Movie Reviews 2.0

Just a quick one to say I have the BB-8 Sphero toy and its latest firmware has a mode where he will beep and move at certain points of the film, if you let him watch it with you. I did. It was glorious. He gets sad, frustrated, anxious, embarrassed, excited and more, all at the right times. Laughed out loud at him nodding along and beeping a whole bunch of times, and got more sad because he did, at the obvious bits. He looooooves Rey, which is adorable.

Had such a great time watching it again that way, maybe more so than when I watched it on release day at the IMAX, despite just being at home in front of the TV. A combination of having BB-8 watch with me, and knowing what to look out for because I've seen it already. Can't wait for Rogue One!
 
Ep. VII isn't out yet on BR over here. I am a very sad BB8! :(

Also, Civil War doesn't release until the 27th. GHAAAHHKK, the waiting...! :(
 
So I watched SW Ep.7 over the weekend. I was partly drunk, and also had to explain who was who to The Missus through most of the movie, so I'll probably have to watch it again. Overall I quite enjoyed it, much better than Ep. 1-3, more of the feel of the original trilogy. The oldies seemed to be enjoying themselves hamming it up - and good for them, I guess they don't get let out of the old folks home much these days.

I did find it a bit weird quite how quickly the characters went from "who the hell are you?" to "you're my best buddy, I trust you with my life" though (eg. Poe and Finn, then Finn and Rey, then Rey and Solo). Dunno if that was a nod to the slight cheeziness of the originals, or was to necessary accommodate the limited attention span of Generation TL;DR.
 
Grall said:
Ep. VII isn't out yet on BR over here. I am a very sad BB8! :(

Also, Civil War doesn't release until the 27th. GHAAAHHKK, the waiting...! :(
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Yeah, the BD isn't out here either, but it's out here digitally so I got it on iTunes.
 
nutball said:
I did find it a bit weird quite how quickly the characters went from "who the hell are you?" to "you're my best buddy, I trust you with my life
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You only have so much time in a movie like this for character development... (Usually, not that much on the whole. ;))
 
The star wars formula is patterned on old sunday matinées... Try to not try to make too much sense of it. ;)
 
You're talking about a movie where a planet/starbase can consume and contain the energy of a sun, disperse that energy apparently across x amount of space to another star system, with that dispersal being actually visibly shooting across the sky in real time. The idea of a close relationship in 5 sentences suddenly isn't that far fetched.
 
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Malo said:
You're talking about a movie where a planet/starbase can consume and contain the energy of a sun, disperse that energy apparently across x amount of space to another star system, with that dispersal being actually visibly shooting across the sky in real time. The idea of a close relationship in 5 sentences suddenly isn't that far fetched.
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By extension, Padme and Anakin meeting each other after many years, falling in love, and marrying after 2 days/sentences-where-Anakin-isn't-insufferable-or-wondering-about-how-nice-a-space-hitler-might-be-or-killing-children-and-Padme-is-nearly-grinding-on-him-with-her-chaste-bondage-suit is now a completely believable and tenderly rendered romance.

I think as a movie or any art that isn't deliberately going for a conceptual performance, there is an implied requirement that as fantastical as the setting may become that the humans still be recognizable as such. Even when they're aliens, we instinctively expect them to reflect something of the human condition that we can recognize.
That instinct isn't particularly catered to by "well this stuff over here is stupid, too".

The new movie was credited for having more mostly engaging characters and performances, and it wasn't Starkiller station that made it so. Could such a universe set up life-long blood bonds with a few snatches of dialogue, sure. Pondering that wasn't quite the purpose of this particular movie in this universe, however.

I think the 0-60 nature of a number of elements in the movie can be a fair criticism, as I've already stated.
Abrams in the Star Trek reboot found similar needs to rush various character ties into being, since it was necessary to get things going for ongoing continuity reasons. One notable difference is that much less time was devoted to the villain's pathos, leaving more time to focus on the Enterprise crew.
The rush was generally forgiven in that movie, I believe. Although, I did see the criticism raised that once that was out of the way there was a less successful attempt to build beyond it in the sequel.
 
Nu Trek was like being robbed of your childhood by a 2D cardboard cut-out of Santa while hidden loudspeakers shouted out "God!!!".

With Nu Trek, Star Trek took the Kobiyashi Maru test, and found the worst possible outcome. And were seemingly rewarded.
 
Hollywood is pretty shit oftentimes. I really enjoy Johansson performing, and it's also really cool to see a sci-fi movie where a guy is not the lead character, but I don't think I'll go watch this movie after all. Whitewashing is pretty insulting and outrageous, but it won't ever stop unless hollywood takes it right in the wallet, that's the only way to get through to these shitty people.
 
Malo said:
You're talking about a movie where a planet/starbase can consume and contain the energy of a sun, disperse that energy apparently across x amount of space to another star system, with that dispersal being actually visibly shooting across the sky in real time. The idea of a close relationship in 5 sentences suddenly isn't that far fetched.
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When the fictional nature of dragons was used to excuse unconvincing characters in medieval settings it was a poor argument. Same holds true when you're replacing dragons with fantastical planet-sized death machines. Besides, no-one was making excuses for George Lucas when he did it in Ep 1 through 3.

Saw Batman V Superman finally. What a huge mess that movie was. Hated just about everything about it except for one single action scene (which you've basically seen in the trailers anyway). I think I'd rather rewatch the two Fantastic Four movies from the early 2000s again. At least those had the good sense to end after 90 minutes. To think there's gonna be a home version that's another 30 minutes longer? - Jesus.
 
London-boy said:
People Are Outraged Over The First Photo Of Scarlett Johansson In “Ghost In The Shell”


https://www.buzzfeed.com/susancheng...t-in-the-shell?utm_term=.iqOwkmdmy#.lnX8OGeGr

Ouch
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Correction: Buzzfeed is outraged. And when are they ever not outraged? (the answer is of course when the script is being flipped: go black Hermine Granger!) Thankfully most of the world isn't yet quite as obsessed with race, gender and sexual orientation as these clowns are.

Don't get me wrong, I also think it's an unfortunate thing, but Scarlett Johanssen is simply way more marketable (not to mention better) than the cute girl who co-starred in Pacific Rim. Heck, when film makers aren't confident enough to release a new Star Wars movie without loading it with the old timers from the first trilogy, how do you think they'd handle a comparably niche IP such as Ghost in the Shell?
I'd also love to see how all these virtue signalling keyboard warriors would act if they were in charge of a production worth hundreds of millions of dollars or more, by the way.
 
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Hollywood studio uses hugely famous Hollywood star to make a real life movie originally based on a comic book that was written in Japan 27 years ago.

I guess it depends how westernised they make it. If the whole thing is set in futuristic Japan, but with SJ running around and shooting robots, that would be a bit weird. If they completely rework it and set it in an unidentified futuristic city, she probably won't look out of place.
 
Actually I don't mind a western playing Motoko Kusanagi. She is basically a full body cyborg, thus she can look like SJ. My only doubt is that the character is very assertive, not only in what she do but in how she speak. Although I like SJ, from all the movie she was in, I felt that she wasn't the right choice for Motoko Kusanagi. Of course it is probably because none of the character she played before is similar enough to Motoko, so I hope she can pull it off and not ruin one of my favorite anime character.
 
Jungle Book was amazing. Tight, tense, funny, gorgeously realized, and with a wonderful kid actor holding the whole thing together. My one and only complaint was the reuse of one very specific musical number from the animated classic. Really clashed with the film's tone and felt rather misplaced there.
 
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