Watch, Watching, Watch -- Keep the change you filthy animal!

[DireWolfSpirit]

Watched Netflix's 2015 Eye in the Sky.

Helen Mirren and one of Alan Rickman's final roles. 

This ended up being an emotional roller coaster as there's a bit of cat and mouse drama between the audiences view of ground zero of a drone mission against a house with suicide bombers getting suited up.

Major suspense as they have innocent villagers threatened from collateral damage and they have to determine if the mission is executable as lives hang in the balance.

It's an emotional drain but a worthwhile debate over whether such actions serve a greater good or are entirely a bad idea?

[Veltigar]

15 hours ago, Darryk said:

• II thought the story and character development was quite strong, and it seems to be getting positive reviews all round on that score, as well as on the animation quality.

Hmmm, Perhaps I should give it a shot then as I'm hiking with the person who keeps on recommending it in about a week or two XD  Thanks for the info!

 

21 hours ago, Heartofice said:

ha, I mean not really. I think that if you are going to use that storytelling device then you need to do something interesting with it. The movie didn't do anything with it, it was a gimmick. There were almost no real perspective differences between the same event out side of the kiss and the rape.

Well, that is just plainly false I'm afraid. I'm not going to rewatch the film to provide you a full list, but just off the top of my mind:

• The opening battle (Le Gris POV v. Carouges)
• The wedding night (Marguerite v. Carouges)
• The first request for tax (Le Gris v. Carouges)
• The reconcilliation attempt (all three POV's)
• etc.

Of course, you might have some wriggle room depending on your definition of "real perspective differences." It seems to me that you would prefer it if the film had white hat/black hatted it the entire time and made the differences between the various versions and the characters obvious (e.g. perspective one: Le Gris punches a grandma. Perspective two: Le Gris helps the grandma cross the street and doesn't punch her).

However, this approach would have drained the meaning from this story and in effect turn it into another forgetable superhero film (but with armor standing in for spandex). The great thing about the approach taking in The Last Duel is that even in scenes where the deviations are subtle, they convey a lot of meaning. That's a rather mature way of telling a story, as we spend a lot of time arguing about the details in real life as well. It furthermore also allows the characters to be real human beings, as stated before

Spoiler

Le Gris is a sexual predator, but he's also amiable and cultured. Chad Damon is a vainglorious blowhard, but he's also courageous and unintentionally avenges a great wrong. Marguerite is a good character, but she's also weak and scared and has no agency. 

 

22 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I don't think it takes a genius to work out within about 5 minutes that Comer's story will come last and there is very little chance that her version of events will be inaccurate. 

But which events will we see? That's the teleological fallacy in practice. In hindsight it's easy for you to to say that the story was always going to unfold one way, but there were many other turns the story could have taken (see the spoiler section of my last point for a few alternative developments).

22 hours ago, Heartofice said:

We simply don't live in times where that movie would be made. So it basically invalidates the first 2 chapters. There is very little to be gained from viewing events from either one of the male characters perspective, and Scott rarely shows the same event from a different perspective anyway. So again, it feels like a gimmick than a device to tell the story in a fresh way.

To the bolded, something like Gone Girl isn't that old.

I feel like overal you are projecting a lot of politics into this, which I'll gladly admit I don't feel like getting into but let me just end with the following. You and I clearly watched the same film and neither of us has skin in the game.  And yet, we come out of it with wildly divergent interpretations of it and we have literally seen the exact same events unfold in the pretty recent past.

Now imagine you are involved in a trial for your life/reputation and that you have to give an overview of events, some of which took place years ago. You have to take witnesses into account obviously, as they need to back you up, so you can't just make everything up. There were also part of the other parties' information you are not priviliged too while constructing your narrative. How would that affect your recollections of the same events? How would you rationalize all your decisions? Small nuances taken together would create wholly different outcomes, which is precisely what The Last Duel is about.

22 hours ago, Heartofice said:

t's understandable that male characters acted monstrous, although it was all a little on the nose. But if you are making it from each characters perspective you might soften those edges a touch. 

But why though? A large part of the monstrocity of it all is just how normal it was. The banality of evil to borrow a term from Arendt. That's one of the things that is so shocking about Le Gris recollection of events

Spoiler

To our modern eyes, even the toned down version of events in Le Gris perspective clearly constituted a rape. For Le Gris however, from his position of power and the era he lived in, that was a completely consensual one-night stand. He softened the edges from a horrific rape, to a somewhat less horific rape (I feel dirty just writing this)

 

22 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I mean not really. There are elements that are historically relevant, but most of the plot points around Comer feel straight out of a modern story, and the story is clearly making a point about modern society. Of course it doesn't help that Chad Damon and Batfleck look absurd and the range of accents is pretty bizarre, but I was more forgiving of that.

