Topic: Movie thread.

@Peek-a-boo As I recall, those of us who saw Paddington 2 did enjoy it. My mother can't abide anything British, and, while I enjoyed the first Paddington, I wasn't dying to see the sequel, so I went with her to see something else.

I'll check it out on DVD if it's really something I shouldn't miss, though.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - Nothing amazing, but it was at least consistently fun. I was suprised to find out that it rides the line between sequel and reboot (I thought it would be a full on reboot, but it's made perfectly clear that it takes place in the same continuity as the original). My only disappointment would be that the more fantastical creatures of the original (giant man eating plants, giant spiders) were completely left out, and in their place was a generic gang of machine gun toting motorcycle stunt driving baddies.

Thor: Ragnorok - This was a great time. Not really much to say that hasn't already been said, but it's a fantastic popcorn flick.

Just saw Infinity War, I won’t spoil anything of course, and needless to say when it comes to these movies it was really good. Definitely go in as spoiler-free as possible, your depriving yourself if you do. Not my favorite, but it’s a solid 8/10.

In This Corner of the World - Slice of life anime film that follows the day to day life of young housewife Suzu during the years of WWII. During the course of the film there's both happy and (many) sad moments, but it ends on a hopeful note. It's not one of my favorites (I.e. I won't be buying it), but I'd say it's still worth a look if you like anime or early 20th century period pieces (I will say some shots of the countryside were beautiful).

@TheTetrisGuy Likewise.

I will say that Marvel has a much, much bigger pair of balls than I give them credit for though! I am amazed that the higher ups gave the go ahead for some of the scenes in Infinity War...

Overall, I enjoyed the most recent two Marvel films (both Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther respectively) - strong empathise on the word ‘enjoyed’ - whereas the surprising complexity and layered depth of Infinity War, mostly due to Thanos motivations, made me appreciate the film more so than any of their previous eighteen features in the Marvel Cinematic Universe... if that makes sense?

PLEASE DON’T REVEAL THE SPOILERS UNTIL YOU HAVE SEEN THIS FILM!

The good:

The bad:

After leaving the cinema on a high, I was in a OMG! frame of mind however, upon thinking about the film on a whole, it is more than worthy of an 8/10.

For the love of God, please avoid spoilers – the impact of certain scenes would not be as effective or as profound if you do so.

I loved the new Avengers. Probably the best of the Marvel movies yet. Thor 3 and Captain America 2 were my favourites until this one.

The one thing that fell completely flat though was Thanos' motivation. It was presented as if it was a serious legitimate agenda that maybe we should understand. Not sure why exactly.

Um... any release date for Pokemon Stars Movie ?
Will that anime aired on Indonesia ?

Can I just say the Infinity War spoilers without context memes are great? I wouldn’t look them up before you see the movie, for fear of clicking on the wrong article, but definitely look them up after you see it.

@TheTetrisGuy

I'm pretty sure you could post that here, given that they don't spoil anything until you've seen it (therefore aren't spoilers)

@Dezzy Truth be told I have no idea how to upload images. Even If I did, there not really relevant to this thread, I just wanted to make a note of them.

Can you make a superhero movie where a group of scientists and economists just explain to a purple alien giant that actually the amount of starvation on earth has decreased as the population has grown, so he'd literally be making the problem worse that he claims he's solving.....?

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011):

This was the only MCU movie I hadn't watched yet. It was on TV years ago, but I wasn't playing much attention.

It's an ok superhero origin movie. Red Skull was a good villain.
Winter Soldier and Civil War were much better imo.

@Dezzy MAJOR INFINITY WAR SPOILER!!! To be fair, it was a universe wide thing, not just earth. Although one has to wonder why Thanos just didn’t double the amount of planets in the universe rather than commit mass genocide...

@TheTetrisGuy @Peek-a-boo would you recommend watch it in cinema or wait for blue ray

@Dawgzila That’s tricky... if you really want to avoid spoilers then definitely see it in theaters, but if your good at avoiding them, you wouldn’t be missing that much by waiting.

