Topic: The Movie Thread

@JohnnyShoulder it's worth seeing if your a fan and has its good bits, but in the end... naw.

@RogerRoger I’m so glad you liked Han Solo; it really is actually better than it deserves to be. I agree that the decreased sales performance is likely from the disappointment over The Last Jedi (a movie I actually liked more than most people did). I’m curious how you felt about the reveal of Maul at the end

@kyleforrester87 As for me, I just watched Split in preparation for going to see Glass tomorrow. I have seen almost all of M. Night’s movies I think, except for Split, that is until tonight. Since it had such lukewarm reception, I was just kinda waiting for it to drop on Netflix or something, but when Glass came out I found out I needed to watch Split first.
As for how I liked it — well, I’d say it’s a solid movie, and a very interesting take of disassociative disorder and the complexity of the human mind. The pacing was fair, the acting was quite good (James McAvoy really stretches himself with this one) and although I’ve seen construction of tension and thrillers done much better, it was an adequate job. It had Shyamalan’s trademark subdued character responses (he loves to just have actors stare silently into the camera for long periods of time, frozen in either terror, contemplation, fear, aggression, or confusion). But it works for his movies. I suppose it allows you, the viewer, time to absorb and feel the emotion that he’s trying to feed you at the time. And the twist at the end did take me by surprise, but it wasn’t nearly as jaw dropping as the closing reveal in The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable or even Signs. But overall, it was good and perhaps I like it a little more given I know that the sequel is out and I can go straight into that tomorrow.

After I see Glass, I’ll post my [unofficial] rankings of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies.

@Th3solution look forward to hearing what you think of Glass.

Forest Gump is my favourite film ever

I saw Glass yesterday and quite liked it. Granted, it's slow, talky, pretentious, and belabors its superhero analogy to the point of exhaustion, but the same was true to a lesser extent of Unbreakable, and everyone seemed to love that.

I got what I wanted from it, though. Some extremely fun performances from McAvoy and Jackson. Continued deconstructive superhero worldbuilding. Good cinematography.

It's not perfect, but Shyamalan's love for his themes and characters are clear (I love how they got back the same actor who played the son in Unbreakable 19 years ago or so). It's a self-funded passion product in the age of the death-by-committee corporate blockbuster. I'll take it over another noisy, big-budget Marvel epic any day of the week.

@RogerRoger It really is crazy how much better these SW spin-off films are in comparison to the actual mainline entries.

@Th3solution The only thing that keeps Split from being offensive to the point of absurdity on DID and mental illness more broadly is the superhero angle Shyamalan takes with it. The entire concept behind that film is misbegotten, though, which is why it'll always be my least favorite film in the trilogy.

I watched Split over the weekend as I hadn't seen it before and was sort of interested in Glass. I was entertained by it, with the caveat that I knew that the film was linked to Unbreakable and that the mental illness aspect of it was actually a way to get the 'superhuman' element across. Not sure I would have liked it as much without that knowledge

@Ralizah Yeah, I agree with you to an extent and I have to admit I squirmed in my seat a little with the portrayal of mental illness and abuse. There were parts that were uncomfortable to watch due to those issues. But as you say, the concepts he’s trying to get across about the human mind having the power and ability to change our physical nature, even to the point of developing superhuman qualities, and that being a victim of abuse empowers an individual makes the way the story’s told understandable. Still, I can’t say that I have the right to disagree with anyone offended by the film since I don’t suffer from any of the malady’s portrayed in it. DID is so extremely rare that I assume the target group is so small there isn’t a voice loud enough to complain about their portrayal or its misappropriation. Now those who are victims of child abuse on the other hand, are unfortunately more common and I’m not sure how they feel about the message. Certainly in the end the fact that the main girl had a past history of physical abuse came to be an advantage in her ability to be a survivor througout the ordeal and in the end to be recognized by The Horde / Beast as someone who was pure enough to be spared. But I can see how it still may hit a sour note to a child abuse victim watching the movie and be interpreted as trivializing their situation. Like I say, I can’t speak from that perspective. I would have liked to see the uncle have his come-uppance though. Maybe he’ll show up in Glass, but there was only the implication at the end that she tells the cops about him but we never know for sure
But one thing I really like about Shyamalan’s shows is that they make you think. And a movie that has me pondering and talking about the message days later is a success in my book.

