Come December, keep in mind there is already a Star Wars thread - Movie Reviews

[Reply #600 on:]

That doesn’t make it a flawed platform, it just means that people interpret it the wrong way. Instead of the numerical percentage representing level of quality of the film, it should be read as being simply the percentage of critics who thought the movie was at least worth seeing. Viewed through that lens, I’d say it’s an incredibly effective platform, especially when it comes to knowing which movies to outright avoid wasting time on.

That doesn’t make it a flawed platform, it just means that people interpret it the wrong way.

I agree. I'm not sure why I said flawed.

What I meant was that you need to understand how it works in order for it to mean anything. Everyone understands averages and it's easy to automatically see an 80% on RT and say "Oh, that's an 8/10!"

You're correct. That's exactly how I took it, because I was, indeed, ignorant of the scoring system. Thanks for the education, guys

[Reply #601 on:]

Fox and the Hound



Pretty good I say

[Reply #602 on:]

Black Panther

I'm kind of surprised at how overwhelmingly positive the reviews are. I thought the movie was really good. In fact, I can't really think of a single thing to complain about. But it doesn't strike me as some kind of masterpiece- for me it wouldn't even be in the top 5 MCU movies.

But, there was still a lot to love. The balance of humour and drama was spot-on. The acting was excellent, especially from Andy Serkis who was absolutely amazing. Phase 3 seems to have mostly fixed Marvel's villain problem. Klaue, Killmonger, Vulture and Zemo were all excellent. Ego and Hela were alright. Kaecilius was pretty bad but that's a much better ratio than they had before.

Anyway, Black Panther's supporting characters were nice. His sister was funny and provided most of the movie's comic relief in a way that felt realistic and natural. "Delete that footage!"
His bodyguard (Michonne from The Walking Dead? EDIT: yep, I was right!) was pretty cool as well with her conflicted loyalty.

Now, my main question is:

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Where is the last infinity stone? I doubt they'll introduce it in IW. Perhaps Thanos won't get them all until Avengers 4 and the soul stone will appear in Captain Marvel (Or Ant-Man and the Wasp... but I doubt that   )

Also, yay Bucky's back!

I'd probably score this a 7/10. Hard to dislike it really. As I said before, I can't really pinpoint any specific issues. I don't, however, feel like it revolutionised the MCU at all.

[Reply #603 on:]

I'm kind of surprised at how overwhelmingly positive the reviews are. I thought the movie was really good. In fact, I can't really think of a single thing to complain about. But it doesn't strike me as some kind of masterpiece- for me it wouldn't even be in the top 5 MCU movies.

To be fair, I think a lot of the love this movie's getting has very little to do with how solid an entry it is in the MCU; rather, people are responding to the fact that this is an almost entirely black cast headlining a blockbuster movie with broad appeal. Best of all, the movie remains broadly appealing without whitewashing anything: this is so thoroughly a story about the dynamics between different subsets of the black community, and the major conflict ("Are members of a marginalized group who have achieved a certain level of privilege morally obligated to provide aid to members of that same group who have dealt with systemic oppression for thousands of years?") reinforces that. It's so, so refreshing.

I mean, I say this all as perhaps The Whitest White Person Who Ever Lived, but I fucking loved this movie. The performances were stellar (I agree that the sister was a lot of fun, and Lupita Nyong'o and Danai Gurira were equally wonderful; I daresay Chadwick Boseman was just okay, but I did really enjoy Michael B. Jordan), the visuals were great (Wakanda really is beautiful), I actually really enjoyed the action sequences (that car chase through South Korea, in particular), and it was just a super-pleasant way to spend two hours and fifteen minutes of my life. (I also appreciated that it wasn't an origin story, per se, because I have limited tolerance for origin stories.)

I honestly had no idea what this movie was going to be like going in, as I am only peripherally aware of the comics (and only because of some of the high-profile black writers, like Ta Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, who have recently had runs on it), but I was not disappointed. It wasn't as madcap as Thor: Ragnarok or Spider-Man: Homecoming, and I didn't find T'Challa an especially compelling protagonist (his two main story lines are pretty rote: "my father the king has lied to me" and "I want my ex-girlfriend back pls")--but I'd still say this was a better film overall than either of those. I appreciated the nuanced take the movie had on the idea of reparations and how best to enfranchise the historically oppressed--i.e., Killmonger's heart is in the right place, but his approach is misguided--and really hope that "disguising" such a prescient and important idea within a beat-'em-up superhero movie will encourage people who wouldn't ordinarily think about such things (so, white people) to, you know, think about them.

