A master piece to show us what Christ suffered for our sins, for the salvation of the entire world.
This movie, right off the bat, makes some smart creative decisions: it doesn’t try to imitate the original too much, and it’s not a musical.
They even steer away from the usual Disney formula by taking away the funny sidekick.
And while the film is technically quite impressive (cinematography and score are top notch), I found it to be ultimately unengaging.
Also, there seems to be a correlation between big, feminist action movies and poor lead performances.
I mean, just do the math: Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and now Mulan.
Yes, I also find it important that more of these movies get made (not corporate, tame Disney films, but female driven action movies in general), but they deserve to be a lot better than this.
Problem is, if nobody sees it, chances are execs will take the wrong lesson from it, and think people don’t want to see female/Asian representation, or feminist themes.
So, we’re kinda fucked regardless, but I still don’t find that an excuse to give a heavy push to this mediocre movie, as I see some journalists doing.
5/10
Enjoyable adaptation. Had horror, suspense, and a fair bit of drama too - guy below must've been watching a different movie...
Disgusting amounts of racism. The entire movie portrays white people as killers, Nazis, and politicians. And black people as 'the saviour's of the community' and a gross romanticsised view of gangs. Pay attention, you won't see one white person portrayed as helping the community, and you won't see one black person working with the government.
I also was disappointed at the amount of gorr or scare. I have seen a lot of shit, and this movie's darkest moments were absolutely basic and boring. An entire island can do anything they want, they wouldn't be nice. Society is far more degraded than this movie portrays, which disappointed me. I was expecting to see some realism, but experienced none of it.
(Note: This was the 70mm roadshow presentation of the film.)
This is a film about justice and tribalism and how the two lead to some strange, unsettling outcomes when the they are mixed together.
To the point, the film is filled with little moral thought experiments that underscore the idea of when we think it's wrong and right to kill, and explores how that's affected by which tribe they belong to. From Chris Mannix's tale of Major Warren burning down a prison, thereby killing a number of both Union and Confederate soldiers, to Warren himself goading General Smithers into trying to shoot him so he can shoot first, to Mobray's speech on dispassionate justice versus frontier justice, this is a film concerned with when dispensing lethal force is right.
But it's also concerned with how station and affiliation affect how others are treated and when something is truly just or honorable. Major West, despite his accomplishments and prowess, is derided and demeaned because of the color of his skin. Daisy Domergue is equal parts dismissed, patronized, and underestimated because she's a woman. It's no coincidence that one of the film's final scenes is a black former union soldier and a white rebel renegade cooperating to hang a woman in an excruciating fashion because it's the "right" way to honor a fallen comrade (who demeaned the both of them).
There's a lot to unpack in all of this. It's hard to say what Tarantino is saying beyond a broad level "who we are and where we're from shapes our view of what's right and who is fair game," but there's a lot there. The opening shot featuring a crucifix covered in snow hints at these broader themes, and details like the motley make up of Jody's gang to their wanton killing in order to save Jody's sibling lead in interesting thematic directions.
But apart from the larger thematic material, the film absolutely works at a basic narrative level. The first half of the film has a wonderful Clue vibe to it, with a series of characters slowly introduced and thrown together in interesting ways, where not everyone is what they seem, and the audience is left guessing, if not whodunnit, then who's going to do it.
The characters and performances are almost uniformly tremendous. Each of the major characters is well-sketched, and have interesting characteristics that lead to predictable but no less intriguing conflicts. The stand outs are Samuel L. Jackson, who is enthralling from the word go and nails the peak of the film with his monologue about the younger smithers; Jennifer Jason Leigh who gives a wonderfully unhinged performance as Daisy Domergue, and Tim Roth who has a delightful Christoph Waltz-ian flair to his bits of screen time. But everyone, from Russel to Goggins to Dern makes an impression.
