Topic: The Movie Thread

@LN78 The Mandalorian takes place a few years after Return of the Jedi

@LN78 nah that was Rebels

@LN78 There are a couple of things in the Marvel line up that have me interested, but I've gone from being hyped for every release to just seeing how each film turns out. All the connectivity of everything was a bit tiresome in the end. My favourite super hero flicks of recent times are (in no order) Deadpool, Logan, Into The Spider-Verse, Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr Strange. Rewind a few years and no Fox or Sony ones would be in there.

I'll have to agree with the sentiment that recently, my favorite superhero films have been the more standalone stuff (i.e. Into the Spider-Verse, The Wolverine, and even the LEGO Batman Movie, which I recently watched, was a hoot).

@LN78 Yeah Dredd was awesome. I know it is not a movie but have you seen a The Boys on Amazon Prime? It's got the same leading actor, Karl Urban. His dodgy accent aside, everyone I know that has seen it has good things to say about it. Can't wait to watch when I next subscribe to Prime.

I watched It (2017) today after a close friend of mine kept telling me to watch it. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan. I'm not the biggest fan of the horror genre in general, but The Haunting of Hill House was my favourite TV show last year. I had hoped It would be more like that, and less like the generically "scary" film it ended up being. Watching it felt like the creators tried to come up with something scary every scene to put you on edge, which for me just eliminates all tension and makes the movie predictable and repetitive when it focuses solely on that. The Losers Club was all fairly one dimensional, with the exception of Beverly who had a slight bit more characterisation. The movie was pretty and well shot at least, I'll give it that. I suppose a lot of it just comes down to personal preference, but I just don't appreciate the whole scare-a-minute structure of (most?) horror films. Even worse when, like this movie, the scares aren't even actually that scary.

Into the Spider-verse is arguably the best Spider-man movie but I was surprised that it only made $375.5 million worldwide at the box office. It's the lowest among all the Spider-man movies. Even Spider-man 3 and Venom made $800+ million.

Watched MIB International over the weekend. Still not entirely sure why

It's not the worst film I've ever seen, not even the worst MIB film (here's looking at you, MIB2) - but it starts so very badly. I'd say that the first quarter - if not third of the film had me so close to switching it off that I'd have been raging if I'd paid to see it at the cinema.

It does recover, to the point where I suspect that much of the film was shot by different people. Hemsworth is the weak link, unsurprisingly, his jolly idiot by-way-of-Thor performance really doesn't do much for him. Thompson is fine, Neeson is Neeson etc etc.

Don't go out of your way to see it

@LN78 Haven't seen El Royale; saw him in some crappy hack type thing and a couple of other roles. I think his success in Rush is having such a wealth of interview footage of Hunt to draw from.

Only really seen Thompson in the MCU stuff and Creed I think, she's good though. Seems to have a knack for bringing a certain verisimilitude to her delivery.

@LN78 Yeah I've got some of the comic books so am interested to see how the series compares. A couple of mates that have seen say it took a couple of episodes for their brains to disconnect from the comic books. Thanks for the heads up!

Also thought Hemsworth was good playing against type in El Royale, although the ending for me was not entirely convincing in its execution.

@RogerRoger Unless you want a permanent Transformers 2 face I would avoid the other Ocean's films. If you are after a good heist movies I can reccomend American Animals which I saw yesterday. It is based on a true story of 4 university kids who plan to steal a number of rare books worth 12 million. What made it a bit more interesting for me is that cuts between interviews and narration of the real life people involved with the actual telling of the film. It is all done really seamlessly. At times the people will tell different versions of events, and the film will change things accordingly. This could the colour of someone's scarf to where something happened. I quite liked that and it doesn't take itself too seriously, almost mocking how cliche some things are. They even use the same Elvis Presley song from one of the Ocean's film in one scene. There is no one really famous, the only actor I recognised is the guy who plays Quicksilver the the recent X Men films. He does a good job of playing this squirrelly unhinged type of character.

@JohnnyShoulder Thanks for the recommendation! We got the Blu-Ray trilogy so we'll likely suffer the third, skip Ocean's Eight and seek out American Animals as an antidote, as it sounds really interesting. I also think that Quicksilver (couldn't tell you his real name) would play that type of character really well; he has that kinda quality about him in a natural, underlying way, so I'm not surprised that you were impressed.

@LN78 Ah, thanks for that; he's the chap, yeah. Good actor.

