Out of interest, who would you say is the most developed character in the DCEU? Not seen that many, but from what I've seen you could give it to Harley Quinn simply because she kinda turned up to the contest.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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All metaphors fall apart on close scrutiny, it's that the film is never a particuarly good metaphor in the first place, and given the fictional setting, it's even more tangental to the real world.
Resident Evil (2002)
First of the series of live action Resident Evil movies written, produced and, with some exceptions, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. I've decided to go and watch all of them because... I don't know, I might as well, I guess. These movies aren't adaptations of the games and, as far as I'm aware, not in any way canon to them. I suppose the best way to describe them is as an "Alternate Universe" to them, borrowing from their mythology and setting to tell what's pretty much a standalone story. The Resident Evil game series is, of course, a sprawling mess that soft reboots itself about twice a decade, so "canon" is fairly shaky as it is, but those movies definitely are the work of a director who set out to do "his own thing" with the property. So, what is that thing?
Well, as far as the first movie is concerned, it's, more or less, an affectionate cover version of Cameron's Aliens that doubles down on that movies anti-corporate subtext while adding a generous helping of early 00's anime inspired "coolness". Resi 02 follows an amnesiac Alice, portrayed by Milla Jovovich, waking up in what I think is meant to be RE1's iconic Spencer Mansion. She does, however, not spend a lot of time there, having a unit of paramilitaries working for megacorp Umbrella taking her to the secret research facility called "The Hive" beneath Raccoon City.
The part about Resident Evil that appealed to Anderson seems to have been not that inspired by old fashioned Zombie horror and more the Cyberpunk influences dealing with shady megacorps, high tech bioweapon laboratories and human experimentation. Resi 02 is ambivalent, if not downright dismissive, of the series 70 horrors influences, skipping the gothic mansion to get straight to an underground cybergoth dungeoncrawl, even adding a murderous AI to the mix that ends up killing a whole lot more characters than the actual monsters do.
Let me get this straight, the Resident Evil series never meant particularly much to me, not in the way, for example, the Silent Hill series does. So let me put it like that: Resi 02 is definitely a worse adaptation of its source material than arguably either of the two Silent Hill movies were. It is, however, in my opinion also a considerably better movie than either. It's not, by any means, a great work but it gives off at least the impression of someone trying to make the source material their own. Resi 02 doesn't so much disregard its source material as its homing in on an aspect of it that, I assume, Anderson felt deserved to be fleshed out.
Much like its main influence Aliens, Resi 02 puts an unflappable female protagonist alongside a unit of experienced soldiers against an overwhelming horror caused by the irresponsible machinations of an evil corporation. Let me be straight, Resi 02 is not remotely the movie Aliens is, the short runtime and brisk pacing leave the unit of Umbrella goons accompanying Alice much less fleshed out than Aliens space marines were, the exception being female soldier Rain, played by Michelle Rodriguez. Neither is Milla Jovovich the actress Sigourney Weaver is or, for that matter, Alice the character Ellen Ripley is.
Nevertheless, I do have a degree of respect for what the movie is doing. The action movie crowd has, to some degree, started to reevaluate Anderson's directorial work in light of what has become a very stylistically homogenized environment. It is hard to deny the Anderson has a grasp on space and environment when staging his action setpieces that lends them a strong sense of scope, and that there is certainly a recognizable style to his usage of dark, claustrophobic spaces and labyrinthinge structures. While the writing itself never exactly excels, it does display a certain grasp on theme and a genuine interest in the Resident Evil universes more overlooked subtext.
By all means, it's not an exceptional movie but it did, at the very least, make me wonder where Anderson is going with this. Considering he wrote 6 and directed 4 of those movies, it's clear that he saw something worth exploring in the greater Resident Evil mythology and I'm interested in seeing what his take on the material is going to evolve into. And whether, by the end of it, I'll be able to see where the crowd looking at him as a misunderstood auteur are coming from.
