What are you watching?

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Saw Mile 22 yesterday, and I thought it was pretty good. Iko Uwais was badass, as one would expect. Marky Mark Wahlberg was OK. One major criticism I would have is the hand-held fight scenes, they suffered from too many cuts in them.

The ending was pretty novel for a Hollywood movie, and that might have earned it a few extra points from me.
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Caught The Predator the other day.

The action's pretty good, but I can understand why some people have problems with it since there are elements that make it feel like a throwback to the late 80's and early 90's.
 
It being a throwback would be fine with me.

My concern is the writing. The original film was reasonably well-written considering it was an 80s action film. How was the writing?
 

Zetas

Lurking upon the deep
The writing wasn't too bad, i just wish they had worked in more of the lore the comic books have been building over the last 30ish years. One of my minor complaints though have to do with how choppy some parts of the film felt, some parts of it were cut really weird and the scene transitions feel really off due to some of the missing footage between them. Another complaint which is minor in the scheme of things is the xenomorph tail spear and or decorative combistick from AVP, they don't even spare a sentence to say something about them, i mean if they want to keep the universes separate they shouldn't even have those sitting there as a blatant easter egg
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Also, there's a plot point that is absolute bullshit. To say more would be a spoiler, but let's just say that [thing] isn't the next phase of human evolution.
 

Goldenfalls

Fic till you drop
Just saw Searching and I enjoyed it a lot. It's a mystery movie where a man's daughter goes missing and he has to work with the police and find out what happened. It seemed to go by really fast, the pacing was very good. Was a bit dramatic at times, especially with the music, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment. I also thought the concept of doing the whole movie solely through computer screens and the like was novel and very well executed. I'd watch it again, if only for seeing all the clues/foreshadowing in a new light now that I know the ending.
 
I'm hearing from a reviewer I trust that the writing for Predator is genuinely terrible, and the editing is at least as bad as Suicide Squad.
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
I'm hearing from a reviewer I trust that the writing for The Predator is genuinely terrible, and the editing is at least as bad as Suicide Squad.
That statement is not inaccurate. It's an objectively bad film and the worst standalone Predator movie.
 

Zetas

Lurking upon the deep
I would dare to say it made the first Alien vs Predator movie look good. And lets not get me started on the editing, its like they gave a 5 year old instructions on how to use editing software and told them to go wild.
 
That's... shockingly awful.

I actually liked both AvP films, but I completely agree that they were objectively not good.
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Caught Venom this afternoon.

In summary: It's OK. I've seen a lot better, but I've also seen worse. Better than Man of Steel, Batman V Superman and Justice League, but not as good as even Iron Man 3.

Don't see it in 3D as the final fight sequence will be too dark to make anything out.
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
This week, I caught the 30th anniversary showing of Beetlejuice and Bohemian Rhapsody.

Beetlejuice holds reasonably well, and Bohemian has some very good performances, though they've somewhat sanitised certain elements of Freddie's personal life for the PG-13/12A rating. Still worth seeing, though.
 
Finally saw Black Panther yesterday. It is by no means terrible, but frankly I'm really not a fan of films where much of the central plot only happens because central characters inexplicably do something senseless. Especially not when two different characters both do it.

First senseless thing is the lie about Prince N'jobu's death. T'Chakka ordered him to present himself to the council for judgment for his crimes - a clear indicator that they knew what he had done. His sudden death might have looked suspicious, but the king killed the prince to protect the life of the spy who had evidence of the prince's crimes; that's sufficient for a "self defense" claim on its own, and the evidence thus preserved would help T'Chakka's claim that he was executing a traitor if he chose to say that. They might have chosen to leave the young Kilmonger anyway, but there was no reason for the lie at all, and definitely no reason to leave the kid behind in service to the lie.

It would have been much more interesting if my proposed changes had been made, and they still left Kilmonger because T'Challa hadn't been born yet, and thus wouldn't be the presumptive heir. But that would require a different writing team.

The second senseless thing involves T'Challa and the rhino farmer guy. That guy really wants Klaue dead, and is hopeful when T'Challa sets out after him. T'Challa's team catches him, and Kilmonger helps him break out - and during this sequence, T'Challa becomes aware of Kilmonger's existence and of his father's inexplicable lie.

Upon return to Wakanda, rhino farmer guy asks about Klaue, and what does T'Challa say? Does he say "We caught him, and we were interrograting him when some armed men broke him free"?

No. He says "He slipped through our fingers." Rhino farmer guy gets pissed, and he gets pissed because what T'Challa says sounds like he just didn't try hard enough to catch Klaue. Such that when Kilmonger shows up with Klaue's body, rhino farmer guy is much more interested in what he has to say.

Which brings us to the final senseless thing: why, when Kilmonger shows up in the throne room, does T'Challa not derail him by asking "Why did you help Klaue escape my team in Korea?" It would be one thing if T'Challa didn't know that it was the same guy - but one of the biggest reasons he returns to Wakanda sans Klaue is because he wants to confront the spy about the guy wearing his grandfather's ring. Kilmonger is in possession of said ring. T'Challa knows its the same guy, and he could win back his lost rapport with rhino farmer guy by pointing out that Kilmonger helped Klaue escape in the first place.

