Topic: The Movie Thread

@Th3solution
You probably have heard of them - I didn't use the titles in some:

Hally Berry was Catwoman and Storm (X-MEN)
Michael Keaton was Batman and Vulture (BATMAN/SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING)
Zoe Saldana was in The Losers and Guardians
Josh Brolin was Jonah Hex and is Thanos and coming up as Cable in Deadpool (JONAH HEX & MCU & DEADPOOL)
Larry Fishburne was Perry White and the Silver Surfer (MAN OF STEEL/BVS/JL & FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER)
Natalie Portman was in V for Vendetta and Thor.

@KALofKRYPTON Why not?lol

@Rudy_Manchego Taika was in Green Lantern?! Didn't noticed him in it.
Also J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is one of the best casting decisions ever!

@PS_Nation Grave of the Fireflies was such a sad movie.

@WanderingBullet Because Blade Trinity is the one of the worst movie sequels ever committed to film.

Casting Reynolds and Biel to sideline Snipes, casting Dominic Purcell as Dracula, casting Triple H and Parker Posey, the story, the tone, whole Nightstalkers pitch. It all makes for a hideously desperate feeling film. When Snipes actually gets screen time, he's great as ever. The rest of the film is pretty shoddy.

@KALofKRYPTON "one of the worst movie sequels". True but so is Batman & Robin.

@WanderingBullet Batman & Robin has the great benefit of being unintentionally, absolutely hilarious!
I mean, talk about franchise killer - but it's still entertaining, rather than just stroke-inducing!

Trinity sits right alongside RoboCop 3.

@KALofKRYPTON @RogerRoger lol, I guess I’m pretty bad about actually paying attention to the names of the supporting characters in movies. I’ve watched BvS and MoS several times and never paid attention to learn Perry White’s name. I just think of him as the Daily Planet boss guy. 😂 And Morpheus. (I hear it in my head when I see him — “Free..your mind”)

@RogerRoger Quite right - there's a version of it in my head that's really good, is all...

@Th3solution Watch Daredevil though - the Director's Cut if you can.

@RogerRoger JL is at best, average. Bit of a hot mess and lesser for the circumstances of it's creation.

Batman & Robin is terrible, but in the best way. For nothing else, it inspired one of Eric Bana's best sketches.

Search for his Schwarzenegger/ Ray Martin interview on YouTube. Gold.

@Star-Lord I've watched and bought most of the Studio Ghibli's films but not the latter two you've mentioned. I think it's because the artstyle/animation for both films didn't appeal to me. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is actually pretty good.

@WanderingBullet Nor did I, I was googling Green Lantern and then saw him on the list. Can't remember much about that film though!

JK Simmons rules in all films - the perfect J. Jonah Jameson!

The entire film is structured like a slasher, where the cast is picked off one by one until the final survivor learns the "truth" of what has been killing them.

Not to mention all of the weird body horror stuff in this movie caused by The Shimmer.

@RogerRoger I do adore '89 - but have always lamented that Alec Baldwin wasn't given the lead role. Keaton does a grand job though.

Returns is the true master -class of production design. The refinement of the cowl and the art deco style suit in combination with the '89 Batmobile are the high points of Batman on film for me. Walken steals as always; Pfeiffer and DeVito are perfect, and while the whole thing feels like a rewrite might help it along - it remains the most watchable of all Batman films I think.

I find Forever to be a bit of a closet fetish for most people. It's actually a pretty good film - the 'sell more toys' sonar costume mentality is a shame, but it is again dripping with a style that's hard not to like.

Batman & Robin, is what it is. Mostly a shame, but Schumacher made what he set out to. He gets a lot of stick for it, but most people bashing him forget that he's probably made more films that they love than hate (like making A Time To KIll between Forever and B&R!!).

@RogerRoger Jon Peters never missed an opportunity for merch sales!

I was a little 'too old' for toys at that point, but I came very close to buying the Forever Batwing on several occasions!

Hate the Sonar suit. It's exceptionally ugly. The Forever 'Panther' suit is nice though. The costuming for the series as it was peaked with Robins' Nightwing Style suit from B&R for me.

@RogerRoger couldn't disagree more. I agree that Barman & Robin is a funny spectacle, just in the most tragic of ways.
I really like the Robin suits from B&R and Forever. The first Clooney suit is too bland, even with the blue tint. The emblem design is just over worked - like the frost suits and every vehicle in the whole film.
The Batmobile is dire; ugly garish and way too big... and single seated...
Same goes for the Red Bird, utterly awful and impractical design work.
As ridiculous as the '89 and even the Forever Batmobiles were before it, they managed to inspire at least sense of utility along with the fantastical and aggressive designs. The B&R never gets beyond 'long car with some lights on it'.

All that said. It was an important film in many ways.
Of not for B&R - I actually doubt very much the MCU would exist in the form it does today.
Warner got a bloody nose and following on from other 90s commercial box office failures like The Rocketeer, The Shadow and The Phantom - not being able to make a fast few hundred million and mild critical success on a Batman film sent them running for other properties to exploit.

The Warner fear had well and truly set in, so plans on Superman Lives died a horrible death.

Sony no doubt would not have been able to get their hands on Spider-Man with such ease nor Fox been so keen to lend total creative control for the X-MEN over to Singer of they really expected it to fly so very well.

