Escape to the Movies: The Maze Runner - Where's a Minotaur When You Need One?

Revolutionary

Pub Club Am Broken
May 30, 2009
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I really feel like this shows doesn't need scores, I know marketing data wil tell you that people like scores. But as a loyal viewer I think it detracts from the review, I prefer qualitative reviews over arbitrary numbers.
 

Muspelheim

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Grabehn said:
It lookd mediocre until I heard "cliffhanger ending" FUCK THAT! A while ago I watched the Golden Compass on TV and it was fine (so it before, but somehow being in Spanish made it a bit better than in English) and It was watchable until the "Oh yeah, there's no ending cuz franchise" which obviously didn't happen, and all my GF said was "OH FUCK THIS MOVIE" and that was about it.

I get that these studios gamble on the "let's hope teens watch this shit cuz *other franchise* made it" but at least give your shit movie a proper ending if you don't actually know if you're gonna make it to the second one, that at least gives it a chance to be a good experience on its own... Fuck The Golden Compass.
I pretended that the aeronaut cowboy got drunk and crashed the airship. If they were too busy building a franchise to make an ending, it's best to make one up yourself.
 

Erttheking

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inu-kun said:
I demand another film to be made but this time with an all female community instead of an all male community, because clearly my opinion is more important and the studios owe it to me and if they refuse I'll bash them for being sexist.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SV2t29C9Hc4/Udip0f3dFUI/AAAAAAAAAS4/6Kjr827vRPw/s1600/Strawman+playbackups+com.jpg

Also what does your post have to do with anything going on in this comment section?

OT: It looked like an interesting concept. Shame the execution fell flat. BTW can someone PM me what the big let down reveal is? (I still find if funny that when I first saw the maze in a trailer my mind went "TITAAAAAAANS!)
 

nondescript

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Oct 2, 2009
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I can pretty much scroll past MovieBob reviews now.

Twilight - tween movie - "Kill it with fire."
The Maze Runner - Teen Movie - "it wasn't good enough"
Hunger Games - Teen movie - "Not believable"
The Giver - Teen Movie - "I'm only watching this 'cause nothing good is on"
Divergent - Teen movie - "it stinks"


Sir, I won't fault you your opinions, but I sense a theme.
 

Hawki

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nondescript said:
I can pretty much scroll past MovieBob reviews now.

Twilight - tween movie - "Kill it with fire."
The Maze Runner - Teen Movie - "it wasn't good enough"
Hunger Games - Teen movie - "Not believable"
The Giver - Teen Movie - "I'm only watching this 'cause nothing good is on"
Divergent - Teen movie - "it stinks"


Sir, I won't fault you your opinions, but I sense a theme.
Well, yeah. I think that's pretty much a given. Something that stuck out in the review was the mention of TMR coming from a young adult book series "that I've never read." And I'm left to ask, if MB hadn't read the various Marvel comics prior to the MCU films (which IMO, are average AT BEST), would his reaction be as positive? Would anyone's? Kinda off-topic but, I'm sorry, I can't really call any of the MCU films "good" bar the first 'Iron Man' (the ones that I've seen at least), but as I've never been one for superhero comics (comics themselves are fine, just never got into the superhero genre of them) I have to ask, are they meant for me? Would I have enjoyed films such as 'The Adventures of Tintin' or 'Ender's Game' if I hadn't read the comics/novel beforehand?

So yeah, MB has his prejudices and likes. But I can't fault him for having them in themselves as long as effort is made to evaluate films on their own terms. As a personal example, I consider 'The Desolation of Smaug' to be a good film, but a poor adaptation, capturing none of the spirit of the book it's based on (which I loved and still love) But as long as it works as a film, that's what matters at the end of the day.
 

nondescript

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Hawki said:
nondescript said:
I can pretty much scroll past MovieBob reviews now.