Kilmonger might still have been able to challenge for the throne and win, but he would not have had anyone's enthusiastic support as king.
 
Follow-up: I watched Black Panther and then Dr. Strange so I could finally watch Infinity War.

Holy Fuck. Holy ever-loving Fuck. I've never seen a film studio take a risk like that. That's hands-down one of the best movies I've ever seen.

THAT IS THE KIND OF PAYOFF YOU GET FROM A DECADE OF WORLDBUILDING!
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Yep, that's why the Avengers (Assemble) was a big hit and Justice League was not so successful.

I saw Overlord last night on a preview screening and it was OK. One thing felt off, but if we handwave that as just colourblind casting, which I think the makers intended, it's OK.

Besides, I don't think racially integrated combat units in WW2 is really the biggest historical inaccuracy in a film where Nazi scientists are creating supersoldiers with a magical substance that they found under a French village.
 
Follow-up: I watched Black Panther and then Dr. Strange so I could finally watch Infinity War.

Holy Fuck. Holy ever-loving Fuck. I've never seen a film studio take a risk like that. That's hands-down one of the best movies I've ever seen.

THAT IS THE KIND OF PAYOFF YOU GET FROM A DECADE OF WORLDBUILDING!
It's exactly the ending I was expecting, and that's a good thing.

They couldn't bring in Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet and not do that.
 

Ordo

Well-Known Member
Fantastic Beasts 2.....Well....that was unexpected....
 

burnerx7

Well-Known Member
Just watched Aquaman, sincerelly enjoyed the movie, any thoughts on it? Especially enjoyed the last battle, that scene was on par with Two Towers
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Caught Aquaman earlier and I liked it. Though, there were a couple things that bothered me. First the bit where Arthur is in chains. That "set" looked terrible.

The second, and most terrible thing in the movie is Pitbull's cover of Africa. 1) It's a terrible cover, 2)it was used in in such an obvious way that it took me out of the movie.

And this movie was about a bulletproof man who could talk to fish.
 
Saw The Mortal Engines. Never read the books, so this is solely based on the film.

Firstly, I mostly liked it. The story was engaging enough to hold my interest (for the most part) and there was at least some work on character development.

Secondly, the fact of the giant mobile cities was the least egregiously unrealistic part of the setting (although I couldn't help but ask why they would use the entire city to search for targets of opportunity rather than send out the flying machines to do so - and how would you change a city-sized broken axel?)

One thing that struck me as entirely implausible was what the cities used for fuel - namely the chopped-up bits of smaller cities. Literally we are shown the smaller cities being broken up by huge metal grinders and being shoved into the furnace/reactor thing powering the city. I assumed the story was supposed to be an allegory of British imperialism - but its worth noting that the first town gobbled up was Bavarian (and the British Empire never conquered any part of Germany until WW1), whereas the immobile city of Xian Guo standing firm against British invasion was supposed to have been founded by Chinese migrants... and China was, in fact, conquered by the British - so it's not really a good historical allegory.

But how exactly could another a smaller city be used as fuel for a bigger city? In fact, the smaller city was explicitly stated to be a mining town - so if they sustained themselves by mining, what stopped the bigger city from doing the same? If they do any mining of their own, the film neither states nor implies this.

Another thing: why would the smaller cities be mobile at all? The film outright states that the big cities cannot deal with significant inclines and mountain ranges, so just build your towns in places the big cities literally can't reach. In fact, we see a very small settlement in a flashback that was apparently on the British Isles and completely stationary (granted it was just one home housing two people), so it most certainly can be done. Why it isn't done is completely unexplained.

And I was really left wondering where they got all their ammunition from. They're using both firearms and artillery (in fact, one of the protagonists is using a semi-auto sawed off shotgun), and firing quite a few rounds. Modern ammunition has a long shelf life, but we're explicitly told that the setting is at least 1000 years after modern times - ammunition made today might still be usable in a century, but there's no guarantee.

It's not that they couldn't be making their own ammunition - hobby reloaders may not be manufacturing their own gunpowder and explosive primer materials, but the chemistry for both isn't really that complicated, and plenty of Third World countries make both - it's that it's weird they would have that much smokeless gunpowder production and no mining facilities. I'm also more than a bit confused as to where their clothes come from.

It could simply be a problem of scale - the film simply couldn't make the already gargantuan "predator cities" as big as they are described to be in the novels. Or maybe the original author didn't consider the problem.
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Saw Stan & Ollie last night. It's based upon a true story, so if you know a lot about Laurel & Hardy, then it's not going to be a huge surprise to you.

That said, the performances are great, especially John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy, and the makeup team did a great job. It's also nice to see something that isn't a sequel, franchise movie and/or reboot. Not to mention it being nice, without it having violence, sexual scenes and profanity, making it a film suitable for the whole family.

I feel that it does have a nice message about friendship, too.
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Saw Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse this afternoon and I liked it.

There was a few scenes where the picture looked off, like it was a 3D showing, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this was a stylistic choice as it was mainly the alternative dimension characters that had that. Nice tribute to Stan Lee at the end, too.
 
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