This is a 5/5 for me, no question. It was fun, and funny; it was sincere and smart, deeply-felt and deeply-considered; and, unlike most movies in the MCU, it was pretty deftly paced: no bloat here, folks. I'd worried it wouldn't live up to the hype (or that the hype was somehow artificially inflated by the aforementioned excitement over the movie's unapologetic blackness), but it really did. This is probably the first superhero movie I've seen since Logan that I suspect will stay with me for longer than the couple hours it took to watch it, and that's no small feat.

[Reply #604 on:]

I suppose that was quite a fair review of the movie.

[Reply #605 on:]

Kill Bill 1 and 2 Rewatch

Kept thinking about the car crash that permanently injured Uma Thurman
0/10

[Reply #606 on:]

I didn't know she got in a car crash.  I liked Kill Bill personally, but it does glorify violence and murder.

Remember the scene where kiddo talks her would be assassin into sparing her because she was pregnant?  I think people generally behave that way.  Makes me wonder.

[Reply #607 on:]

I didn't know about it until now. And I watched part of Part 2 just the other night, and enjoyed it.

[Reply #608 on:]

The movies are great, hoping that I can forget the bad taste it left in my mouth. It's harder because the horrible Hollywood thing actually happened in the making of the movie, rather than it just being a douchebag pretending to be someone else like it is in all the other cases.

[Reply #609 on:]

I don't think I posted my Black Panther thoughts in here, but I saw it almost 2 weeks ago. Damn, what an overrated movie.

The problem is, people are getting the representation confused with the actual quality of the film. The representation is 10/10, the film, however, is more of a 5/10. Nothing special, just your standard Marvel comic book movie. I feel like Black Panther himself wasn't in the film/utilised enough, as in, the costume, not T'Challa himself. Killmonger was a decent bad guy. Andy Serkis' character was just fucking annoying. I dunno, man, they have the most advanced technology in the world but don't use guns & still do ancient tribal combat and shit? It just didn't quite gel too well, for me.

Also, a reference to a meme which is almost 3 years old? Just no.

I also saw A Ghost Story. 9.5/10. What a film. Astounding. (Honourable mention to the infamous pie-eating scene)

[Reply #610 on:]

Actually, once tech gets good enough, it's likely we would head straight back to tribal mentalities in some capacity, as a means for individuals to tether themselves to the concrete of our reality

[Reply #611 on:]

they have the most advanced technology in the world but don't use guns & still do ancient tribal combat and shit? It just didn't quite gel too well, for me.

They had gunships and all that jazz. Most of the tribal stuff and swordplay was for the sake of tradition.

Andy Serkis' character was just fucking annoying.

fite me

[Reply #612 on:]

I definitely thought Black Panther was stronger than a 5/10...maybe a 7.5 or 8? It was a very good, even great film, but I mostly agree with UrL's take on it, and concur that it wouldn't break my top 5 favorite MCU movies.

That said, I agree with Danny's comment about the tribal combat. I deeply enjoyed the tribal outfits and music and dancing as traditions, but the entire challenger-to-the-throne fight-to-the-death element felt totally at odds with how rationally the rest of their society was conducted and seemed only to serve as a plot convenience. I get that once they got the vibranium Wakanda started developing at an exponential rate, and it makes complete sense that certain things would develop faster than others, causing a tradition like that to stick around past when it should have. BUT none of the characters in the movie seem to express any explicit discomfort with the tradition (beyond not wanting to see T'Challa be killed) or outward desire to get rid of it.

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When Killmonger appears to kill T'Challa, even though they're mostly unhappy about it, everyone agrees that he is King and his orders must be completely followed, even to the extent of burning all the ancestral plants that constitute probably a much more important and cherished tradition to them than the fight-to-the-death stuff.

