It has an...um...complicated plot. That might be it, I dunno.
I thought it was pretty great. Weak badguy, which was overly superpowered, but still a very fun and enjoyable movie, with a really great heroine in it as well. I thought she was super great.
I muchly MUCHLY enjoyed T3. I thought it was fucking awesome. Adrianna Loken was also fan-fucking tastic as the Terminatrix, totally on the same level scary and threatening as Robert Patrick as T1000, or Arnie in the original.
Don't really understand why you wouldn't like it too.
Damn, I just feel you're being way too harsh on that particular movie. What about Loken's boobs, for example, no love for them?
I myself particularly liked the ending, where the characters (and me, representing the audience) were convinced they were heading out to the vault to end the threat of Skynet, but in reality it was just a way for them to ride out the storm. That bit really resonated with me; it went against the grain of almost every single goddamn action movie ever made - almost - where the badguy always dies, and has an upbeat ending - arguably, movies like Total Recall (the Arnie one) and First Blood do not, but these are exceptions that confirm the rule...
The t3 ending is great. I also like the crane chase. Things like the remote control cars are stupid as hell. In 5 years time it'd probably be plausible plot devise.
Not seen Genysis yet but I thought T3 wasn't that bad. Obviously, not a patch on the first two films, but still decent. The one after that was a load of crap though.
Presumably, the Terminatrix nanomachines constructed sensors and whatnot to let the cars see. Not sure if cars of that era had electronic gas pedals or not (if not, the nanomachines fixed it *plot handwave*), but today most, if not all sure have, and some luxury cars like Teslas and whatnot have all-around vision that begs to be invaded by malware, turning the vehicle into a road-bound cruise missile...
I am not that hostile to it, mostly it's just really uninspired I feel, and...weird. It's centered around this bizarre cyborg, and John Connor, played by insane hollywood superstar method actor Patrick Bateman, gets reduced to a secondary character. I didn't grok that, I'm forced to admit. I also didn't understand how the Godzilla terminator could sneak up on the band of humans all quiet-like without making a peep out of nowhere, but as soon as the fight started it was all weird electronic noises and STOMP-STOMP-STOMP in the ground. Hollywood magic, I suppose. Did Lindelof (re-)write the script maybe? Heh.
Regarding the T3 crane chase, I couldn't help but wonder why all the buildings in that town had been constructed from papier-mache? A few years since I saw it now, obviously, but I seem to recall the crane arm demolishing whole rows of buildings as the chase progressed and the crane itself seemed to have absolutely unstoppable momentum regardless of what it was hitting!
The best part of T3 was Arnold being interviewed (on the Tonigh Show I think) about him doing his own stunts in the crane chase scene (he was injured during the sequence):
They told me it would be breakaway waaals, but one of the was not a breakaway waaal.
Damn, I just feel you're being way too harsh on that particular movie. What about Loken's boobs, for example, no love for them?
I myself particularly liked the ending, where the characters (and me, representing the audience) were convinced they were heading out to the vault to end the threat of Skynet, but in reality it was just a way for them to ride out the storm. That bit really resonated with me; it went against the grain of almost every single goddamn action movie ever made - almost - where the badguy always dies, and has an upbeat ending - arguably, movies like Total Recall (the Arnie one) and First Blood do not, but these are exceptions that confirm the rule...
Just watched Dear White People. Was interesting to me and watching the movie everyone comes off as pretty racist / bigot. Even the gay characters. The movie on the whole failed at doing anything as its the same tired points brought up over and over again. One scene was dedicated to tipping but the question was posed that the white waitress mistook the man as a bill dodger who ran out on the bill. So like most of the events in the movie it starts with a loaded racist question that tries to flip the racism on the other group of people. Through out the movie the target seems to flip flop between racist blacks and racist whites with the whites bearing the brunt of being racist most often.
Black Mass, also known as "Johnny Depp is doing some actual acting for a change"
Black Mass is a dokudrama about the life of Bostonian soon-to-be crime kingpin Jimmy "Whitey" Bulger (great pornstar name), who was secretly in cahoots with the FBI, enjoying their protection from the law on one hand, while simultaneously helping them out in getting rid of the competing Italian Mafia on the other. Johnny Depp gives a convincingly menacing performance as Jimmy Bulger (the scene where he verbally threatens his FBI buddy's wife is just chilling), and the surrounding allstar cast, while often a bit wasted on the briefest of roles, are generally tremendous as well. For better or worse, the movie is big on atmosphere, yet short on catchy montages and witty banter. It's a visually striking, yet also ponderous departure from the popular seventies gangster flick blueprint that is Scoresese's much copied Goodfellas. I found it a bit too gloomy and downbeat for its own good. Speaking of Goodfellas, there weren't really any good guys in Black Mass either. Everyone was at least a bit shady, and most were walking corpses, rotten at their very core. There was really nobody here for a non-psychotic audience to possibly latch on to, let alone root for. Scorsese tends to bridge that sort of disconnect with the audience via tons of verve, relentless kineticism, a driving soundtrack and lots of pitch black humor. Just about everyone in the Wolf of Wallstreet was a despicable human being as well, but damn it, if you made me an offer to switch bodies with Wallstreet playboy Jordan Belford for a day, I'd have a seriouly tough time refusing it. If nothing else, his life of decadence at least looked like a ton of fun. Jimmy Bulger's did not. In fact, everyone in Black Mass seemed trapped in a perpetual state of well-deserved misery, and I really didn't give a rat's ass about any one of them.