WB continued to put out outstanding DC animated projects and seemed content enough with that for a while.

Singer's X-MEN, as far removed from colourful spandex as possible while still feeling so very respectful happened.
Raimi lent his unique, perfectly pitched talent to Spider-Man; and it seemed - so long as you stayed a little grounded, a little dark, and respected your source material - comic movies were big business again!

Imagine if Batman & Robin had done good business and was critically praised. Warner would've just carried right on running the gravy train. Clooney hated making the film so probably would've jumped ship either way. So Batman would become the James Bond of Superhero parts while other studios had no impetus to compete.

So I guess what I'm saying is - we're lucky Batman & Robin is crap.

There is only a section of the film that is like that though? And there is a perfectly valid reason why it is like that. All the reviews I've watched and people I've spoken too, no one has mentioned that the whole film structured like that. Which I find strange. Fair enough you didn't like the film, but it sounds like you picked on one part of the movies and decided the whole film is like it. Which I can't accept sorry as that is a bit misleading.

@RogerRoger Spice is the Spice of Spice after all! (That may be a too obscure Eurogamer reference now I think about it)

Thor:Ragnarok is both one of the best and most throw away Marvel films to date. I highly recommend it. Essentially self-contained but a fantastic movie. I adore the first Thor - My favourite of the whole MCU really.

Black Panther. Well, there's certainly no denying the commercial success of it. The (very US centric) social significance is dubious - largely because America from the outside only ever seems to want to segregate, accept, admonish and apologise for itself across its entire gamut of people and output.
It's a decent film. Not particularly better or worse than any other MCU film. It does go on a bit, and I find some of the messaging a little confused. But also totally worth a watch. Chad Bozeman and Michael B Jordan are perfect casting.

Thor:Ragnarok is probably the closest thing we ever get to a Planet Hulk movie. Loved the humour in that film, it felt kinda refreshing. Probably because it was directed by a New Zealander.

Surprisingly, I don’t think anyone has left their impressions of Ready Player One yet. I’ll be the first. I’ll preface things by saying I have read the book a couple years ago, and I enjoyed it. So sometimes that taints a person’s enjoyment of a movie, and they become that guy that says, “that part wasn’t in the book” or “they left out the whole part where such-and-such happens!” So, yeah.. I’m trying not to be that guy.

Overall the movie was actually better than I was expecting, even if it deviated from the book quite a bit (see, I’ve already failed 😅). The action scenes and visual representation of The Oasis was impressively done. The CGI was mostly good, outside of a few weird renditions. The acting was so-so however, and there was definitely some strange and awkward dialogue. The relationships of the main characters seemed a bit forced at times, imo. The highlight for a gamer like myself is just the cameos of video game characters and the fact that gaming culture is front and center to the entire plot. The protagonist and the central plot points are very relatable to me and any gamer with a decent appreciation of retro gaming and geek pop culture. But yeah, it was fun to see avatars of Tracer, Goro from Mortal Kombat, Chun-Li, and others pop up and make appearances. I really need to see it again just to pick out all the character cameos in some of the really busy scenes.

So, without spoiling anything for those who have not read the book, it is a fun time and is worth a watch just because it is a major video gaming movie. It has more of a true gamer feel to it than any other movie I’ve seen and captures a smidgen of what gaming culture is like, even if it is exaggerated and overblown in this futuristic virtual reality world, with a plot that becomes a little bit formulaic and bordering on cringe-worthy by the end. There is quite a bit of suspension of disbelief you’ll have to take in with you, as with any fictional fantasy story, but if you don’t think about it too hard, you can probably just enjoy the geekdom contained therein.

I know it sounds almost like I didn’t like the movie, but I really did. But I’m not saying it is the best movie of the year by any stretch. And if you take your non-gamer partner, expect them to be properly bored by the end.
I’d be curious to read other people’s impressions if you’ve seen it.

@Th3solution
Interesting thoughts on RPO. I quite enjoyed the book but it certainly has plenty of issues. I'd like to see the film, but always knew that they would be be able to license everything for a screen adaptation.
There Are plenty of mixed opinions on the film so far, ranging from criticisms extending from the book through the film to some people who really didn't take on board the basic idea of the book.

@RogerRoger it is so very entertaining!
If you've never encountered Waititi before. Check out some of the other stuff he's done involving the Flight of the Conchords guys.
'What We Do In The Shadows' and 'Eagle vs Shark' are two of the best films you could choose to watch.

The Last Jedi is a pretty divisive film. Some friends I have really do hate it - others don't mind it that much and some liked it. Even the ones who liked it do quite easily tear it down though.
For me, it's really not a good film, and following TFA, it's really not particularly good Star Wars either.
It is relatively entertaining though. There are of course sections of dialogue and set pieces that fly really very well. The production design, casting and cinematography are mostly outstanding - but I would expect nothing else at this budget.
The plot is horrible though, and the pacing is just bad.
The biggest problem Star Wars has now, is that Rogue One turned out to be such a great film. It really could've gone either way (and was a hot mess in recently revealed information from the co-writer), and there's plenty of room for a tighter edit: but it really is just ESB good.
TLJ seems so very messy and confused in comparison.

I'd never thought I would be bored watching a Star Wars film, but that was the case in some parts of TLJ. One of my mates even fell asleep in the cinema, something that he he not renowned for.