***

Just watched The Transporter as I was in the mood for something simple, and I struggle to think of a better, more refined action flick. Coming in at just under 90 minutes, there's nothing superfluous added to the straightforward story. It's just a well-shot, well-made blast that knows what it is, and has a little fun with itself along the way. Such projects could easily be overloaded with characters and stretched to over two hours, and probably would be nowadays, but it would've been completely unnecessary. Just steer clear of the sequels!

@RogerRoger I really enjoyed Ocean's Thirteen, although I did delay watching it for years, since I was so scarred by the second film. Ocean's Eight wasn't terrible either to be honest, but it wasn't great.

Ocean's Twelve is just such a bad, bad film. So bad. The Julia Roberts bit - what were they thinking????? I'm usually pretty laid back when it comes to film and will find the positives in any old rubbish, but Ocean's Twelve had me ranting for ages afterwards.

@Gremio108 Thanks; glad it wasn't just me (because hey, given the track record of my opinions, it usually is). It was a genuine struggle to get through. Normally I'd look at the cast and go "Surely one of these talented people would've said something? No?" but I'm convinced nobody had a complete script or overview of the whole thing. It was just made in pieces, ten minutes at a time, and then mashed together.

It's a wonder they got a third film, but I did see that the back of the box was keen to stress that it was "a return to Las Vegas and the characters' roots" which is Hollywood code for "yeah, we know the last one sucked, please give us another chance" so I had some hope... which you've just doubled, cheers.

@RogerRoger When even the smooth operator that is Vincent Cassel can't save it, you're done for.

Ocean's 13 does indeed have much more in common with 11. If anything it's a little less daft and a bit more down to earth, although I might be misremembering and I should probably give it another watch before recommending it so highly. Oh well.

I’ve been wondering when to report on this, and I guess now is as good a time as any to give the counter-point to the MCU, since there is a general consensus here that the movies are at best, over-rated and at worst, a travesty of cinema. Some of you may remember I wanted to watch all the movies again, and I’m happy to relay, I’m half way there —

My intent when I took on the Sisyphean task of watching all 22 MCU movies in rapid succession was to report, at least in broad strokes, what my impressions were in re-experiencing the series as one epic piece. To see if watching 11 years worth of films in the course of a few weeks would help the long running diegesis hold up. Of course nearly 60 hours of Superhero antics is more than anyone should have to endure, but I’m a glutton for punishment.

The original thought in my twisted mind was to watch one movie every couple nights and then culminate with seeing End Game for only my second time once it was released for home consumption. Well, the concluding entry of the Infinity Stone thread has been released now for a while and I am still far from it. I have watched 11 of the 22 movies over the last 2 months and I am committed to watching the last 10 before I experience End Game again. Ideally, I’d hoped to see the saga of the Infinity Stones crystallize more overtly through a re-watch, and for the most part, I think that’s what is happening. But it is taking me longer than I originally thought it would take to go through the series.

A breakdown of each individual movie is definitely beyond the scope of this post and would probably result in a permanent ban for the sheer boredom it would create. But I will say that there is definite synergy between the different installments — more so than I originally realized. I knew that the producers had a long term plan for where the overarching plot lines were supposed to be going, and this is clear in not only the bread crumbs that are left scattered randomly through the films, but more obviously in most of the post credits scenes which invariably hint at future story points.

Part of the genius of the series is the glorified McGuffins known as the Infinity Stones. Years ago, when I originally watched Capt America: The First Avenger and Thor, I didn’t really understand the importance of the Tesseract. And clearly when I first saw Thor: Dark World, I had no idea what to make of the Aether. Seeing all the movies back-to-back with the end game in mind has added a layer of enjoyment and depth to the series.

I have to say that of the first 11 films (and I am watching them not in order of release, but in order of storyline chronology) Guardians of the Galaxy stands out as a movie that just puts a smile on your face no matter how many times you see it. Perhaps it helps that, with the introduction of the power stone, it’s the first film to overtly offer the exposition regarding the stones and their significance. But actually, I think it’s mostly the levity that makes it so fun to watch.
The most disappointing film so far? Probably The Incredible Hulk or Capt. America: The First Avenger. Both are quite boring when compared to the latter outings. Both lack the humor that is seen in the rest of the MCU and they seem to take themselves too seriously.