@Ralizah "but the same was true to a lesser extent of Unbreakable, and everyone seemed to love that." lesser extent being the key words to be honest. Plus, back when Unbreakable came out, we didn't have a new Superhero movie every month like we do now, so it had a bit more rope to hang itself with in this respect in my opinion.

All said though it wasn't terrible and was fun to watch. Just, could have been better. I thought the end was annoying, that "secret society" didn't add anything to the movie for me, and anyway they would have just explained the filmed evidence away as some kind of viral marketing campaign, and it'd be yesterdays news. Who knows, maybe the whole thing was actually a documentary and the studios marketed it as a fictional film and sold it to us

@kyleforrester87 All valid criticisms.

The film could probably have used a few less on-the-nose lines about the superhero analogy (I'll admit to rolling my eyes a bit when Elijah's mother decided to join in on the hamminess by explaining what a showdown is. Or: "This isn't a showdown. It was an origin story all along!"). And, yeah, the climactic twist being the inability of a massive shadow society to remove a video from Youtube, or even just recontextualize the footage by putting pressure on the national media isn't... great. With that said, the moment-to-moment of it throughout is great, and, coming off a year defined by the bloated mass that is Avengers: Infinity War, I liked that Shyamalan's film felt like a pseudo-grandiose satire of it.

And, to be honest, I really like the secret society that kills supers. It makes perfect sense in the context of that universe, and is also a great mockery of America's political landscape, which is consumed by paranoia about shadowy forces intent on controlling and/or destroying all opposition.

@Th3solution You risk offending people any time you play with controversial themes that go to deeply personal places, such as child abuse and mental illness. I honestly had to be badgered into seeing the film, as it looked like it was designing to exploit public fears about mental illness (I'm not generally a huge advocate of artists needing to be "socially responsible" with their art, as I find that's a quick way for prudes and censors to shut down diverging viewpoints and enforce their moral whims on everyone else, but there's absolutely something troubling about the majority of cinematic depictions of mental illness linking it to violence and depravity when actual data on the subject doesn't bear this out). I feel like Shyamalan is coming from a good place with the way he approaches these themes, and he's more interested in the potential that comes with re-mythologizing aspects of human life that have been rendered utterly clinical by modern society. I would have been more comfortable had the film gone a different direction with it, though. Why does the guy with DID have to a serial killer who literally consumes young women? Why not use the superhero analogy to create a character who is able to uses his abilities for good? Imagine this scenario: DID is still a super-power, and, instead of preying on the innocent like a monster, he's a spy working for the government who is able to use the drastic changes in personality and body language when he switches to do his job better. Or something to that effect.

@Th3solution I knew about Maul beforehand, but then almost totally forgot about him because the film picked me up and carried me through a maelstrom of happy distractions so effectively, so I absolutely got chills when he finally appeared. I thought he was fantastic; not only a brilliant final twist for Qi'ra and her storyline, but also a lovely way to integrate Solo into the pre-existing criminal underworld of the Star Wars universe, which had been so richly explored and defined by The Clone Wars. As I said before, I'm deeply saddened by the fact that we'll likely never get to see Qi'ra make that rendezvous, which was likely the set-up for the Boba Fett film. Can you imagine seeing those two together, in a film, fighting either side-by-side or against one another in some massive battle for control of the underworld? Fanboy overload!

@Ralizah You're right. The difference is like night and day, and it's very worrying. Rogue One and Solo were apparently "production nightmares" and yet the two numbered episodes that went swimmingly turned out to be supremely average films at best. Bizarre.

If only the echo chamber of the internet didn't latch onto every shred of controversy and pre-judge the heck out of these things before seeing them. I miss the 90s.

