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

Fantastic Four 2015 - 7/10

Somehow I feel like I should feel ashamed for liking this, but in my opinion it is a LOT better than the previous iterations. That's not saying much, I know, but for me the darker, grittier feel in the new film works much better. I never read the comics, so I'm not sure how close the film stays to the origin story, but for me it works quite well as a superhero popcorn flick.

Pixels - 3/10

OK, so I'll get this out of the way first: it is not a good movie. There, that should suffice.
However, there are a few genuinely funny moments, and also Toru Iwatani (sadly not in his own person) the creator of PacMan.

 

I was wondering what both of your problems were with the movie. I bolded it for you. The protagonist isn't either of the men, it's Ava. It's her story. What you see between the men are plot points that advance her story. Do you ever see a moment where she's alone that advances their stories without advancing her's? Nope. The most telling is the scene where she puts on the skin and becomes indistinguishable from humans. When she put on a dress earlier we could still see that she wasn't human. She was still naked. But with skin she is "naked" to us, but in reality has fully covered her true form. It's a scene that advances her story and nobody else's.

Ava's the protagonist.

 

The Martian - 9/10

Super, SUPER fun ride. Good clean scifi action, a la Interstellar, with most of the philosophical mumbo jumbo ripped out, and oddly a better movie for it.

 

Hitting The Apex 9/10

A documentary following several of the fastest MotoGP riders, following the last few years of the sport. The interviews and amazing shots of the spectacle are sublime. Even if you're not a fan of the sport, or even motorbikes, it'd be a good watch, brings home how talented these riders are and what they, and the people around them, go through.

 

That wasn't my problem the film, not even remotely close. It was blatantly obvious that Ava was the protagonist, the problem with the film was I didn't care that she was the protagonist and didn't care what her story was... The lightswitch could've been the protagonist for all it mattered, and the story of the lightswitch could've been an epic tale of legend. But if the film isn't able to convey that story in a way that keeps you interested for the duration then it's a lousy film.

People keep telling me how wonderful the ending to 2001 is, and it could be. But doesn't matter how wonderful the ending is if you're bored into unconsciousness by the preceding hour and a bit...

But, you evidently know my feeling on the film better than I do...

/ranty words

The Raid 2 - hmmm.... /10

Wasn't as coherent imo as the first one, and the shaky camerawork started to do my head in after a while. At least I didn't fall asleep.

 

Changed that for you.

Don't get me wrong, I like it, it's pretty, it set standards for decades, and when I got to rewatch it (in the longer cut) in an arthouse cinema a couple of years ago, I was bored out of my wits.
Same goes for all Kubricks really, they're brilliant, but slooooooooow.

Then again, I suppose that's the way we've gotten used to seeing movies in the last decade or so, increasingly dense and fast, and anything from the early nineties and before is getting hard to watch.

 

Terminator Genisys
Now you're really milking it/10

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. Not after Salvation. Salvation just didn't "feel" like a Terminator film to me. With Genisys, the best part was Matt Smith as Skynet.
I found them trying to string things together and make the whole plot more "sensical" downright paintful to watch. It's an action franchise, for Pete's sake. It should have ended after T2.

 

Havent written in a long time, lets see, what I remember, hmmm.

What We Do in the Shadows 7/10
At first I thought "oh No, Kiwi's with a shakey cam" but then it turned out to be a very nice Genre-Parody. Positively surprised!

Exodus 7/10
too long on one hand, too brief on the other.
All in all a grand spectacle though.

Ex Machina 5/10
Just has too many open obvious questions and is too slow, was expecting a bigger twist.

A Young Doctor's Notebook 9/10 (OK, not a movie really)
Fantastic, I really like it

Captain Philips 6/10
A solid movie, but really can't remember a lot of it after ea few weeks.

La belle et la bête 5/10 (Beauty and the Beast )
The Vincent Cassel one.
Pretty pictures but ultimately Meh.

Trancendence 6/10
An okay movie, but not the singularity movie I've been waiting for.

A million ways to die in the west 5/10
Again a parody, but it simply lacks tempo.
Also, some of the humour is just unnessicarily cringeworthy without adding to the movie.

Das finstere Tal 6/10
Low score due to me not liking Drama's, actually a good movie.
Don't know how this one landed onto my to-watch-list

 

The Martian 9.5/10

So very, very good. Best release of 2015 so far, and one of, if not the, best space movies I've seen. Some excellent casting and the comic relief means that anybody could watch it without getting bored, but Matt Damon plays a character you can genuinely root for so I don't think you'd be getting bored anyway! No philosophical wandering like a lot of other space films, it's grounded firmly in a believable near future.

Definitely worth watching.

 

San Andreas (the one with Dwayne Johnson)
6.5/10
Yes, it's standard disaster movie fair. It also has Dwayne Johnson in it, which makes it a bit more bearable. Don't expect anything ground shaking and you won't be disappointed. It could have been WAY worse.

 

Haaaaaaaaa!

 

UGH!
I am ashamed of myself now... that was unintentional...

 

Yes. Yes. Yes.
Although I would knock half a point of for the unnecessary changes from the book.

Spoiler

Especially the end rescue sequence with the commander taking over the EVA and the Mark/Matt flying round like Iron Man...

 

Turbo Kid 12/10, would turbo again.
A low budget but entertaining film with an 80's synthpop soundtrack.

 

The Martian - 9.5/10

Yeah, it's pretty much perfect, and it is a definite purchase as soon as the inevitable extended directors' cut makes it to blu-ray. Just go watch it.

 

I couldn't agree more!

 

Hitting the Apex
9/10
Mentioned before in this thread, this is an AMAZING documentary following 6 MotoGP riders through parts of their careers. The footage is insanely good.

 

The Walk - 9/10
You have to look past Joseph Gordon-Levitt's horrible fake French accent and this weird thing where he narrates most of the film from on top of the Statue of Liberty, but those things aside, it's incredible. Where Man on Wire really let you know what it was like to be someone who saw the even happen in person, The Walk puts you out on the high wire with him. The two really complement one another.

Pixels - 2/10
Simply awful. The writing is awful. The tropes are awful. The characters are awful. The blocking is awful. The visual effects are very nice, however. And it gets an extra point for including lots of classic video games. But otherwise, awful, boring, and too long.

 

The Martian - You... have... terrible taste... in music!/10

Loved it, gorgeous, well paced, well acted, well written. Best Ridley Scott film ever? I dunno, maybe, I certainly liked it more than Blade Runner, I'll have to watch it a few more times to make my mind up...

I expect the extended cut will add a couple of the things missing from the book when that arrives.

 

Haven't seen The Martian yet [though I am currently reading the book], but it'd have to be pretty terrible for me to like it less than Blade Runner.