TheVampwizimp said:
Shit, why is everyone so upset about "After Earth?" I like Will Smith; in fact, who doesn't?
Me. I think he comes across as smug rather than charismatic.
And every time I see some piece of advertising for After Earth, I think: okay, Will Smith enjoyed the attention for acting by himself in I Am Legend. Must be because there was no competition for screen time. So, now he's trying to sell his son the same way.
In other words, a completely cynical self-promotion.
As for M. Night, his first two movies were good. Really good. Not the best ever, but they showed a lot of potential. But instead of focusing on the things that made them good, he bought into the hype and decided to focus on the things that made them not-great. He squandered a lot of potential, and even though I didn't really hate "The Last Airbender", I left it with a "meh, that was unnecessary" feeling about it.
To the list:
1. I liked both Expendables movies. I grew up in the 80's, and I love Jason Statham. But I love mindless movies that just decide to go balls-out for the hell of it. And movies that don't feel they need to be sprawling 3-hour epics. Enough with the long-ass movies. I love love LOVE the people who made The A-Team a couple of years ago. Know why? It was 90 MINUTES LONG. Those people need to win awards for fracking brevity.
2. I don't like musicals, with few exceptions. I like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but that might just be because of the sing-along aspect of it. I like Phantom of the Opera (NOT the movie, oh for frack's sake anything but that) because it takes place in an opera house, so that the music feels like a relatively organic part of the story. I like Mamma Mia! because it was just one big karaoke dance party, and deep down I'm still a chick that does that sort of thing with her chick friends. Les Mis...sigh. I just can't with it. I can't. Revolutionary France is depressing enough and suddenly breaking into song, and it's 3 hours long and I...can't. Especially after all the hype with Anne Hathaway, who annoys the crap out of me (she's going to get the Oscar for the same reason that chick from Showgirls did. For singing a song in lieu of acting. Which is a load of crap.). She was irritating as Catwoman and all the For Your Consideration press she's getting is bleh.
3. I was surprised that ASM was only #2. But only because Branded felt like a black sheep of a movie. The kind of movie that you can't really hate on because it's so...weird. It's not good, sure, but it was never in competition with the big boys anyway.
4. Battleship. I think that's probably going to be one of those "so bad it's good movies" that my friends and me mock on.