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Post by omega on Dec 15, 2015 23:57:15 GMT
Avengers Age of Ultron. It's not as good as the first one, but fan expectations must have been phenomenally unreachable, and the kind of fanbase Joss was try to please can be notoriously unpleaseable at times. You mean just about any fanbase, surely? I thought Age of Ultron was impressive, for a sequel, though it also ran into a lot of the problems that sequels often do. It's meandering, overlong (and to think it underwent considerable cuts,) packed to the gills with desensitizing destruction, and it falls apart in the last act. I know this sounds like damning with faint praise, but everything else is pretty good. It just needed a better focus. But I imagine that, by this point, Whedon has so many expectations, if not from the executives, then certainly from the audience, that he's backed into a corner, so to speak. Is he writing Infinity War? Apologies for any offense. You'll often find it's the science-fiction and comic book fans who are the biggest nit-pickers, who run all points of the scale of detest to adore. These are the people who tend to go on the internet, say what they think and why they think it, regardless of the opinions of other people. Hype can be a double-edged sword, if there's too much of it and the final product is less than perfect, people are more likely to lynch it. Do you think Terminator Genesis would have been lambasted as it was had it not been part of a well-known and beloved franchise, or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? The hype surrounding The Force Awakens is so palpable, you could pick it up and play with it. If it's not perfect, then the web will be flooded with sci-fi fans saying it's rubbish.
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Post by seeley on Dec 16, 2015 0:08:25 GMT
Apologies for any offense. You'll often find it's the science-fiction and comic book fans who are the biggest nit-pickers, who run all points of the scale of detest to adore. These are the people who tend to go on the internet, say what they think and why they think it, regardless of the opinions of other people. Hype can be a double-edged sword, if there's too much of it and the final product is less than perfect, people are more likely to lynch it. Do you think Terminator Genesis would have been lambasted as it was had it not been part of a well-known and beloved franchise, or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? The hype surrounding The Force Awakens is so palpable, you could pick it up and play with it. If it's not perfect, then the web will be flooded with sci-fi fans saying it's rubbish. None taken. I was just saying that fans in general tend to have unreasonably high expectations. The word is an abbreviation of "fanatic," after all.
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Post by Hieronymus on Dec 16, 2015 3:13:27 GMT
Finally saw Ant Man as well as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Neither one really lived up to its potential.
Having just finished UNIT: Dominion, I kept thinking of the bald villain in Ant Man as Alex McQueen. The tone of the movie also failed to click with the rest of the Marvel Universe. It was a little too campy and felt more like a string of set pieces than a movie.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was too self-conscious without having any real focus or direction. There was no real exploration of Henry Cavill's character; he was simply given moments to show off how clever, witty, and debonair his is, often gratuitously so.
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Post by omega on Dec 16, 2015 3:28:15 GMT
Finally saw Ant Man as well as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Neither one really lived up to its potential. For all its flaws, Ant-Man at least didn't end in a destructive city-wide battle that lasts for half an hour (unlike recent Marvel films). At most, only one building and half a house suffered any structural damage. People certainly think more highly of it than they do Age of Ultron, though that is probably because AoU had loads of hype (being a direct sequel to The Avengers and all) and everyone expected Ant-Man to fail, so expectations weren't so high. Last year Guardians of the Galaxy was expected by movie nerds to fail, an obscure Marvel title where two of the main characters were a walking tree with a limited vocabulary and a talking raccoon with a love for weapons, and look how that turned out. Three great things about Ant-Man: 1) The most memorable use of Thomas the Tank Engine ever 2) A funny moment with an actual tank 3) The best synopsis for Titanic ever
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Post by mrfuggleboppins on Dec 16, 2015 19:19:19 GMT
I still want the Edgar Wright version of Ant-Man (I'd give the film we got a 3.5/5). Did love seeing Thomas the Tank Engine though, only joke in the film that made me laugh.
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Post by seeley on Dec 16, 2015 22:52:25 GMT
I quite liked Ant-Man. It wasn't the greatest thing in the MCU, by a longshot, but it was a wonderful romp, of the sort that the MCU desperately needed after Age of Ultron. The latter film was better-written, for the most part, but I enjoyed Ant-Man considerably more. It held together much better.
And yes, the villain's appearance reminded me of Mr. MacQueen's.
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Post by mark687 on Dec 19, 2015 21:11:00 GMT
Chappie
Think Short Circuit in its sensibilities but set in a Mad Max like dystopia
I ended up liking it better then I thought I would
Regards
mark687
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Post by omega on Dec 20, 2015 2:00:02 GMT
The Force Awakens. An amazing movie that restores your faith in future Star Wars films.