I've heard people try to point out a double standard here, saying that Asgard is also a bloodline monarchy and yet doesn't receive the same level of criticism for those aspects, which is a somewhat fair assessment. Personally though, I would say that I am also critical of Asgard's system, but at the same time there is no mortal combat element to it, and it has been evidenced (especially in Ragnarok with Hela) that when someone usurps the throne who does not have the goodness or honor to rule, even when they technically have a right to the throne as Hela did, the entire royal army and even citizenry will band together to fight that ruler against all odds (most pretty much knowingly sacrifice themselves). So to see most of the honorable royal guards in Black Panther cede to tradition and not immediately fight back against the one obviously evil usurper and his handful of sympathizers felt overly diminishing of their values as a society to me that didn't really jive with anything else that was presented in the movie.

[Reply #613 on:]

I also saw A Ghost Story. 9.5/10. What a film. Astounding. (Honourable mention to the infamous pie-eating scene)

Thinking about that movie still fucks me up. And that PIE tho.

[Reply #614 on:]

Abe Sapien: A Hellboy Story (aka The Shape of Water)

I thought this movie was good, I don't think there was anything necessarily wrong with it but I don't think it is Del Toro's best movie.

But it's true what they say, if you want an Oscar then pay tribute to Old Hollywood or show movies are a force for good in your plot.

[Reply #615 on:]

Watched Annihilation after work last night. A refreshing take on the genre. You could call it a taut horror/supernatural/psychological thriller. This is a movie you definitely want to watch on the big screen. Especially refreshing was the lack of tired tropes, both plot and character-wise. The pace is deliberate without being plodding, and I never felt that any of the elements were gratuitous.

B+

I had only two minor annoyances with the film, and they're pretty picayune.

[Reply #616 on:]

John Wick 2

I loved the first one, but luckily the sequel is definitely close in its level of excellence. It's filmed very smoothly; everything on the screen is simple to follow. The gunfight scenes were extremely well-executed.

Furthermore, the movie is surprisingly funny, but it's got it's own unique, subtle style of humour which is tough to describle. You should just go see it.

I could go on for weeks! But there's no time to do such things...

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The bit where he killed those guys using the pencil is so cool. Very gory... but cool.

Everyone should see this movie; it's very good. I score it 9/10.

[Reply #617 on:]

I don't think I posted my Black Panther thoughts in here, but I saw it almost 2 weeks ago. Damn, what an overrated movie.

The problem is, people are getting the representation confused with the actual quality of the film. The representation is 10/10, the film, however, is more of a 5/10. Nothing special, just your standard Marvel comic book movie. I feel like Black Panther himself wasn't in the film/utilised enough, as in, the costume, not T'Challa himself. Killmonger was a decent bad guy. Andy Serkis' character was just fucking annoying. I dunno, man, they have the most advanced technology in the world but don't use guns & still do ancient tribal combat and shit? It just didn't quite gel too well, for me.

^This. (With the exception of Serkis representing a character that got the closest to a "personality" in this movie).

"Ready, Player One"
C-
Not too impressed. The real-word story seemed to generic, predictable and standard to me. All in all, they gave the movie an air of being a collection of pop culture references, and added a story later to losely hold it together (yep, I know about the novel, but still....)

[Reply #618 on:]

I loved the first one, but luckily the sequel is definitely close in its level of excellence.

I'm in the very small minority of people who think that John Wick 2 is better than the first film.

[Reply #619 on:]

Can you really use the plural of person when making that comment?

[Reply #620 on:]

I loved the first one, but luckily the sequel is definitely close in its level of excellence.

I'm in the very small minority of people who think that John Wick 2 is better than the first film.

I could swing in the direction of either film, since they're both excellent!

[Reply #621 on:]

Jar Jar Binks is a sith lord.

[Reply #622 on:]

Avengers: Infinity War

Big fucking spoilers ahead. Like, seriously, don't click my spoiler tag because I'm not holding back at all.

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I was pretty much at the edge of my seat the entire movie. As a movie, it felt kind of... weird. Good, but weird. It felt like more of a special event than a traditional movie, and a giant set-up for Avengers 4.

Thanos was a seriously great baddie. His motivations were ridiculously extreme but kind of made sense. And the scene with him and Gamora and the soul stone was seriously well-done (unexpected to see Red Skull return as well!)

