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NottaSackville
Valinor
Jun 6 2011, 3:53pm
Post #1 of 52
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Waiting for Godo....er, rather deej - What did you watch this weekend?
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Well, I THINK deej is supposed to be back today, but since she normally posts the movie thread by now I'll go ahead and post it, and we'll hope that she's just busy recovering from her trip and that something hasn't gone horribly wrong with her travel plans.
We started watching Avatar - I've yet to see it - but the Netflix disc was so scratched we had to quit. The visuals were obviously rather amazing.
Also watched The Road to El Dorado, an animation from Dreamworks back in 2000. I give it a "meh" rating. It was basically just little kid fluff, but with the occasional partial male nudity or fairly graphically implied sex scene that well, just plain didn't work in the context of the movie. Very odd choice indeed on the movie-maker's part.
Hopefully deej will check in soon and won't be too upset that I've jumped the posting gun -
Notta
Happiness: money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important and so are friends, while envy is toxic -- and so is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude. - The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner as summarized by Lily Fairbairn.
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Gimli'sBox
Gondor
Jun 6 2011, 4:33pm
Post #2 of 52
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My fam just watched Tron: Legacy again last night.
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I really like that movie. Makes me upset that it didn't get a better overall rating.
Its perfect. Three amazing acts, each getting bigger as the movie plays out. The filming is amazing and I love, love the music.
I'd give it a good nine stars. (Can't give it ten cause that'd make it the same as LOTR and you just can't do that! )
Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing they evidently prefer.
I'm a user. I'll improvise. -Sam Flynn, TRON: Legacy
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deej
Tol Eressea
Jun 6 2011, 4:40pm
Post #3 of 52
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Sorry - had some RL things to take care of. Thanks for posting! //
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Alassëa Eruvande
Valinor
Jun 6 2011, 4:48pm
Post #4 of 52
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Hope you had a fabulous time! 
And suddenly the Tornadoes saw afar off a greenlight, as it were a cloud with a living heart of flame;
and they knew that this was no vision only, but that PJ had made a new thing: The Hobbit, the Film that Is.
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Alassëa Eruvande
Valinor
Jun 6 2011, 4:56pm
Post #5 of 52
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LOTR EE with the Little Eruvandes.
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School's out now, so Little Eruvande popped in the EEs and we've been watching them over several days. This morning we finished up ROTK, and as Frodo went over the cliff with Gollum, fighting over the ring, The Little Goblin turned to me and said, "Why does everyone fake die? You think they're dead, and then they're not."
*squee!*
After my geek-spasm subsided, I explained that it wasn't really like that in the book, and the movie makers just wanted to make the movie more exciting. 
Oh, my kids are well on the path to geekdom! They are book purists without having even read the book yet! It just warms the mother's heart!
I think we'll start The Hobbit this summer as a read-out-loud book, so I can read it again to them closer to the movie date.
And suddenly the Tornadoes saw afar off a greenlight, as it were a cloud with a living heart of flame;
and they knew that this was no vision only, but that PJ had made a new thing: The Hobbit, the Film that Is.
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SirDennisC
Half-elven
Jun 6 2011, 5:56pm
Post #6 of 52
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Ok so I haven't seen all of the other ones (or stories tangential to the series) in their entirety. But this one, as far as I could tell, and even though a rebooty prequel, was true to what came before. And it was awesome.
Fassbender as Magneto blew me away; this movie will make him a household name. McAvoy as Xavier turned in his usual fine performance. Very believable. Lots of inside jokes referring to the characters' futures. I rate it must see.
(This post was edited by SirDennisC on Jun 6 2011, 5:58pm)
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NottaSackville
Valinor
Jun 6 2011, 6:06pm
Post #7 of 52
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Though to truly be impressive, Little E should have mentioned something about missing out on the Grey Company.
You're obviously doing something right!
Notta
Happiness: money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important and so are friends, while envy is toxic -- and so is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude. - The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner as summarized by Lily Fairbairn.
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Alassëa Eruvande
Valinor
Jun 6 2011, 6:25pm
Post #8 of 52
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He did ask where are all the other Rangers after Barliman mentions, "He's one of them Rangers". So does that count? 
And suddenly the Tornadoes saw afar off a greenlight, as it were a cloud with a living heart of flame;
and they knew that this was no vision only, but that PJ had made a new thing: The Hobbit, the Film that Is.
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NottaSackville
Valinor
Jun 6 2011, 6:27pm
Post #9 of 52
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Absolutely! He gets 5 out of 5 stars. //
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Happiness: money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important and so are friends, while envy is toxic -- and so is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude. - The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner as summarized by Lily Fairbairn.
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
Jun 6 2011, 7:13pm
Post #10 of 52
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We went as a family with our grown kids. It's not really my kind of movie, but the kids loved it, and I enjoyed it, and even got teary at the end. The fighting stuff doesn't interest me, but the family relationship stuff was very moving.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century."
