I love all the above equally. Though I do favor Ragnarök and Winter Soldier more than GotG.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
- Thread starter Th3Ch33s3Cak3
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I'm surprised you haven't seen the Ant Man movies to date then as they are at least on par with Ragnarok, which I mention as it is on the lighter side of Marvel movies. Lot to enjoy in them. Hope you'll give 'em a chance some day.
I know the Ant-Man films aren't bad, but I have so much other new shows to watch, and I am not interested. It doesn't help that MCU apathy is starting to set in, aside from some exceptions.
Oh boy, my MCU fatigue set in about 2015. I preferred Ant Man, Dr. Strange and Ragnarok just because they moved off the beaten track.
List of movies by year:
List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
I don't include the Spiderman movies. They're Sony.
Marvel does have its challenges. For me, fatigue isn't the issue. I'm kinda a loon about this stuff. But we do need quality stuff and we've been getting stuff that is OK, at a time when the industry is democratizing. More sources and types of movies are out there. They do need to do better than just OK.
That's big problem. They're rushing these films out on an assembly line, instead of taking their time like beforehand. Though some I wouldn't call "ok". Not to mention, a lot of the CG in most shows and some of the movies look like shit, because of said rushing to "meet demand". Most sane viewers didn't ask to rush these out (though I admit certain MCU fans are part of the problem). That was all you Disney. Disney taking a more "hands-on" approach for the already announced Phase 5, when they're not even done with Phase 4 yet, does not fill me with any enthusiasm.
So I saw Antman. Its fine. Fine. B+. Great? Nah. Good? Some scenes are good. And that's kinda the major problem with Antman 3. Its not a movie, with like a structured beginning, middle, end. Its a series of scenes, loosely cut to follow a chronological order, with some very clear redundancies and it all just kinda...ends.
Like okay, no spoilers as its in the trailers, but Cassie, Scott's daughter has a shrinking suit now, and is on her way to being Stature, of the Young Avengers.
But Scott learning she has a suit happens 3 separate times in the movie. And its clearly 3 separate versions of this scene from 3 separate scripts. One scene is early on, Scoot and Cassie are in the car and she says "I have a suit" and Scott is all "You have a suit?!"
Later there's a battle in the small land, and Cassie is in her suit and goes "Okay dad, I have a suit" and Scott is all "You have a suit?!"
Then at the end of the movie Cassie is all "So...this is my suit." and Scott is all "You have a suit?!"
This happens with multiple scenes. Janets' reintroduction with Kang for the first time in years? Happens like 3 times. Kang telling the heroes what his plan is? Like 3 times.
There are secondary characters they don't introduce who are then later part of the plot, with a name and all, but their intros were cut from one or another script.
Now its admirably and skillfully put together. Dr. Frankenstein did make a living person from scrap. If you're willing to overlook with heavy iron staples and smell of rotting flesh, its a very impressive achievement.
So to with Antman 3. If you overlook the continuity errors and weird editing and slapdash CGI, its fine. Consider this praise by exception. Things I didn't mention are fine.
Like okay, no spoilers as its in the trailers, but Cassie, Scott's daughter has a shrinking suit now, and is on her way to being Stature, of the Young Avengers.
But Scott learning she has a suit happens 3 separate times in the movie. And its clearly 3 separate versions of this scene from 3 separate scripts. One scene is early on, Scoot and Cassie are in the car and she says "I have a suit" and Scott is all "You have a suit?!"
Later there's a battle in the small land, and Cassie is in her suit and goes "Okay dad, I have a suit" and Scott is all "You have a suit?!"
Then at the end of the movie Cassie is all "So...this is my suit." and Scott is all "You have a suit?!"
This happens with multiple scenes. Janets' reintroduction with Kang for the first time in years? Happens like 3 times. Kang telling the heroes what his plan is? Like 3 times.
There are secondary characters they don't introduce who are then later part of the plot, with a name and all, but their intros were cut from one or another script.