The structure and performances help keep the tension high, whether in quiet moments in the stagecoach where it seems like things might become too rowdy, to the powder keg of the main cabin where mistrust grows and tempers flair. The first half of the film, where all the tension builds and is maintained, is more enjoyable than the second, where the answers are revealed, and the aftermath in interesting, but not nearly as engaging as the build of the mystery.
Still, despite (or perhaps because of) the usual Tarantino blood and guts and non-linear storytelling, the film in never boring, and while it works as a whole, the stage-like feeling of the production also allows individual scenes to feel like little vignettes, that could still be compelling or effective separated from the movie as a whole, even as they take on new meaning when juxtaposed.
I have my nits to pick -- Tatum feels a bit miscast (though his appearances are brief) and Tarantino's narration felt a bit obvious and unnecessary--but this is still a superb film from a great director. It's beautifully shot, with grand, frigid vistas that emphasize the isolation, and interesting camera movements that convey both the extra man spying on the proceedings and the heightened nerviness of individual scenes. It is also, for all its tension and thematic material, a damn funny movie, that had me chuckling more than a few times. I would not necessarily among my favorite Tarantino films, but that just speaks to the heights he's been able to hit. The Hateful Eight is still a fun, tense movie with some interesting thematic heft beneath the gunplay and quippy violence. It was well worth the cost of admission.
What? No Milla Jovovich? Wouldn't be the same.
Story: what story? It's art!
Characters: Nope. Let's focus on the walls instead.
Not scary in the slightest the only scares were jumpscares with loud music. I didn't care what happened to the two pairs of legs. If you're going to do a movie about a child's point of view put the camera on their forehead, not on the floor. The walls and ceilings got wayyy too much screen time. Painfully boring!
Well, I gave it a fair try. I didn't think I'd like this story/film and I didn't. A young sexually inexperienced boy and an older grad student. For me the inequalities of experience, maturity and attraction bordered on child abuse and, although the boy was the aggressor, the adult should have maintained boundaries and trust. It was too uncomfortable for me and was anything but a love story. I know I am expressing a minority opinion (it has been nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay) but I rate it a 3 (bad) out of 10. There was nothing commendable about this movie to me with the exception of the location, which was strikingly beautiful, and the soundtrack, which was perfectly matched to the internal thoughts of the characters. [Drama]
"Baggage", can be a GOOD thing when yours makes it on time across the pond with you on your flight from London, especially if it's first out of the chute and onto the pick up carousel. But, it's NOT such a good thing if one carries quantities of the negative kind into a new relationship, be it an IRL relationship, or, in THIS case, the relationship between a viewer and a filmmaker.
It was to be expected then, when, Anime fans and enthusiasts expressed trepidation after the trailer for "Alita: Battle Angel" dropped. They can all still recall the cringe-fest that was M. Night Shyamalan's, "The Last Airbender", which IMO was DOA from the moment it was cast, and, don't get them started on "Dragonball Z", lest you want a wall of text recounting it's cornucopia of cinema sins.
Now, I'm not here to go down the rabbit hole that is often expressed in the current virtue signaling trend of "whitewashing" outrage. We're not talking about the bad old days practice of Black or Yellow face, where obviously Caucasian actors were darkened or "Orientaled" up to play faux versions of the real deal, nor of instances where it is done for comedic irony, as in Robert Downey Jr's, "Tropic of Thunder' performance, nor, the Waynan's Brothers in "White Chicks". However I DO find it interesting that no one seems outraged in those two instances, or, that the same folks who express shock and dismay at ScarJo's casting as the titular "Ghost in the Shell", ALSO express outrage at those who expressed outrage, at the idea of casting Idris Elba as James Bond. Seems like there's no pleasing some folks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKvqhlhXq9s
But I digress....
