What movies have you seen recently?

[War Eagle!]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Picked a random movie on Hulu titled 96 Souls. Awful movie. Interactions were rushed, characters would jump to conclusions without explaining or displaying how they got to that point. Just a bunch of room for assumptions.

Fell asleep for 30 minutes about an hour into the movie and it still went on for seemingly another 45 minutes to an hour. This movie really tested my patience and I'm surprised I finished it at all.

If you see this movie available for selection, run.


Sent from my SM-N920T using Operation Sports mobile app

[TripleCrown9]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I have some bad news.

I watched Fantastic 4 for the first time. I didn't hate it. I kinda enjoyed it. It wasn't the best comic movie by any stretch of the imagination, and Doom was a little different than I expected, but it was a cool, updated take.

[tdawg3782]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I have some bad news.

I watched Fantastic 4 for the first time. I didn't hate it. I kinda enjoyed it. It wasn't the best comic movie by any stretch of the imagination, and Doom was a little different than I expected, but it was a cool, updated take.

This is how I felt. Not great by any means but I don't feel like I wasted 2 hours either. Good enough for me. I really feel like this was one of those movies that got so destroyed by critics that most people's views were already skewed in the negative before seeing it and went in looking for the ****tyness of the movie.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Operation Sports mobile app

[TripleCrown9]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

This is how I felt. Not great by any means but I don't feel like I wasted 2 hours either. Good enough for me. I really feel like this was one of those movies that got so destroyed by critics that most people's views were already skewed in the negative before seeing it and went in looking for the ****tyness of the movie.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Operation Sports mobile app

That's why it took me so long to see it. And that's why I don't depend on other people's reviews anymore.

That being said, if Disney does buy Fox, the team better show up in the MCU.

[tdawg3782]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

That's why it took me so long to see it. And that's why I don't depend on other people's reviews anymore.

That being said, if Disney does buy Fox, the team better show up in the MCU.

These guys in the MCU would be amazing. Mr. Fantastic is a founder of the Avengers after all.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Operation Sports mobile app

[TripleCrown9]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

These guys in the MCU would be amazing. Mr. Fantastic is a founder of the Avengers after all.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Operation Sports mobile app

In a way, they ARE Marvel, the first team created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I have some bad news.

I watched Fantastic 4 for the first time. I didn't hate it. I kinda enjoyed it. It wasn't the best comic movie by any stretch of the imagination, and Doom was a little different than I expected, but it was a cool, updated take.

This is how I felt. Not great by any means but I don't feel like I wasted 2 hours either. Good enough for me. I really feel like this was one of those movies that got so destroyed by critics that most people's views were already skewed in the negative before seeing it and went in looking for the ****tyness of the movie.

My biggest problem with the movie is that it was missing a second act.

I think most superhero films are far too overrated. This didn't do anything particularly great, but many of them seem to be so run-of-the-mill. Don't see the infatuation for Guardians and Ant-Man.

[TripleCrown9]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

My biggest problem with the movie is that it was missing a second act.

I think most superhero films are far too overrated. This didn't do anything particularly great, but many of them seem to be so run-of-the-mill. Don't see the infatuation for Guardians and Ant-Man.

I'm the exact opposite, as most of you know. I'm a fan of every comic movie, and now I can add Fant4stic to that list.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I have some bad news.

I watched Fantastic 4 for the first time. I didn't hate it. I kinda enjoyed it. It wasn't the best comic movie by any stretch of the imagination, and Doom was a little different than I expected, but it was a cool, updated take.

I'm the exact opposite, as most of you know. I'm a fan of every comic movie, and now I can add Fant4stic to that list.

Oh, I mean I like them. I watch them all. Watching SM:H right now, in fact. Many don't separate themselves from the herd, though. The Dark Knight and Logan have done that extremely well. I'd even say Spider-Man 2 nearly did so too. Waiting on others to do the same.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Daddy's Home 2. Its okay if you're into the mean spirited Christmas movies genre that becomes "feel good" during the last 20 minutes. There we a couple of really funny moments.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Mr. Fantastic is a founder of the Avengers after all.

