Movie Reviews 2.0
- Thread starter Dresden
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Huh, neither do I! Hagrid must have mentioned them at some point I guess...
Hah. looking forward to that!
Sigfried1977
Legend
Bought Star Trek Beyond on Blu-Ray. I thought it was the best of the three new ones by far. Actually felt like proper Trek again. JJ Abrams is akin to a tribute band. You can give him just about any project and he'll make something enjoyable. However, he seems to lack both the vision and the talent to make whatever he's doing his own, or god forbid, add a little something extra. Justin Lin knocked it out of the park as far as I'm concerned. Sure, the villain wasn't particularly memorable, but everything else was pure gold. Hugely enjoyable movie.
DBOX seat booked for Thursday night, anyone else already booked in?
(Presumably) sanctioned social media reaction seems highly positive, with many saying this ranks with the highest Star Wars films. Reviews are out tomorrow, though, so we'll see what they say.
DBOX worth it? Considering trying it out with Rogue One.
Local cinema's just started putting in two rows of seats in their expensive "AVX" theatres so I just tried it out with Doctor Strange. During the fight scenes it devolves to just rumbling/shaking, which is a little underwhelming, but it was the more subtle movement that was interesting - for instance, right at the start of Doctor Strange the camera is panning around the library and the seat was gently moving with the camera, which actually did add to the immersion. Based on the rumble I wasn't overawed by the overall experience, but then a little while after it occurred to me to try it with Rogue One as the space battles might be quite interesting.
IMO, give it a go at least once and my suspicion is that RO would be a good place to start.
IMO, give it a go at least once and my suspicion is that RO would be a good place to start.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
I saw it last week and wasn't that impressed. They turned it into a generic action/super hero movie that doesn't have a whole lot to do with magic.
In the Harry Potter movies wand battles were like a knights dual but in Fantastic Beasts it's more like Rambo. Large groups of "wizards" all shooting at a 1000 spells a minute stopping whatever is in their way and there isn't much in the way of different skill levels. Appears all wizards can do everything.
The title is misleading as well as while there are beasts in the movie, they don't actually really add that much. The whole plot doesn't rely on the beasts at all. I thought the movie would be about finding, searching, learning about the beasts or whatever but as it turn out the movie isn't about that at all.
And a beast that happens to unlock locks? Not very good story writing if you ask me.
The plot was a bit underwhelming as well IMO. Not nearly as interesting as the Harry Potter movies. I didn't really care for any of the characters.
Its not a bad movie, don't get me wrong. If you watch this as an action/super hero movie it is entertaining but if you watch it as a movie set in the wizarding world created with the Harry Potter movies then it is disappointing.
Thanks for no spoilers. I really want to see it.
hoom
Veteran
Just back from Rogue One.
Big thumbs up from me
Some nice references to original movies (mostly) without being cringey, lots of good explodey bits & great scene setting bits, pretty much logical plot.
One scene I was half expecting Ride of the Valkyries & Robert Duval talking about Napalm... possibly a bit too much Apocalypse Now/Full Metal Jacket in that bit IMO.
Saw Arrival a couple of weeks back: good start with some nice Contact vibes, beautiful scenery but ruined by a silly Deus ex-Machina/paradox.
Big thumbs up from me
Some nice references to original movies (mostly) without being cringey, lots of good explodey bits & great scene setting bits, pretty much logical plot.
One scene I was half expecting Ride of the Valkyries & Robert Duval talking about Napalm... possibly a bit too much Apocalypse Now/Full Metal Jacket in that bit IMO.
Saw Arrival a couple of weeks back: good start with some nice Contact vibes, beautiful scenery but ruined by a silly Deus ex-Machina/paradox.
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Rogue One
Well, it's a bit mixed IMHO.
The plot is reasonably coherent and logical, showing how and why the events of New Hope came to happen. You get to see just the right amount of internal struggles within both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, so that you can understand and accept the various mistakes and decisions on both sides. While there are hints that the Force may also be involved, it still feels very subtle - more like exploiting the various opportunities created by the flaws in the two organizations, and not causing them.
There are also plenty of interesting, and sometimes daring, ideas in the script that manage to give more depth to this age-old story of good and evil.
The look of the movie is spot on, it feels very much like Star Wars again, possibly a bit more than Force Awakens - although it must have a lot do do with the same setting as it takes place during the original trilogy. All the sets, costumes, props, vehicles and all just feel right, and this is especially interesting in the case of the various consoles and displays - they never feel anachronistic and yet they're not too modern either.
Perhaps the space battle scenes are a tiny bit off though, as the look is quite far beyond the optical effects and spaceship models. But I understand their reasons - the extra clarity helps a lot as the action and the camera moves are far more dynamic.
The visual effects do struggle at some points though, but even here I think I can understand the reasons.
