Having not watched the original, the importance of a replicant baby was lost on me. So yeah, gotta agree that Leto was a low point.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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Its not relevant to the original. In the original film, depending on the version you watch, its hinted that they end up together and more that maybe ford is a replicant. This is somewhat contentious in the community because the central focus of the original story is the plight of replicants and the place in humanity.
This is why Goslings story is the most compelling part of 2049. His struggle to find purpose or value in his existence is interesting. Ford having a robot baby is not.
Part of me feels like Fords inclusion in the film is studio notes. Like Star Wars or Indiana Jones. Somebody demanded this be a sequel because nostalgia, and that undercuts the weight of Goslings story basically making him the exposition donkey.
I only saw this movie once, and you obviously have memorized more details about this, but nearly everything about how Spider is depicted indicates he is part of the family/sees himself as part of the family. He dresses like them, wears his hair like them, speaks like them. He's not just some weirdo who occasionally shows up - he's close to these characters. Maybe not so much Neytiri, but even with her I can't remember her showing open distain for him to a level that some future conflict was brewing. The whole side plot with him being seperated from them and stuck with Quaritch is supposed to confuse him whether the Sully's are his real family or this dude who is his "biological" father is. That sideplot is there because the movie previously framed him as part of the Sully family.
I'm not arguing that it doesn't make sense Neytiri is willing to kill Spider - she's obviously in that moment overcome with grief to the point of rage - but that the movie ends without this very pivotal moment being addressed. Really, just a pensive look from Spider toward Neytiri, and then maybe the rest of the Sully's would've honestly been enough. Something to indicate that the family Spider once had or thought he once had is now irreparably fractured. But no, at the end of the movie he's just there with everyone, Jake even holding him close like his own son, being there for the funeral rite as if nothing had happened between him and Neytiri.
Neytiri might not have seen Spider as her son, but her threatening to cut him in half in front of her own kids and Jake should've prompted more of a response from any of them after the fact rather than none at all.
All of what you've said is pretty much true, but it doesn't make Spider part of the family ipso facto. Fiction and real life is full of examples of children who spend a lot of time with a friend's family for whatever reason, perhaps even more than their biological family, that doesn't make them family members ipso facto. While you're absolute correct in saying that Spider spends a lot of time with the Sullys, that he's effectively torn between his sort-of-but-not-really father (and own species) versus the people who helped raise him, with him ultimately choosing the latter at the very end, everything else, as I laid out above, solidifies that he's not a family member.
I agree, but to a point. If Way of Water existed in isolation, I'd be pointing out the same things, not only with what Neytiri does to Spider, but the rest of the Mekinaya as well (as in, there's this human around them, a member of an alien species who, up until now, has only wrecked havoc on their fellow clans and the tulkun). By any standard of storytelling, this isn't something that the story should just ignore. However, bearing in mind that Avatar 3 is fully written, I don't think it's a problem ipso facto, provided that Avatar 3 addresses it towards the start. Because by the time this happens, the film's over 3 hours long, and I could see it messing with the pacing if too much time was spent on it.
Not the best analogy in the world, but I'm reminded of the ending of The Two Towers, where after the film, a number of people were asking about Shelob, since the book ends with Frodo being captured by the orcs after she's stung him. I didn't bring that up at the time because I was reasonably confident that it would happen in the third film. Since both the LotR trilogy and Avatar 2/3 were filmed/written back-to-back, I'm willing for certain plot threads to play out later. If they don't, well...
The Mother: Whatever / Great
Ex-military sniper finds herself embroiled in illegal arms dealings, feigning love with two prominent men in the industry, gets knocked up, and upon her attempt to exit, involves the FBI. Illegal arms dealers, of course, are one step ahead, and attempt to kill her. She and her unborn baby survive, but the final deal she's dealt is that for the sake of her newborn child, she must disappear from her life. Fast-forward 12 years, illegal arms dealers kidnap her child from her adoptive family, so birth mother uses her specific skill set to retrieve her daughter.
I don't know how better to say it, but this film would have been a lot better if anyone other than Jennifer Lopez was the lead. She did a fine enough job, I just didn't buy her in this role; it felt too far out of her lane to be believable. Other than that, it was a rote commando fantasy with the mother/daughter drama rushed and unrealistic. Basically paint by numbers, i.e.: it was fine but uninspired.
Ex-military sniper finds herself embroiled in illegal arms dealings, feigning love with two prominent men in the industry, gets knocked up, and upon her attempt to exit, involves the FBI. Illegal arms dealers, of course, are one step ahead, and attempt to kill her. She and her unborn baby survive, but the final deal she's dealt is that for the sake of her newborn child, she must disappear from her life. Fast-forward 12 years, illegal arms dealers kidnap her child from her adoptive family, so birth mother uses her specific skill set to retrieve her daughter.
