Middle of the road special, not bad. But props for doing it live in one take, no cuts, no editing.
This is THE DEFINITIVE Superman movie. With truly spectacular cinematography, a heartwarming coming of age story, enthralling action and perhaps the best superhero movie soundtrack ever from Hans Zimmer, this movie hits every beat for Superman fans new and old.
As a DC comics fan growing up, the critical response to this movie prevented me going to watch it at the theatre. I mean who wants one of their favourite superheroes being "humourless", "too violent", and "not epic enough"??? Well, I can truly sit here now having said "lesson learned". Never again will I allow critical response to prevent me from experiencing something I had waited a lifetime for. I will never get to see Man of Steel in the theatre, and this movie was shot for the big screen. Some of the shots are truly beautiful, especially when he wakes up in the ocean with whales, and when he learns to fly in the snowy mountains.
The story is often criticised for not having the kookiness of the original four movies with Christopher Reeve - and don't misunderstand this for hating on the first few iterations, I have nothing but fond memories of growing up with those films - but I challenge anyone to watch those movies now and claim that they still hold up. A truly great movie as well as standing the test of time, has rewatch value, and Man of Steel is one of the few superhero movies that I have watched time and time again. This requires a great story.
The story of this movie focuses on a boys relationship with his fathers, and his coming of age through those guises. His cautious and protective Earth father who tought him the morality and goodness we expect from our Superman, who sacrificed himself in order to keep his sons secret; and his Kryptonian father who encouraged him to embrace his difference and be the man Earth needs him to be.
A bonus is that the relationship between Lois and Clark doesn't seem forced. You get to see how she is a great investigative reporter and through her reporting she discovers Superman's true identity. By protecting it, you can see Clark's appreciation and the weight of not being able to talk about it to anyone - something that bothers him throughout the great flashback scenes as wonderfully portrayed by Dylan Sprayberry and Cooper Timberline - being lifted.
The character development of the antagonist, General Zod is done in a way other superhero movies can only be envious of. The message that this character, like all other Kryptonians are born with a specific purpose, in this case to protect Krypton at all costs, comes across well. From his perspective he is the superhero of his own story, trying to save his planet and his people, and that is the truest of tests for supervillain development.
And this brings me to the epic and controversial (for some reason) third act. As mentioned earlier, Superman has a strong moral code instilled in him by Jonathan Kent, which is shown throughout the flashbacks. Any observer who doesn't see that Snyders portrayal of Superman has the most morality of any Superman in cinematic history is simply not paying attention. He doesn't spin the Earth backwards to rewind time just to save his girlfriend like in the original, and he doesnt go back to Smallville and hook up with Lana because the love of his life Lois is ignoring him a little bit like in Superman III. That Superman, despite all of his displayed morality (e.g. where he refrains from fighting the bullies) feels he must kill General Zod is one of the most powerful moments in superhero movie history. He repeatedly begs Zod to give up his quest to destroy Earth and humans now that his quest to return Krypton has failed. Zod makes it clear as day that he will NEVER give up, and that he will destroy humanity at all costs as an act of revenge. What was Clark supposed to do? He was left with no choice! Add to this the fact that Zod's laser beams were inches away from killing a whole family, Superman reluctantly had to break his neck. Yet unlike other superheroes he did not gloat in victory, the pain and anguish in that scream that follows is filled with the heartbreak of breaking both his moral code and killing one of the few other fellow Kryptonians in the universe.
Overall, this movie gets better every single time I watch it. If you haven't watched it since it came out and had mixed feelings the first time, please give this movie another try without the immediate negative reviews that were extensively covered in the media at the time of release. It truly deserves it. Man of Steel is THE DEFINITIVE Superman movie.
It's OK. I didn't need my heart anyway.
So it went just like the book. I loved it! Be sure to watch after credits, it has two scenes, Amma killing the girls, and the new friend who got very fond of Camille, and her as the woman in white in the park, that they don't explain, but amma was dressed as Artemis in the book cuz she been rehearsing a play in school. And she kills because as her mother she and her sister she is crazy and is obsessed with attention and been taken care of, and hated the idea of her mother being friends with the two girls. It explains why se run away when everybody stops paying attention in her at the play because of the fight that was going on. She made the hole town look for her. They don't literally explain that but is all there. Oh man, they respected the book and i loved it!!
The friend zone has been taken to a whole new mechanical level.
This movie stressed me the fuck out.
Critique put me off watching this for a while, dumbest decision I've ever made.
