Topic: The Movie Thread

@mookysam @JohnnyShoulder @WanderingBullet @RogerRoger
Into The Spiderverse is the best Spider-Man movie since Spider-Man 2 by a long way, easily.

I'm hopeful for the sequel

@KALofKRYPTON I'm hoping to see a PS5 game in the same style!

@JohnnyShoulder Not outside the realms of possibility to be an optional feature or skin in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

@KALofKRYPTON Would be cool to do it as dlc. I'm might be pushing my luck by requesting it as an expansion!

@JohnnyShoulder Given the monumental critical and financial success of the first game, which I don't think anyone could have predicted, I wouldn't put anything off the table for the follow up.

@JohnnyShoulder Lol, yes - it’s a curse and sometimes it mentally pulls me out of a movie when I start to think about the logic of it too much.
But usually I suspend disbelief as well as the next guy. My favorite genres of cinema are fantasy and Sci-Fi after all, so most everything takes a little blind faith in what’s going on in the fictional world. ...I do love a good documentary though.

But what sets me off is when a movie’s own explanation of fantastical occurrences is inconsistent within the movie. It doesn’t necessarily have to make logical sense in the laws of nature in the real world, but if the movie doesn’t follow its own rules, then I start to question it and my enjoyment of the experience sometimes dips. I was fine with End Game and most of the MCU. Sure some of the science is bogus and ridiculous, but I think most of it was consistent. Most fantasy fictional stories just have that “eh, it’s just magic” type of attitude that you have to adopt when you’re watching things unfold.

Small things are easier to look past such as:
>Spider-Man’s webs — they don’t really follow the laws of physics do they, nor do his web shooters.

>Lightsabers — how do they cut though solid rock and trees like hot butter but they (usually) won’t cut through armor and limbs?

>In a lot of movies and games — an arrow or gun shot wound into the hero’s chest or belly just slows them down for a minute and they fully recover by the next scene (just put a dressing on it and carry on), whereas a single arrow into the back of an enemy goon and they collapse immediately and die without even a struggle.

>When characters in a Sci Fi movie travel to a new planet, how is it that they end up in the exact spot where they need to be or where the people they need to find are? I mean, I can barely find my buddy when we’re trying to meet up in a busy mall and I know where I’m going and I have google maps all programmed and such. I’m pretty sure if I landed on a random planet that I had no foreknowledge about, it would take me months to find a particular city, much less an actual building and then several more months to track down one specific person in that city. Especially if all I had to go on was “he’ll be wearing a red plom bloom. And he likes to gamble.” What if I arrive at night and he’s asleep? What if he’s on vacation and not at the casino that day? Maybe he’s grocery shopping when I arrive in town, what then — Search all the Wal-Marts?
Heck, if I even landed randomly on planet Earth from space, I don’t think I could ever find my way home!

>Etc, etc.....

So yes, I can look past these things.
But in the case of Ant-Man if the movie goes out of its way to talk about the science and technology, yet it is inconsistent when it wants to apply those rules, well then I start to scrutinize. It doesn’t ruin it for me, it just takes me out of the moment sometimes.

So yeah, I’m a ball at the cinema.

I think I just discovered why no one wants to go see movies with me.

@Th3solution Thank you for the in depth explanation! I have to admit that did make me chuckle. We have probably all thought that along the same lines at some point, but I suppose everyone had different limits of what they can or can't let fly.

@JohnnyShoulder I hope it did make you chuckle at least a little, because I do say these things with tongue firmly in cheek.

If I dissected all fictional works this aggressively then I’d never enjoy any of this stuff. But there is some grains of truth in what I said too. Fiction needs to at least be consistent. As do characters. Nothing worse than a well developed character that suddenly decides to act inconsistently with what the author or director have developed them to be.

@Th3solution Yep I get where you are coming from as was only being half serious any way.

@KALofKRYPTON Personally, it's my favourite Spidey movie.

@RogerRoger You're missing nothing not having read CM comics. They've struggled to find any sort of fit for her for years - essentially because she's an incredibly boring character who's best traits are borrowed from other characters who've largely abandoned them.

I found the film a bit of meh-fest. Extremely average.

@WanderingBullet I doubt they'll do better than Raimi's Spider-Man 2 for me.

