Film; or The Silver Screen

[biffpow]

Dune 2.

I almost gave up on this about halfway through and think maybe I should have. I just don’t see the point with these. Maybe this is a really great movie and I’m just not getting it, I don’t know. I’ve read Dune several times (many years ago) and generally liked it. I saw the Lynch version when it came out and mostly liked it and have mostly liked it when I’ve seen it since. I saw the SciFi channel miniseries when they did that, and it was mostly dreadful, and I would like those hours of my life back, please.

And now this. I was honestly just bored. Maybe because I know the story too well, I’ll accept that. But I think the real reasons are because it’s just hours and hours of same-ness in the filming, odd choices in terms of what we spend time on vs. what sort of just happens, and uneven pacing that did not match the first film (for me).

Anna Taylor Joy was a nice surprise (and a clear signal that we’re going to get Part 3), Walken was interesting but ultimately wasted stunt casting (more scenes of him machinating would have been welcome), and some of the sets were impressive (while others were so clearly green screen, I felt like I was watching a film from 2005).

The thing this movie reminded me of overall–the “feel” of it–was when directors make a movie out of a Shakespeare play. Lots of bigtime costumes, pacing that seems at odds with movie-making, each scene is made to convey “importance”, and people delivering their lines with lots of emoting. Plus swordfights and deceitful political games with magic happening in the background.

And all of that would be great–I admittedly usually like those movies–but the source material there is Shakespeare, whereas here it’s Frank Herbert, and it doesn’t work. The material isn’t very deep. The main actors aren’t very good (Zendaya has two expressions and Challemet’s line delivery often makes him sound like a punk from Jersey rather than a highborn of Arakis). And many of the characters are no more than good/evil cut-outs (Feyed was especially poorly handled, IMO. At least 3 other characters tell us he’s a psycho–so that the director never has to show us how does that make him stand out among an entire family of psychos?).

The movie is a spectacle, I guess, and some people like that. To me, though, it was tedious. It fails utterly to show me anything new in its interpretation of the source material, but I guess I am in the minority for wanting that.

[kennfusion]

I mostly agree, although we watched the whole thing, and while not bored, it was more like watching art for close to 3 hours. The sandworms were really cool up close, but the worm riding scenes failed.

Some of the changes made sense, some did not. But mostly I understood the Chani and Alia changes.

It was fine-ish.

[Snotty128]

The first half of the book was always stronger than the second half. Knowingly walking into a trap was always going to be more compelling plot arc than farting around in the desert.

I did enjoy how this film added a lot of visual pizazz to the aforementioned farting, and tried to flesh out the world some more.

[js619]

Atlas, on Netflix.

tl;dr, should’ve believed all the reviews.

Another unwatchable production. JLo is a trope battling the ghost of her mother and somehow resists using technology, which is inescapable in the film.

The acting is poor at best, the CGI is more transparent than a freshly cleaned window, and the characters are downright dumb. You won’t even remember their names (except for JLo, since the movie is named after her), let alone care about them. Plot is predictable and stupid.

Didn’t make it an hour into this drivel, watch at your own risk.

[halfvoid]

After re-watching ALL of the Mad Max movies in the last 5 days, including the new one I figured I needed to rerank them as some have definitely not kept up with my memory of them (thunderdud, which in my memory I had ranked above Road Warrior, no idea why after rewatching it, it was awful).

Mad Max -> Mad Min
Fury Road (Even better, the Black & Chrome version is truly something special)
Furiosa (still shocked this isn’t doing better in theatres)
Road Warrior
Mad Max
Beyond Thunderdome (The worst remake of Peter Pan ever)

[Hustlertwo]

Clearly you do not know who run Bartertown.

[halfvoid]

A person “running” bartertown wouldn’t just walk away from the person who’d completely destroyed it just saying “Don’t we make a pair?” when they could’ve turned him into desert gib. Roll credits.

There’s just not a single section of that movie that makes any sort of sense, that moves the story along in any way, and hell there’s only one 10 minute car chase and two deaths in that movie. Just bad.

[Hustlertwo]

I feel like it’s a movie with a few great scenes and lines that have sustained it, along with everyone collectively forgetting the last half of the movie exists. But after Fury Road raised the bar so high, that wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

[OhBollox]

Boy Kills World. What if Archer did the internal monologue of a super assassin? Bill Skarsgard gives a good effort, and the film is almost worth it entirely for H. John Benjamin’s narration, but it’s almost entirely an action film, where the actions scenes are…okay. They have their good aspects, but each time there’s something that stops them being good, whether the editing isn’t quite there, or certain aspects of the action are going on juuust off-screen, or there’s a touch too much CGI. There’s also a solid cast including Famke Janssen, Sharlto Copley, Andrew Koji, and Brett Gelman, who all do quite well in their roles, but simply do not get anywhere near enough screen time to counterbalance the one-note joke of Skarsgard emoting and Benjamin doing a one-liner.

