What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

Unlike you, I was disappointed.
Typical hollywood dumb script for mentally challenged people and wasted acting talents on screen.
It has many awsome visuals, but I don't care about visuals when the story plain sucks.

And what's the story? A loco who is loco without any reason is pushed into a scifi setting where the setting doesn't even matter, it's just a background for expensive CGI scenes.

Ad Astra doesn't belong to any of the two types of scifi, it is not thoughtprovoking nor is silly fun.
It belongs to the rubbish bin.
 
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Willy's Wonderland and to anyone who watches it's obvious it's inspired by, or a live action clone of the Five Nights at Freddy's game. Probably one of Cage's best recent movie and he doesn't even speak. So do I recommend it hell yes I do. Go watch it now.
 
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Sorry man, I refuse to watch that.
Too many worldwide gems and not enough time for Hollywood trash movies.
 
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Good for you watch what you love as I hate most Hollywood movies myself.:biggrin:

Anyway I streamed Dune (2021) online and yes I didn't pay for it. It was as boring and everything I thought it would be. I'll stick to the books as they are ten times better.

As for Ad Astra it sounded like a good movie but the preaching lesson about fixing humanity first as were flawed and the ending, just sound like pure hollywood rubbish.

Ad Astra, at its core, is about a man who, once he learns some hard truths about the system he idealizes, allows himself to become human again. The great question, “Are we alone in the universe?” is answered two fold. While there’s no intelligent life, we as a species have each other to keep us company in the great expanse.

The answers humanity seeks aren’t “out there”, they’re at home; because if we can’t deal with our problems on Earth, they’re just going to repeat themselves anywhere we go. Learning the truth about how much his father and SPACECOM truly value him as a person, Brad Pitt’s character is able to return home to Earth with a clear head, trying to make things right with his wife, and humanity at large.
 
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Anyway maybe it's time to finally watch Dwayne Johnson's Jungle Cruise, but I'm having doubts due to it being another Disney movie. They love to use checklist's in movies.

He also had another movie released this week called Red Notice but reviews are lukewarm, and sales predict it will be a bomb. Who knows I might watch it. We'll see.
 
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Legacy of Kain | A Complete History and Retrospective


It's always great to see a new history and retrospective of the whole Legacy of Kain series. I seem to never tire of these, even though I'm pretty familiar with the whole thing. It may be that this is the closest I'll get to a remaster/remake/re-release of the whole series. I sometimes loathe our industry, where shitty and generic games get huge budgets year after year, but unique and special games don't. Because of the "market". Which they have every motivation to keep dumb and asking for cheap shit.
 
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A funny thing about Jungle Cruise is I’ve read it had a bigger budget than Dune, of about a couple tens of millions of dollars more. I guess The Rock really is expensive to hire. :p
Denis Villeneuve's Depthless, Boring Dune (2021): A Critique

Link - https://robertwhat.com/denis-villeneuves-depthless-boring-dune-2021-a-critique/
To turn the usual toxic internet language around on itself, much like a worm that eats its own sad tale: ‘these fragments of critique are not for everyone.’

Violently unmemorable, the whole empty, deathly boring spectacle leaves you stone cold, despite the heat. And it really is just that; a spectacle of one director’s vast ego, smeared across the screen in depthless beige tones.

Let’s face it this is a movie only really for overly keen young punks physically unable to appreciate anything older than 2.4 minutes old (and a little too brainless to appreciate David Lynch’s strong attempt. The same thing happened with Blade Runner.) Spoilt bunches of Johhny Fucking Come-Latelys who scream shit like ‘take my money’ at CGI bloated trailers – yet regard themselves as intimately familiar with ‘the franchise’ just because they heard the abridged audiobook version on their Apple AirPods while jerking off at the local gym. At least Lynch tried, expended effort actually making the film like a true psychedelic vision. Villeneuve’s version of ‘vision’ is merely to make everything on screen oversized. He’s obviously over-compensating for something. At least this particular demographic might have the balls to go see the movie stoned (it would probably improve it no end.)
:p
 
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What can I say, too bad some people can't see the beauty in what he did. I wonder what he thought about Blade Runner 2049. Another fantastic piece by Denis.

And the fact that he did Dune part one with less of a budget than the yearly generic and shitty summer movie is just mindblowing.
 
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What can I say, too bad some people can't see the beauty in what he did.

And the fact that he did Dune part one with less of a budget than the yearly generic and shitty summer movie is just mindblowing.

