Movie, TV, Web Series, and Music Hot Take(s).

BrawlMan

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I know this take is from over a year ago, and because of way JK has been acting the past two years now. It's popular to do this now and say how the franchise doesn't make any sense. When honestly, people have said this years ago, but it was the unpopular opinion at the time, and usually done by haters of the franchise or its fans. Me personally, I stopped caring for Harry Potter when I was 14. My case was just a loss of interests and moving on to other things.

We rewatched The Matrix: Revolutions last night, and here's my hot take: removed from its place in the original trilogy, it's a great movie. I say "removed" because the first two movies bring expectations that Revolutions fails hard at meeting, but by itself, it's really good.
I will give the film credit for some creative action sequences, but everything else feels blasé or been there, done/seen it already. Even when isolated, there are better films in similar genre or caliber. To the point that some Matrix clones or pre-Matrix movies (Jet Li's The One and Drive 1997) are better and way more entertaining. At least Reloaded and Revolutions didn't suffer from shaky cam-itis. A lot of action films would suffer from in the mid to late 2000s. So, I will give them that.
 
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Xprimentyl

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I will give the film credit for some creative action sequences, but everything else feels blasé or been there, done/seen it already. Even when isolated, there are better films in similar genre or caliber. To the point that some Matrix clones or pre-Matrix movies (Jet Li's The One and Drive 1997) are better and way more entertaining. At least Reloaded and Revolutions didn't suffer from shaky cam-itis. A lot of action films would suffer from in the mid to late 2000s. So, I will give them that.
I didn't say Revolutions was a superior movie in it's vein, just better than the hate it gets for being the third installment of The Matrix franchise, hate that has since been rightfully transferred to The Matrix Resurrections, a film that spends its runtime focusing on it's own pointlessness. I don't typically compare or rank films to other movies similar to them; what a waste of effort. My bar for quality is simply "for the runtime, was I entertained?" and Revolutions entertains me. Unless two or more movies are going for the exact same thing, comparing them is really pretentious nonsense. I like pizza; Papa Johns and Pizza Hut both make good pizza (imho,) but you won't find me eating one while thinking of the other; I'm too busy enjoying the pizza in front of me. The One and Drive are both good movies, but I wasn't watching or thinking of them while enjoying Revolutions.
 

BrawlMan

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I didn't say Revolutions was a superior movie in it's vein, just better than the hate it gets for being the third installment of The Matrix franchise,
I didn't say, nor implied you did.

hate that has since been rightfully transferred to The Matrix Resurrections, a film that spends its runtime focusing on it's own pointlessness.
We don't even speak of that train wreck. I still don't understand how Max and the YoVideoGames crew can even defend that. I will never ever watch Resurrections. The movie does not exist.

My bar for quality is simply "for the runtime, was I entertained?" and Revolutions entertains me. Unless two or more movies are going for the exact same thing, comparing them is really pretentious nonsense.
I wasn't. I was barely there and mostly bored my first time watching. My feelings have not changed much in that regard.

I like pizza; Papa Johns and Pizza Hut both make good pizza (imho,) but you won't find me eating one while thinking of the other; I'm too busy enjoying the pizza in front of me.
Papa Johns is okay, but good luck finding any in Michigan. Pizza Hut makes their pizza too salty. I prefer Cottage Inn, Papa Romanos, Hungry Howies, Pizzapapalis, or Little Ceasars.

The One and Drive are both good movies, but I wasn't watching or thinking of them while enjoying Revolutions.
I WAAAAAASSSSSSS!!!!
 
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thebobmaster

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I was reminded of this while reading about the debate of Brendan Fraser potentially winning an Oscar for The Whale instead of Austin Butler for Elvis when the latter put in so much work that he apparently hospitalized himself after filming.

