IT gets to the fact that modern filmmaking is WAY over-stuffed with convoluted PLOT at the expense of memorable action or characters. Dredd is a good counter-point actually, as it sets up it's world, protagonists, and villain, all within 10 minutes of screen-time, without any shitty protracted flashback scenes that add nothing. Elysium is one of those rare movies that simultaneously feels like its too long, but also feels like it's missing an hour of material. That's always a sign of bad pacing.

I think the movie would've been much better if it just started cold on Damon's character, and we never even met the villains until he crosses paths with them.

Finally saw it, and you guys are being way too kind. It's forgettable and mediocre at best.

That't it, it's over folks. No one knows how to make sci-fi action movies anymore. If the guy who made District 9 can botch it like this, with basically full creative control, an R-rating, and 100 million dollar budget, it ain't happening.

What's funny is that it fails in exactly the opposite way that I thought it would. Going in, I figured it'd be overly preachy and push the 99% thing agenda, when in fact it ends up underplaying and mostly abandoning that stuff in favor of being an action movie. Which I would've been totally fine with, a hard-R relentless action movie from the guy who did the crazy awesome District-9 finale...bring it on. What I didn't expect though, is how much it FAILS at being an action movie. I count 2 action set-pieces in this whole thing (you could count the shuttle crash bit as #3, but it lasts about 30 seconds), totalling maybe 15 minutes, almost all of it shot close-up and completely incomprehensible. The big finale fight is so underwhelming, hard to follow, and BORING, it absolutely kills me. Compare that with what James Cameron did in the finale of The Terminator, for like 5 million dollars, and it's not even close.

That's the weird thing with this movie, much like District 9, it wants to be a combination social-commentary back-drop, and intense violent action film, but unlike District 9, it fails at both the commentary (by abandoning it and having a main story that really doesn't make any goddamn sense) and the action (which is way too infrequent and forgettable). I'd say it starts out great for about 40 minutes, up through the 1st heist sequence, which I actually think is really good. Then, when it should be ramping up and upping the ante, it goes into a super routine and boring climax. I think there'd be a lot less complaints about the holes in the story if the movie really knocked you on your ass at the end. They've setup Copley as this demented crazy antagonist, how about

This gets me thinking on what the hell has happened to memorable set-pieces in movies. Look at a movie like the original Total Recall. That's got a great sci-fi premise, full of twists and turns and sly commentary. But I can also list off at least 6 memorable action sequences, each with some unique setting, or weapon, or adversary. And it all fits into 2 hours, while doing plenty of world-building, and establishing way more characters than Elysium does.

Frankly, I don't know where all the runtime is going, but it feels like the movie is just spinning it's wheels for large chunks.

I will say though, visually, it is fucking outstanding. Flawless vfx work throughout.

I happen to agree with Teague on this one as well. This would be a fantastic 6 hour miniseries, but there's just far too many characters for a 2 hour film, so you've got essentially a procession of famous faces showing up for 2 minute scenes and disappearing from the story. I like it intellectually, I enjoyed watching it the one time I saw it, but I have no desire to ever see it again.

I think because the subject matter is inherently very dry and un-cinematic, you need strong, well-defined characters to root you in the story, and this movie just doesn't have the screen-time to do it. A movie like Zero Dark Thirty can get away with being more thinly sketched and focusing on the procedure because the procedure itself has a 3-act structure culminating in a tense gun battle. A movie like The Insider (which you guys oughta do at some point, cause fuck is it amazing) can get away with being uncinematic procedurally because the characters are 100% the focus of the story and all the dialogue and performances are outstanding. Contagion unfortunately ends up with the short-end of the stick on both. It's a clinical procedural where the procedure is realistically boring, and the characters have very little characterization and are mostly defined by their job description and the actors playing them.

Another in a long line of reasons to hate Kevin Smith. That clip is literally everything I hate about the internet condensed into crystalline form

I'm just baffled why he would want to do it. He's an A-list director coming off a best picture win, and these are exactly the kinds of roles that led his career into a nose-dive 10 years ago. Why would he waste his time as an actor in a comic-book movie like this one, instead of focusing his efforts on getting another quality film made? He doesn't strike me as a guy who would do a role like this just for a paycheck, he's gotta have truckfuls of money at this point in his career (not to mention his successful wife). Unless this is a case where Warner Brothers said "we won't finance your next movie unless you do us this favor" I have literally no idea why he agreed to do this. Maybe if he was directing it also, I could see it as him wanting to try playing around with that kind of budget, but doing it just as an actor? It's crazy...

Ehh, don't be to sure, MS is all about unifying their product brands right now, I wouldn't be surprised if you could watch the eps on your PC through the Xbox Store app at some point

Now they just need to get Nic Cage to do the voice and we're all set

I will also point out, maybe I'm just lucky, but the theater I've gone to for the last 10 years NEVER has any problems with people talking or using their phones. It's a nicer theater with good seats and consistently good projection, which is why I always make a point of going there. They explicitly have ads before the movie state that you will get kicked out if you text, and the ushers actually come out before the movie starts and make a point of reiterating this, and telling everyone in the audience to come and get them if someone is being impolite.

If more theaters did this kind of due diligence I bet you attendance wouldn't be dropping the way it has.

As a point of fact, what I've seen at the local Cinemark is that they actually have a custom app that you can download for free and run on your phone. It makes sure that your phone won't ring or be in use, and if you leave it running for the duration of the movie, you get a coupon for a discount on popcorn/tickets/etc.
It's a pretty clever solution

Ya, I dunno, although he was very in love it visually, at least the stuff he got to see early. http://www.blastr.com/2013-3-26/read-ph … ers-impact

Also, I always saw the dove flying away as just a production mistake, so I really liked that they fixed it in the final cut, though your reading is a pretty decent justification for it.

Well, fast five is a loose adaptation of ocean's eleven, and fast six is a remake of the avengers

Tokyo Drift has the best racing scenes of the series though, introduces Han, the best character in the series, and is a pretty entertaining Karate Kid remake with cars.