Cinema Thread, because movies is a stupid word

[Mkgillman]

Man, if you don't like that, don't read the Beta Ray Bill books.

[Shane]

Speaking of diversity, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Magnificent idea, amazing visuals, but ultimately disappointing flick. You have serious problems as a film maker when your CGI cast is more convincing than your human cast. Seriously after this I never need to see Dane DeHaan or Cara Delevigne in a thing again, although to be fair Delevigne's performance was restricted by the weird dynamic with her co-lead

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annoying vibe of borderline sexual harassment in the workplace anyone? But hey - I guess - French.

Luc Besson took Mila & Bruce and a fabulously weird supporting cast and produced the wonderful 5th Element. The Valerian recipe didn't work as well. I'm going to remember Zorg, Ruby Rod, slapstick Mangalores and the like beyond tomorrow. I'm already forgetting the Valerian gang. Also - The Rihanna segment. Huh? What now?

It must have been a little bit ok, because I'm really annoyed it wasn't so much better.

[mbasic]

This thread needs more use of the spoiler feature.

I saw The Last Jedi yesterday and have mixed feelings about it. Some stuff that was pretty good but lots of bullshit IMO...

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I mostly liked everything with Luke, Rey, and Kylo Ren. I like that they are not just following the formula of the first trilogy with Kylo turning on his puppet master and becoming "good" in the third movie. He might still turn but having him kill Snoke and remain on the dark side is at least something different.

Everything with Finn and Poe and Admiral Purple Hair was beyond stupid and pointless though. Why waste half the movie having two of your heroes continually fuck things up and accomplish nothing of consequence? Also it maked no sense whatsoever that Purple Hair would continually refuse to explain her plan to her subordinates even to the point of inciting a mutiny, just as some kind of power trip. And Rose crashing into Finn just when he was about to actually do something productive and save everyone, just to spout some cliched bullshit and give him a kiss, was also dumb.

Also Mary Poppins Leia wtf? Weird that they kept her character alive after Carrie Fisher died.

I also felt like a lot of the humor was misplaced and detracted from the impact of dramatic moments. Most egregious examples were after the barrage against Luke someone says "do you think you got him?" and then when the smoke clears he dusts off his shoulder... didn't work for me.

Saw The Last Jedi yesterday. I agree with this analysis.

pretty good distillation here:

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[mbasic]

I couldn't give even a bit of the first of two fucks about racial casting issues of that type. I note that there's a troubling dynamic at the moment among concerns about 'whitewashing', 'under-representation' and 'over-diversity'. The first two are historic problems in the entertainment industry that some are making attempts to address, and the latter is often conflated with the first two as part of knee-jerk #whataboutism. Not casting that accusation your way, to be clear.

I need look no further than my daughter and her rainbow of close friends to feed my hope that at some point we'll look back at this and earlier eras and wonder what the fuck all that was about.

the Marvel Black Panther thing:
Its kinda funny how they have to stay somewhat with the "original cannon" here. (or choose to)

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ok, the other day i learned there are all those different Infinity Stones . . .
. . . the one Infinity Stone that the Black Panther's hidden Atlantian-esque but African based city is guarding in the . .
.
.
.
.
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The Soul Stone.
.
.
I find this hilarious.

[DirtyRed]

Damn, I downloaded a copy of the Dark Tower the other day - really enjoyed the books and have a bit of a man crush on Idris Elba. Still might give it a go anyway.

Yeh - he so dreamy!

Dark and smouldering. Loved him in Luther and The Wire. Still don’t entirely agree with him being cast as Heimdall - like a black Bond.

Fixed, and stay tuned.

But in the Thor universe, a black "Norse God" doesn't break kayfabe. The Thorpeople were considered gods by the viking types because they saw them fighting the ice giants, or something, and came up with a bunch of wacky stories about them. It's entirely reasonable in-universe that they projected their unyielding whiteness onto them, or just assumed that ALL of them were white, because Heimdall is apparently the only brother of the bunch, and they wouldn't have seen him because he had to stay and work the Bifrost to get the ones the vikings DID see to and from where ever they were going.

It doesn't really matter who played him. All he ever did was stand there and look bored. A cardboard standup of Elba would have sufficed.

I couldn't give even a bit of the first of two fucks about racial casting issues of that type. I note that there's a troubling dynamic at the moment among concerns about 'whitewashing', 'under-representation' and 'over-diversity'. The first two are historic problems in the entertainment industry that some are making attempts to address, and the latter is often conflated with the first two as part of knee-jerk #whataboutism. Not casting that accusation your way, to be clear.

Yes, "Racism" is only bad when it's not happening to white People.

[GainsdalfTheWhey]

Alright, compounding all star wars spoilers into one on this post, then replying to them all in one spoiler of my own,. Let's see how it works.

