Movie Critics Thread

[SkyWarp91]

Well the spoiler tags stop working pretty quickly, veiled discussions then get elaborated on, and if its going to take x number of pages then why not have a discussion amongst those who have seen the movie?

It worked for The Avengers

Good point, but you gotta admit Avengers in itself is a whole topic worthy of starting another thread for because of the amount of characters of different franchises it has in it. Sure Prometheus could have its own thread as it is a big franchise itself but seeing as the talk about it has died down there is no point for it now, and I doubt there'd be a discussion that warrants much discussion on your average box-office flick like say.. ..er... Immortals? One for the money?

[Doubledealer]

Drive (2011)

Saw this movie last night and WOW, it totally blew me away. It has such a wonderful slow motion dream-like quality to it, such amazing cinematography and the soundtrack!! So, so awesome. Just wish I'd seen this on the big screen, total masterpiece imo.

Have this on repeat at the moment.

[SkyWarp91]

Drive (2011)

Saw this movie last night and WOW, it totally blew me away. It has such a wonderful slow motion dream-like quality to it, such amazing cinematography and the soundtrack!! So, so awesome. Just wish I'd seen this on the big screen, total masterpiece imo.

Have this on repeat at the moment.

I loved Drive, Ryan Gosling and Christina Hendricks are awesome! Also love the soundtrack too.

[1AZRAEL1]

Saw Ted last night.

Absolutely hilarious, and even sad in some parts. But overall a great film. A great cast of cameos as well.

[kup]

Prometheus - Did not like it.

No Spoilers in what I have to say so feel free to read.

The movie was very well directed, had reasonably good actors and visually it was impressive but the plot was all over the place, lacked substance plus the character types seemed very 'out of place'.

Since the moment they landed on the planet, almost every scene added to a library of unanswerable questions. I did not understand why they had such 'diverse and colorful' characters in what is basically a scientific mission with a very crucial hidden agenda. I also did not understand how those two scientists got lost despite having two-way communication to base who have a detailed mapped of the terrain. That was a little too convenient and as a result, it predictably and badly sets up the introductory horror scene.

Overall, I did not understand why people who you assume to be at the top of their field and highly qualified given the importance of the mission(s) were so freaking stupid and childish - That alone took me out of the film.

I can go on and on about all the things that didn't make sense in this movie but the most frustrating unanswered question of all was the ending. There was no sense to it whatsoever from a logical point of view.

However, what I mentioned above are not the biggest detractors of this movie -The biggest issue is that it lacked identity. This movie did not know if it wanted to be a completely fresh Sci-Fi Thriller/adventure or an Alien prequel and as a result, it doesn't fit either very well. A lot of the Alien references seemed tacked on as they did not make much sense plot wise, specially when the overall story was so different to what you would expect from an Alien movie. I actually think that this lack of identity probably stems from the political conflict of the film maker wanting a whole new story and the studio demanding it to be an Alien prequel - Trying to amalgamate these two irreconcilable differences within the one film is probably what generated all the plot and character issues - Some of the stupid things the characters do in this movie are beyond ridiculous and killed believability.

On the up side, the movie is not boring and is visually impressive. The character of Dave was very well executed and performed masterfully (plot issues aside) and was the film's highlight. That is really all the good points about this movie as otherwise, it is very forgettable and disappointing if you are a fan of the Alien movies.

This movie could have been awesome but Hollywood politics made sure that it ended up being another forgettable franchise 'Cash-in'. This feels like Terminator: Salvation all over again, a fantastic premise horribly executed.

[The_Damned]

Prometheus - Did not like it.

No Spoilers in what I have to say so feel free to read.

The movie was very well directed, had reasonably good actors and visually it was impressive but the plot was all over the place, lacked substance plus the character types seemed very 'out of place'.

Since the moment they landed on the planet, almost every scene added to a library of unanswerable questions. I did not understand why they had such 'diverse and colorful' characters in what is basically a scientific mission with a very crucial hidden agenda. I also did not understand how those two scientists got lost despite having two-way communication to base who have a detailed mapped of the terrain. That was a little too convenient and as a result, it predictably and badly sets up the introductory horror scene.

Overall, I did not understand why people who you assume to be at the top of their field and highly qualified given the importance of the mission(s) were so freaking stupid and childish - That alone took me out of the film.

I can go on and on about all the things that didn't make sense in this movie but the most frustrating unanswered question of all was the ending. There was no sense to it whatsoever from a logical point of view.

However, what I mentioned above are not the biggest detractors of this movie -The biggest issue is that it lacked identity. This movie did not know if it wanted to be a completely fresh Sci-Fi Thriller/adventure or an Alien prequel and as a result, it doesn't fit either very well. A lot of the Alien references seemed tacked on as they did not make much sense plot wise, specially when the overall story was so different to what you would expect from an Alien movie. I actually think that this lack of identity probably stems from the political conflict of the film maker wanting a whole new story and the studio demanding it to be an Alien prequel - Trying to amalgamate these two irreconcilable differences within the one film is probably what generated all the plot and character issues - Some of the stupid things the characters do in this movie are beyond ridiculous and killed believability.