My point is, that we, as consumers of visual media, often let ourselves be influenced by the BAGGAGE we carry with us, when watching a film or show. Our expectations, based on PRIOR experiences, can subtly, or even greatly influence our enjoyment of a given offering. I have to wonder how die hard Trekkies would react to STDISCO, if they had NEVER seen Star Trek ANYTHING before? I myself can recall dismissing Wild Wild West, the movie, as soon as I saw Will Smith was cast in the lead, because for me Robert Conrad would always be the personification of James West. Yet, I had the opposite reaction to seeing Denzel Washington cast in the lead of either the Equalizer, or The Magnificent Seven, perhaps because lack of familiarity had not left me ingrained as to who these characters were. (Both great movies IMO by the way) Or perhaps it is just the power of the Denzel. And, even with all the "outrage" over the casting of "Ghost in the Shell", I still enjoyed the movie overall, although it fell down in a few places. Again I was unfamiliar with the source material.
Unlike the disappointing experience with "The Last Airbender", which I went into being a FAN of the Nickelodeon series as well as "The Legend of Korra", I was completely without opinion concerning Alita: Battle Angel. What I DID know was, that it was produced by James Cameron, who doesn't put his name on stinkers, and was directed by Robert Rodriguez, whom I have liked since El Mariachi. BOTH know how to deliver epic, believable worlds and characters, so I put my faith in that, and went in unbiased, with no expectations either way.
And I am SO very GLAD I did!!!
I saw the movie in IMAX / 3D, and, while SOME movies / Directors throw obvious, rather lame 3D effects to boost a lame, insipid storyline, or, OVER use it to the point of distraction, here, they found the perfect balance, with the 3D adding an immersive depth to the already impressive "26% more IMAX picture". If you watch the trailers, you can pretty much figure out which scenes really WOW in this format.
To address the elephant in the room, yes, Alita's eyes DO remind one of a cross between a high tech sex doll (not that I would know) and Margaret Keane's "Big Eyes" waifs. (Cristoph Waltz was in that one too) Yet, here, you quickly become so immersed in the story that you no longer notice. The story begins with Waltz's Dr. Ido discovering Alita's discarded torso in a dump, while he is scavenging for parts to fix up the neighborhood cyborgs, which are plentiful, and not trying to assimilate anyone. Apparently in THIS world, if a body part breaks, gets diseased, or hijacked (yes I said hijacked) it can be replaced, much like a crumpled bumper in a fender bender. Dr. Ido just happens to have a teenager sized cyborg body handy which is explained later in the film, and, a little JB Weld here, and a couple of stitches there and Bobs your Uncle, .. instant Teenage Mutant Ninja Angel...., (sorry) Alita awakens, but has no memory, and, as many teenagers are, is all questions, curiosity, and hormones, all at once, especially when she meets the "polite, hard working", and, all around handy guy Hugo, who IS teenage, but NOT mutant.
A visit from Ido's Ex, Chiren, gives us some (slightly disturbing) back-story and we meet her boss, Vector, played by Mahershala Ali, once again being chauffeured around by Viggo Mortensen, (just kidding) but who IS apparently a big deal, with connections to the sky city of Zalem, which floats above them, and is "the place were the cool hang out, the SWASS like to play, and the rich flaunt clout!" This is where everyone wants to someday go, "by any means necessary", yet Dr. Ido and his ex were apparently exiled from there, no backstory given.
Thrown in are a nice mix of teenage discovery and bonding, combat sports, bounty hunters, robot dogs, robot bounty hunters, set piece fight scenes, featuring robot dogs and bounty hunters of the meat and robot varieties, vivisection, nanobots, betrayal, heartbreak, and general cinematographic carnage....., and just when it was getting REALLY good, the credits ran, and NO ONE MOVED, hoping for one more glimpse of this world, or a Marvel Comics style peek at what is to (hopefully) come.
When I got home, I immediately looked up Alita, both the Anime and the Manga, and found a 2 part 1990's era Anime, which the movie, with a few minor changes and liberties, seems to have followed almost shot for shot in places. So, Kudos for at least partially following the source material, even if changes were made to make a coherent, box office ready story.
