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Thread: Movie Critics Thread

  1. #1331
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    The animation in Spiderverse was fantastic. I was bit unsure from the trailer but it worked so well. It felt like a comic book but also like its own unique thing.

  2. #1332
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    Saw Aquaman today. Thoroughly enjoyable film and glad to watch a film helmed by an Aussie director.

    Also a breath of fresh air seeing a DC movie that isn't all dark and brooding. It seems that DC might be finally moving away trying to make everything gritty like Batman and gotten over the crash and burn of the last bright and colourful movie that they made with Green Lantern. This movie succeeds because it's just populated by likable characters. Arthur Curry and Mera are likable protagonists. Willem DaFoe is brilliant in his supporting role as Vulko (I initially misheard it as Orko ) and is also a likable character, as are Curry's parents.

    The action is over the top and lavish -- this movie is unapologetically a cartoonish comic book movie, and I'm fine with that. I feel that trying to ground Aquaman too much in reality, trying to make it too gritty, might give us something like Dragonball Evolution. Aquaman and Dragonball both come from incredibly over the top fantastic origins. Grounding it too much into reality proved to be a liability for DB Evolution, and making heroes dark and brooding didn't do too many favours for Superman or the other members of the Justice League. Even Wonder Woman, who was fantastic in her stand alone movie, was disappointing in JL. Similarly Aquaman really stands out in his own movie in ways that he didn't do in JL. I mean, he was fine in Justice League, but he's great in Aquaman, just because he's allowed to be a kinda goofy and over-the-top character. We saw inklings of that in JL but it was kinda dragged down by the bipolar brooding tone of the film.

    Aquaman demonstrates what other good movies like many MCU movies and Bumblebee have done -- just make a movie good. Make it enjoyable with likable characters. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be likable. The action in Aquaman really looks like it's leapt out of a cartoon and became live action.

    The one thing that could've made this movie better is better development and use of the villains. There are two villains in this movie, but the more relatable villain was the minor villain and played second fiddle to the main villain who wasn't relatable to the audience. The main villain is your typical hell bent on conquest bad guy who needs to be stopped. The supporting villain is actually someone who the audience can empathise with. Much like Killmonger (Black Panther), Thanos (Avengers ∞War) or Ghost (Ant-Man & the Wasp) it's a villain who, while we don't agree with their actions, we can understand what motivates him. Having said that, even if this villain had been used as the main villain, he still wouldn't be as relatable because he was already a bad guy before the thing happened that motivated him to become Aquaman's nemesis. He's not really a victim of unfortunately circumstances that drives him to challenge the protagonist. In short, the dude was already a douchebag before the thing happened. Whereas Killmonger and Ghost were innocent children, and Thanos was someone who tried to do the right thing but his words fell on deaf ears and had to watch his world die. Killmonger, Ghost and Thanos aren't inherently evil, they are doing what they believe is the right thing to do - which is what makes them such interesting villains. Suddenly things aren't so black and white.

    We don't get that with Aquaman. Both villains are just plain evil dudes! Even if one of them has a good reason for hating Aquaman, he's still an evil dude! He reminds me of Wasp from Transformers Animated -- when Wasp blamed Bumblebee for his wrongful imprisonment and said that he was always a good 'bot, Bulkhead pointed out that he was wrong. While it's true that his incarceration was unjust, Wasp was never a good robot. He was always a jerk. Having more forgettable villains is still something that appears to be DC's shortcoming compared to Marvel. Hopefully Shazam will give us something different.

    Random thought: The Atlanteans, all of their tribes, speak English. Even ancient Atlanteans. I tried to think of it as Atlantean being translated as English for the audience, but there are moments in the film which breaks this and contradicts any such assumptions. I like how Arthur Curry is multilingual - we see him speaking at least 3 languages (English, Russian and Italian). I guess it's easy living overseas when you can swim faster than booking and taking a flight.

    I do like how the movie explains things like the reason behind their strength and incredible endurance. I confess that I've never read an Aquaman comic, so this explanation may have originated from the comics (probably did), but as a regular cinema goer it was cool having it explicitly explained to me.

    P.S. I really enjoyed Aquaman despite being someone who's never really been into the character. I've long considered him to be one of the most useless members of the Justice League alongside the Green Arrow.

