[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo

fade

fade

Staff member
Wonder Woman

Okay, time to be Mr. Unpopular again. First, I have not finished the movie yet. We made it to the WW's assault on the Germans, and we had to stop for the school night.

I didn't get the big hype this movie had. It wasn't Man of Steel, sure, but it was still pretty middle-of-the-pack. The color grading was still full-on grimdark. The heroes never really felt like they were in danger. It never made me care about anybody, really. I did like the subversion of some tropes. I liked that despite growing up with all women on an isolated island, WW wasn't an idiot. They directly subverted the whole "what is penis?" trope, thankfully. I can't really put my finger on the problem, either. Maybe it was pacing. The movie kind of moved too fast through the material. I didn't hate it, but it kind of felt like watching an episode of a TV show instead of a movie, if that makes sense.

The other thing that bugs me is that chlorine gas attacks can do exactly what the mystery gas was doing in the movie, and that were in use in war in 1915. Chlorine gas + moisture = hydrochloric acid. Maybe this is because I didn't get to that part yet. Then again, masks remained reasonably effective against Cl2 gas.
 
Frank

Frank

So Blade Runner 2049 is everything I want out of a sci-fi movie. I love slow burn sci-fi. It's performances were great, even Harrison Ford tried, which I don't think he has in 20 years.

This was a masterpiece and Denis Villeneuve has me after this and The Arrival for whatever he does next.
 
strawman

strawman

fade said:
Wonder Woman

Okay, time to be Mr. Unpopular again.
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I don't think you'll be unpopular among reasonable people, but you'll find pushback from fans of DC who are thrilled with a middle of the road flick, as well as those who liked the gender politics (both in universe and out of universe) that were at play.

Meta critic gives it somewhere around a 76, a solid C grade movie, average, nothing particularly special.

What might make you unpopular, though, is weighing in when you've only watched half of it.

Tsk, tsk!
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
"Middle of the Road" is a giant step up from "insulting bullshit garbage," which has been every DC superhero movie for the previous 20 years. And it was nice to see Wonder Woman not fucking up everything for everyone, after Flashpoint Paradox and Injustice.

That said, yeah, the color palette was still stuck on grimdark.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

It was definitely the best DC movies in YEARS. Since Dark Knight, I'd argue. And it has a lot of great moments, like the trenches scene. I'd even say it might be up there with the helicopter rescue from Superman: The Movie. Absolutely breathtaking.

But it's not without its problems. Your criticisms are spot-on, Fade. Personally, I thought the third act was really lacking. Which is a common problem for many superhero movies (lookin' at you, Iron Man 1). The big reveal at the end was disappointing. But Gadot was phenomenal. I thought the colour grading was at least better than previous DCEU films, especially on Themyscria. But yeah, it's not a perfect movie.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

The third act problem of WW for me was that they spent the first two acts pitching Compassion (with a capital C) and resolved the climax with beating up the bad guy (no compassion to be seen). For my wife and I, this was in stark contrast to Dr. Strange (which we watched a day or two after WW). Dr. Strange built up the "it's not about you" theme through the first 2 acts and then delivered on that message by resolving the climax through self-sacrifice.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
blotsfan said:
So either you forgot about Batman Begins and the Dark Knight, or I really want to know your thoughts on those.
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To be honest, a little of column A, a little of Column B. I did forget about them, but only the Heath Ledger one was really decent, and it was mostly because of Heath Ledger's Joker. 1 and 3 were mediocre at best.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

GasBandit said:
To be honest, a little of column A, a little of Column B. I did forget about them, but only the Heath Ledger one was really decent, and it was mostly because of Heath Ledger's Joker. 1 and 3 were mediocre at best.
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He's Right.jpg


Addendum: Though I disagree The Dark Knight is just "decent." It's great. But it's great largely because of Ledger's performance and the writing behind the character.
 
Null

Null

Frank said:
So Blade Runner 2049 is everything I want out of a sci-fi movie. I love slow burn sci-fi. It's performances were great, even Harrison Ford tried, which I don't think he has in 20 years.

This was a masterpiece and Denis Villeneuve has me after this and The Arrival for whatever he does next.
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Apparently Denis Villeneuve is being considered to helm a new "Dune" project.

Haven't seen The Arrival, but given how he handled Blade Runner 2049, and the praise The Arrival has gotten, I think he's got the vision to make an excellent Dune movie. The guy clearly understands how to make intelligent science fiction work on the screen.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

GasBandit said:
To be honest, a little of column A, a little of Column B. I did forget about them, but only the Heath Ledger one was really decent, and it was mostly because of Heath Ledger's Joker. 1 and 3 were mediocre at best.
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I get that. I was more referring to "insulting bullshit garbage."
 
