General Movies Thread

[Spartacus]

Same really, I thought it wasn't bad at all. Just another fun superhero movie.

[Historia]

watched suspiria, 2018 ver

i feel the need to watch it again

and same with the 1977 ver

[castor212]

ALita was.... underwhelming

it wasnt bad

just doesnt feel like its good eithjr

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Watched The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part the other day and it was quite good. I don't think it was quite as good as 2014's The Lego Movie, which I consider to be one of my 10 favorite films of all time, but it was very solid nonetheless. The first thing I noticed in comparison to the first one was the slightly weaker directing. It wasn't bland by any stretch, but it's noticeable that it was noticeable to me that it was not Lord and Miller anymore. It never reached the heights of stuff like the chase sequences in the first movie, which were stunningly put together, and the "cooldown" scenes didn't feel quite as alive as scenes in the first movie like the entrance to the saloon or Cloud Cuckoo Land. The other main complaint I had is in spoiler talk, so moving on.

On the flipside, the screenplay is excellent. Lord and Miller still did this one and it really shows. The humor is more or less unchanged from the first one, but it did away with a lot of short-length gags like the first movie had. The jokes here were, in general, a little more structured. There's still a lot of rapid-fire humor, but it felt more curated, which makes sense from a narrative point of view, which I'll get into later. Without giving anything away, the story was well-thought out and complimented the first movie really well. It succeeded at what I think The Incredibles 2 tried to do but failed at: building on the first one and addressing gaps in its message. 1 works on its own, but The Second Part earns its subtitle by working in favor of it and feeling like an earned continuation, rather than a business decision (which it is, but the movie does its job and delivers on justifying itself artistically, at least to me).

The music is something else that wasn't quite as good as in the first movie, though I didn't really notice it until much further in the movie and again there may be a narrative purpose to it. A lot of the scenes felt somewhat Star Wars-y due to the scene transitions and the music that carried them. It wasn't anything resembling John Williams-tier, though, so it didn't feel particularly hype. I think that this may have something to do with something that happens in the movie and I'll leave it at that, but I'd have to rewatch the movie and pay closer attention to the music in specific scenes. If it's consistently space fantasy-ish all throughout, then it's probably not worth giving the benefit of a doubt, but if the scenes I'm thinking of are scored differently (which I didn't notice on first viewing), then it's probably intentional. This movie's also more of a musical, with a couple song setpieces, and I think it pulls them off well. They're separate enough that they don't feel forced, though I could've done with them being a tad shorter.

Lastly before spoiler talk, it was very enjoyable as a fan of the first movie and as a Lego fan. I've never been into Lego System so much as I've been a Bionicle fan (no cameo in this movie 0/10 literally unwatchable), but my Lego collection is not limited to Bionicle and I've more or less kept up with the AFOL community and the movie really feels like it tries its best to appeal to kids, teens, parents, adult Lego fans and adults in general, without ever feeling like it's pandering to a specific audience. It's a family film first and foremost and it makes good on that. I recommend it to anyone who liked the first Lego Movie or The Lego Batman Movie. I don't think it's quite as visually impressive as the first one (there's plenty going on in any given shot, but there setpieces aren't as impressive) so it might not warrant a theater viewing like The Lego Movie did.

Now for spoilers

Spoiler:

I really dug the plot twists in this movie, so I'm not spoiling them here, just speaking a little more freely. The complaint I had that I glossed over was that there was more live-action content. This in and of itself is not a problem; problem is the actors kinda sucked. I never bought Maya Rudolph as the kids' mom, and the kids themselves were a little stilted. Finn was more passable when he was a little kid (though it might not even be the same actor for all I know), but now as a teenager, it just feels kinda awkward. It doesn't help that he's a teenager who's no-girls-allowed-reeee-ing over his little sister playing with his Lego. They also seem a little older than I'd imagine from a five-year timeskip, especially Finn. Emily should be somewhere around 10 years old and her actress is probably a little older but she passes for 10, but Finn looks like he's 16, not 13 or 14. I dunno, when I was growing up, neither me nor any of my classmates really hit our growth spurts until 16, so Disney Channel style casting has always been somewhat strange to me.

On the subject of it being five years, I think that Finn's growing tastes are what makes the movie a bit less spontaneous. It's stuck in the middle where it's only slightly less out there because it can't stray too far from what the first movie established itself as, but it still tries to show that Finn's grown. It's not perfect, but I think it works. The same may apply to the music, but I'd have to rewatch it to tell.

Last of all, Unikitty's screentime was a highlight. Brickbeard and Benny got good scenes too, but Unikitty was consistently funny and well-utilized. The new characters were generally well-used, too. As an entirely me-centric nitpick, I would've loved for there to be a CCBS or Bionicle character, even as a cameo (and it would've fit neatly in the Duplo planet), but not a one. I appreciated the Mixel(?) planet, though, that was cool. They were cool-looking without being obnoxious like the majority of Mixels canonically are. For people who didn't like the fact that Emmett kinda existed in the real world (as in, he was able to move), they're not gonna be a fan of certain scenes. I thought that they could've been toned back a little, especially at the climax.

