Re: The Movie Thread

[PaulC]

Zootropolis was good - but not great... it was a bit too political for a kids film... maybe that was the point - but I get that we shouldn't mis-treat or fear people for having different beliefs. Surely the majority do and we don't need silly messages like that?

Or maybe I'm thinking about it too much...

Anyway Star Trek tonight. Thinking it'll be entertaining and hopefully slightly less annoying (in terms of copying Star Trek 3) than Into Darkness did with tWoK...

I expected Star Trek to be terrible, but was pleasantly surprised. It isn't a cinematic masterpiece. It doesn't make sense in many ways, the fight scenes are terrible and the ending is as cheesy as a Babybel factory, but otherwise it's quite entertaining.

[Jamie]

I'm interested to hear what people think of 10 Cloverfield Lane. I mostly loved it, but I expect it might be divisive.

I thought it was just fine...

It gets better towards the end (the first half was a bit slow). Also, at the end of the film, you want to see, well, so what happens now? Would be a good first part double bill, followed by War of the Worlds (or something like that)...

[Admin]

So Star Trek Beyond ticked off... and I have to say I wasn't impressed.

From the silly CGI dog aliens in the opening scene I was worried. It didn't feel like Star Trek to me (I'm a TNG junkie). Too many Simon Pegg jokes forced in. Then there was that silly over the top Scotty scene where he was jumping back onto a cliff after his escape torpedo landed. After that it started to get better but never impressed me.

To me the original Star Trek films were great sci-fi because it was grounded in 'reality'. Even the Motion Picture. Ok the effects were awful but the idea of V'ger was great. Films 2-6 I loved as a kid. Perhaps the reality grounding was just indicating their increased reliance on practical effects back in the day (like Star Wars)? But it worked (as the Force Awakens has proved). It was the little things that used to impress me with the original movies...e.g. they had emergency exit signs over the doors when the enterprise was refitted. In Beyond we have a city/space station that looked like something from Inception not Star Trek.  Really poor CGI on the motorcycle. A Nebula that looked to me more like an Asteroid field. Fight scenes that were more confusing than a Michael Bay Transformers film. Characters that seem to be more super heroes than Star fleet officers. And another Enterprise destroyed (echoing the Search for Spock). Don't get me started on that scene where they flip the destroyed saucer section like a pancake.  

The end of Into Darkness with Kirk changing places with Spock in the core did not work... there was no risk - it was obvious what would happen, the emotions were not convincing. We all knew Tribble blood would save the day. I felt even less convinced of Kirk's depression at being in Deep space for 3 years and wanting to quit. This is the 3rd movie of the new franchise. Why did we have to skip 3 years? There could of been a montage of 'boring' planets to explore, Negotiations to join the federation, Encounters with Klingons and Romulans.  Something to show me the dull routine work that Kirk got into. That he craved the excitement of the early adventures they had in Star Trek and Into Darkness.

I did like some things. Karl Urban as Bones is still perfect - but his dry humour is lost when competing with Pegg's daft humour (Alien snot being corrosive to metal - urgh!). Kirk and Uhura work. Spock I like but something didn't feel right here. I like the introduction of new aliens and different looking worlds - but it still needs the occasional Klingon... (learn from Insurrection - which this film felt like a clone of). I thought they were onto something with the new spooky Klingons in Into Darkness. Was looking forward to seeing more of those... instead in the end we got another 1 film generic human bad guy. Idris Elba is a great actor and his character could have had some wonderful future potential but instead he is killed off (do the screenwriters not learn from Darth Maul!). I would have just loved to have seen him walk into the crowd and disappear to fight another day; be a recurring villain in the series for a change.  

Rant over...

[DaveB]

So Star Trek Beyond ticked off... and I have to say I wasn't impressed.

From the silly CGI dog aliens in the opening scene I was worried. It didn't feel like Star Trek to me (I'm a TNG junkie). Too many Simon Pegg jokes forced in. Then there was that silly over the top Scotty scene where he was jumping back onto a cliff after his escape torpedo landed. After that it started to get better but never impressed me.

To me the original Star Trek films were great sci-fi because it was grounded in 'reality'. Even the Motion Picture. Ok the effects were awful but the idea of V'ger was great. Films 2-6 I loved as a kid. Perhaps the reality grounding was just indicating their increased reliance on practical effects back in the day (like Star Wars)? But it worked (as the Force Awakens has proved). It was the little things that used to impress me with the original movies...e.g. they had emergency exit signs over the doors when the enterprise was refitted. In Beyond we have a city/space station that looked like something from Inception not Star Trek.  Really poor CGI on the motorcycle. A Nebula that looked to me more like an Asteroid field. Fight scenes that were more confusing than a Michael Bay Transformers film. Characters that seem to be more super heroes than Star fleet officers. And another Enterprise destroyed (echoing the Search for Spock). Don't get me started on that scene where they flip the destroyed saucer section like a pancake.  