I'm going to drop spoilers about a 35+ year old horror film that everyone knows the plot to already, but, err, don't read if you're one of the few people who doesn't already know what The Shining is about

So, I finally watched The Shining all the way through! Despite leaving it with extremely mixed feelings, I think it was still worth watching. The sound design is absolutely amazing, especially as the film descends deeper and deeper into madness, and the "music" (if that's what it can be called) becomes a reflection of the indescribable chaos of Jack's mind. The acting, as far as that goes, seems pretty effective: Jack Nicholson has never been scarier (although, as I've said before, Jack Nicholson only ever plays Jack Nicholson... in this film, he's just doubling down the creepy aspects of his performances), and Shelley Duvall's Wendy spends most of the film seeming pretty genuinely terrified. The cinematography is really awesome during the opening scenes, with its vast, panoramic scene setting. And, even if the film eventually devolves into Steadicam: The Movie once the characters reach the hotel, there's a wonderful sense of irrationality to the set. The way it's designed is physically impossible, in certain respects, giving it an unnatural air from the beginning. I guess I should also mention that the film makes effective use of shocking imagery.

So, why did I say I left it with mixed feelings? Well... the film is close to three hours long, and the pacing kind of dies when the characters actually settle in to the hotel. It turns into a series of random creepy scenes that just kind of happen. One of Stephen King's criticisms of the film is that Jack Torrance is pretty clearly nuts from the get-go, and while he may get worse over the course of the film, there's no feeling of a 'descent into madness.'

The film also dispensed with a ton of the narrative from King's novel, which makes his inclusion of Danny's "shining" powers, and the discussion surrounding that, stand out all the more. There just doesn't seem to be a narrative function for his abilities. They exist to service a plot and character development that was filtered out of the adaptation.

The characters... kind of suck. Jack is insane and unpleasant to begin with, and that just becomes more the case over the course of the film. Wendy is a shrinking violet who exists so that the men in her life can terrify her (not necessarily uncommon in horror films, but I'd like to think something heralded as art would go beyond this; Stephen King was certainly unhappy with her portrayal in this film, which he called "misogynistic"). Hallorann is the most blatant example of the Magical Negro trope I've ever seen in a film; he's only there to dump exposition about his and Danny's psychic powers and then to be killed as a sacrifice when the film demands blood. These aren't people: they're one-dimensional abstractions brought to life. Although, I will admit, I like how subtle but unmistakably potent the theme of child abuse is in this film. They don't run it into the ground like almost any other film would, but it's clearly there, in the subtext of several scenes, of Wendy's terror when she sees marks on Danny's neck, and, most notably, in Danny's own behavior.

While I pointed out the film's effective use of imagery, and it's true, I think it does a good job showing it, without the context of a meaningful narrative to ground it, a lot of the creepy stuff happening in the film just seems more 'lol random' than anything, such as the woman in Room 237, the creepy twins, and especially the random gay furries having sex near the end of the film. I'm sure these have clear narrative functions in the original novel, but they almost feel like they're included at times so that Kubrick can market this as a horror film. I'll give the famous blood elevator imagery a pass as foreshadowing, but that's as generous as I'm being.

Oh, and the climax sucks. Wendy and Danny leave in Hallorann's car (because who wants to see the nice white woman and child get chopped up when you can summon the magical negro from hundreds of miles away to come sacrifice his property and life in their stead, as the film seems eager to do?), you get a brief flash of Jack Torrance wearing a goofy expression after freezing to death, and then the film ends with a tacky, Twilight Zone-esque twist that's not really meaningful in the context of the film it caps off.

Overall, though, I think the good overwhelms the bad... I just don't think it's the masterpiece people think it is.

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay (2018): I realized it had been a while since I watched a DC Animated Original Movie, so I decided to watch this new one.

The movie is probably the most gruesome animation DC has ever done, a lot of people literally explode!
The plot was kind of silly in my opinion: Amanda Waller, the responsible for the Squad (which has lost a lot of weight, btw) wants a card that can make whoever is holding at the time of their death go straight to heaven (???), and sends the squad to find it

One of the best aspects of the movie is how the squad is actually shown as a bunch of oportunistic backstabbers, who are just crazy to get the card for themselves.

Overall I really liked it, I'd say more than the 2014 animated movie. Great action, Deadshot and Bronze Tiger were amazing in this. I felt like Harley was a kind of comic relief character, saying the random stuff she usually does...

Batman and Harley Quinn (2017): I remember people were pretty excited for this one last year, but I... just completely forgot about it for some reason, and just checked it out now.

This one follows the same style as the Batman Animated Series! At first I was really enjoying the artstyle and jazz score, but then the movie really starts and oh man...

Poison Ivy wants to turn everyone into plants because humans keep destroying nature. Batman needs to find Harley so she can convince Ivy to stop. Then Harley joins Batman and there's a lot of sex, poop and fart jokes.
The tone of the movie is just weird compared to the animated series, and the plot is really, really boring.