[tdawg3782]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Hahaha. What was I thinking lol. I swear I wasn't drunk when I typed this. What I meant was a founding member of the Marvel Universe. When you think Marvel Mr Fantastic is one if the first to come to mind.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Operation Sports mobile app

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Justice League

If I was to liken this film closest to one of the other DCEU films with style and tone, I would actually say it is most like Suicide Squad. Yes, it is better than Suicide Squad and no, it is not a music video lengthened to two hours; rather, it is light on its feet, runs the gamut with a clear focus and gets out. I can also be extremely understanding of why people will like this film and why people won't like this film, and let me just say that neither will be wrong but I think it will be generally liked (let's say a 70+% RT score). Though most people would be hard-pressed to say that it's not fun, because it certainly is. I kind of wish I saw it in 3D, actually. This isn't really a good movie so to speak (whereas one could argue that MoS and WW are the best layered "films" in the DCEU), but it plays well for a comic book movie with a lot of action moments and sturdy character relationships.

One thing this movie did not do very well was it did not feel big. I mean there aren't a lot of wide shots, there aren't a lot of populated areas, the stakes did not feel world-ending, the cast actually ended up feeling rather small... it just didn't feel big. When I watch the other DCEU films I sense there are living, breathing cities and onlookers everywhere. I feel like there are lives existing outside of just our characters. This film really lacks that. Think how The Dark Knight Rises feels like it's missing Gotham as a character compared to that of The Dark Knight, but even worse here. Everything is so close-nit. It removes a bit of that "epic" feel these movies kind of are supposed to have. It makes it feel like the smallest DCEU film, and that's kind of a problem. When The Avengers come together on screen in that 360 pan, you have just connected many worlds (literally) together in this big, bad way, almost magically so. This never really earns that, nor does it feel there is something much bigger at play to tackle.

I think this feels like a Snyder film. Whedon's mark really only comes in with character-to-character dialogue scenes (especially the laughs, which there are quite a few) and the final battle, but the rest really feels like Snyder. Pretty much the entire movie looks like a CGI-fest, which is nothing short of what Snyder normally does already. I kind of can't wait to see what the Russo Brothers do with a big Avengers film and show up a good blend of CGI with practical effects here and there, which I think will trump this film in that regard and will really "ground" it more than this movie is (this one feels like pure fantasy, no sense of realism at any one point). There are a lot of trailer shots that don't make this film, and there is some sloppiness here and there that makes me wish they shot a little more or thought through some of the editing (you'll see what I mean when you see the "bail" moment). The opening prelude stuff was mind-boggling, and not good. Thankfully the movie picks up more after that.

It helps to have characters to root for, and I'm kind of split with them as individuals right now. We see Bruce play a lot of rock-solid Batman, but has yet to truly deliver a lot of Bruce (still waiting on a solo film) and we also don't know Affleck's future with the universe. Aquaman is someone that everyone else is raving about, but I was just kind of "meh" with; they spent so long mocking what everyone's original impression is of his comic counterpart and trying to make him so cool and bad-*** that I think I would have cared a little more if it wasn't done so on purpose. His best moments are only when it's made convenient for him (water), and he doesn't seem very special outside of water either. I don't care for a solo film about him at all. Cyborg is about the exact same as Aquaman in that sense, except I think he's the most important character as far as convenience goes for most action scenes. I didn't understand much about him or what he could do, just like how he couldn't at times.