Now its admirably and skillfully put together. Dr. Frankenstein did make a living person from scrap. If you're willing to overlook with heavy iron staples and smell of rotting flesh, its a very impressive achievement.
So to with Antman 3. If you overlook the continuity errors and weird editing and slapdash CGI, its fine. Consider this praise by exception. Things I didn't mention are fine.
Orphan: First Kill
Let’s just say it’s a slow period on the Fire TV, and I’m not watching Megan for my crazy chic flick kicks until this Friday when it’s on Peacock.
Anyways, it’s the same actress, different family now, and it’s a prequel of a thirteen year old movie. Kinda awkward since it’s pretty obvious even not having seen the original in years that she’s aged based on bone structure alone. She somehow also appears to have more experience under her pigtails in the devious murder department. I guess it’s fine if you turn your brain off and like creepy shock horror. Julia Stiles was a bit of a pleasantly unpleasant surprise, as I thought she quit acting.
In all, it made me want to rewatch the original to figure out how it’s still sitting at an impressive 7.0 on IMDb, and why they decided to make a prequel of it based on a child when she’s an adult now.
Let’s just say it’s a slow period on the Fire TV, and I’m not watching Megan for my crazy chic flick kicks until this Friday when it’s on Peacock.
Anyways, it’s the same actress, different family now, and it’s a prequel of a thirteen year old movie. Kinda awkward since it’s pretty obvious even not having seen the original in years that she’s aged based on bone structure alone. She somehow also appears to have more experience under her pigtails in the devious murder department. I guess it’s fine if you turn your brain off and like creepy shock horror. Julia Stiles was a bit of a pleasantly unpleasant surprise, as I thought she quit acting.
In all, it made me want to rewatch the original to figure out how it’s still sitting at an impressive 7.0 on IMDb, and why they decided to make a prequel of it based on a child when she’s an adult now.
I would think a lot more of them... if I hadn't seen the earlier ones. They're all good Blockbusters on an individual level - but it's just too much that's too similar.List of movies by year:
Some great stuff came out since 2015, starting with Captain America Civil War.List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films - Wikipedia
Part of the fun of films is seeing what different creators do with the work. But an awful lot of MCU seems set by the studio, who then put a competent safe pair of hands in to colour in the numbers. I can't help but feel that if you saw these films from an alternative universe where Jon Favreau, Kenneth Branagh, Shane Black etc. had all been swapped around to different films, you'd barely notice the difference.
Absent
And twice is the only way to live.
- Jan 25, 2023
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- The boring one
This alone makes me want to watch it, now.
I was watching Deep Impact but the dog stood on the controller and pressed something so it's been buffering for five minutes now. Really hard to recommend.
Shocker - Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is pretty amazing. Early, but contender for favorite film of the year so far. Context - I only watched it because the internet is gushing over it, shrek is fine, but I couldn't even tell you what the last movie in the SCU I watched. Shrek 3 maybe? Anyway, movies great there's not much to say beyond that. Deep interesting story, excellent character arcs, tear jerker moments, funny bits.
10/10 - Hollywood basically just pays Antonio Banderas to be Antonio Banderas at this point and he delivers the gas.
outie 5000 b
10/10 - Hollywood basically just pays Antonio Banderas to be Antonio Banderas at this point and he delivers the gas.
outie 5000 b
Plane - "That's what men do!" / 10
Gerald Butler plays a pilot that crash lands so well (because higher ups don't listen to him and he was right) that the best plan is to get everyone back on the plane to escape and all that was done to fix the plane was turning the plane off and back on again literally. When told he needs to get to 3,000 feet to stay in the air, he's like "Negative, we have no fucking doors, don't tell me what I already know, find me a place to land!!!"
Gerald Butler plays a pilot that crash lands so well (because higher ups don't listen to him and he was right) that the best plan is to get everyone back on the plane to escape and all that was done to fix the plane was turning the plane off and back on again literally. When told he needs to get to 3,000 feet to stay in the air, he's like "Negative, we have no fucking doors, don't tell me what I already know, find me a place to land!!!"
