Movie Reviews 2.0

[Cookie Monster]

Just saw Mad Max Fury Road. Didn't really know what to expect since Ive never seen the originals.. It was an absolute blast! haven't seen an action movie thats put me on the edge of my seat in a LONG time. 9.5/10 if not 10/10.

 

[Billy Idol]

I watch it this evening...can't wait!

 

[Mariner]

It got a great review in the paper I read and they tend to be a bit snooty about anything but the best action movies. Sounds as though it may be surprisingly good for a remake!

 

[pjbliverpool]

Just saw Mad Max Fury Road. Didn't really know what to expect since Ive never seen the originals.. It was an absolute blast! haven't seen an action movie thats put me on the edge of my seat in a LONG time. 9.5/10 if not 10/10.

Was thinking of going to see that this week so you may have just sealed the deal for me.

Saw Avengers 2 this weekend. Great film but

Spoiler

The Vision felt a little out of place to me. It seems he should have been insanely powerful and capable of whipping Ultrons arse all by himself (and negating the need for the rest of the Avengers in the process) but then has very little involvement in the ultimate show down.

 

[London Geezer]

Saw Avengers 2 this weekend. Great film but

Spoiler

The Vision felt a little out of place to me. It seems he should have been insanely powerful and capable of whipping Ultrons arse all by himself (and negating the need for the rest of the Avengers in the process) but then has very little involvement in the ultimate show down.

Yeah considering he

Spoiler

has one of the Infinity gems in his head, he should be able to kick everyone's ass just by flapping his eyelids.

Oh well

 

[Billy Idol]

I watch it this evening...can't wait!

Meh. MM was ok at max. They could have picture the world better.

Good thing: it was exactly like a computer action game.

Bad thing: they could have used 3d much better! Every 5sec there was an explosion, but mo cool 3d effect.

Overall, meh.

John Wick is the real action star for me in recent movies.

MM is a lot of wasted potential.

 

[Malo]

I saw Mad Max last night and it was a blast! Absolutely gushing with insane action scenes from the very start, a rollercoaster of crazy post-apocalyptic vehicle combat with a wide variety of imaginative weapons and devices. I think Tom was a bit wasted on the movie though, he doesn't have a huge acting/speaking role and Charleze was the highlight imo. The character design was great, especially the grandfather/leader.

If we're talking strictly action movies then definitely John Wick tops mine as well for recent movies, but for sheer over-the-top vehicle-focused frenzy, that was the best I've seen in a long time.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Although, I kinda liked the idea that

Spoiler

all the conflicts, mostly having to do with the mental states of the characters, were started by the gemstone itself... Could even go back as far as Loki in Avengers 1.

That makes me wonder though - he got the scepter from Thanos and the gem was inside the scepter. Did he not know what he was handing over??

 

[Mariner]

Although, I kinda liked the idea that

Spoiler

all the conflicts, mostly having to do with the mental states of the characters, were started by the gemstone itself... Could even go back as far as Loki in Avengers 1.

That makes me wonder though - he got the scepter from Thanos and the gem was inside the scepter. Did he not know what he was handing over??

Spoiler

I think the idea is that Thanos knew the gem was inside the sceptre (as he put it there himself) but for some Machiavellian reason thought it better to let the Avengers discover this and blunder into their own downfall. Doesn't make sense really, but then it is based on comic book logic.

Personally, I couldn't help but think what complete flakes the Avengers were in this film. One setback and they all disappeared up their own rear ends. The idea that Stark would be so eager to create an AI using technology found inside the 'dangerous evil alien artifact' was also pretty bloody ridiculous. What could possibly go wrong, eh?

A moderately entertaining film though with much too much jerky-cam flying-smashing-crashing fight scenes only possible due to CGI which became pretty tedious after a while. Could easily have cut 20 minutes out of the movie to no detriment.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

A moderately entertaining film though with much too much jerky-cam flying-smashing-crashing fight scenes only possible due to CGI which became pretty tedious after a while. Could easily have cut 20 minutes out of the movie to no detriment.

I'm just gonna leave this here

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-vfx-is-being-vilified

 

[Rurouni]

The problem isn't CGI itself but more about that kind of scene is being used time and time again. It's like a good joke being told multiple times... Yes, it's still good, but we already know that. Basically, it's more of a creativity problem instead of CGI problem.
Anyway, I do feel that there is one glaring CGI annoyance in Avenger AoU and that's the opening scene. The CGI in that scene (especially the CG characters) is just too obvious and don't blend well to the whole environment. I think mostly because of the animation and not the rendering quality. It felt closer to a cartoon than a live action. It felt like something that was made at the last second to have that cool pose for the poster.... I never seen a Marvel movie CGI felt so off before.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Also saw Mad Max. I loved just about every minute of it. My only gripe was how marginalized the titular character was in his own damn movie. I know feminism is all the rage now in liberal circles (i.e. the movie industry) and it really has no impact on the actual quality of the film (and it arguably never had. I think people were pretty satisfied with the likes of Kill Bill, or Alien or what have you). Still left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. Just imagine the shit storm if the next Sex and the City movie would be centered around Carrie's gardener.

