Topic: Movie thread.

Ready or Not

Horror / satire, just a really good time from start to finish.

InuYasha the Movie: Affections Across Time (Amazon Prime Video) - Currently rewatching the series in anticipation of the sequel, and that includes the movies in respective order. In this entry, Menomaru, a moth demon from China, sets out to get revenge against InuYasha, who's father killed his own years ago during the Mongol invasion of Japan.

Of course, not much of that will make much sense to you if you haven't seen the series, so it's definitely a watch for those already somewhat familiar with the lore, but it's a fun time if you are. Of course, being a film the animation quality is a few notches higher than it is in the TV anime, all the main characters get a chance to do their thing, and there's some decent romantic moments between the leads, so it's all good.

I just recently finished Apocalypto. Before I talk about this movie, Some personal backstory with this movie, I watched it when I was 14(maybe younger I don't remember) on channel 46. And, I was shocked at how good it was(was thinking about it for like the whole week), hell half the students in my classes(I was in Middle school) were talking about the film( the Latino community to be precise). And after a couple of years, I tried to find this movie again. I couldn't. It was taken off digital shelves, the only way to watch was by DVD. Maybe it was the cause of the director's racists outbursts, who knows? All I know that I'm delighted for this movie on coming back to digital formats after being gone for so many years.

Apocalypto. It's simply brilliant, and it has held up like fine wine. Everything was expertly crafted, to the score, acting and shots. Apocalypto is one of those movies that deserved to be watched by everyone, and I will stand by that till the end of time. Mel Gibson is one talented individual, and this movie shows off his talent. I Might have to watch his other films now.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Spielberg movie about UFOs and ayyliens. The special effects are pure 70s, but it does fit well i'd say. It's part of the movie's charm.

Finally got around to watching Solo a Star Wars Story, and it was surprisingly good. A lot of it seemed to be setting up for a sequel, which doesn't look like it's going to happen. I preferred it to episodes VI - IX

@Wargoose I totally agree. I really regret not seeing it in theaters now. I was planning to, but with the lack of hype it got, I figured it wasn't worth it. When I finally got around to watching it, I was surprised at how good it actually was compared to the lack of buzz around it.

Compared to the recent mainline movies, I think Solo, and especially Rogue One, were much better.

Anyone else feel that the John Wick franchise has jumped the shark? I thoroughly enjoyed the first two movies. They did a great job of laying down the foundation of the world of the High Table. But after the first act of the third movie I feel as though the story went off the rails.

Well, it was about the only way to up the stakes any more than they already were, at that stage, @Magician .... I'm looking forward to the next one

InuYasha Movie 2: Castle Beyond the Looking Glass (Amazon Prime Video) - As I continue my way through the series I watched the second movie last weekend. In this entry the series' main villain Naraku appears to be defeated, but after the cast splits up to seek their own individual quests a new villain appears and draws them together once again.

This is probably my favorite of the films, if only because it features the first of only two kisses the leads share throughout the entire series (I know I'm a sucker, lol). Otherwise it's a fine film that captures the spirit of the show well, and I like the fact that the villain is based on an actual Japanese myth (the tale of Princess Kaguya), which is a nice touch.

I'm really surprised to see that Michael Keaton is actually reprising Batman for the Flash movie. I thought he would've been fatigued of being typecast as winged creatures after both Birdman and The Vulture.

Also damn Ben Affleck got screwed hard. I wasn't personally a fan of his Batman but that was more so because of how he was written rather than his actual performance. I do wish he did get at least a shot at a standalone film

lol. I just read that Disney won't be releasing Mulan in cinemas, but instead will be heading straight to Disney+. It's a bit of a blow to cinemas who've been struggling to reopen. But that's not all, it's going to cost $30 on top of your Disney+ sub to watch it.

They want this film to flop, or what?

At least Tenet is still on schedule.

@Octane they are still planning on releasing at the movies in China, the second biggest movie market in the world with something aimed straight at them.

They can't keep pushing back release dates or releasing it straight to Disney+, they already did that with a few films (although stuff like Artemis Fowl seemed like a flop anyway) and some of the Fox films they inherited having strict must release in cinema rules attached. With all movies being pushed back it's starting to get really crowded and they will start cannibalising each other when they are released.

Disney themselves are struggling badly with their parks losing billions etc and they saw the Trolls movie being more profitable from skipping cinemas and going VOD so they are probably experimenting. The price tag is way too high but if they have new releases as a PPV type thing in on Disney+ in conjunction with a cinema release and then being made free with the subscription I'd be ok with that.