Other than that I'm watching Samurai Champloo, currently at the 12th episode.

Deadpool 2 - I came. I saw. I laughed. I had a great time. I left.

....really don't have much to say beyond that. The writing was on-point. Great timing, great characterization. It was a great time from start to finish, with a post-credits ending that...I think I might've seen a tweet or headline spoiling, but didn't make enough sense out of context until I saw it myself, so I don't think it counts as spoiled?

Basically, I loved it. Sure, it didn't set the world on fire, but....why is that a saying? Seriously, I think if the world was on fire, we'd all be dead. Or living in underground vaults that are secretly lab experiments meant to stretch the limits of how much you can screw with people...speaking of which, Mission Impossible: Fallout Edition looks amazing. It's a very unexpected crossover, but I'm sure it'll be Game of the Year once all the bugs are patched out.
They're never getting patched out.

...what was I talking about? Oh yeah, The Avenger: Infinity Guantlet Acts 1 & 2. I saw. I laughed. I cried. I wooed and cheered. I left with a sense of hollowness and bitter disappointment at the fact that I bought the Beta Early Access version instead of waiting for the Complete Edition that'll release next year. But, that was my fault, since they only mentioned it in every one of their advertisements, except the ones I actually saw. I still cannot figure out how I missed that. It's like the entire internet is playing a practical joke on me, and I want it to stop!

But the joke's on you! This is the only Marvel movie that's based on a story I've already read! I already know how it ends!

...except they only used about 10% of said material...mostly just the basic concept, really...and it's set in a seperate universe...with only a small fraction of the original characters, most of whom are actually more important to the film than they were to the comic...and honestly, the only substantial part that they used was the part I never expected them to use...

...I'll just blame Disney until I invent time travel. Or the next movie comes out. Whichever comes first.

Soooo Solo: A Star wars story...I have a feeling it will flop immensely. I mean: I loved The last Jedi but many people seem to hate it. Even more then the prequels. So that fact combined with a troubled development movie (Solo) with a lead wich has to step in the shoes of Ford (impossible). No excitement for this movie on the internet at all. I saw the trailer: Nice but not hugely exciting. And story-wise it seems very bleak (for such a movie to exist there must be a amazing story to tell). Last time I checked the Metacritic score seemed favorable, but I also read a review in a paper that only gave 3 stars (normally they give 4). I myself might skip the movie in cinema, and just go straight for dvd.

To put everything short: The fanbase seems fed up with star wars, no excitement for Solo, empty seats for this movie, Disney questioning their strategy regarding stand alone star wars movies. Even a pre-schooler could come up with better stand alone star wars stories. Maybe Disney is going to hard with nostalgia simply because it sold so well so far. I say this because it feels lots of times in their last movies like: Look, we remembered the movies you liked (episode 4-6) and we totally forgot about the movies you hated (episode 1-3). I would be very surprised if the upcoming trilogy will be totally new like they promised. I am sure there will be lots of episode 4-6 nods in there.

One last gripe: How many years plays this before Ford? Because Alden Ehrenreich seems even older then Harrison when he played the role for the first time.

@Henmii
Fun fact: negative people whining on Twitter and social media are not in any way an accurate representation of reality.

I saw Solo on Friday, first show in the morning at the theater and it was packed. The movie was excellent, a lot of fun and had the audience cheering and laughing throughout. Alden did a great job (agreed that no one could ever fill Harrison's shoes, but Alden did a good a job as anyone could have) and the rest of the cast was great.

Maybe judge a movie by actually seeing it and making up your own mind instead of buying in to the online "buzz" (seriously, places are claiming it is doing "dismal" business despite the fact that it set a record for best ever preview gross on Memorial Day weekend). And saying that the fanbase is "fed up" with Star Wars is ridiculous. Again, it's a loud vocal minority on social media (which sadly seems to be the case with every aspect of our culture in the current time). I will say however that i don't think it was the best idea to put out this movie so quickly (just 5 months) after TLJ released, and the fact that two hugely popular/successful movies that share a largely common fanbase as SW are still in the theatre (Avengers and Deadpool) doesn't help when it comes to box office.

Finally, I have no idea what you're looking at if you think Alden looks older than young Harrison looked. FYI, Alden is currently 28 years old (would have been 27-ish when filming), Harrison was 34 when the original Star Wars came out (33-ish when filming).