Was it perfect for those with the baggage of their own expectations? That's up to them to decide. Did I find it to be an entertaining movie that allowed me to suspend disbelief and immerse myself in Alita's dystopian hive of scum and villainy, and root for her to be victorious in the end? Yes sir!! So, May we have another??? PLEEASE????
This one has a far better plot than the original and everything else is also improved slightly. I don't get why everyone was bitching about it when it came out.
Honestly, what the hell is this?
My fav movie. "It's game over man, it's game over"
Be warned Midsommar is not a horror movie, it's an art film covered in a thin veneer of gore. It is not scary, it's not frightening, just long with a few gross-out gore scenes sprinkled in.
The movie spends most of its run time showing you scenes of people eating, drinking or singing. These are really pretty scenes mind you, the cinematography is on point, but they are also excruciatingly long. The movie could easily be trimmed by 30 minutes without affecting the barebones plot at all.
The horror element is supposed to be the cult rituals but most of them were so absurd that I and the rest of the (few) people in the theater laughed instead. There was especially one scene with a bunch of nude older women that was downright hilarious, although I very much doubt that was the intent.
If singing Swedish people frightens you then this is a must watch, otherwise don't bother.
It was so bad. I dont know why it had such good reviews. There was no sherlock element in the whole movie. Waste of time really.
We've seen this film 2012 times and the day after tomorrow it's not impossible that there will be yet another geostorm in a teacup.
But the first two acts of Greenland are more suspense than disaster and the film is all the better for it. Director Ric Roman Waugh does a great job of building tension around how people act in the face of a world threatening event and the sense of urgency rubs off on the viewer.
Sadly, though, the final act slips into the clichés one would expect from a film of this genre, but not badly enough that it erases the good work that precedes it.
Downloading a power source...................... WTF
It was terrible on so many levels. Spiral is supposed to reinvent the franchise but I don't see any original idea in here. It rushes through a painfully predictable plot. Chris Rock is annoying as hell! He plays the worst detective ever, or he just can't act. The rest of the cast is weak. They don't have enough personality to make me care about. It also doesn't push the gore to its usual limits. The traps are very underwhelming and the torture sequences are too short. I don't even care if the victims will make it out alive or not. The twist is too painfully obvious, I literally saw it coming from miles away. The killer's trying to imitate Jigsaw voice is honestly laughable. He sounds so stupid and not even intimidating. It could've been enjoyable if there's no Saw thrown into the mix. This film clearly didn't meet the expectations.
Astonishing performance. It’s a really good movie and worth watching if you are both a fan and a movie lover.
The Invisible Man is a car in a skid: it has suspense that just goes around in circles until it all falls apart predictably at the end.
Basically, this is a remake of every 80s movie where someone in control (stepfather, building superintendent, roommate) abuses the victim for 90% of the film until the 'surprise' ending that we saw coming so early it shouldn't be called the ending.
Too bad, really, because Elisabeth Moss gives it her all (and she's got so much to give) and the moments of suspense were well constructed.
Gun Fu, Gun Porn, Stylized Ultra violence, call it whatever you want, but, one thing is certain, John Wick 3 delivered it all, and then brought you second and third helpings. Tom Cruise gets a lot of cred for doing his own increasingly elaborate stunts for each M.I. installment, but I'll see you EVERY stunt the couch jumping Mr. Cruise has done his ENTIRE career, for the first two action sequences in this movie ALONE! Also, Keanu Reeves isn't just harnessed to a plane or rappelling down the side of a building and leaping across roof tops. Reeves weapons handling and combined intricate fight sequences aren't the result of Steven Seagal style quick cuts, Fast and Furious edits, post SFX, or tricky camera angles to disguise whats actually happening. It's VISCERAL, because the camera lingers on the mayhem so that the viewer can savor each strike, slash, stab, and gunshot, and ALL the accompanying carnage. Not in Sam Peckinpah slo-mo, but in real time, yet, somehow, one is still able to take it all in, and then the sequence would end, just about the same time you remembered to BREATHE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=nrawit53W7s
Yes, it's over the top, but this is the world John Wick inhabits. A culture of hired assassins, an entire society, existing just beneath the surface of the one you and I can see, the one the rest of us inhabit. A society with rank and file members, management, service, and executive classes, and RULES. And it is the rules, which have kept order from devolving into chaos for hundreds of years, that have made them "different from the animals".