Ok, so coming out of Glass today after watching Split yesterday. I would say the film went precisely where I expected it to go, and for a Shyamalan film, that’s not what I’m wanting. Glass definitely felt like a continuation of Split, with the inclusion of the Unbreakable tease at the end. Watching the two films back-to-back has its advantages and disadvantages. It resulted in Glass feeling less unique and fresh, but it allowed me to remember all the parts of the plot, including all of Kevin’s personalities, which I wonder if it was harder for those who hadn’t seen Split since 2 years ago struggled getting caught back up. But overall, it just made the two films seem one larger piece despite a definite different tone that Glass brings to the table.
In a nutshell, the acting was solid, the overall narrative and ideas were decent, the plot twists were below average for M. Night, but still good. And the ending was satisfying but also a little disappointing, if that makes sense. I think the biggest issue the film has is it’s pacing. The build up and tension is weakened by a lack of investment in character development and the film relies wholly on the previous two films to carry over whatever connection the viewer may have to the protagonists and antagonists. It just seems to lull a bit while setting up the scenario, and the pay off suffers for it. I will say that I agree with those who state the film is a breath of fresh air in the sense it doesn’t rely on Marvel and DC CG glitz and special effects hyperbole when telling a comic hero story. It is its own thing, even if it feels a little deflated by presenting to us the same basic theme we’ve now seen a dozen times I think. Even Incredibles 2 had the same tired “society/mortals vs superheroes” narrative. Batman v Superman, Avengers 2 / Captain America Civil War, X-men franchise films, etc, etc. Even books have copied the formula - ex. The Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson. It’s the same idea that individuals with super human traits should be feared and controlled by mortals, and those vigilantes doing good need to be reined in. And that large secret societies of humans or government agencies need to work to suppress the superhumans... well, it’s just getting a little old
But I did enjoy the film — It was different enough from other popular films today, even if it was similar to Shyalaman’s other works.

Speaking of, I said I’d rank my favorite MNS films, and anyone can feel free to disagree or discuss.
1- Sixth Sense
2- Unbreakable
3- Signs
4- The Visit
5- Split
6- The Villiage
7- Glass
8- After Earth
9- The Last Airbender
10- Lady in the Water

There are a couple of his I haven’t seen, but this is most of them I think. The main one I missed was The Happening, so not sure where it would fit but it’s not very highly revered in general. At their best, his movies are fantastic, and at their worst (Lady in the Water) they are just plain awful. Of course this is just my opinion and others may feel differently.

have you seen some of the comments from one of the stars and the director of the 2016 Ghostbusters Reboot blaming "Toxic fans" and "sexists" for Sony doing a film in the Original continuity and not a sequel to their film

it has nothing to do with any of that and yes there are some toxic fans but that is true of ANY fanbase, the reason it's not getting a sequel is because it lost Sony $70 Million, you can't expect a film to get a sequel if your lose that much money

plus people are just sick of Hollywood rebooting everything, we would rather have new entries in old franchise

on a side note the 2016 film was OK, nothing special but certainly not as bad as many make out it is

anyway the question here is, are you sick of hollywood rebooting everything or do think reboots are what they should be doing?

@FullbringIchigo Yep.

She's way off base and trying to make it something it isn't. Regardless of the surrounding vitriol - the 2016 film was poor right through from conception to execution. It has no redeeming features.

First and foremost, It did damage to what should be a lucrative franchise - Sony obviously want to make as much money as possible, so moving in the direction that they think will bring in more money is the sensible option.

Jones had a crap part in a crap film and she knows it.

I'd prefer new IP for the most part - but some of my favourite films have been remakes (The Fly springs instantly to mind).

Hollywood should just choose it's battles in that regard; take a much loved property like Ghostbusters for instance - it was a dumb move to reboot, a dumber move to hire Paul Fieg and an equally dumber move to have a female central cast 'because reasons'. Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II weren't slack SNL 'comedy' - they were tight and well written with largely well portrayed characterisations. 2016 was anything but. So no surprise that it tanked.

Whereas The Fly - a loose remake of a mostly forgotten film in a vividly different style was an excellent venture.

@Th3solution I haven't actually seen Signs for some reason 😂

@kyleforrester87 Starts really, really well! The last 1/2 to 1/3 is pretty crap.

@kyleforrester87 Yeah, many feel its Shyalaman’s best. The tension building is much better than his other films outside of Sixth Sense. I quite like the ending, but I can see how some might find it anticlimactic.

So... Black Panther and those Oscar nominations... what much is there to say apart from, what a crock!

@KALofKRYPTON i don't really pay any attention to awards anymore especially for TV or film as they are all a load of bull now a days and just a way for the creators to stroke their own egos

take the NTA awards for example when a person who did nothing all year can still win just because the guy he normally works with was still doing shows just shows how stupid they all are (and yes i am talking about Ant & Dec and how those unfunny idiots win so may awards is beyond me)

@FullbringIchigo It just makes any genuine progressive moves in America look desperate.

Black Panther is bang-average when compared even with the rest of the Marvel slate.

@KALofKRYPTON well i rather enjoyed Black Panther but yeah it's not the best of the Marvel series