Movie Critics Thread

[1AZRAEL1]

Just watched Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders. Great stuff. I really hope that Hoyts plays more and more special screenings like this. I saw Killing Joke at the cinema, now this. It's fantastic.

Also saw new trailer for Lego Batman and holy hole in a donut it looks like it will be great

[1AZRAEL1]

Just watched Ghost in the Shell. Loved it

[shockNwave]

Watched The Lego Batman Movie. Feelgood movie of the year so far. Rosario Dawson does a stand out job as Barbara Gordon regardless of the racism her Latino background copped in the lead up to this movie.

[SuspectimusPrime]

Not a movie, but we just finished watching The Night Of. Was impressed by John Turturro's role, and surprised at how good he is outside of Transformers

[laproblematique]

Not a movie, but we just finished watching The Night Of. Was impressed by John Turturro's role, and surprised at how good he is outside of Transformers

I never had a foot phobia until that series.

[GoktimusPrime]

Finally got around to watching Disney's Moana (in flight movie)

The really interesting thing about it is the amount of real-life references that it's based on (magic & sorcery aside). e.g.
* The belief in the deity Maui is common across Polynesian cultures - some go by different names and there are variations to the story, but essentially it's the same deity (like comparing Zeus with Jupiter or Odin with Santa Claus etc.). The film also makes direct references to many of these variations and portrayals, such as his ability to shape-shift, his magic fishing hook and essentially being a super-Prometheus by stealing things from the gods/nature and gifting it to humans. That fact that he's voiced by Dwayne "Cliffjumper" Johnson just makes Maui even cooler.
* My absolute favourite scene is the song OPETAIA FOA'I, as it basically recounts the great oceanic voyages made by the Polynesians which is arguably one of the greatest expeditions embarked by humans - ever.

Think about it -- they sailed across the vast Pacific Ocean looking for tiny islands, not continents, islands. And they didn't do it on great tall ships like the British did, they did it with Hokule'a, great sea-faring canoes! And the song also accurately touches upon some of the navigational techniques used by the ancient Polynesians, including astronavigation, wind direction, wave direction etc. And the song also states that these techniques were passed onto future generations orally, which is true since the Polynesians had no written language (which makes their feats even more amazing - we live in an age of high literacy yet we have people who actually believe that the Earth is flat and that vaccines cause autism ). And the song also accurately states that the Polynesians didn't just find and settle new islands never to be seen again, they did find their way back to previously settled islands and maintained contact. One thing that Captain James Cook found amazing when he made contact with various Polynesian islands was that, despite the immense distance of geographic isolation, they had notable similarities in language, culture, religion etc. Just look at the Haka - it's most famous for being a Maori war cry, but there are variants of it in other Pacific Island nations like Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii etc.

And the one really interesting thing that Moana presents is an explanation for the Long Gap. Nobody knows why, but for approximately 2000 years the Western Polynesians stopped voyaging. Moana provides an explanation for this long pause (and the film explicitly depicts the Polynesians as having been explorers as being long lost knowledge). Of course the explanation is all based around magic, sorcery, deities etc., so probably not true, but this is a children's fairy tale after all, and I still think that it's really cool that it fits into real history.

Other interesting points:
* The protagonist is a girl who is a strong and independent character. She saves the day and isn't a hapless victim waiting for a man to rescue her. Although Maui does save her at times, she also saves him - thus they have a mutual dependency which leads to mutual respect.
* Zero romance. Maui is a demigod who is clearly above mortals. He initially attempts to exploit Moana and even resents her, but eventually they become good friends.
* AFAIK all the Polynesian characters were played by actors and actresses with Pacific Island ancestry. e.g. Moana is played by Hawaiian newcomer Auli'i Cravalho, Maui by Dwayne Johnson (Samoan ancestry - has lived in NZ and Hawaii), Temuera Morrison [size"1"](Maori - played Jango Fett and every Clone in Star Wars)[/size] and many more. Although there were a few non-Polynesian cast members including the hilarious Alan Tudyk as Heihei the chicken and Christopher Jackson as the singing voice Temuera Morrison's character (presumably cos Morrison can't sing). Dwayne Johnson does sing though (and he doesn't sound half bad)!

Overall a great movie. I personally wasn't even that interested in watching it - missed it when it was in cinemas and only watched it to kill time while on a plane, but ended up lovin' it when I wasn't even looking to.

[1AZRAEL1]

Justice League. Awesome. End credits scene had me hyperventilating

[Gutsman Heavy]

I also really liked Justice League, tons of little character moments I loved. Stay till the very end of the credits.

[Autocon]

Justice league: actually pretty good. Story not as strong as wonder woman but better than all other dc movies. Baddie is not well rounded as a character; im here. destroy. No big surprises in additional heroes just what you see in trailers. Wonder how it wouldve been if snyder had finished it.

Enjoyable movie romp

[Meister]

Just watched Justice League, have to say I enjoyed it, nothing really groundbreaking, seem to stick to a stock formula and feels like there was a longer movie there before it hit the cutting room floor, I’m sure we’ll be up for a special edition on blue ray, but nevertheless it was entertaining and great seeing all the DC hero’s kicking butt together