This film was great, plain and simple. It's dark and full of action. The flashbacks are a nice change for introducing the origin story. And I thought they cast Superman perfectly, great actor and is practically the spitting image of Christopher Reeve.
Best adaptation of the Superman story since the originals, loved it.
Until the script loses its cojones and the third act turns it into just another revenge thriller, this is a tense, visually stunning, action flick that also has something serious to say about the ambiguity and futility of the War on Drugs.
Adam Sandler is phenomenal here. Seeing Howard failing over and over was unbearable... That last sequence got me speechless.
The movie might be showing its age, or maybe I'm showing mine. The structure just felt off. The pacing was much too slow until the last quarter. There's something grating about Maverick's character—there's supposed to be, but I couldn't really find anything to like about him. And of course the romance is entirely unnecessary, but that's been a Hollywood problem since long before this movie (and still is).
they made tom felton say "philosopher's stone" with a straight face. nice.
Wow, what happened here?
A Mulan remake had so much potential but it seems like they really phoned this one in. I'm totally cool with them going in a new direction compared to the first one as do the other live action remakes (except for the butchering of Mulan's backstory and turning her into a generic chosen-one), but there are many aspects that make this not a great film on its own.
Not only does the film have no personality or engaging qualities, but the directing and editing are just kind of bad. It's clear this is a high budget film based on the set pieces and costumes, but the cuts are choppy, with weird camera angle decisions and times of poor framing. The pacing is also weird- it's a two hour movie that has a long ramp up with quick climax and ending. This leaves the audience little chance to get attached to the characters. The writing and acting also leave much to be desired- often times empty, awkward, emotionless, and full of plot holes.
If this didn't have the Mulan and Disney brand behind it, it'd instantly be forgotten. This could have been so much better.
I expected something like “The Post” and got nothing like it. For a film with such a serious subject I was amazed to see how much humor they decided to put into it, and it works.
Just watched it in the Première in Rio and it was amazing.
Unlike in Argentina, in Brazil the victims of the military dictatorship never got justice, quite the opposite, the military got out scot free, with streets named after them.
Gotta applaud the Argentinian people. The most badass on the planet.
Ford v Ferrari is an expensive, finely tuned machine that races out of the starting block and kicks into high gear until the finish.
Matt Damon is in peak form and Christian Bale keeps up the pace in this fascinating tale of the 1966 Le Mans race. Trust me, the +2-hour run time flies by so fast you won't see it pass.
Yes, I could've done without the grease monkey poetry, but any film that can stoke my interest in car racing of all things has got to be well put together.
(And, as always, go in as blind as you can and see it on the biggest screen possible.)
[7.7/10] My complaint at the beginning of season 4 was that the show had promised us all of these momentous changes in the season 3 finale and they amounted to...not very much. Nandor, Nadja, and Guillermo are basically in the same place. Lazlo is a dad, but his betrayal of Nadja didn’t amount to anything. Only Baby Colin Robinson is meaningfully different from where we left him at the start of season 3. It was a frustrating bait-and-switch reversion to the status quo.
Despite that, I like how “Sunrise, Sunset” leans into that idea. Guillermo’s confessional that “nothing here changes” makes it explicit, and it ties into the Fiddler on the Roof-style musical and thematic references at play here. All of the grand plans and actions that everyone has made this year amounted to nothing, and it’s very melancholy.
Sometimes it’s also funny! Watching Nadja’s misadventures trying to keep the club afloat are a big laugh. The improv comics and children’s birthday parties are amusingly desperate ploys. The ability to bring back historical figures, only to use them for a dull podcast, is a very funny comic setup. (Plus hey, I gasped at seeing Murasaki represented, so that’s something too.) And the fact that when it’s time to give up the ghost (no pun intended), Nadja burns the place down, but never bought insurance, is a good twist of fate. I especially appreciate that thanks to the blood sprinklers finally working, all she incinerates is her own office, including her secret stash of cash. It’s all very funny, but to Guillermo’s point, despite Nadja’s grand plans, it leaves her back at square one.
The same goes for Nandor. He doesn’t have as much to do in this one, mostly an amusing exchange with Colin Jr. where he thinks he knows how to relate to the younger generation and instead gets humored and mocked by the quasi-teenager. Still, after all he’s been through, his new devotion to finding a mate, Nandor is unperturbed by losing Marwa, has contented himself by getting really into books, and as a vampire who’s lived for centuries, is unsurprisingly cool with stasis for a longer time scale than Guillermo is. Regardless of his grand desire this season, he’s back where he started with no interest in “what’s next.”
