What was the last movie you've seen?

[Pulsar_t]

I AM PISSED

I hated Nemesis when I first saw it. I actually re-watched this movie recently. After the crap J.J. Abrahms calls Star Trek, I found Nemesis kind of refreshing.

[Luke]

So "This." is still a thing?

C'mon internet, be inventive.

[BogusMeatFactory]

So "This." is still a thing?

C'mon internet, be inventive.

This.

[Luke]

So "This." is still a thing?

C'mon internet, be inventive.

This.

That.

please don't type "and the other"

[Cronozilla]

At least it wasn't a snooze fest like Insurrection.

While not all the steps taken with Nemesis were good ones, I think the movie got shoehorned into being a finale after they already started working on it.

I guess there were a lot of scenes that never made it, like Wesley coming back and being hitched to Ashley Judd's character.

It comes across to me as a stepping stone story to an actual finale.

As for the main plot of the movie, I thought it was alright, all things considered. B4 was pretty dumb, though.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I should also note that despite the fact that this film was apparently intended for 3D from the very beginning (even though 3D had to be added after the fact due to technical issues related to dust and everything moving all the time), it has done nothing to convince me that 3D is anything but a gimmick, and that the shortcomings of 3D film-making are ultimately a distraction from the film rather than contributing to it.

*begin rant*
Also, the whole "feminist" thing is over-fussed. Yeah, the movie turns a few tropes around, but it ain't exactly a feminist anthem or anything. It certainly sticks to a lot of gender tropes even as it subverts a few others. And in truth, those subversions only contribute to the film. This is a MUCH better film for the decisions made about it to embrace the women in it. If Charlize Theron's character was a guy, or some other characters later in the film guys, it would have weakened the story and made the experience less interesting and varied. Anyone who sees the "taint" of feminism in this film is apparently unable to see the strength of that decision for the story and needs to reconsider their self-image related to gender roles and identity. Only the paranoid with serious penis issues will be put-off. Unless, you know, films that are over 50% action and loaded with massive vehicles in them just aren't your bailiwick.
*/end rant*

I thought the 3D was actually pretty good in this movie. There weren't too many "oh man, this is soooo 3D!" moments in the movie, but I felt the depth the 3D added made the action more intense at moments, at least for me. Although I was missing some of the action due to the 3D, which is mostly due to how current 3D works.

On the feminist thing, I have heard nothing but praise for it, although it didn't come of particularly feminist to me. What is the biggest thing fought over in Mad Max? Resources. What are these women being treated like? Resources for The Citadel. I'll spoiler the rest just to be safe if I say some that might be a spoiler.

Now, the story is about these women no longer being things, but escaping to become their own people. Arguably though, it falls right back into the "damsel in distress trope". These are some of the most beautiful women around being saved by some men, and a handful of strong female characters. Being saved by a group of majority female characters somewhat subverts the trope, but the way the story is presented somewhat makes that a moot point. The women being saved are only important because they are not related to Joe, are attractive, and are ideal for growing the population in a world such as this. These women being saved are also the most sexualized in the film, although they aren't heavily sexualized. The women saving them are the exact opposite: older, rugged, non-sexualized, strong on their own (arguably by being more masculine, while the women being saved are strong in a feminine or as a group sense). I'm not trying to discount any arguments for the feminine areas in this film, because there may be something I haven't seen on my first watch through, or misunderstood, but first impressions make it seem as though it is less feminist than a story being told with feminist views or idealism attached to it from the outside.

[Pulsar_t]

The Admiral: Roaring Currents

A by-the-numbers naval epic from South Korea. Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) is a natural fit for the lead role.. If you can't stomach the overt emotional aspect in Asian cinema this may not be for you.

[Xeogred]

Have you seen War of the Arrows? Good stuff.

That looks awesome though and I'm a bigger fan of the bigger war scale stuff, like Red Cliff (Chinese). I'll have to check that one out.

[marurun]

but I also would've been fine if they were men and don't think that the movie was enhanced because they were women. Most of those roles could've been interchangeable and not bothered me.

I am having trouble imagining a dude

war rig driver stealing all the villain's husbands and driving off to the green land of the fathers.

[marurun]

OK, so finally saw The Desolation of Smaug. I was not a fan. Beware, there be spoilers ahead and I'm not interested in trying to extract them and tag them.

It's not so much that the story deviates so much from the Hobbit books (though that does fall flat in places, but then it works fine in others) so much as it has some of the action problems that the LoTR trilogy had cranked up to 11. Legolas "shield surfs" 3 time. He refuses to use his bow in the one damn fight in which it would have given him an easy win, despite repeatedly using his bow to plant arrows in the face of enemies within 2 feet of his face. And why does Legolas get so much damn screen time in the Hobbit, anyway?

And there were all these "ride" scenes. Riding down the river in barrels. Riding down this. Sliding down that. It looked like they were documenting a theme park. Riding on molten gold on a metal object and it not getting hot enough to cook the rider within a couple seconds?

On the plus side, the dialogue was OK (though the banter between Smaug and Bilbo was actually better in the old Rankin Bass animation) and the plot worked alright and the broader level, despite the deviations. But there was also lots of plot-stupid at the smaller scale. Building on some of the previous stuff, why is there not a single soul on the streets of Rivertown when a small army of orcs invade, leaping noisily over rooftops, but when a dragon awakes distantly at the mountain, suddenly people are pouring out of their houses into the street.

I guess the only way I can sum this up is that the combination of pacing issues, ridiculous and unnecessary action pieces, and a cavalcade of minor gaffs overwhelms the parts of the movie that work well because what works well is more subtle, and what doesn't is so in-your-face. Peter Jackson basically ruined what could have been a great movie by making 3 mediocre ones that bury themselves with distractions from a story that should otherwise work great.