General Movies Thread

[Mattias]

Oh it did a terrible job at presenting a bunch of things, a lot of which I assume are just lore dumps from Paul's bedroom or something. Hence, all these questions. But since the movie is obviously not a complete story, I give it huge leeway since I expect that when whatever comes up in the second half it will actually be explained. With the second half being two or more years away however, all I have to go on is wild guesses. Or actually sitting down and reading the book, but my backlog is big enough as is without tossing those doorstoppers on top, and it honestly didn't grab me enough that I need to know.

[aldeayeah]

You know, the plot is actually presented pretty well. Or at least the overt politics part. The whoresnuns goals I have no idea, other than being the standard Vizer 'power behind the throne'. And the shippers are barely mentioned and I assume just want more space cocaine.

Aside from Paul and his Mother constantly ping ponging characterization all over the place, everyone else was easily established.

Actually, is there even an Emperor? Or should I be expecting a 40k thing where they're been dead for a long time and everyone around just pretends so they can keep power?

There's an Emperor! And he's a bit less of a puppet than you might expect, although he can't go to the crapper without a Bene Gesserit witch spying on him. Not really the film's fault you didn't see him, since he doesn't actually appear until late in the book (although he's often alluded to)

The witches want to breed a better Emperor, with blackjack and hookers prescience and stuff. They didn't spell it out in the film, but you could probably piece it together on a second viewing.

The Jessica/Paul characterization issues are absolutely the film's problem, and it's main sin IMO.

There were also some interesting/compelling guys who were basically demoted to featured extras. Thufir, Piter, and Gurney mainly. It would be kinda hard to make room for them in such a decompressed presentation though.

[TTMACHINETT]

Blade Runner 2017 is pretty good ngl

[Mattias]

Blade Runner 2017 is pretty good ngl

Fun story: There was a thunderstorm going on when I saw that, and the screen must have flickered for a second and knocked out the sound. But it took everyone in the theatre about ten minutes to notice it since no one was talking and we all thought the no sound thing was just an artistic flair the director was going for. No one noticed until the MC started actually moving his lips in frame and nothing came out.

[Ideofago]

If there's a movie where absolute silence would fit, it's Blade Runner.

[Mattias]

It was so hard to tell. I was thinking the whole time "Ok, it's a bit artsy, but lets see where they go with it. Maybe it's about his disconnect from people while using the robo-hooker and they're just going to cut the music back in later when he starts actually being engaged.".

I have no bad feeling about it though, since not only did they restart the movie from the cut out, but they gave everyone a free ticket for another movie.

[SpoonyViking]

I'm always amazed when a movie feels both rushed and padded.
I don't know, maybe if I didn't have the novel to compare it to I'd have liked the movie better.

[Mattias]

I went to see the new Ghostbusters movie this week. It's like 90% fun Goonies style kids comedy adventure (Or maybe Stranger Things, but I never saw it so I can't say). And I was really on board for it. Sure it's almost nothing like the original, but that's not a terrible thing. But then in the climax they start pandering super hard to the nostalgia crowd that it feels like they robbed the main characters of any agency in the climax of their own story. It's actually kind of surprising how a movie that was already leaning that hard on nostalgia has the room to kick it up 500%. The villain didn't have to be what it was, they could have done literally anything but they really wanted that callback. From there it just kind of starts to collapse in on itself, there's still good things but you can feel the marketing guy in the board room yelling that they need recognizable IP, damnit! How are they Star Wars this shit if it's all new stuff?! And Walmart's gonna write a huge check so make a big scene set in one!

7/10. Would be a lot higher if the finale didn't shit the bed.

[Ideofago]

Anything with Finn Wolfsomething seems to be really great until 2/3rds in. Except Stranger Things. Season 3 was still pretty great, even if it felt super different.

[Five_X]

I had absolutely no idea there was a new Ghostbusters movie until I read that post... I'm out of touch...

[Mattias]

Movies are real hard hear about now, since everything is still recovering from being closed for almost two years. Like there's both a new Edgar Wright movie and a new Was Anderson movie out right now, that I wouldn't know about if I didn't see reviews for them in the newspaper (which is itself a dying medium).

[pinetree]

Tick Tick Boom is really good. I should watch more musicals.

[SpoonyViking]

I've seen mentions of it around. What's it about?

[pinetree]

The life of musical writer and composer Jonathan Larson as he struggles to try and achieve his dreams with his 30th birthday coming up and after spending 8 years writing his first musical.

It's an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, which is actually auto-biographical (I think), that also adds a lot more based on Larson's personal notes and interviews with his close friends gathered by the director, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

I actually didn't even know Larson was a real person before watching. The movie just transitions between adapted musical pieces, original songs and regular scenes perfectly.

[Mattias]

It's a musical about the guy who made Rent. Who tragically died hours before before the shows first off Broadway performance.

[thegoldenboy2188]

I watched Encanto yesterday with my cousins. It's the new pixar movie. Despite being an hour and 39 minutes it actually felt pretty short to me.

Not that, that's bad. It's a pretty good story about family and bonds. One thing I mainly like about it is how it subverted my expectations with how the plot twists would go and stuff.

Spoilers for Encanto

So the movie's about a girl named Mirabelle and her family who head a town named Encanto. In the past, her Abuela and her husband Pedro were forced on the run with other people due to being chased. The movie didn't say who's chasing them but I think it was Americans.

So when they come to a river, to protect his wife and their three children who were babies and the rest of the people with them, he sacrifices himself to the people chasing them to give the others time to cross the river. It doesn't really work and the men catch up with her. Out of grief she yells and slams her candle into the river.

Then a miracle occurs, a butterfly appears of the candle and the men are blasted back, and mountains start to grow around them becoming a barrier against outside threats while the ground and sky become lush and beautiful, a paradise, an Encanto.

There, the people that were with her started to build a town there and since Abuela held the miraculous candle she became its leader.

Due to the miracle the people don't even need to build houses, all they have to do is make a foundation and the miracle makes the house for them.

Abuela herself gets La Caseta(I think that's how you write it) a living house that's bigger on the inside.

Her own children got Gifts, which are magical powers, and their own special rooms which are specifically made for them when they're of age. And the children after them would get gifts, and the children after them. Until Mirabelle who when it came time for her to get a gift and room, the door to her room disappeared into ash, and didn't get a gift.

I was pleasantly surprised by how the story subverted my expectations.

At first, I thought Abuela was the main villain and Mirabelle would go on a Hero's Journey and get her gift before defeating her. But no, Abuela was actually a good person, she was just blinded by the miracle to not see what pain her family was in.

And when La Caseta was destroyed I thought Mirabelle would've been blamed since it was revealed that she may have been the cause for the miracle failing but no.

The family didn't blame her and cared for her even after. Which was great.

I would've liked it if the miracle didn't come back at the end but that's fine.

Since this is a musical there were also songs. My favorites were Louisa's song about pressure and Pedro's Spanish song. Though a few other songs were kinda dragged out. And the ending seemed rushed.

But all in all a pretty good movie.

[aldeayeah]

I'm always amazed when a movie feels both rushed and padded.
I don't know, maybe if I didn't have the novel to compare it to I'd have liked the movie better.

Yeah same here. I regretted having reread the novel like 5 minutes into the film. I could only see the missing stuff.

[Ideofago]

THERE'S A NEW EDGAR WRIGHT MOVIE???????

[Mattias]

Last Night in Soho. It's a weird time ghost thriller with Matt Smith as the villain.

[Five_X]

I seem to have a completely different (positive) experience of that movie than just about everyone else who saw it, but that might have something to do with having gotten stoned just before walking in the theatre.