Films The Official bit-tech Movie Thread - What have you seen lately?

As well as this, Matt Ryan had another outing as Constantine in Arrow last year (The boss battle vs Vandal Savage)

 

Jason Bourne (2016)
Fell asleep twice / 10

 

Not a movie but...

American Gods, Season 1 - Aren't you a little tall for a leprechaun?/10

Now... I didn't hate it... but there are problems...

 

My take on the few films I've seen recently.

Alien Covenant - 7/10
Certainly much better than Prometheus, but the whole evil android thing is wearing thin for me. Very predictable but fairly enjoyable. Need more of the lone creature terrorising the crew IMO.

Kong: Skull Island - 4/10
Really didn't feel this one at all. Sam L Jackson was just awful, Tom Hiddlestone was a cardboard cut out and the rest were just there as creature fodder, mostly.

The Mummy (2017) - 6/10
Not bad - OK for passing a couple of hours

Wonder Woman - 6/10
Damn she's hot. There, I said. Other than that, yeah it was OK - not as awesome as some would have you believe, but it wasn't bad.

I long for a great film - the last time I saw something really good was The Martian

 

I was very confused with gave up at episode 6 with his girlfriend (saying no more because spoilers)

The Mummy Cockness Hyde/10 Crossed eyed short man running, dodgy accents and a woman who has a stronger suck than most dysons.

Wonder Woman 6/10 Annoyingly over hyped IMO, not a bad film but just felt the whole Ares thing was a bit, meh.

 

Ghost in the Shell (2017) - 6.5/10

I originally had no intention on seeing this until a friend asked me to join her for a movie night, first 3rd of the film i'll admit i wasn't that interested but it picked up and by the end i actually quite enjoyed it, its biggest flaw is the same one that plagued the Total Recall remake; they're both solid films on their own but tying them to established franchises in an attempt to bolster them ends up hurting them more.

Kenji Kawaii's original opening track was a nice touch during the credits.

 

I think having read the book makes a huge difference here.
The series is AS confusing as the book, but the different pacing in a book vs TV makes a huge difference.
to me, 8/10
To the wife: 4/10

 

Cars 3 - Cars 2 never happened / 10

A reasonable end to the series.

 

Alien Covenant 4/10

How I wish Riddley Scott had retired after Prometheus, now he is walking the same path George Lucas did. Riddley, Riddley, Riddley... I have the feeling that you don't give a damn about the audience anymore, like David (Fassbender), you probably believe that we're all stupid apes. It really piss me that Blomkamp's Alien was canceled because of you, you should apologize by retiring. (thank god Villeneuve is in charge of the new Bladerunner.)

 

American Gods takes ages to explain itself, but that's the point. I like it.

 

IMHO he should have retired before he did Prometheus . Terrible, terrible film.

 

Nah Prometheus was a good movie, people bashed it because they expected an Alien prequel which it wasn't. Riddley!! It's not because they couldn't appreciate Prometheus that you had to act like a child and use millions of dollars to direct a giant "F**K you all!" FFS!

 

A Silent Voice - 9/10

I've read the manga and stuff and this one deviates, but I think it wasn't supposed to be that true to the source material. On it's merit as a standalone movie, it's a beautiful, beautiful, film.

Plot is like this - Deaf girl transfers into a school, boy bullies her for being different. Boy is then pulled up on his crap by his teachers and is outcasted by those who also did the bullying. He learns sign language and attempts to become a better person and make it right with the girl. He learns to love himself, and others again.

It's beautifully animated and has fantastic music to go with it. I generally hate all anime about High School life, since they have so many tropes and they've been done a thousand times. But this film is beautiful and emotional. Negative 1 point for some of the characters who I dislike, even at the end.

 

The Osiris Child 7/10

Very surprised with this low budget aussie film, but solid none the less well acted simple enough plot looking forward the the second instalment.

 

District 9 9/10

Rewatched on Netflix last night. First time i'd seen it since I went to the cinema originally. Still such a thoroughly brilliant film all around.

I've always wondered it it would have worked anywhere near as well if it were set anywhere else bar ZA.

 

Rogue one,a star wars Story - 6/5
nice to see the "old tech" Level of the early star wars movies pushed to new life but really, the Story shouldn't have lasted more than half an hour, but it runs for ages.
A lot of PewPew and ZwoingZwoing though, I guess thats what most people like.
The only funny character is the effin droid, and he's sent away all the time.

 

Warcraft - 6/10

Because of exceeding my very,very low expectations.
It was well animated, excessively beautiful in almost every way
The movie's too long for the story though, it wears pretty thin.
It also seems to be the first part of a greater Story... maybe more movies are/were planned, or the Story continues in the original games.
...never played one of them.

 

Dunkirk - 8.5/10

Saw in 2D at Cinema with Dolby surround.

A very enjoyable and high-quality British film; zero razzmatazz, just very, very good (somewhat understated) acting from stars and newcomers alike. Not a lot of dialogue - so much of the acting was done by pose/demeanor/facial expression. Virtually zero exposition and musing about the war - and neither too jaundiced nor too jingoistic in tone. Fantastic soundscape, from bullets punching through metal, to the rattling of various spitfire parts, to the muffled sounds of chaos heard from within the bowels of a ship...

The film interweaves a week on the beach with a day in a boat and an hour in a plane - it was done perfectly well, but nevertheless managed to fool my wife who thought Tom Hardy shot down 3 curiously-similar planes after announcing he had zero fuel, and she was also convinced that Cillian Murphy's twin brother must have been the guy on that other boat.


TL;DR:
See it at the cinema. Quality is at least as good as Saving Private Ryan/Thin Red Line, but don't expect the same sort of film.

 

Dunkirk (IMAX) - Amazing/10

What a great film. I take only the slightest issue with the pace (or lack thereof) in the aerial combat scenes, but just an utterly gorgeous and unforgettable movie. Do yourselves a favour and watch it in IMAX. I drove two hours in the rain to my nearest IMAX and it was worth it. If your locals drive like pillocks at the slightest sign of moisture, you'll know what I went through – but it didn't matter in the end. Phenomenal work.

 

Dunkirk in IMAX - Wow/10

The impact (literally) of the sound in IMAX is incredible, I always loved the sound of a Merlin engine but actually feeling it was awesome. Although the woman next to me had her fingers in her ears for most of the film, I wasn't sure if that was due to volume levels (why go to an IMAX film if you don't like it loud?) or a comment on the soundtrack - which I have to say was pretty terrible. I found it grating and irritating, normally I love Zimmer's work, don't always like all of it but this is the first time I've found myself disliking most of it.

I agree on the lack of exposition, it makes a change from having certain characters acting as info-dumps to explain whats going on for those with zero attention span/patience. It seemed a bit odd at first because I'm used to it in so many other films but I quickly got used to it. A classic example is, for those of you who've seen is to ask yourself how many characters names did you hear?

One thing I would say is there is a scene near the end that at first had me saying "that's f'n stupid" then my brain actually reminded me that "you're seeing the same events from different perspectives - you've been seeing it throughout the film dimwit." If you've seen the film you'll probably know the bit I'm referring to.

So, I loved it (apart from the soundtrack, not one I'll be adding to my collection), you should see it on the biggest and loudest screen you can and remember you see the same events from different perspectives at different points in the course of the film.

One last thing, nothing to do with the film, why did Cineworld IMAX think it was a good idea to show a 3D IMAX trailer for Thor Ragnarok in a 2D IMAX screening?