Topic: Movie thread.

I'm now mostly caught up on the Disney+ shows, so I finally got around to watching No Way Home. I am a pretty casual MCU guy, but I honestly really loved this. I think this was a way better "event movie" than all of the Avengers movies, which have all been fairly meh to me (especially the first one and Endgame). This is probably the most excited I have felt about the future of the MCU since really the early days of Phase One.

I watched Aftermath last night on HBO Max. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and is based off of the 2002 Uberlingen Mid Air Colssion that happened between a passenger plane and a cargo plane over Germany.

Schwarzenegger plays a man who lost his wife and pregnant daughter in thr crash which was caused due to an error by an air traffic controller. He tries to make sense of it all and his life after losing his family and all he wants is someone to apologize for the accident.

It also goes to show how the air traffic controllers life falls about for making a simple error and how he copes with it.

Now as I said it's based off of a true story and it follows the story almost to perfectly. Of course names are changed and the location changed, in reality the crash happened on the border of Germany and Switzerland where as the movie the crash happens in an undisclosed location in the US. I say the US because thr plane Arnold's wife and daughter were one was said to be coming from New York. Also the air traffic controller was a Swiss man where as again in here he's American. However this movie has the same out come as what happened in real life which I won't spoil here, but it was surprising that they included it.

Overall I enjoyed it it was a satisfying movie and if you like psychological dramas or true stories its worth a watch.

X Men Origins: Wolverine - There seem to be a few possible continuity discrepancies based on the other X Men films (though I know the latter Days of Future Past acts as sort of a slate cleanser), and then there's whatever the heck it did to Deadpool, but overall it's a competent action movie on it's own. Not the greatest thing in the world or anything, but there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Tron: Legacy was on my watchlist for a while, particularly because Daft Punk composed the score. It's a strange movie, it has the ingredients for world domination but didn't quite do it. The set pieces are fantastic, for a start, and really emphasise the reflection of light, which is very important. The lighting is really nice too, and there's some really cool shots.

The characters. I didn't really like how Kevin (Jeff Bridges) was written, it's like the writers tried to inject every eighties mannerism into him. Sam (Garrett Hedlund) on the other hand was alright. A relatively typical "young and talented but troublesome" protagonist, but he was generally good. Quorra (Olivia Wilde) stole the show for me though. She was awesome in every sense. Ready to sacrifice herself at the first time of asking, and is formidable in combat, yet has a certain fragility and a sense of wonder. Seeing her watch the sun rise at the end was uplifting, hopeful and tender.

The story was a little uneven in terms of pacing, but was a really good one within the framework of the original. Clu is no more than a program, following the rules, unable to learn or grow, and his frustration is clear. (The CGI for Jeff Bridges was a little dubious according to my Dad). Overall... 7.5/10. Very good.

@TheJGG I think some of the eighties California surfer dude mannerisms are a bit of real-life Jeff Bridges.

I've been wanting to rent new Dune. It was available to rent digitally for a bit, but now HBO has the temporary rights to it for the moment (in the US), and it's no longer rent-able. I think this kind of surprised timed exclusivity is bit ridiculous. But usually these kind of contracts only last a few months. So, I expect Dune to be rentable in a couple months.

For the past 5+ years, Young Frankenstein disappears everywhere around halloween because HBO or some movie service buys the seasonal rights to it. It disappears for October-November. ....which is why I bought the movie & ripped it to MP4.

@Rambler 😁

@WoomyNNYes Dune is half a film, you're better off waiting a few years to see it so it gives them a chance to actually finish it. I wouldn't even say they included an ending to it, it's like it goes to commercial and never comes back.

@TheJGG I liked (but didn't love) it, I may have been more impressed if I was a fan of the first Tron but I just kinda laughed it as I watched it decades after the 80s so it's cutting-edge visuals seemed a bit silly. And yeah, Jeff Bridges CGI face has dead eyes, it's like a flesh covered puppet with no soul. Still it gave inspiration to the amazing DisneyLand ride!

