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I thought it was ok, being aware of the flaws and it's lack of answers I suppose may have prepared me, but I think I might actually have liked it.
The one thing that really irritated me was the biologist being completely unaware of the danger of the worm-alien. There are way too many animals on our planet that increase their size as a defence or as part of an attack. Speaking of the worms, did these come from the Prometheus and just happened to get on David's boot?
Also, remember that scene in Aliens when all the characters get together to discuss what's going on and together come up with a theory, working it out based on what they have learned? This film needed that scene, and not one of the Captain magically coming up with a theory which is essentially taken as fact.
Re-watched The Grey. Still my favorite movie of the year so far. Love everything about it.
Just saw this the other day for the first time. There was a moment at the beginning where I gagged at the teal colour grading but otherwise I enjoyed it. Certainly a gutsy move to end when it does. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, probably cheated due to the impression I got from the net about the film being about Neeson punching wolves, but then the post-credits scene sort of made up for it.
But seriously Hollywood, can we move away from teal grading please?
I suspect, though, that some of the problems stem from Ridley Scott as well as any script doctoring from Lindelhof. I've not seen Prometheus yet, but Robin Hood was a clusterfuck of a film (and some of what I've been hearing seem to echo that film's problems).
I almost saw this on the weekend but thought better of it after reading all the negative comments here. I'm not surprised the writing is nonsensical and awful, as Damon Lindelof did after all write the atrocious LOST.
The things that are always, always forgotten with these documentaries are Apollo 8 and Apollo 10. The US had already performed two successful round trips to the moon by the time of Apollo 11. You'd think the mission was the first time humans had been in space the way they talk about it.
I like both Red Planet and Mission to Mars, probably equally. It's fascinating how both films have a good first half and then fall over themselves in the second. Mars has the better plot, but Red Planet just feels more exciting I guess (plus it has Val Kilmer).
My favourite EVA scene of all has to be from 2010 where John Lithgow has to spacewalk from the Alexei Leonov to Discovery One. The character's palpable fear and the heavy breathing on the soundtrack makes the scene really chilling. I guess the one in SpaceCamp is quite nice too.
I don't really see how TPM fits rights right in with those movies, Jurassic Park and Stargate in particular don't really have anything in common with the first of the SW prequels. (I also think Stargate is an underrated classic.)
Zarban wrote:
Sith gets the least complaints from fans. There's effectively no Jar Jar, less awkward romance, and more of a darker tone. If the other films had matched it, I think people would be fairly happy overall.
I've heard this sentiment from a few folk in the years since its release and I don't really agree. Personnally, I find ROTS the most 'offensive' of all films, simply on the basis of its astounding failure to tell a convincing and coherent story about a hero's fall. I challenge anyone to explain the 3 or 4 180s that Anakin does in the span of 5 minutes. It gets a pass mostly on the basis of its glossier lipstick, but it's still a fugly pig. And the way it panics and rushes itself to tie up loose ends is horrible (during which Lucas chooses to 'rhyme' with Owen looking at the Binary Sunset, a shot that makes no sense in terms of character).
Zarban wrote:
Jar Jar alone derails Phantom Menace. I honestly think that without him the film would play fine. There would still be things to complain about, but without that one thing to totally hate, the rest would feel like nitpicking.
I find TPM to be the best of the prequels but it's fundamental problem is its story and structure, upon which it adds the double threat of Jake Lloyd's Anakin and Binks. Remove Binks and you still have an atrocious performance in Anakin and no real protagonist to root for except Neeson's QuiGon Jinn, who isn't really that likeable anyway.
I think some directors have said that they're keen to use mostly practical effects, Nolan for instance. And even Peter Jackson and Jon Favreu have attempted to stay as practical as possible on some of their films, at least when starting out.
I'm really hoping that we'll get more of a return to practical stuff in the coming years, as I think the technology and techniques have vastly improved over the last 3 decades and we could see some truly timeless effects (as I think CGI tends to date itself rather quickly, Exhibit A being Jabba in ANH:SE). The advances in compositing and rotoscoping especially (or rather, the ease of these techniques with digital stuff) and the use of computers to better combine and blend elements should make the entire visual effects process a lot easier and more seamless than it was its heyday (that I would argue culminated with Independence Day) - which were its greatest weaknesses.
