Topic: The Movie Thread

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I saw a trailer for the live-action Mulan beforehand. I'm glad they're using this opportunity to give the film a vastly different tone. Feels much more like a wuxia film than another rote adaptation of a classic Disney cartoon.

@RogerRoger @AhmadSumadi I'm of the opinion that TLJ is an interesting film, but that:

A) Rian Johnson isn't who you should give a family-oriented space opera film to if you want it played straight. Snark and subversion are part of his DNA as a director, and they work well in genres where people appreciate these things. For example, Knives Out, his most recent film, was a terrific little whodunnit that was structurally intriguing and, in its own somewhat awkward way, addressed certain social anxieties. Like Ghostbusters and Feig, TLJ was a mismatch of property with director.

B) If you do, for some reason, give Rian Johnson a SW film, make it the last movie in a trilogy, not the middle one. Middle films are far setting the stage for the finale while upping the ante for the heroes. Johnson's specialty is breaking, subverting, and/or deconstructing things.

C) With that said, there are just aspects of TLJ that suck any way you slice it. A lot of the dialogue. The entire casino planet section of the film. The slow motion chase through space. The dynamic between Poe and Holdo and how the intentional lack of communication led to tragedy.

D) It was, at least, as has been said, trying something new, though. And I appreciate that. I like the idea of a SW film that functions as kind of a meta-commentary on heroism, cultural legacies, myth vs reality, etc. instead of re-iterating on the "SPACE NAZIS BAD!" theme over and over again, which is all Abrams seems to be capable of.

E) I think there's a time and a place for creators to burn down their own properties and confront/challenge their audiences. But it works best when the original creators do it themselves, as they fully understand and begin with the implicit trust of the audience.

I guess if I had to sum up my feelings on them:

TFA: Remake of A New Hope, but one that fundamentally doesn't understand what made that film great. Not aggressively bad like certain prequel films, but at least those had the courage to try and tell unique stories in that universe. Not so with this film. Is aggressively bad passion and originality superior to milquetoast mediocrity? That's hard to say. I admire it more, but I don't know if I could sit through the prequels again, whereas I could easily find this on TV, shut off my brain, and (mostly) enjoy it.

TLJ: Interesting approach for the series. With more interesting characters and not as part of a trilogy, this could have been very interesting. It utterly fails as the middle film of a SW trilogy, though, and as a traditional SW film generally. There's also plenty of bad writing aside from the continual subversion of established tropes. I didn't hate it, but it really left the final film in the trilogy with nothing decent to build on.

RoS: Not as unoriginal/unimaginative as TFA was, but the plot feels... yes, very fanfic-y. It also confirms my suspicion that JJ Abrams doesn't have the vision to do anything interesting with the franchise. He turned Star Trek into a series of generic sci-fi films with nostalgia baiting, and he did the same thing to Star Wars.

@WanderingBullet The best part of Rise of Skywalker is absolutely the visuals. That stormy Sith planet was flat out gorgeous to look at in a theater, and I liked a lot of the sequences in space on a purely visual level. It was a gorgeous film.

Also, that one lightsaber battle was pretty well-choreographed, I thought.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Haha, Beauty and the Beast (1991 original) was one of my favorite films, and I was so disappointed by the remake that I still angrily rant about it to this day to my friends/family, who mostly liked it. It fails on so many levels. Subtext becomes text. Belle goes from a nuanced, kind, but very socially disconnected young woman to someone who projects a deep sense of superiority and smugness (Emma Watson was so miscast that I have a hard time even finding the words to describe my disappointment with her dialogue and performance). LeFou goes from a great Mr. Smithers-esque kissass to an endless gay joke. Nobody really nailed the characters they portrayed, which, imo, is mostly down to the director and scriptwriter, who clearly didn't understand why the original film worked so well in the first place. New songs sucked. The pacing sucked. The film sucked. Easily the worst of Disney's remakes.

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With it being the new year and all, I thought I'd (very briefly) go over and discuss films I saw in theaters during 2019. Only new theater films. Counting TV movies, DVDs, Netflix, etc. would put the number into the low-to-mid hundreds, I'm sure.

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21 Bridges - Chadwick Boseman is a steely Clint Eastwood type in this unoriginal but decent crime drama where a hard-boiled police detective hunts down a pair of cop killers who get in over their heads.

Recommend? Yes.