@RogerRoger Fortunately when I break down a movie, it’s typically afterward. I’m a very good movie companion otherwise. 😄

Interesting take on Capt Marvel. The movie is victim of the 20 movies that came before it and assumes a level of knowledge of the world, but yeah, the character origin story part could have been a little more clear because I remember being a little confused at first and feeling like it was kinda slow on the front half.
Did you connect the dots on the Kree and Skrulls from the other Marvel movies? Kree are notably seen first in the Guardians of the Galaxy storyline with Ronan. It enhances the story to see some of the threads that go throughout, but there are so many characters and races in so many movies sometimes it’s hard to keep track. But even without the larger interconnection, it’s still a decent film. I’ll be interested to see if you like how Capt Marvel is used in End Game.

Captain Marvel was alright. Feels like someone mashed a typical Marvel production together with a sci-fi B-movie screenplay. Brie Larson was lifeless, but then she's lifeless in every movie I've seen her in, so no huge disappointment there.

I liked Into the Spiderverse more than almost any of the Marvel movies I've watched, personally. And I've watched them all. The presentation is phenomenal.

@Ralizah Into the Spiderverse must be the first film that I can recall thst has received glowing praise all round on these hallowed pages.

@Ralizah Have you seen Brie Larson in Room? She's incredible there. Instantly converted me into a fan. I haven't watched Short Term 12 or United States of Tara (yet), but I've heard she's great in those too. It's a shame a lot of people are writing her off based on her Captain Marvel performance, which I thought was fine but nothing special. Not the case with you since you said you've seen her in other things too, but a sad observation.

@Tjuz @Ralizah I agree that Brie’s fantastic in both Room and Short Term 12. I’m a big fan of Marvel comics but Captain Marvel is a truly bland character. It’s almost as if they told her to act that way to be ‘faithful’ to the comics. I enjoyed the film, sure, but that was more due to Ben Mendelsohn, who stole the show.

@Tjuz I've seen her in Kong: Skull Island, Captain Marvel, and Just Mercy, and she just never makes much of an impression on me. Granted, anything is better than the constipated performance she gives in CM.

I've not seen Room. The synopsis I read just sounds profoundly depressing, so I think it's something I'll need to be in the mood for.

@RogerRoger That’s a great post (as always) about your End Game experience - full of insightful observations, justified emotional response, and honest balanced sentiments. I love your metaphor at the end about being a visitor at a stranger’s wedding, as it gives a nice palpable visual to how you feel about the movie. Very relatable.

And that’s wonderful that you got the enjoyment out of it that you did. Like in your wedding scenario, I always hate going to parties and huge social gatherings like weddings, especially when I don’t know or like the people there. I drag my feet and grumble a little but once I’m there I quite enjoy it usually and think fondly about it in retrospect. Yet, when the next opportunity to go comes again, I’m dragging my feet again. Weird how that works.
I did find it interesting how you spoke of the now infamous ‘girl power’ scene. Despite many viewers feeling strongly about the implications and delivery of it, I think your take is very balanced and sensible.

Well if End Game is like attending a stranger’s wedding, then Into the Spiderverse is going to be like being dragged to a concert of your best friend’s favorite band. I hope it’ll be a raucous good time that you didn’t know you wanted to have.

A few films I've watched recently:

Terminator Genysis - Despite the plot tangling itself up in knots and some stupid set-pieces, I'd be a liar if I said I didn't enjoy myself.

The Big Short - Good film, everyone in it was superb, especially Steve Carrell who was unbelievable.

Us - Excellent, even the unnecessary twist at the end didn't put me off. A clever film which was made for all the right reasons.

@RogerRoger I think I'd place Captain Marvel near-ish the top of my favourite Marvel films too. I think the strange plotting is quite deliberate - the audience spend half the movie not really knowing what is going on because Carol Danvers herself doesn't know either, so we're with her in that respect. It's the strong characters and performances that pull the movie through in the end, though. And I love the "cat"!

I only watched Endgame for the first time last month and found it absolutely awesome. I liked that the focus is more on the original Avengers as it feels fitting as an end to their saga, compared to recently introduced characters. However, certain characters like Valkyrie perhaps feel a little too on the periphery. The only thing that ended up confusing me was the time travelling Captain America at the end, which would surely create an array of time paradoxes. Seriously, time travel is headache inducing.

Nebula is one of my favourite characters in the film, but a lot of her character development is in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Her arc is complete in Endgame; things that happen to her in the Galaxy films make certain scenes in that film more profound.

Good point about Thor. Turning his depression and self-destructive behaviour into something comedic missed the mark. However, I do think that his scene with Frigga is one of the more poignant in the film.

The girl power bit was awesome, because the characters are completely badass.