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"A Chance Meeting at Rivendell" and other stories
leleni at hotmail dot com
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squire
Half-elven
Jun 6 2011, 7:29pm
Post #11 of 52
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I thought Thor was great fun. I had heard that the reviews were so-so - something about the Asgard environments being cheesy? - but what I liked most about the movie was that it captured the spirit of the original Thor comic book so exactly. Thor was my favorite comic when I was a kid. I still have several hundred down in the basement, wrapped in polyethylene, although much to my surprise when I revisited them a few years ago I found them unbearably childish! Oops - forgot they were comic books! Forgot I was 10 years old back then!
Still, childhood is as childhood does. To me, this movie perfectly blends the zany over-the-top Nordic mythology of Stan Lee's fantasies with his tongue-in-cheek approach to what happens when a spoiled immortal prince of the blood is forced to live and take the elevator (a classic scene from the strip!) in our very mortal U.S.A. The updated sci-fi overlay is new to the storyline, but is not at all out of place, given Jack Kirby's original pseudo-astrotech vision of Asgard and the original plot of Don Blake and Jane Foster being trained medical personnel; while the violence is exactly as cartoonish and over the top as it needs to be. The Destroyer was just as he was in issue #119. And I loved the performances, not just by Thor and Jane, but also Loki, Odin, Sif, the Warriors Three, Heimdall, and even Jane's wise old Scandinavian physicist uncle and her ditsy political scientist sidekick.
Issues? Sure: the final plot-twist was poorly thought out; the "beam me up Scotty" moment was just plain annoying; the Frost Giants were not so well realized or acted; and the SHIELD agents came across as complete fools, which bodes ill for the sequel/Avengers spin-off yet to come. But for fans there were hidden mickeys all over, like a New Mexico travel poster that said "Land of Enchantment...Journey Into Mystery"*, or the billboard for the town's football team, the Vikings! And milady, who came with me and liked it too, did some research afterwards and told me that Stan Lee did a brief but funny cameo during the 'sword-in-the-stone' sequence.
OK, so maybe not everyone today is an old Thor fan... I don't know how it comes across to those who are not. I had had the gravest forebodings that a lost love was going to be betrayed, since the Marvel movie franchises have been so hit and miss, but I am very glad to have gone and found the title in good hands. I hope Kenneth Branagh - savaged by his Shakespearean actor buddies for "selling out" to direct a Marvel strip - made lots and lots of money, because it looks like he had lots and lots of fun.
* Journey Into Mystery was the actual original title of the comic book, a Twilight Zone-like short-story vehicle for which Thor was invented as a one-time adventure episode around issue #110. Eventually he took over the book, which was soon renamed Journey Into Mystery with The Mighty Thor, and finally a few years later became just The Mighty Thor, but the issue numbering remained confusingly off-count.
(PS. I did not see it in 3-D and I didn't miss it at all.)
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd (and NOW the 4th too!) TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion; and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
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Gimli'sBox
Gondor
Jun 6 2011, 8:03pm
Post #12 of 52
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I'm waiting for it to come out on DVD. Very impatiently. We wantssss it. We needssss it.//
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Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing they evidently prefer.
I'm a user. I'll improvise. -Sam Flynn, TRON: Legacy
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Donry
Tol Eressea
Jun 6 2011, 9:59pm
Post #13 of 52
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It was a good movie. It made me take a look a my own relationship, just to give it a bit of an overview.....not the happiest of endings but in the end I suppose it was best....
What's the matter, James? No glib remark? No pithy comeback?"
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Annael
Elvenhome
Jun 7 2011, 12:03am
Post #14 of 52
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Not as predictable as you might think. The two stars are engaging (of course Natalie Portman is great, and although I've deliberately avoided seeing anything with Ashton Kutcher in it before, I was pleasantly surprised), and there's a good supporting cast. Not great, but enjoyable.
I've also been on a binge of watching Catherine Cookson miniseries (serieses?) on youtube. She strikes many of the same notes in each, but the BBC as usual fields a great ensemble cast for each.
The way we imagine our lives is the way we are going to go on living our lives.
- James Hillman, Healing Fiction
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Annael
Elvenhome
Jun 7 2011, 12:04am
Post #15 of 52
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Can't wait. I love McAvoy, and after "Jane Eyre" I'd travel a good distance to see anything with Fassbender in it.
The way we imagine our lives is the way we are going to go on living our lives.
- James Hillman, Healing Fiction
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Magpie
Immortal
Jun 7 2011, 12:34am
Post #16 of 52
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I'm not sure what to say about it. I was what I"d call 'experimental'. That is, not like anything else we've seen. It is an action flick... sometimes. But it's not Matrix action flick-y. It has that young girl kick-butt character but, thankfully, she's not the male fantasy version. (no gratuitous fighting in her underwear scenes).
On the way home, we discussed the use of music in this movie which is a bit different.
Another despicable villain from Tom Hollander. This one was really creepy. The violence in the movie was harsh without our ever seeing much.
I really liked the Finnish setting at the beginning. It gave it a fairy tale feeling.
