Whatcha Watching?

[Corvinus85]

Blue Beetle came to Max so I watched it. It was the most Marvel movie of the DCU I've seen. Ironman 1 + Ms. Marvel + Spider-man combined with The Green Lantern. The heart of the story was the protagonist's family and had an interesting twist with one of the villains at the end. 

[VigoTheCarpathian]

56 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Blue Beetle came to Max so I watched it. It was the most Marvel movie of the DCU I've seen. Ironman 1 + Ms. Marvel + Spider-man combined with The Green Lantern. The heart of the story was the protagonist's family and had an interesting twist with one of the villains at the end. 

My 12 yo and I saw this in the theater - it wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was a fun watch, maybe the most enjoyable DC I’ve seen that I would bring my kid to (who loves comics), not too bloated or dark: “Snyderized”, I call it.

[Zorral]

9 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I hope Napoleon will blow us all away and amend the scores a bit. It feels like it hasn't been the best year for cinema really.

Probably you can forget that.  Scott has announced he knows the history of Napoleon better than the French do, who are ignorant about everything and hate themselves.  He bases this on their disapproval of his historical treatment of the characters, the time and the events.

 

[Darryk]

Ridley Scott has made some absolutely great films but damn if he isn't a grumpy prat a lot of the time. He's also really pretentious filmmaker and can turn out some real borefests. I hated his Robin Hood film.

We'll see if Napoleon is more like Gladiator (amazing) or Robin Hood (dull and dry).

[Rippounet]

5 hours ago, Zorral said:

Probably you can forget that.  Scott has announced he knows the history of Napoleon better than the French do, who are ignorant about everything and hate themselves.  He bases this on their disapproval of his historical treatment of the characters, the time and the events.

So Napoleon actually wins at the end of this one?

 

[polishgenius]

16 hours ago, Veltigar said:

There is some iconography borrowed from existing places in Asia (particular in the latter scenes in the monastery), but it's more Blade Runner than trying to emulate an existing place in Asia imo and it never grinds to a halt to explain why the cultures of "New Asia" were more gently predisposed to AI (which would probably be an orientalist mine field).

It's definitely an undercooked setting, but I think he would have been just as uninterested in exploring the underlying cultures if this was set in South Dakota or Edenborough.

 

I don't think he needed to explore them in any depth, but in making it 'New Asia' (rather than just Thailand) he - somewhat needlessly, in terms of plot- set up a backstory that is literally never touched upon. Like why is it New Asia? And honestly I think the answer is that it's because he wanted to use mostly South Asia but wanted the Nepalese imagery for the mountain temple so he scrunched them together. Bit of Japan there too so he could cast Ken Watanabe. 

It's not, like, a huge deal on its own. It's just... lazy. 

13 hours ago, Ran said:

Good point about that, that I hadn't thought of. I didn't realize it was so loosely scripted.

 

 

Yeah basically Edwards wrote more of a treatment than a straight script- they had to hit certain points but otherwise could do what they liked. They had 100 hours of footage and the first cut of the film was four hours. 

[Tywin et al.]

6 hours ago, Darryk said:

I hated his Robin Hood film.

I think everyone hated this film and yet it was probably still better than the 2018 version. 

[Rippounet]

Finished the third season of The Owl House tonight, and ha ha, it does deliver. Though the end does feel somewhat rushed, the writers did know how to provide a truly satisfying ending, tying everything they'd built together.
In hindsight, if the first season hadn't been so slow, this would have been a truly great show. As it is, I feel it took too long to build the world and establish the -numerous- characters before properly jumping into the epic plot. Some elements really should have been introduced in the first season ; they probably weren't because the writers didn't know exactly were they were going from the start.
Also, it's still a kids' show . But it's also more of a kids' show than other kids' shows - if that makes sense. It's very upbeat and positive - even when it deals with serious stuff. Its tone is the polar opposite of something like The Dragon Prince, in which there is always an underlying tension.

One little detail I loved about the finale...

Spoiler

... was the theme playing for the final battle. It's a little detail that makes for a great moment.
I can't help but agree with the comments saying the theme for Ash's final battle in Pokemon should have been the legendary 1st season's.

 

[Heartofice]

So I watched the latest crop of The Crown episodes. 

There was a scathing Guardian review of this season which was really no holds barred on hating it:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/16/the-crown-season-6-review-so-bad-its-like-an-out-of-body-experience-netflix

There are only 4 episodes and up til 3.5 of those I thought the Guardian was just being completely unreasonable. This season was fine, the show is pretty much a lifestyle magazine style soap these days. As modern day has crept up on it, it's much easier to view it less as a historical drama and more as just a scandalous bit of tittle tattle. 