Just imagine had the industry continued to refine and hone their puppetry, animatronic and motion control skills where we would be today, using the incredible sophistication of make-up and costume arts as an example of the leaps and bounds possible.
SpaceX's Dragon successfully launched on the Falcon 9 rocket this Tuesday!
Here's the webcast from SpaceX:
Lift-off at: 44:43 Spacecraft separation: 54:10 Solar array deployment: 56:20
So far it has completed a couple of tests in orbit, and will dock with the ISS tomorrow, marking the first time a commercial vehicle has docked with the station.
If all goes well, we should expect to see a lot more of these supply runs, which could hopefully extend the life of the ISS and allow more science to occur, as well as free up NASA to do more frontier stuff.
The next stage of the Dragon's development will then be fitting it to carry crew!
In other news, the guy who directed Chronicle is going to be directing a film adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus. He's also trying to get a Fantastic Four reboot off the ground and is working on an adaptation of the comic "The Red Star".
Interesting! I liked that comic. I wonder if it would be done in a Sky Captain style in order to keep the budget low?
It looks interesting but I'd consider this to be an awful trailer because I really don't feel I need to watch it now. I know the father dies, I know the brother has been taken away by the baddies, I know she meets some love interest guy who turns out to be a militia member (likely reformed), I know she does reach her uncle in Chicago, I know there's some initial contrived conflict between them that is then resolved, I know the necklace turns out to be a key to a working computer and I know that there's some mysterious guy on the other end of a live modem line.
Talk about showing too much... quite aside from the fact that it looks like Hunger Games, Jericho and Jeremiah all got drunk together.
I'd show them V, though that's a series (new one, I never saw the original). It would show them that no matter how good they appear to be or are, humans will react to them in every way possible. We're a complex species, ranging from extreme distrust to blind devotion and everything in between. Some of us will fight to the death, and others will want to become slaves. In fact, we'd probably be in the midst of a global civil war as they'd be watching it.
I just watched Raw Deal for the first time. This was one of the very few holes in my Arnold Schwarzenegger knowledge. It turns out that (surprise!) it's a terrible film, with dull characters and duller dialog, but the structure reminded my strongly of a Steven Seagal film. It's interesting (in a grasping-at-straws way, at least) to think that Schwarzenegger could have gone down the Seagal/Van Damme route, pumping out dull crime shoot-'em-ups year after year.
That movie did bring us the classic "You should not drink and bake."
And speaking of filling Arnold filmography gaps. I watched Jingle all the Way recently for the first time. It's ok I guess, some funny moments and some good lines (put the cookie down!). One thing it does do is prove that Jake Lloyd was an appalling child actor.
It's worth bearing in mind that Mjolnir is merely Thor's weapon of choice, it may have powers (principally over weather and lightning, and allow him to 'fly') but it's neither the source of his powers nor his only power (as evidenced in Avengers when he's fighting without it). It's easy to confuse what happened with the hammer in the Thor film, which was a specific test of his character, with Thor generally.
There have been other wielders of the hammer throughout the comic run, and some have been able to use Mjolnir's powers, but none to my knowledge have stripped Thor of his own natural ones. (In fact, there's a long run where Thor fails to prove himself worthy and ends up killing most of the Marvel heroes without it anyway.)
True that's Odin's enchant during Thor's punishment, but I don't think it applies anymore since Thor has proven himself worthy and has thus fulfilled the spell and retrieved his lost power (which at the time no-one had). The spell on the hammer isn't persisent and is cancelled at the end of Thor; I wouldn't say Thor's power continues to depend upon him holding the hammer. Otherwise, technically, he'd lose his powers everytime it left his hand.
In any case, I'm not fond of the idea of anyone else picking up the hammer. I loved the moment where Hulk tries and fails (and conversely hated that moment in the animated Ultimates movie where he does succeed). Steve Rogers is awesome but not that awesome.
I loved playing Just Cause 2, it's amazing how much crazy fun you can have with a grappling hook and parachute.