Nevertheless, I believe they should have shown more restraint here, they should have known their limits. I think the movie would have worked just as well with less ambitious approaches (as evidenced in a few other cases), but what they ended up with will always take the audience out of the experience for a moment.
The music is another weak point, it just doesn't work, at least for me. It's not just that they do have a few themes from the original score - whenever you hear the familiar notes for a few seconds and then go back to a new one, it's always very noticeable and even disturbing at times. But the new score isn't really good on its own, either.
And there are some issues with the direction and the acting as well. The story is pretty good on its own, but somehow it just doesn't translate to the screen that well; you see where the big emotional moments are, but they don't feel as strong as they should be. Part of that is probably because the characters, while interesting and diverse, are still not making you care enough about them. You know that something is wrong when a re-programmed Imperial droid just steals the entire show (yes, K2-SO is that good).
So, all in all, I think that this movie is actually a counterpart to Force Awakens, and about as good in the end - most of the issues I've seen mentioned about Episode VII aren't present here, but there are other important things that Abrams has managed to do well and Rogue One falters just there.
Which means that Empire is still the best, to me, and New Hope and Jedi come next, but then RO and FA are basically tied for the fourth place. I am however very excited about the upcoming movies, because this one shows that Disney is willing to take risks and do some pretty interesting things with the franchise.
Edit: couple more notes...
Well, it's a bit mixed IMHO.
The plot is reasonably coherent and logical, showing how and why the events of New Hope came to happen. You get to see just the right amount of internal struggles within both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, so that you can understand and accept the various mistakes and decisions on both sides. While there are hints that the Force may also be involved, it still feels very subtle - more like exploiting the various opportunities created by the flaws in the two organizations, and not causing them.
There are also plenty of interesting, and sometimes daring, ideas in the script that manage to give more depth to this age-old story of good and evil.
The Rebel attack on the Imperial convoy in Jeddha was one of those things that stood out - it was an obvious parallel to basically any insurgent / terrorist attack on US forces in the Middle East of today, but it still worked reasonably well. And putting this in a Disney blockbuster was a daring move IMHO.
The look of the movie is spot on, it feels very much like Star Wars again, possibly a bit more than Force Awakens - although it must have a lot do do with the same setting as it takes place during the original trilogy. All the sets, costumes, props, vehicles and all just feel right, and this is especially interesting in the case of the various consoles and displays - they never feel anachronistic and yet they're not too modern either.
Perhaps the space battle scenes are a tiny bit off though, as the look is quite far beyond the optical effects and spaceship models. But I understand their reasons - the extra clarity helps a lot as the action and the camera moves are far more dynamic.
The visual effects do struggle at some points though, but even here I think I can understand the reasons.
Bringing back actors from so many decades ago without the necessary footage or data sets (scans) makes it incredibly hard to create convincing results.
The music is another weak point, it just doesn't work, at least for me. It's not just that they do have a few themes from the original score - whenever you hear the familiar notes for a few seconds and then go back to a new one, it's always very noticeable and even disturbing at times. But the new score isn't really good on its own, either.
And there are some issues with the direction and the acting as well. The story is pretty good on its own, but somehow it just doesn't translate to the screen that well; you see where the big emotional moments are, but they don't feel as strong as they should be. Part of that is probably because the characters, while interesting and diverse, are still not making you care enough about them. You know that something is wrong when a re-programmed Imperial droid just steals the entire show (yes, K2-SO is that good).
So, all in all, I think that this movie is actually a counterpart to Force Awakens, and about as good in the end - most of the issues I've seen mentioned about Episode VII aren't present here, but there are other important things that Abrams has managed to do well and Rogue One falters just there.
Which means that Empire is still the best, to me, and New Hope and Jedi come next, but then RO and FA are basically tied for the fourth place. I am however very excited about the upcoming movies, because this one shows that Disney is willing to take risks and do some pretty interesting things with the franchise.
Edit: couple more notes...
Forrest Whitaker was bad
James Earl Jones has grown old and thus Vader sounds weaker
A bit too much fan service...
James Earl Jones has grown old and thus Vader sounds weaker
A bit too much fan service...
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Had my annual trip to the cinema last night, for Rogue One.
Took a while to get into it, the characters were not as quick to be cared about as the new characters in the FA. And I'll agree that ultimately you don't bond with them as much as in FA. Action sequences are great, with small but significant throwbacks to the previous films. Some of the cameo appearances however really do not work.
But the universe felt entirely and completely as a SW universe should. The battle scenes were brilliant, with the action on the planet having a somewhat familiar feeling to ROTJ.
But once again, I feel a multi-gallion budget film is let down a bit by basic sloppiness in story generation.