We really need to stop rewarding actors putting themselves in harm's way to get into a role. It shouldn't be seen as admirable that Christian Bale starved himself for The Machinist, and Austin Butler throwing himself into a role so hard that it causes him some sort of harm shouldn't be a reason to give him an Oscar over someone who did equally well in their role, but "only" used a fat suit instead of actually gaining the weight.
 

Bob_McMillan

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I was reminded of this while reading about the debate of Brendan Fraser potentially winning an Oscar for The Whale instead of Austin Butler for Elvis when the latter put in so much work that he apparently hospitalized himself after filming.

We really need to stop rewarding actors putting themselves in harm's way to get into a role. It shouldn't be seen as admirable that Christian Bale starved himself for The Machinist, and Austin Butler throwing himself into a role so hard that it causes him some sort of harm shouldn't be a reason to give him an Oscar over someone who did equally well in their role, but "only" used a fat suit instead of actually gaining the weight.
On a sort of related note: After all the Avatar discourse bled over into general James Cameron discourse, I was pondering over the merits of having a toxic workplace, being an asshole boss, and just straight up almost killing people solely for the purpose of making a movie. And Cameron's movies look fantastic, to the point you have to wonder why the fuck mainstream movies cost so much more yet look so much worse. But again, are spectacular effects and performances worth the ridiculous conditions people had to suffer through? (Not that I think CGI artists getting crunched is a better alternative).

Anyway, the hot take I came here to make: fuck Encanto. I genuinely think the generational trauma theme is the only thing this movie has going for it. I hated the songs, the characters are mostly assholes, the comedy is average, and the story feels like it was a sticky note for all the generational trauma-ing.

Bruno, the subject of the movie's most popular song, is so fucking bizarre. This man spent what, 10 years? living among the rats, with zero human contact, and hearing how much his family hates him while he spied on them through cracks in the walls. What happened to him is some dark shit, and it is resolved with a wave of the hand.
 
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Gordon_4

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On a sort of related note: After all the Avatar discourse bled over into general James Cameron discourse, I was pondering over the merits of having a toxic workplace, being an asshole boss, and just straight up almost killing people solely for the purpose of making a movie. And Cameron's movies look fantastic, to the point you have to wonder why the fuck mainstream movies cost so much more yet look so much worse. But again, are spectacular effects and performances worth the ridiculous conditions people had to suffer through? (Not that I think CGI artists getting crunched is a better alternative).

Anyway, the hot take I came here to make: fuck Encanto. I genuinely think the generational trauma theme is the only thing this movie has going for it. I hated the songs, the characters are mostly assholes, the comedy is average, and the story feels like it was a sticky note for all the generational trauma-ing.

Bruno, the subject of the movie's most popular song, is so fucking bizarre. This man spent what, 10 years? living among the rats, with zero human contact, and hearing how much his family hates him while he spied on them through cracks in the walls. What happened to him is some dark shit, and it is resolved with a wave of the hand.
If I had to conjecture, Cameron’s movies look as good as they do because he started as a VFX artist so he learned a lot about how to set up and compose a shot around the effects before he had a crack at directing. That combined with - in his youth - being insanely dictatorial and his way or the highway meant he got his shit done the way he wanted it. Sometimes that was good: he bodily removed a studio rep from the edit suite on The Terminator after he suggested the movie be finished when Kyle and Sarah are hugging on the road in front of the flaming truck. Other times it was reprehensible: nearly killing Ed Harris by drowning when filming The Abyss. Man’s a lunatic.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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If I had to conjecture, Cameron’s movies look as good as they do because he started as a VFX artist so he learned a lot about how to set up and compose a shot around the effects before he had a crack at directing. That combined with - in his youth - being insanely dictatorial and his way or the highway meant he got his shit done the way he wanted it. Sometimes that was good: he bodily removed a studio rep from the edit suite on The Terminator after he suggested the movie be finished when Kyle and Sarah are hugging on the road in front of the flaming truck. Other times it was reprehensible: nearly killing Ed Harris by drowning when filming The Abyss. Man’s a lunatic.
A video about the making of The Abyss is what prompted my line of thinking. Apparently Ed Harris is hardly the only person who nearly drowned in a Cameron movie. Makes me wonder how conditions were for Way of Water. I have my doubts he would be able to get away with shit like that these days.
 