On the up side, the movie is not boring and is visually impressive. The character of Dave was very well executed and performed masterfully (plot issues aside) and was the film's highlight. That is really all the good points about this movie as otherwise, it is very forgettable and disappointing if you are a fan of the Alien movies.

This movie could have been awesome but Hollywood politics made sure that it ended up being another forgettable franchise 'Cash-in'. This feels like Terminator: Salvation all over again, a fantastic premise horribly executed.

well i am a fan of the alien's movie's and i enjoyed it and thought the movie was awesome well worth watching at the movies

[Gutsman Heavy]

Prometheus.

Or as Ilike to call it, Ambivalence the movie! I've never been so torn after seeing a movie, I loved it as much as I hated it!
I loved how well it fleshed out the alien universe, loved seeing the Jockey's in action (even if they shrunk a few feet in height since alien), loved David and that scene of David faffing about the ship while everyone was in cryo? Marvellous! However...
I hated the entire human side of the story. Inconsistent characterisation with the biologist was infuriating! Biologist finds corpse of alien species, probably the creator of humanity "Oh noes I is scared! Me no want to see life changing discovery! RUN AWAY!" then later... "Oh some pissed of alien snake/worm? ME WANTS TO HUG YOU!" Urgh. WTF... And it's just not that, it's the tone of the film, this was meant to be a return to horror/thriller? Shame it lacked to specific antagonist so the movie flounders around and has zero tension.

The Squid baby was a good idea that was dealt with too quickly, that should have been a larger focus of the film, don't rush through it, slow down the gestation process, give a glimpse of it, BUILD SOME TENSION! But no, "You are preggers with monster! we want!" "No!" *Runs for emergency caesarian* Seems like a missed opportunity.
And finally, I would have prefered not seeing the deacon, the film had already done a perfect job explaining the Alien origin, it didn't need to be beaten over our heads. But I guess it was for the casual idiot who needed to see some sort of alien to be satisfied. Also, the design of the deacon looked like a bad fan design. But I'll concede that it's impossible to have a design that didn't look like a half-assed knock-off.

In short.
Awesome universe building. Anything to do with the Jockeys and design was spectacular. Magneto was an awesome robot!
Bland and uninteresting human element/story, inconsistent and annoying characters, Terrible old man makeup, and unsubtle Alien origin.

Oh and the best part? It completely voids the AvP films! For that alone Ridley deserves an award.

[Slag]

Prometheus.

I would have prefered not seeing the deacon, the film had already done a perfect job explaining the Alien origin, it didn't need to be beaten over our heads. But I guess it was for the casual idiot who needed to see some sort of alien to be satisfied. Also, the design of the deacon looked like a bad fan design. But I'll concede that it's impossible to have a design that didn't look like a half-assed knock-off.

certainly is a case where less could have been more.

[Paulbot]

I liked The Amazing Spider-Man but I didn't love it.

Mild spoilers ahead, bigger ones hidden.

It felt like I was watching a movie based on Ultimate Spider-Man, while the other trilogy was based on Spider-Man. And I love Ultimate Spider-Man. (As an example in particular the Lizard's style and appearance, and his assault on the school, was very reminiscent of the Goblin's attack on the school in the first Ultimate SM arc.)

Some things I really liked:
*I thought there was a better sense of scale everytime Spidey was swinging in the city than I ever got in the previous trilogy.
*Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy was great
*The way that Peter developed his skill with his powers selfishly, by trying to hunt down one crook, taunting Flash etc, rather than suddenly becoming a crimefighter after one night. It seemed a more believable arc and different to all the other tellings of Spidey's origin.
*The cameo scene. You know the one.

Some things I didn't like
*I like Gwen Stacy, so I have a horrible thought that the third movie could be very sad (if the filmmakers are very game and take that risk).
*No Daily Bugle scenes. Even though they had that scene with Peter trying to take photographs of the Lizard, it doesn't quite feel like a Spider-Man story without the Bugle.
*The workers of New York lining up the cranes. I didn't think Spider-Man had done enough to earn the city's respect that all those people would want to help him. Sure the Dad would want to help him, but all the others? Similarly the Lizard didn't seem to have done enough to be the threat the city needed to rally around Spider-Man. Panic from a bio-terrorism scare, sure, but enough to suddenly be cheering for the vigilante? It seemed a bit rushed.

Oh and the 3D? Not really worth it.

[Cyberwing]

Some things I didn't like
*I like Gwen Stacy, so I have a horrible thought that the third movie could be very sad (if the filmmakers are very game and take that risk).
*No Daily Bugle scenes. Even though they had that scene with Peter trying to take photographs of the Lizard, it doesn't quite feel like a Spider-Man story without the Bugle.

Oh and the 3D? Not really worth it.

Definitely agree with the 3D, at times I was even trying to convince myself that there was any and I just missed it.
Not showing much about the Bugle was alright to me because the movie never really showed that Peter's aunt with any money troubles; which will probably happen in a sequel.

My main gripe was only how the movie didn't really make me care about Gwen's Dad, which made his fate lose tension.