General Chat / 2015 in film

To be honest I don't know a lot about Marvel superheroes, but did watch some of the movies, and I hated all of them. I watched Iron Man 3 and was bored out of my mind looking at it. I dont know what's so good about them. Not intense enough for an action movie and not nearly funny enough for a comedy movie. 

 

And to answer your question about what you should do with the super heroes, you could maybe stop making the same movie about every one of them and use the budget and time to make an original movie that's not just a series of fight scenes and quotable monologues and dialogs. 

Yeah im pretty eh on marvel movies. I usually cant be bothered to see them. I really loved gaurdians of the galaxy though, and antman was decent. But im udually bored, i agree with faas that theyre too funny/comical for an engrossing action movie, it sort of takes you out of it a bit... but theyre not funny enough for a comedy either. Not that i dont think you can make a fusion that works (you absolutely can eg hot fuzz). But marvel seems so slick and mass produced (and they come out so often) the whole tongue in cheek thing doesnt really work for me

Marvel must only appeal to Americans, and Chinese... As someone who isn't a fan of comic's, I can say I've enjoyed most of the movies. They aren't perfect or anything, but they are better than 80% of the other movies released in theaters.

Also, anyone planning to see The Force Awakens on opening night or weekend? I just bought my tickets for an 830 showing on December 17th. Super pumped, will be the first premier I've been to.

Sicario was fucking amazing. Everyone go see it. 

Everything just creeps up on you in that movie. It's just seriously awesome. Also, the cinematography was gorgeous. It hit kinda close to home actually, since I spent some time as a child in border Mexico. This film just nails everything on the head.

You are out of your minds, Marvel movies are great

I have a weakness for superhero/marvel movies too. They're not as great as some blockbusters like Mad Max and the Martian, but their formula at least works. I much more enjoy the prospect of an average blockbuster than something I'm uncertain of whether it's any good (like the Martian). That anticipation means a lot to a movie experience, because Marvel doesn't easily let its fans down. Although Age of Ultron had too high expectations.

I just watched Jurassic World (been putting it off for a while) 

 

spoilers

 

I thought it was pretty good. Overall an enjoyable movie, I thought it was mostly well done. A few thoughts though. It seemed a lot more action-y than the original. I really liked the spooky, tense loneliness of the first movie, and while I don't mind action, I would have loved more creepy-anxious dinosaur-hunting-people moments. Every time you got to an important encounter/fight it never really felt so powerful because the movie didn't have the whole anxious lead-in to make it even more exciting. Its just people rocking up in a jeep with guns and getting killed pretty much the whole movie.

 

I also hated the ginger lead. Like I get that she's supposed to be a dickhead character, but damn every word she says and action she makes made me angry. Like how can someone who's clearly a smart person be so ridiculously stupid.

 

What else... I wish they'd done more with the park being crowded (the whole pteranodon scene was it, really). Like other people stuck on various rides, having to deal with dinosaurs in different ways. Could have had some really awesome scenes.

 

Some people complain about the raptors 'talking' but it didn't bother me. I never assumed they were speaking any more than cats or dogs 'speak' to each other when they're meowing or barking. They're sorting out stuff like territory and dominance based on basic language, but its not intelligent speech, and I thought this was totally in character. But, the indomitus rex's escape plan was ridiculously intelligent. I don't think they spent enough time on how smart/fortuitous that plan was! Although it should never have worked, it relied on like 5 different intelligent people making really dumb decisions.

 

Also, I really loved when they go to the original park. Great scene, with some excellent detail.

 

 

tldr; good movie, lots of fun, missed the horror aspects of the original.

oh yeah might as well give my review of the Martian while I'm here spoilers also

 

I'm a big fan of this movie, I enjoyed every second of it. Good, fun sci-fi with a lot of beautiful stuff too. I'm a sucker for nasa/space related things so I enjoyed all of the technology, spaceships, etc. I even thought how they handled nasa/JPL back on earth was really interesting and probably realistic. I also want to appreciate that it was scientifically accurate for almost all of the time, but there were a few plot-breaking issues as far as I understand: 1.at >1% of our atmosphere, even a 500 km/h wind would barely be able to lift a pebble let alone knock over a spaceship. 2.he should be moonwalking! mars is like 1/3 gravity. 3. when he punctures his one hand, he should absolutely spin in circles and not move forward like he did.

But other than those, everything else is beautifully rendered and realistic-feeling, especially all of the martian topography and moons and stuff. I just wished they would pan for longer! If I'm watching it on the big screen, I want more than just a 1 second panorama of Valles Marinaris. When will you get a chance to see it like that ever again?

 

so yeah, good movie overall, one of my recent favorites for sure.

I believe Ridley Scott came out and acknowledged the lack of gravity, but they didn't decide to go with it because it wasn't entirely necessary. Ah well. Still loved it.

Star Wars, anyone?

Yes, Star Wars. I liked it, definitely closer to the original trilogy than the prequels. Fantastic to see things like the scrolling text and all the other visual tropes in the cinema. This movie probably had the least amount of cringy dialogue and things, so that's good too. Biggest flaw is how the movie is mostly a rearrangmement of plot elements from Episode IV-VI. Although that didn't really bother me during the movie, it would've been nice to get a story with more identity. The soundtrack was good, very bombastic classic Hollywood. Seeing it in the cinema somehow pointed out to me how different the soundtrack is to other movies these days. But nothing really stood out about otherwise, no new Duel of the Fates in this... Overall? Definitely a more than solid film, that could've done with some more originality. 8/10

I feel strange now. Star Wars has been this institute with clear boundaries for more than thirty years - the prequels didn't really affect the originals in my experience - and now those boundaries are gone, and everything I saw is as real as whatever happened in IV-VI. It's a paradigm shift fucking with my head!

