Topic: The Movie Thread

@LN78 And miss the dance scene from Spider-man 3? Dear God, what were they thinking?! 😂

Jesus, Barbie was legitimately one of the worst films I've seen in years.

@LN78 I thought it was fine for what it was: a joyful Easter Egg hunt for Mario fans, and otherwise a fun 'turn off your brain' sort of movie.

Although even if I was of the opinion that it was "good," and you disapproved of this, it still wouldn't invalidate my judgment of the Barbie movie lol.

I'll say this: The Super Mario Bros. movie script is high art compared to the one in Barbie.

@Kidfried The concept of the film is muddled and confused. It's filled with themes and ideas that conflict and never really cohere around anything meaningful. Character arcs feel forced and inorganic. The film is filled with weird, dumb humor that doesn't work. And, without getting too far into it, the film's gender politics are, I'm sorry, abominable. It's a feminist message film that seems to think women are inherently stupid and likes to ridicule several of its male characters for no particularly good reason. The scriptwriter clearly didn't understand how to imbed themes within the context of a plot and character development, so characters just obnoxiously have to state the themes of the movie ham-fistedly within the dialogue.

And it's all the script, because it's not like this movie has nothing good about it: the actors are fine as far as they go, and the set design and visual aesthetic overall is frequently delightful. Even more frustrating is that you can see echoes of really good movies in here: Pleasantville, Enchanted, and The Lego Movie in particular. But those films were focused and well-written, whereas this one can't decide what it wants to say or do, and when it tries to, it just ends up feeling insulting.

It's not like you can't write a feminist message film and have it be decent, either. Don't Worry Darling, for example, is a recent example that works in that regard. But that film, whether you liked it or not (and a lot of people didn't; look at the RT score lol), had something concrete to say. The Barbie movie feels like it was written by someone fresh out of a single gender studies class who has never written a script before.

Unfortunately, right-wing troglodytes seem to have declared war on this movie for the usual reasons, so, like with that one Ghostbusters movie, it's gonna be a while before people are willing to go back and admit that it was kinda bad.

@Ralizah Although the Barbie movie isn’t really what I’d be interested in, I couldn’t help but be compelled to consider watching it by the extensive publicity. I hadn’t even watched a trailer for the movie until the movie had already been out for a week or so. Barbie dolls had always been more of a symbol of antiquated gender ideals and so I was surprised to hear it had a feminist message, so my interest was piqued. The trailers didn’t sell me on it, so I read and watched a few of the 9/10 reviews and talked to a lot of people who loved the movie… and I still don’t get it. I’m repeatedly told it’s a great feminist girl-power movie and yet, whenever people try to explain beyond that it does sound convoluted in its messaging. Some of my feminist friends have been really high on the show so I can’t discount that it must at least somewhat hit its target, but your assessment of the movie tracks with what my preconceived suspicions about the movie have been. I’ve never been a fan of any sort of media that stereotypically denigrates one sect of the population in order to prop up another. It’s a shallow tactic, oft used by many people across all sides when they want to promote one faction is to belittle another. The video game console wars is a perfect example. I was getting vibes from reviews that the Barbie movie was using some of this recipe. I want to go see it as a way to at least support the attempt, and mostly just because the far right is trying to wage war on it, but I don’t think I can muster the effort right now.

I did get around to seeing Puss ‘n Boots: The Last Wish and I really quite liked it. It’s a movie I probably wouldn’t have watched if not for the copious praise it’s garnered. I’ve always felt the Shrek movies were overrated, and most of the Dreamworks films in general. After warming up to the movie for the first 15-30 minutes, I really became invested in the characters and found it a fun movie to waste a couple hours on.

@Th3solution The movie does attempt to tackle the dichotomous legacy of Barbie: that she's viewed both as an icon that demonstrated the possibilities for women to live full, fulfilling lives as members of society as well an antiquated representation of 'ideal' femininity. Just, like with everything else, it does a really poor job of it.

The way it treats a lot of its male characters is obnoxious, but once you think about it for a few minutes, it feels like the scriptwriter's view of women is even lower. There's a major plot point in the movie that doesn't work unless you assume that women are inherently stupid and easily manipulated and need to be 'taught' not to be exploited by men. A character even basically just states this outright, just in... nicer language. But it's the same sentiment.