First of the series of live action Resident Evil movies written, produced and, with some exceptions, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. I've decided to go and watch all of them because... I don't know, I might as well, I guess. These movies aren't adaptations of the games and, as far as I'm aware, not in any way canon to them. I suppose the best way to describe them is as an "Alternate Universe" to them, borrowing from their mythology and setting to tell what's pretty much a standalone story. The Resident Evil game series is, of course, a sprawling mess that soft reboots itself about twice a decade, so "canon" is fairly shaky as it is, but those movies definitely are the work of a director who set out to do "his own thing" with the property. So, what is that thing?
Well, as far as the first movie is concerned, it's, more or less, an affectionate cover version of Cameron's Aliens that doubles down on that movies anti-corporate subtext while adding a generous helping of early 00's anime inspired "coolness". Resi 02 follows an amnesiac Alice, portrayed by Milla Jovovich, waking up in what I think is meant to be RE1's iconic Spencer Mansion. She does, however, not spend a lot of time there, having a unit of paramilitaries working for megacorp Umbrella taking her to the secret research facility called "The Hive" beneath Raccoon City.
The part about Resident Evil that appealed to Anderson seems to have been not that inspired by old fashioned Zombie horror and more the Cyberpunk influences dealing with shady megacorps, high tech bioweapon laboratories and human experimentation. Resi 02 is ambivalent, if not downright dismissive, of the series 70 horrors influences, skipping the gothic mansion to get straight to an underground cybergoth dungeoncrawl, even adding a murderous AI to the mix that ends up killing a whole lot more characters than the actual monsters do.
Let me get this straight, the Resident Evil series never meant particularly much to me, not in the way, for example, the Silent Hill series does. So let me put it like that: Resi 02 is definitely a worse adaptation of its source material than arguably either of the two Silent Hill movies were. It is, however, in my opinion also a considerably better movie than either. It's not, by any means, a great work but it gives off at least the impression of someone trying to make the source material their own. Resi 02 doesn't so much disregard its source material as its homing in on an aspect of it that, I assume, Anderson felt deserved to be fleshed out.
Much like its main influence Aliens, Resi 02 puts an unflappable female protagonist alongside a unit of experienced soldiers against an overwhelming horror caused by the irresponsible machinations of an evil corporation. Let me be straight, Resi 02 is not remotely the movie Aliens is, the short runtime and brisk pacing leave the unit of Umbrella goons accompanying Alice much less fleshed out than Aliens space marines were, the exception being female soldier Rain, played by Michelle Rodriguez. Neither is Milla Jovovich the actress Sigourney Weaver is or, for that matter, Alice the character Ellen Ripley is.
Nevertheless, I do have a degree of respect for what the movie is doing. The action movie crowd has, to some degree, started to reevaluate Anderson's directorial work in light of what has become a very stylistically homogenized environment. It is hard to deny the Anderson has a grasp on space and environment when staging his action setpieces that lends them a strong sense of scope, and that there is certainly a recognizable style to his usage of dark, claustrophobic spaces and labyrinthinge structures. While the writing itself never exactly excels, it does display a certain grasp on theme and a genuine interest in the Resident Evil universes more overlooked subtext.
By all means, it's not an exceptional movie but it did, at the very least, make me wonder where Anderson is going with this. Considering he wrote 6 and directed 4 of those movies, it's clear that he saw something worth exploring in the greater Resident Evil mythology and I'm interested in seeing what his take on the material is going to evolve into. And whether, by the end of it, I'll be able to see where the crowd looking at him as a misunderstood auteur are coming from.
Top Gun: Maverick
A great reflection of Tom Cruise's career and his need to constantly prove to the world he remains relevant. It's not a character study because there's nothing to study, just marvel at. Where most belated sequels boil down to passing the baton to a younger generation, Cruise is more than happy to remain in the spotlight.
Most of the unknowns are kinda whatever, not that they're given much to do with. Ed Harris is great and should've been around more. Miles Teller is a 100% believable son to Goose. Jennifer Connelly gets to be a more or less thankless love interest but she has a nice "shared history" rapport with Cruise. And Val Kilmer elevates the movie, providing an emotional height that the original one doesn't quite have.