Thaluikhain

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A video about the making of The Abyss is what prompted my line of thinking. Apparently Ed Harris is hardly the only person who nearly drowned in a Cameron movie. Makes me wonder how conditions were for Way of Water. I have my doubts he would be able to get away with shit like that these days.
They were pushing Kate Winslet as holding the newest record for holding breath underwater while on camera, and apparently asking if she was dead when she surfaced, but that latter might have been clickbait.
 

Gordon_4

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They were pushing Kate Winslet as holding the newest record for holding breath underwater while on camera, and apparently asking if she was dead when she surfaced, but that latter might have been clickbait.
I don't remember hearing about that, but they did get tossed about a shit load with all the actual water being used. So I'm fully prepared to believe it.
 

Hawki

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I'm assuming that this is a video in jest, but little of these things are actual inconsistencies:

-First, not everyone can apparate, and even when you can, it's not something that can be done lightly, given the risk of being splinched. Sure, you could employ an army of apparating postmen instead of owls, but that's really getting into semantics. And the whole "animal cruelty" thing, if it's a joke, sure, if not, then it's on the same level of idiocy as the "house elves are slaves" argument.

-Second, this is more of a minor point, but Hogwarts doesn't run the world, there's wizarding schools/societies/governments all over the world. There's certainly guiding principles that the Wizarding World abides by per the International Confederation of Wizards (I think that's its name), but you're not going to have one school ruling over a world that's got plenty of other magic schools.

-Third, the Wizarding World is pretty crazy by design (as in, from a writing perspective). You could apply more hard logic to the setting, but I'd argue that it would lose some of its charm. I know this is a bit of a tangent, but in the discussion of hard vs. soft magic systems (with HP veering more towards the letter), I don't buy that hard magic inherently makes a setting better (cough*Sanderson*cough)

We rewatched The Matrix: Revolutions last night, and here's my hot take: removed from its place in the original trilogy, it's a great movie. I say "removed" because the first two movies bring expectations that Revolutions fails hard at meeting, but by itself, it's really good.
That's, um, interesting.

My take on the original trilogy (haven't seen the 4th film) is that it's an excellent first movie followed by a good second movie followed by an average third movie. But I'm not sure what expectations Revolutions failed to meet per se. Frankly, I'm not sure who would have expected the ending of Revolutions when the first movie basically sets up "free humanity, defeat the machines" as an end goal (yes, I know film 1 was stand-alone, don't@me), whereas by the end, a peace is formed, with plenty of revelations along the way.

But even taking Revolutions by itself, I can't give it much credit, even if I do like the film overall. My gripes include:

-Its pacing is really strange. The first act can basically cover everything up to Neo exiting the Matrix, the third act everything after the Battle of Zion, while the second act is just "stuff" that fills it in. For instance, the titular battle, while a visual treat, is basically the plot on standstill. The machines attack, are defeated, but turns out aren't defeated after all, so really, what's changed? The first film didn't waste a second, the second film picked up the pace after the Neb leaves Zion, the third film's pacing is just weird.

-Minor point, but for a film called "the Matrix," very little time is spent in the actual Matrix. And yes, I know, I've probably written more Matrix stuff in the real world than in the Matrix itself on FFN, but I'm not the one making blockbuster films, am I?

-While YMMV, Revolutions really starts stretching creduilty for me. I know this is a series that stretched creduilty from minute 1, but now Neo can see in the real world, can influence machines in the real world? Yes, Christ imagery, blah blah blah, but considering the principles the series operated until then, honestly, it's a bit much. It's never really explained that well either bar some reference to Neo connecting to "the Source," and therefore gaining technopathy or something.