The Sting
My idea of a Fun Movie. Redford and Newman are fun protagonists. Shaw is a fun villain. I love to hate him, love to torture him, love that he never figures it out. Movie looks great, pace never lets up, side characters are strong enough to take over Redford/Newman/Shaw from time to time though I wish they were developed a bit more. Generally it's a lot of fun to just watch the characters prepare all the cons and act them out, twists within twists et al. I'd forgotten all about the twist involving Salino, which was a "pleasant" shocker.
Also found out the actor playing Luther was James Earl Jones' dad, and it's something you absolutely cannot unhear one you learn this.
My idea of a Fun Movie. Redford and Newman are fun protagonists. Shaw is a fun villain. I love to hate him, love to torture him, love that he never figures it out. Movie looks great, pace never lets up, side characters are strong enough to take over Redford/Newman/Shaw from time to time though I wish they were developed a bit more. Generally it's a lot of fun to just watch the characters prepare all the cons and act them out, twists within twists et al. I'd forgotten all about the twist involving Salino, which was a "pleasant" shocker.
Also found out the actor playing Luther was James Earl Jones' dad, and it's something you absolutely cannot unhear one you learn this.
Yeah, Quantumania is basically CGI wrapped around the need to hit 4 or 5 bullet points to setup future movies.
I also don't know why you'd put Kang in direct physical conflict this early on. Dude's "power" is "I have future guns/armour" and being a geinus with knowledge of time travel. He doesn't get to do the time travel in this movie, so they're basically fighting a slightly futuristic Iron Man who's been stuck here and running out of his tech.
It's kind of weird they had Thanos, who has the brute force power to take on the heroes, sit back for like 9 movies before doing it himself (although given he gets the stones so quickly and effortlessly in Infinity War, it begs the question why he ever bothered with Ronin and Loki and co), but Kang who should more cunning and less into direct confrontations is somehow getting into a one on one punchup with Ant Man
I also don't know why you'd put Kang in direct physical conflict this early on. Dude's "power" is "I have future guns/armour" and being a geinus with knowledge of time travel. He doesn't get to do the time travel in this movie, so they're basically fighting a slightly futuristic Iron Man who's been stuck here and running out of his tech.
It's kind of weird they had Thanos, who has the brute force power to take on the heroes, sit back for like 9 movies before doing it himself (although given he gets the stones so quickly and effortlessly in Infinity War, it begs the question why he ever bothered with Ronin and Loki and co), but Kang who should more cunning and less into direct confrontations is somehow getting into a one on one punchup with Ant Man
To be fair the original MCU movies were very slapdash and fly-by-night with their lore and larger universe building. They had no idea the MCU would stick, let alone become the biggest brand ever in the history of ever. So all the little things with Thanos were them having fun, "Oh look its Thanos nerds! Nerd out!" in a light hearted way.
Now, as an established brand, they need to do world building. When Iron Man 2 or Thor came out, we still didn't really know if we'd get to the Avengers. Now we 10000% know Secret Wars is in the works and is gonna come out. So they have to be a little more firm and blatant with their larger plot building. Its no longer "Oh wouldn't it be cool if we got to Avengers and Thanos." now its "we ARE getting to Kang and Battle World, so we gotta start laying bricks"
I mean, to basically summarize it, Quantumania is essentially:
This is Kang, he is big bad. We won't show you why though just talk about it a lot, and he'll lose vs the hero of this movie because obligatory.
Also here's Cassie Lang, she also has powers now, this will probably be important later.
The people who's actual movie it is have basically nothing to do in it but hang out. Even introducing Kang and Cassie have very little groundwork put into them in the movie, its essentially a trailer that requires you to know who Kang is and what his deal is and the announcements for phase 4/5, and an even more niche comic geek knowledge to know why Cassie is at all relevant to any of that (unless they've announced Young Avengers or whatever and I just don't pay attention)
Lightyear
disappointing/10
I finally sat down and watched this. I was pretty intrigued on prerelease, but one of the trailers spoiled a plot twist, there was a bunch of controversy and the reviews were pretty middling so I've been avoiding it forever. Surprise, I was pretty disappointed, but not in the way the media seems to think I should be.
