That’s ■■■■■■ me off from the start as well. Brie Larson has handled it well I think.
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I hadn’t seen either of the Blade Runners up until today. Watched the original seeing as how it’s on Netflix. One of the best movies I’ve seen, visually and thematically. Can’t believe it took me this long to watch it.
It’s a slow burn no doubt, but the story, visuals and score were impressive enough that you don’t really mind.
2001 is often credited as being the most influential sci fi movie, and that is probably correct, but you can see Blade Runner in so many of the popular sci fi movies (and video games, Deus Ex, Mass Effect and Shadowrun come to mind immediately) after it that I’d probably rate Blade Runner more influential than 2001.
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Just finished watching Easy Rider for the first time.
Holy ■■■■ that ending!
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I liked Captain Marvel. By and large it was a good ride with some entertaining 90’s nostalgia. Just felt it was a bit hamfisted with the girl power stuff, which I think weakened the character. It was good to see a female lead, but there were a few too many cliches that the film didn’t need. Overall, Brie Larson was strong and the film wasn’t overly crippled by being a prequel. Did enjoy the backstory of Fury’s eye patch.
The backstory to fury’s eyepatch was absolutely awful imo. Such a wasted opportunity
I don’t think it’s necessarily a gender thing. I don’t remember too many people ripping into Wonder Woman. That was a very good movie
I don’t think Brie Larson has helped herself either with some of her comments in the media
I don’t know the media comments, so can’t say it impacted me. I think because WW and CM were both the first female led movies for DC and Marvel they felt the need to make a statement. I get that, but when it’s not done well it takes you out of the moment. I think WW walked that line better than CM. CM was a clunky story in comparison to WW.
End of the day, I’m not the intended audience for those scenes. What doesn’t have much impact on a mid 30’s male hopefully has positive reception from the female audience. If it falls flat with the girls, then it’s properly missed it’s target.
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Something I’ve been thinking about - we’ve had a LOT of superhero introduction movies over the last decade or so. Since the beginning of the MCU proper, by my count there’s been Ant-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy (ignoring the weird pre-Ruffalo Hulk flicks). And then there’s the DC-universe solo films like Batman Begins and Man of Steel, and the quasi-introduction films where the main character has already appeared in an ensemble film - Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Black Panther, Spiderman: Homecoming, etc.
In Marvel-universe at least, the character intro films often seem to be, if not actively bad, then at least fairly meh. GotG has its defenders (I’m not one of them), but most people wouldnt have any of the pure introduction films in the top handful of MCU films - Civil War, Ragnarok, Infinity War, Winter Soldier etc are widely seen as superior. It’s easier to get an audience involved with a character the more time you spend with them. And that’s made doubly hard with Captain Marvel given that the main character is a brainwashed amnesiac for the first half of the film
I reckon it’d be HARD to do an intro film, particularly for a universe as continuity-heavy as the MCU is becoming. Still, I’m not sure how the latest batch is going to stand up, if and when some of the existing main Avengers characters Cap and Stark in particular, roll off. One thing the Marvel phase 1 movies (Thor, Iron Man, Captain America) did really well was establish broad-brush portraits of the main characters. Stark is brash and loudmouthed and self-confident out the wazoo, Cap is oldfashioned and chivalrous and hold deep, serious convictions, Thor is caught in the duality between warrior and prince and Speaketh Like This, Hail Well Met Fellow!
They’ve maybe achieved similar with the new Spiderman - he’s got a personality fairly well established. Pity it’s so centred around Stark. But Black Panther, or Captain Marvel? There’s really not as much depth been painted there, other than ‘generic hero’. What are their character quirks? I think there’s going to be another Black Panther and another Strange movie, so maybe those two’ll have the opportunity to be fleshed out a bit better. But I can’t see the next batch of Avengers feeling as compelling right now. Falcon and Winter Soldier are Cap’s sidekicks, they’ll go away when he does. War Machine is the same for Stark, and Valkyrie for Thor. Wanda and Vision have had zero characterisation other than their relationship with each other. There’s a Widow film greenlighted but it’s another prequel, I have no idea whether she or Hawkeye or Hulk are going to stick around any longer than that.