-The ending is a letdown - Neo's battle with Smith comes up short of the prior films, and I'm still not clear exactly what happened to make Smith lose by assimilating him. I can certainly theorize (and plenty of people have done so), and maybe there's a definitive explanation somewhere, but again, I think this is a case of things being too vague for their own good.

Granted, a lot of these gripes stem from the film as a sequel, but even on its own terms, all I can call it is an average action movie.
 
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BrawlMan

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Aside from Rise of the Lycans, Underworld is the most boring action franchise ever made with only the live action RE films rivaling it in that department. How do you make vampires vs. werewolves so boring? Ugly color palette for the first two movies. The franchise was stuck in the worst parts of the 90s and early 2000s. How and why the franchise lasted so long is beyond me.
 

Thaluikhain

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Aside from Rise of the Lycans, Underworld is the most boring action franchise ever made with only the live action RE films rivaling it in that department. How do you make vampires vs. werewolves so boring? Ugly color palette for the first two movies. The franchise was stuck in the worst parts of the 90s and early 2000s. How and why the franchise lasted so long is beyond me.
I think Kate Beckinsale in a black outfit appeals to Underworld fans, like Milla Jovovich in a weird outfit and naked occasionally appeals to Resident Evil fans. But yeah, those franchises are always put together in my DVD collection, along with Blade.
 

BrawlMan

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I think Kate Beckinsale in a black outfit appeals to Underworld fans, like Milla Jovovich in a weird outfit and naked occasionally appeals to Resident Evil fans.
I've noticed, but neither are worth the 90+ minutes to just see that. Nothing against Ms. Beckinsale of course. Jovovich I gave 0 fucks from the very beginning, and that only strengthen over the years.

But yeah, those franchises are always put together in my DVD collection, along with Blade.
Blade and Blade II are still good and stuff actually happens. Blade Trinity is still a piece of shit. The Blade TV series is decent, but only lasted one season. The Blade Anime by Mad House is good and worth a watch.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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A video about the making of The Abyss is what prompted my line of thinking. Apparently Ed Harris is hardly the only person who nearly drowned in a Cameron movie. Makes me wonder how conditions were for Way of Water. I have my doubts he would be able to get away with shit like that these days.
Winslet and Weaver apparently had to undergo extensive breathing training to be able to hold their breath for 7+ minutes. I didn’t see any single scene that long with them underwater IIRC. The magic of editing overrides Cameron’s dedication to authenticity anyways, so what exactly did that undue stress add? I guess they can say they have fish lungs now.

I was reminded of this while reading about the debate of Brendan Fraser potentially winning an Oscar for The Whale instead of Austin Butler for Elvis when the latter put in so much work that he apparently hospitalized himself after filming.

We really need to stop rewarding actors putting themselves in harm's way to get into a role. It shouldn't be seen as admirable that Christian Bale starved himself for The Machinist, and Austin Butler throwing himself into a role so hard that it causes him some sort of harm shouldn't be a reason to give him an Oscar over someone who did equally well in their role, but "only" used a fat suit instead of actually gaining the weight.
Not admirable, but rather it would probably be a greater insult to disregard someone's extraordinary efforts only because of an unintentional consequence of their dedication. IIRC in Butler’s case it was some virus that simulates appendicitis. As to how criteria for these trophies is leveled, others know better than me.


How challenging is the role for this particular actor? Is the character simply a darker or lighter shade of the actor’s personality or does the character require the actor to more or less abandon his sense of self and slip into the skin of one with entirely different sensibilities?

Paul Newman once said to me (OK, me and a few other directors), “Don’t judge my work by the roles that were easy, where I didn’t have to stretch and explore and expand. Judge my work by the roles that challenged me physically, emotionally or spiritually. Those are the roles where one false step could bring down the whole house of cards.”

This brings us to the second aspect with which to judge the success of an actor’s performance: The Transformation. How completely and thoroughly has the actor given himself over to the uniqueness of the character?