Wanda sacrificing Vision was already gut-punching, but Thanos reversing time and yanking the stone from his head was devastating. After all the time they spent trying to remove it safely, I was beginning to think that he maybe would survive, but nope.

I knew that many of the characters would have tiny roles, but I wasn't expecting Captain America or Black Widow to be among them, which was odd.  I'm guessing Avengers 4 will be the big one for them. Also, turns out Ant-Man and Hawkeye weren't in it at all.

Spidey, Iron Man, Strange and the Guardians all fighting Thanos was the best action scene. And the plan was actually pretty dang great as well! Not that many of my predictions about the movie came true, but Mantis using her power on Thanos was one of them. Where's my prize? Speaking of action, Thor's arrival in Wakanda was insanely badass.

I still can't believe Thanos actually gathered all the stones, and did the thing. And they went through with half the universe vanishing. Those few minutes of certain people fading away, not knowing who would be next were unbelievably tense. However, knowing that Black Panther and Spider-Man both have movies coming up kind of lessened the moment. Obviously they're not going to permanently take out so many essential characters, but still. Also interesting how all the original Avengers (plus War Machine) are still around.

So, not including those from the "finger snap", we ended up getting 4 recurring character deaths, which was more than I expected.

I loved this movie, but when the dust settles I doubt it'll be remembered as Marvel's best because it's so reliant on having seen the previous movies, moreso than most sequels. It's basically a requirement to be quite familiar with the MCU in order to understand anything. So... it's like a comic-book movie suddenly became even closer to a comic!

[Reply #623 on:]

Avengers: Infinity War

I was super impressed. I'm so glad I saw it without any spoilers and not knowing what to expect. Marvel have outdone themselves and made a huge, ambitious movie that follows loads of characters and stays consistently funny, as well as great action pieces and big emotional scenes. Despite being 2 and a half hours long, it went really quick. Thanos was a great villain and this had some pretty dark stuff. Looking forward to part 2.

10/10

[Reply #624 on:]

Wow, thanks for the review, dude--I haven't heard anything about the movie and was kicking around the idea of checking it out some night after work, but (and I realize that I'm in a tiny minority), but I'm still feeling the disappointment from seeing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The odds of my seeing A:IW just went up a few notches

[Reply #625 on:]

Saw the late show last night and really liked it but agree with UrL about

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it being harder to suspend disbelief about certain character deaths due to them having confirmed sequels

[Reply #626 on:]

Oh, man...a Peeler on FB just saw Infinity War, and posted, non-ironically, "terribly disappointed" and "worst movie ever".

[Reply #627 on:]

Don't let that discourage you from seeing it- if you're invested in the MCU it's one hell of an experience with some very bold and unexpected turns.

[Reply #628 on:]

Thanks—I wasn't discouraged, just surprised that they had such a hostile reaction. I'll for sure see it.

[Reply #629 on:]

In 2020, Marvel is just gonna do a year long movie, where you can walk in and out of the cinemas and just continue where you left it.  You won't have missed anything important anyway.

What's worse, now that Marvel has 'outdone themselves' with this movie, they need to continue to do this.  How do you outdo this?  Maybe they suddenly got clones?  Or Marvel dug up a lot of one off superheroes to shove into their coming movies?

I don't know!  Much less do I really care.

[Reply #630 on:]

Oh, man...a Peeler on FB just saw Infinity War, and posted, non-ironically, "terribly disappointed" and "worst movie ever".

Well, to be fair, as UrL points out, Infinity War cannot rightly be called a movie, at least by our usual understanding of that term. I went to see it with someone on Friday afternoon, and afterward we came to roughly the same conclusion: this is 2.5 hours of set-up for a movie that's coming out next year, a collection of scenes following some rough chronological narrative but not necessarily weighing all those story lines equally. If I had to evaluate it as a film, I'd say the individual scenes are well-done, but the way in which they're arranged is somewhat lacking.

