Movie Critics Thread

[shockNwave]

Just saw Dunkirk. A very cleverly done movie (understand why it ticks all the boxes for critics). More of an audio visual experience. Worth checking out at the cinemas if you're a fan of scores and sound effects (assuming your local is equipped with a good sound system)

Love how Hans Zimmer integrates the varied sound of a ticking clock/s into this movie. It's not the first time he's done it, he also did it for The Joker's theme in The Dark Knight.

[sideswipes brother]

Saw Homecoming. I really liked it and it is almost the best Spidey movie. SM2 owns that at the moment. Tom Holland is a great SM!
Only negative...... Spider sense!! SM's greatest weapon and ability is his spider sense. Not once in this movie was it used!!
Still great though. Bring on Ragnarok!!

[GoktimusPrime]

So I finally got around to watching Ghost In The Shell (rented it on DVD).

SPOILER REVIEW

A stunning action movie with visuals and audio matching the source material very faithfully. But story-wise it's weak. Just no where near as good as the manga, and some of the major changes that they've made to the story really feels like they've missed the entire point of what Ghost In The Shell is supposed to be about.

The 2 biggest changes they made was:
1/ The puppeteer being an actual human mind (a predecessor to Kusanagi) and not a virtual entity who's become self aware. This really strips away the main point of the character (i.e.: cogito ergo sum).
2/ The puppeteer's mind doesn't merge with Kusanagi's to become a new gestalt entity at the end. Rather, he just dies and Kusanagi moves on with her original persona reasserted.

These two changes feel like they've simplified the story a lot and it no longer asks the same philosophical questions that the original story does. When you read the manga, the ending blows your mind. Kusanagi is no longer who she once was, nor is the puppeteer. Their minds have merged and the story ends with them/her/it facing the future as a new gestalt entity. The movie feels like it just has a dumbed down ending. And Aramaki killing the Hanka CEO for "justice"? That makes no sense and feels like it goes against the character of Aramaki as a professional police officer. Overall it feels like, "Ghost in the Shell" for Dummies.

As for the whitewashing issue - it should never have happened. The story goes to explain why she and the puppeteer are Caucasian, but it just _distracts_ from the story (really, it adds nothing to the plot). They still could've told the exact same story without the distraction if they either just cast Asian actors in these roles, or just made them originally White people so that we don't need this pointless sub-plot to explain it. If their brains were harvested from Japanese people, then why is their Japanese pronunciation so bad? And why would they speak to each other in English? Unless their memories were that badly suppressed... See? This is all just a needless distraction.

In any case, I'm glad I didn't waste my time/money watching this in the cinema. It's not a BAD movie. It feels like a really faithful adaptation that seems to have been compromised in order to conform to Hollywood standards. Have a white lead, have a simple and happy ending etc. The watered down the good science fiction elements of the story and I'm not sure why. It wasn't to enhance the action - the action is just as good as the manga. And it doesn't seem to have been done to save screen time, again, the "let's explain the whitewashing" sub-plot was a far greater waste of time. It just feels like it was toned down to make the story easier to comprehend, but good science fiction should be stories that make you think (e.g. Donnie Darko et al.). They are mirrors to our humanity, and the simplification of the main story of Ghost in the Shell really takes away from that.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Watched Ghost in the Shell last night as well and agree with all of the above. Although the movie is visually stunning, to be blunt practically all of it isn't original and is a homage to the source material so for me it's neither here nor there.

Also agree on the story- completely misses the point of the source material; Definitely dumbs it down for Hollywood studios. But then this was part-written by Ehren F-ing Kruger (aka Transformers 2,3,4) so hardly any surprise there.

I'd honestly moved on from the whitewashing controversy but yeah just goes to show how studios don't even have the balls to hire a Eurasian actress.

It wasn't good, it wasn't bad. But I'll stick to my anime copy thanks.

[Trent]

Finally got around to watching Mad Max Fury Road.

I was impressed

[Gutsman Heavy]

Alien Covenant is a disappointing movie. I'd rather it was 100% trash, that would bother me less. The movie has some good ideas trapped in a mire of poor pacing, stupid characters and terrible direction. Fassbender's dual roles are the only highlight outside of some decent story elements that should have had more focus. Time to retire Ridley.

[shockNwave]

Yesterday I went to see Valerian and it's quite predictable fare but visually very colorful like The Fifth Element (they're both by the same director). But I don't see this movie being made into a Swatch watch like The Fifth Element was.

[M-bot]

Caught Edgar Wright's Baby Driver this evening. It's awesome. If you disagree, you are just wrong and I can prove it with statistics and graphs and pie charts and Venn diagrams and stuff. Because it is awesome.

[Autocon]

Saw dunkirk. Great visual spectacle and has a tension that doesnt let up through the whole movie. Highly rated

[SuspectimusPrime]

Caught Edgar Wright's Baby Driver this evening. It's awesome. If you disagree, you are just wrong and I can prove it with statistics and graphs and pie charts and Venn diagrams and stuff. Because it is awesome.

That was a good movie Jamie Foxx was awesome. I thought Jon Hamm was Jeffrey Dean Morgan aka Negan.