Per the bolded, I reiterate my original point, this is what pretty much every piece of fiction does ever. It's okay to say that you don't like modern society or that you don't like the things a piece of fiction has to say about modern society, but this is just a basic aspect of storytelling.

[Werthead]

Good going for Netflix UK, who surprisingly dropped the twelfth season of the revitalised Archer only a few weeks after the eleventh, and the sixth and final season of the somewhat underrated Superstore on the same day (today), and of course The Witcher is only a couple of days away.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I had no intention of staying up this late and cannot recommend The Alpinist enough. 

[Inkdaub]

I watched The Unforgivable tonight at work. Another guy put it on after we tried to watch The Shack and I almost jumped out the window.  So he puts on Unforgivable and leaves ten minutes later. I had no interest in it aside from it not being The Shack but I rapidly became engrossed by it. Bullock is good in it but the rest of the very good cast are wasted, though still fun to see. I was so into it by the end I thought I was going to cry. It's a movie that I think could be longer to flesh out some of the characters but I know no one agrees with me. I think I am more open to enjoying movies at work than I am at home. Bullock was good and I liked it.   

[Ran]

Watched The Power of the Dog recently -- beautifully shot, of course, and sensitively performed (Dunst is particularly wonderful). There's something a little sterile and clinical about Campion's perspective, which was distancing. Deliberate, I expect, but it made the revelation(s) in the back half not as impactful for me.

Just finished Netflix's Arcane, a League of Legends-based fantasy animated series (which really amounts to three animated films, just split in 3 parts each) and very impressed by it. Visually, it's stunning (and if I'm not mistaken, Jinx's madness is depicted in a style very strongly reminiscent of some things Alberto Mielgo had already done, suggesting he's becoming one of the most influential animators in the world). The fight sequences are kinetic and dynamic and completely understandable in a way that they wouldn't have been had it been done in live action.

Story and character-wise, it's a bit derivative here and there -- Jinx feels like a blend of Harley Quinn and the Joker, and there's dialog that's cliched and hoary -- but it's genuinely very solid, and combined with the vocal performances, character and setting design, and the visual effects... it's definitely one of the big surprises of 2021 for me. 

Ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, though, I will say that much.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Some things just put a smile on your face. My favorite podcast had three members do their top five lists of movies you can jump in on at any point, and between them they hit the list I would have made (I did it before hearing their lists):

Jurassic Park, Step Brothers, A Few Good Men, Die Hard and Point Break. Honorable mention is T2.

[Corvinus85]

24 minutes ago, Ran said:

Just finished Netflix's Arcane, a League of Legends-based fantasy animated series (which really amounts to three animated films, just split in 3 parts each) and very impressed by it. Visually, it's stunning (and if I'm not mistaken, Jinx's madness is depicted in a style very strongly reminiscent of some things Alberto Mielgo had already done, suggesting he's becoming one of the most influential animators in the world). The fight sequences are kinetic and dynamic and completely understandable in a way that they wouldn't have been had it been done in live action.

Story and character-wise, it's a bit derivative here and there -- Jinx feels like a blend of Harley Quinn and the Joker, and there's dialog that's cliched and hoary -- but it's genuinely very solid, and combined with the vocal performances, character and setting design, and the visual effects... it's definitely one of the big surprises of 2021 for me. 

Ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, though, I will say that much.

And perhaps breaks the curse of the video game adaptations. 

[Fez]

32 minutes ago, Ran said:

Story and character-wise, it's a bit derivative here and there -- Jinx feels like a blend of Harley Quinn and the Joker, and there's dialog that's cliched and hoary -- but it's genuinely very solid, and combined with the vocal performances, character and setting design, and the visual effects... it's definitely one of the big surprises of 2021 for me. 

I worried Jinx was going to be a Harley Quinn knock-off (and I suspect her original League incarnation was), but I think they did a good job of making her a distinct character. Less "happy go lucky" crazy and more "deeply sad and tormented" crazy; though when she's laughing and fighting there's certainly a bunch of overlap.

[Ran]

The rather-early thread merged into the old thread led to it being over 400, so here is a new new thread!

@Fez

Well, add a bit of Two Face for that. But yeah, anyways, loved the performance and all, it's just one of those things I noticed about it and why I can't give it a full-throated approval. It's not perfection, but it's really very good, and shockingly so given everything -- a video game-related property and so on.

I'll be very curious to see what they cook up next.  As I understand it they do mean to follow-up the story.

One other thing I noticed about it is how it became increasingly more mature in its storytelling, which makes sense as it goes from the "YA" opening trio to increasingly dark and serious matter. 

I'm not sure how I feel about Heimerdinger as sort of cute Yoda-y type guy. He does have a serious role, but the character design and voicing and manner makes him incongruous with all the more grounded matter around. I feel like maybe delving into his past more might have lent the gravitas to the character that the characters around him obviously felt, but which I don't think the audience could really mesh with and just had to take it on faith.

