Films you would like to see on Movie Defense Force

[Daveman]

I'm gonna be risky in front of the large composite of nerds that is us Escapists and say The Last Airbender. I was hooked on it the moment the line "I knew we'd be having this conversation one day as soon as we knew you were a bender" was said, I mean that is just hilarious shit right there. I was just watching it because I was bored and had nothing better to do and I wound up afterwards looking up the entire show. I must say it pales in comparison to the show, so having to look at it again would just make me stuck on a permanently loop of "Why isn't Uncle Iroh funny?" and "Why isn't Sokka funny?" and "Why are the inuit people and the asian people now white people?" and "Seriously, why the fuck isn't this funny?"

But without that prejudice, the film isn't actually that bad in my opinion. It's fortunate to have great source material and that does shine through the poor choices made in the films development.

 

[destiaer]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say 1998's Godzilla. It's not even considered divisive: people just downright hate it, but I? I couldn't get enough. I grew up on all the classic schlock-fest Godzilla flicks, and this one fit right in, with some great Jean Reno and Ferris Beuller (he has no other name), and even Frank Azaria bits that make it stand as a solid and loveable monster flick with characters that I managed to not want to stab in the face with a spork. The ending was kind of sad, too! It is by no means the best Godzilla movie, and I have a good feeling about Darabont's reboot, but I still love it for all its tongue-in-cheek fun.

Oh, and Toxic Avenger. That movie is awesome. Sequels, not so much, but I do love me some Toxie.

 

[Gabanuka]

'The Fantastic Four'

Shut up... I liked it.

 

[shrekfan246]

great acting

So they got rid of the TNG cast?

Okay, I kid. There were two or three actors on that show that were decent.

The rest could make Twilight look like solid delivery.

I'll be the first to admit that Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner pretty much carried TNG, but the rest of the cast weren't explicitly bad. Although I suppose it could be argued that mediocrity in acting is worse than bad acting, since bad acting can flip itself right around and become entertaining again.

Also I throw in The Butterfly Effect aswell, sure it didn't had a list cast but I like the message in the film!

The first Butterfly Effect was pretty good, in my opinion. Ashton Kutcher certainly did a much better job than most people would likely give him credit for, and the story and framework were pretty well developed, even if it asks for a large amount of willing suspension of disbelief.

And I just love it when a movie that grosses over $450 million worldwide gets panned by the "Professional Critics".

Kinda like every Pirates of the Caribbean film after the first one?

 

[electric_warrior]

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull Thingy: I thought it was okay. Not great, but okay. Not worthy of the other three, but not a disgrace to their name either. Just a decent action/adventure flick. With a stupid ending... and the bit with the A-bomb and the fridge. Still, enjoyable. Under another name, people would have liked it.

The Butterfly Effect: a damn good film. Only got bad reviews because snobs don't like Ashton Kutcher. I mean, I don't like him either, but its still a good film.

 

[somonels]

I said it once and I'll say it again: Battlefield Earth gets bashed without question but is an enjoyable movie.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Ang Lee's Hulk.

The story was unnecessarily convoluted, the comic panel style was a giant blunder, and some of the acting was cringeworthy to a fault. Yet I still kind of like it, and most definately prefer it over The Incredible Hulk.

Indeed. Ang Lee's hulk is flawed beyond belief, but at the very least it had personality and ideas, even if most of them were executed in some strange ways. Ed Norton's Hulk movie was just kind of drab and lifeless, feeling small without any of the emotional benefits. It's not a bad film, and is actually a rather competently bolted together one, but Ang Lee's Hulk wins by sheer virtue of being interesting.

Just that one scene alone where Nick Nolte just gamma rayed himself or whatever, and you see his hand pass through metal with that screeching, scraping sound. That was one of the weirdest and coolest things I'd ever seen on film.

I also loved the way the Hulk looked and moved, which is another thing the movie generally gets criticized for. He had kind of a stupid puffy face, but their was such an amazing physicality to him. I still consider it one of the most realistic CGI characters in terms of pure visuals.

And the colour scheme of everything... Something that good has to be fattening.

 

[Gormech]

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

/thread

Do it. Do it now.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

OT; I am going to break the rule a little, and nominate a movie I despise, because if there is anyone that might be able to defend it, its Jim: Starship Troopers 2

GAH! That one is practically Aliens except with zombie bugs, and my god was it stupid.

 

[ace_of_something]

I loved "the 13th warrior" Maybe because I liked the eaters of the dead book? Not sure but most people seem to hate it. It also lost an epic amount of money.

 

[aba1]

The Wachowskis' Speed Racer. I think it's a structurally flawed but brilliant movie, with a unique and trippy visual style and huge entertainment value.

Saying this on the Internet, however, tends to result in long tirades about live action anime adaptions, even longer tirades about how this movie represents everything wrong with humanity, and uncreative insults regarding my mother's character.

So it'd be nice to hear Jim give one of my favorite movies some love.

Oh no, quite the opposite, i liked Speed Racer. It was fun. Some scenes were a bit too "kid movie" for my taste but if some one made the effort to edit out all the scenes that have the kid brother in them it would be one of my favourite action movies.