Light spoilers ahead, I guess:

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My main complaint concerns pacing--specifically, the set-up/pay-off of Gamora asking Quill to kill her if she's captured by Thanos. That scene itself is great (minus the filler toward the end with Drax overhearing everything because he is ostensibly invisible to the naked eye--funny, but just some flab on a movie that doesn't need it). However, that scene is immediately followed by Thanos, you know, capturing Gamora, and Quill struggling with the decision to actually kill her. Both scenes, individually, are well-executed (though, like, the Gamora/Quill love story falls a little flat for me in general), but so much suspense is neutralized by the lack of breathing room between the initial request and Quill having to decide whether or not to act on it.

On a related note: I've seen this movie referred to as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is not unfair. The movie's weighed pretty heavily toward the Guardians' story line--for obvious reasons, considering Gamora's relationship with Thanos--with maybe Thor's quest for the axe taking up the second-most screen time? Or maybe it was the stuff with Wanda and Vision (which, yes, was brutal--Thanos bringing him back from a merciful death just to completely destroy him was...probably the darkest thing in a movie that's pretty fucking dark). Overall, though, I found it admirable how the movie tried to create the illusion of equality between the various threads, even if I was very much aware of how much more screen time certain characters had than others (particular in the middle third of the film).

All that said, my favorite stuff was probably between Stark, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man; that snarky chemistry was great, and once they teamed up with the Guardians I agree with UrL that the resultant action sequence was the best in the movie (though, like, seriously, Quill is the worst character in this movie, just in terms of how thoroughly--and, to be honest, predictably--he fucked up the plan to remove the gauntlet). In general, I thought the movie did a nice job of not just feeling like a bunch of fight scenes--even though, in essence, the plot is pretty redundant: Thanos needs X stone, so he fights X people, and ultimately defeats them--and I really enjoyed the abundance of quieter character beats (I loved Thor's interaction with Gamora re: rough family dynamics, everything with Vision and Wanda, and a lot of the stuff between Thanos and Gamora).

This is not my favorite Marvel movie--not by a long shot--and it's not even my favorite superhero movie thus far this year (hey there, Black Panther), but it is quite possibly my favorite Avengers movie. Solid 4/5, methinks, for whatever that rating is worth.

[Reply #631 on:]

Fun fact:  I have never seen a single Marvel movie.

[Reply #632 on:]

I hadn't seen any of them (except maybe the first Iron Man movie, or at least parts of it?) until last year, when I was made to watch them by my boyfriend. I find the Thor movies utterly delightful, I enjoyed the recent Spider-Man movie, and Black Panther was just an all-around treat; overall, though, I think the movies are just big-O, little-k.

They're all way too long, and most of them have tonal problems (self-seriousness mixed with goofiness in less-than-desirable proportions--though maybe that's a reflection on the source material, as my sense of Marvel in general is it's historically been the snarkier alternative to DC)*, and because of all the world-building it is exceptionally difficult to just drop into one of the movies without knowing what's happened in a bunch of other movies. As an overall cinematic project, I admire the hell out of the universe they've built here, and the high caliber of talent they've attracted (I'm really looking forward to seeing Brie Larson as Captain Marvel next year), but I will never be a person who would rather see a superhero movie than, like, a quiet realist dramedy or whatever. That's just a matter of personal preference, of course--and I recognize that mine is perhaps a mildly snobbish prerogative, but there you have it.

*This is somewhat off the topic, but I don't find this same problem with the Marvel shows on Netflix. Like, Jessica Jones balances serious pathos and high drama with outright hilarity in a deeply enjoyable way. Luke Cage and The Defenders also did a pretty good job striking that balance. Daredevil is a goddamn self-serious nightmare, but it's saved by exceptionally good acting.

[Reply #633 on:]

I'm surprised that you find them too long, Gorky. Infinity War is the only one that's felt long to me, but even that didn't feel overly long. Mind you, I'm the guy who loves slowly-paced movies and thought Lord of the Rings was too short.

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On a related note: I've seen this movie referred to as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is not unfair. The movie's weighed pretty heavily toward the Guardians' story line--for obvious reasons, considering Gamora's relationship with Thanos

Gamora felt like a pretty crucial part of the story (until she, you know... died) but otherwise I disagree with this sentiment. To me, Doctor Strange felt like the guy who had both hands on the wheel and was driving the plot forward. The others felt like secondary characters in other plot lines (Groot and Rocket with Thor, and the rest with Stark and Strange)

I was sure that Nebula and Drax would get a lot of screen time due to their thirst for vengeance against Thanos but it seems like that's being downplayed (in fact, Nebula was in like, two scenes). I just wish Mantis had a larger role because everything about her is just adorable.

