Movie Discussion Thread

I agree completely, the movie feels pretty anime. Its got some anime tropes and cheese in there, but it really is excellent and it wouldn't be the same movie without it. I also think that Rodriguez was an excellent choice for the direction, he did a fantastic and respectful job

You and Alita also finally inspired me to drive out to Woodinville to go to the Dolby Cinema out there. laser IMAX 3D that I saw yesterday was stunning. I have always appreciated the consistency of the IMAX experience, even at the "fake" IMAX screens, the audio is always fantastic and the picture is better than the vast majority of digital projection out there. laser IMAX was a step up on every front. Dolby Cinema was also stunning, and the sound was even better than the IMAX was.

I think to compare them, if the movie has excellent 3D, which is extremely rare (Alita is among this very small group), the laser IMAX 3D presentation cant be beat, the immersion is off the charts. But I think for the vast majority of normal movies, I will prefer the Dolby Cinema. Dolby is even more picky about how the theater is setup, doing a great job of not having random lights pollute the room.

 

Any Spike Lee fans, BlacKkKlansman was good - fascinating true backstory although the movie was slightly time-shifted and explicitly paralleled to MAGA.

Great to see Isiah "shiiiiiiiiiiit" Whitlock Jr. in the intro scene (The Wire was the first show I remember binge-watching and turned me on to the quality of HBO shows).

 

I've had many opportunities to watch this film--but despite the fine acting, couldn't bring myself to. There's a certain type of highly personal violent cruelty in film (developed characters getting demolished) that I find difficult to bear.

Felt this way a long time. Never forget how enraged STRAW DOGS made me, years ago.

 

I have that same affliction myself. I looked up the movie title - and decided I'll pass on that one. It's not that I can't handle violence in movies - horror and war movies are two of my fave genres and typically come with no shortage of death and destruction - it is the cruelty aspect that makes me uncomfortable. If it is subtle it can be highly effective - think Silence of the Lambs or the original Saw. Others, like Hostel, no so much.

 

@Pharmaboy, @Kernel Kurtz:

It's not a film I'd recommend to just anyone, yeah. The whole premise and the ending had me seeing red for ages after and it wasn't a pleasant feeling. This definitely falls closer to Hostel than Silence of the Lambs, though I will say the sheer f'ing sadism was used to much greater effect in Eden Lake.

 

I was one of the unfortunate saps who had no idea what Eden Lake was about when I watched it a while back, other than the basic premise. It was indeed an upsetting experience. But like a car crash in slow motion, I couldn't stop watching.

 

Just watched "Insomnia" 2002, directed by Mr Nolan.
Really enjoyed it

 

Tortune porn (via Hollywood) really came into its own a couple decades back. It had always been around (some of the slasher films were right on that dotted line, sometimes over). But it was a narrow/niche genre. Then suddenly, SAW comes out. Then HOSTEL. And away we go.

I'm kinda like you in that violence & bloodshed in film & video are very much in my wheelhouse. So it's the cruelty & sadism of torture films that trouble me. That stuff gets way too real very quickly. As Sartre memorably wrote in "No Exit," "Hell is other people."

 

Finally got to see Alita.

The pacing was Knight's & Magic*-meets-Wikipedia-fast in the beginning, but considering how much they ended up cramming into the film it's no real surprise they had to rush despite film being over 2 hours long. Been maybe a decade since I read the manga (holy f**k I'm getting old) and I was going out of my way to distance myself from it so I don't end up expecting too much of the film, but I think I'd have enjoyed it regardless! Can't actually remember very much about the source material but that shouldn't really be a factor, I think; Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow was great despite it taking more than a few liberties from All You Need Is Kill.

Speakers in the cinema were absolute diarrhea, and that's not the spoiled audio enthusiast speaking— anyone with intact hearing would have said the same. Didn't really detract from the experience much, but given how much action and twisting metal they packed into the runtime I did end up stuffing one of my ears with tissue (I was seated off to the side).

Fight choreography was giddy awesome, I was grinning from ear to ear during most of these sequences. Visuals were absolutely breathtaking while the non-fight cinematography was pretty okay. I should have gone IMAX for this, gah. Music wasn't particularly memorable (unlike Into the Spider-Verse, which I felt had some standout moments despite my not really being a hip hop fan) but it did its job well enough. I get what y'all mean about there being too much cheese, the dialogue sounded exactly like it was ripped from an anime dub! Being more of a subs guy myself I actually found it a bit hard to listen to, haha.

Romance felt very unnatural even in the context of anime stuff (hah) and there was one character I spent most of the runtime wanting to smack upside the head. Humour was up my alley though, really enjoyed those moments. This is a strong recommendation for weebs, even people not familiar with the source material. For regular ol' action junkies though, maybe bring some lacteeze along.

*The weird apostrophe is really there. It bugged the hell out of me whenever I saw the titlecard. I don't recommend watching the show because it's basically more OP isekai trash, but I had fun turning my brain off to it.

 

I'm one of the few apparently who hated Alita. The fight and action stuff doesn't impress me anymore, I'm more into story and I just couldn't get into it.