I've still got no idea what Tenet is about I'm looking forward to it.

Yes, Tenet is going to open in Europe and Asia this month, but if you look at ticket sales in Europe they are way down. First off they only even sell every other row, secondly, they won't place strangers next to each other, so that's like 60-80 % less potential sales, but in reality it's much worse.

If I look at tickets in my local theater that holds 63 people, they sell no more than 4 seats. Tenet is going to bomb big time.

@Agriculture My local cinema has one large screen that holds up to a 1000 people IIRC. And a few smaller ones that go up to 300. I know they're definitely struggling, but it's better than no new releases at all.

But the measures over here are less strict. Because they don't sell every other row. As long as there's nobody sitting in front of you or behind you it's fine. And two seats between individuals/groups on the same row. For Tenet I can see their big screen selling out easily, with a maximum capacity of around 300 I think.

It remains to be seen. I wouldn't wanna go into a theater with 300 people in it.

@Agriculture Depends on where you live of course. I've heard of the situation in Sweden, so that's understandable.

What do you mean? Sweden has almost no new cases of covid, mainly because of how well we handled, and continues to handle the pandemic. What I meant is that no one here in Sweden, nor in most countries, would risk going to the theater until at least 2021, because they would rather be safe than sorry.

Granted, I haven't been to other countries in 2020, and I have seen the protests going on in countries like USA where participants don't even seem to care there's a pandemic, so maybe people are less careful than I assume they will be. Obviously you can't assume everyone in the world will be as careful as people in Sweden. It's incredibly difficult to predict, because I've also seen videos of people who wear both masks and plastic gloves, then they eat a hotdog while still wearing the same gloves and just lifts their mask, rendering their whole efforts useless.

Anyhow, it remains to be seen what will actually happen, but my bet is that Tenet will be a box office bomb because so few will go see it because of the pandemic. I think Disney did exactly right when they decided to sell Mulan for a one time fee of $30. It's the best of all worlds, selling the consumer a movie rather than renting it, but at the same time cutting the overhead costs that something like a bluray release would have. The price of $30 seems somewhat fair too. A bluray costs $20 or so, but you have to tack on a little more to the price given that you get the movie right at the premier. Though I do understand people that think it's too steep.

So my dad and I thought it'd be a cool idea during quarantine to run through all the MCU films in chronological order

And of course he totally forgot about Incredible Hulk

Can't blame him because Marvel did too based on how little it mattered to the wider canon

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Blu-Ray) - It's been a couple months since I last watched a Blu-Ray, and I realized this was the last film in my last batch I had yet to watch.

Maybe it's just because it's been a couple months and I had gotten used to the slightly compressed HD image on cable & streaming, but I thought the picture quality on this one was absolutely stunning (the opening space battle & Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader were particularly striking IMO).

As for the film itself I found it to be a great watch and the most enjoyable of the prequel films. All the political maneuvering of the past 2 films finally comes to a head in what is the most action packed film in the trilogy, with some epic large scale battles & great light saber duels. Also, I feel that it's reliance on CGI doesn't hold it back as much as it's brethren as it seems a lot more modern in that regard (the last two films, particularly AotC, had a few CGI setpieces that looked terribly out of date or cheap), as everything looked fantastic and even drew a couple of "wows" from me. The worldbuilding continues to be a strong suit as well, with the introduction of many new worlds (though some are only seen for a few moments) that are awe inducing. The acting won't win any awards ("Ultimate Powah!!!"), but it generally does it's job and is simply a fun watch, and I like the fact that it still has a sort of "movie making pulpy feel" to it (for a lack of a better way to phrase it), that I feel is missing from modern Hollywood.

Terminator Dark Fate is such a conflicting movie.

The first half is by far the best Terminator film since T2, it’s hard and gritty without the fluff from some of the other non-Cameron films. Linda Hamilton returning as a grizzled vet and Mackenzie Davis (who is great in Halt and Catch Fire and it is well worth a watch) playing a bad ass solider on a suicide mission you really buy into those two but the second Arnie comes in it all changes. The tone changes and becomes too comedic, the plot twist about him is ridiculous and the climax is about him saving the day rather than the two characters who you have invested in from the start.

I get Terminator and Arnie are intertwined and that some fans wouldn’t accept a film without him but he really ruined this film for me. The first half is still great and worth a watch still but I just get the feeling it could have better.