Movie Reviews 2.0

I've finally got around to watching Prometheus. 3/10.

Very pretty but rubbish acting, dialogue and plot.

I've actually just looked back earlier in this thread to read comments about this film and I have to say that I pretty much agree with the views of Dooby and Laa-Yosh.

Scott certainly went full-Lucas on this one.
 
What would you rank Thor against those two? I've rewatched Thor a few times, and have to say, it holds up rather well. The first Iron Man is probably my favorite. I didn't like the Hulk, the CGI Hulk is just way out there. Also, shame about the lack of continuity, though that said, I prefered the later actor / Hulk. Captain America was amazing in some respects (especially the first half), but very mediocre in others, so a little bit too unbalanced.

I watched a lot of movies one of the nights I was sick at home this week, Warrior was amazingly good for that genre (fighters). The Lady was also quite good.

I would give Thor an 8 I guess. It was enjoyable and I think the whole "god" thing makes suspension of disbelief a bit easier so I was able to enjoy it as a pure fantasy film. Iron Man 2 was just a bit too much like your average sequel for me, ie a lot more glitter and a lot less substance. Good film don't get me wrong, but not a patch on the first.
 
Gonna watch the Hulk now. I'm expecting it to be the weakest of them all based on the comments I've read. Also I hate Ed Norton (maybe because my girlfriend thinks he's hot for some reason??). At least Liv Tyler's in it so that evens it out a lot.
 
I'd give Hulk a 6/10. The first half of the movie was quite strong I thought but the second half left a bit to be desired. I guess this was always going to be the most difficult one to make. Too many cliches however. Liv Tyler looks good but is a horrible actress. I actually thought Norton was ok though!
 
I was also a bit skeptical about Norton in advance, but he did a good job.

Have watched John Carter now. In some ways, it was even worse disneyification of the script than I feared, with a token funny pet character, naive attempts at comedy and all. Anything JJ Abrams did to Trek pales next to making Dejah Thoris a frigging professor of Helium science academy, and I totally hated the therns and 9th ray crap. I was chewing the inside of my cheek for most of the movie. Yet, the scenery and sets were pretty spot on, and the green men were halfway there. I'm kind of happy that it bombed well enough to shoot down any sequels, but I wouldn't mind another attempt after some time.

Edit: Damn, I just realized John Carter's writer-director Andrew Stanton directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E, and wrote Toy Stories. Kinda makes even more sense now... Should have hired the pixar guys only for visuals. And another revelation: There appears to be another film from 2009 that actually sounds like it follows the actual Burroughs text! The catch is that it's an ultra-cheap direct-to-video exploitation with biggest name of the cast, wait for it, Traci Lords as Dejah Thoris... So maybe I'll have to let that one go.
 
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Oh, and I watched (or rather stared half awake) first episode of Spartacus yesterday. What an utterly silly permutation of 300, Gladiator and Rome - I can't believe its IMDB rating is 8.7.

The story gets a lot better after the initial 5 or 6 episodes, as the intrigues and backstabbing starts to pick up pace. The ridiculous amounts of blood and gore remain, though.
 
The story gets a lot better after the initial 5 or 6 episodes, as the intrigues and backstabbing starts to pick up pace. The ridiculous amounts of blood and gore remain, though.

Yeah I quite liked the first series.

I haven't been able to get into the second series after the change of lead actor.
 
Watched a animation movie called Paprika the other day. This must be the best thing ever when on LSD or stoned. All those moving, colorful things...

Still pretty good when sober too ;)
 
Watched a animation movie called Paprika the other day. This must be the best thing ever when on LSD or stoned. All those moving, colorful things...

Still pretty good when sober too ;)
One of my favourite anime movies ... a decent plot, twists, a climax and a happy ending ... rare for anime movies to tell a plot driven story competently (of course for something like Akira that can be forgiven).
 
One of my favourite anime movies ... a decent plot, twists, a climax and a happy ending ... rare for anime movies to tell a plot driven story competently (of course for something like Akira that can be forgiven).

Take it you don't like either Miyazaki or Oshii films then?

Paprika is Satoshi Kon's last film - he died of stomach cancer last year. Terrible shame as the films he made (Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika) are some of the best subjective reality tales anime has produced. He also did a really good TV series, Paranoia Agent, too which I love dearly.
 
Sunshine (2007)- 7/10

I dug this movie, even though it abandoned a lot of it's sci fi elements towards the end and turned into a quasi-slasher flick. Also, there's a complete lack of realism and almost no believability to the actual events. But I still enjoyed it. CGI wasn't bad, either, considering it's age.

Killing Them Softly- 9/10

Great flick, but at times I found myself thinking about the inherent sloppiness of Brad Pitt, as a contract killer. He didn't really finesse any of his contracts, a lot were done out in the open with little to no regard for witnesses. The end was totally predictable, also.
 
I really didn't enjoy Killing Them Softly, it actually bored me. I don't think Brad Pitt was good for the role.
 
Looper 8/10

I may be grading on a curve (if I consider Children of Men a 10, this is a definite step down), but this was surprisingly good.

Flight 7/10

Another excellent Denzel Washington performance, but this movie suffered from LotR syndrome: breaking up the "heavy," serious mood with humor verging on farce. I hate that, but I can understand how they'd want to lighten the mood a bit, considering how the trailer and advertising ("action-packed mystery thriller?!") were selling a different movie, at least to me. It's a movie about battling addiction, based around an awesome flight scene.

And, yeah, Satoshi Kon's movies are terrific (haven't seen Perfect Blue yet): right up there with Miyazaki.
 
Just watched Brave on dvd after buying it for my niece's birthday. I thought it was really funny but probably helps that I'm Scottish myself. Non-Brits might miss a lot of the subtler humour in it.

Can't really compare it to the other Pixar movies as I haven't watched a lot of them.
 
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