Null

Null

Batman Begins benefited from the previous 3 Batman movies being so garbage. A mediocre movie with a decent cast and good cinematography suddenly became amazing. And the Tumbler Bat-Tank, while ridiculous, was pretty fucking cool. The Dark Knight was great entirely because of Ledger's Joker - whether you like the take on the character or not, the movie basically revolved around him.

The Dark Knight Rises was garbage. Bane's plans were absurd, the architecture of Gotham is baffling, no one's reactions to anything made sense, and for fuck's sake you're really gonna go with "Sean Connery impersonator wearing a solo-cup on his face" voice? Really? Fucking really?
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
blotsfan said:
I get that. I was more referring to "insulting bullshit garbage."
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I might ease off on that assertion for Begins, but not Rises. I couldn't understand 3/4ths of Tom Hardy's lines, guns all over the batcycle, plot holes galore, world's stupidest ending, I could go on. I practically wanted my money back.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

GasBandit said:
I might ease off on that assertion for Begins, but not Rises. I couldn't understand 3/4ths of Tom Hardy's lines, guns all over the batcycle, plot holes galore, world's stupidest ending, I could go on. I practically wanted my money back.
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You'll notice that in my earlier post, I did not include Rises. That was not an accident.
 
Gruebeard

Gruebeard

ThatNickGuy said:
View attachment 25700

Addendum: Though I disagree The Dark Knight is just "decent." It's great. But it's great largely because of Ledger's performance and the writing behind the character.
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Meanwhile, I liked it the least of the 3 because - although the Joker performance was good - the Joker story didn't grab me at all.

No, I'm exaggerating. I liked the Dark Knight Rises even less.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

It Might Get Loud.
Overall, I liked the history (especially Jimmy Page and The Edge) interspersed with them jamming. I get they were doing a generational thing, but Jack White sure felt out of place to me. I like his music, but I would never put him anywhere near Page. One could probably argue that The Edge doesn't necessarily belong near Page as well. At least The Edge admits that a lot of what he does is from the effects. I am not saying that White or The Edge aren't talented.
It was great to see The Edge's face light-up when Page got out that old gold top. He couldn't help but grin. White looked distressed or lost during the jamming, at least when Page was playing. Like he was trying to figure it out or realized he would never reach those heights.

I would have rather seen John Frusciante instead of Jack White for the "young" generation. Ryan Adams would also be a good choice for the young guy.

It sounds like I am hating on Jack White, but I am not. I do think that he came across as a bit aloof or 'trying too hard to be different'. However, I think I relate the most to him out of the three though. I also grew up poor. I did manual labor/construction work. I had a hand-me-down shit guitar. We're also close in age. He looks like how I felt in H.S.

If you like guitars and the music of those three then it's worth a watch.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Flatliners (1990)

Still good. Still not sure why they needed to remake it. Definitely firmly in that early 90s trend of movie sets that are unrealistically ostentatious.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Blair Witch (2016)

Umm..that certainly was a movie. Besides one inspired moment of horror, this was painfully forgettable, and actually reminded me of the reasons I can't re-watch the original.

Super unpopular opinion: Blair Witch 2 is more rewatchable than either.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
I had the same feeling about the original. Never understood it's popularity. Only the last 5 minutes are interesting.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Fun Size said:
Blair Witch (2016)

Umm..that certainly was a movie. Besides one inspired moment of horror, this was painfully forgettable, and actually reminded me of the reasons I can't re-watch the original.

Super unpopular opinion: Blair Witch 2 is more rewatchable than either.
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We can bash the original Blair Witch and the remake without giving any kind of relative compliments to Blair Witch 2.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

fade said:
I had the same feeling about the original. Never understood it's popularity. Only the last 5 minutes are interesting.
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About the only thing Blair Witch did right was invent the concept of the found footage movie. Other, later films (Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, V/H/S) actually turned that concept into something interesting.
 
Far

Far

AshburnerX said:
About the only thing Blair Witch did right was invent the concept of the found footage movie. Other, later films (Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, V/H/S) actually turned that concept into something interesting.
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I know your list isn't exhaustive but I'd really like to add Chronicle to it.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I think Blair Witch 2 might've been received better if it didn't fly under the Blair Witch banner. Tweak the script a little, make it its own thing, and retitle it.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

ThatNickGuy said:
I think Blair Witch 2 might've been received better if it didn't fly under the Blair Witch banner. Tweak the script a little, make it its own thing, and retitle it.
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This. Blair Witch 2 was a perfectly serviceable trashy horror movie which did one thing really well (they incorporated a lot of things happening in the background that they didn't necessarily draw attention to, which made it freakier when you actually noticed it going on). Tying it to The Blair Witch was a total mistake, although I'm sure it's also why they sold more than 20 tickets.
 
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