@WoomyNNYes If that's the case, fair play, really. He must have ad-libbed some of those lines if that is true. As for Dune, get it now, I say. While @jump has a point about it being an unfinished film in terms of the overall story, it's better to sit down and experience it now. It's a very good film, and a real "cinema movie" if you will. It's cinematic to the core and is so well fleshed out.

@jump I looked at some of the scenes from the original movie and my god, it's awful in comparison to today's tech. I could see elementary schoolers do a similar job with the tech we have at home today. Goes to show how far it's come since.

You could make the argument, though, that CGI is being overused nowadays, so it's a fine balance. Tron: Legacy IMO went a little heavy in some ways, but used a lot of practical lighting to help convey the atmosphere. I loved the scenes in that retreat house in the middle of the movie, because of the lighting. Other times it could get too grating though.

That Disneyland ride looks superb. Thanks for linking.

@Rambler Couldn’t agree more. I don’t remember where I heard it from but I heard somewhere that CGI’s use has been very much abused recently in that it should always have been used to extend realty, not form the basis of the movie.

That could be one criticism of the MCU, since most, if not all action and fight scenes are fought in green screen rooms. It breaks the immersion and a cynical viewer could see it in the actors.

A film like Dune is good, because it was filmed in natural light and on location. Expensive… but it’s good for the movie in the long run.

@TheJGG I dunno, if you can't use CGI in Tron a film set in a cyber world then what film can you use CGI in then? It's not like it's an action-thriller where its grounded world feels off now as the CGI hasn't blended in as well mid-fight sequence or a horror-fantasy as the actors are reacting to monsters that aren't there, it's in a place that should feel like it's digital.

I think the problem is more that too many directors don't know how to use CGI myself, it's becoming more common place for art house/indie directors who have no experience of using such techniques are given blockbusters and are just leaving to the CGI team but let someone like James Cameron who pioneered a lot of this do some CGI and it will end up being next level stuff. Although saying that a few of my friends work on the production side of movies building sets, props etc so I should really be on the side of everything being practical.

@Rambler I remember listening to a podcast with James Gunn. Apparently the reason he got the job for Guardians was one, the list of people who wanted it direct it was short as everyone thought it would be a hard flop and two, he had experience working with CGI characters from his time as a writer on set of the Scooby Doo movies.

You're right about it being a short cut, things like props and sets aren't made in advance of the movie as they are actually made whilst the movie is being made so if the team are behind on things or there's a sudden change in what is needed they will switch it from being practical to CGI as it's something that can be done in post where you don't lose expensive contractor time with the crews as well as the set locations and actors.

@jump Naturally there's exceptions to the "CGI shouldn't make movies by itself" rule, and Tron, being a movie about computer programs and a digital world, is such an exception. But the production team built lots of real sets for the movie, so it wasn't the green-screen movie it could have been, if that makes sense. As you say it destroys the immersion for the actors, and that compromises their performances. At least having references for scale would help with that; and even the MCU does in a way. They had a giant cutout of Thanos' head attached to Josh Brolin to tell the actors where to look.

@Rambler Pretty much agree with everything. Dune felt like a very different movie from the start because they used a lot of natural environments. There's closeups of sand for one, and it looked pretty darn real to me. The lighting was perfect too, but tellingly, the wind was all over the place, and in one dramatic scene Paul's hair kept covering his face. It looks silly but that shows the director cared more about the accuracy of the setting instead of the dramatic weight.

Concluding remarks... I really hope directors in future use more practical effects and use CGI conservatively.

I don't normally talk about movies I watch, because I am a normie that only sometimes watches movies anyway, and video games and anime are cooler lol.

But I did see Everything Everywhere All At Once after being super into the trailer ahead of Spiderman: No Way Home and hearing all the hype for it. It somehow lived up to all that hype and is unquestionably one of the wildest experiences I've had watching anything. I dunno if I can even fully process how I feel about it beyond agreeing with the overwhelming praise it got.