[Historia]

derp wrong thread

but yeah since i'm here gonna see battle angel on the 12th

[Mattias]

Saw Alita and, having not seen the anime before, it was alright. The action scenes are anime as hell and Christolph Waltz is basically a Bloodborne Hunter for the first half. My only two gripes are 1) the sudden romance with no given passage of time, which feels forced. We don't know if these characters have known each other for weeks or only a day, yet we're expected to believe they will die for each other already. And 2) ending which is basically how every episode of Inspector Gadget ended, which while it works well for a serialized show, lacks the resolution you want from a movie.

[Historia]

watched alita, it was pretty great action flick

personally, if it was guaranteed to only be one movie, i'd make the story about her final showdown with Erica and flashbacks that hints at their shared history together. the opening fight scene in mars chronicle between them would've been epic to see on the big screen, backdropped by flashbacks to "the war", erica's downfall, and alita's journey that brought her back after 200 years.

but eh i'm happy with what we got

[LegalLoliLover]

In terms of Bram Stoker's Dracula (the Gary Oldman one), Vlad became a vampire because he was pissed off at the priest quoting God's rule that suicidal people go to hell. However, during the last scene, there was that symbolic stain glass with him and Elizabeta going to heaven. Therefore, was it that the priest, who apparently reincarnates into Van Helsing, was wrong to quote that rule, or is God such a coward that when he saw Vlad as a powerful vampire lord, he was like "OK, OK, I'll let you two in heaven; just stop messing up my 'perfect' world"?

[Deathhappens]

Sat down to watch The Hurt Locker on a whim. Powerful movie, perhaps leaning a bit too much on the emotional side (hard to believe someone like James wouldn't have been Section Eight'd soon after displaying even half the warning signs he did), but it excels both despite and bercause of it. Top notch cinematography, subtle but atmospheric soundtrack, eminently believable performances by the actors.

[LegalLoliLover]

This can apply to either Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or really any movie involving raiding tombs and ruins, but most of the traps in those places assume either the robbers are small in number or under-equipped. For example, the "Breath of God" trial in Last Crusade can easily be destroyed with a strong enough gun. Traps in other ruins need to be reset or something after killing a small group at most. In other words, if you had an army (like the Chinese Communist army raiding imperial tombs to force those "evil dynastic landlords" to pay "reparations"), you could force your way through most traps, whilst only having relatively minimal casualties (in relationship to your overall troop strength, that is).

[Deathhappens]

Which is fair, since historically tomb traps were set to discourage small in number and under-equipped graverobbers, not an entire army.

[Mattias]

So I saw Captain Marvel. It's basically the inverse of Black Panther for me. Marvel villain syndrome, no unique sense of style, but the characters are fun enough that I didn't notice any of those things. I really enjoyed the 90's nostalgia, but I grew up then so that's something you can take with a grain of salt. The de-aging was unnoticeable to me (no Grand Moff Tarkin here), but I also never really noticed Superman's digital no beard in Justice League, so maybe I'm just unobservant.

Overall, no complaints but also nothing to really stand out. But pretty fun as long as it's going.

[SpoonyViking]

I wish Marvel had released this movie earlier. I'm basically sick and tired of super-hero movies. I didn't even watch Into the Spider-verse in theatres!

[Spartacus]

Not sure which is the most boring for me, Captain Marvel or Ant-Man and The Wasp. The first part of the movie is really rough.

[Historia]

speaking of superhero movies, i'm looking forward to brightburn

[castor212]

Watched Cap Marvel. Was a very decent superhero movie. I dont get all the flak.

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Like, for real. Its no masterpiece but its no garbage either for me.

[Mcjon01]

I liked the mohawk

[weeblord]

Cap Marvel was an OK marvel movie but the cap herself had less charisma than a silent fart. Fury carried the movie with his quips.

[Historia]

currently watching waterloo (1970), love it so far

i also found out that war and peace (1965) is getting a restored re-release and it comes out in june. looking forward to that more than all the shit jam-packed in april.

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of ww1 movies, The White Ribbon (2009) looks good, though i still have 120, journey's end, beneath hill 60, they shall not grow old, etc. on my list to watch

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so many films

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Just finished watching Synecdoche, New York, my first Charlie Kaufman movie. It was a very tough watch and although I'd like to watch it again, it probably won't be for a while. That said, it was a phenomenal work of art and I'm very glad I saw it. It's been on my list for a while and it did not disappoint. It was one of the more depressing films I've seen, but it is still something I'd call a positive experience. I can't really broadly recommend it, it is very unusual and very much not something I think many people will enjoy. Nevertheless, it gets two thumbs-up and a 9.5/10 from me (because of a few minor issues I had with some creative decisions), which could turn into a 10 on rewatch if it flows better knowing how it ends (which it likely will).