I don't know how better to say it, but this film would have been a lot better if anyone other than Jennifer Lopez was the lead. She did a fine enough job, I just didn't buy her in this role; it felt too far out of her lane to be believable. Other than that, it was a rote commando fantasy with the mother/daughter drama rushed and unrealistic. Basically paint by numbers, i.e.: it was fine but uninspired.
Across the Spider-verse for the third time. The grade is now a 9.99999/10. I just adore this movie. The only reason it's not a 10 is that the story is currently incomplete, beyond that I honestly can't come up with any criticisms about this movie. I just pick up on more and more stuff every time I've watched it: this time it was the score, and how the film naturally weaves jokes into meaningful character moments. If I really had to, I guess I could say that the movie is sometimes so overstimulating that it's hard to stay focused on the dialogue, but it's honestly the best I can do. And that doesn't even make the film confusing to follow, because all the important bits are conveyed perfectly understandably. I initially had some issues with the pacing, but this time the entire movie felt lightning fast. A movie like this comes out like once every 10 years, but we're getting the sequel next year. It truly feels like every frame, every nanosecond of runtime, every single letter of the script, was scientifically calculated with quantum precision for maximum effectiveness.
Okay, so one complaint I have about this movie, and also the previous one, which will make me come across as the biggest fucking weeb, but whatever... I kinda hate how Peni Parker looks faux anime as opposed to genuinely anime. You can tell it's this semi-3D/flash animated anime style, and considering the gargantuan effort put in the animation of these movies, they could've gotten an animator on board experiened with traditional anime style character animation. It just kinda bugs me that in a movie this stylish, the one character from an equally stylish type of animation feels so visually short changed. A lot of times she just looks like almost a cardboard cut-out in comparison to the other characters in the scene.
Similar with the Spectacular Spider-Man cameo. I'm not even very familiar with this show, but I do know it's 2D animated, and seeing that frankly ugly 3D model just for a few seconds was rather off-putting.
I can see where you're coming from, but it didn't bother me much, because I was too distracted by her dull eyes of sadness and emptiness to care. My brain literally shouted "What have you done to her?!". Also, hearing about the crunch everything behind the scenes, I am not going to cry about some minor slip ups. They haven't even started story boarding the third movie yet! Yeah, at this point, if I wait until summer of 2024, I am not going to be a baby about it. Those animators on the lower end deserve so much more.
I'll leave you with these:
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Nimona 2023
While I normally ignore most animated features, even pixar at this point Nimona had been on my radar since trailers came out featuring the titular Nimona, a sort of angry kitten manic punk dream girl shape shifter. While trailer itself didn't blow me away there was something curious about the style that intrigued me.
Im pleased to say I quite liked it. I was really expecting it to be another low budget shovelware cartoon shoved on Netflix. Instead the artwork is really pretty and despite some elements being derivative overall it was very fun and unique. Its far above anything pixar has put out in a while.
TBH though Nimona really carries the film. They took this kinda neat path of making her hyper-stylized in the vein of across the Spider-verse. Shes constantly shifting and moving in cool ways and her emoting is always in tune with it. Its hard to describe without you just seeing it for yourself. Even if youre not interested in the story its worth checking out for the animation. I doubt it will take long before the internet is flooded with gifs of her shifting. They really pushed limits with having every part of her articulate as she moves. Not occasionally, it is constant.
The story itself is largely about discrimination. This entire culture is built inside a walled kingdom. Apparently a thousand years ago a monster attacked and so their whole society revolves around their antimonster religion. Its a hyper advanced culture with flying cars and cybernetics, but the police are all knights because thats their origin.
The protagonist is forced into hiding due to mishap and a monster girl seeking to destroy the kingdom forces her way into being his sidekick on his quest to clear his name, but mostly shes just bored and lonely, being an outcast herself. Puting a magnifying glass on it theres some subtle themes about transgenderism, but its very subtle. The movie has more of a general lean into simply not making assumptions about people and not being xenophobic.
Overall Id give it a solid 8/10. If I had to give it some criticism, they leaned a bit too much into kids being the target audience. While most of the writing is clever this is more Frozen than Spider-verse.
While I normally ignore most animated features, even pixar at this point Nimona had been on my radar since trailers came out featuring the titular Nimona, a sort of angry kitten manic punk dream girl shape shifter. While trailer itself didn't blow me away there was something curious about the style that intrigued me.