I saw The Last Jedi yesterday and have mixed feelings about it. Some stuff that was pretty good but lots of bullshit IMO...

SpoilerShow

I mostly liked everything with Luke, Rey, and Kylo Ren. I like that they are not just following the formula of the first trilogy with Kylo turning on his puppet master and becoming "good" in the third movie. He might still turn but having him kill Snoke and remain on the dark side is at least something different.

Everything with Finn and Poe and Admiral Purple Hair was beyond stupid and pointless though. Why waste half the movie having two of your heroes continually fuck things up and accomplish nothing of consequence? Also it maked no sense whatsoever that Purple Hair would continually refuse to explain her plan to her subordinates even to the point of inciting a mutiny, just as some kind of power trip. And Rose crashing into Finn just when he was about to actually do something productive and save everyone, just to spout some cliched bullshit and give him a kiss, was also dumb.

Also Mary Poppins Leia wtf? Weird that they kept her character alive after Carrie Fisher died.

I also felt like a lot of the humor was misplaced and detracted from the impact of dramatic moments. Most egregious examples were after the barrage against Luke someone says "do you think you got him?" and then when the smoke clears he dusts off his shoulder... didn't work for me.

So - The Last Jedi. We went and saw it last night. I really liked it. It was what I expected, but also not.

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Everything old is new again. The plot was at least different from the original, unlike TFA where it was almost a carbon copy of IV. But there were some great moments, I loved the stampede through the casino and the Porgs, and Yoda's little cameo. I think 'The best teacher, failure is' might be destined to become the new 'there is no try' (which FYI is one of my all time favourite movie quotes and the Yoda figurine that currently lives in my home gym is a constant reminder of that).

What I expected: That they would kill off Leia, since dear Carrie is no longer with us. The fact they brought her back was a surprise.

What I didn't expect: That they'd kill off Luke. But then, he's not really gone, is he? No Jedi ever is. Neither did I think Snoke would get the chop, but I guess the same probably goes for him.

I thought Poe's character was woefully underdone in the first movie so I was glad he got a bit more screen time. I'm not too sure about the romance between Finn and Rose but will see what happens there. I don't particularly like his character, if I'm honest. I think he is one more complication that the story arc doesn't need. And Phasma??!! Should have been more of her, damnit!

I am hoping to go and see it again over the Christmas break with a couple of friends rather than the wife as I think there is probably a lot I missed, it was so action packed.

Last Jedi

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So much. Cut about 1/3 the film, make it 100x better. Why are laser blobs arcing through space? Why add a useless, STUPID subplot with Rose and Finn going to a stupid planet, then riding a Disney ride, then coming back, all for exactly 0 story impact? Why not kill Leia in a, really, perfect way, instead invent a stupid looking force power and keep her alive to fill out a part of the film that could have just as easily been taken by, I dunno, C3PO? Stupid idiot bird things that caused the stupid little kid sitting behind me to squeal with glee every time they were on screen. Why does every action movie hero need to be hyper-competent at everything they do, and why must every film include a stupid "barrel ride scene from the Hobbit" portion? WTF can every ship cloak now? "Tracking through hyperspace" is a HUGE departure from everything that made Star Wars cool. The whole Casino scene was just pure shit. It could have been 1,000,000 times better- guy on a casino planet? Lando! Or, just cut that whole plot. They didn't need or use a hacker anyways, all he did was short circuit a door then sell out the fleet. Which, if cloaking wasn't available to every ship anyways, they could have cut that trash out. WTF happened to the New Republic? They wiped out the galactic government in the opening crawl? Snape was a dumb, worthless villain who's only motivation seemed to be "kill Luke presumably to prevent him helping the Resistance?" If ships going to hyperspace can wipe out something like 2/3 of a fleet, why didn't the other ships who were going to be destroyed by the arcing green spoogelasers do that earlier?


Rey, Kylo, and Luke were cool though, I liked the bombers (though, what is up with shields in this movie? Did that ship just not have any? Was Poe hacking the shields during the good/alright/stupid delay tactic scene? You can just remotely hack the shields of any ship you want? Ships can/can't fly through shields?) and the Throne Room fight scene was almost as cool as the one from RotJ but with a better ending. Just... I need to see it again.

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General plot lines with Rey, Luke, and Kylo were solid, looks like we pretty much all agree on that. I like the Luke death, he basically finds peace and knows that if he's going to train Rey, as she is really the hope, not him, he needs to be with her. But, he can't be present in physical form, as he'll be a target. The best way forward is to go full force ghost with the intent on following her around and training her. I think we see a lot of him in the next movie, a next step in force ghosting. That actually makes sense as it's a pretty new discovery (Quigon was the first). Kylo was much less emo and they made him that way with actual character development in the beginning of the movie instead of rewriting him out of nowhere, liked that. He's set up well for the next movie. My one qualm on the character development side is that although Luke and Kylo had a lot, Rey is basically the same at the end of the movie as the beginning both as a character and as a force user. Next to no development for her at all.

