Topic: The Movie Thread

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

I didn't expect much from it, but Black Panther was definitely the best Marvel film I've seen in years.

But then, I find most Marvel films, with their sky beams, bloated casts, incoherent action scenes, and quippy dialogue to be mediocre at best.

Yeah, I enjoyed Black Panther quite a bit, but it's nomination for best picture (despite not having any noms for any other of the big awards such as screenplay, director, actor/actress, etc.) comes across as a "please don't start a hashtag movement against us" move. Heck, even though it got some technical noms (I think sound & costuming), it wasn't even nominated for visual effects.

lol

I remember the way bloggers and "social critics" started piling on the moment a professional critic had the audacity to post a negative review of the film.

Even funnier was the reaction to Ghostbusters 2016. At the time of release, any criticism was dismissed as "misogyny" or some other nastiness, but, at some point, a lot of these same people began to quietly admit that the film wasn't actually very good, but that they couldn't admit it freely at the time because of the culture war implications.

@RR529 that's not surprising, the visual effects really pittered out at the end, the fight between the 2 "Panthers" looked almost like a PS2 game at times

Not sure how up to date this is, but apparently the Uncharted movie is still in the works as Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake as part of a globe trotting family.... sigh.

And a Just Dance movie is being made, with the director of Peter Rabbit... double sigh.

@JohnnyShoulder Urgh... I hoped that one dead. An Uncharted movie could work - but it really would need a cracking script to stand out. and a lead capable of a better American accent.

@JohnnyShoulder @KALofKRYPTON i don't understand why they make live action movies based on games, just make a CG movie and use the original voice cast, that way the characters we see are ACTUALLY the characters we love

i know Square got flack for Advent Children but at least that was actually Final Fantasy with the proper characters so it actually felt like a FF movie

@FullbringIchigo Trying to crest the wave...

The Uncharted problem is that the treasure hunting action adventure movie has been done a lot, and fairly well. So it has to be a really good effort to first make a great film, and something the baked in gamer audience will pay to see.

@KALofKRYPTON @FullbringIchigo The short movie with Nathan Fillion is probably the best we are gonna get.

I don't know why they still bother. The best video game movies are the ones not actually based on an existing video game. Edge of Tomorrow springs to mind.

I watched Solo last night. Although some of the moments were a bit predictable, it was great fun. It reminded me of the feeling I got from the original trilogy. Everyone in it was good as well.