Im pleased to say I quite liked it. I was really expecting it to be another low budget shovelware cartoon shoved on Netflix. Instead the artwork is really pretty and despite some elements being derivative overall it was very fun and unique. Its far above anything pixar has put out in a while.
TBH though Nimona really carries the film. They took this kinda neat path of making her hyper-stylized in the vein of across the Spider-verse. Shes constantly shifting and moving in cool ways and her emoting is always in tune with it. Its hard to describe without you just seeing it for yourself. Even if youre not interested in the story its worth checking out for the animation. I doubt it will take long before the internet is flooded with gifs of her shifting. They really pushed limits with having every part of her articulate as she moves. Not occasionally, it is constant.
The story itself is largely about discrimination. This entire culture is built inside a walled kingdom. Apparently a thousand years ago a monster attacked and so their whole society revolves around their antimonster religion. Its a hyper advanced culture with flying cars and cybernetics, but the police are all knights because thats their origin.
The protagonist is forced into hiding due to mishap and a monster girl seeking to destroy the kingdom forces her way into being his sidekick on his quest to clear his name, but mostly shes just bored and lonely, being an outcast herself. Puting a magnifying glass on it theres some subtle themes about transgenderism, but its very subtle. The movie has more of a general lean into simply not making assumptions about people and not being xenophobic.
Overall Id give it a solid 8/10. If I had to give it some criticism, they leaned a bit too much into kids being the target audience. While most of the writing is clever this is more Frozen than Spider-verse.
I watched Nimona and it wasn't exactly great. This feels like a movie that can't really pin itself down, from it's setting to its themes, and even its characters. The world of knights and castles but furturistic doesn't congeal into anything that your brain can really get behind. The structure of the movie itself is rather shaky, with plot points kinda racing by and being resolved without much fanfare - this probably should've been a series. The biggest problem is its themes of discrimination and demonisation, which in true kids movie fashion just get solved with a nice little bow. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if the movie itself didn't make a point of saying that prejudice isn't tied to just one bad guy, but is actually systematic, only to take a thousand years of bigotry infused into the very walls of this society and go 'yeah, but it's over now, and we're not racist anymore'. Fuck off.
Though there actually are one or two quite effective emotional scenes in this movie. Also, I fully expected to hate Nimona as a character, what with her looking like the typical punk, not-like-other-girls, "hellraiser", but she was actually a rather entertaining character. There were a few kinda cringey attempts at 'oh no she didn't' comedy, but overall she was pretty cool.
But yeah, this movie just kinda flounders.
Though there actually are one or two quite effective emotional scenes in this movie. Also, I fully expected to hate Nimona as a character, what with her looking like the typical punk, not-like-other-girls, "hellraiser", but she was actually a rather entertaining character. There were a few kinda cringey attempts at 'oh no she didn't' comedy, but overall she was pretty cool.
But yeah, this movie just kinda flounders.
She was more believable in Enough, but yeah this was just Hollywood attempting to cash in on her looks while they’re still relevant. I’m a sucker though as it ultimately didn’t bother me
I get where you're coming from, but at the same time I don't think just having straight up 2D characters mixed into the 3D animation would have looked much better. The lighting in the movie(s) is far too complex for 2D animation to be consistent with IMO.
The animators of Roger Rabbit would like to have a word with you, after that scene where the title character bumps his head on a ceiling lamp and his shadows are meticulously animated for all of less than 5 seconds...Okay, for a full running time, you might have a point.
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets:
I generally like Luc Besson movies. They're shlocky and fun and usually visually interesting. This movie felt like a complete misstep, and it was almost completely down to almost every character being miscast. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne have absolutely no chemistry and are just not very good actors overall. They kind of ruin every scene that they're in, which is a problem since they play the main characters and are in almost every single scene.
The Northman:
A bunch of conservatives claim that this should have won best picture, and I'm pretty sure they're just really into seeing naked men with swords. Really REALLY into it. Probably why they have such raging erections for 300 as well.
I generally like Luc Besson movies. They're shlocky and fun and usually visually interesting. This movie felt like a complete misstep, and it was almost completely down to almost every character being miscast. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne have absolutely no chemistry and are just not very good actors overall. They kind of ruin every scene that they're in, which is a problem since they play the main characters and are in almost every single scene.
The Northman:
A bunch of conservatives claim that this should have won best picture, and I'm pretty sure they're just really into seeing naked men with swords. Really REALLY into it. Probably why they have such raging erections for 300 as well.
I liked the very beginning, before the main cast show up or even appear in the credits. But yeah, otherwise meh. Watchable if you are on your computer not watching it.