There's this narrative around the film that fans were mad a buzz lightyear spin off isn't about the toy. I find that kind of horseshit, media clickbait. I think there was always an assumption that the toys were based on a real thing. That's literally the plot of the Toy Story 2. That said I acknowledge people probably weren't sure what to think. It was unclear how it played into Toy Story at all, was it a fictional movie? or a real life event? In Toy Story? Unrelated? I can see "some" being uncertain about it.
What I think was a larger contributing factor was "Pixar fatigue". At this point Disney had really started ramping up alternating film schedules, rapid firing yearly Pixar films for 5 years straight and already had a couple of stinkers under it's belt. Additionally while the first trailer was pretty hype, the additional trailers added some confusion about the trajectory of the story. You can see a similar story happening at the same time with both Marvel and Star Wars.
In theory if it were a banger then media hype would have carried it over that hump, but that's where it just really fell on it's face. I'm gonna say spoilers here, but its been out for nearly a year so anyone who really cares has already seen it.
Lightyear is full of problems. The movie starts off with Buzz being the most unprofessional astronaut/ranger imaginable which immediately causes this colony ship to be stranded on a hostile planet. You really start the movie off thinking "Wow this guy is an unlikable ass" and not in a particularly amusing way. Then they invent a fuel that could potentially take them home. Buzz tests the fuel only for the fuel to turn out to be a failure and 4 years having passed due to time dilation during his test run. At this point we start a bizarre montage of Buzz testing the fuel over and over as 60 years pass, 4 years every time he tries. On his last attempt he returns to find his friends long dead and further missions canceled. What's strange is that theres no illustration to show you they made improvements or experimented with the fuel over time which would explain them giving up on it. It's quite literally the definition of insanity with him just nonsensically trying the same fuel over and over. So his mission is canceled with them saying cheerfully that they accept being stuck on the planet and will just put a shield over their colony, which also is a tad illogical with no consideration to the statistical guarantee that the colony will expand over time.
He returns to his cabin to find his toy robot cat has solved the fuel problem. Instead of taking this to his boss he decides to steal a ship and prove the fuel, this is put in motion by them nonsensically deciding to take his toy cat...cause reasons?
Anyway he escapes, does his thing, only to leap 20 years into the future where he finds out the colony is under attack and enlists some goobers to help him save it. This is where things really roll down hill. The next 30-45 minutes are spent with his team sabotaging his every attempt to save the colony. Like badly, they mess up everything. It's supposed to be funny, but It's not because the situation is so dire, its just depressing. By the end of the extended subplot Buzz is left in a deep depression, as is the audience. We hate all of these characters. We dont know where the story is going and we are just sad.
The last act starts to pull things together with an interesting twist on time traveling and his crew redeeming themselves, but by this point the moment is lost and you're just kinda sunk in your chair waiting for the movie to end so you can go eat. It also has a kind of stupid ending.
It's shame because I think the biggest flaw is that they tried to have their cake and eat it too. They tried to make a serious Pixar movie, but also make a typical Pixar goofy derivative overly comedic redemption story so it's full of plot holes anyone over the age of 5 would question. It also just wasn't that interesting. You look at Wall-e and its an amazing product made with love with a very serious story and goofy characters, but it works, it's got a nice pacing clip and you aren't constantly needing things explained to you.
Lightyear is not a "terrible" movie. It'sjust a big misfire. I do not think the right people were there during scripting to ask the right questions and hold the reigns. I think people really over value movie logic. You can get away with a lot, but it's gotta work well within the context enough for the audience to want to be along for the ride. I can't in good conscience recommend this film to anyone. There's no redeeming qualities here.
0/10 out of ten on this one.
disappointing/10
I finally sat down and watched this. I was pretty intrigued on prerelease, but one of the trailers spoiled a plot twist, there was a bunch of controversy and the reviews were pretty middling so I've been avoiding it forever. Surprise, I was pretty disappointed, but not in the way the media seems to think I should be.