Most strikingly, the same goes for Colin Robinson Jr. His is one of the funniest bits in the episode. Seeing grown man Mark Proksch portray a disaffected youth with such conviction is hilarious, especially with his mocking tone and sullen demeanor. Likewise, the moments when he reverts to a more childish stage are extra funny when it’s really Proksch doing the shtick. Plus, his instinctual need to hammer resulting in him finding a projector slide that points him to Colin Sr.’s secret room is surprisingly twisty and thrilling.
His reversion to Colin Sr. is clever enough. The gradually falling out of his youthful mop and need for glasses and, well, flatulence while reading his progenitor’s meticulous journals comes gradually and portentously enough. His full-fledged return, with the knowledge of the group's PIN number solves the money problems neatly and results in another funny bit of him micromanaging contractors.
And yet, there’s a strangely sincere undercurrent to the whole thing. Holy hell, I didn’t know Matt Berry had it in him. The scene where Lazlo explains to Colin Jr. that he’s an energy vampire, with Colin lamenting his lot in life and wondering why his erstwhile dad did nothing to stop it comes off unexpectedly real. And god help me, Lazlo having spent the past year raising this young man, bonding with him through their little monkeyshines, and being a little shattered when his erstwhile son has no memory of it is quietly heartbreaking. Berry sells the hell out of the moment, and man, you really feel for him.
You also feel for Guillermo. HIs big change, for lack of a better term, was his first long term boyfriend, and that was completely ruined by his status as a familiar to these self-centered jerks. There’s a line from The Sopranos that’s long stuck with me. Christopher Moltisanti confides in his boss, “It's like the regularness of life is too fucking hard for me.” Like so many lines from those characters, there’s not much elegance to it, but there’s something profound in the sentiment, as not very deep or reflective people have transcendent or existential experiences that they can’t quite articulate.
Guillermo is not Christopher. He is smarter and more articulate than that, but his monologue about being the hamster on the wheel strikes the same chord. He does these same things, over and over again, with no expectation of anything beyond the fact that the tide will roll out and then it will roll back in.
There is excitement, of course, in the fact that he decides to use the money he embezzled from the club to try to get his friend, Derek, to turn him into a vampire. Guillermo rightfully decides that if he wants change, he has to seize it, rather than simply wait in vain for it to be handed to him. The moment is strangely hopeful, that he will finally get what he’s always wanted, even if the show always has an out in the form of Nandor’s two remaining wishes.
But there’s also an irony to it. Guillermo goes to such lengths because he wants to become a vampire, like he’s dreamed about since he was a kid. And yet, what is immortality but the absence of change, the persistence of your current state? I lamented the persistent stasis of What We Do in the Shadows from season to season, but with this melancholy reflection on the year’s events, it becomes a feature, not a bug. The show once again turns something ridiculous into something profound. Who knows if season 5 will bring Guillermo, or the viewers, what we want, but I continue to be excited to discover what’s next.
Not only does Fincher tell a story set in the golden age of Hollywood, but he evokes the style of filmmaking too. It's cleverly made, and Oldman is great as Mank. However, it didn't quite grip me the way I thought it would, perhaps due to the movie's talky nature. Still, that doesn't detract from what Fincher has tried to do here.
Talk about a movie giving you mixed feelings. Before seeing Halloween III, I knew one thing…neither Michael Myers or Jamie Lee Curtis was going to be in it…so the real question was…how was it even a Halloween movie? Doing a little research, I discovered the creator of Halloween thought it would be a wise choice to do the same thing as American Horror Story and switch up the stories. A new Halloween tale every year. Well, you know the problem with that right? It’s not even the fact that people love Michael Myers, it’s the fact that you had two movies with him back to back…and then this. I have extremely mixed feelings about Season of the Witch – so let’s get into it.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is not about Michael Myers, nor is it really about any witches…it’s really about androids. I’m talking full on cybernetic organisms. A doctor ties the death of a patient to a factory that produces popular Halloween masks. As they look to uncover that death, more deaths occur, and they are all seemingly linked to this factory and company Silver Shamrock – and the mystery of what this company is trying to do is unpredictable, believe me.
I think I have a handle on what went wrong here – and the fault lies exclusively with pre-production. First of all, you shouldn’t call this a Halloween movie, and if you do, you can’t say it’s Halloween 3, because people are expecting Michael Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis. All you’re doing there is making people mad when they see the movie. Second of all, you shouldn’t call this Season of the Witch either, because witches play no part in this film . There is magic, but it’s magic taken from a Stonehedge rock. The rest of the movie is strange, creepy, mysterious android humanoids. Which, by the way, aren’t bad. Not at all.