 

I thought I'd hate it but they managed to cram a lot of genuine source material into it i.e gore in a pg-13 film was surprising tbh. And while the story was too focused on setting up sequels, the stuff they did well like CGI (better than Thanos IMO) and world design and set pieces really shone through. People are arguing online about the crappy romance but considering the original is just Alita being obsessed with the guy who's an obvious douche in the manga, I'm glad they made him a nicer person, though the prince charming crap could've been toned down.

 

This week I saw another film targeting ~same demographic as ALITA: HAPPY DEATH DAY. Was hoping for even scattered moments of irony or surprise, but no: it's fantasy/SciFi pablum for teens & young adults.

I lost track of how many silly tropes showed up: nerdy/horny guy might know way out of big problem; sorority girls are jealous over boy; top-dog sorority girl is a bitch; etc. And the use of masks is familiar to the point of headache. The whole production was derivative at its core.

I realize I'm the "odd man out" here, the totally wrong demographic for this thing. Still, I read a few Rotten Tomatoes comments that hinted at flashes of cinematic intelligence (sadly mistaken IMO).

Regardless, hope springs eternal (for fleeting moments of enjoyment in the movie theater).

 

Haha, I'm more with Ash here I think. I can see how the effed-to-hell pacing and lack of setup for more nuanced story elements could turn people off, but this movie does feel like it pandered to fans of the source material even those that remember jack poop about it. Falling under that demographic, I happily concede my bias

Have to say that the action scenes do stand out to me more than loads of others do, though. Since it's well-established that MCU fights are pretty insipid, I'm going to draw a few weeb-y correlations: where well-done realistic fight sequences are like Nanashi no Ken/Sword of the Stranger and over-the-top-but-boring ones are more Sword Art Online Season 1, the sequences in Alita felt a lot like those in Hai to Gensou no Grimgar or One Punch Man— the hits had weight and the whole sets just beautiful to watch. It just looked to me they got people who actually knew how to beat the shit out of others to do the mocap and then gave them superpowers in post-production!

But again, I'm squarely in the nostalgia-soaked demographic for this one so admit it could very well be steaming horse dookey but I'll love it all the same. I honestly think this would have done much better as a two-parter or a series, but I'll happily take this over nothing at all.

That said, will make time to read the source and probably end up ranting about all the changes they could have made )

 

I think you nailed my problem with it. It seemed like a movie rushing to setup a franchise without properly laying the groundwork. Which is a problem I see in alot of Hollywood movies now. It used to be they just made a movie the best they could and if it spawned sequels it was a bonus. Now franchises are just presumed to be a right and it really shows in the storytelling.

 

Watched capt. Marvell yesterday.
Was under the impression that the film will be the next " last jedi " due to mrs. Larson's sexist and rasist remarks and generally terrible marketing (26% want to see score on rotten tomatoes, disney forcing fandango to force rotten tomatoes to remove want to see score, larson spewing nonsense on interviewes etc)

Turns out, ir's a really good marvel film. Quite entertaining, humour is good, even acting isn't bad.
I might even go watch it another time with my gf. It's really a solid film. Integrates with the broader MCU nicely.

Surprise of the year for me, for sure, very positive one. They actually handeled inclusivity and feminism properly. It's more of a story of human resilience and getring up after falling down. Main character and her best friend are in fact strong female characters without being in your face and preachy about it (was what I expected). Marvell is a bit of a Mary Sue, but her backstory is actually fine and in my oppinion it's well explained, so she's not more of a mary sue than say flash or such. Very well done marvel. I'm impressed.

Marketing and letting Larson take her personal agendas in it, a terrible decision. They pissed off both the PC and anti-PC types. Critics hate this film cause they were promised a crushing of patriarchy which they didn't get. They got an entertaining very well working marvel film. I'm pleased.

Have to see Alita next.

 

I watched "The Disaster Artist" on a long plane ride recently. I found it pretty funny and had to show it to my wife when I got home. Its on Amazon Prime right now. The movie is really not exceptional, but since it's a mostly true story, that made it so much more interesting.

Which then inspired me to check out "The Room" from my local library. (As well as the book, "The Disaster Artist") Oh man this movie is so horrible. I've seen better stuff from community college cinematography students that smoked too much pot. But it's so bad you gotta see it at least once.

 

Wife and kids were gone last weekend so I got a chance to watch grown up movies for a change. Finally watched Sicario, then ended up binge watching Day of Soldado, Hell or High Water and Wind River. Taylor Sheridan might be the best living screenwriter, definitely my new favorite.

 

Sicario is amazing, and I feel like Hell or High Water and Wind River both flew under the radar, which is unfortunate cause they are both fantastic movies.

Day of Soldado I could do without though :/

 

I thought Day of Soldado was a well executed extension of Sicario. Fidelity to the characters and themes in the first movie was good, and it didn’t go First Blood Part 2 or Death Wish 2. Sicario certainly was a hard act to follow though.

 

Part of what made Sicario so good was the tension from the by-the-books FBI agent getting caught up in a circumstance where she had to decide how far she was willing to go down the path of lawlessness “for the sake of the greater good” and what standing up for the rule of law would mean. I don’t think the kidnapping story that Soldado used to try to present a similar moral quandry worked because almost nobody would think killing the girl was acceptable.