There's this narrative around the film that fans were mad a buzz lightyear spin off isn't about the toy. I find that kind of horseshit, media clickbait. I think there was always an assumption that the toys were based on a real thing. That's literally the plot of the Toy Story 2. That said I acknowledge people probably weren't sure what to think. It was unclear how it played into Toy Story at all, was it a fictional movie? or a real life event? In Toy Story? Unrelated? I can see "some" being uncertain about it.
What I think was a larger contributing factor was "Pixar fatigue". At this point Disney had really started ramping up alternating film schedules, rapid firing yearly Pixar films for 5 years straight and already had a couple of stinkers under it's belt. Additionally while the first trailer was pretty hype, the additional trailers added some confusion about the trajectory of the story. You can see a similar story happening at the same time with both Marvel and Star Wars.
In theory if it were a banger then media hype would have carried it over that hump, but that's where it just really fell on it's face. I'm gonna say spoilers here, but its been out for nearly a year so anyone who really cares has already seen it.
Lightyear is full of problems. The movie starts off with Buzz being the most unprofessional astronaut/ranger imaginable which immediately causes this colony ship to be stranded on a hostile planet. You really start the movie off thinking "Wow this guy is an unlikable ass" and not in a particularly amusing way. Then they invent a fuel that could potentially take them home. Buzz tests the fuel only for the fuel to turn out to be a failure and 4 years having passed due to time dilation during his test run. At this point we start a bizarre montage of Buzz testing the fuel over and over as 60 years pass, 4 years every time he tries. On his last attempt he returns to find his friends long dead and further missions canceled. What's strange is that theres no illustration to show you they made improvements or experimented with the fuel over time which would explain them giving up on it. It's quite literally the definition of insanity with him just nonsensically trying the same fuel over and over. So his mission is canceled with them saying cheerfully that they accept being stuck on the planet and will just put a shield over their colony, which also is a tad illogical with no consideration to the statistical guarantee that the colony will expand over time.
He returns to his cabin to find his toy robot cat has solved the fuel problem. Instead of taking this to his boss he decides to steal a ship and prove the fuel, this is put in motion by them nonsensically deciding to take his toy cat...cause reasons?
Anyway he escapes, does his thing, only to leap 20 years into the future where he finds out the colony is under attack and enlists some goobers to help him save it. This is where things really roll down hill. The next 30-45 minutes are spent with his team sabotaging his every attempt to save the colony. Like badly, they mess up everything. It's supposed to be funny, but It's not because the situation is so dire, its just depressing. By the end of the extended subplot Buzz is left in a deep depression, as is the audience. We hate all of these characters. We dont know where the story is going and we are just sad.
The last act starts to pull things together with an interesting twist on time traveling and his crew redeeming themselves, but by this point the moment is lost and you're just kinda sunk in your chair waiting for the movie to end so you can go eat. It also has a kind of stupid ending.
It's shame because I think the biggest flaw is that they tried to have their cake and eat it too. They tried to make a serious Pixar movie, but also make a typical Pixar goofy derivative overly comedic redemption story so it's full of plot holes anyone over the age of 5 would question. It also just wasn't that interesting. You look at Wall-e and its an amazing product made with love with a very serious story and goofy characters, but it works, it's got a nice pacing clip and you aren't constantly needing things explained to you.
Lightyear is not a "terrible" movie. It'sjust a big misfire. I do not think the right people were there during scripting to ask the right questions and hold the reigns. I think people really over value movie logic. You can get away with a lot, but it's gotta work well within the context enough for the audience to want to be along for the ride. I can't in good conscience recommend this film to anyone. There's no redeeming qualities here.
0/10 out of ten on this one.
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A ★★★★ review of Moana (2016)
Another very solid movie from Disney, but a few things that held it back for me. The film follows the title character (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) as she dreams of going beyond the reef where her village is, but as the daughter of the chieftain Tui (Temuera Morrison), she is repeatedly (and I do...
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