Twilight - tween movie - "Kill it with fire."
The Maze Runner - Teen Movie - "it wasn't good enough"
Hunger Games - Teen movie - "Not believable"
The Giver - Teen Movie - "I'm only watching this 'cause nothing good is on"
Divergent - Teen movie - "it stinks"


Sir, I won't fault you your opinions, but I sense a theme.
Well, yeah. I think that's pretty much a given. Something that stuck out in the review was the mention of TMR coming from a young adult book series "that I've never read." And I'm left to ask, if MB hadn't read the various Marvel comics prior to the MCU films (which IMO, are average AT BEST), would his reaction be as positive? Would anyone's? Kinda off-topic but, I'm sorry, I can't really call any of the MCU films "good" bar the first 'Iron Man' (the ones that I've seen at least), but as I've never been one for superhero comics (comics themselves are fine, just never got into the superhero genre of them) I have to ask, are they meant for me? Would I have enjoyed films such as 'The Adventures of Tintin' or 'Ender's Game' if I hadn't read the comics/novel beforehand?

So yeah, MB has his prejudices and likes. But I can't fault him for having them in themselves as long as effort is made to evaluate films on their own terms. As a personal example, I consider 'The Desolation of Smaug' to be a good film, but a poor adaptation, capturing none of the spirit of the book it's based on (which I loved and still love) But as long as it works as a film, that's what matters at the end of the day.
I prefer to judge them on a single merit: Did I have fun watching it, or did I wish I was doing something else?

I don't care if he has a prejudice against them, but as a reviewer, I would think MB would strive for something close to objective. Otherwise, why have him tell you his version of the movie?
 

Hawki

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"Fun" can work to a point, but it depends on the film. Did I have "fun" watching GotG? Yes, but I can't call it that good.

On the flipside there's films for me such as 'Blade Runner' and 'Apocalypse Now'. I can't really call them "fun" films, as one can't get the full impact of them unless full attention is paid. But I consider both films to be excellent.

Of course, I can consider a film to be both excellent AND fun (e.g. 'The Wolf of Wall Street') or "unfun" and "bad" (2001: A Space Odyssey'...yeah, sorry about that), but as far as my personal assessments of movies go, I usually treat "fun" as a separate entity - cinematography, acting, writing, etc. all add to a film, but don't define the overall quality/lack of it by themselves at the end of the day.

IMO of course - sorry if this thread hijacking. :)
 

Triality

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May 9, 2011
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A good story stands on the merits of its own content. A story that depends on viewers being forgiving enough to give its sequel a chance to finish the job that the first one began is condescending as a storyteller. Trying to spread a jar of jam on an olympic pool sized toast sounds amazing, until you notice all the bland empty bread with no delicious jam.

One more thing. An audience, reader, viewer can forgive a story with a terrible opening for an incredible ending. An audience, reader, viewer will never forgive and gladly forget a story with an incredible opening but an unsatisfying ending.
 

killerbee256

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BigTuk said:
So basically. Hunger games... but skewed towards boys?
Worse the hunger games plot is some what sensible. I looked up the the "twist" bob was talking about and it's ridiculously stupid, think cube meets the stand.
 

linforcer

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I've never seen the village but I read the plot on the wikipedia article, and it always seemed like I would have enjoyed that twist... Is it so badly executed, or am I just weird?
 

itsmeyouidiot

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inu-kun said:
I demand another film to be made but this time with an all female community instead of an all male community, because clearly my opinion is more important and the studios owe it to me and if they refuse I'll bash them for being sexist.

You guys will literally find any reason you can to play the victim to SJWs, won't you?

Grow up.
 

elvor0

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Grabehn said:
It lookd mediocre until I heard "cliffhanger ending" FUCK THAT! A while ago I watched the Golden Compass on TV and it was fine (so it before, but somehow being in Spanish made it a bit better than in English) and It was watchable until the "Oh yeah, there's no ending cuz franchise" which obviously didn't happen, and all my GF said was "OH FUCK THIS MOVIE" and that was about it.

