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Re: Last movie you watched

I disagree. Cassian's arc was indeed the most robust, but it's much more than "kill dad"/"won't kill dad". He starts out doing the Rebellion's dirty work, maybe not happy to do it but realizing that it needs to be done. (Shooting the informant at the start; watching it on Blu-Ray I realized that Cassian knew that this guy was dead the minute he said "Erso", because he couldn't risk the Empire getting their hands on what he knew.)

Over the course of the film, he falters - yes, grows a conscience. But add to that him feeling betrayed - he did so much work for the Rebellion, and when it's time to make it absolutely count, for the Rebellion to mean something, the leaders of the Rebellion turn their back on him and don't go for it. He says something along the lines of, "If this doesn't happen, all of the horrible things we've done in the name of the cause were for nothing."

From someone who'll follow orders to do bad things, to questioning orders to do bad things, to downright going rogue (no pun intended... mostly) to do the thing that his orders don't have the balls for.

Jyn meanwhile goes from not caring about the cause ("How can you stand to see the Imperial flag?" "Can't see it if you don't look up.") to spearheading that cause when others didn't have the courage to. Yes, she does it more out of respect for her father, at least at first, but she realizes the importance of what she's caught up in.

Saw, I agree, was mostly wasted. Knowing there was more of him shot makes me wonder what it was, but since the release was so stingy with special features (no deleted scenes at all for a release that was saved in massive reshoots and reedits after the fact) it's hard to know what that might have been. He was serviceable.

Bodhi had gone through his arc before we see him, Chirrut and Baze generally don't have an arc and are there to round out the team and keep them on track. K2 discovered Friendship or something. I still enjoyed the characters and they all were worthwhile in the story, IMO.

Of course, Squiggly, I'm sure that you'll disagree with me and say that I'm reading too far into it, where I could come back saying that you need to just pay attention. In the end, you didn't enjoy the movie, and no amount of, "Um, actually," will change that. But on this one in particular I felt I had to speak up.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Last movie you watched

I agree with Boter and BDA. Rogue One wasn't ground backing in the story sense, but I at least had a sense of each character, their motivations, and the like. I didn't like most of them, and some were thinner than most, but I at least had a sense of what they wanted.

I think where RO really fails as a film is the introduction of a larger Rebel strike force. The idea that you have multiple characters already, and then add in Cassian's crew to increase the body count felt like it took time away from actually developing the central cast.

Of all the character stories present, I think that Galen Erso's and Chirrut Imwe (somehow I spelled that on the first go) have the more interesting ones.

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Re: Last movie you watched

...I wonder if we'll have a Galen Erso spinoff in another twenty years. Cause that's a pretty interesting turn too. Sure, Finn was a stormtrooper, but him aside (okay fine Anakin) we've never had an Imperial protagonist and I think it'd be something interesting for the Star Wars Stories to explore.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

1,804

Re: Last movie you watched

Chirrut believes in the Force. Baze doesn't. Chirrut's example brought Baze around. It's a small arc but it's there, and it's not shabby in the emotional payoff when it happens.

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Re: Last movie you watched

Writhyn wrote:

Chirrut believes in the Force. Baze doesn't. Chirrut's example brought Baze around. It's a small arc but it's there, and it's not shabby in the emotional payoff when it happens.

Chirrut was my favorite character, definitely a ray of optimism in the more depressing story.

It's a simple story, but one I very much enjoyed.

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1,806

Re: Last movie you watched

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODc3NTAxMTY1MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTE4NjUzMw@@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg

The balance Herzog manages to strike here is masterful. The doc clearly recognizes that Treadwell was a troubled, reckless, and, if we dispense with charity, moronic individual whose wildly egotistical view of his place in nature got him and his girlfriend killed; but at the same time there's this overwhelming empathy that comes forth whenever you see him interacting with the animals he so clearly loves. This disquieting character study also ends up being itself part of a larger philosophical meditation on the relationship of humans and nature and whether the universe is full of beauty or chaos or both. It's just such a compelling and haunting feat of filmmaking that's gnawing at me even as I type this. I don't have much intelligent or insightful to say because I'm sort of numb and emotionally overcome.

This, The New World, and The Descent are tied for my favorite film of 2005, and they form a trilogy of sorts that examines from wildly different angles what happens when humankind interferes with nature. The New World is, among other things, an oneiric, lyrical elegy to the natural world as it's polluted and spoiled by "civilization"; The Descent is, among other things, a slow immersion into hell fueled by the philosophical horror of our natural origins; and Grizzly Man is, among other things, a sort of bridge between the poles of this opposition, depicting nature in all its beauty and terror and refusing to answer which is the stronger of the two.