[rinelk]

I should make a list of movies from my youth I should never see again, and Thunderdome should be on it. My desire to share a culture with my children led me to having them watch such favorites as The Black Hole and Ghostbusters. The Black Hole makes absolutely no sense, the effects are awful, and the cool robot I remember fondly is both way less cool than I remembered and on screen for about 30 seconds. Ghostbusters still does a lot that’s great, but it also communicated incredibly clearly that, not so long ago, our culture regarded uncontrollable and unwelcome horny behavior as somewhere between expected and charming. Which hits really close to home, since I was far too horny in my youth, and talked about sex constantly, and am deeply regretful about that.

[OhBollox]

Another @rinelk post I must ruefully admit has been made by a better man than I.

[rinelk]

I can hope that’s a sign that you can still enjoy a modern classic, and arguably the best work of a couple of generational comic talents.

[OhBollox]

Godzilla Minus One. Continuing the trend of Godzilla films that are better than you think they are, this one follows a failed kamikaze pilot (don’t get me started, we’ll be here all fucking week) and his first encounter with Godzilla, his return home to his devastated country, and his attempt to find gainful employment in a non-Godzilla-related industry. Some parts of this are quite neatly done, including some sections that appear to have taken inspiration from Jaws, and some parts of it are quite ham-fisted. Definitely not enough Godzilla action, and too many awkward human scenes.

‘KONGTAINMENT’ was right there. For fuck’s sake. Must I do everything myself. Anyway. Godzilla vs. Kong is okay, there’s precious little by way of thought been put into any aspect of it except the giant monsters, the humans are there as pure exposition devices, and everyone in this deserves better, other than Kyle Chandler, for whom I, quite frankly, harbour an intense irrational dislike. The fight scenes just made me think of the tens of thousands of people being obliterated each second as Godzilla and Kong kick the shit out of each other in the middle of a city.

[Mirefox]

I think I’m getting grumpy in my old age but special effects don’t do it for me anymore. Watching CGI monsters fight for 2 hours bores me. I think the SFX hooks haven’t wowed me since I saw Return of the King in the theaters.

[Snotty128]

The greatest beer run ever. Reasonable Vietnam film with an anti war theme. Not quite as light as the name might suggest, but not determinedly holding the hawks feet to the fire either.

Finch. Tom hanks is a post apocalyptic loner. Pacing issues and a depressing theme.

[OhBollox]

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. God the lore this film goes in to is dreadful. The best part of it is the environment and visual design. Did Dan Stevens star in this just to have a holiday? I look back to the likes of Kong: Skull Island with nothing but sadness in my heart.

Arcadian. Nicholas Cage looks after two idiot teens (that’s a tautology, right? I don’t have kids, but they’re fucking stupid, right?) in the post-apocalypse. I don’t believe in hitting children, but I would beat both of these morons within an inch of their fucking lives. Watching the film fall apart in the last third (when Cage reappears, incidentally) is the only real pleasure I got out of this, apart from the unusual monster design.

Furiosa. The best bits of this are just echoes of Fury Road. Too much CGI, too much sped-up footage. Anya Taylor-Joy can’t do what Theron did, Hemsworth’s Dementus is a pale shadow of Immortan Joe.

May December. Actress visits a paedophile and her husband, who she started seeing when she was 36 and he was 13. Natalie Portman is good (as she should be, er, playing an actress), Julianne Moore is excellent. Just funny enough, and incredibly uncomfortable, to be compelling. Beautifully scored.

[rinelk]

The strange limits of platelet donation viewing (good enough to be diverting, but not so good my wife would want to watch it) left me watching Red Notice yesterday. It had just enough going for it that I didn’t stop watching to try and find something else, but not enough that I’ll bother watching the end now that I’m done with the donation, even though I have Netflix at home at the moment.

Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson, and Gal Gadot are sort of interesting actors, in that they’re very charismatic, and seem to like making movies, but maybe aren’t that interested in the quality of the writing of the movies? If they entertain people for a couple hours, maybe have some fun along the way, not everything needs to be perfectly written or agonized over. And I get the impression that Ryan Reynolds’s characters all quip similarly enough that he’s just ad-libbing much of that, so he’ll tend to be Ryan Reynolds-level amusing no matter how stupid the script, so what does it matter?

I’m not quite to the level of admiring their detachment, but I feel like I’ll probably get there if Trump gets another term.

[Mirefox]

Re: Ryan Reynolds. I remember seeing him the the first Van Wilder movie years ago and (maybe) because the National Lampoon name was attached, I saw him as the next Chevy Chase. With years of hindsight now he definitely isn’t that, but I still enjoy his comedic timing. His schtick might have grown old for some, but he can still get laughs out of me.

[OhBollox]

Handling the Undead. One of those implacably bleak Nordic films, a study in foreboding as the dead start coming back to life, and do nothing but be ominous. It’s unremittingly grim, very well made, and almost entirely one-note.

[OhBollox]