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Ad Astra - Atmospheric, beautifully scored, and filled with gorgeous cinematography, but this science-fiction movie has some unbelievably dumb plot beats that bring it down a bit.

Recommend? Yes; everything besides the plot is great.

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The Addams Family - A decent but mostly disposable family movie that elaborates on now somewhat tired themes about tolerance and friendship.

Recommend? Maybe.

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Alita: Battle Angel - A CGI-heavy action blockbuster that nevertheless manages to be a decent Hollywood adaptation of the Japanese source material

Recommend? Yes.

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Angel Has Fallen - This dumb action movie about a Secret Service agent being framed for the attempted assassination of the U.S. President is yet another inferior sequel that feels like it's struggling to figure out what sort of film it wants to be, a problem the series has had since the original film entertained with its fun "Die Hard in the White House" premise.

Recommend? No.

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Annabelle Comes Home - A surprisingly heartfelt family film mixed with supernatural horror, what this sequel lacks in scares it makes up with likable characters and fun monsters.

Recommend? Yes.

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Avengers: Endgame - While I wasn't a fan of Infinity War, I liked the world-building, pacing, heist-movie antics, and strong emotional core of this finale to the Infinity Arc, even if I'm not a huge fan of the way it mostly invalidated the events of the film that came before it.

Recommend? Yes.

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Apollo 11 - An amazingly cool and awe-inspiring documentary about the Apollo 11 mission composed entirely of footage previously unreleased to the public.

Recommend? Yes.

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Black Christmas - Obnoxious feminist satire of campus rape culture masquerading as a horror film.

Recommend? No. The prototype of the slasher genre deserved better than this.

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Bombshell - A snappy and extremely well-cast docu-drama about the sexual harrassment scandal that rocked Fox News years back and the employees/former employees who led that charge, leading to the ousting of conservative media kingpin Roger Ailes.

Recommend? Yes.

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Brightburn - A mostly unremarkable Evil Child horror movie filtered through the lens of the now-familiar superhero origin story template, this would have been great if it had expanded on the apocalyptic implications of its premise and especially the mid-credits scene (which heavily suggests the existence of evil versions of Aqua Man and Wonder Woman).

Recommend? Maybe. I think a sequel has the potential to be really interesting.

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Cold Pursuit - A Liam Neeson thriller that leans away from over-the-top violence in favor of very dark humor.

Recommend? Yes.

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Countdown - A horror film about a cell phone app that kills people which would have been decent topical schlock in 2010, but just feels incredibly dated conceptually in 2019.

Recommend? No.

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The Current War - Director's Cut - A great historical drama documenting the often cutthroat competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to determine whose electrical system will go on to revolutionize the world that demythologizes and probes these legendary figures without downplaying the significance of their very real achievements.

Recommend? Yes.

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The Curse of La Llorona - Bland ghost story about a ghost that originated in hispanic culture yet, for some reason, decides to go haunt a bunch of generic white characters instead.

Recommend? No.

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Dark Waters - This "based on a true story" film, headed by Mark Ruffalo, about a corporate defense attorney taking on a lawsuit against a powerful chemical company features some fine acting and functions as a compelling indictment of both unchecked corporate power and a society that is designed to protect them.

Recommend? Yes.

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Doctor Sleep - Utterly unlike its predecessor, but this The Shining follow-up is a great urban fantasy epic with an over-the-top villain and entertaining psychic warfare antics.

Recommend? Yes.

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Dora and the Lost City of Gold - What could have been a fascinating mix of Dora the Explorer and Indiana Jones suffers from terrible writing and a lack of narrative focus.

Recommend? No.

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Dumbo - A bizarre reimagining of the Dumbo story by Tim Burton, but it's neither whimsical enough to delight nor dark enough to move the audience in any appreciable way.

Recommend? No.

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Escape Room - A group of people discover that the escape room challenge they sign up for is actually a series of real death traps; dumb, filled with unlikable characters, and the ending is terrible.

Recommend? No.

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Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw - A mediocre action flick that only succeeds insofar as it relies on Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's natural charisma and sense of likeability, although even that isn't enough to carry this one home for me.

Recommend? No.

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Frozen 2 - A delightful fantasy adventure filled with thoughtful themes, decent worldbuilding, and gorgeous visuals that betters the original film in every way.

Recommend? Yes.