A great reflection of Tom Cruise's career and his need to constantly prove to the world he remains relevant. It's not a character study because there's nothing to study, just marvel at. Where most belated sequels boil down to passing the baton to a younger generation, Cruise is more than happy to remain in the spotlight.
Most of the unknowns are kinda whatever, not that they're given much to do with. Ed Harris is great and should've been around more. Miles Teller is a 100% believable son to Goose. Jennifer Connelly gets to be a more or less thankless love interest but she has a nice "shared history" rapport with Cruise. And Val Kilmer elevates the movie, providing an emotional height that the original one doesn't quite have.
I'm speccfically talking about this latest movie and any claim of character development. I would agree there is clear character development on the first two movies. But I am waiting to watch Brawlman's video first. My father in law turned up with his kids for the weekend because they got a long weekend in Bundy apparently. So I'll see when I can do this
Firstly, I gave old Suicide Squad either a 6.5 or 7. Thus I give this one about the same. I think I said BoP was about the same but I think its the lesser of these movies. 'Blind Hatred' hey. I'm just disappointed that a good writer/ director with a bunch of stuff I like showed up with an average movie, particularly when he did so well with the show after this
Secondly, that regret... is not regret that going to change any action. I regret that we had to do lockdowns and mask mandates over this pandemic. I find it incredibly draconian and puts a lot of pain onto others. I'm not going to change this policy because it was the right thing to do that benefited society
That's way too much your venting to be mere "disappointment". But if you say so, oh well. Sounds to me like you had overly high expectations. James Gunn met my expectations for SS2 and Peacemaker.
I don't know what you're going on about, I didn't ask for you to change policy. I only asked you to re-watch again, if you wish. That choice is up to you.
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - 6-7/10
I loved the show as a kid. The movie is pretty decent, moves along at a good pace, and has tons of references (there was even a freaking Bonkers cameo).
I loved the show as a kid. The movie is pretty decent, moves along at a good pace, and has tons of references (there was even a freaking Bonkers cameo).
I'm going to repeat this again. I liked Peacemaker. It was really great.
SS2? (Are we really calling it that?) Very average
The Peacemaker who is very willing to kill women and children is the same Peacemaker at the end of the movie. He would regret killing women and children too, just like Flagg. That's his character, from the start
I never said nor implied you didn't. All I said was that SS2 and Peacemaker matched my exact expectations. SS2 clearly did not match yours.
I am. I refuse to call it "The SS". It makes names less confusing and plain practical. Besides, it is implied and stated officially by the film crew that SS2 does take place after BoP. BoP does take place after SS (2016). Which means SS (2016) did happen. I am more than cool with that. They can say "soft reboot" all they want, those three films did happen. Though it's wonderful to acknowledge mistakes and make many ways for improvements.
Yes. Once again, good character development. His self titled show about him not being a blind, patriotic fuck up, and learn to build proper connections to people. It works.
So, this whole time, you've been saying character development but you just meant character trait...a separate part of character
Ok, cool
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Second of Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil movies and the first one not actually directed by him. Instead it's first time director Alexander Witt, who, while obviously having access to a higher budget, doesn't quite utilize it as well as Anderson did. Apocalypse has considerably greater fidelity to the games than Resi 02 did, which makes it kind of the odd one out in the series, attempting to be kind of, sort of a retelling of Resident Evil 3 while still progressing the story of Anderson's alternate timeline. The product ist, expectedly, quite a bit messier than its predecessor.
Apocalypse follows up Alice being abducted and injected with the T-Virus at the end of the first movie and finding herself in the middle of a quarantined, zombie infested Raccoon City following her escape. I likened Resi 02 to Aliens, Apocalypse is something closer to Escape from New York, following a number of characters journey to escape Raccoon City and prove Umbrella's culpability in the outbreak of the zombie virus. In having somewhat of an ensemble cast it's a movie that sidelines Alice for long stretches, treating Jill "Sandwich" Valentine, RE3's PC, here played by Sienna Guillory as its secondary protagonist.
