Movie Critics Thread

[Paulbot]

Saw John Carter 3D this morning. I didn't expect much, not knowing the original story, and found myself pretty captivated by the story (which kept moving at a nice pace) and the effects. The Green Martians were some of the most believable CGI characters I've seen in a long time.

[Doubledealer]

Saw John Carter 3D this morning. I didn't expect much, not knowing the original story, and found myself pretty captivated by the story (which kept moving at a nice pace) and the effects. The Green Martians were some of the most believable CGI characters I've seen in a long time.

Sweet! I've been looking forward to seeing that one, glad to hear it's good. Is that fat little four legged creature his pet? I love that thing, haha.

I saw The Grey (2012) on Friday night and absolutely LOVED it. Best movie of 2012 so far for me. So many memorable set pieces, beautiful cinematography and many an introspective moment. Liam Neeson as the leading man is just amazing. Can't recommend this movie enough fellow bots. Definitely worth going to see on the big screen!

[gantz]

The Hunger Games

I thought it was an amazing movie. I had my gf with me who is obsessed with the books, and she loved the film just as much!

It was something new for me, compared to the usual movies I see

Stanley Tucci must have had an amazing time with his role and thought it was quite funny seeing Arnim Zola and Dr. Erskine as the Games' commentators

[5FDP]

^ One of the guys I work with just recommended it to me this morning. Might have to check it out.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Ghost Rider 2

Wow, so much worse than the first, but at least it has some amusing "nic cage" acting ala wicker-man.

No stars.

John Carter

Decent effort to make the next pirates ala Prince of Persia a few years back. Shame we won't see a sequel.

***

[KaRNiV8L PRiME]

Ghost Rider 2: SOV

Well let's start with the positives.........




Um.....it has ghost rider in it.

Look seriously, this movie is on par with Electra story wise. To say it sux is an understatement. I'm a big fan of the comic and a huge fan of Nick Cages interpretation of Ghost Rider, that said the story ruined it completely for me. It nearly had me wishing I had stayed home and watched Patrick swayzes Ghost. I fear that this is the end of GR on the big screen though.

1/5

[GoktimusPrime]

So I finally saw the 2010 Karate Kid movie expecting the worst.

Pros:
# It actually is a decent remake of the original Karate Kid film. Carries the same spirit and essentially follows the same basic story.
# Placing the protagonist in a foreign country made him feel even more alienated than just being in a new neighbourhood.
# Lots of fancy looking action scenes to entertain the kiddies and gorgeous photography.
# The new catching the fly with chopsticks scene was classic. # The new Karate Kid's sass and attitude sets him apart from the somewhat more naive Daniel Larusso.
# I also liked how at the end all the students from the "bad" Kung Fu school paid respect to Jackie Chan's character... I thought that was a nice touch.
# The scene where Jackie Chan's character defended the protagonist from an entire gang of bullies was awesome. I particularly liked how he didn't actually hit any of the kids, but merely avoided getting hit and let them hit each other! A good use of Jackie Chan's hallmark physical comedian skills.

Cons:
# The obvious misnomer. There is virtually NO karate in this movie. The kid gets beaten up by kids who are learning Kung Fu and he in turn learns Kung Fu to defend himself and his honour. I cannot believe that they would set a movie in China and have the characters use a Chinese martial art, but use the name of an Okinawan/Japanese martial art in the title. It's kinda like saying "Chinese, Japanese... wateva..." which just feels insulting.
# The so-called "Kung Fu" in this movie is typically very fake -- the modern cinematic Wushu that's come to popularise Hong Kong Kung Fu movies... full of fancy moves and acrobatic/gymnastic flips and even wire stunts. *sigh* The only scene where I saw authentic looking Kung Fu was when they went to that temple on the top of the mountain, and for a few seconds you see a group of people doing the Twenty-Four Step Yang Taiji form. That's it. Then there's the whole "mysticism" aspect that they put in... just to be mystical. I know it's meant to be a metaphor for focusing, but I felt it got a bit too "hippie." These things all also perpetuate certain Kung Fu stereotypes.
# The scenes where they're training on the Great Wall (yeah right)... clearly sponsored by the Chinese Tourism board. There's nothing they're doing there that they couldn't do at a local park.
# The kiss scene was a bit disturbing given how young the protagonist and his romantic interest are! The original Karate Kid featured teenagers who were old enough to drive on their own... who the frack wants to see tweens kissing?!? Eewww... either make the characters older, or don't have them kiss please (they could just hug... or even kiss on the cheek?)

Buh?!
# So the kid is living in China... goes to a Chinese school every day... and he seems to pick up maybe half a dozen words of Chinese?!? Usually young children pick up a new language very quickly when they're immersed in a new language/culture like this... he must either have a language learning problem or he's just damn inattentive and socially isolated. Oh wait...
# For some reason, a lot of kids at the school conveniently speak English really well! Even the bullies!! (what??) And of course, the maintenance man. *sigh* Interesting that the protagonists seems to attract so many English speakers (a lot of whom want to kick his @$$). The original Karate Kid was set in America and Mr. Miyagi was a first generation Japanese-American... so there was never a need to explain why they were speaking English. Here... less believable.
# School uniform day?!? I've never seen a non-uniform school in China... and even if it were a non-uniform school... what's the point of having a Uniform Day?? It's not like mufti days where kids get the enjoy the privilege of not wearing uniform for a day... this is like, let's enjoy the rigidity of having to wear uniform for a day but not on other days. Ppfftt... it's hard enough getting kids to wear full correct uniform normally every day - ask them to wear uniform just once a cycle?? Good luck.

Overall:
Storywise a good remake of the original Karate Kid. I would have preferred it if they tried to use more realistic martial arts moves instead of cinematic wire acrobatics (look at those boys defy gravity as they jump over high walls!). They really should have either had the protagonist learn Karate (thus justifying the movie title), or just drop the word "Karate" from the movie title altogether and call it something else. It's almost like they wanted to make a Karate Kid remake, but somebody forgot to tell them that Kung Fu's not Karate.

I'm glad I didn't bother seeing it in the cinema... didn't mind watching it as a cheap weekly rental. But I still prefer Mr. Miyagi and Daniel-san over this version.

[i_amtrunks]

The Hunger Games

I thought it was an amazing movie. I had my gf with me who is obsessed with the books, and she loved the film just as much!

It was something new for me, compared to the usual movies I see

Stanley Tucci must have had an amazing time with his role and thought it was quite funny seeing Arnim Zola and Dr. Erskine as the Games' commentators

Saw it last night, and really enjoyed it. I have only just finished the first book, so I was a little thrown by the movie. It does follow the book fairly faithfully but misses alot of character build up and subplots that are naturally missing as they can't have the whole movie led by the main characters thoughts. They also couldnt make all the internal thoughts of hers into speech as the whole games are a political minefield (which is also more or less glossed over).

So a very good movie, from teenagers upwards, but the books are far more detailed. Some of the shaky handheld cam stuff looks terrible, but it emulates the main protagonists point of view well.

I'd love to see some extended directors cut, not for more gore/violence, but to see if the underlying political and social implications and personal dangers could be explored better.

Missus also loved it and she is now reading the book to see what she missed out on.

[1AZRAEL1]

Bad Boys For Life. Really good. Worth seeing on the big screen.

[Meister]

Finally got round to watching Joker. As a character film, it is a masterpiece. Acting, directing, score, all award worthy.