The Best Films of 2015 (So Far)
- Thread starter Marter
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As far as Marvel films go, I'm tempted to say Ant-Man was better and more enjoyable than Age Of Ultron, but I've only seen both just once, so it's not fair to judge yet.
I still have to catch up with most of the good picks on that list.
I still have to catch up with most of the good picks on that list.
As someone who dabbled in film criticism I hear all the time from friends about how I don't actually like anything or how can I claim to be a film guy when I hate everything that comes out. This notion ignores all the movies I do like and I find it to be a bizarre notion besides. Sure knowing a lot about a medium makes you see the flaws represented in works of that medium but it also makes you appreciate the truly great when you see it. I think my favorite line in a movie to describe this effect was in Ratatouille, where the young guy trying to be a chef comments about the food critic, "You're really skinny for a guy who likes food!" and the critic replies, "I don't like food, I LOVE food, and if I don't love it, I don't swallow!"Sassafrass said:See people, he DOES like some movies.
That pretty much perfectly sums up what it's like to be a critic.
Ex Machina feels like one of those movies that are supposed to be epic and deep and be everything some people consider to be good science fiction. But, I have heard that my entire life about a few other films and most of those are really really boring movies. And that is what I get from the trailers of that particular movie. It's like, Isaac Asimov, he is an undeniably important author in the realm of science fiction, but he is also incredibly boring.
I didn't care for Pitch Perfect 2 for the simple reason that it stuck to a formula that they discovered from the first one. I couldn't watch the movie without feeling a massive sense of dejavu. They even went so far as to write a new song that was just terrible. Clearly, they were trying to recreate what happened with the first movie and the song Cups. But that is actually a good song where the new one was just boring and derivative. I'll give that it was pretty funny, though that whole thing was marred by the above for me. I also challenge anyone to tell me the order events in that movie without looking at Wikipedia. The whole Anna Kendrick side story was just out of place and made the rest of the movie feel disjointed.
I really liked Mad Max, but I can't be the only person who recognizes that Max was not the main character of that movie. It was from his perspective, but he wasn't the main character, Furiosa was the main character. In some ways, because of that, I feel like it was only a Mad Max movie in name, not that I'm complaining. Like I stated, it was an excellent movie. And then there is Tom Hardy. They could have made anyone Max. I don't feel like this is a movie where people can be like, "Look what Tom Hardy did!". Kind of like anyone could have played Bane in Dark Knight Rises.
Overall, this is a neat list. There were a couple of movies I saw a single preview for and then forgot about that I'm going to have to go find, like that one with Ryan Reynolds.
I didn't care for Pitch Perfect 2 for the simple reason that it stuck to a formula that they discovered from the first one. I couldn't watch the movie without feeling a massive sense of dejavu. They even went so far as to write a new song that was just terrible. Clearly, they were trying to recreate what happened with the first movie and the song Cups. But that is actually a good song where the new one was just boring and derivative. I'll give that it was pretty funny, though that whole thing was marred by the above for me. I also challenge anyone to tell me the order events in that movie without looking at Wikipedia. The whole Anna Kendrick side story was just out of place and made the rest of the movie feel disjointed.
I really liked Mad Max, but I can't be the only person who recognizes that Max was not the main character of that movie. It was from his perspective, but he wasn't the main character, Furiosa was the main character. In some ways, because of that, I feel like it was only a Mad Max movie in name, not that I'm complaining. Like I stated, it was an excellent movie. And then there is Tom Hardy. They could have made anyone Max. I don't feel like this is a movie where people can be like, "Look what Tom Hardy did!". Kind of like anyone could have played Bane in Dark Knight Rises.
Overall, this is a neat list. There were a couple of movies I saw a single preview for and then forgot about that I'm going to have to go find, like that one with Ryan Reynolds.
It sure fucking is. That movie will ride eternal -- shiny and chroom.Evonisia said:
He's as much the main character in Fury Road as he was in Mad Max 2 and Thunderdome. The story is never about him, he's just a drifter with a mysterious past that gets caught up in other people's bullshit and is then forced to help just to get out of it. There's not much to Max other than that he's a crazy hermit who likes to keep to himself, but it makes him an excellent vehicle for the audience to experience this world and its insane characters.Baresark said:
Even Jai Courtney?Baresark said:
Hit the nail on the head. There's a reason Max says that he's driven by one instinct: to survive. Since the first one, the movies haven't really been about him, he's just a drifter trying to make his way through an insane world, but along the way he occasionally finds his humanity and ends up helping others. In other words, it's the old "bad-ass with a heart of gold" trope, post-apocalyptic style.Casual Shinji said:
I haven't seen a bunch of the movies on this list, but I honestly don't get all the love for "Kingsman". Yes, the church sequence was pretty damn cool (even though I thought it was pretty obviously sped up in a few parts) but beyond that I pretty much completely forgot about everything in that movie a few hours after I watched it. The most memorable thing about the main character was his bizarre name ("Eggsy"? Seriously?), I guessed immediately who would pass Kingsman training, and Eggsy magically turns into Chow-Yun Fat all of the sudden with no real explanation. Honestly, I thought Richmond Valentine and Gazelle were the the two most interesting characters in the whole movie.