At this point I find it hard to be very interested in the prospect of an Avengers 5 movie featuring Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Spiderman, Antman and Dr Strange, to be honest.
But what do people think have been the best superhero origin flicks so far? I think in the MCU at least, I’d argue that most of them haven’t been great, and it’s the ensemble films that have really made the characters and the franchise.
(And similarly, I’d argue that the success of Nolan’s Batman is responsible for a lot of the struggles of the DC ensemble films, because it painted such a vivid Batman, and then the following Superman/Justice League/etc films tried hard to fit into a gloomy hyperserious urban aesthetic which really didn’t suit the characters very well. Marvel have ‘crossed the streams’ with much more success so far)
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Random thought - If Essendon put the amount of effort into their JLT series that you’ve just put into that post, then there wouldn’t be 5 panic threads running concurrently.
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I think the way the film was structured meant the character was deliberately emotionally empty for a significant part. The short scenes where she was able to interact with people showed some personality, which gives hope that a sequel could have some entertaining character substance.
Marvel tries to fit 5 things into one film, which inevitably means some stuff gets short changed.
Biggest problem is she has zero charisma so she can’t pull off cocky arrogant character like RDJ can
I think she has charisma, but the story didn’t give her any scenes to show much personality. The narrative crippled the character and made it harder to relate to her.
I haven’t seen Marvel so I cant comment on that, but it does seem strange casting to have Brie the main star.
She has predominantly done indy films and the only blockbuster previous to this is the kong film and I thought she was pretty boring in that.
She was exceptional in Room and deserving of an Oscar and even better in Short Term 12 which I think is her best film but to anchor a blockbuster film you have to have a different screen presence.
Thor worked much better when they relaxed and had fun. I’m hoping future CM iterations go down a similar path.
Went and saw King of Thieves, about the old codgers who pulled off the big Hatton Gardens vaults robbery in 2015.
Drag out Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone, Tom Courtenay and Michael Gambon for an addition to their pension cheques.
Robbery was OK, then the bickering and double crossing started.
Probably the most interesting thing was showing pictures of them all from their early films.
I certainly remember Caine and Courtenay from the sixties. They were big stars back then. Not sure about the others.
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l have probably watched 6 - 8 times since it first came out. The first two times l saw it in a cinema. l keep going back to it every so often, IMHO it is the greatest road movie ever made.
By the way the drug dealer in the opening scene is played by Phil Spector. They chose the songs for the soundtrack from their own record collections. The Band’s label, Capitol, wouldn’t let them use the original recording of ‘The Weight’ on the movie ST album, that is why it is only used in the film. l rate it 10/10.
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I enjoyed Captain Marvel, fun and funny at times though undeniably clunky also.
I was immensely tired from surfing the long weekend which I think helped just let it wash over me.
It was slow, which doesn’t bother me, but it did seem to waste time like they were trying to extend the running time which does a little. It felt like there was 60 seconds they could have instantly cut out of the last 90 seconds alone without missing a thing, and you could probably keep working back through the movie. The post-credits scene felt flat.
I do need Ben Mendelsohn to not be in a movie I see at some point. He’s everywhere.
As for Marvel origin movies I liked Dr Strange… though I imagine a large part of that is because I forced myself to watch something I thought would be rubbish. Though that also mirrors my discovery of the MCU anyway. Never really read superhero comics as a kid.
Was it because Santa didn’t put one in your stocking?
Santa never put anything in a stocking.
No, just never thought I would like them. I guess I was very wrong.
Just finished watching the JC Chandon heist film Final Frontier starring Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac.
Without giving too much away it is an enjoyable film but had some pretty bad dialogue and some significant plot holes.
The acting is very good and an interesting sound track but it felt like an opportunity missed by a director I really rate.
6.5/10
Triple Frontier
I watched it last night and thought it one of the better Netflix movies I’ve seen.