Apocalypse expands upon the first movie in width, but not in depth, offering up a larger variety of locations, characters and subplots, but not moving the plot forward very much.
If there is one thing to be said it's that Anderson thinks of the Resident Evil series as a series about women. There are men in his movies, but they're never really about the men. Both the story and the action tends to sideline them. The action, much like the rest of the movie, takes an approach of increased scope but decreased precision. And I think this is where Anderson's direction really could have made the difference, as Witt's editing is overly nervous and messy, taking away from what are frequently genuinely impressive action setpieces.
In the overall plot of the series, it is perhaps notable for presenting the first direct encounter between Alice and the Umbrella corporation, emphasing both its omnipresence and its ruthlessness. Apocalypse features RE3's "Nemesis" monster, recontextualising it as a brainwashed character from the first movie made to follow the orders of Umbrella representatives. Up until close to the end of the movie, the more cyberpunky, more conspiratorial elements of Anderson's RE are very much pushed to the background in favour of something more in tune with the tropes of a generic zombie apocalypse setup and fanservice to the games. It isn't until close to the end that the movie starts playing to its own strengths again.
With some of its genuinely impressive action setpieces undermined by questionable direction and a plot bogged down by a sense of obligation to pay tribute to the game, Apocalypse is a somewhat awkward and clunky followup to the first movie. There are a few things to be appreciated, mainly the creature effects used to adapt Nemesis to live action and the execution of some of its action setpieces that manage to look impressive, despite their confusing editing.
Despite ramping up the scope of the series, I think Apocalypse is overall a lesser movie than Resi 02, lacking Anderson's clean, spatially coherent direction and straight forward plotting. It is somewhat of an awkward middle child in the series, not as clean as the movie that came before it and not as interesting as the movies that would come after it.
Second of Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil movies and the first one not actually directed by him. Instead it's first time director Alexander Witt, who, while obviously having access to a higher budget, doesn't quite utilize it as well as Anderson did. Apocalypse has considerably greater fidelity to the games than Resi 02 did, which makes it kind of the odd one out in the series, attempting to be kind of, sort of a retelling of Resident Evil 3 while still progressing the story of Anderson's alternate timeline. The product ist, expectedly, quite a bit messier than its predecessor.
Apocalypse follows up Alice being abducted and injected with the T-Virus at the end of the first movie and finding herself in the middle of a quarantined, zombie infested Raccoon City following her escape. I likened Resi 02 to Aliens, Apocalypse is something closer to Escape from New York, following a number of characters journey to escape Raccoon City and prove Umbrella's culpability in the outbreak of the zombie virus. In having somewhat of an ensemble cast it's a movie that sidelines Alice for long stretches, treating Jill "Sandwich" Valentine, RE3's PC, here played by Sienna Guillory as its secondary protagonist.
Apocalypse expands upon the first movie in width, but not in depth, offering up a larger variety of locations, characters and subplots, but not moving the plot forward very much.
If there is one thing to be said it's that Anderson thinks of the Resident Evil series as a series about women. There are men in his movies, but they're never really about the men. Both the story and the action tends to sideline them. The action, much like the rest of the movie, takes an approach of increased scope but decreased precision. And I think this is where Anderson's direction really could have made the difference, as Witt's editing is overly nervous and messy, taking away from what are frequently genuinely impressive action setpieces.
In the overall plot of the series, it is perhaps notable for presenting the first direct encounter between Alice and the Umbrella corporation, emphasing both its omnipresence and its ruthlessness. Apocalypse features RE3's "Nemesis" monster, recontextualising it as a brainwashed character from the first movie made to follow the orders of Umbrella representatives. Up until close to the end of the movie, the more cyberpunky, more conspiratorial elements of Anderson's RE are very much pushed to the background in favour of something more in tune with the tropes of a generic zombie apocalypse setup and fanservice to the games. It isn't until close to the end that the movie starts playing to its own strengths again.
