Watched, Watched, Watching: It's not the plane, it's the pilot

[HoodedCrow]

I still like the Umbrella Academy

 

[Spockydog]

1 minute ago, HoodedCrow said:

I still like the Umbrella Academy

 

I mean, yeah, I'll continue watching. I like the world and characters, but it just seemed like there was too much sitting about and whining at each other. Especially in the last three episodes.

 

[HoodedCrow]

Well, a little character development, especially after the lead has a gender change revelation requires some response. It did get a little muddled and time confusing:)

[Jaxom 1974]

The King's Man...sigh. It coulda been something...but it had to go and be stupid...I know it was supposed to be bad, but I watched anyway...

[RumHam]

56 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

The King's Man...sigh.

I just watched the first one the other day and damn Colin Firth and Mark Strong do a lot of heavy lifting. 

That action scene in the church is something else though. I tend to tune out during those but it maintains your attention. I'd say it just skirts the line of feeling like it was choreographed to the music. 

[Isis]

9 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

Why would you ever think that the boy plant (the second one) was ever meant to be sympathetic? (the first one is very minor as a character anyway)

Because making 'bad' characters absolutely bad in a B&W sense, with no convincing reasons for them to be 'bad' is dull and one dimensional storytelling?

[Annara Snow]

52 minutes ago, Isis said:

Because making 'bad' characters absolutely bad in a B&W sense, with no convincing reasons for them to be 'bad' is dull and one dimensional storytelling?

Boy you must hate A Song of Ice and Fire.

 

How dare some characters be total a-holes without..whatever constitutes a "convincing reason" fofa person to be a total a-hole.

 

[Heartofice]

10 hours ago, Isis said:

We are finishing off S2 atm. I think we have one more ep left. It's 'ok', but I am finding it REALLY slow. I had the same issue with ST, where anything *emotional* is covered painfully slowly, with super long pauses between dialogue. The more they do this, the worse the acting seems (as you have more time to look at it) and the less I care about any of the actors. It's like they are trying so hard to make it serious and hard-hitting but it doesn't work for me at all. The 'plant' characters (and their actors) from both the girls and the boys are so unsympathetic too. It's about 85% cringe for me overall. 

I thought the emotional stuff was patchy, sometimes it worked sometimes it just dragged on. In fact the show as a whole dragged itself over the finish line, barely even making it there by the end.

That’s my problem with the show. Essentially it’s the flashback bits from Lost, with very little else. The thing is, these flashbacks are generally quite good, the stories they tell are decent and there are some good characters on the show. It’s just that outside of that there really is no plot or anything to move towards.

The entire construction of the show around these interviews and the lunatic feminazi are really there so they can do more flashbacks. The writers must know the whole idea is ridiculous so they don’t spend much time talking about why these islands exist or what the whole point is. Season 2 barely even mentioned that main plot at all. 
 

That’s why the whole thing is so artificial. They wanted to get a second season so they pulled another island with boys on out of their ass, they wanted a 3rd season so they let the feminazi get away for ‘reasons’ and left them back in the island. 
 

Thank god there isn’t a 3rd season, no idea how hard they would have had to work to drag out the story any longer and throw in more flashbacks and boring interview scenes. I’m sure they would have found a way to keep the format the same though.

It is strange watching this around the same time as Yellowjackets though, the two stories get mixed up quite easily. Yellowjackets is clearly the better show, and seems to have a story and purpose unlike The Wilds. Yellowjackets isn’t perfect though, I’m still not sure what they are going for and maybe they are kind of winging it for next season.

[TheLastWolf]

17 hours ago, williamjm said:

I'm not sure I see Lyra and Eleven being all that similar as characters. Lyra is very gregarious and adventurous whereas Eleven would much prefer a quiet normal life if she could have such a thing.

The meeting part, both females ignorantly cute, fall in love with their guides. Where Mike was nearly simping, Will was the sigma that attracted Lyra. Ok, these aren't spoilers I hope coz kinda obvious shit for any1 watching to ship em.

11 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Also no signs of the final Book of Dust, disappointingly

The Imagination chamber that came out in the last week of april this year too was a bummer. Just the lantern slides plus few new stuff.

Thought of Sholay before F1, but too close, gonna settle for Zodiac, both rewatches so no hassle.

[TheLastWolf]

6 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

The King's Man...sigh. It coulda been something...but it had to go and be stupid...I know it was supposed to be bad, but I watched anyway...

Fiennes was fun to watch 

My buddy forced me to watch it with him in the dorms, no regrets.

[polishgenius]

2 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Fiennes was fun to watch 

My buddy forced me to watch it with him in the dorms, no regrets.

 

This isn't a knock on you because we all have our lines, perspectives and preferences but it is kinda funny that you're forgiving on King's Man so soon after being so critical of RRR (though I'd imagine from your perspective the reverse is true). 

[Cas Stark]

I stumbled on a previously unknown Robert Altman film, "Images" 1972, score by John Williams.  I had never even heard of this film before.  Not sure what I think about it, very surrealistic 70s movie and all that entails.  Very weird, but somehow enjoyable.  Beautifully shot, did I mention weird?

[Jaxom 1974]

4 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Fiennes was fun to watch 

My buddy forced me to watch it with him in the dorms, no regrets.