Also, I really hate the common thing of the supposedly trained people on an important mission being as incompetent and unprofessional as possible to make them...relatable?
Back to the Future trilogy
Part 1 - 7/10
Part 2 - 5/10
Part 3 - 7/10
I realized that I hardly remember much about Back to the Future, I knew I had seen them as a kid but that's about it. For the most part they are just nice/fun enough movies, but I don't really feel the magic of these either. I think I'll end up mainly forgetting them again because I don't think I'll have any reason to give these a rewatch. I really was hating how dragged out Marty trying to get the sports almanac back in Part 2 lasted. It's not quite a 1:1 comparison but it's the best way for me to explain it; I hate when misunderstandings are dragged out too long and the whole trying to get back the sports almanac felt like that to me, and I just kept looking at the time left in the movie constantly hoping it was almost over. One thing that was pretty surprising for me was that you'd think they would let Jennifer (Marty's girlfriend) go on one of the adventures just to switch up the dynamic, but she's always knocked out on the porch the whole time.
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Team America: World Police - 8/10
I felt it was a good time to give Team America a rewatch with it being the 4th of July and all. The movie really holds up for the most part, it's obviously more so direct commentary on 9/11 but most of it still works for general American global military operations. Just the beginning where they blow up the Eiffel Tower and Louvre and declare "We've stopped the terrorists!!!" is still just as biting today as it was when the filmed released. All the songs are, of course, great but are somewhat disappointingly short. The dick, pussy, and asshole bit/speech is still fucking perfect.
Part 1 - 7/10
Part 2 - 5/10
Part 3 - 7/10
I realized that I hardly remember much about Back to the Future, I knew I had seen them as a kid but that's about it. For the most part they are just nice/fun enough movies, but I don't really feel the magic of these either. I think I'll end up mainly forgetting them again because I don't think I'll have any reason to give these a rewatch. I really was hating how dragged out Marty trying to get the sports almanac back in Part 2 lasted. It's not quite a 1:1 comparison but it's the best way for me to explain it; I hate when misunderstandings are dragged out too long and the whole trying to get back the sports almanac felt like that to me, and I just kept looking at the time left in the movie constantly hoping it was almost over. One thing that was pretty surprising for me was that you'd think they would let Jennifer (Marty's girlfriend) go on one of the adventures just to switch up the dynamic, but she's always knocked out on the porch the whole time.
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Team America: World Police - 8/10
I felt it was a good time to give Team America a rewatch with it being the 4th of July and all. The movie really holds up for the most part, it's obviously more so direct commentary on 9/11 but most of it still works for general American global military operations. Just the beginning where they blow up the Eiffel Tower and Louvre and declare "We've stopped the terrorists!!!" is still just as biting today as it was when the filmed released. All the songs are, of course, great but are somewhat disappointingly short. The dick, pussy, and asshole bit/speech is still fucking perfect.
I might have to watch that again. All I remember is the "sex scene," and that I about puked I was laughing so hard.
Conservatives, KKK, and Neo-Nazis have always been parasitic leeches when it comes to Norse, Roman, or Greek culture. Especially when it comes to Norse. Thinking they know everything, and justifying their racist, sexist, or dogmatic views to put down others. Actual Norse/Viking experts, or those with genuine interests, have called out this attitude for decades, and will always tell those KKK assholes to fuck off.
‘The Northman’ Tried to Reclaim Vikings From White Supremacists, Forgot They're Not That Smart
Robert Eggers wanted to reclaim Viking history and Norse mythology from white supremacists who have used them as symbols of white pride and culture.
www.themarysue.com
The Northman: Vikings, Nazis, and Historical Accuracy
The Northman didn't owe us a Viking tale that refuted Nazis co-opting Norse culture, but the way it understands its…
www.pastemagazine.com
At least in Enough, Lopez was a battered wife who'd had, well "enough," and took matters into her own hands. I just didn't buy her as an expert military sniper. She didn't necessarily perform badly by any stretch; it's just that her reputation in much different styles of film and a Pop music career precede her just enough that this specific part was a bridge too far, imho.She was more believable in Enough, but yeah this was just Hollywood attempting to cash in on her looks while they’re still relevant. I’m a sucker though as it ultimately didn’t bother me
This would have been a perfect role for Michelle Rodriguez. At this point, I'm convinced the badass women she has portrayed is who she is in real life. Like, I'd be shocked if I met her, and she didn't put me in a headlock or armbar within the first 30 seconds (I've also fantasized about those exact things. Don't judge me.)
Was she wearing a black tank top, though?