I like how you're sorta praising Dune by calling it very cinematic, it's liking saying you should read this book as it's very wordy or listen to this band as they are very musical. ;p

@kkslider5552000 It's on my to watch list, I'm waiting for it's UK release at the moment and it still hasn't got a date. The trailer looks good and Michelle Yeoh is a treasure.

@Rambler Did you take a trip a to the cinema to see The Northman then? I saw it over the bank holiday and I really liked how wonderfully brutal it is, plus I loved it switching from a nihilistic depression to outrageous surrealness. It's also a rare 2-3 hour doesn't feel like a slog because it respects the audience and doesn't waste time explaining every single detail.

ive been blind buying a bunch of new movies that came out recently for DVD and blu ray such as The Vigil, Scream 5 and Saint Maud. But most of the time recently also been buying older DVD collectors editions of Star Trek V and VI and Final Fantasy XV Kingsglaive for DVD. Also bought the blu ray seasons 4-6 pack of dragon ball Z a week and half ago so the rest of this month and in May im going to be busy with watching alot of stuff.

But as of right now currently watching these

star trek IV
star trek V
star trek VI
Scream Trilogy
Scream 4
Scream 5
Halloween
Halloween 2018
Halloween Kills
The Vigil
still have the old Transformers cartoon show to watch alot

I sat down with my father and we watched The Batman. I had already seen it so I made sure to tell him when the best scenes came up. I went to sleep before the climax but despite him promising to leave after the first ten minutes he ended up watching the entire movie from start to finish. That's the sign of a good movie, especially since the movie's nearly three hours.

Neither of us were massively enthused by Zoë Kravitz but thought it was a really well done, gritty, mature, brutal take on Batman. We both liked Riddler, but he naturally liked Heath Ledger's Joker more, being a Christopher Nolan fan.

I saw Batman and damn, it’s just so good, I was never the biggest fan of the others but wow, I was glued all the way through!

The batmobile scene was MMM, it was so good! I would recommend this to anyone, it’s a like it or you hate it thing I think, you will find it boring, or too long. But I loved seeing Batman’s detective aspect, and as someone who has been wanting to see it, this was amazing!

9/10

I personally thought the Batman was really bad. Way too long and tedious, had to watch it over three sittings. Had they just focused on the Batman Riddler story and not cut out all of the violence and blood, it might have been a good movie but they basically made the Spider-Man 3 equivalent for Batman, right down to an exact recreation of emo Peter Parker for Bruce Wayne.

@TheJGG The Batman is a funny one, as it's not a great movie but it's not that bad either so whenever it's discussed I naturally lean the opposite way of the person I'm talking to opinion's just to pick up the talking points that are missed.

The David Fincher-lite take is great but the narrative/theme is working against itself. It’s a simple story of Bats stopping being about “vEnGeaNce” and becoming a hero but he never does anything to earn it as he’s spends 2/3 hours repeatedly failing so when he suddenly just declares himself to be a hero it screams false to me. Like Bat’s is just a reactionary character and you could take him out of the movie and the same course of events will happen, it needed a moment when Batman actually getting a ahead of the bad guys and the 3rd act wasn’t that. He fails to solve The Riddler’s harder riddles, fails to get the girl, fails to stop The Riddler’s murders, fails to bring his parents’ murder to justice, fails to catch The Riddler, fails to stop the city being flooded, fails to stop Alfred being blown up but he does beat up a few low level non-trained henchmen (with the help from drugs) and solves some of the easier riddles which makes him a hero-sorta? lol

It has the same problem as The Joker where it spends so much time trying to ape a better directors work that they just forgot about their own film.

He doesn't actually do detective work though, he's just stands around crime scenes waiting to be told a riddle which is just playing The Riddler's game rather than focusing on the case itself.

I'd argue it's about the same or even less detective work than in past films as Keaton was always researching things with his computer, Bale ran ballistics and tracked money and Batfleck had a very boring mystery of The White Portuguese which no one cared about. Adam West was the most detective-y Batman!

They should have made it a period 90s piece to explain the emo/grunge music, if he’s in his 20s today he would have been listening to emo rap like Juice WRLD.