Topic: Movie thread.

@jump It's because I was NOT expecting them to wipe everyone's memories except for Peter's, leaving behind all of the characters (more or less) I had grown attached to over the last few Spidey movies in favour of wiping the slate clean for a new set of movies. It's genius and the movie is fantastic, I've just been really sad thinking about it and where on Earth things can go from here.

@Fizza I have a very different idea of pain. My head goes to movies like Boys Don't Cry, Requime For A Dream, Irreversible, Million Dollar Baby etc. If they really wanted to have pain in it then Tom Holland should have broke Aunt May, Ned AND MJ's necks and then cried about it for an two hours rather than saving the world. Marvel are such cowards for not doing that! ;p

@jump 1. Jesus Christ
2. That's fair, I'm too much of a wuss for those kinds of films anyway, I'll stick with superheroes, documentaries and animation personally.

@Fizza They are probably saving Tom Holland breaking people's neck for another movie, it wouldn't be right if he broke MJs neck as that is Gwen's role. So the next two movie are all lovely dovey to make sure you care about the new Gwen, then SNAP. ;p

I'll raise you all Lilya For-Ever in the pain stakes.

I thought Gwen died due to inertia?

I cannot believe my 5 second review of the latest Spider-Man movie went down the rabbit hole of people talking about snapped necks and backs, good lord. Not what I was expecting to put it mildly.

@Fizza
It's a Spiderman plot from the 70s.
A instance of real physics in a Marvel comic!!

@Fizza For such an audience-pleasing movie, I was a little shocked by how brutal the final act was, lol.

It doesn't get talked about much, but Doctor Strange has TERRIBLE judgment in this film. Tom Holland loses everyone he loves, in some form, and that's almost all directly attributable to Strange's bizarre behavior throughout the film.

@Fizza You brought the pain ;p

I'm referencing both the 2nd Amazing Spider Man flick and this famous comic plot;

@Rambler I've never heard of Lilya For-Ever. I've just gave it a quick google and have now added it to my ever growing list of films to check out.

@jump I've never read the comics personally myself (just too much of a time-sink and ESPECIALLY a cost-sink for me(€15 each issue jesus)) but I do know of most of the big ones, like you mentioned there. I mainly watch a lot of comics youtubers to get the know-how after seeing those moments in the films. It helps fill in the blanks because realistically, I only really know my full opinion on a Marvel movie after I've seen it twice. For example, I thought Far From Home was just ok on my first go-around but after rewatching it there in prep for No Way Home made me see how good it really was.

@Fizza I'm not sure where you're getting the $15 an issue from, maybe you're talking about trades which collects a bunch of comics together in a single book but a single comic issue doesn't cost that much. It's about £3/4 an issue or practically for free if you wait for a Comixology sale plus both DC and Marvel have digital subscriptions of a fixed fee where you can read as much as you want.

Maybe it's just me and I'm not hip enough for this Youtubing socialy interwebbed media world but watching people talk about the history of comics rather than reading it sounds like a hollow experience, especiaily for something so driven by art work.

@jump Trust me, in all of the bookshops close to me, that is the most common price I see and it is very annoying. Also, I know that I may not be getting the 'pure' experience, but I really don't mind. I'd say the only type of story separated by issues that I've gotten invested in was Pokemon Adventures and even then, I get them in volumes rather than individually, it's just more bang for my buck, you know? (by the way, if you're into Pokemon or even just the 1st gen of it, I would highly recommend Adventures. It takes the events of the original games and changes SO many things that it's basically a brand new story with brilliantly characterized people. It is muah, chef's kiss)

@Fizza Yes but are you looking at actual comics or are you looking at graphic novels in those shops as they are two different things? A single new comic does not cost that much and most bookshops only stock trades/graphic novels rather than comics. For example here's a comic and they even put the price on the cover;

Last year, I started a fun little exercise of ranking my favorite first-time viewings of the year, regardless of when they were released. So I'm continuing the trend.

I watched about 150 films in 2021. I discovered my new favorite director: Sion Sono. Two of his films and one miniseries make this list.

As is traditional with lists posted online, I've limited my entries to 10. I'll post the direct list here, and then I'll leave a brief comment for each one. You can find several of these for free on streaming services. Your local library probably has a few too.

1. Antiporno
2. The Woman in the Dunes
3. Solaris (1972)
4. Tag (2015, Sion Sono)
5. Possessor
6. House
7. The Little Girl Who Conquered Time
8. Tokyo Vampire Hotel
9. Bliss
10. Spider-Man: No Way Home

1. Antiporno

Fascinating. Risky. Surprising. Antiporno is what film is to me.

2. The Woman in the Dunes

Maybe the best movie ever made. It's perfectly shot, the setting is captivating, it's tense, and the characters develop naturally.

3. Solaris (1972)

If you begin Solaris and are afraid it's going to be too slow, have patience. I've never seen storytelling more subtle but also so utterly engaging. It also has the best performance I've ever seen.

4. Tag (2015, Sion Sono)

Freaking phenomenal. Completely different than anything else you've ever seen. I saw it almost a year ago and still think about it all the time.

5. Possessor

This is definitely the darkest film on this list. It's violent and easily traumatic. If you're ok with that, then dang if this movie isn't a masterpiece. The lead actor played one of the boyfriends in Girls, and he was easily the weakest performance of that show. But he's improved dramatically and I can't wait to see how his career progresses.

