Topic: The Movie Thread

@LN78 @WanderingBullet
Not sure what's left to say in the Matrix. Certainly with Neo and Trinity. We all know the sequels aren't great, but they wrapped it up good & proper. I expect retconning and more convoluted dirge.

Perhaps Neo & Trin become the Merovingian and Persephone in the restarted Matrix from the end of Revolutions and work against the new 'One'...

Also, lets not forget the W's last 'big' films haven't exactly landed well. I quite enjoyed Cloud Atlas, but Jupiter Ascending was all kinds of pap! Pap!

Lol I didn't like any of the Matrix films 😅

Not quite sure why they've let The Wachowskis (Or rather only one of them) make another matrix film as you said @KALofKRYPTON the last few films they put out were tosh (Cloud Atlas was pretty unique but very polarising)

That show sense8 they did was well recieved enough... But was canceled from the low views and it seems a bit mad to hand them the keys to a big budget film after all of that.

Especially when the films already came to a conclusion... But then what do I know?

This is Hollywood where they'll give the keys to Robocop, Godzilla and other 100+ million dollar budgeted movies to directors who've done bugger all and somehow be surprised when it doesn't do as well as they've expected

Also I can't believe Venom did that well... One of the worst films I've seen recently and definitely the worst preformance I've seen from Tom Hardy too

@KALofKRYPTON I honestly don't know how Venom did so well at the box office. I thought the movie was terrible, tbh. Having watched ASM1, ASM2 and Venom I don't have a lot of faith in Sony. Sigh, at least there's still the Spider-verse animation(s).

Kevin Feige coming back from the meeting with Sony be like, "I lost the kid."

Enough time has passed since 3, you’ve got to wonder why they are doing it if they aren’t confident about it, so it could be decent.

Or it could be Alien Resurrection all over again.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
Loved the first, still do. I can tolerate the sequels - there's good stuff there, but The Matrix one whole, the MMO, the short films was very much of it's time.
I've no idea where the the story could go in any satisfying way. But unlike a difficult to adapt new IP like Cloud Atlas or just the unwavering tosh of Jupiter Ascending - a CGI fest followup to a much loved franchise with Keanu released in the next couple of years isn't going to lose anyone any money.

I'm surprised Venom turned out so well. Pleasantly actually. It turns in to a bit of a visual mess in the finale but, pretty good.

I can't stand Tom Hardy at the best of times (the best of times being Shinzon )- he has 4 variations of voice for 3 characterisations. He's rather boring to watch most of the time, and his work in Venom isn't great or anything, but the film carried him quite well.

At least we can have both Venom and Spider-Man with terrible american accents

Thanks in large part to Disney/Marvel - stand alone genre films are becoming scarce, and sequels and reboots are still the order of the day as most of the big studios want to fall back on the 'easy money' of previously successful IP. Shame really.

This remind me that I managed to have an almost heated discussion on why Ghostbusters 3 has already really annoyed me!

@LN78 A couple of the games were great fun. And the Animatrix was also really nicely done.

@kyleforrester87 the Keanusance $$$

@WanderingBullet I'm not a fan of MCU Spidey anyway - so I'm really not all that fussed if Holland's run is cut short. I think without Marvel being involved, the best idea would be to dive right in with a live action Spiderverse film and see where they can take it.

@LN78 If you have a PS2 - grab Enter The Matrix. That game was great fun!

Honestly, in terms of actual video based media - it's second only to the first film and a great example of allowing other creatives to pick up and run with a fresh IP. I don't think anything like it had been done before. It felt pretty innovative - and I think would still hold up viewed today.

@LN78 Sony have wanted their own wider Spider-Man franchise since the Raimi days. Whether Holland stays on board or not, Disney (and the sacks of Far From Home cash) may have given them the impetus to go for it now.

Spider-Man is a better character on his own, in his own pocket of New York. I know people will rage against a lack of MCU characters in whatever may come next, but it forces someone to write a better script, come up with a better plot than just lean in to the MCU for likes.

I really like all three Matrix films, and I don't wanna watch John Wick or play Cyberpunk 2077, so I'm quite pleased to hear the news of the franchise's return because at least I'll have some form of "Keanu Reeves kicking butt" entertainment to look forward to.

Tagging @KALofKRYPTON based on previous discussion...