Having had it recently consume my life, I'd have to add that X3: Terran Conflict has an insanely large game world. Though all game worlds aren't created equal. It's easy to forget that some of those games pictured have an insane level of detail and must have taken many hours of painstaking work. Just Cause 2 for instance has islands that are teeming with great stuff to see.
Black Widow in the poster isn't the most egregious example I've seen; to my eyes it seems the mock poster is making a mountain out of a molehill in this case. The feminine anterior pelvic tilt angle she displays is a lot more natural that in poses you find in women's magazines and real comic covers. The fashion industry thrives on poses that accentuate the female form - that's where the common comic book pose you see comes from.
But the problem I find here is that the mock poster then comically overexaggerates the tilt on the male characters - in poses that you'd never, ever find female characters being drawn in. Shame really, because instead of drawing attention to an issue seriously the artist chose instead to clown around.
Maybe I'm just weird, but I don't remember music when I come out of a movie. Like ever. The closest was maybe the beat in 2009 Star Trek going over the title after the Kelvin blows. But unless I actively seek out the score afterwards I could not tell you a thing about the music in X movie.
There have been a few great scores that you're bound to have remembered, but for the most part they are pretty forgetable in 90% of movies. Star Wars (Williams) and Lord of the Rings (Shore) have been scores I've noticed and remembered the most, as well as Alexander (Vangelis), which is one of the best things about that movie. The main scores of Superman and Indiana Jones (Williams) are really great and powerful (and hard to forget) as well. And I find I remember fondly the Star Trek orchestral openings (DS9 and Voyager especially) or the Band of Brothers opening.
But otherwise they do tend to blur together for me. I couldn't really tell you what the scores for Iron Man, Captain America and Thor were for instance, or Clash of the Titans, Transformers etc.
Definitely so. Apparently, Mystery Men is supposed to be funny.
Comedy is highly subjective, and is informed by cultural norms as well as much as taste. People from different countries and continents will find humour in different things. The Koreans for instance, seem to love visual humour and often have people slapping each other, something that may be frowned upon and considered distinctly unfunny by a society on the other side of the world. The Chinese taste for humour is often based around language, so if you don't understand the pun then you won't find it funny.
Whether something is funny or not is also affected by age and generation, such that I don't find Charlie Chaplin funny in the slightest, nor the Three Stooges... but equally my grandmother is unlikely to laugh during Spaceballs or at the typical lowest common denominator fart jokes in contemporary 'comedy' films.
I'm pretty sure the obsession with skyscrapers being knocked down is a manifestation of the 21st century male's emasculation by the increasing dominance of women in today's world compounded by the feelings of failure brought about by the recession.
Or it could be an allegory for the satisfaction that the audience feels after watching so much alien, robot or alien robot action; the urban equivalent, if you will, of a volcano blowing its top.
It definitely does have a lot of 'auto' options. You can basically have a fleet of ships automatically trading for you, set up a few space stations and be able to generate mass amounts of money. Definitely a good way to get used to the game and it's mechanics. There's a LOT of stuff floating around out there, tho, and exploration is often rewarded (and occasionally punished severely). I usually tend to have multiple pilots going at once in different save files so I can be a pirate one day or be a cop the next day or be a millionaire supply trader the next, etc.
I'm really enjoying the comlexity and depth of it. I've played, what, about 15 hours so far and feel like I've barely scratched the surface. I think I have about 4 or 5 haulers in the Argon Prime area transporting ore and energy around, whilst I'm off exploring and trying to rack up points by fighting. There's something very appealing about making lots of money and getting that first million.
Youtube's been very helpful in getting to grips with the game's mechanics too.
Squiggly_P wrote:
Also EDIT: I forgot to add that I also like Mount & Blade a lot. Another one of those games that lets you do your own thing with quite a nice bonus feature of being able to assemble large crowds of people to stab each other. I've not played that one as much as I should.
There are a few great mods out there. I'm mostly playing an expanded version of Warband at the moment, basically a ton more stuff added in. Definitely the game for a loot whore like myself!
The problem with both of these games, however, is that they are very hard to stop. These aren't really games you pick up for half an hour to kill time between stuff. I find I keep saying 'ok, I'll stop after I do this' and then an hour later I'm still playing. And so on. They completely take over.