And you're right about Quill being an idiot... though his fuckup is entirely believable and in-character. And since Strange didn't attempt to calm or talk him down, we can assume that it was a necessary part of the one future where they win.

Anyway, upon reflection I've decided that the decision to jump straight in with hardly any exposition ends up working out quite well. Rather than reintroduce all these characters we already know, they concentrated on developing Thanos and ended up making him a seriously awesome character. I can't wait to see the next one.

[Reply #634 on:]

When I go out to watch a movie, immersion is key for me. Sure, I can hear the reactions of the audience and sense the presence of the crowd, at some level, but when I'm watching something that I'm really into, those potential distractions tend to hover at the periphery of my awareness and rarely intrude into my consciousness.

For me, speaking generally, the longer the running time, the better. My recollection is that all of the Star Wars films run for at least two hours, and that was a large factor in the immersion.  So...longer is better, for me, provided the material is entertaining and not excruciatingly repetitive. <cough> The Hobbit: An Unexpectedly Tedious Journey <cough>

[Reply #635 on:]

Oh, I'm definitely more obsessed with movie length (you know us women, always critical of the length of things) than a normal person should be--especially as it concerns action/adventure movies, which are perhaps at the very bottom of my list in terms of genres I enjoy, so my threshold for "boring" is pretty low.

My response to the length of Marvel movies comes in a variety of forms: either they're too long than they actually need to be from a storytelling standpoint but still entertaining through-and-through (Spider-Man: Homecoming is a recent example), so my gripe is with the craftsmanship/editing of the thing and not with the movie as a finished product; too long because they lack a clear enough focus (Captain America: Civil War is the biggest offender), to the extent that it makes me physically angry; and really long but so well put-together that I don't even notice it (Infinity War, for sure).

I'm basically operating under an old-fashioned notion of how long a movie should be--90 minutes or less, sir--reinforced by the fact that I watch a lot of those aforementioned realist dramedies, which are rarely more than an hour and a half long. So the fact that pretty much every Marvel movie is at least a two-hour extravaganza does little to thrill me, and oftentimes actively annoys me. Even a movie I adore, like Thor: Ragnarok, has no reason to be two hours long; cut out some of that forced (generally comedic, more often "comedic") filler that drags out some of the dialogue-heavy scenes and you'd have a movie that's actually a normal length.

At the end of the day here, my gripe is with what I view as a self-indulgent streak on the part of the filmmakers: a lean, well-oiled machine of a movie is nothing to be embarrassed of. For me, immersion is achieved not by the length of the movie, but by the absence of the visibility of the creator's hand; it's easier for me to suspend disbelief if the movie gives me fewer opportunities to scratch my head and go, "Well how did that beat make it into the movie?" Different strokes for different folks, though, I suppose.

[Reply #636 on:]

   I'm basically operating under an old-fashioned notion of how long a movie should be--90 minutes or less,
    …
   At the end of the day here, my gripe is with what I view as a self-indulgent streak on the part of the filmmakers

If you can't tell your story in an hour fifty, you'd better be David Lean
 - William Goldman

[Reply #637 on:]

"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder."
Alfred Hitchcock

[Reply #638 on:]

I haven't peed in about 9 hours.

[Reply #639 on:]

Infinity War was amazing... it certainly felt like if all MCU movies until now (or most of them) really and finally were going to somewhere we can grasp..and not some promise wich turns out dissapointing (Lost, Galactica) .. i dont know if thats the case but despite some very minor continuitiy poblems it felt like it was worth it to follow the series ..

Ready Player One was also very fun..  i allready knew they were not going to strictly adhere to the book.. but it felt like a good adaptation potenciating the watchable and fun factors.... despite some unexplinable changes.. but since the writer of the book is the writer of the script as well.. i guess its ok .. like "you saw the book... this is how i would write this book as a fun movie..and they are diferent but same histories"