I guess one of the most jarring aspects of trying to watch the films in quick succession is a couple notable inconsistencies. First of all, Howard Stark’s character is so integral into establishing much of the early storyline, but I think he was handled poorly. First of all the Howard Stark from TFA, the one who is working on the super solider project, and showing off his flying car invention at the expo, and working with the only known supply of vibranium in the world to make a shield, and doing experiments on the otherworldly power of the Tessaract, and developing the answer to the world’s energy crisis with the arc reactor, and working on the Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb, and collaborating with Hank Pym on the Pym particle, oh... and flying the plane for Cap’s reconnaissance mission (!? okay, isn’t this getting a little ridiculous?) Sure, superhero movies are not supposed to be believable or founded in reality, but the role of Howard Stark seems so unusual, and random.
I think the change of actors from young Stark (Dominic Cooper) to old Stark(John Slattery) is jarring as well. They really don’t seem like the same person, and I mean more than just their appearance. They don’t act remotely the same. Young Stark is kind of this forgettable, stand-in actor to help the story move along, with no meaningful character development. As the viewer, you don’t foster any connection or interest in him, despite his being at the core of everything Avengers and SHIELD related. The older Stark, as seen in the later Iron Man and Cap America films flashbacks, is much more interesting to me. His strained relationship with Tony is something I can find interesting, and seems more believable. But it’s as if the two portrayals of Stark are two different people entirely. (I should remark that I haven’t watched the TV shows - “Agents of SHIELD” or “Agent Carter” which supposedly adds to the characterization of young Stark)

The sudden change of actor for the Rhodey/War Machine and for Bruce Banner was also disrupting to the continuity, but they didn’t bother me as much as Howard Stark.

These quibbles aside, I am really enjoying the series again. I do have reservations about what the next phase of the MCU might bring, but I think they will continue to print money. I’m sure the freight train will slow down eventually, but so far it appears to still be lumbering ahead with massive momentum.

@Gremio108 Fun fact (well I think it is a fact), the script for Oceans Twelve wasn't meant to be a Oceans film but was changed to it to get the sequel fast tracked.

Just my two cents - Ocean's Eight is a pretty crap film. There isn't a single believable relationship or exchange of dialogue in the whole thing. It's entirely a contrivance built around one idea that falls pretty flat.

It could be helped if the two leads were able to actually emote with their faces; Cate Blanchett's face is mostly immobile, and Bullock appears to be wearing a Michael Jackson death mask for most of the film. Reshoots are pretty easy to spot as I recall, as Bullock's face especially is rather different looking in a couple of scenes.

If anything, it's a(nother) damning indictment of fairly standard expectations of older women in Hollywood.

@Gremio108 If we hate Ocean's Thirteen, I'll hunt you down.

@Rudy_Manchego

I can believe that. Suddenly it all makes perfect sense.

@KALofKRYPTON Thankfully, the Blu-Ray collection didn't include Ocean's Eight. Cate Blanchett will forever be Colonel Spalko to me, so I think we'll skip it anyway.

***

@Th3solution Awesome post. The other day, my best friend finally got to see Avengers Endgame and whilst we were discussing it, I thought to myself "Oh yeah, wasn't @Th3solution going through all of the Marvel films in sequence? I wonder how he's getting along?"

And if I'm honest, I'm impressed that you even made it halfway. If your only major gripes thusfar are the rushed re-casting of a few key roles, and the fact that Howard Stark is all things to all men, then it just goes to show what an effective job Marvel have actually managed over the however-many-years. On that specific point about Howard Stark, it's unfortunately a trend I've noticed in a couple other long-running franchises; for example, every new bit of Star Trek we've been getting of late seems to end up revolving around Spock. Whilst the impetus might be different (Spock sells t-shirts, whereas I can't imagine Howard Stark ever being a kid's first choice of action figure) there's definitely an over-reliance on interconnectivity in larger fictional universes of late. It's like they think the audience needs reminding of what they're watching with a quick nudge and wink of name recognition.

Oddly enough, you highlight Captain America: The First Avenger as a lowlight in the franchise, but I remember really enjoying it. Might have something to do with watching it alongside Thor and Iron Man 2 in a quick DVD catch-up session whilst visiting a friend, and I'm not one for the mythological trappings of the former, nor did I particularly enjoy Tony Stark's spiral of depression in the latter... although having said that, it might also have something to do with the fact that I didn't realise the extent of Marvel's universe-building at the time, so just viewed The First Avenger as a one-off WW2 superhero flick with Two-Face and Agent Smith in it. On that level, it works.

Best of luck as you continue; looking forward to your concluding thoughts!

Did you guys know that John Krasinski was initially Marvel's first choice to play Captain America? Nothing against Krasinski, but I think it's great that Evans got the role since he looks more the part.
I also thought that Emily Blunt would've been a good choice for Black Widow back then. Now there are rumours that Marvel are eyeing both of them to be Reed and Sue Richards for the Fantastic Four reboot.