up to everyone, even the likes of Wolverine, I think that's all it is. The adamantium has been poisoning him from the moment it was injected into him. He just finally got old enough that his healing factor slowed down enough it couldn't keep up with both the adamantium poisoning and basic, normal cell regeneration. Toss in serious physical injuries and he's likely to die. And as the movie is inspired by, and super loosely based on Old Man Logan, this mirrors that version of him whose healing factor is also slowed, just not as severe as in the movie.

The path to his death in Logan is actually far better than what we got in the comics.
I still think it's asinine and complete bullshit how they removed 616 Wolverine's healing factor. A sentient virus from the microverse triggers some sort of biological attack that causes his healing factor to burn out from fighting and defeating it. And then Beast just nonchalantly says he came up with an injection that will keep the adamantium poisoning in check. It was just awful. I don't even want to get into everything between that and the Death of Wolverine story (which DoW was fine, not perfect, but OK).

Either way works though. I guess I just like it being down to nothing more than old age. But if chemically altered drinking water having an effect on his powers does it for ya, OK. We all have our headcanon.
 
Not just too much too fast, Jamie. Why must DC have so many worlds?
The Flash-Arrow-Legends one, the Gotham one, (not sure it fits in any particular one but) the Powerless one, the Movie one, and the animated ones.
I mean, that is not even all of them.
Damn!

Seems as if Marvel might be mostly in 2 camps, Xmen or Avenger worlds, but at least that is mostly from studios that owned properties. On that note, at least Spidey will now live in one of those camps.

On the John Wick 2 note... I just saw and loved it. Totally bad-ass insane. I think this is a case of a sequel that I have a hard time deciding what one I liked better.
What I really enjoy is the world that is created.
The tatted up office of bookkeepers was fantastic. The TOTALLY analog world that also used old typewriters and such was just great details. It is almost hitman fantasy.
Oh, but, Noooo
the car was wrecked! That thing was toast.
Anyhow, top notch stuff.
 
Well, DC/WB seems to just be tossing darts seeing what sticks when it comes to the TV stuff. And their TV and movie stuff are seperate universes. Hell, the TV stuff isn't even all in the same universe. And if something doesn't work on a regular network, they just move it to the CW.

Granted, their TV stuff is better than their films, way better actually. Yet, there's too much CW-itus. An overdramatization of romantic relationships.

Marvel though? Everything they have control over is the same universe. movies, TV series, Netflix series, all the same universe. It gives all of it a larger sense of belonging and so many opportunities to drop world building facts and easter eggs.

Marvel is only in multiple camps because neither Sony or Fox wants to give up the cash cows that are Marvel properties. Though Sony and Fox have started to come around to letting Marvel/Disney do most or all the work while Sony/Fox still gets credit and profits.Seemingly everyone that isn't an executive at Sony or Fox wants Spidey, the X-Men, and the Avengers to share the screen together.

BTW, how about Aunt May pulling a Benjamin Button every time they get a new actress to play her?

John Wick's car
Eh, John Leguizamo will fix it. I mean, he ain't got a garage to put it in anymore once it's fixed, but it'll be fixed.
 
Y9psvcw.jpg

Maaaaaaaaan, I know the movie is going to be an unwatchable pile of crap, but that poster makes me want to watch it anyway.
 
So I watched Kong: Skull island last Monday and must say it was one hell of a ride.
The story and characters weren't that deep, but the movie as a whole played out really really well.
The action was shot with sick slowmo effects and the cgi of the monsters and Kong were top notch.
I also liked the performance of Samuel L Jackson and the stranded soldier guy
 
Hidden Numbers
A feel-good movie that tackles intersectionality without treating the issues in a flippant manner nor feeling overly preachy? I am sold. It could feel a bit too smoothed out at times, but it was meant to be an uplifting tale about trailblazers and how they opened up paths for others to follow, not to be a downer movie.

Its two hours went by quickly, with almost all of the fat having been trimmed away. The romance aspect was, thankfully, not overpowering at all. In fact, even in a movie about women's accomplishments, it might have been a tad underdeveloped.

Good performances all around, though some of the characters felt a bit stock, Costner's character most of all. We've seen the grudging mentor role been done countless times before, and it wasn't really any different here. The movie is not a character study, but I felt that more could have been made in this department.

Audiovisually, it was fine, but nothing extravagant. The score was fitting, but not memorable, and the cinematography was perfectly fine, but not a lot of shots stood out to me.
 
Granted, their TV stuff is better than their films, way better actually. Yet, there's too much CW-itus. An overdramatization of romantic relationships.