Now come the good characters. Wonder Woman was fantastic. Every scene she was in was incredible, as were any scenes that features the Amazonians. She is a better WW here than she was in her own film and BvS combined. She also seems to have the most motive against Steppenwolf, whose only good line in the film is delivered at her personally. Then there is Flash, where they really took a good look at what Bryan Singer did with Quicksilver in the X-Men films and played with slowdown in their own way. It was fun, visually stunning, and something that would look really cool in 3D. Barry Allen delivers the most comic relief because of being young and quirky, so it fits and does not feel forced in the least bit. Superman also ends up stealing the show when he finally shows up. It's probably because he's not in the film the entire time so when he comes it almost feels dreamlike and mythical, in this way that he really has elevated to legendary status now... I mean you are really going to love Superman in this film. And if you blink with your ears, you'll miss the John Williams score that Elfman played with, because it's not everlasting. I think I even heard Elfman throw in his Batman theme in there at one point, by the way.

As a collective whole though, the characters are great. The way they interact with each other (not just banter, but the actual chemistry they have and will have for the future) and everything else is clearly at the heart of the script, and feels more organic than even a DCEU couple such as Clark Kent and Lois Lane has shown as of yet. I'm sure that's the imprint of Joss Whedon being a part of the screenplay and also being in the director's chair, because we also get that with the Marvel films and I am glad it crossed over. This is the biggest "step in the right direction" for the DCEU compared to anything else. I'm glad they have this established, which they could have had even if the film was as dark as the previous Snyder films. So even when I wasn't very high on Batman, Aquaman and Cyborg in this film (and really to me the only weak link is Cyborg, the other two are fine but aren't standouts for me), when they are in the same room together things work out the way that they should, as well as with the other three (Wonder Woman, Flash and Superman).

Steppenwolf sucked. He was like, "Gimme that, I want power and I can rule the world! You are all so weak!" Typical comic book villain. I can get over it because the film was about uniting the JL, but when Loki appeared in Marvel's uniting film, it is really hard to forgive this aspect of it. I see better things to come in the future though from the villain end of things. I just wish they would focus on this kind of stuff more. Other actors didn't really have to do too much (though I appreciated Diane Lane's small bits), but it was funny to see a previous J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons now as Jim Gordon) and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup now as Henry Allen) appear in different CBM roles.

I was a bit timid about the two hour runtime going into it, thinking it was going to be a Rocky IV of sorts. I thought Batfleck was just going to recruit his heroes then there would be a 40-minute final battle. None of that quite played as I anticipated, which is good because I do not like the way I painted that picture, but the final battle definitely was lacking in several ways. To be straight, I'm not saying there wasn't enough action in it. I just think we weren't quite there long enough is all. Look at a different spray of films that really cover all aspects of its final location: New York in The Avengers, Mission City in Transformers, Pride Rock in The Lion King, The Bank Hotel in Ocean's Thirteen, Contention in 3:10 to Yuma, Las Vegas in Rush Hour 2, the final location in every Scream movie... I can go on forever with these films where that staging area really explores the space and does more than just "fight boss." Sure, the JL has to take on the Parademons and save a few folk, but it didn't even have any real arc to it. It was kind of just there.

Overall I think the movie was actually pretty fun, especially for the theaters. I think save the WW, Flash and Supes stuff though, if I see it again I'll be less enthused, especially if I wait for a home video release. I need to see this with a bigger audience to get the most entertainment that I can out of it, because it lacks a lot of qualities that most other films generally have. If I do see it again though, I'm going for 3D just to see if it's worth it. The one thing a Blu-ray could do though is provide an extended cut, which will address some qualms but I don't think will do much to lengthen the final stage. This movie doesn't do to the DCEU what The Avengers did for the MCU in terms of bringing things to a grander and epic scale, but it does unite them and it makes for some diverse action, which was quite entertaining enough for me tonight as I left the theater. I guess I liked it and thought it was fun, but I'm not trying to go see it again right now either.

Three final notes:

1) There is a midcredits scene that you should all enjoy, and an after-credits scene that is meant to set up more of what we will see later in this universe. Stick around for both if you are so intrigued.

