[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElConvoy

Finally watched The Wolverine....it was freakin awesome!!

I am so glad that there is finally a really good Wolverine flick.

Innit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RiderSkyward

well, yeah. Maybe I’m reading your review wrong, but it comes across that you simply write it off as ‘I paid to see an Iron man film and all I got was Tony Stark.’ You also write off the ‘character study’ as just giving him PTSD, when there's much more to it than that (so the ‘point’).
See Tony is a cocky bastard and he suddenly feels massively inadequate next to aliens and ‘gods’. He’s a man that makes metal suits, and he almost failed to protect the one thing that matters to him. Feeling this, he builds crap loads of suits, trying to make each better and better, to cover any weakness or situation, and yet still feels like he isn’t doing enough. When Happy gets accidentally drawn into the fray Tony makes it personal by inviting them to his house (sure it was always going to get personal but until then nothing had been aimed at Tony). You call out a nutter, they’ll come for you. So his cockiness here sets him up for an even bigger fall. He mopes for a bit (he can’t hit the bottle as they did that in the last film…) has a bit of banter with a kid, who helps him realise that his suits are only as good as he is. He’s been relying on them, with all their strengths and weaknesses, instead of just using his head an being the best version of himself.
Hence the ending when he blows up all of his suits and removes his reactor/shrapnel.

If you found all of that boring then that’s fair enough, but to make out that the film does nothing is both wrong, and (from a review angle) misleading. It's certainly not perfect, I have my own personal problems with it, but not seeing enough Iron Man isn't one.

I understand Iron Man and Tony Stark are one in the same, but there are fantastic independent directors out there creating rich characters for their dramas, because their budget can't afford anything more. Now I'm not saying superhero films can't be profound or whatever else, but I come first and foremost for action I just can't get in any other cinema.

Plus, everything you said there is your reading very few aspects of what you stated there, is ever plainly stated in the film itself. And I didn't think the writing was good enough to read deeper into it, I didn't care.

[Dr Kain]

To kick off my Godzilla-thon (even though I won’t be watching all of the movies in a small time span) I decided to change up my order and start with Final Wars. Why? Well because next year will be its 10th anniversary. Plus, I wanted to relook at the final, and most controversial movie, first.

So with that said:

Godzilla Final Wars: First I’m just going to straight off say that this movie is bad, very bad. As a Godzilla movie, it is downright terrible. Godzilla does not even show up until an hour into the movie, and by then, we have been given so much exposition, so much filler, too many characters and monsters without any rhyme or reason for it, that you are ready for the movie to be over when the big G finally shows up. This movie feels more like Kitamura was planning to make a Matrix type super hero movie when he was asked to do Godzilla, so he just adapted his script to include as many beloved Toho kaiju as possible into the movie regardless of whether or not we see them on screen for more than 10 seconds. Honestly, there was no need to even bother with “Zilla” or Hedorah, as their scenes are just pointless and add nothing to the so called plot (other than showing how much they hate the US version).

The human characters feel like they are just going through the motions of the movie to the point that you cannot even take them seriously. Don Fry seems to have these reactions as if he has no idea what is going on outside of his own lines, so they feel forced and very much scripted. The rest of the cast is pretty forgettable, which is a shame since they even have Kane Kosugi in this movie. His talents are definitely wasted as instead of utilizing him, he is there to give one bad line in English and become nothing more than background for the remainder of the movie until he ID4’s himself. Ozaki has more personality in his hair than his entire performance, while both Anna and Miyuki are there just to have some fan service added to the mix. I’m not sure if Miyuki figured she was going to die and wanted to look pretty when she kicked the bucket on this mission or what, but who the hell is going to wear high heels to a big battle like this? Even the X Alien villain of the movie seems to not even be taking this thing seriously, but at least he appears to be having fun with his role.