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Post by kimalysong on Dec 20, 2015 2:27:22 GMT
A rewatch of The Shop Around the Corner...it's one of my absolute favorite Christmas movies.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Dec 20, 2015 20:35:06 GMT
G-force. A god awful kids film produced by Bruckheimer
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Post by omega on Dec 20, 2015 20:43:56 GMT
Life of Brian. Loads of really funny bits, par for the course where a Monty Python film is concerned. I think my favorite bit is near the end, where the main guard, played by John Cleese, realises that the crowd isn't going to behave and tries to stop Pontius Pilate from addressing them. His face visibly falls when Pontius insists on doing so anyway. Then the guard finds out that Biggus Dickus, who has a very pronounced lisp, wants to athist Pontiuth in the event of a crithith. You can see him mentally face palming.
Then there's the ending, where every character who could save Brian from Crucifixion comes up to him and doesn't. Even his own mother.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Dec 20, 2015 20:48:31 GMT
Life of Brian. Loads of really funny bits, par for the course where a Monty Python film is concerned. I think my favorite bit is near the end, where the main guard, played by John Cleese, realises that the crowd isn't going to behave and tries to stop Pontius Pilate from addressing them. His face visibly falls when Pontius insists on doing so anyway. Then the guard finds out that Biggus Dickus, who has a very pronounced lisp, wants to athist Pontiuth in the event of a crithith. You can see him mentally face palming. Then there's the ending, where every character who could save Brian from Crucifixion comes up to him and doesn't. Even his own mother. What have the Romans ever done for us? lmao
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Post by kimalysong on Dec 20, 2015 20:56:37 GMT
Continuing with the holiday theme I watched another favorite today Meet Me In St Louis.
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Post by omega on Dec 20, 2015 21:01:05 GMT
Life of Brian. Loads of really funny bits, par for the course where a Monty Python film is concerned. I think my favorite bit is near the end, where the main guard, played by John Cleese, realises that the crowd isn't going to behave and tries to stop Pontius Pilate from addressing them. His face visibly falls when Pontius insists on doing so anyway. Then the guard finds out that Biggus Dickus, who has a very pronounced lisp, wants to athist Pontiuth in the event of a crithith. You can see him mentally face palming. Then there's the ending, where every character who could save Brian from Crucifixion comes up to him and doesn't. Even his own mother. What have the Romans ever done for us? lmao Brought peace?
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Dec 21, 2015 2:18:01 GMT
Ant-Man for the third time. It continues to be huge fun and the Thomas the Train gag still makes me laugh out loud.
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Post by Hieronymus on Dec 22, 2015 3:50:45 GMT
Star Wars VII - lots of spectacle, but most of the "big reveals" didn't come across as that big somehow. Better than the prequels, but still not as good as the original trilogy. And I really hate seeing movies in the theater. These days, people just don't seem to know theater etiquette any more.
Inside Out - This one was wonderful. We all miss you, Bing Bong.
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Post by omega on Dec 22, 2015 4:19:07 GMT
Star Wars VII - lots of spectacle, but most of the "big reveals" didn't come across as that big somehow. Better than the prequels, but still not as good as the original trilogy. And I really hate seeing movies in the theater. These days, people just don't seem to know theater etiquette any more. Do you miss the days of decently priced popcorn and intermissions halfway through the movie? I suppose I'm lucky that I haven't had any issues with people on their phones or anything like that.
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Post by Hieronymus on Dec 22, 2015 22:34:46 GMT
Star Wars VII - lots of spectacle, but most of the "big reveals" didn't come across as that big somehow. Better than the prequels, but still not as good as the original trilogy. And I really hate seeing movies in the theater. These days, people just don't seem to know theater etiquette any more. Do you miss the days of decently priced popcorn and intermissions halfway through the movie? I suppose I'm lucky that I haven't had any issues with people on their phones or anything like that. I seldom have phone problems during movies (that happens more often at church ) However, people seem to wander in and out of the theater throughout the entire movie, and they always seem to sit near the middle of the row.
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Post by Polar Bear on Dec 25, 2015 0:56:32 GMT
Star Wars VII. Loved it crazily. May watch it in-theater again; it may be my favorite of the SW series. Not my favorite film of the year, but shockingly good. (Theater etiquette: two guys checked cell phones during movie, one repeatedly. Very annoying. I need to tell the theater I'm not going to pay them money unless they start enforcing their rules.)
Ant-Man: Okay, I admit it. I was wrong. I should've watched this one in the theater. I love the heck out of this film, the Marvel flick I've enjoyed the most since Iron Man 3.
Hidden Fortress: it'd been over a decade since I'd seen this Kurosawa classic, but since we were going to see a Star Wars movie, it seemed appropriate (google if necessary). I'd forgotten just how horrible, how debased, the two peasants are. Mifune is astonishing, as always. The princess positively shines.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Dec 25, 2015 6:19:12 GMT
And if anyone goes to see The Big Short this week, say hi to me. I'm one of the traders who helps set up the history of the film in the first few minutes.
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