2) I said before that this film doesn't have a lot of wide shots, and in that I was implying there are also a lot of closeups. Well I saw this in IMAX, so I'm about as close as you can get with regard to that... and there are several closeups on Henry Cavill's face. I couldn't help but notice that his upper lip looked fake at times, like CGI. A quick search online revealed that because he was still filming the upcoming Mission: Impossible film, during reshoots Paramount wouldn't let him shave his mustache for that film, so Double Negative had to digitally remove the mustache for some scenes. That explains it, but anyway it is kind of funny now that I realize it haha.

3) An event happens in this film where I had an aha moment about something that may have tied back to Batman v Superman. I'm wondering if it was foreshadowing for that moment in this film. I'm going to spoiler-tag it here, so don't click on this unless you've seen both films (and then let me know if this is correct or not):

Spoiler

In BvS, Bruce has a dream sequence with the Parademons, then afterward Flash tells Bruce that Lois Lane is the key to everything or something like that. Well in this film, after they revive Supes,
Bruce pulls out "the big guns" getting Lois to try and get Clark's soul back into his body. Is that what they meant about Lois being the key, or is that for something that we still haven't seen yet?

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Cars 3 (and a retrospective on the film franchise)

This film universe is a little weird. I mean really, it is. We all have questions that we never really get many answers to regarding how much we can personify these cars as humans. Apparently they do consume and excrete, they require fuel, and that there aren't humans (I guess they are the humans); I still don't understand the idea of adolescent cars, what their limits are for speed when they're racing (sometimes it seems like Lightning just 'wills' himself to a higher position), how they build stuff, where they come from, why they need seats/doors or if they're even aware of what they are, etc. Perhaps it's best to not overthink it, but this is the first franchise for Pixar where the seemingly off-putting set of protagonists (toys, bugs, monsters, rats, robots) do not really serve a larger purpose for their message, and instead are kind of just... there. You can argue the Route 66 elements are important as well, so I'll give them that as much as anybody else will.

Many audience members are somewhat turned off by the models though, as it's just too weird to think about. I'll say one thing: everybody and their mother suggested Pixar should have used the headlights as the eyes, and their response in Cars 2 was about as punctually adequate as can be. I didn't see a big visual leap in the models from Cars 1 - 3 after a decade of work, but there were some nice little touches that a Blu-ray can help pick up which I have enjoyed the progression in. I did expect a bit more of a graphical upgrade on that front, since the surrounding environments all looked so beautiful and that crash teaser trailer even looked fantastic. But I digress, these animated films are definitely about more than just their animation.

Although the majority do not speak very highly of the Cars franchise in comparison to Pixar's other stellar efforts, people still look back at the first film in higher regard given the simpler message of taking the road less traveled and appreciating the journey every bit as much as the destination, including the people you meet along the way. It was humble and innocent. Though I think people give Pixar too much credit for just that. Other films have done this exact same thing; in fact, there is a film I wrote about called Finding Normal which I likened to Cars, though it was made after it so I guess I have to give Cars some credit here. Cars 2 messed this up tremendously for the majority of moviegoers, throwing a Mater spin-off in our faces as we had pretty much a spy flick, with new characters for Pixar to merchandise off—and they would probably admit as much as well. As unfortunate as this was, I was thoroughly entertained by Cars 2. It is not good, but it's also not unenjoyable either. Definitely not up to Pixar's standards, though it still had its own message: accept your friends for who they are and not what you want them to be (I think that’s what it was?).

So now Cars 3 comes along, yet here we are still all clamoring for an Incredibles sequel, which thankfully is coming. However, I think John Lasseter wanted to right the ship a little bit. For one, he downright ignored Cars 2 completely. If you didn't see it, you didn't miss a thing. Not a single new character from that film appeared here, no references to what happened as they went world-traveling, nothing. Skipping out on it becomes no loss whatsoever. Secondly, he gave Mater and non-car operated machinery (boats, planes, cranes... you name it) their chance in the limelight in the second film, and stuck to cars only this time around, tossing Mater to the side thank goodness. Lastly, they focused again on Lightning McQueen and the evolution of his character through the time that has gone by, back to true-and-blue circuit racing roots. It was appreciable that they did this, and for the most part I will say it worked very well.