The film's analysis of gender and the way it relates to how society is structured is insultingly stupid. I read a review from a critic who basically said that this is the sort of film you get when you allow large corporations to dictate feminist messaging, and she was completely right.

I have no issues with girl power stuff when it's done right. This isn't that. This felt like it was written by the female equivalent of an incel.

@Ralizah It’s a hard one because Barbie is incredibly competently made and the set design in particular is great. I liked a lot of it at face value but yeah, it suffers from being Mattel dictating feminist discourse. I totally get that they do have to sort of dumb it down because it’s ultimately a kids movie and this could be an entry point to more nuanced gender theory but the very nature of it being a billion dollar movie undercuts what Gerwig was probably trying to say. Plus it’s resulted in Mattel wanting to make like 12 toy movies instead of realising that it was the perfect storm of marketing and being a blockbuster marketed to women, instead of being based on a toy.

@nessisonett Things can be simplified without being made insultingly stupid, though. You can have a simple but well-written 'girl power' film for younger audiences. This wasn't trying to do that, as far as I can tell. And, more often than not, the film comes off as disrespectful to women itself. Like that entire sequence where the Barbies take back control of Barbieland by using their feminine wiles to set the Kens against one-another, which plays into popular tropes about women being untrustworthy and conniving.

And if it's a kids movie, it's a particularly crass one given the amount of blatant sex humor in it.

But yeah, visually it was great. And I like the sort of surrealist vibe Barbieland had at the beginning.

Scott Pilgrim anime looks real good. The movie’s decent for what it is, but it also completely misses the point of the books and condenses a lot. Hopefully the anime is a bit more of a faithful adaptation.

@nessisonett I loved the film and have been meaning to add the books, to my shelf for a long time. Will definitely be watching the anime.

Watched Shin Kamen Rider last night. Didn't even know it existed, until I was searching for something to watch. Excellent film and just under 2 hours long, hope they do a sequel. Just need to see Shin Ultraman now!

@Jimmer-jammer I wanted to watch this when it first came to cinemas, but never did for some reason, probably pandemic related. Will rectify that though as It did look like an interesting watch with a great cast.

Really hope this gets a UK release, as it's one I've not seen yet.

@Jimmer-jammer That is good to know, thanks! I have heard good things about it. Hopefully there are no Predator's still lurking around your area!

I agree with you on The Last Duel. I wasn't sure what I would make of it, as sometimes a similar approach to story telling doesn't always work, but I thought it did on this occasion! What was Ben Affleck thinking about with his hair though?! 😂

@Jimmer-jammer I thought The Last Duel was really great. I can understand a little criticism at the fact that the third perspective was essentially the truth and removed the ambiguity but I felt that was more a creative decision to show how history tended to completely ignore female perspectives even when their account was clearer.

John Wick 4. An audio-visual treat, especially in 4K and Atmos. Certainly gave my new setup a work out. No real surprises from the franchise, but some really entertaining set pieces. Donnie Yen possibly out Wick'd Keanu though in his action scenes.

Not sure if it needed to be 3 hours long, but it was originally planned as two films. I saw it over two nights so couldn't really tell if felt too long, but action film like this should be a tighter experience and come in around the 2 hour mark max for me.

@Jimmer-jammer Yes, I have District 9 on my watchlist. I watched some of the post-credits interviews and Blomkamp admits this movie out of his usual wheelhouse.

If you do get around to seeing it, then I’ll be interested in what you think. It’s one of those movies with overall “rotten” scores from critics on Rotten Tomatoes but positive reviews from viewers. I feel like the movie will be on streaming services pretty quickly, so waiting is certainly a reasonable approach.

And as an aside, I hadn’t realized that even though the mass release date in the US isn’t until this next weekend, the movie has been out a couple weeks in Europe and the UK. So the sneak preview wasn’t really early, globally speaking. US release was delayed due to something about the writers’ strike supposedly.

@LN78 Will hopefully mean I won't have to subscribe to Disney+ to watch the odd show I'm interested in, as I can just watch them through my physical rental service.

I wonder if this means the 4K box set of the original Star Wars trilogy will go back on sale?

@LN78 Lol, negotiations must be going real well for the studios. Physical copies will mean that many staff get the residuals they deserve for these shows.