Movie Critics Thread

[Sinnertwin]

Decided to watch the 2011 prequel of The Thing & the original.

[lancalot]

Decided to watch the 2011 prequel of The Thing & the original.

I remember the first one gave me nightmare as a kid for months!! so I never watch the new one!

[Gutsman Heavy]

I remember the first one gave me nightmare as a kid for months!! so I never watch the new one!

The new one game me nightmares, such a horrible film. The fact they removed the practical effects for CGI because of test audiences makes me feel ill.

[5FDP]

Watched Prisoners last weekend with the wife. IMO, movie of the year! It's very long (approx. 2.5 hours) but it keeps you hooked the entire time. Have at it

[millhouse]

Watched "The Conjuring" the other night.

Recommended. Pretty well executed ghost/haunted house/possession flick. Third act is a little too off the wall for my liking, but a fun frightfest for 90 mins or so.

[Wheelie]

Watched sharknado last week, can't say I would recommend it.

However I was amazed their talking about doing another one

[GoktimusPrime]

millhouse: yeah, I saw The Conjuring recently too. During the whole film I kept on hearing Eddie Murphy's voice from this joke from Delirious

Hobbit 2 spoilers ahead




So I saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug last night. Pretty much same as the first film -- adaptation of the book with lots of "padding" in between to stretch it out as a trilogy. There's no more singing and the story is more action paced, but overall the padding stuff (i.e. Necromancer arc and a 'new romance') is pretty much superfluous. Having said that, the padding stuff isn't bad per se (at least no worse than in the first film). One moment I quite enjoyed was when we see the Orcs at Dol Guldur and we hear an Orc (presumably Azog) chanting in Black Speech without subtitles... I was able to understand every word he said and I found myself actually reciting the words with him! It is of course the iconic words "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul", which is also exactly what is carved on the One Ring. Gandalf translates these words to Frodo in Fellowship of the Ring but tells him that it's too dangerous to be read out in the language of the Enemy. And we also hear the One Ring say these words to Frodo when he puts the Ring on, although in that spooky wispy (yet booming) voice - whereas in this film we hear it being spoken more clearly. For those who've read the book and may be curious as to where the movie ends, it's when Smaug decides to fly off to attack Laketown -- then cut to credits!

[Ace]

Hobbit 2 SPOILER (ish) PARTS AHEAD














I loved the orcs chasing the dwarves down the river scene, probably one of the best parts of the film for me.

I thought they did the dragon's animations quite well! Best looking dragon I've seen in a movie for a while.

[GoktimusPrime]

Something that bugged me before I saw the film was the decision to include Legolas (who was never originally in the story of the Hobbit) and Tauriel, a She-Elf invented by Jackson for the films... she's like the Drift/Poochie character of the Hobbit trilogy.

Legolas
I must admit, his initial appearance in the film was actually quite well done because it was done in a way that still remained true to the book without really affecting anything. Essentially he's one of the cadre of Wood Elves who intercept the Company after fighting the Spiders in Mirkwood and capture them. Fine, no foul there... but then his subsequent appearances have him going off on his own separate adventure story-arc with Tauriel, which becomes a distraction away from the actual story of the Hobbit (again, more "padding" to stretch the film out). At first Legolas' physical appearance seemed strange to me, but then Thranduil tells Thorin that a hundred years is merely a blink of an eye to an Elf, so I guess in that context it makes sense that he would seem the same as he appeared in LotR. Also, I quite liked the way he took Gloin's pendant and saw a picture of his wife and son, referring to his son as some horrid "creature" -- and of course, Gloin's son is Gimli who eventually becomes best friends with Legolas by the end of the LotR trilogy. That was neat. But the rest of his appearance in the film feels somewhat superfluous.

Tauriel
Again much like Legolas, she is introduced as part of the Elves who intercept and arrest the Company... but her subsequent appearances continue to deviate away from the core story of the Hobbit. They've decided to give her and Fili romantic feelings for each other... umm... okay. I cannot see any other reason for why they've done this other than to perhaps satiate typical Hollywood audiences who want to see a female lead and luuurrrv storree in the film. But to be fair, this isn't the first time that Jackson has done this. He did pretty much the same thing with Arwen in Lord of the Rings. Arwen is a very minor character in the LotR books, but in the film Jackson actually replaces Glorfindél with Arwen -- which isn't so bad in itself. Much like having Legolas and Tauriel in the group of Elves who capture the Company, it still allows the story to essentially progress like the book without any significant deviation (although it would suck if you were a Glorfindél fan ). But most of her subsequent appearances was a deviation away from the original story. Arwen's most book-accurate appearance was when she married Aragorn (she pretty much doesn't do much else!).

But then I suppose it's because Tolkien always originally intended for his books to be a boys' adventure, consequently there are very few female characters, and even fewer who are noteworthy. I guess Jackson is attempting to widen the appeal of his films, which means also including more females and giving them a more significant role in the films. So really... while Tauriel does feel kinda "Poochie," she's really no worse than Arwen. Some might argue "at least Arwen was based on an existing She-Elf in LotR," but okay... there are so few female Elves in Tolkien's tales, it's not exactly like Jackson had a massive choice to go with.

And to Tolkien's credit, he did have at least one heroine in his tale -- Éowyn, who of course killed the Witch King of Angmar in RotK. But I guess when you're adapting what was originally a boys' adventure into a series of films for a wider general audience, there is some merit in wanting to include more female characters.

"A sister! Who is it?"
"Who do you think it is? Who's the only goddamn woman in the galaxy?"
"Leia..."
- Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side

Also, IIRC the people of Laketown appear to be more ethnically diverse than the rest of the human settlements of Middle Earth, which appears to be entirely populated by white people.

"Lando's not system, he's a black guy. In fact, I think he might be the only black guy in the galaxy."
- Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side

[christalcase]

I saw Disney Frozen and it is a solid film. Probably my second favourite Disney film in the string of better Disney films starting from 2008's Bolt (my favourite is still Tangled) but it doesn't compare to the classic Disney films during the 1990's. The songs are the best in recent years but have some questionable lyrics (as in, they don't seem to 'flow' properly) and the pitch in the singer's voice was a bit too high.

The story itself was a good concept but it didn't really live up to it's potential. There is also a noticeable change in style from the first half (where there was a song every 10 mins) compared to the second half (where there were practically no songs). Some of the scenes involving the ice magic were dazzling. I didn't like the ending in how the antagonist showed their true colours, it didn't feel in character. I noticed that there was a lot more modern terms used in the dialogue which feels weird. All in all, still a fun movie that's worth watching .