The end of Into Darkness with Kirk changing places with Spock in the core did not work... there was no risk - it was obvious what would happen, the emotions were not convincing. We all knew Tribble blood would save the day. I felt even less convinced of Kirk's depression at being in Deep space for 3 years and wanting to quit. This is the 3rd movie of the new franchise. Why did we have to skip 3 years? There could of been a montage of 'boring' planets to explore, Negotiations to join the federation, Encounters with Klingons and Romulans.  Something to show me the dull routine work that Kirk got into. That he craved the excitement of the early adventures they had in Star Trek and Into Darkness.

I did like some things. Karl Urban as Bones is still perfect - but his dry humour is lost when competing with Pegg's daft humour (Alien snot being corrosive to metal - urgh!). Kirk and Uhura work. Spock I like but something didn't feel right here. I like the introduction of new aliens and different looking worlds - but it still needs the occasional Klingon... (learn from Insurrection - which this film felt like a clone of). I thought they were onto something with the new spooky Klingons in Into Darkness. Was looking forward to seeing more of those... instead in the end we got another 1 film generic human bad guy. Idris Elba is a great actor and his character could have had some wonderful future potential but instead he is killed off (do the screenwriters not learn from Darth Maul!). I would have just loved to have seen him walk into the crowd and disappear to fight another day; be a recurring villain in the series for a change.  

Rant over...

I don't disagree with any major point on this, but still felt it was a big improvement on Into Darkness

[SamVS]

The first two are about as good as each other, to me. I might even like Into Darkness a little more. Maybe it's because I'm not a Trek fan haven't seen Wrath of Khan, didn't know what a tribble was etc. I can't really compare the films to the show, but even if I could I like to think I could judge it for what it is now, having changed into a more light hearted adventure series comparable to Star Wars, rather than for what the TV series was.

In the scene with Kirk in the core even though I didn't believe that Kirk would die permanently (Star Trek 3 had probably already been announced at this point) I did find the emotions convincing and thought it was a pretty strong scene. Khan was a threatening villain and I could sympathise with his goals, and when for about three seconds you think his crew has been killed I found that too quite shocking and impactful (maybe it was in my impressionable youth before I became a jaded 50-cinema-trips-a-year cynic).

So it seems to me Into Darknes has an undeserved bad reputation. Surely it's less of a Copy-Paste of Star Trek 2 than Star Wars VII is of IV. In fact, I'd even say that Star Trek and Into Darkness are better blockbusters than The Force Awakens.

But, yeah, Beyond was a bit crap. A few other things that annoyed me: why is it that with two flicks of a random touchscreen terminal in a corridor, Uhura, a communications officer, is able to split the entire Enterprise in two?! I feel there are some safety issues there. Why does the conflict once again come down the Kirk chasing a bad guy around some platforming videogame level?

I feel I should be snotty about the kill-the-aliens-with-rock-music scene, but actually it was the best scene in the movie. Whoops, I guess I'm not as jaded as I thought.

Anyway, the reason I came here was to say that Suicide Squad sets a new low for movies this year. I have a thousand word rant in me about the absolutely puerile "storytelling", but I'm just about ranted out talking about Star Trek, so maybe I'll come back another day.

[Admin]

Yeah I actually like Into Darkness for what it is... it just wasn't comparable. Watch tWoK and see what you think.

I agree about the music blasting the alien ships. I actually thought that was fun. The lines and expressions including "Is this classical music" were brilliant. Maybe I could get annoyed about the Franklin 'surfing' through the ships... but after the earlier OTT scenes this one seemed ok.

Yeah I've heard bad things about Suicide Squad. Maybe I'll leave that one for DVD.

[DaveB]

Yeah I actually like Into Darkness for what it is... it just wasn't comparable. Watch tWoK and see what you think.

I agree about the music blasting the alien ships. I actually thought that was fun. The lines and expressions including "Is this classical music" were brilliant. Maybe I could get annoyed about the Franklin 'surfing' through the ships... but after the earlier OTT scenes this one seemed ok.

Yeah I've heard bad things about Suicide Squad. Maybe I'll leave that one for DVD.

I think a bit part of my issue with Into Darkness was the arrogance of it all - that you can suddenly beam interstellar distances would presumably put a bit of a crimp in the starfleet budget for their shiny shiny ships

"He's not Khan, he's Harrison!" "He's not Khan, he's Harrison!" "He's not Khan, he's Harrison!" "Ok yeah you got us, he's Khan"

"Khaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Massive foreshadowing of everything wound me right up, and Kirk's death had the same issue as the death of the Enterprise in Beyond for me - in the original film and TV series they had "earned" the gravity of those events - We'd seen the depth of Kirk and Spock's friendship and respect over three years worth of TV show and could well understand the impact. Two movies worth of an apparently very antagonistic relationship doesn't count

As for the ships in Beyond, I was at a bit of a loss to explain why they needed loud music - as far as I could tell they just needed to broadcast a strong signal at a specific frequency to block the signal that the ships were using to co-ordinate the swarm patterns for the vessels (don't even get me started on *why* supposedly modern ships were using radio as a carrier signal in a universe with near instantaneous long-range communications capabilities...).