Last edited by Abbie (2017-04-08 06:51:16)

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Re: Last movie you watched

Squiggly_P wrote:

There are other X-Wing dudes. They could all just slam into pylons and die for all I care. I don't know these nameless twats, and the movie can just have another dozen of them show up without it feeling weird at all, so who gives a shit that they did that little stunt?

I have no interest in continuing this fight cause clearly there's nothing we can say that will change your mind. But this is hilarious. The fact that they pulled unused X-Wing pilot's from A new Hope for the fight and incorporated them is a delightful irony in how A New Hope is structured almost exactly the same way and they get exactly as much introduction. The only difference is ANH has 40 years of EU telling us exactly who every single one of the bastards is.

ZangrethorDigital.ca

1,808

Re: Last movie you watched

I share Prax's opinion of Grizzly Man, fwiw.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Last movie you watched

Squiggly_P wrote:

This is the second case where someone has told me that I'm not paying enough attention to a movie, when the things being pointed out are these one-liner moments in a sea of boring dialogue coming from flat characters. I remember those scenes, they just didn't have any impact on me.

I just didn't care about any of the characters. It felt like they could do pretty much anything at any point because there wasn't really a strong sense of character to any of them. He shoots the dad, he doesn't shoot the dad... Either one makes sense and neither feels like much of a change in the character. He already seems mildly conflicted earlier when the guy gives him the order before they leave. It's weak. He should be 100% "Yes sir, I totally fucking agree, and I'll kill this bitch as well if she gets in my way!". Then we have some events happen and he ends up in that conflicted state and then doesn't do it.

The robot wasn't funny. The film annoyed me with its non-stop references to the original films... That probably had a huge impact in how invested I was in the movie. Every five minutes something from the previous films was brought up for no reason, and R2 and 3PO were actually a plothole when they showed up. They should have been on the ship or on Alderan or something. I dunno where Leia is in this movie, as I didn't get to that part of the flick. I still haven't finished it.

I just wasn't invested in anything, probably just due to being kicked out of the film all the time with all the little stupid things they kept throwing in there for no reason except to have fan service and to try to tie things directly to A New Hope. CGI Tarkin was OK in the first scene he was in and just kept showing up and getting worse. It felt like the prequels. It felt like a big-budget fan-film that's taking the goofy Star Wars bullshit far too seriously. That's the one thing about TFA that I liked. It wasn't taking everything so fucking seriously and was just having fun and being melodramatic at times. There are serious moments, but the film isn't like a grim drama with action beats. It's an adventure film. That's what I miss about older flicks. They were actually fun adventure films. This new breed of this sort of film is mostly exposition-heavy dry dramatic crap with dull characters with no arcs or very shallow arcs where they barely change as characters, and then they put action beats that are far too overstated and 'epic' and are constantly trying to impress me with their visual splendor.

Little things. The X-Wings show up at the shield thing and the very first thing they do is start flying through the little struts around the entry thing. That's like a late-stage desperation act that should happen later when one of the X-Wing pilots is being chased by three ties and can't shake them, so he starts flying through that area to see if he can shake them off or get them to kill themselves. In this movie it's just some bullshit they do to show off the cool idea the guys in charge of the CG portions of the film had during their meeting where they just tossed out a bunch of cool moments to have in the action scenes. It's not tied to anything I give a shit about and they give me no reason to care if they make it or don't make it. There are other X-Wing dudes. They could all just slam into pylons and die for all I care. I don't know these nameless twats, and the movie can just have another dozen of them show up without it feeling weird at all, so who gives a shit that they did that little stunt?

Things like that. It didn't make me feel anything. I felt nothing for a lot of this movie. I was just mostly bored. I dunno.

I would also like to see the original version of the film that was shot. I'd like to imagine that most of the fan-service bullshit were later additions to the movie done to make it feel more Star Warsy.

The one point I will agree with you on is the too many nameless deaths of the pilots. Unlike, even the PT, where we know at least one or two pilots, RO banks too heavily on nameless hordes against the even larger nameless hordes of the Empire. I think that they added in too many characters in the final battle for their to be a connection with those characters,

I think the Rebel strike team needed to remain Jyn and crew, with maybe one or two "red shirts." I think that would have given more time to Bohdi, and Saw and some of the more incidental characters. I think the space battle needed some named characters to really sell the tension as to what is at stake in terms of characters' lives and that their deaths have more meaning.