I get that these studios gamble on the "let's hope teens watch this shit cuz *other franchise* made it" but at least give your shit movie a proper ending if you don't actually know if you're gonna make it to the second one, that at least gives it a chance to be a good experience on its own... Fuck The Golden Compass.
Your milage may vary but the books of that film are actually quite good (Northern Lights (Golden Compas in the US), Subtle Knife and Amber Spyglass). I did read them when I was about 14, so I may be remembering them to be better than they actually were, but I like to think I had decent taste at that age. Plus they came out before YA Science Fiction became this huge thing that every hack wants in on.

Golden Compass is a pretty faithful adaptation of the books, the anti religious elements are less at the forefront, presumebly to tide over American audiences, and it ends before the book actually ends. Don't know why they didn't carry on with the films.
 

Tisiphone1

Doing Science
Dec 27, 2011
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I don't think the stars are necessary. I've never left a review of Bob's confused as to how he felt about it.
 

Knight Templar

Moved on
Dec 29, 2007
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How long has Bob been adding scores? Did I somehow utterly miss that last week? It seems I did.

Why are there scores? I dont see them adding anything here.

Thunderous Cacophony said:
I watch Escape to the Movies to listen to MovieBob talk about movies, not to spend a good quarter of the video watching a truncated commercial.
Any review show I watched on TV would have the review, then show a short scene from the movie. It's very common in my experience.
Granted those shows also just displayed the two hosts talking to each other or the camera the entire time, and Bob tends to have a lot of footage in the review itself.

Damn, that reminds me At the Movies is ending. That's a shame.
 

AvsJoe

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May 28, 2009
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I'm glad the review in text has been added to the page. Neither my computer, PS3, nor my phone handle Internet video well so I'm happy I can still get Bob's opinion on bad computer days.

Shame to see this movie is nothing special but I still like the premise enough to go see it.
linforcer said:
I've never seen the village but I read the plot on the wikipedia article, and it always seemed like I would have enjoyed that twist... Is it so badly executed, or am I just weird?
It's badly executed. Like Shutter Island, if you go in knowing there's a twist, you'll see it coming a mile away. It's not a bad movie per se but it has no weight and is as bland as white rice. It's just *another* movie, nothing special.
 

Skeleon

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I'm probably not the only one who thinks "Portal 2" when seeing those vegetation-overgrown "testing chambers" and self-arranging obstacles and whatnot? But if it's as trite as Bob says the resolution is, then it's probably some sort of reality TV show or something or the last remnants of humanity closed off from whatever hell lurks outside, kept imprisoned but also guarded by the traps and cyborgs. I guess I could just google the source story and read a quick synopsis...
 

Caostotale

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elvor0 said:
Golden Compass is a pretty faithful adaptation of the books, the anti religious elements are less at the forefront, presumebly to tide over American audiences, and it ends before the book actually ends. Don't know why they didn't carry on with the films.
They actually filmed the real ending from that first book, but cut it out before the movie went to theatres. They probably released halfway through production that they didn't stand a chance of getting funding for the second film. It's a shame, since the last two books were very imaginative and chock-full of crazy shit that would have been interesting to see on film. Like I've said about this elsewhere, people who are curious should check out the British audio production of the book trilogy (an unabridged performance with a complete cast for the various characters) and do their best to block out whatever they remember about the movie. The first book does a way better job of drawing out the story and fleshing out the characters anyway.
 

Aristatide

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Jul 19, 2014
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Looks like they're trying to standardize across the site so all the reviews have approximately the same format. I'm... not sure this is a good plan. Maybe if each sub-section had its own standard, but this feels like trying to jab a square peg into a very round hole in this case.

Also, I'm betting the light size of the video is due to some major cutting out of spoilers, given how few of those are present in comparison to a lot of other films he's reviewed this year. And this time I want them! I suppose I can go elsewhere to find out what trite and predictable solution it has, but I'm lazy. I did adore the dig on Teen Wolf, though. Via proxy, I've learned far too much about that show and more important the pretentiousness of the cast; did you know they think they have "more heart" than Buffy? I might even have been this particular dude who said that. I can't tell them apart.