I've read the originality complaint a lot, but I understand the standpoint from the makers. Star Wars has a huge fanbase and you don't want to anger them. And let's be honest, there's a lot of fans that can get outraged over the smallest details. Remember the backlash to the first teaser when fans saw a lightsaber that had 3 strokes of light?

 

Read this somewhere on twitter: "The directing choices now make even more sense. Johnson injects VIII w/ bold new ideas. Trevorrow brings IX back to familiar themes of VII." And that's what I imagine the next parts will be. VII is a return to former glory, while VIII will be a continuation of the Star Wars renaissance (that I'm also predicting) where IX will be a more than satisfying end of an era.

 

As for this episode. It was amazing. Not even a huge fan of Star Wars. Didn't grow up with them. This was my favorite episode.

Current ranking from worst to best:

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII (yes from 1 to 7)

VI better than IV and V!?

Yeah. Haven't seen IV in a while but remember not being too blown away by it, but enjoying it at least a bit. V suffered from being the middle part and the big plot twist wasn't really a surprise to me. VI was just a really satisfying conclusion.

I really really enjoyes 7. Other than a bit of cringy expository dialogue (mostly regarding kylo) i enjoyed every second of it. The worlds, characters, humor, scope, nostalgia, etc. Imo perfectly executed. Based on jj abrams past work i totally expected the recycled plot points but i actually thought the twists were still twisty and it felt very fresh. I think its just such an intelligent take on what happened post ep6 and they deserve so much credit for not only not fucking it up, but making a legitimately exciting and believable universe.

Also, i watched all the movies again and have decided to become a prequel crusader. Get off the hate bandwagon, those films were actually good and in some aspects better than the rose-tinted originals. They have to be appreciated for their differences and imo they add a lot of depth to the universe which actually improves the originals by amping up the tragedy/impact of whats happening there, something which is only glancingly explained in the originals and elevating a boring good vs evil story to something more believanle and more powerful

I dont have an order of favorites because theyre so different, but amongst the prequels my fav is 3 and from the originals my fave is 5 (or 4 actually idk, but 6 is easily my least favorite in the whole franchise. Fuck an hour of wookie dancing)

Meh, I was alright. Gave it a 7/10, definitely can feel the personal struggle JJ had with the movie, which I think hurts it. It doesn't feel like a standalone movie but it also at the moment is the only "new" Star Wars, so its kind of a loner. I'll probably see it atleast one more time, I did enjoy it enough to say that. Maybe it was just me nervous for the movie not to fuck up or something that keep me from settling into it, who knows.

I have tickets for Monday night to see it, incredibly excited. I have heard nothing but good things. I almost wish Abram's could direct this new trilogy entirely; he's excellent. Can't wait to see this new one.

 

As far as the older films go, Empire is the best of them. New Hope is classic and solid, Jedi was okay. The prequels are DECENT, I agree with Cocoa in a way. Obviously Sith is the best of them and Clones was pretty good. Phantom Menace...eh, Darth Maul was cool. I'm a firm believer in the Machete Order anyway. 

It doesn't feel like a standalone movie

Spoiler just in case.

Spoiler just in case.

Spoiler

I highly disagree. I've bitched for years about how annoying those Hunger Games feel when they ended them with cliffhangers, but that's because they didn't give us a full story. This film is a full story with a beginning, middle and an end. That end scene. I have warned you now

Spoiler

where Rey meets Luke was a perfect end. It works both as an open end as well as a cliffhanger. It's obvious that Luke will train Rey and that they will fight Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson and Andy Serkis (forgot their character's names) but I wouldn't say that belonged in this film. It was clearly stated in the beginning that they were just looking for Luke, with those kiddo's finding the force being a nice subplot.

I say it doesn't work as a standalone movie for two reasons. The first obviously being the ending, its not a satisfy conclusion nor is it the logical one. The perfect ending would have been the shot of the MF flying away from the rebel base at the end with everyone cheering it on. All the stuff with Luke was great, but reminds me that it's part of a series and not its own movie.

The second reason is the whole nostalgic reference and inclusion of the old characters. If you didn't know the old movies you would have no reason to care about Han or his relationship with Leia. They were in the movie because we know them, not because they needed to be there.

Its obvious from the beginning to me that the whole point of the movie is fan service and an introduction to the new characters. For me its not much more than that, its not the kind of movie I'll watch over and over again because it doesn't offer much in terms of stakes or plot other than putting the old characters in the movie to make us say "I remember them". I have high hope for the next one because they hopefully won't get bogged down in old characters or nostalgic reference. I also think Rian Johnson is a much more skilled director than JJ, especially when looking at this and Into Darkness.

EDIT: Also the fact it references both Luke, Leia and the light saber in the opening text crall instantly takes me out of the movie because there is no reason we should know them other than our connection to another movie. The fact the whole plot essentially revolves around a light saber Rey or Finn have no connection to is exactly what I'm talking about. Its in the movie because we know about it not because it has any stated or implied importance in the plot.