It is entertaining however, and the performances from almost all the actors are fantastic. Elizabeth Debicki as Diana is pitch perfect, to the point where I don't see the actress at all. The only sour note being Little Prince Harrys wig, which is the worst.

However.. that all changed at pretty much the end of the 4th episode. Something which I think was just horrific and in such poor taste that I almost had to turn it off. 
 

Spoiler

Prince Charles has a conversation with the ghost of dead Diana on the plane home.

Up to the that point, the show was treading a fine line of bad taste, covering this event at all is something I wondered whether they would do at all, but they had sort of gotten away with it. But then this happened and my jaw dropped. Did they really think this was a good idea?!

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

If you guys  have a itch for period dramas, please try The Gilded Age over The Crown. Way, way better and touches on a time period that its quite underrated IMO. Also Carrie Coon rocks !

[Zorral]

It's true this season's Gilded Age is an improvement over the first one, when it comes to having some interesting developments of character and narrative.  But, I would find story lines that center the labor strikes and forces, figures like Jane Adams and her Hull House, and Theodore Roosevelt breaking up the monopolies -- to a degree, anyway -- a lot more interesting than, um these gilded, insulated richies. Of course any time there's a convincing Teddy on screen, like the real one, he takes all the oxygen!  Ha!

[Nictarion]

Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. It’s definitely a formulaic slasher, but it’s done pretty well. It has some really creative kills. It’s crazy that this is now the 3rd movie to be made out of the fake Grindhouse trailers. 

Edited November 21 by Nictarion

[GallowKnight]

11 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. It’s definitely a formulaic slasher, but it’s done pretty well. It has some really creative kills. It’s crazy that this is now the 3rd movie to be made out of the fake Grindhouse trailers. 

Fingers crossed for Werewolf Women of the SS starring Nic Cage as Fu Manchu.

[3CityApache]

On 11/18/2023 at 5:01 AM, Slurktan said:

The first two episodes of the Monarch (Godzilla) show on apple were pretty good,  Kind of a conspiracy/spy show in a world where there are also giant monsters.

Yeah, I liked it too. Not usually a fan of jumping into multiple time frames, but it worked quite well here. 

[Nictarion]

I’m digging the new season of Fargo so far. I guess I haven’t seen Juno Temple in anything in quite a while (probably Vinyl?), because I barely recognized her. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

I watched the first two episodes of the Mother God cult (Love Has Won) documentary on HBO.  Pretty sad.  Sort of answers the question "what does a cult look like when it's creator and followers were raised on the Real Word and the Bachelorette?  

sure there's something inherently childish about all cults, but with this one the shallowness of their beliefs was embarrassing apparent, and the grift was comically transparent.  A caricature of what a cult grubbing for money would look like (although i guess not that different from main stream religions doing the same ).  But I've heard more compelling religious psychobabble from tripped out wooks at festivals, and this was pretty depressing to watch.  I will however, definitely tune in next week for the final installment.  Love has won!

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

I saw The White Princess some time ago and absolutely loved it! Jodie Comer is such an incredible actress, highly recommended for anyone looking for a period romance with political intrigue set in medieval England. Great chemistry between the leads as well and it’s got Cat from GoT in it as well  

[Zorral]

5 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

The White Princess

It was absorbing, though ... well, not so historically credible in every way.  But that is the case with all period dramas it seems, some more and others less plausible in their changes and their reasons for them. (But I end up watching most of them, if not sooner, then later, it seems! )

The White Queen, to which The White Princess is the sequel, is even more absorbing. Both are adapted from Romance Historicals by author Philippa Gregory.

[IlyaP]

Hey @Ran, question, where's a good place to talk about what we're *not* watching, because it's clear as day the movie's going to fall apart? (As in: Scream VII, which looks to have been ghostface'd this morning.) Want to make sure I put it into the correct thread and not give you a headache. 

[Quijote Light]

53 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

Hey @Ran, question, where's a good place to talk about what we're *not* watching, because it's clear as day the movie's going to fall apart? (As in: Scream VII, which looks to have been ghostface'd this morning.) Want to make sure I put it into the correct thread and not give you a headache. 

Obviously not Ran, but I think that’s fit well in the upcoming movies and tv thread. I’ll see if I can find it.