    Quote Originally Posted by Autocon View Post
    No one had any issues with the animations of spiderverse?
    I don't really love or hate it. Initially it felt like watching a 3D movie without the 3D glasses on, but I got used it it and accepted it as part of the visual style.

    Of course... I don't suffer from epilepsy.

  3. #1333
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    I liked aquaman but I do t really think it was good. I like that it embraced the silliness and was crazy zany, but it felt like three movies squished into one big silly mess of a film. It had no idea if it wanted to be an action, adventure, origin, horror or monster movie so it just used them all and as a result felt bloated and overlong.

    I thought the cast as a whole were fantastic, the only let down was Nicole Kidman. She’s never been a good actress and all the Botox sure makes emoting hard.

    Overall still enjoyable but there were many, many nonsocal or stupid things in the movie that made it only average really.
    Looking For: Wreckers Saga TPB Collection (with Requiem)

  4. #1334
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    Aquaman definitely felt like an action movie to me, but I agree that it did have a lot going on and probably would've benefited from slimming things down. A plot drive felt kinda like a video game -- complete Quest A, then complete Quest B etc.

    Wonder Woman's still my favourite DCEU movie but Aquaman's coming in second. Not that there's much competition.

  5. #1335
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    Dragonball Super: Broly is outstanding. It’s definitely a dragon ball movie, the characters make poor choices, they forget about their own abilities and overall make things harder for themselves but it is all done with a knowing wink to the audience. The animation (bar some cgi shots) is gorgeous, the styles change slightly in each section, also mirroring the earlier pointy style of the late dragon ball and early dragon ball z sections before softening to the standard super style.

    There are plenty of jokes and laughs spread throughout but nothing like a marvel movie. The new characters are easily the best thing about this movie, and although there is the now bog standard dragon ex machina, it’s different and kind of sweet for a change, compared to how the dragon is normally utilised.

    The English voice acting is phenomenal, I’m a fan of both the dub and original cast and look forward to seeing this with the Japanese voice actors but I think the range and performances were exceptional.

    My only issue with the movie as a big, long time fan was the over-writing of the Bardock special, but it was still done well. They seem to have skimmed over the end of Bardocks story which was a shame as it would’ve been killer.

    It’s a slow starting movie that spends the first third setting. Everything up for a then near hour long fight that has some amazing cheorography, a first person perspective section and gorgeous animations and transformations. Frieza and the new cast shine and steal the show.

    It really does a great job of once again showcasing that Goku is no hero, but he is a necessary evil!

    It’s out in cinemas for a limited run, I won some tickets (yet to arrive) so I’ll be seeing it again, I’d happily see it multiple more times if time allowed!
    Looking For: Wreckers Saga TPB Collection (with Requiem)

  6. #1336
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    For me the most redeeming feature of Aquaman is that it's a SFX movie set heavily underwater and the closest comparison to this is Waterworld which is mainly set on the water's surface.

  7. #1337
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    Watching Suicide Squad again now, and I never noticed at the beginning where they are talking about Harley, words popped up on the screen quick "accomplice to the murder of Robin". Now we all know Joker kills Robin, and the Robin suit in BvS, but I never saw it confirmed in any way, or that Harley was involved. First time I've noticed those words.

  8. #1338
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    Recently went to see Green Book and can see why it's worthy of 5 Oscar nominations. It's the feel good movie of the year and the polar opposite to the brutal Green Room starring Patrick Stewart.

  9. #1339
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    Saw Aquaman and though it was enjoyable in parts I thought it was a giant CG mess. The de-aging in the beginning was really distracting and their faces looked like plastic. The plot went all over the place and it was way too long.

    Also saw Hereditary after hearing good things about it for a long time. Didn't disappoint, as it was complex and creepy at the same time. Toni Collette is superb, as her character is hit with tragedy after tragedy.

  10. #1340
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    Just watched “Alita Battle Angel”.

    In one word: Spectacular

    Recommend to anyone interested to make the effort to watch it at the cinema, definitely a big screen movie.
    My wife asked me why I carry a gun?, I said "Decepticons"... She laughed, I laughed, the toaster laughed, I shot the toaster. It was a good day.

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