Topic: The Movie Thread

Aliens is my favourite of the series, closely followed by Alien. Alien is a great horror film - I like how for most of it, the alien isn't seen, building up a lot of tension. Nostromo is dark and claustrophobic, making for an excellent setting. Aliens goes the other way, and is one of the best action films ever made. It's just awesome. The cast have real chemistry, and Sigourney Weaver is on top form. The action is over the top. It also has one of the best lines.

I actually did really enjoy Alien Resurrection when I watched it for the first time back when it was released on VHS (I was too young to watch it in the cinema). On repeat viewings its flaws have really become apparent and I dislike what it does to Ripley's character even if she is a clone.

The problem with the new ones is that they vastly overcomplicate the story for no real reason. I don't think it adds anything of value to the series, especially when taking such a convoluted route to connect to the original Alien. Prometheus, I liked a lot, despite a slightly confusing plot. Alien Covenant was less enjoyable. I didn't like that they killed off Noomi Rapace and turned Michael Fassbender's character into a villain.

AvP. So, so bad. AvP Requiem, I knew it was going to be bad so wasn't too fussed.
What grinds my gears about those films is that there is so very much good comic content from the Dark Horse series that they could've used but didn't bother. Shameless cash grabs and nothing more.

Prometheus is the 'big money' coupled with 'no one to say no' effect (Star Wars prequels, anyone?). The studio gave Scott carte blanche to do whatever he wanted; unfortunately what he wanted was to inject an intellectual undercurrent to a franchise that didn't require one via the means of almost obtuse posturing. Assigning unnecessary import to the Space Jockeys and Weyland in a crude attempt at building connections to the xenos. As said before, it looks and sounds great, but it really isn't.

So not great, it is rendered almost entirely moot by Covenant as Scott tries to come to terms with the fact that Prometheus was little short of poorly received self-indulgence. And frankly, Covenant is little short of effing stupid; from the very start of the film, nothing makes the slightest bit of sense beyond extremely lazy plot contrivances.

The main thing that bothers me about Prometheus and Covenant is that in being produced, Scott and his hubris essentially blocked Neill Blomkamp from making his Aliens sequel; which would very likely have been along the lines of the Hell on Earth comics with Sigourney Weaver on board to boot.
Sadly, it's very likely that Blomkamp will never get his shot at making an Aliens picture. Which really is a massive shame, since even his 'Hollywood' movie was better put together than most of what was released around the same time.

If any of you haven't gone through the recent releases from his OATS studio project, I highly recommend them. Especially Zygote!

@RogerRoger T2 on top. T1 really is fantastic though. Salvation is pretty dire and Genysysysys is just, awful.
While T3 really does suffer without Cameron at the helm, even Mostow couldn't fudge the entire thing with in jokes and lazy humour. Terminator 3 does one thing really, really well - and that is the ending. It is actually a highlight of the whole franchise.

I highly recommend The Outlaws (Korean movie). It's based on true events, and the story is about a turf war between local gangs in Seoul and a gang (illegal immigrants) from China. A small crime unit lead by a fearless officer is tasked to stop the gang war and bring peace to the small town.

Amazing performance by Ma Dong-seok. If you've watched Train to Busan, he was the big tough guy.

@WanderingBullet Going to check this out just because I loved that actor in Train to Busan!

Watched Star Trek 2 Wrath of Khan yesterday, a celebrated all time classic. Doesn't quite measure up to some of the other legendary films of the 80s but I did enjoy it, good fun. Was definitely worth a watch.

@LieutenantFatman It is a fine entry in the series - and the shift to the more focused, action-oriented movies that Paramount wanted.
I'd recommend The Undiscovered Country - it's easily the best (scripted, paced, directed, shot) of the original crew movies.

@KALofKRYPTON
Thanks, I'll try to convince my wife to watch it with me. I think she much prefers the episodes though so far, having watched the 2nd & 4th film so far.

@LieutenantFatman Well, The Motion Picture is much more like an extended episode, and really very good for it too despite being much maligned. 3, 4 and 5 really do nothing for me. They're largely stagnant, though Search for Spock has some great moments.

TNG is in full swing by the time The Undiscovered Country was made - and it really benefits from having such a tight production already going.

The TNG films mostly feel like extended episodes - which I don't have any issue with. Insurrection is the weakest for me with First Contact and Generations out front.

Like most people, I've never been massively fond of Nemesis - but having read some over the subsequent novels now - contextualising the events has certainly helped me appreciate it more.

@KALofKRYPTON
Thanks, I appreciate the recommendation, I've seen parts of 6 but never from start to finish, looking forward to enjoying it properly.

On a whim, I watched The Road last night.