[RumHam]

‘Yellowjackets’ Renewed for Season 2 at Showtime

Quote

Yellowjackets will return for a second season on Showtime, with the ViacomCBS-backed cable network formally renewing its breakout drama on Thursday. The psychological horror/coming-of-age series from married creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson has become a breakout for Showtime and currently has a rare 100 percent rating among critics on RottenTomatoes.com. 

I posted in the dedicated thread but I figured I'd post it here to try to lure in more viewers. I know some people don't like watching serialized mystery shows that might get canceled before there's any resolution. Great show so far.

[Veltigar]

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

‘Yellowjackets’ Renewed for Season 2 at Showtime

I posted in the dedicated thread but I figured I'd post it here to try to lure in more viewers. I know some people don't like watching serialized mystery shows that might get canceled before there's any resolution. Great show so far.

What kept me from watching it is that it releases on a weekly basis. If I binge these type of shows, I tend not to get suckered into watching all of it.

But good that it goes well. I'll be spending a lot of vacation time in front of the tele with all the new restristions.  

[Teng Ai Hui]

I started watching a docu-series called The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek.  It made me want to watch ST:TOS, which I had never seen before.  I’ve watched the first 13 episodes so far, and it’s a little odd at times.  First, it’s a lot more philosophical and a lot less action-packed than I expected.  Second, it seems ahead of its time with its diversity and gender equality.  Yet, at the same time, many episodes have a hot, scantily-clad female side character for the male viewers to ogle and for Capt Kirk to kiss.  Third, there’s a main character, Yeoman Janice Rand (played by Grace Lee Whitney), that I had never heard of before.  Why does she leave after the first half of the first season? 

ETA: After a little online research, I discovered that, according to Roddenberry, she was fired only due to budgetary reasons.

[Leofric]

Thursday nights are a bit overwhelming with all the new content.   Since I am on the west coast, when I get home from work, the latest episodes of The Wheel of Time and The Expanse have dropped, and then the newest episode of Critical Role's Campaign 3 is available on Twitch, and now I was just reminded that Station Eleven which I have been looking forward to has just started, with the first episode dropping last night.  Even discounting Thursday night football, that's at least 7 hours of viewing dumped all at once, which I need to find time to get through before Dexter and Yellowjackets air on Sunday night

[williamjm]

I watched Those Who Wish Me Dead. It does have plenty of cliched plot points and the way the two main plotlines are shoved together feels somewhat contrived but despite that I thought it worked well as a thriller. The inferno scenes were probably the most memorable part of the movie, as a threat the movie's two hitmen can't really compete with a forest fire.

[Iskaral Pust]

As someone (?) recommended  recently in these threads, we’ve watched the Cormoran Strike adaptation by the BBC.  HBO Max has it available for streaming in the US, although they don’t promote it all.

It’s a pretty good adaptation of the books and it benefits from TV Cormoran being more likable and from not dwelling on Robin’s internal thought processes about her rape PTSD.  Show, don’t tell, indeed.

[Zorral]

  I recommended it -- somewhere.  Others must have as well.   Yes, so much better than the books.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Watched the Hulu Mars mission series The First.

Apparently Hulu decided to not make a 2nd season.

The First https://g.co/kgs/aybcPv

Sean Penn , Natscha McElhone and Anna Jacoby-Heron led the cast.

I still enjoyed, didn't blow me away though. There's an extended side story over the mission commanders daughter struggles with opioid addiction. A lot of effort showing the tolls the mission places on the families kind of angle.

I would've watched a 2nd season had Hulu not pulled the plug.

[JGP]

Saw an add somewhere a few days ago, I was bored and something reminded me, so I’m most of the way through the first episode of Station Eleven. Going in mostly blind, but one of the writers was involved with the Leftovers, I think, though I may be cross referencing.

Anyway.

It’s a pandemic show, clearly, as it starts, meshed with days before, infrequently interspersed with shots of the backgrounds many years later, grown over, half wild. There are sweet moments, the occasional chuckle, and yet it’s making me anxious and sweaty.

Fucking Covid.

Will soldier on.

[williamjm]

8 hours ago, JEORDHl said:

Saw an add somewhere a few days ago, I was bored and something reminded me, so I’m most of the way through the first episode of Station Eleven. Going in mostly blind, but one of the writers was involved with the Leftovers, I think, though I may be cross referencing.

Anyway.

It’s a pandemic show, clearly, as it starts, meshed with days before, infrequently interspersed with shots of the backgrounds many years later, grown over, half wild. There are sweet moments, the occasional chuckle, and yet it’s making me anxious and sweaty.

Fucking Covid.

Will soldier on.

I really liked the book but due to the subject matter I am not in any hurry to watch the adaptation right now.