Topic: The Movie Thread

@Ralizah see I don't get how they managed to engineer that? It was a bunch of random uncontrollable events.

Also I thought the minatures would have had more relevance in the end. And while I'm talking about minatures I.. am not sure why she decided to recreate that particular scene. It didn't seem like a believable part of a grieving process if that's what it was meant to be!

@kyleforrester87 Seemingly, but the cult appears to have the ability to influence how events play out with some aid from the supernatural. The family is constantly besieged by psychic assaults and delusions of supernatural origin, too.

The miniatures. Well, I take them to be both a reflection of the mother's collapsing mental state over the course of the film as well as symbolic of the family's own lack of control over their lives (which are in thrall to forces beyond their comprehension).

Did you end up watching this? I literally know nothing about it and just seen it mentioned in an email.

@JohnnyShoulder quoting doesn't send a notification but I saw this 😉 Yep, saw it twice - really enjoyed it, recommended. Music/visuals are glorious. Solid acting. It's sort of a film of two halves, unfortunately the second half has some issues with pacing and continuity in my opinion, but that might just be down to the individual - either way it's still full of interesting scenes.

I will be watching it again before too long.

@kyleforrester87 Cool, will add it to my watch list. So I assume by your comments that we get a good Nic Cage? His agent must have an interesting job!

@JohnnyShoulder he still gets to be Cage - a shot of him right at the very end in a car had me pi**ing myself.

Just got back from the second Wreck-It Ralph film. It wasn't really bad, persay, but it didn't feel like a terribly cohesive experience (the first and second halves of the movie feel VERY different, honestly), its portrayal of the internet is practically as glib, sanitized, and commercialized as something like The Emoji Movie, and while I can appreciate the themes it tries to tackle near the end... I dunno, I just feel like it detracts from what was already established in the first film.

Nowhere near as good as the first film.

So ... Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
What can I say about this movie? To sum it up — I spent the first hour and a half of the movie lamenting how far the JK Rowling universe has fallen. Then for the last ten minutes I once again admired the author’s amazing skill at crafting intricate machinations.
In the early parts of the movie its a convoluted mess with a rather boring plot line. The characters beyond Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander fail to inspire, and even Grindelwald, played by the overacting pro Johnny Depp, was forgettable. The movie was unnecessarily complex in the early stages and quite hard for me to follow. Admittedly, I am not a Harry Potter scholar, but I’d say I’m probably above average as it relates to knowing my Harry Potter lore. And if I had a hard time following the plot and character arcs, then I know the average viewer was certainly dumbfounded by the first 2/3 of this quagmire of a script.
Fortunately, in her usual style, Rowling wraps things up at the end and connects dots that you didn’t realize even existed and thereby salvages the story. Obviously I won’t spoil anything here, but if you have experienced the Harry Potter movies and/or books, you have come to expect the sharp crescendos to the climax that the series is known for. And that’s fine, it does make for great dinner conversation after the movie to discuss the big and interesting reveals, but in this movie, you’ll also be reviewing the plot with your mates in order to clarify in your mind what really happened. Because when all the stray side stories come together (kind of) it happens so fast with such brief explanation that you might just not have time to absorb it all. Not to mention, you may have dozed off by the time the end rolls around so you’ll need someone to explain what happened while you slept. That is, if they even understood it all themselves.
I’m a sucker for a good ending and I like plot twists. I also have a soft spot for the Harry Potter universe. So I have to say I ended up enjoying the show. But I know a few of the friends I was with were quite put off by it and it took a lot of rehashing and explanation to make sure they even got the whole point of the show.
That said, there are some cool and exciting nods to the original movies. As you know the Fantastic Beasts movies are prequels, so they’re filled with back stories of lesser known characters and cameos from the complex wizarding world of Mr. Potter.
If you didn’t care for the other movies, especially the first Fantastic Beasts, then you probably won’t enjoy this. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ve probably already seen it. As for me, I’ll probably watch it again at some point, if for no other purpose than to prepare for the inevitable third Fantastic Beasts installment. Because I don’t want to start out confused at the outset of that movie, but that’s probably unavoidable.

Finally got around to Cloud Atlas.

Really enjoyed it.

Long run-time but not arduous with with it; and other than being a long film, I'm having a bit of trouble rationalising the negative critical responses the film stacked up. It's not a masterpiece, but well intentioned and very well executed (other than one of Hugo Weaving's character representations that reminded me so strongly of something else that it was really, laughably distracting - but that was my fault!).

I'd certainly recommend it.

@KALofKRYPTON Awesome, I’m glad you watched and enjoyed it. It’s been on my ‘to watch’ list on Netflix for ages, but I haven’t got round to watching it. I will try to make time for it this week 👍

@RogerRoger
Saw a very good Star Wars prequel edit today. Lord knows how it's still up, but it's been on YouTube for 3 years!

It's called Fall of the Jedi.

I know you're a prequel fan, but I found it incredibly satisfying. A little janky here & there, but some very smart editing choices I thought.

Finally got around to watching The Predator. Shouldn't have bothered.

Just got back from watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and it was soooo good! The movie was entertaining from beginning to end. The characters were great and the story was pretty good as well. Visually it's stunning and one of the best 3D CGI animated movie that I've seen. The art direction in this movie was amazing. Love the vibrant colors and the idea to add filter textures and word bubbles was pure genius since they gave the movie a printed media/comic look to it. At times it also seems like your watching the movie with old 3D glasses on. It's really bringing comic book to life. I'm definitely going to watch it again when it comes out on Blu-ray but right now I think it's the best Spider-Man movie I've seen so far.

Going to watch Aquaman this weekend. Too bad the reviews aren't great. Based on the trailers it looked like the movie was gonna be good. Also, will probably go watch Bumblee next weekend as well. Wasn't planning to initially since Bay and gang pretty much ruined the franchise but this one's getting good reviews.

Also, Amy Adams says that DC movies are being revamped.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/12/11/amy-adams-thinks-shes...

@WanderingBullet Since when have trailers been a good indication of how good the movie is? They either show way too much or have a load of scenes which aren't in the movie.

Saw Wreck it Ralph 2 the other day, pretty good (not sure I'd watch it twice mind you), but as @Ralizah says, the first film is much better.

This new Spider-Man film looks like it could be really good, hoping I can find someone to watch it with, my wife doesn't seem overly keen after having seen the trailer.

@JohnnyShoulder I was saying I liked what they showed in the trailers. Usually, I'm less tempted to go watch a movie if I thought the trailer(s) was either bad or boring.

They either show way too much...

You can always avoid watching them if you're worried about spoilers. That's what I usually do with games (especially the story driven ones) I know I'm gonna buy.

I read that RDJ was making a lot of money for his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU. I didn't know that he was making this much money. That's pretty insane if those numbers are true.

https://www.facebook.com/thrillistentertainment/videos/marvel...

@WanderingBullet Yeah I usually skip trailers for most things these days. I even have to ignore some topics to stop news stories popping up in my news feed. Stuff like '13 Things we Found out About the new Avengers Movie'. I'd rather go into a movie not knowing all the plot points thank you very much.

Watched the Outsider (Netflix Original Film) tonight.

Set in 1954 Osaka, it follows Nick, an expat who finds himself welcomed into the world of the Yakuza after he saves one of their own while in prison. Pretty good watch. It leaves some things unexplained (like why Nick was in a Japanese prison in the first place) as the story focuses more on the here & now, but if you enjoy 20th century period pieces and or Japanese themed films it's worth a look.

Also recently watched Geostorm (DVD) recently. It was fun enough if you can turn off your brain, lol.