6. House

You may have heard of House. It's a "cult classic" Japanese horror film from the 1977. I thought it would be overrated. I was wrong. The film-making style is completely unique, creative, and fascinating, and all of the characters are endearing. You really should watch this one.

7. The Little Girl Who Conquered Time

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is my favorite movie. That's the anime version from 2006. You absolutely should watch it because it's a perfect film. This is the live action adaptation from 1983. It's very different from the anime in story and tone but just about as good.

8. Tokyo Vampire Hotel

A 10-hour miniseries from Sono Sion. It's available on Amazon Prime. Technically, a miniseries could be considered cheating, but it's such a cohesive story, it really feels like a long movie. The episodes vary from suspense to horror to gore to contemplation. It's a psychotic experience.

9. Bliss

The most underrated movie of 2021. Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson are simply very very good actors. This one's on Prime and is probably the most accessible on this list. I would avoid trailers and just watch it. Actually, I would avoid trailers for all of these movies, but for Bliss, I can fairly comfortably recommend it to everyone.

10. Spider-Man: No Way Home

One moment is No Way Home is completely entirely cathartic for me. It's the first time I've cried watching a movie in a very long time. And for that moment alone, it was one of the most impactful viewings of this year for me.

I would really love to see your list too, if you care to share.

Watched Eternals this morning.

Certainly very visually accomplished and the fight scenes could definitely be kinetic, but it felt a little slow & bloated (and I don't think any of them really stood out in terms of personality other than Kingo).

I feel like if you're the kind of person to really like the first two Thor movies, you'd probably like this. More of an epic/drama feel without much of the trademark MCU humor/quips (though there is some).

@Gryffin I remember thinking Antiporno was a tad too on the nose whilst I watched it, maybe that was just me though as arthouse lovers seemed to like it. It's definitely not a good porno so huzzah, it's a great antiporno!

@RR529 I know some of the people who worked on Eternals, it was nice see my mates names in the credits. Although the highlight of Eternals for me was coming out of the cinema and debating with my missus about who was hotter Selma Hayek or Angelina Jolie. I fully back Selma Hayek!!!

Not directed at any one in particular but I'm so bored of talking about Marvel movies and shows now, even though I'm still watching everything the week of release and I'm excited to see those obscure funny book stories I read on the big screen. Maybe it’s because I’m too much of a gatekeeper or I don't take it as seriously as others but there are other movies/shows that I found more interesting when dissecting them. Either that or listening to folk complain about how Disney have made everything woke, they are real Spider Man fan as they read the bullet points of the Clone Saga on wiki or hardcore fans complaining it’s not close enough to the source material ALL THE TIME has just become tiresome.

@Gryffin - I love Woman in the Dunes (and Solaris to a lesser extent), so will check out the others on your list.
Have you seen Branded To Kill? If not, think you will like it. B&W surrealist Yakuza mayhem.

@jump @RR529

Wow! I can't believe I found someone who has actually seen Antiporno. I totally get your point about its being blunt. I just rewatched Tag this weekend and still love it. I'm going to rewatch Antiporno soon.

I'm also fairly burnt out on Marvel, or at least the discourse. What's funny is that I think Disney is sticking TOO closely to the comics. Take the Skrull, for example. As comic book drawings, they work. As live-action film characters, they're ugly as sin. Really, they look horrible, and I have nothing but pity for the poor souls who need to sit in make-up for four hours. I'd bet that comic readers are a minority of MCU fans at this point, so I think they should start leaving them behind, honestly (and I'm a comic reader myself). Just make choices that are better for film and for the universe your presenting as film. Not everything needs to match up 1:1 to the comics now. In fact, I think it's detrimental.

Here's my Eternals review
https://letterboxd.com/gryffin/film/eternals/

@Rambler
Hey thanks for the recommendation! I've never heard of it. It's streaming on Criterion, apparently. I've been meaning to queue up a few movies I want to see from there, actually, so this is a good opportunity to subscribe for a month. I'm super interested to hear your thoughts about the other movies on my list, if you get a chance to see them. Definitely @ me. I write little reviews of some movies lately, including some of these: https://letterboxd.com/Gryffin/films/reviews/

@Gryffin the annoying thing is the one Marvel show I really want to talk about is Legion but nobody has seen it. There’s so many ideas running about in the show I want/need to talk them out. It’s just fudging amazing which isn’t surprising as the show runner was the guy that did the Fargo series plus he is a big comic fan so he got the character. It recently got added to Disney+ so I’ve just finished watching the entire series for the second time.

For all of the complaints about Marvel them sticking close to the source material seems to work. Plus something that has always annoyed me is when in a movie they change something so in the comics it has to be changed too like Spider Man’s organic shooters or Magneto is no longer Wanda and Quicksilver’s Dad.

I've been doing something since the start of the year that I think anyone who regularly watches movies should do: a word document with every movie I've seen this year. I already have most Spider-Man movies, Zootropolis and most recently Shazam on mine and I think it's just a great idea to be able to look back on it at the end of the year and see which one was you favourite (spoilers: it's probably either going to be No Way Home or Shazam, watched the latter there for the second time recently, even better than the first).