So I just watched Batman: Hush. I haven't actually read the source material yet (a special edition hardback has been sitting on my shelf for well over a year, still sealed) so my ability to judge its effectiveness as an adaptation is limited, but I can sure as heck judge it as a 90-minute Batman movie. That being said, I do already know the central point / twist regarding the character of Hush, thanks to him popping up in various other media (most notably Arkham City and Arkham Knight).

Which meant I was caught off-guard by the seemingly-random decision to actually kill Thomas Elliot and have Hush turn out to be the Riddler. Once I'd gotten over the surprise, I couldn't figure out whether I felt cheated by an incomplete and inaccurate rendering of Hush's character, or entertained by the twist in a film where even I, somebody who didn't know the story, thought I knew where it was all heading. Given that the conclusion was well-animated, with plenty of weight and drama in the fight that had been lacking from the previous action sequences, I think I've settled on the latter (but once I've read the comic, I can see myself swinging the other way).

What I generally didn't like was the story's integration of Catwoman. She isn't my favourite character to begin with, and so I quickly grew frustrated with the efforts to redeem her. Although there were some cute moments peppered throughout her redemption, enough to make it worthwhile, I could see the ending coming a mile off. What I didn't expect was the awful final scene, in which Catwoman lectures Batman for trying to save Hush's life. In a muddled mix of editing, voice direction and music, it comes across like we're supposed to be siding with her for murdering him, and that somehow Batman trying to do good is actually bad. Whether this tone-deaf scene is a result of a specific writer's influence, or whether it was the original intent of the source material, it just felt bitter and mean-spirited towards Batman, towards hope and towards heroism.

Those points aside, it was another enjoyable animated outing in the DC Universe, with a surprisingly high number of "Hey, it's that guy!" moments and a decent pace. Worth keeping.

@RogerRoger ah. Do give it a read. I'd say that the key missing element of the animation is Batman's inner monologue.
It's something that can be surplanted by other forms of exposition, as has been successfully elsewhere. But an important thread of the book is set up pretty early on with Batman's fall from his line. And that is is physical and emotional state. The fall coming what feels like far later in the film just makes it a rather pedestrian plot point.

The Catwoman stuff is overdone in the film. She's nowhere near as intrusive in the comic, but she seems more influenced by more recent comic offerings than what was in Hush.

It really is one of the few DC animated films that feels like it just didn't stick the landing. The ingredients are all there, but it just wasn't that good a watch. Conversely, I really enjoyed Batman vs Ninja Turtles! Which by rights, should've been crap!

@KALofKRYPTON Gotcha. As and when I read the comic, I'll give further impressions but for now, we can agree that it doesn't stick the landing, if only for different reasons.

Very nearly picked up Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a "I know this'll be a fun and nonsense" antidote, just in case Hush wasn't my favourite. Based on your comment, I may go back and grab it whilst I still can.

The first Matrix movie is excellent. I've never actually seen the sequels, but from the general reaction people seem to have about them, I'm not particularly bothered about watching Matrix 2 and 3 before 4 is released.

@RogerRoger @KALofKRYPTON Hush has been on my radar for ages now and I noticed there was a animated film released recently. Will defo give them both a go in the near future, possibly after I've finished the new 52 run of Batman. Hopefully I will fare better then with The Killing Joke, I was left bitterly disappointed by both the film and graphic novel.

@JohnnyShoulder Just as a simple piece of superhero popcorn fodder, the Hush film has ten times the entertainment value of The Killing Joke. It's unremarkable, but it beats doing the housework, whereas I'd rather clean my drains than re-watch The Killing Joke.

@crimsontadpoles Whatever nonsense they concoct to justify another sequel, I would recommend watching the trilogy as a whole, with The Animatrix before Reloaded and Revolutions - as there will have to be some continuity callbacks.
I was pretty annoyed with the sequels at the time of release and beyond, but the overall story is decent - and my opinion of them is little better with the passage of time.

@JohnnyShoulder as Rog says, both book and film of Hush are leagues better the The Killing Joke counterparts.

@LN78 Not even Batman Forever?!

@LN78 Ha. Understandable. I do really like Batman Forever, for all of the faults.

B&R, properly terrible, but it's hilarity after a couple of beers with mates is genuinely hard to beat!

@LN78 That's showmanship(!) for you

Tom Cruise's currently prepping to shoot two Mission Impossible movies in a row (back to back). The first one's slated for a 2021 release followed by 2022 for the second movie. Looking forward to see what sort of crazy stunts they come up with next.

Tom will be 60 years old by then!