As for the monsters, they are a mixed bag. Some of them, such as Gigan and Hedorah, look great, while others, like King Ceasar and Anguirus just look goofy. I don’t hate their new designs, it is just that their heads really look like the rubber they are made out of instead of monster heads. If there is one thing they did not look like in the originals, it was rubber monsters. Speaking of modern inferiority, what is up with Kumonga’s spider web? It is clearly just rope tied together. Did they run out of a budget before they filmed his battle with Godzilla and just used the first thing they could find at a dollar store? I do like Kaiser Ghidorah’s design even if it does stray from the King Ghidorah we all know and love. He feels like that final boss he is supposed to be, so it works despite how ridiculous it is to see Godzilla just tossing him over his back as if it he was hollow on the inside. Speaking of Godzilla, that brings me to my final piece when it comes to the monsters, I do not like his design at all. I get what they were going for by making him thinner, but it makes him look more like Godzilla Jr than Godzilla. Most of all, his back looks lazily put together. The spines just look so far apart from each other and too small. One of the best things about the Godzilla designs from the Heisei era was his back, and here there is nothing to praise outside of giving the designs an E for Epic Failure.

The movie itself is quite subpar. It definitely feels like a Kitamura movie, which is great if that is your thing. I definitely enjoy a bunch of the man’s movies, which is why I do not outright hate this movie. On the other hand, if you do not like Kitamura’s movies, or was just looking for an updated version of Destroy All Monsters, you will be disappointed. Aside from being an action movie first and a Godzilla movie second, the movie suffers from pointless characters, subplots that did not need to be there (seriously, there is no reason for Minilla to be in this movie at all), monsters that were there just for the sake of being there, and a score that is a mixed bag. There are some great pieces to be found, with some homages to the music of old, but then there is a lot of crap that sounds like it was ripped out of a Nintendo game from the 80s. Overall, I’m giving Godzilla Final Wars a 4/10. Sadly, it isn’t the worst Godzilla movie ever, and it does have action to make up for everything else, but it is not even that good of a movie in the long run.

[algo448]

Lone Ranger: Way too long for it's own sake, and loaded with tons of pointless scenes that make it drag even more, the leads do a good job, but it doesn't save the movie.
That said the last 20 or so minutes were incredibly fun.

The Wolverine: Great movie! Simply an awesome flick.
I'll miss the claws. T_T

[XW1n5t0nX]

I would have seen Oldboy by now, but no monies. Guess it'll have to wait till after the new year.

[Locke]

So I went ahead and watched Mortal Instruments. I know it got negativity across the board, but so did the Twilight franchise and although I don't love Twilight, I appreciated it more often than I didn't.

I find films like The Mortal Instruments hard to hate, hard to love as well, but being hard to hate is honestly more important. To get it out of the way, yes, Mortal Instruments is as generic and bland as they come, as it tells the story of yet another eternal war between angels and demons, as punctuated by pretty young people in abandoned buildings.

And yes, the central romance which is the shoulders of the narrative carrying the brunt of the emotional weight, is completely without substance or chemistry and is instead utterly corny and clearly an excuse to have two pretty young people grind on one another as much as 12a censorship allows.

And yes, the acting/dialogue is astoundingly bad. Wooden, amateurish actors who seem utterly without help from their director speak entirely in exposition they themselves seem unconvinced by. At some points I felt like I was watching a parody of young adult urban fantasy genre, only to realise that they are intending to play it straight.

But the thing is, Mortal Instruments is also really fun and uses its visual medium well. Whether it's vampires scuttling across the ceiling, loads of fancy sword fighting, an onslaught of demons frozen mid attack, werewolves tearing apart possessed children, boils bursting into tentacles or demon hunters being hit in the face with frying pans, Mortal Instruments has greater focus in its action than any of the other Young Adult franchises out right now on our screens or in our players. No cockteasing and no shaky cam to hide all the violence, just big crazy urban fantasy brawls, full of crazy powers and even crazier gadgets and weapons, as people are volleyed through the air and no room remains untrashed, all wrapped up in some absolutely hilarious humour.

[ZeoRangerV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by algo448

The Wolverine: Great movie! Simply an awesome flick.
I'll miss the claws. T_T

I'm hopeful they'll be back for DoFP, I'm just curious how they'll write around it.

[algo448]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoRangerV

I'm hopeful they'll be back for DoFP, I'm just curious how they'll write around it.

Probably something related to Yashida's adamantium stash, with a side touch of Magneto maybe.

[Dr Kain]

I thought they returned his claws at the end? He would just have to file them to be smooth again.

[ElConvoy]

His bone claws regenerated not the adamantium.

[Dr Kain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElConvoy

His bone claws regenerated not the adamantium.

Um... his bones are adamantium...