Ok so now thinking about it I'm getting annoyed again

[Jamie]

This looks a bit rubbish!... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdj1zb9sMY

[SamVS]

We've got some great films this year, at last!

Hard to fault Kubo, being as pretty as it is, and the plot had some great moments, though was somewhat simplistic and pretty much all of the incidental dialogue was a bit rubbish and made the film drag in parts. Best bits:

Spoiler:

Pete's Dragon was another straightforward plot and a fraction as colorful as the above, but really stuck to it's theme of family from start to finish to effect some strong twists on your heart. The strong acting also stood out. Never saw the original, animated Pete's Dragon, so can't compare, but it seems that this remake deserves all the praise that The Jungle Book 2016, for some reason, got. Best bits:

Spoiler:

Finding Dory was every bit as good as everyone expected it to be. Always amazing how Pixar makes these films equally funny and emotional but never conventional, and make non-human characters more human than actors in most filmed movies. Best writers in the biz. The short term memory loss of Dory is used exactly the right amount for laughs, for drama, and for sentiment. Best bit:

Spoiler:

Nerve isn't as coherent a story as I would have liked, in the last third especially: the plot pushes forward in a direction that probably seemed exciting to the producers but is overblown considering where the movie and the characters started out. But it's a stylish film with a lot of great details that reference and poke fun at the culture of internet communities. Not great social science-fiction, but a decent thriller. Best bits:

Spoiler:

The Purge: Election Year is a not-shit Suicide Squad. Both films have a mission to save someone set during a crazy night on the town with few consequences, and some of the characters in stylish costumes seems to be enjoying the violence a little too much. I really thought this had to be shit. The very idea of the purge is nonsense, and the tendency is for franchises to get worse. I thought surely this would be a cash-in threequal with little to redeem it. It really surprised me: it's coherent, it has likable characters, good flow and pacing, funny and exciting moments, and it looks good too. It's not subtle or clever but it's rather effective. Best bit:

Spoiler:

In Cafe Society, Lex Luthor and Bella Swan have a complicated romance in Hollywood during it's golden years. I feel like Woody Allen is a (genius) comedy director from another time when films as a whole were warmer but more true to life, and this is a film in that style, which makes it feel fresh. Unapologetically witty, cautiously bittersweet, all around a good time. Best bits:

Spoiler:

Don't Breath is

Best bits:

Spoiler:

[systemsam]

My other half liked Cafe Society more than me. Perhaps I should be worried (I'm not). If you like this, then watch Manhattan and other better ones from the back catalogue... His current film contract is ridiculous.

[Jon M]

Zootropolis is awesome. You should watch it.

[SamVS]

Anyone else seen Strange, PhD yet? Thoughts? I say it

Spoiler:

[systemsam]

Anyone been to see 'I, Daniel Blake' yet?

[SamVS]

Not yet. It's on my list. Maybe this weekend. It's not particularly long so I might double-bill it with something with more explosions. Have you seen it?

[Admin]

I saw Finding Dory this week. It was rubbish.

[SamVS]

I saw Finding Dory this week. It was rubbish.

What?!

[Admin]

I saw Finding Dory this week. It was rubbish.

What?!

You liked it?

[SamVS]

Yeah, I liked it quite a bit. I mentioned it above. I didn't see Nemo, but thought Dory was as good as Inside Out.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople also really good. That

Spoiler:

scene

[SamVS]

Gosh darn it, I was three movies short of my goal of 52 watched this year. Oh, well, time to start again! Looks like a decent year for films, anyway.

[Kes]

Specfically at cineworld or in total?
I wasn't close to 52 just using my cineworld card but in total might not have been far off

[Admin]

Gosh darn it, I was three movies short of my goal of 52 watched this year. Oh, well, time to start again! Looks like a decent year for films, anyway.

Best film?

[Arun Cheesus]

I got to around 40 on my cineowrld card, maybe a couple more.
Favourite film of the year was probably Eye in the Sky.

[SamVS]

Specfically at cineworld or in total?
I wasn't close to 52 just using my cineworld card but in total might not have been far off

Just at the cinema. I haven't much watched films at home in a while. Watched the start of a few TV series but think I only finished Game of Thrones S6 and Daredevil S2, plus Madoka Magica and Iron Blooded Orphans on the anime side. I did watch the first episode of Black Mirror the other day, and other than traumatising me I thought it was god damn amazing.

Best film?

Your Name and Don't Breathe still both really stand out for me.

I got to around 40 on my cineowrld card, maybe a couple more.
Favourite film of the year was probably Eye in the Sky.

Agh, missed that one. And Hell or High Water, and Green Room. All of which I suspect would have been amongst my favourites.

[systemsam]

Just watched 'war dogs'. Liked it quite a lot. Comedy that is very far from stupid.

It was particuarly amusing after watching the penultimate episode of "The Night Manager"

[SamVS]

Just watched Moonlight. La La Land should've won.

[Arun Cheesus]

Just watched Moonlight. La La Land should've won.

You reckon la la land was better than Manchester by the sea?
I found Moonlight to be very arty farty and slow but enjoyed the character development in it.

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