For the love of his deceased wife, a car, and a puppy, John Wick reached his proverbial "last straw". (John Wick 1) For his loyalty to a blood oath, which was broken, he violated a cardinal rule, and was marked for death. (John Wick 2) Yet, using those same rules and oaths, (and his particularly unique set of skills) he was able to braid for himself a life-line, tenuous as it was, but a life-line nevertheless. The powers that be cannot allow that to happen, and seek to intimidate, punish, and if necessary eliminate each of those who extended him a thread of that line, even if they technically only "stretched" the rules. What they have failed to realize is that John Wick's reputation as the "Baba Yaga", the proverbial Boogie-man, is not only well earned, but, if anything, it is UNDER stated.
Those who were paying attention saw that we actually DID get quite a bit of origin/back story on the eponymous Mr. Wick, as well as a glimpse into the world of the contract killers, as to how the contracts are put out, and the hierarchy that pulls the strings behind the scenes. I look forward to seeing this expanded upon in future installments
Kudos and Props this installment to Iron Chef Mark Dacascos and a host of other Asian Martial Artists as the closest thing John has to true competition, yet, they are at the same time fanboys who geek out at getting a chance to fight him.
To Halle Berry, for NAILING her fight sequences, then being a trooper and not quitting when her scenes cost her a couple of broken ribs. Her character obviously has some issues with the menfolk, considering how many she shot in the "kibbles and bits. Also props to the trainers of her two pups, and the stunt men for allowing same said puppers to gnaw precariously close to their kibbles and bits until she shot them. OUCH!
In case you doubt me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=66&v=xa2RJPrY2Og
To Laurence Fishburne, for making sure that Neo still has Morpheus as a Mentor, even if you "sometimes have to cut a Mo Fo".. All we need now is Carrie-Anne Moss' Trinity to show up in the inevitable Part 4, and all will be right in the Universe. (make it happen writers)
10 out of 10 - Best of the 3 so far IMO
I'm half tempted to give this full marks just for daring to play Radiohead's Everything in Its Right Place during your typical military in dropship scene. Anyway my boy Gareth knocked out another cracking piece of scifi. You really don't mind when a director takes a few years off and comes back with something like this. There's certainly a fair amount of Rogue One, Blade Runner and Terminator in the mix, the latter of which he takes the Judgement Day plot and turns it on its head defying expectations where I assumed it was going just due to the tropes of the genre.
There's also a lot of stuff on screen for 80mill in comparison to other recent effects heavy films. Gets you wondering if budgets elsewhere escalate to $200 mill mark due to talent demands or that something like this has less behind the scenes VFX artists but take longer to bake? I dunno. Either way, check it out. The trailer gives too much away (as always my opinion) however there's plenty more that isn't shown.
NB. Watch out for the Scarif Easter egg
EDIT: There has never been a movie like this that I didn't like but I really wanted to read and talk more about with other people. I guess Darren Aronofsky at least got people talking about his movie, even if people didn't like it.
What a weird movie. I really thought the sound design was great. Really creepy and creates great tension.
So Jenifer Lawerence is Mother Earth and Javier Bardem is God? Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer are Adam and Eve and the heart crystal is the apple of eden? I don't know much about the bible but that is what I got. I guess the message Daron Aronofsky is trying to say is we treat the Earth like shit. It is going to kill us all but its bound to repeat again? I don't know, it is a weird movie.
