26 Reply by Kibouchi

(372 replies, posted in Off Topic)

My contribution (it's a doozy):

Ok, I think Christopher Reeve is an awesome Superman (that's not the controversial opinion). But here's the thing: I don't care for the Donner Superman movies. Like, any of them. Old guys, don't tell me I just don't understand because I wasn't alive yet (well, for the first one). Overall, they're fairly goofy movies. Margo Kidder is insane. Gene Hackman plays a goofy, dopey, comic-relief Lex Luthor. Lex is a character who, in the comics, is one of the smartest and most calculating people on the planet. He's also all kinds of evil, and he's more than just a mustache twirling Snidely Whiplash wannabe. Do I think Superman is fine? Sure. Do I respect it as a benchmark of its time? Of course. Same with Superman II. I think the groundwork is there. That's not what bothers me about these movies. What bothers me is that, whenever a new Superman movie comes out, everyone loses their damn minds if it's not like the Christopher Reeve films.

Let's get one thing straight. Superman (as a character) is much, much older than the Richard Donner films, and the majority of his adventures have been on a comic book page, not on screen. The Donner movies are not the be-all end-all baseline of how a Superman movie absolutely HAS to be.

Does that mean I think Man of Steel was good? No. Man of Steel was pretty much shit. At best it was mediocre. But that was for its own reasons. Not because it wasn't like Reeve's Superman. In fact, if anything, the fact that it tried to borrow Superman II's plotline worked against it.

Bryan Singer's Superman Returns suffers from an even worse problem, which is that it couldn't decide if it was a reboot, remake, or a sequel. Chronologically it took place after the events of the last Reeve film. But the crisis point and several dialogue lines were stolen from the first Donner film.

It's like filmmakers keep forgetting that Superman was (and is) a comic book character first and a movie character second.

To quote Forest Gump, "That's all I got to say about that right now."

Please.... be gentle.

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27 Reply by Kibouchi

(3 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)

I have not seen this one, so ultimately I cannot comment on it in the grand scheme. I have, however, seen the original numerous times and absolutely love it. It was one of my favorite disney movies growing up, and still continues to be. My wife recently saw the new one and thought it was fine, but didn't love it.

I can say I agree that musicals in general are no different from any story. Whatever is happening on screen has to be for some sort of reason. If they're singing a song, why are they singing a song now instead of earlier? Typical musical format would say you put the important character-building or plot-furthering points in musical numbers. The music are the dots, the non-music is connecting the dots. I think that works.

My issue with this movie (and again, I have no seen it so I cannot say for sure) is the same issue that I have with the Broadway version: Not all the songs are from the original. That part is fine. But it's clear which are Menken and which were tacked on to make it different/longer.

Other feedback I've heard about the movie: Emma Watson is fine, but her singing voice isn't up to par with the rest of the cast and sticks out (especially next to Dan Stevens).

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28 Reply by Kibouchi

(5 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)

Regan wrote:

Oh lord

Yeah, probably a bit of a long-winded outlandish post over a movie that isn't really trying to being something that deserves that kind of outcry. I'm...passionate? About random stuff.

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29 Reply by Kibouchi

(5 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)

ShadowDuelist wrote:

While I absolutely agree with all those points (hell, I couldn't even remember the villains name when talking about it immediately after exiting the theater), I enjoyed the fuck out of that movie. Because the movie isn't taking it's self too seriously I'm more willing to let those things slide. It's kinda like watching a Jackie Chan flick. I don't know why he's in a pot and ladder factory, but it's fun watching it. Scenes like where they're fighting through reversing time or where they're trying to deal with the mirror dimensions bullshit have a similar vibe to me.

I think that was the thing for me and I agree with you that a lot of Hong Kong films don't work story-wise, but their exciting choreography makes it a non-issue. And maybe it lost something not being viewed on the full screen. I think a defining aspect of Marvel movies is more the experience and less the integrity of the story. Pretty much all the others I got to see in the theater at one point or another. In fact, I don't think there was a single MCU film until this one that I had to miss. So the lack of that theatrical experience could be largely what marred the film for me.

In the end I'll digress. I'm definitely in the minority on how I feel about this film. I guess in the end, the larger, more broad point I was trying to make is that I'm starting to get bored of the MCU films. I think their tendency to follow a formula had a lot of strengths in the beginning, but after 2018 I think they'll be up to almost 20 films.

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30 Topic by Kibouchi

(5 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)

I apologize if someone's already done a broad Doctor Strange post. I'm sure they have. Mods, delete this if you feel it's redundant or cluttering the boards.