He made a generic and shitty summer movie slightly cheaper than another guy. Not really a ringing endorsement.
 
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I enjoyed Dune more than 2049 which I find to be a bit too self consciously weird. But neither are classics.
 
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It's subjective of course, but the majority seems to have enjoyed Dune. 8.2 rating on IMDB and even higher on Rotten Tomatoes.

I'd probably rate it somewhere around 7.5
 
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It's subjective of course, but the majority seems to have enjoyed Dune. 8.2 rating on IMDB and even higher on Rotten Tomatoes.

It was 8.3 yesterday, but I get what you're saying. The thing about IMDB is that the scores aren't ever going to be particularly accurate soon after a film's release, IMDB in particular is much more of a long-term tool than a release guide.

I've spent the last month watching the No Time To Die rating sink from 8+ to 7.5, for example.

Because in the first few weeks of release the first bunch of people to see it are mostly the biggest fanboys/girls and then you add in all the people involved in making it, and all their families. And all their sock puppets. Not being cynical, just basic human nature.

Its what comes after that which will be more revealing as they succeed in persuading ever more non-interested parties to give it a shot.
 
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He made a generic and shitty summer movie slightly cheaper than another guy. Not really a ringing endorsement.

Really? Comparing Dune to Jungle Cruise? I guess that's something to do. :D

Dune was a great visual and audio spectacle, and it lays the groundwork for what could be an amazing part 2. It managed to portray the foundations of a great setting and was really able to display the scope that this space opera will span.

My only complaint to it is that it doesn't have enough "meat on the bone". Which is why it's even hard to review, at least for me. So far it has amazing potential and if part 2 follows with the same effort but manages to put in a whole lot more content it'll be great. Another complaint is that, if part 2 will be the same length as part 1, I worry about the difference in concentration of content between the two, if watched back to back. And it doesn't sound like he'll do a part 3. As Denis said he would love to follow part 2 with Dune Messiah.

Anyway, I hope part 2 is at least this big of a success. I'd love Denis to handle this whole universe adaptation to the big screen. After what he managed to pull off with Blade Runner 2049, in parts even better than the first BR, I'm not sure who else I'd trust with this sort of project of this scope. Surely not Ridley Scott.
 
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Lol. Where did you find that guy, Couch? Sounds like an insufferable wanker. :p
A quick little google search labeled Dune 2021 Boring. I couldn't stop laughing. Despite all that some of his Critique's are spot on using sarcasm and parody for shock value.
I most definitely would love to have a beer with that guy and talk smack.:party:
 
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Really? Comparing Dune to Jungle Cruise? I guess that's something to do. :D

Dune was a great visual and audio spectacle, and it lays the groundwork for what could be an amazing part 2. It managed to portray the foundations of a great setting and was really able to display the scope that this space opera will span.

I had no idea I was comparing it to Jungle Cruise, you didn't mention Jungle Cruise.

No-one has denied it is a film which prioritises visuals.

You say it provided groundwork, but then surely a film has to be more than just groundwork. Even films which are just part 1s will attempt to be more than just groundwork.

You say it portrayed the foundations of a great setting and displayed the scope the future films will span - when the whole problem is that it's this particular aspect which the film singularly failed to convey. In any part.

Some evil dudes left a planet, some other dudes arrived. The ones who left then came back and attacked the ones who'd just arrived. Meanwhile a kid is learning force powers and having visions. That's it, that's all it said, that is the 2.5 hour foundation? And you think that's 'great'?

Well, I guess you're, erm, easily pleased?

Why did the evil guys leave? Why did the new guys arrive? Why did the leaving guys then attack? Why did the boss then support the guys who left? Why are Catholic Church so interested in Paul? Who's the guy who betrayed the new arrivals and why is he important? Why did that guy roll his eyes? Why is everyone fighting with swords? Where is everyone? How many people live on this planet? What kind of infrastructure do they all live in? How do all the various factions relate to each other?

To name but a few glaring issues.

I get that for some of the questions you could get some extremely basic understanding because at one point one character says one line of exposition, but, unfortunately, which ones you hear will be entirely dependent on how obtrusive the sound editing is when the relentless booming deep base soundtrack drowns out everything in it's wake. I really shouldn't be dependent on subtitles for a film in my own language in a cinema with a 10 gazillion watt sound system where I cannot choose to pause, go back, then add subtitles for a whispered one-liner.