But what I did like was that unlike FA, this film did not have the constant feel of "I think I've watched this before ?". It was a new telling of earlier storyline, not a reimagination of a previous film, which is what FA felt like to me. So in that regard it definitely adds depth to the SW universe....and I really enjoyed the action sequences.
Also agree that the new droid was a scene stealer in all the right ways.
Took a while to get into it, the characters were not as quick to be cared about as the new characters in the FA. And I'll agree that ultimately you don't bond with them as much as in FA. Action sequences are great, with small but significant throwbacks to the previous films. Some of the cameo appearances however really do not work.
If they had used Peter Cushing for 10-20 secs instead of several minutes, they would probably have gotten away with it. However the facial animiation looked like really really good facial stuff from video games, which means it wasn't awfully convincing, he just looked dead around the eyes. Same applies to PL, although that was just a momentary thing at the end.
Compare that to what Marvel Studios managed to acheive with the young Tony stark in the last Captain Amercia film. It was totally convincing, but I guess they had a lot more early RDJ stuff to work with.
Definitely James Earl Jones voice was weak and old, which isn't surprising given his age. The menace was not there for me. I'm assuming they already did a lot of work to strengthen the vocal and make him sound more like the DV of the time, the surprising thing therefore is that they could not do a better job. Is Audio special Effects a much less mature technology that Video Sfx.
Compare that to what Marvel Studios managed to acheive with the young Tony stark in the last Captain Amercia film. It was totally convincing, but I guess they had a lot more early RDJ stuff to work with.
Definitely James Earl Jones voice was weak and old, which isn't surprising given his age. The menace was not there for me. I'm assuming they already did a lot of work to strengthen the vocal and make him sound more like the DV of the time, the surprising thing therefore is that they could not do a better job. Is Audio special Effects a much less mature technology that Video Sfx.
But the universe felt entirely and completely as a SW universe should. The battle scenes were brilliant, with the action on the planet having a somewhat familiar feeling to ROTJ.
But once again, I feel a multi-gallion budget film is let down a bit by basic sloppiness in story generation.
Apparently in this world of Hyperspace and Death Stars, plans are physically stored in a vault the size of the Burj Kalifa, which required someone to physically go get them, and each plan is store on something the size of a really large removable hard disk drive. And to send these plans somewhere you have to remove them and plug them in somewhere else. What the hell is that all about ?
And Ok, the transmitter antenna is on top of this building. So I tell you what we'll do. We'll put the alignment control panel at the very end of a 4 foot wide free standing walkway that extends 100 feet out from the very top of the building, because that makes an awful lot of sense.
Yes it helps the drama, and I understand this is a sci-fi action movie so park logic at the door, but surely it's not impossible to put together an action movie without having to throw in just stupid things. How the hell does an oufit that can build a planet killing death star, come up with this building ?
And Ok, the transmitter antenna is on top of this building. So I tell you what we'll do. We'll put the alignment control panel at the very end of a 4 foot wide free standing walkway that extends 100 feet out from the very top of the building, because that makes an awful lot of sense.
Yes it helps the drama, and I understand this is a sci-fi action movie so park logic at the door, but surely it's not impossible to put together an action movie without having to throw in just stupid things. How the hell does an oufit that can build a planet killing death star, come up with this building ?
But what I did like was that unlike FA, this film did not have the constant feel of "I think I've watched this before ?". It was a new telling of earlier storyline, not a reimagination of a previous film, which is what FA felt like to me. So in that regard it definitely adds depth to the SW universe....and I really enjoyed the action sequences.
Also agree that the new droid was a scene stealer in all the right ways.
Marvel's VFX approach for
de-aging actors is that they film the actual talent for those scenes, and then do everything in 2D. It's almost like animated Photoshopping. That is why those performances usually work, but they can't alter the appearances too much - make someone 20-30 years younger, or in case of the Captain, shorter and skinnier.
Disney couldn't do this because Fisher is just too old for the approach, and Cushing is dead. Going for a fully 3D implementation took some courage, and the performances - being completely artificial - are much harder to get right.
Despite this, as I hear a lot of people have actually been fooled by one or both CG characters. Interesting.
More info will only be released in January, though.
Disney couldn't do this because Fisher is just too old for the approach, and Cushing is dead. Going for a fully 3D implementation took some courage, and the performances - being completely artificial - are much harder to get right.
Despite this, as I hear a lot of people have actually been fooled by one or both CG characters. Interesting.
More info will only be released in January, though.
Be careful with the term "performances" for Rogue One. The "performances" themselves are not artificial, they had actors on-set and this was a motion capture solution, so the on set movement and facial expressions are likely "real". They guy they used for Tarkin did the voice, and happens to have similarities in facial shape as Cushing.
Gareth Edwards discusses this in the Rogue One Empire Podcast Spoiler Special.
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