With some of its genuinely impressive action setpieces undermined by questionable direction and a plot bogged down by a sense of obligation to pay tribute to the game, Apocalypse is a somewhat awkward and clunky followup to the first movie. There are a few things to be appreciated, mainly the creature effects used to adapt Nemesis to live action and the execution of some of its action setpieces that manage to look impressive, despite their confusing editing.
Despite ramping up the scope of the series, I think Apocalypse is overall a lesser movie than Resi 02, lacking Anderson's clean, spatially coherent direction and straight forward plotting. It is somewhat of an awkward middle child in the series, not as clean as the movie that came before it and not as interesting as the movies that would come after it.
Not canon, no. The first two are loose adaptations of RE1 & 3 respectively, but after that, they totally become their own thing.
Oh you poor sweet child.
Yeah, don't expect the movies to stay coherent for long.
It's funny that you mention that, because I think Apocalypse definitely suffers from that. You know how the camera 'blurs' at times, when it shows hordes of zombies? Makes it feel a bit less visceral.
True, dat. Every RE film bar Apocalypse more or less abandons what came before, or otherwise shunts it aside.
Take on Umbrella? Nah, global outbreak.
Army of Alice clones? Kill them off in the first ten minutes.
Last stand at the White House? Resolve it off screen.
It'll be interesting to see why Diamond thinks of Final Chapter by the end. Whoo boy.
Top Gun (Yes, the first one): Alright / Great
Naval fighter pilot "Maverick" finds himself recruited to an elite training program where his characteristic reckless brilliance puts him at odds with this comrades and the Naval institution. Oh, and love story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was apparently the ONE guy who'd never seen it. Well, I have now, and you're welcome. It was fine. I like planes and I like speed, so I got most of my fix in that area, but outside of the scenes inside the planes, it was a rote '80s movie: montages set to '80s Rock, the blue-tinted love scene, the redemption between the spiky-haired jerk antagonist and the suave protagonist who "learned a lesson" by the end, etc. I could almost say I HAD seen it previously given how on rails it was.
Anyway, I only watched it because a friend invited us to see the sequel in theaters this weekend, and I had to admit I hadn't seen the first one, so needed to catch up. At least it was on Netflix, and I didn't have to rent it on Prime as I found myself having to do with a lot of movies lately.
Naval fighter pilot "Maverick" finds himself recruited to an elite training program where his characteristic reckless brilliance puts him at odds with this comrades and the Naval institution. Oh, and love story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was apparently the ONE guy who'd never seen it. Well, I have now, and you're welcome. It was fine. I like planes and I like speed, so I got most of my fix in that area, but outside of the scenes inside the planes, it was a rote '80s movie: montages set to '80s Rock, the blue-tinted love scene, the redemption between the spiky-haired jerk antagonist and the suave protagonist who "learned a lesson" by the end, etc. I could almost say I HAD seen it previously given how on rails it was.
Anyway, I only watched it because a friend invited us to see the sequel in theaters this weekend, and I had to admit I hadn't seen the first one, so needed to catch up. At least it was on Netflix, and I didn't have to rent it on Prime as I found myself having to do with a lot of movies lately.
Ugh, another Cruise vehicle, huh? At least I'll have popcorn...
Your point?
I've been already moved on. Me and some of the other users already made our points and evidence clear. You don't like it, not my problem.
This you?
I've been already moved on. Me and some of the other users already made our points and evidence clear. You don't like it, not my problem.
Yep. Totally me. Absolutely nothing wrong with this sentence. It explains why you are talking about a trait as character development and I'm talking about characters emotionally dealing with things and actually changing their actions as characrer development. It two different definition of 'character development'.
If you were using different definition of character development than me, that's fine. I thought I was clear that I was talking about character learning something about themselves during the movie.
No I wasn't. You did not listen one bit.
Hence why I was talking about Harley getting the most out of everyone, because it's built off everything that happened with her in the prior movies. While Peacemaker gets his development in his own show, based off what was already established in SS2. You either get it or you don't. Otherwise, you have no reason to argue for the sake of arguing, or because you did not get exactly what you wanted.
I am done here, because this is getting old. You can have last word if you wish.