I hate Finn, he's useless and used predominantly for humor. His whole story line sucked and detracted from everything good about the film. I just found myself shaking my head most of the time he was on screen, and I've never shaken my head so much during a movie. Rose is a moron, let the guy sacrifice himself for the greater good idiot.

Poe does too much. There's no way a Dreadnought like that doesn't show up with full shield and automatically dumping a fleet of tie fighters as a defense. Even without that, no fighter does what he did to a single ship, they'd have just done the same to the surface of the death star in the original movies before going for the vent. I HATE when they do things like this that make to strategic sense whatsoever. Han jumping through the planetary shield in the last movie was another example of just ruining how the technology/tactics are supposed to work. The dumb hyperspace kamikaze another. If these holes existed, they'd have been exploited and fixed long before when they are in the movies. The tracking through hyperspace as a new technology I can accept.

I agree with Purple Hair not telling about the plan. One spy on that ship and the whole thing is bust, they're hopeless at that point. Comp[compartmentalized/need to know information exists for a reason. As for looping goo, I can buy it, those big ships project significant gravity fields. I have to go rewatch the actual trajectory though. They should be going straight,
then get almost magnetized toward the ship. There should be no curve in the beginning.

The humor was so damn forced at so many parts. Other than the Superhero unrealistic actions of Poe, it was the biggest detractor for me.

I hope they do something to fill in the Snoke story line. He felt super important and we have no idea who he is or where he comes from. He was directing the entire New Order, we need to know how it happened. I feel like they're going to just put it in a book or do a cartoons series that's between the originals and the new movies.

[Allentown]

To be fair, they never really explain the Emperor in the OT, just "He's the guy who bosses around Darth Vader, so he's got to be strong, right?"

[hsilman]

Waiting for TLJ to start now. This better not suck.

[mbasic]

[hsilman]

Waiting for TLJ to start now. This better not suck.

Exceeded expectations

[BenM]

Waiting for TLJ to start now. This better not suck.

Exceeded expectations

Good to hear.

A lot of other people in this thread have criticised it (some justifiably so, on reflection), give us your thoughts! I REALLY wanna go see it again now.

[perman]

I thought TLJ sucked. Was 1 out of the party of 4 who thought so. Wish I liked it more.

[hsilman]

Waiting for TLJ to start now. This better not suck.

Exceeded expectations

Good to hear.

A lot of other people in this thread have criticised it (some justifiably so, on reflection), give us your thoughts! I REALLY wanna go see it again now.

Spoiler free. The entire movie other than literally the last 10-15 minutes was predictable, and my wife leaned over and told me the ending "twist" though I didn't see it coming. But the set pieces they used were gorgeous, and that made it an enjoyable ride. Just because you see where the roller coaster is going doesn't mean it isn't fun to ride it.

It is still a very "safe" movie. It is an action movie with funny parts, which is very "in" right now. The characters are wafer thin archetypes, though Kylo Ren gets more interesting.

But, they managed to "expands the universe". It's not just the Skywalker Family Drama(tm) which is exactly what I thought they needed to do to keep the series viable. So good for them.

My review may be tainted by the fact that I have a Movie pass and I already saw two movies in the past month. This cost me essentially nothing.

[Idlehands]

OK, OK, clearly I am in the minority here. Like I said, it's less about him not being of Norse appearance (because it didn't affect the movie one bit and he was great) but the whole 'cast people because of their minority status' that sticks in my craw. That's IF it's happening. Which I have no guarantees it is, anyway.

Idris rocks, yada yada. Happy to change the record.

Gonna agree w fishwife. Idris Elba is awesome. He makes heimdale bad ass by just showing up.

[Chebass88]

I'm interested in seeing TLJ and hearing Rachel Butera's contribution to the Star Wars canon.

[Wilhelm]

I'm interested in seeing TLJ and hearing Rachel Butera's contribution to the Star Wars canon.

Wow! Had never heard of her.

[hector]

Goddamn I am excited about this.

[aurelius]

Goddamn I am excited about this.

Sicaro was awesome. Del Toro is a complete nightmare in that movie. Hope this one is as good.

[hector]

Goddamn I am excited about this.

Sicaro was awesome. Del Toro is a complete nightmare in that movie. Hope this one is as good.

I cannot agree more.

[mbasic]

Sicario is one of the few movies I saw twice in the theaters. I hardly do that anyone (last 20 years).