Cars 3 is a sign of the times, both old and new. With the way sports are changing today, this was the perfect time for it to release. The new kinds of technology put in place in this film—from the cars to the training regimens to the statistical analysis—were all thrown in showing what modernists can offer to the traditionalists, possibly even aging them out to retirement. However, for Cars 3 to instill its motto in having some heart to compete, its moral stances on racing didn’t get too lost in the dust. It stuck to several roots that Cars established (training in dirt roads, drifting, being one with the road) and clearly paid homage to Rocky III and Rocky Balboa (comeback story of a washed-up veteran, racing on the beach, training montage, calling a car Cal Weathers… seriously?). Not to mention there were a lot of callbacks to how Doc Hudson mentored Lightning, which paid off by the time the credits rolled. I like how both sets of times clashed on this one (and not in a James Bond way like Cars 2), because I think that was the next step up for this franchise to evolve properly. In essence, this was a faithful sequel to the first film. You can argue all you want as to whether it should exist, but since it does I think most can admit they did it properly.

Literally speaking of which, at about the 75-minute mark of this film I literally said out loud, “This film is doing no wrong.” I liked what I was watching. There were a couple of strong heartfelt moments, not as strong as Cars but not too bad either. There were some scenes that I could have done without, but at the same time if I ever do buy a 3D version of this they are also the scenes I would want to replay most in that setting. Then with maybe fifteen minutes left to go in the film, they take a left turn. I’ll admit it was a bit of a surprise and even somewhat more of a letdown (let me just say that the sign of the times really showed here, and if you saw my little mini-rant in the Family Guy thread then you may be able to guess what I’m talking about) because Pixar just had to be different, or rather just had to be modern. I won’t fault them for feeling they needed to do what they did, but let me just say that I have the easiest rewrite in the books that gets us to the exact same place when the credits roll without needing to detour a little bit. I have a slight feeling that if they didn’t pull this stunt, the several folks (including critics visible on Rotten Tomatoes) who decided to undersell this film would have evened it out in the end. I don’t hate what they did, but they honestly could have done without it. Nevertheless, I’ll go with as I said in my previous paragraph: since they did it, I can go ahead and say they also executed it pretty well in the process, because they really could have butchered it.

Call me less a fan of the first Cars film than other people seem to somewhat appreciate it for, a completist for being mildly amused at the second film enough to own it on Blu-ray, and a happy-go-lucky fan of this third Cars film that capped off the trilogy in such a way that, although with a little bump at the very end, was indeed a redeeming chapter of this franchise for what it started with. Pixar easily could have allocated its resources in other films, and it looks like we’re getting the payoff now with an Incredibles 2, a Toy Story 4, and four originals (including Coco, where if you blink you might miss the small Easter egg Cars 3 had for it). Sue them for wanting to eek out a little profit here and there, but in a world where the Cars films exist I think it’s better off with 3 in the books than if the trilogy-closer did not come to light, even if it means we have to wait a little longer for Pixar to sprinkle out hopefully some more magic in the coming years.

EDIT: Sadly as I'm searching, I am discovering that there is no 3D BD release in the US. The most saddening part of all is I have been the one to dismiss the notion that 3D will die here and they will at least continue to shelve the films, but this is the first time I'm actually getting the silent treatment from the Blu-ray gods on such a thing.

[War Eagle!]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Caught Justice league last night, thumbs up for me. Batman vs Superman put me to sleep but DC got it right with this one.

Aquaman is hilarious, so was the Flash. Story progressed smoothly, not drawn out at all. The fights were pretty good too.

I'd definitely recommend.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Operation Sports mobile app