EDIT2: So after seeing this after a long time of not thinking about it I realized that Darren Aronofsky really hates humans. The bat shit crazy third act can not make up for the boring first two acts. And knowing that this is just the bible made it even worse. I don't hate this movie but I'm definitely not a fan.
Absolute shite. Please don't waste your time. Very predictable with a horrible ending. They don't show you who the killer is and what his intentions were for doing what he did. They explained absolutely nothing. I wasted an hour and a half on this dreadful movie. Don't make the same mistake I made.
Better action movie than Endgame. Fite me.
These new Disney+ series are developing into the the modern, overbudgeted equivalent of direct-to-video films from the ‘90s.
In an age where popular and accessible television is continuously pushed to new and exciting heights (Daredevil, Money Heist, Ted Lasso, Stranger Things, Arcane to name a few), these recent shows banking on the Star Wars and Marvel brands feel amateurish, schlocky, and often read like bad fan fiction.
Look, Boba Fett in the original trilogy is nothing more than a visual.
He’s not really a character, I think he has about 4 or 5 lines, but he became popular because of his look.
You can’t just throw me in a story where he’s the main character and expect me to care without putting in the work.
It’s a show that operates in Disney’s new business model of throwing references, ‘member berries and empty spectacle on the screen, while the important and engaging stuff (character, story, drama, emotion, filmmaking) are reduced to an afterthought.
Granted, that’s pretty much the same problem that I have with a lot of IP related content from the past couple of years, but this show in particular feels so calculated, focus tested and cynical, it’s gross.
Even the production kinda sucks this time around (compared to The Mandalorian), it looks really ugly and washed out, more like Marvel than Star Wars.
Where is the voice of Jon Favreau?
Where is the voice of the director of Iron Man, one of the most character driven and vibrant blockbusters of the past 20 years?
This show is not even close to being up to par in just about every sense.
This is so bland and inessential, they might’ve as well put it directly on Disney Plus. Why are we investing 300 million dollars in an action/adventure flick starring an 80 year old grandpa? Look I have a lot of respect for Harrison Ford, but everything that’s wrong with this movie is connected to the larger issue of him and the franchise being way past their expiration date, so this never should’ve been greenlit in the first place. Nothing is offensively bad here, but it’s more a case of wrong decisions piling onto each other.
I understand Lucasfilm’s decision to hire a director who just delivered two crowdpleasers in a row, both of which were acclaimed by normies and snobs alike. Mangold understands what makes the world and character work, but he doesn’t get the soul. Right from the opening scene, the movie looks drab, underlit and generic. There’s almost no imagination to the set pieces, and some of the more impressive stuntwork is undone by poor effects work. Take the Tuctuc chase. Ford’s stunt double puts in the work for the wide shots, but when you cut to a close-up of characters in front of a green screen, you’re not exactly selling the sequence. It’s not going to stick on my brain, it’s too unremarkable. Again, what’s the point of making an Indiana Jones movie if there’s no viscera or imagination to the action?
Then there’s the story, which is also very by the numbers and low on risk. It feels like wheel spinning, which in theory could be fine (the Bond franchise got away with that for decades) but there’s nothing to hold my interest. Some of the new mechanics introduced during the third act I found to be underwhelming, and this is coming from someone who didn’t mind the inclusion of aliens in the last film. All of the new characters are boring and underdeveloped (especially the villain), despite the actors putting in decent performances. It’s quite funny how this suffers from the same problem as Furious 7, where villains will show up on the same location as our heroes despite there being no story reason for it. Occasionally there’s a brief fun interaction, or a fun set, or a good visual idea (like the final shot, for example), but that’s not enough to fill its bloated runtime.
4/10
Okay so walking into the theater I wasn't exactly expecting much however wow I was blown away complete must see
What an experience! It was magnificent and really powerful. Brilliant lead actor.