My second biggest gripe was Johhny Depp's distracting make-up. Seems like the guy refuses to get in front of a camera without wearing ridiculous hats, wigs or contacts now these days. Oh Tim Burton, look at what have you wrought. It's a crying shame, because he's seriously good in this. A far cry from his usual clown act.
The poster for Black Mass seeing Johnny Depp reminds me of the movie Medellín in Entourage series where the makeup looked stupid in the end and the movie was a failure.
It's actually a bit strange, as I've read the book before. So the movie isn't as impressing for the most part, as that amazing sense of excitement is almost completely gone, obviously. But I imagine that people who don't know what's going to happen next are probably going to be holding on to their seats
Surprisingly, the emotional moments were still quite effective for me, and they're all quite well done - never going too far.
The movie sticks quite close to the book and all the science, which is pretty remarkable. Sure, you don't get all the calculations, but I think the balance is still very good. Even the average viewer will sort of get what's going on and why, and that it's all pretty viable scientifically. It is science-fiction movie making at its best.
Matt Damon is really good as Watney, and this is actually where the movie goes quite a bit beyond the novel. On one hand, they've preserved the spirit and tone and a lot of the humor from the thoughts of the character; but on the other hand, they've managed to add a lot of weight to everything he's going through. The rest of the cast is quite OK as well, both in doing their part as it should be and in keeping Mark in the focus throughout the story.
It's sort of expected, especially from Scott, but still, the movie is pretty amazing looking too I've watched it in 3D, and it was never distracting yet it has managed to add to the visuals here and there. The Martian landscapes are breathtaking at times, and every piece of equipment looks completely real. Maybe, maybe, the Mars spacecraft is perhaps a bit too big, lots of unnecessary huge empty spaces - but then again you wouldn't want to keep the crew cramped for such a long journey. It's also quite reminiscent of the Venture Star from Avatar.
All in all, it's one of the best SF movies in a long time, and a very good one on its own as well. I guess I should revisit it in a few years so that it'd feel more fresh. However, for anyone who hasn't read the book, it's a must see movie!
Some fun facts for the end, could be slight spoilers and all...
A lot of the movie was shot here, in Budapest, Hungary (and a lot of the crew was also hungarian, including set and prop designers and makers). So it was quite funny to see places where I've been a lot of times The NASA HQ, Mission Control, Chinese space HQ and a few other sets and buildings were here, and also our good old green city tram appears in the background.
Awesome. I haven't read the book; I didn't even know Ridley was doing this one. Cool that he's sticking to the science this time instead of having the scriptwriter invent it as he goes along... It really gives the movie a huge boost in credibility, for those who know a bit of physics and whatnot (or just have a decent dose of common sense imbued in them. )
The book was quite entertaining and it will be interesting to see how it translates to the big screen. I'll probably not go to watch it at the cinema, however.
Of course, the scientific flaws of the book will have been included in the film because they are major plot points! Not going to criticise too much because the flaws went beyond my knowledge of physics/chemistry!
There are only two significant flaws in the book, as far as I know:
- Mars doesn't have an atmosphere dense enough to produce forces that could topple the spacecraft even in storms with incredible wind speeds; so there wouldn't be a reason to get Mark stranded there
- cosmic radiation is completely ignored, because Mark should probably get serious cancer and die anyway
There are only two significant flaws in the book, as far as I know:
- Mars doesn't have an atmosphere dense enough to produce forces that could topple the spacecraft even in storms with incredible wind speeds; so there wouldn't be a reason to get Mark stranded there
- cosmic radiation is completely ignored, because Mark should probably get serious cancer and die anyway
Hmmm, I thought I'd read somewhere that the hydrazine calculations were out of whack as well with much more hydrogen produced, but can't find that link now so perhaps it wasn't correct. I think the chances of avoiding a catastrophic explosion when burning the hydrogen off would have been slim, to say the least!