I became interested in the book after playing The Last of Us back a few years ago. I had heard that there was a similarity in the book and the game. I’m not sure anyone at Naughty Dog has said they officially got inspiration from Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, but the game does have a reminiscent feel to it. Although there are no “infected” in the book, and the post apocalyptic setting is never really explained, the sun has been blotted out, the world is in chaos, and there is no food. People are scavenging for the rare supplies left over. The book is really more about the man and the boy (interestingly never named) surviving as they migrate and scavenge and about their relationship and what humankind has become in such dire circumstances.
The book is very good, even though McCarthy has a weird narrative style. It’s a quick and easy read if you’re interested.
How does the movie hold up? Well, it is eerily filmed, does a great job of showing the dark and desperate world. It takes a few liberties to show memories of the protagonist’s wife which I don’t think are in the book. I can’t remember. Also, the movie makes it clear the boy is his son, but I think in the book it never really says that and it’s left open for interpretation. Overall a pretty good movie adaptation, but not as good as the book. Nor as good as The Last of Us. But it’s better than a lot of movies out there.

I watched Annihilation finally as it passed me by on release. Never read the book and didn't buy in to the 'whitewashing' controversy either.

It is very nicely shot, scripted and acted. Garland really has a way of filming people that makes staged situations seem natural - even when they're anything but. I suppose that could come off as just being janky camera angles, but even in the one minimal sex scene in the film - it feels incredibly intimate without being at all graphic.
Performances are generally good, with Gina Rodriguez probably being the weakest link; though her character is given short shrift in service of the narrative.

Effects work is generally good too - other than a couple of darker moments, the world created is vibrant and believable.

Audio is sublime - if a little bit generic.

I see why Paramount took the decision to offload it to Netflix internationally though. I get the feeling that even the likes of 2001 would be released to stream rather than a studio gamble on box office receipts from anything slightly intellectual these days.

I would recommend a watch.

@Th3solution I got a more Fallout 3/4 vibe from The Road.

@JohnnyShoulder I haven’t played the Fallout games but I could see the comparisons there too. The movie alludes the apocalyptic event as a nuclear winter following a bombing, but it could be a solar flare or some other massive burning type event. The book never says. It just states the sun is blocked out.
The comparison to TLoU was the Joel-Ellie and Man-Boy co-dependency during survival. But yeah, the actual post-apocalyptic world is probably more Fallout-esque.

Edit: I have since looked at the book narrative again and I do think it also suggests this is a Father-son relationship. It does also have backstory about the mother in the book, so the movie actually is accurate on that. I guess I was getting it mixed up with the story of Joel and Ellie from TLoU. 😂

@KALofKRYPTON Pretty much any modern "whitewashing controversy" can be dismissed out of hand as hyperbolic trouble-making on the part of hateful race hustlers.

Especially with a movie like this where every major character is female, and half of them are non-white to begin with.

Anyway, I wish I liked the movie more than I did. It's gorgeous, and certainly FEELS like it should be smart sci-fi. But I think it turned out to be kind of a confused mess that didn't know what it really wanted to communicate.

Well, whatever. I'm glad I saw it in theaters anyway, as I'd rather support an interesting failure like this than the comfortable mediocrity that most cinema settles on.

@Ralizah If nothing else - I've come away from it wanting to read the book (I need little encouragement to divert from The Wheel of Time )

@KALofKRYPTON I tried reading The Eye of the World... it didn't go well.

If you do end up reading it, though, please let me know if it's better than the film! It's actually the first part of a trilogy (like everything else today; nobody writes single, complete genre novels anymore, it seems).

@Ralizah I've been in and out of it for years! I'm on book 9 currently.

It's enjoyable for the most part, books 5 and 6 do drag a little and Jordan is really fond of putting his characters through the wringer almost constantly. It's one of the very few fantasy series I've read where there's so very little joy spread amongst it; and what there is - is almost always extremely short lived.

The pace has picked up for books 8 & 9 though.

I've been breaking up entries with Star Trek and Doctor Who books mostly (may as well read all of those EDAs I spent so long collecting!). So a bit of more thoughtful SciFi could be good too.

@Rudy_Manchego Watch it! Personally, I liked The Outlaws way more than Train to Busan. He's also in The Champion but I thought it was a pretty average movie.

So, they’re making a solo Joker movie with Jared Leto, and a stand-alone Joker origin movie with another actor that won’t be related to the other DC movies... Does anyone else think that makin these random off-shoot movies is a terrible idea? They’re literally making two Joker moves that are unrelated to each other.

@Jaz007 Yeah, Joaquin Phoenix is linked to the other Joker movie. Apparently, it'll be a small budget movie. Honestly, I feel like DC themselves doesn't know what they should do. Aquaman's the next movie releasing this year, and Wonder Woman 2 is slated for next year I believe with Kristen Wiig as the villain Cheetah. Another movie they have is Shazam.

Speaking of superhero movies, I watched Ant-Man and The Wasp. It's good but I thought first one was better. It had another throw-away villain and the scene that made the most impact was the first post-credit scene.