I mean what's next? Female Ghostbusters?

 

[Rys]

I'm not sure I agree. I saw it at the weekend and while he's not in every shot, the entire movie is still hung off of the Max character and what's happening to him or what he's doing. I didn't feel like the film was about Furiosa, rather than Max.

Absolutely great movie no matter the viewpoint I think, definitely one of the best things I've seen in a long time.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Really? One single (albeit important) plot point towards the last third aside, Max essentially just rolls with the punches. He's in the movie alot of course, but he has just about zero agency in it.

Dredd 3d did a similar thing with the Anderson character, but it struck a much better balance I thought.

And I agree with you: this was a kick-ass action movie no matter how you look at it.

 

[Dave Baumann]

With regards to the Avengers, I've seen it three times and I'm still a little peeved at it, although I can't quite put my finger on why. I think it was a bit of a mess overall, a "hot mess", but a mess none-the-less.

Spoiler

I think one of the main problems I have was the conception of Ultron. He went from "boot-up" to evil AI in the blink of an eyelid. Given that they later played on him being a child of Stark, I think it would have benefitted from some interaction with Stark before formulating his opinions on what needs to be done with humanity. The Thor dream elements were badly handled as well - in the Empire Spoiler Special podcast Whedon pointed out that a lot of Thor got cut because Marvel thought it was a bit too "out there" at this point in the MCU (and, apparently test screens didn't like it) so that element of the story basically doesn't make sense at it was presented. Whedon thinks that there is a 3 Hour 15 min movie in there all told, and given that Amazon already announced an extended Blu-ray hopefully they will be able to release Whedon's full version. I think generally the main problem is that there was too much going on in terms of setting up new characters for the MCU while not leaving enough for the story or the current characters (save for Hawkeye who was owed from the first).

With regards to the Vision, I was a little concerned about his introduction pre-release, however having seen it this was one of my least concerns about the movie - overall I like how he was conceived and the character looks interesting. On the topic of him being "all powerful" because of the Mindstone - is he? What can the Mindstone actually do beyond controlling peoples minds? Also, does he actually know the power he holds? He was, after all, just born yesterday!

On the topic of "didn't Thano's know", I believe the thought was that he put the Mindstone in the sceptre to help Loki in the task of retrieving the Tesseract and if that had worked he would have had two gems. The issue was that the Avengers got in the way. Perhaps "Ultron" AI was in there as a backup?

And regards to the Avengers being "flakes", well the movie is treading the fact that Stark has always been a bit of a flake, amplified by his PTSD after the Avengers (and explored in Iron Man 3). Likewise the Hulk/Banner issue has always been present and this was rushed exploring the issue of Banner basically being used as a tool by the Avengers to wreck destruction but him not having control in that form (maybe a separate another separate Hulk movie would have helped with that one). The tensions and issues were amplified and let loose by Scarlett Witch (who's power also ultimately stems from the Mindstone).

 

[RobertR1]

Saw Mad Max last night. Absolutely a blast. Will wait for the 4k Blu Ray transfer down the road to own it

 

[Malo]

Really? One single (albeit important) plot point towards the last third aside, Max essentially just rolls with the punches. He's in the movie alot of course, but he has just about zero agency in it.

Dredd 3d did a similar thing with the Anderson character, but it struck a much better balance I thought.

And I agree with you: this was a kick-ass action movie no matter how you look at it.

I had that impression overall as well, though essentially Rys is right that it was still about Max. I think the lack of actual dialogue for Tom Hardy was a big factor. Though I watched Valhalla Rising the other night and the main character and the absolute focus of the movie has zero dialogue whatsoever

 

[Davros]

I recently watched Mortdecai
It's as bland as bland can be I remember when depp used to be in interesting films.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

The problem isn't CGI itself but more about that kind of scene is being used time and time again. It's like a good joke being told multiple times... Yes, it's still good, but we already know that. Basically, it's more of a creativity problem instead of CGI problem.

Exactly, however that is the higher level of creativity, the director and such. VFX sups have little power to fight the bad ideas, and the studios doing the work are abused to great lengths.

Still, every once in a while we get a movie where everything is done just right, the CG is seamless and not in your face and properly integrated and the artists are given enough time and freedom to do their job... I think one of the best examples has to be the recent Apes movie. Everything is just amazingly well done, it's been robbed at the Oscars IMHO.

Anyway, I do feel that there is one glaring CGI annoyance in Avenger AoU and that's the opening scene. ... It felt like something that was made at the last second to have that cool pose for the poster....

That was actually one of the scenes with the most work in it, as far as I know. Completed right at the end.

 

[Malo]

The more I read about the production of Mad Max the more I want to see it again. Maybe this time in 3D?

Didn't know that the original villain from Mad Max, Toe Cutter, is the actor who plays Immortan Joe. And does an awesome job of it as well! The complete lack of CGI throughout the movie and that all the vehicles, weapons and explosions were all real. Even Doof Warriors guitar and sound system on the back of the huge truck was functional lol. Insane stuff.