Eh, John Leguizamo will fix it. I mean, he ain't got a garage to put it in anymore once it's fixed, but it'll be fixed.
Or they whine about it being someone's fault that someone died.
But, at least I understand why they shove all that relationship stuff in, if only for the reason of the CW caters to a certain 20-40 year old "mostly" stereotypical gender.
However, they could easily make a couple of those shows 15 minutes if they cut out the scenes of 2 people walking into a hall or room, or coffee joint to have a deep 1v1 convo and yes, hella mela. They tapped the melodrama from 80s soaps at times. That is probably why I sorta like the Legends of Tomorrow for how much they KNOW they are on a campy romp, and just live-it-up.

Back to movies.
Watched What We Do In The Shadows.
One of the spoof style documentaries, and it is marvelously done. It plays off all of the Vampire tropes (can't be seen in mirrors, and crucifixes) and blends them in with what is like a Real World Style show.
It presents us with Vampires squabbling about dishes, to a super creepy vampire who is a lot older in the basement. His style resembles Nosferatu.
At times it is actually violent and/or touching and freaky, and the rest hilariously sad.
Having one half of the Flight of the Concords team you know it is going to be good.
I'd give it an 8/10
 
Well, with Coco coming out this fall, I figured I'd get around to watching
The Book of Life.

This film definitely has a bunch of positive qualities. The art style is interesting, and the animation fairly smooth and detailed considering the budget.
What, you wanna accuse Coco of being a ripoff? At least Coco is going to have Mexican music. Book of Life basically had none, which is a great disappointment.
On top of that, the movie is also rife with contemporary slang, and some really dumb voice picks. Like, why does the Candle Maker talk like some off-stage rapper from Atlanta?
The story also had a bunch of clichés you'd think most film studios would avoid like the plague, and the ending moral was like something out of a cheap 80's/90's kids flick.
Still, it actually was decently entertaining, and at least some of the characters were endearing. The art style is also a really big plus. So not completely without reason to watch it.

6/10
 
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Back to movies.
Watched What We Do In The Shadows.
One of the spoof style documentaries, and it is marvelously done. It plays off all of the Vampire tropes (can't be seen in mirrors, and crucifixes) and blends them in with what is like a Real World Style show.
It presents us with Vampires squabbling about dishes, to a super creepy vampire who is a lot older in the basement. His style resembles Nosferatu.
At times it is actually violent and/or touching and freaky, and the rest hilariously sad.
Having one half of the Flight of the Concords team you know it is going to be good.
I'd give it an 8/10

It's a great quirky comedy. They're making a sequel focusing on the werewolves.
 
Taken 3
Yeah, yeah, I know...

This could have been called "watch Liam Neeson be an unrelenting sociopath for two hours". I watched this when visiting my Dad this weekend. We expected to do some father-son bonding over a crappy film, but I did not expect it to be so... morally repugnant and tedious. The world bent over backwards to accommodate the protagonists and their sickening sense of morality. The writing goes out of its way to paint the villains as terrible, yet the heroes are often far worse. It's roughly on the level of the most terrible fan fiction out there, or maybe even Terry Goodkind novels. Everything about it rubbed me the wrong way, and the writing and dialogue cried out for the MST3K treatment.
 
Taken 3
Yeah, yeah, I know...

This could have been called "watch Liam Neeson be an unrelenting sociopath for two hours". I watched this when visiting my Dad this weekend. We expected to do some father-son bonding over a crappy film, but I did not expect it to be so... morally repugnant and tedious. The world bent over backwards to accommodate the protagonists and their sickening sense of morality. The writing goes out of its way to paint the villains as terrible, yet the heroes are often far worse. It's roughly on the level of the most terrible fan fiction out there, or maybe even Terry Goodkind novels. Everything about it rubbed me the wrong way, and the writing and dialogue cried out for the MST3K treatment.
The best phrase described to the Taken franchise that I ever heard was "morally bankrupt".
 
The best phrase described to the Taken franchise that I ever heard was "morally bankrupt".
Very fitting. The morality of the third part is more lopsided than the Dutch angles that it's rife with. And it's not just that I found it abhorrent, it's just such lazy writing in that
Liamdude ends up scot free after all the manshooting and cop-punching. Like the LAPD would ever let that pass.
 
@HasseRovdjur Should have watched John Wick instead. If you haven't seen it, then now might be a good time, since unlike Taken, Wick is a good example of how to bring 80s style action movies into the 21st century. All of the Taken movies are relics of a bygone era, and it gets progressively worse with each film. They take the worst elements of 80s action flicks and then add in a lot of the worst tendencies of modern action flick. Adding grit to 80s action movies is a hard proposition, but with Taken it's even worse because trying to be gritty forces the audience to take the plot more seriously so things that might get a pass in an cheesy 80s action flick, become a lot more bothersome and in the case of Taken do end up becoming morally repugnant after a while. Wick on the other hand embraces being an over the top action movie and just adds some realism to the action scenes to give them added weight and actually make the hero feel vulnerable. Sure we know Wick isn't really going to lose, but damn if he isn't going to take a painful looking beating to get there.
 
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