So, what is it about transformational acting that is so challenging?

Abandoning oneself and allowing a character to take up residence in one’s body and speak through one’s mouth is the fundamental challenge of acting.

That last one especially pretty much describes Butler’s prep work and performance to a T.
 
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BrawlMan

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Adding to Bennett's counter argument, I don't mind nor have a problem with anime now having an international market in mind. When it leads to less racial or negative stereotyping, I have no problems with that. We've already started seeing this anime, as far back as the late 2000s and early 2010s. I know old anime fans complain about losing that "underground" or counterculture feeling, but they're delusional, if they expected anime to last like that forever. Or expected every anime now, to look how they remembered in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Even with an international market, there can and will be some counterculture with the medium and its fandom. A lot of the old guard's feelings on this matter boils down to "I don't feel special or unique anymore". Suck it up. There's plenty of anime now and yesteryear you can still enjoy, if you wish to do so. No one is stopping you, except yourselves.
 

Piscian

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I think everyone is allowed some mount of unreasonable media prejudice along as its not bothering anyone. Mine this week is that I dont plan to watch any of the Anne Rice adaptation streaming shows theyve started to and will continue to shit out.

Im a huge fan and read recently that theyd been hounding her to license out adaptations for years, possibly based on previous experience, she wanted avoid anything but faithful adaptations she had some control of. She wasn't alan moore'n it, she was actively in discussions off and on a show, but never really saw eye to eye on it with her kid and the studios.

It seems sorta gross in retrospect that they've already shat out two shows within a year of her death. money money money money.

Im sure they'll sell the whole thing as dedicated to her memory and that this was what she wanted, but its oddly serendipitous.

Dont get me wrong if they turn out great Im willing to give them a shot in a season or two, but I really hate this kinda licensed Hollywood machine like "If these shows are so great why aren't they original properties?".
 

Xprimentyl

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I think everyone is allowed some mount of unreasonable media prejudice along as its not bothering anyone. Mine this week is that I dont plan to watch any of the Anne Rice adaptation streaming shows theyve started to and will continue to shit out.

Im a huge fan and read recently that theyd been hounding her to license out adaptations for years, possibly based on previous experience, she wanted avoid anything but faithful adaptations she had some control of. She wasn't alan moore'n it, she was actively in discussions off and on a show, but never really saw eye to eye on it with her kid and the studios.

It seems sorta gross in retrospect that they've already shat out two shows within a year of her death. money money money money.

Im sure they'll sell the whole thing as dedicated to her memory and that this was what she wanted, but its oddly serendipitous.

Dont get me wrong if they turn out great Im willing to give them a shot in a season or two, but I really hate this kinda licensed Hollywood machine like "If these shows are so great why aren't they original properties?".
I don't plan on watching them either. In an Anne Rice fan group I'm apart of, someone mentioned that they took a LOT of liberties with The Mayfair Witches. I think they said Michael isn't in the show and they apparently changed Rowan's name. Changes like that don't give me confidence they're faithful to the rest of the source material, so any interest I might have had has completely waned.
 
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Piscian

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I don't plan on watching them either. In an Anne Rice fan group I'm apart of, someone mentioned that they took a LOT of liberties with The Mayfair Witches. I think they said Michael isn't in the show and they apparently changed Rowan's name. Changes like that don't give me confidence they're faithful to the rest of the source material, so any interest I might have had has completely waned.
This is all conspiracy theory, but I sometimes think it has nothing to do with the difficulties of adaptation, but 100% ego on the writers and producers side. Producers I get they are megalomaniacal psychopaths, but I also suspect writers will "put their mark" on things. I mean it's gotta be some added job security to write a character. Like "ahh boss this character just doesn't work with what we wrote, so I wrote this new one" knowing full well it doesn't work because they already wrote it not too. "Well jeff knows this character best, he wrote it, better have him do this episode".
 
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