That's what made it such a travesty...the cast is great. But the basic story, the pacing it's all...stupid...

[TheLastWolf]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

This isn't a knock on you because we all have our lines, perspectives and preferences but it is kinda funny that you're forgiving on King's Man so soon after being so critical of RRR (though I'd imagine from your perspective the reverse is true). 

I'm cool. Ok TKM was shite. But watching it with him (bud) in the middle of the night ignoring all the stupid p(l)otholes was fun. I didn't mean the movie was good, just the memory/experience. RRR, well, what can I say, the political undertone disgusted me. Religious propaganda is anathema.

1 hour ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

That's what made it such a travesty...the cast is great. But the basic story, the pacing it's all...stupid...

Agreed. That blonde boy was so caricaturish, alpha kid doomed to die. I was in splits when he kicked the bucket though.

[polishgenius]

4 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

RRR, well, what can I say, the political undertone disgusted me.

 

That's my point- I guess I should have been clearer because the chaps here didn't mention it, but a lot of the negative reaction to TKM was the political undertones, specifically a really grubby kind of classism. Particularly odd because while you can look back at the first movie and find certain things a bit eww (though honestly not that much, it's the second one that's awful) it's very specifically anti-classist. 

Whereas for those of us who liked it we just weren't hit as hard by those tones in RRR. Mind you, not that religious allegory in superhero films and shows is new- Superman Returns obviously hit that well quite hard (which is doubly eww given his origins, really) and The Matrix, despite not actually dressing Neo up as Jesus, is not much more subtle than RRR. I guess they didn't come with direct nationalist links with the religious stuff, though.  

[TheLastWolf]

2 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

That's my point- I guess I should have been clearer because the chaps here didn't mention it, but a lot of the negative reaction to TKM was the political undertones, specifically a really grubby kind of classism. Particularly odd because while you can look back at the first movie and find certain things a bit eww (though honestly not that much, it's the second one that's awful) it's very specifically anti-classist. 

Whereas for those of us who liked it we just weren't hit as hard by those tones in RRR. Mind you, not that religious allegory in superhero films and shows is new- Superman Returns obviously hit that well quite hard (which is doubly eww given his origins, really) and The Matrix, despite not actually dressing Neo up as Jesus, is not much more subtle than RRR. I guess they didn't come with direct nationalist links with the religious stuff, though.  

Classism, elitism, racist stereotypes like how Honsou is the typical Black best friend (for Fiennes) and mentor/guardian preparing to lay down his life for white masters and their stupid offspring. Patronizingly 'helping' third world nations, it irritated me but it wasn't a new issue to me, watching it without condemning it wouldn't have lessened my vehement opposition to such regressive thoughts.

[polishgenius]

Yeah. Like I say, I'm not having a pop. Was more a comment on how different experiences are changing our perspectives.

[TheLastWolf]

1 minute ago, polishgenius said:

Yeah. Like I say, I'm not having a pop. Was more a comment on how different experiences are changing our perspectives.

Thanks, if you hadn't pointed it out I might've just let it lie in the back of my mind without acknowledging the full fact of it. I learnt something useful and thanks again.

[Isis]

On 7/31/2022 at 8:59 AM, Heartofice said:

I thought the emotional stuff was patchy, sometimes it worked sometimes it just dragged on. In fact the show as a whole dragged itself over the finish line, barely even making it there by the end.

That’s my problem with the show. Essentially it’s the flashback bits from Lost, with very little else. The thing is, these flashbacks are generally quite good, the stories they tell are decent and there are some good characters on the show. It’s just that outside of that there really is no plot or anything to move towards.

The entire construction of the show around these interviews and the lunatic feminazi are really there so they can do more flashbacks. The writers must know the whole idea is ridiculous so they don’t spend much time talking about why these islands exist or what the whole point is. Season 2 barely even mentioned that main plot at all. 
 

That’s why the whole thing is so artificial. They wanted to get a second season so they pulled another island with boys on out of their ass, they wanted a 3rd season so they let the feminazi get away for ‘reasons’ and left them back in the island. 
 

Thank god there isn’t a 3rd season, no idea how hard they would have had to work to drag out the story any longer and throw in more flashbacks and boring interview scenes. I’m sure they would have found a way to keep the format the same though.

It is strange watching this around the same time as Yellowjackets though, the two stories get mixed up quite easily. Yellowjackets is clearly the better show, and seems to have a story and purpose unlike The Wilds. Yellowjackets isn’t perfect though, I’m still not sure what they are going for and maybe they are kind of winging it for next season.

As I just finished this last night I can actually recall some of their names now. The Shelby/basketball chick love story in present time was just worse (less interesting, told us less about the characters etc) every single time they were on screen together. That's sad because Shelby had one of the more engaging back stories. Leah became so dull, performance-wise, in S2 that it became hard to watch. Anyway, big relief that it's over!

Having just watched Yellowjackets last week, the performances are of another level (mostly in the 'present day' timeline I mean). The unfolding narrative is much more engaging. Once I got into it (and that was possibly more about me than the show) I felt a lot more connected to it than The Wilds (the latter had me looking away/at my phone fairly regularly).

[Spockydog]

Watched Memento last night. Had the subtitles on, but barely had to glance at them. No audio issues at all.

Something bad must have happened to Christopher Nolan since he made that movie.