Other than that? MovieBob already did Sucker Punch, Southland Tales would be nice. Not sure if The Lovely Bones is unpopular enough for the show but i think it needs more love. The Cell too. It was everything i wanted Inception to be.

Even though Movie Bob defended Sucker Punch I too would like to see that movie get defended. People dismiss that movie soooo quick without any second though but it hard a really interesting plot structure and great characters. I have also found that almost nobody actually fully grasp the plot at first as well. They just hate the movie based on their first impression.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I also loved the way the Hulk looked and moved, which is another thing the movie generally gets criticized for. He had kind of a stupid puffy face, but their was such an amazing physicality to him. I still consider it one of the most realistic CGI characters in terms of pure visuals.

And the colour scheme of everything... Something that good has to be fattening.

The Hulk's actual animation is quite superb, but the issue I feel is that the texturing of the character is incredibly poor. In particular, the colour of his skin left a lot to be desired, and the way his pants were almost stuck to his body. However, almost all the CGI problems with the Hulk are a product of artistic direction and Ang Lee's desire to create a comic book aesthetic. The issue being that it was neither subtle enough to blend into the more realistic elements, nor all encompassing enough to be consistently brash. The comic book aesthetic is simply too close to source, sticking out and looking false among the more moderate backgrounds.

Still, that is interesting, and the actual visual effects are pretty much what was intended. Obviously how much those intentions succeed is going to vary from person to person, but it does get a lot of slack for 'bad CGI' when on a technical level it's doing what it's supposed to do. The original Spider-Man has less accomplished visual effects, but they don't jar like the hyper-stylised look of Hulk. It is a failure, but a failure with good intent and perhaps even real merit behind it.

I do wonder if it was an important failure or not. Most (good) comic book movies that came after it were able to translate a comic book aesthetic far more successfully, from the subtle shadowy black depths in Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy to the very overt but consistently stylish look of 300 or Sin City. Would the Hulk in The Avengers have looked so good if he hadn't look so bad before?

I... kinda liked the green. >.>

I know many people hate it, but I never really had a problem with it. I personally couldn't stand the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk which looked so plastic-y it was like they put a giant action figure in the scene.

I think the ultimate problem with the Hulk is that he's just not that interesting a character. The idea behind him is interesting, but when he's actually on screen there's not much he can do but roar and smash things. Ang Lee's Hulk had a few moments that touched upon the more interesting elements - I sorta liked that mind's eye bit with the Hulk in the mirror. He also doesn't have a proper villain as a counter balance. I had a feeling The Avengers would be the first movie where the Hulk would finally work, because he wouldn't be the focus. Which meant the writers could ignore the faults and just focus on the fun. RedLetterMedia even made a joke in their review about how the Hulk ironically can't carry his own movie.

 

[Muspelheim]

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull Thingy: I thought it was okay. Not great, but okay. Not worthy of the other three, but not a disgrace to their name either. Just a decent action/adventure flick. With a stupid ending... and the bit with the A-bomb and the fridge. Still, enjoyable. Under another name, people would have liked it.

The Butterfly Effect: a damn good film. Only got bad reviews because snobs don't like Ashton Kutcher. I mean, I don't like him either, but its still a good film.

Chalk up another Crystalskullite. I've never understood the rage over that film. And hey, for the record... Surviving an atomic bomb by way of a leadlined fridge. It's about as sensible as surviving a plane crash by jumping out aboard a rubber liferaft and skeeing down the mountain on the same.

No, it doesn't live up to the previous films, but nothing else would, except a time machine.

 

[Lazy]

Anyway, I'd like to see Jim defend Tron Legacy.

Does Tron Legacy really need defending though? It got decent reviews and most people I've run into seem to think it was pretty good.

"Seriously, why the fuck isn't this funny?"

Not funny? That movie is hilarious! It's like watching a really god-awful B movie, only made on a triple-A budget.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I liked the Silent Hill Move (haven't seen the latest one). I had never played a Silent Hill game so this shit was new to me. The movie genuinely disturbed me. Sure the story was stupid and the acting wasn't all that good but this movie was fucked up. In my mind, it was a good horror movie.

Alien vs. Predator was pretty decent IMO. The second one was utter shit (you couldn't see what was going on half the time) but this one was pretty awesome. Sure it had a slow start and awful characters but that's not what this movie was about. It's about seeing two movie monsters battle it out. It succeeded at this in pretty spectacular fashion IMO.

Pirate of the Caribbean 3 also was alright. I don't know why everyone thinks the plot was so hard to follow... It's a Disney movie... Anyway, the score was awesome, the acting was decent to great and the action was fun.

 

[TimeLord]

Judge Dredd or Star Wars Episode I

Both films I love but both film that seem to be hated by 99% of the world.

Yeah Judge Dredd was over the top, comic-bookesk and idiotic but it was fun in that idiotic way.

And I just like Star Wars I. Yeah Jar Jar can die in a Sarlacc pit but I still enjoyed every other part of the film!