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Gemini Man - The special effects powering this clone supersoldier sci-fi drama are undeniably impressive, as is the nuanced way Will Smith plays two different versions of the same person, but it's all a bit predictable, and I feel like I've seen a plot like this a million times in mostly lower budget action/sci-fi movies in the past.

Recommend? Maybe.

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Glass - The final film in Shyamalan's mostly effective trilogy of superhero deconstruction films promised to be an epic crossover between two cult hits, but, while enjoyable, it was mostly a waste of time that squandered two films worth of set-up.

Recommend? Maybe, if you can enjoy the fun performances; no, if you're expecting a good movie.

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters - While the human story isn't amazing in this, it's serviceable enough, but, more importantly, the follow-up to Gareth Edwards' slow 2014 American reboot puts the focus back on the monsters, and does so with great atmosphere and style, making this one of the most spectacular films in the series (although it obviously fails to live up to masterpieces like the 1954 original, which was a sobering meditation on the nuclear nightmare Japan suffered during WW2, and 2016's Shin Godzilla, which recontextualized the great green kaiju as a force of nature which the Japanese government was ill-equipped to deal with).

Recommend? Yes.

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Happy Death Day 2U - This film abandons the horror-comedy trappings of the original completely, becoming more of a concept-heavy science fiction comedy instead, but still maintains its predecessor's mix of irreverence and decent character writing.

Recommend? Yes.

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How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - A decent, if somewhat predictable final act in one of the best film trilogies made since the turn of the century that, while lacking somewhat in the sheer excellence of the previous entry, brings things to a close in a heart-warming and mostly satisfying way.

Recommend? Yes.

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The Intruder - A creepy old dude, effectively played by Dennis Quaid, subtly and then not-so-subtly harasses and disrupts the life of a family that moves into the house he's selling in this psychological thriller.

Recommend? Maybe; I don't have strong feelings about it either way, to be honest.

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IT: Chapter Two - In this second film of the duology, the group of children drawn together in their fight against a force of cosmic evil decades ago come together once more to confront the menace once and for all, but the lack of narrative focus and Goonies-esque charm provided by the previous entry leads to this feeling like a distinctly underwhelming ending for the story.

Recommend? No.

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John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - My favorite film in the franchise, John Wick 3 leans hard into the inherent silliness of the franchise with spectacular martial arts-inspired action sequences and less him violence than previous films.

Recommend? Yes.

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Jojo Rabbit - A weirdly touching dark comedy about a young boy living in Nazi Germany who discovers that a young Jewish girl is hiding in his house that somehow manages to thread the tonal needle carefully when it comes to the film's difficult subject matter.

Recommend? Yes,

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Joker - While this almost cartoonishly gritty film can feel like a parody of a Scorcese social drama at times, the central performance IS quite impressive, and I love that such a huge, mainstream film is tackling important themes related to mental health and social/economic inequality.

Recommend? Yes.

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Knives Out - Rian Johnson's subversive, clever style of filmmaking works brilliantly with this fun, twisty murder mystery.

Recommend? Yes.

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The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part - The definition of a cashgrab, this borderline incoherent sequel to the unexpectedly excellent original film has none of its charm or heart.

Recommend? No.

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The Lighthouse - Myth and delusion intersect as two mysterious lighthouse keepers lose their minds after being stranded by a storm in this intricate, textured, and wild piece of art.

Recommend? Yes.

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The Lion King - A soulless remake of a classic animated film whose realistic stylings removed all emotion from the performances and that does almost nothing new or worthwhile with the original material.

Recommend? No.

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Mary Poppins Returns - A sequel/soft reboot of the classic Disney property with stronger performances and better pacing than the original, but inferior songs.

Recommend? Maybe.

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Men in Black International - Another attempt to reboot an old franchise by modern Hollywood, but the script and actors aren't clever or likable enough to carry a project like this.

Recommend? No.

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Midsommar - Gorgeous cinematography and disturbing imagery mix in this horror-drama about a Swedish cult that, despite sharing certain surface-level similarities with The Wicker Man, ends up functioning more as a meditation on grief, family, and the sense of belonging we all yearn for.

Recommend? Yes.

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Missing Link - The stop-motion techniques used in this film about a sasquatch hiring an explorer to help him find the rest of his kind are phenomenal, but the story and art design are mostly forgettable, making what could have been a highlight of the year into something that felt distinctly disposable.