If you went to a friend’s house and they made you watch this movie but didn’t tell you what it was called, there’s a good chance you’ll love it. In fact, if they released this under a different name altogether, it might be its own classic horror film. As it is now, it’s ruined expectations and false advertisement. That’s where my mixed feelings come from, because as a movie on its own without any labels, this is a fine horror film that had me invested from the get go. The only actual complaints I have about it is the decision to have the lead play a doctor instead of the obvious – a cop. He looks and plays the part, a doctor doesn’t make a ton of sense, nor furthers the story. I would also say the film lacked certain motive towards the end, but that’s not a deal-breaker, either.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is incredibly creepy and disturbing – facts that nestle since the beginning and flourish as the film goes on. It’s creative gore was unique and never overdone. Just the sight of these android humanoids chills you to the bone, and the end game teased throughout the movie is brave and bold – altogether creating a horror flick that would be remembered for a long time if it weren’t for its poor, poor foundation and promotion practices. It’s not a movie that should be a part of the Michael Myers collection, nor should anyone say it’s a witch movie either. It’s simply a decent movie that has no real title in my books. Check it out and let me know what you think!
As a horror movie, I can't really give this more than a 4. As a movie in general, given when it came out and the character - Pinhead - and how iconic it is, it can have an 8. Watch it for the history and for a solid film from the late 80s. Don't watch it for horror - it's not that scary.
If i had rated this movie immediately after leaving the theater it would have elicited an 8, or 9 because it is a well crafted film. But after doing some research into Christie Marston's claims regarding the film I have to knock off several points.
Very little of it is true, from the dynamics of the relationship to the origins of the comic publication. Christie Marston maintains that Elizabeth and Olive were not lovers (Christie had a strong relationship with her grandmother, Elizabeth, who apparently was quite forward thinking about any sexual activity done by consenting adults, and quite open to talking about her views, and never gave any indication to her family that she and Olive were lovers). It was also Elizabeth who suggested that Marston write his comic with a female lead, rather than being skeptical about his being able to get it published.
The movie also makes Bill Marston out to be a besieged hero, keeping his family together in the face of society's disapproval, and maintaining the integrity of his comic creation in the face of moral guardians. At the end we are told that after his death, Wonder Woman lost it's sexual component, and the character lost her powers. Well yes that is true, but the adoption of the Comics Code Authority was 7 years after his death, and the "mod era," of Wonder Woman was 21 years after.
This film goes a little too far in the amount of creative liberties I'm willing to accept.
Ending felt a bit abrupt with a few things still unanswered, but it was a good ride overall. Ended up liking Mai a lot more than I expected to at first and the different arcs and character interactions kept things interesting.
Definitely not a masterpiece but it was engaging and interesting throughout.
Super campy, but I was entertained and laughing my butt off. My mother thought it was hilarious.
I thought they were going to wait for season 2 before Jennifer discovers her powers but boy was i wrong.
Pattinson is the best Batman ever.
he is so tortured, his emotions are sincere. He's the darkest and most precise batman out there.
the visuals and the soundtrack are incredible and take you into the thoughts of the character.
For me it’s a masterpiece.
Absolutely disappointing rehash of the first trilogy. Disney had a real opportunity to do something new and exciting with this ipr but resorted to rushed writing with an extremely compressed story that makes no sense and fails to make anyone care for the characters or events. Emo Kylo is an outstanding metaphor for the whole deal.
Oh hi trakt
Sorry folks but this one didn't go well for Marvel. I don't even know where to start. Acting was average, more like below average. Screenplay was as much ordinary as it could be. No surprise here. CGI was OK but it's somehow expected from Marvel. But I totally didn't like the idea of Wakanda. Hidden city in the center of Africa with tons of technology and advanced weapons and systems and so on. But how the hell did they build all of that? No explanation. It just happened. Yes, they have Vibranium, but they don't sell it. In fact they never did and for whole world they are just a bunch of shepherds and farmers. So where did they take all that money to build empire like this? I don't like movies without explanations and this is one of them. Almost nothing has been told about Vibranium whatsoever. Oh yeah, it's some super thing from the universe capable of anything. That's all the explanation you get. There are too many clichés we have already seen too many times. And we have to see them again. One example: I challenge someone for a fight because I want to kill him. And when I have the chance to kill him, what would I do? Kill him or throw him down from the cliff to the water where he can survive? But enough. If you hesitate if to watch this, I can recommend not to waste your time. Wait for the Avangers where you can also see the Black Panther. You won't miss anything if you miss out this movie.