I'm not confident that an original edit wouldn't have all the fan service moments in it, though it begs the question if a fan edit could tighten this film up in a way that is more in keeping with the overall tone, loose Pondo Babba, R2 and 3PO, and other little touches. But, it can't add to the film in terms of character moments, which, if I'm reading correctly, is the main complaint against the film.

Teague wrote:

I share Prax's opinion of Grizzly Man, fwiw.

Wrong, wrong. SO very wrong.

Last edited by fireproof78 (2017-04-08 22:55:58)

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1,810

Re: Last movie you watched

Did you expound on your Grizzlies elsewhere that I missed? If not, care to share?

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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1,811

Re: Last movie you watched

I'm not sure if you're being facetious or not? Treadwell as presented in the film is wholly compelling to me. And you're not necessarily supposed to care about the bears as individuals--the whole point Herzog is making is that where Treadwell sees personality he sees indifference and chaos. We get plenty of "Nature is friendly and fun!" perspective from Treadwell's interactions with the foxes and such, but there's no way to present the bears as anything other than terrifying IMO. It's impossible as a human being to feel anything but panic whenever Treadwell gets close to one of them.

EDIT: Oooooooooooh I get it.

Last edited by Abbie (2017-04-09 00:06:50)

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Re: Last movie you watched

This thread is such a glorious clusterfuck.

ZangrethorDigital.ca

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He's kidding. And it gave me a good chuckle, Squigs! +1

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Yeah, sorry, I've kinda gotten burned out on talking about SW on the Internet so I'd been skimming the R1 posts. Retroactive humor appreciation!

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Re: Last movie you watched

DarthPraxus wrote:

Yeah, sorry, I've kinda gotten burned out on talking about SW on the Internet so I'd been skimming the R1 posts. Retroactive humor appreciation!

http://i.imgur.com/9Ay834v.gif

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1,816

Re: Last movie you watched

http://s3.birthmoviesdeath.com/images/made/FREE_FIRE_1200x1600-680x907_1200_1601_81_s.jpg

Reservoir Dogs on coke, and with one hell of a sense of humor. This one's a fucking blast to watch with an audience.

Last edited by Abbie (2017-04-18 03:27:23)

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Re: Last movie you watched

"Hacksaw Ridge" is on Netflix. I was honestly reluctant to watch it because I figured it would be another "based on true events" war slog that would not be a good movie.

You heard it here first folks-I was wrong. This film is a decent film in terms of pacing, character development, as well as build up to the titular event. I truly enjoyed the characters, and there are only a couple that I would say are not not 3-dimensional.

It's not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, as it is very graphic in terms of the violence, and deals with alcoholism, PTSD and religious faith. But, I was impressed by the overall characters and story.

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Huh.

You just moved it from my "nah" to my "depending on my mood" list. Thanks.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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My wife watched it, and I was in the "nah" category as well. But, the characters are what drove it home for me, and I got hooked in real fast. You don't even get to the battle until an hour, or something like that.

Also, Hugo Weaving.

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Alien_Covenant_Teaser_Poster.jpg

Turns out Ridley Scott actually listens to criticism.

SPOILER Show
Instead of another pretentious story that asks questions about our origins (and has no clue how to answer them), this time we got a much more straightforward Alien movie. Some plot points from Prometheus are continued, but it's clear that Ridley wanted to push aside its more controversial aspects and go back to Alien's horror roots.

Shaw, the previous film's annoying protagonist, got killed offscreen by David, who's much more interesting to watch. Even the problem of her religious motivation ("it's what I choose to believe") gets mentioned - the company didn't trust Billy Crudup with a command because of his faith. Did the writers actually listen to the DiF commentary?

The David/Walter dynamic must've been inspired by Lore and Data from ST-TNG (John Logan is a fan). The cliché of an evil AI doesn't bother me here - I have no trouble believing that an android with a humanlike psyche and superior intellectual capabilities would've become megalomaniacal. Fassbender's double performance is easily the most interesting one in the movie.

Unfortunately, the other characters don't get much development - their main purpose is to become xenomorph fodder. They're even more reckless than the Prometheus crew; when will they learns that sending people to an unknown planet without spacesuits (another Star Trek trope recycled by John Logan) is a bad idea?

Dorkman's remark about the Alien universe becoming smaller in Prometheus is even more applicable here, when it turns out that the facehugger eggs are a result of David's experiments. It is never explained how they got onto the Engineer ship on LV-426.