Recommend? No.

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Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood - One of the first Tarantino films I've seen that tempers the eccentricity and self-indulgent dialogue usually associated with his work to great effect as he recreates, in loving historical detail, Hollywood and the movies business c. 1969 and the end of an era.

Recommend? Yes.

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Pet Sematary - A remake that, like so many others, does nothing to improve on the original, and actually goes way off the rails by the end of the film.

Recommend? No.

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Pokemon: Detective Pikachu - Probably the best video game adaptation ever made, this film does a great job of immersing the viewer in an environment where normal humans and Pokemon co-exist naturalistically, although the actual mystery animating the film is a bit of a let down.

Recommend? Yes, but with the proviso that the actual mystery element is underwhelming.

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The Prodigy - A decent but fairly rote Evil Child movie distinguished only by its twist on the usual concept and an uncompromisingly dark ending.

Recommend? Maybe.

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Queen and Slim - Tragic love story combined with social criticism of structural racism that is unable to maintain a consistent tone over the run-time of the film.

Recommend? Maybe.

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Ready or Not - This horror-comedy about a bride-to-be getting caught up in a bizarre and deadly ritual held by her groom's family is conceptually interesting and filled with dry wit, great pacing, and brutal violence.

Recommend? Yes.

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Replicas - A hilariously bad Z-movie with Keanu Reeves that takes a semi-promising (if well-worn) premise about "playing God" and does absolutely nothing interesting with it.

Recommend? No.

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Richard Jewell - Clint Eastwood docudrama about the pernicious impact of journalistic irresponsibility on the life of a strange but innocent security guard who saves people from a bomb during the 1996 olympics, portrayed excellently (alongside the rest of the cast, who are equally excellent in their roles) by the relatively obscure Paul Walter Hauser.

Recommend? Yes.

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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - An adaptation of the YA horror classic that combines surprisingly effective and nightmarish imagery with a messy, forgettable plot.

Recommend? Maybe.

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The Secret Life of Pets 2 - The sequel to the amusing original film abandons the its conceits and focus on a single, semi-interesting narrative in favor of multiple narrative threads that split the characters up and doesn't lead to much of anything funny or interesting on a story level.

Recommend? No.

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Shaft - Three generations of Shafts meet in this fun action comedy, although how much you like it will depend on your tolerance for Samuel Jackson's character's toxic and misogynistic behavior.

Recommend? Yes.

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Shazam - While nothing revelatory, I found this goofy family-oriented superhero film to be a welcome respite from the rather dour three-hour epics Marvel has been mass-producing as of late.

Recommend? Yes.

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Spider-Man: Far from Home - A somewhat light-hearted Marvel film that mixes a romantic-comedy vacation film with superhero antics to mostly excellent effect, and features some decent plot developments.

Recommend? Yes.

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - A mess of a Star Wars film that's so busy rushing breathlessly from one poor plot point to another that it never felt like I was watching something properly fleshed out.

Recommend? No.

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Stuber - An often stupidly written buddy cop-esque action film that tediously attempts to mine humor from the painfully overstated odd couple dynamic of its two lead stars.

Recommend? No.

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Terminator: Dark Fate - A flashy, overly busy, and ultimately very forgettable T2 soft reboot that misunderstands why T2 is so beloved in the first place.

Recommend? No.

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They Shall Not Grow Old - A really incredible documentary that takes hundred-year old WW1 footage and, in the process of restoring it and adding sound and color, brings a seminal piece of modern world history to life in a unique way.

Recommend? Yes.

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Toy Story 4 - Beautifully animated but be entirely unnecessary sequel that adds little of value to the series besides a horrifying abomination called Forky.

Recommend? No.

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Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral - A decent final outing for Tyler Perry's infamous character, but one that does nothing to give a sense of closure for long-time fans.

Recommend? Maybe; there's no such thing as a "good" Madea movie, but if you liked previous ones, you'll probably enjoy this one, too.

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Us - Jason Peele's second horror film about an apocalyptic uprising of mysterious and murderous doppelgangers is fascinating at times, but also very tonally uneven and unsure what it wants to communicate to the audience.

Recommend? Maybe.

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Wonder Park - An inferior children's film about the internal life of a young girl that is obnoxious and betrays a lack of respect for its target audience.

Recommend? No.