As for the concept itself, it's already on shaky ground because it is based on a book written 55 years ago with a mind towards pulpy fantasy as much towards and sense of hard sci-fi.

Take the Worms, for instance. I feel sure the entire galaxy of highly advanced civilisation can figure out a simple poison to eradicate the big annoying sand worms that keep eating our highly expensive spice mining vehicles. Or, if not poison, then just some other means to somehow take the worms out of the mining equation.

And, yes, I'm aware that for fantasy you suspend your disbelief and all that, of course you do, but when you are already on shaky ground with regard to keeping people in that state of disbelief, and you only really offer big sandworms as you're primary set pieces, then you're focusing on the wrong aspect of what makes the story more interesting and more suspendable.

Where's all the political intrigue? The Phantom Menace gives more attention to political intrigue and that film was quite literally aimed at 7 year olds, that was it's primary target audience. And I've heard people say this film is 'mature', and yet this film is mostly about big sandworms and practically zero about political intrigue.

If it was mostly political intrigue then, sure, a bit of sandworm fun can be a fun and silly diversion to ease out of the tense political wrangling, but to have practically zero political wrangling and then have 30 minutes of sandworms is just, well, extremely juvenile? Yes?
 
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Maybe the issue is that I'm already familiar with plenty of the details of the universe from the book and previous Dune games. It doesn't explicitly say a lot of the details you ask for, some are suggested, some are only in the book. I'm personally fine with that. I didn't have any issues understanding the suggested politics of it. And I feel it made sufficient small remarks to suggest that there's a lot more going on. Which I hope they expand upon in part 2.

Personally, I'm perfectly fine with the direction they chose, to go for more mood and atmosphere over hard exposition and too many details. They'll have plenty of time for more details later on, if we get those films.

About killing the sandworms, I believe they contribute to the production of the spice on Arrakis. So killing them would lead to the end of spice.
 
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Maybe the issue is that I'm already familiar with plenty of the details of the universe from the book and previous Dune games. It doesn't explicitly say a lot of the details you ask for, some are suggested, some are only in the book. I'm personally fine with that. I didn't have any issues understanding the suggested politics of it. And I feel it made sufficient small remarks to suggest that there's a lot more going on. Which I hope they expand upon in part 2.

Personally, I'm perfectly fine with the direction they chose, to go for more mood and atmosphere over hard exposition and too many details.

About killing the sandworms, I believe they contribute to the production of the space on Arrakis. So killing them would lead to the end of spice.

Oh for sure, it suggested lots was going on. It just didn't show any of it. It was too busy showing us big snadworms and extremely low effort fight scenes and lots of long drawn out visual reveals.

As I said, I'm sure they could have figured out a way to take the sand worms out the equation if killing them wasn't an option. I mean, they'd have had 1000s of years to figure something out, right. I'm just spitballing ideas in 5 mins of thinking time. You know, like those thumpers that distract them *cough* *cough*. Or how about flying claw diggers that lift out a pile of sand and take it to a refinery. Or. Or. Or. Etc.

The point being, the sandworms aren't really the main focus of interest here. They're a silly fun weak spot at best.
 
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Oh for sure, it suggested lots was going on. It just didn't show any of it. It was too busy showing us big snadworms and extremely low effort fight scenes and lots of long drawn out visual reveals.

As I said, I'm sure they could have figured out a way to take the sand worms out the equation if killing them wasn't an option. I mean, they'd have had 1000s of years to figure something out, right. I'm just spitballing ideas in 5 mins of thinking time. You know, like those thumpers that distract them *cough* *cough*. Or how about flying claw diggers that lift out a pile of sand and take it to a refinery. Or. Or. Or. Etc.

The point being, the sandworms aren't really the main focus of interest here. They're a silly fun weak spot at best.

Well, what can I say, I didn't have much of an issue with how much they suggested vs showed. This might be a personal thing, but after I usually see a movie I don't really have suggestions on how it could've been done better. Or what the director/writers should have done. I want to see their vision of it. And afterwards I can only say if what they did do worked for me, or not.

And what they did worked for me. They managed to make me lose myself in the world they built. And I'm really excited about the rest of the story, seeing this potential.

My only other slight issue is with the score by Zimmer and his crew. I listened to it separately from the film, and I quite liked it. But in the movie itself, some of the women chanting in moments of importance was kind of immersion breaking. On the other hand, I absolutely loved the guttural singing of the Sardukar, probably heavily inspired by mongolian throat singing. That idea was fantastic of them, to make use of that kind of singing.
 
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