The visual side is impressive, but we've come to expect that from Ridley Scott.


To sum it up: Covenant is an improvement over Prometheus, but still has issues.

So honor the valiant who die 'neath your sword
But pity the warrior who slays all his foes...

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Re: Last movie you watched

MartyJ wrote:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Alien_Covenant_Teaser_Poster.jpg

Turns out Ridley Scott actually listens to criticism.

SPOILER Show
Instead of another pretentious story that asks questions about our origins (and has no clue how to answer them), this time we got a much more straightforward Alien movie. Some plot points from Prometheus are continued, but it's clear that Ridley wanted to push aside its more controversial aspects and go back to Alien's horror roots.

Shaw, the previous film's annoying protagonist, got killed offscreen by David, who's much more interesting to watch. Even the problem of her religious motivation ("it's what I choose to believe") gets mentioned - the company didn't trust Billy Crudup with a command because of his faith. Did the writers actually listen to the DiF commentary?

The David/Walter dynamic must've been inspired by Lore and Data from ST-TNG (John Logan is a fan). The cliché of an evil AI doesn't bother me here - I have no trouble believing that an android with a humanlike psyche and superior intellectual capabilities would've become megalomaniacal. Fassbender's double performance is easily the most interesting one in the movie.

Unfortunately, the other characters don't get much development - their main purpose is to become xenomorph fodder. They're even more reckless than the Prometheus crew; when will they learns that sending people to an unknown planet without spacesuits (another Star Trek trope recycled by John Logan) is a bad idea?

Dorkman's remark about the Alien universe becoming smaller in Prometheus is even more applicable here, when it turns out that the facehugger eggs are a result of David's experiments. It is never explained how they got onto the Engineer ship on LV-426.

The visual side is impressive, but we've come to expect that from Ridley Scott.


To sum it up: Covenant is an improvement over Prometheus, but still has issues.

There are worse reasons to get the gang back together, if nothing else, than to gloat that somehow, Sir Ridley Scott listen to them. Telepathy?

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1,822

Re: Last movie you watched

I saw Covenant.

Haven't seen Prometheus.

I feel like I should've watched Prometheus.

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1,823

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Prometheus is a hot mess wrapped in amazing visuals. They're so fucking amazing that the movie had me fooled on my first viewing - I haven't noticed all the stupidity. The DiF commentary really tears Prometheus a new one, it's one of my favorite episodes.

So honor the valiant who die 'neath your sword
But pity the warrior who slays all his foes...

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1,824

Re: Last movie you watched

Even as a Prometheus apologist, Alien: Covenant felt like a massive improvement.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Last movie you watched

I work at a cinema, which incidentally gives me free access. As such, I've seen a lot lately.

Covenant was the first one I watched, and as stated above; It made me feel like I should watch Prometheus.

Your Name
is a brilliant cartoon/anime. I don't enjoy Anime in general, but this one I did. Fairly free of slapstick/chibi humour, it's a love story about two people who involuntarily swap bodies at random days. It then spirals into something I didn't see coming, and I highly recommend it to anyone who like fairly surprising and deep stories.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Salazar's Revenge/Dead Men Tell No tales
I know what you DiF's think about Pirates. You love the original, hate the sequels.
I'm in a place where I love the original, and part 2 and 3. I couldn't stand the fourth one, but according to several people I know, I'm wrong and should rewatch it.
5, on the other hand, was a pretty good wrap up. It closed several storylines, and opened it up to a new generation. Highly recommended if you like the franchise.

Baywatch
I had absolutely nothing going in. I'd seen the trailer, but had no desire to see it. But it was free, so I went in, and oddly enough, I loved it. It doesn't take itself seriously at all, and sets the satirical, parodical bar right from the titles. If you're into stupid comedies with hot chicks, this one's pretty good.

The Mummy
Now, the original series holds a special place in my heart, and I was skeptical towards this one. Not being a reboot, rather just a playground set in the same universe, with little-to-no mention to the originals, it's not that bad. Tom Cruise is excellent as always, and while the story and plot aren't great, it's not simply rehashing the originals, and doing it's own take on it. Sure, it's a bit campy, but it's light hearted, has some good performances(silly Russel Crowe aside, what the fuck was up with that?), and all-in-all is an enjoyable ride. It's not great, but it's not pure shite.

Next up is a series of animated films, Wonder Woman and..... ugh, fucking transformers. Before you give me shit about that last one, I'm working that day, which basically forces me to watch it.

Last edited by Tomahawk (2017-06-14 08:20:51)

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