Topic: Movie thread.

Sphere (Netflix) - 90's sci-fi flick that sees a group of scientists sent down into a sub-oceanic habitat in order to study what's believed to be an alien spacecraft resting at the bottom of the ocean. They find a mysterious sphere inside the structure, and soon strange & dangerous things start happening inside their habitat. It didn't have the best of ratings (at least on Netflix's scale), but I really quite liked it.

Sky High (Netflix) - Live action Disney flick about the son of a couple of revered superheroes going to a superhero high school, except he is yet to develop any powers of his own. It's cheesy as heck, but for some reason I've always had a soft spot for it.

The Imitation Game (2014)

@Vinny, did you think it was bad, or was it just very emotional?

I was planning on watching it in the near future.

@RR529 It's very emotional. It's a great movie but there are quite a bit of historical inaccuracies so I suggest reading about it after you watch it. Well, you know how Hollywood is.

Movies I've seen recently:

Arrival: Fantastic. The cinematography is incredibly evocative with its gorgeous wide-angle shots and moody, lingering camera. Stark imagery, extreme contrasts of light and dark, and a willingness to keep the aliens mysterious and... well... very alien in depiction give this film an almost hypnotic quality and pair well with the film's thoughtful, deliberate screenplay and understated portrayals. While I don't necessarily think the central twist of the story is necessarily plausible, it is certainly interesting and ties into the main character's story arc very well. This is cinematic science-fiction that hasn't been dumbed down for audiences at all. Perhaps the best science-fiction film since the turn of the century.

Moana: This was pretty good. The plot is textbook Joseph Campbell, but this framework allows for the film to show some super-impressive digital animation. And make no mistake, this film is absolutely gorgeous in a way that even Pixar films aren't. The depth and range of colors. The wonderfully modeled characters. There is a lot to love here: in particular, the strong, determined heroine, dramatic and lovingly rendered portrayals of nature, the lack of any sort of villain and the strong thematic focus on the interconnection between humanity and the environment are incredibly reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki's films. The film doesn't show the same obsessive attention to detail that Miyazaki's films do, but it's impossible not to see his fingerprints all over this. There is also a lovely ethnic flavor here, with the film presumably based in Polynesian mythology, although I don't know enough about the subject to determine whether the film is accurate or not in most of its details.

Granted, this is a modern Disney movie, which means it does collapse into the same set of cliches about self-empowerment that seem to pop up in so many films these days. Nevertheless, it's well-paced, visually pleasing, and the music is nice, although not very memorable.

The Purge: Election Year: ...it's a Purge movie. So, yeah, more ham-handed satire that is far too impressed with itself that is used to justify what is, in essence, a trashy exploitation flick. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it, though. Not everything needs to be Citizen Kane. This is probably the best of the Purge movies, if only because, unlike the other films, it seems less interested in fixating on the film's absurd premise and instead develops an interesting narrative about a politician who is trying to win the presidential election so that she can end the Purge. It's cloyingly topical, but that very facet is charming in its own way.

Suicide Squad: Extended Edition (2016): This may sound harsh, but... This may be the worst movie I've watched this whole year. It can be really boring and the writing and plot are pretty weak. Not sure if it was the intention but also the Joker felt very cartoony to me (honka honka).

@Ralizah i have not seen arrival yet. isn't it very similar to Contact from 2002 ?

@6ch6ris6 I mean, there are similarities, but they're also very different. Contact is more about the broad implications of the discovery of alien intelligence and how that is interpreted through the lens of science and religion, whereas Arrival is more about language, consciousness, the way language potentially structures consciousness, and the truly strange ways in which an alien might attempt communication. In that sense, Arrival is reminiscent of Solaris as well.

@Ralizah Solaris? which version do you mean? the russian or the american version? i've only seen the american one and i can't remember there being aliens.

Solaris itself is an alien intelligence.

the Imitation Game (Netflix) - Film set during WWII that chronicled the creation of the device that cracked the German's Enigma code, by a talented team of British mathematicians lead by the brilliant, but socially akward, Alan Turing. It was an interesting & well made historical drama.

Disney's the Jungle Book [2016] (Netflix) - The live action remake that came out earlier this year. It was quite visually stunning, and a pretty good watch (hey, I liked Bill Murray as Baloo). Screw the Tiger, watching King Louie swing around those ruins is Kingdom Hearts boss material just waiting to happen.

Finding Dory (2016): It's pretty good. I like how it tackles the topic of mental health and there's some great humor.
I still prefer the original tho. IMO Nemo's characters were better and FD lacks the epic scale of the original.

Suicide Squad: Extended Cut
You know how in H.P. Lovecraft books, the protagonist always ends up seeing the story's big abomination, and the very thought of the cosmic horror of it all burns their very soul?

This (and I use this term loosely) film is the 2-hour version of that feeling.

It's all made specifically for merchandising the characters and making sequels.
All of the characters are obnoxious and cringe-worthy (especially Jared Leto's Joker.)
The film's plot is incoherent nonsense.
The dialogue is utterly forgettable.
Everyone in this film has 2 motivations, 2 character arcs, and 2 backstories.
The film's use of CGI is horrendous.
The film ends with yet another portal in the sky and another disposable army of CGI henchmen.
The fight scenes are awfully choreographed and unoriginal.
The Joker not only has no reason to be in the film, he's more annoying than (Insert annoying thing here)

and worst of all...

A GOOD AMOUNT OF PEOPLE LOVE THIS GARBAGE!!!
For as crazy as it sounds to me, people everywhere are pointing at all of the poor film-making and calling it "edgy," "realistic," "gritty," "dark," and "unlike any superhero movie out there." No. I'm sorry but no. This movie is a pile of garbage, and if you haven't seen it, don't.

@MrMario02 It feels way more like Fast and Furious than a superhero movie. Worst movie I've seen all year.

This seems like a good place for this. Made me chuckle:

And this is genuinely the opening text to Episode 3:

@Dezzy Quite. Have they not watched the others? Pretty sure the word 'rebellion' is used a few times in the original, as in, rebellion against the Empire. The opening sentence of the opening crawl is, "It is a period of civil war."

In Attack of the Clones Yoda says "Begun the Clone Wars have".

It's not exactly a hidden message.

@gcunit

I think a lot of media sites aren't that interested in facts nowadays. The internet business model favours just spewing out as much stuff as quickly as you can.

No spoiler, but I just saw Rogue One. Starts off a bit too slow in my opinion, but the second half is much better. There's some impressive CGI stuff too. I think I liked it more than episode 7!

I haven't been digging the characters in the trailers, so I'm not especially hyped for it, plus I've been ill this week, otherwise I might have gone to a midnight opening tonight. If it was an entry in the saga then I'd be there no matter what, but for this I'll probably wait until Friday.

@gcunit I was worried at first that it would be too different from a regular Star Wars film, considering this is a spin-off; however, I can confirm that it feels like any other Star Wars film. If they called it Episode 8 and squeezed it in between 3 and 4, I would've believed it too.