I don't need to make this post super long other than to say "what the fuck, Rotten Tomatoes?".

I didn't get to see Doctor Strange in the theaters. Something something, toddlers. I impulse bought Doctor Strange on bluray because the reviews were stellar. Honestly, I didn't think it was a whole lot better than Thor.

Some key criticisms (spoilers):
- Completely forgettable villain (as per usual with MCU films). Marvel has 13 or 14 films tucked under its belt and has yet to produce an epically memorable 3-dimensional villain. And I gotta say, they certainly don't start here. I'm glad Le Chiffre was able to take a break from trying to beat James Bond in a poker game to put some charcoal on his eyes and glare menacingly at Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton for two hours. He was so forgettable, I don't even remember the character's name. Cialis? Let's just say Cialis.

- To write Stephen Strange, they carefully extracted Tony Stark's character arc, surgically removed all that pesky charisma and character-building backstory, took away the iron suit and replaced it with a cape and tunic. This movie spends very little time really getting to know Strange and why he is the way he is.

- Mordo. I like the actor. And let me preface by saying I know nothing about the Doctor Strange comic books. But in this film, Mordo's inevitable turn to evil is toooooootally not earned. Not only that, but he's 100% right. His concerns about how we can't break the rules whenever we damnwell please because there will be consequences is not unfounded. And he's pretty calm and peaceful about that stance. He warns them sternly, but civilly, about this practice. In the end, nobody fucking cares and it never becomes an issue. Ever. Stephen wins the day by doing exactly what he shouldn't do and it never comes back to bite him. That being said, for Mordo to leave and have a falling out over this is completely understandable. For him to go evil and start attacking other sorcerers is not believable. There's no tipping point or direct connection. I'd have liked to see the stakes raised, and for him to lose someone he loved, either directly, or maybe even just as a result of Strange having to mess with time. But in reality, he was telling Strange not to play with matches. Strange played with matches, successfully lit nothing on fire with them, which prompted Mordo to embark on a quest to destroy everyone who has a pack of matches in their house.

- Finally, the score, man. I know, it's freaking MICHAEL GIACCHINO, he's the modern John Williams, right? Well really he is. His music is generally great. And I suppose if the main theme of Doctor Strange wasn't basically a copy of the main theme from the Abrams Star Trek it might be awesome. To Giacchino's credit, this very well may not have been his fault. This may have been Scott Derekson putting Star Trek's theme in the edit as placeholder music and ordering Giacchino to copy his own work. If that's the case, then Derekson's the asshole I guess.

Ok so, bottom line, it's an MCU film. Those are known for being fun, but not amazing movies with the exception of a couple. To the film's credit, it had beautiful visuals. Really that's about it.

So why am I getting so riled about this movie?

Because shit man, that bluray was like, 20 bucks.

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31 Reply by Kibouchi

(431 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Hi all! I just joined. Where do I start? Well, my action movie is Die Hard, my favorite rom com is That Thing You Do, my favorite Pixar film is a tie between Inside Out, Incredibles, and Monsters Inc. My favorite film of ALL TIME though is probably Raiders of the Lost Ark. Favorite TV shows: Doctor Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Daredevil, Stargate SG1, Firefly. Also really big into Harry Potter, but I don't say "favorite movies" because, movie-wise, they're not (though I do enjoy them). I don't say "favorite books" because, to book readers, I might as well say my favorite books are Twilight. So, it's one of my favorite STORIES. How's that?

Ok, so those are my favorites. There are many. I'll spare you the rest.

About  me: My name is Evan, I was born and raised in NH, went to college in Arizona where I met my wife, bought a house, bought a dog, established my now 11 year career as a motion designer/storyboard artist and then, oh, hey, I don't know, became a dad too. Lived in Arizona for a number of years when my job said "move to Oregon or move on to another company". Having no other company, I moved to Oregon. So I'm now living in a small town in the Portland area called Newberg. I own a freelancing LLC where I do storyboarding, editing, motion design, and comp for marketing. But my day job is to work in prototyping at Intel where I develop Unity applications for VR and demo purposes. I get to conceptualize and build the scenes, and I've even learned to code in C# a bit. But ultimately I'm a designer in a team of engineers.

I can be a bit socially awkward (rule number one of being socially awkward: Talk about your social awkwardness), but I'm a nice guy and my wife and I are always looking for new friends who share our love of all things nerd and film-related (No, I mean, like, we've GOT FRIENDS, we just like having MORE friends). So if you're in the Portland area and staying inside to deal with the rain, but don't have anyone to hang out with, PM me. You can totally come hang out. Just don't be a crack addict or a murderer.

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