I had to look up what else Joe Wright has done. Interestingly, he did a movie I love very much: Pride & Prejudice. And a movie I hated extremely: Atonement.
also... I would swear that one of those locations was the same as one used in Aoen Flux.
beyond here be spoilers
I think what I keep pondering. in working out what the filmmaker wanted me to think or think about... is the part about Hanna being bred to not feel empathy. It made me reflect on her demeanor throughout the film and wonder, if she couldn't feel empathy, what else could she not feel or perhaps even comprehend? How much of who she seems is part of her upbringing and how much is her 'abnormal' dna?
The movie starts and ends with the same line: "I think I missed your heart." Is she thinking the same about her own heart?
Sometimes, the experience is enough. Sometimes, I want to understand more. I wanted to understand more about this movie. I want a directors commentary for this movie.
LOTR soundtrack website
magpie avatar gallery ~ Torn Image Posting Guide
(This post was edited by Magpie on Jun 7 2011, 12:35am)
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Hamfast
Rohan
Jun 7 2011, 12:47am
Post #17 of 52
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And as someone who also read many,many Thor comics (and still do...) my only problems with the movie were Volstagg who didn't fit in with the Volstagg I know and love, he should have been much fatter, more boisterous and jovial and his look was just 'off' to me. I also noticed the 'downtown' area in New Mexico looked very fake to me....like old west movie cardboard cut-out buildings fake. With those minor issues aside, I thought it was great fun. I was pleasantly surprised by Heimdall, and I also enjoyed the many easter eggs like Clint Barton ( Hawkeye) making an appearance ! I hope it did well enough to warrant a sequel...bring on Beta Ray Bill !
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Hamfast
Rohan
Jun 7 2011, 12:57am
Post #18 of 52
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did you stay past the credits to see the extra scene ? Do you think that was the Cosmic Cube that Nick Fury had ? I do .
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Hamfast
Rohan
Jun 7 2011, 1:18am
Post #19 of 52
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A film from 1957 starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster. Gorgeous black and white photography of New York City that captures the abiding images most folks conjure when they think of "The Big Apple". The city looks exciting, vibrant, and cold and grimy all at the same time. Classic, beautiful cars line the streets, and all the dames and fellas look sharp. Tony Curtis is excellent as the double talking, deal making slimeball, and Burt Lancaster is chilling as the power hungry, paranoid, newspaper columnist. Witty, sharp dialogue dominates the proceedings that include many interesting and unexpected plot twists. I love older crime noir-ish movies like this, and it is indeed one of the best in the genre.
BTW...great golden era jazz provided by The Chico Hamilton Quintet for the music geeks out there.
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Patty
Immortal
Jun 7 2011, 2:26am
Post #20 of 52
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I went to see X men and strangely, there was no extra scene. /
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Permanent address: Into the West
Must. Have. The Precious! Give us the LotR EE Blu-ray Ultimate Box Set!
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SirDennisC
Half-elven
Jun 7 2011, 2:56am
Post #21 of 52
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Hanna treads some of the same ground as
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** Slight Spoiler **
Hit Girl from KickA$$, though obviously they weren't handled in the same way. It's hard to watch a child being programmed for a specific, horrible purpose. Both were motivated by revenge (Hit Girl more so than Hanna) but they were also driven by what their parents thought they needed to do to survive. I believe the commentary would go something like this: "all children are programmed to be a certain way every day, to what end makes no difference. Their nature must needs struggle against the way they were nurtured in order to fully realize who they are in the world." Or something like that...
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SirDennisC
Half-elven
Jun 7 2011, 3:00am
Post #22 of 52
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Patty I sat through to the end as well
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Spoiler or PSA?: there is no scene after the credits in X Men. There were so many Easter Eggs throughout the movie they probably thought "what's the point?"
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jun 7 2011, 5:45am
Post #23 of 52
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Such a sharp, funny animated movie - with William Shatner! What more could you want?
Hammy loaded up the eyeballs on energy drink is still hilarious. :D
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded b*****d with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
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taekotemple
Grey Havens
Jun 7 2011, 6:07am
Post #24 of 52
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One thing I like about the X-Men movies is that they're the kind of action movies that I can take my mom with me to see. She and I often have different taste in movies. She prefers romcoms, I prefer more actiony or suspense films, and there is some in-between (we both like period pieces and smart comedies, don't like gross out horror.) This was the kind of action movie I could take my mom to because while definitely, the characters had cool powers, so there would be cool special effects, the story is more plot driven than your average superhero movie, and about how the characters exist in the world.
Personally, I thought this was one of the best of the X-Men films, if not the best. Given, none of them are even close to exact when it comes to the actual comic books (how one would adapt 40-50 years of comic books into a handful of movies and be exact, I have no clue), but as an interpretation, I liked it.
I did watch the first movie last night to see if there were any discrepancies, which there were, but not huge enough to me to feel too disappointed. For example, in the first movie, Xavier says he first met Magneto when he was 17 years old, but he was clearly portrayed as older than that in First Class, and Xavier also says that Magneto helped him build Cerebro. I didn't notice any other glaring issues though.
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squire
Half-elven
Jun 7 2011, 11:48am
Post #25 of 52
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I can see from your comments that Thor is still read and loved by a newer generation of viewers. I had no idea where they got Volstagg - assumed they just made him and the others up to give Thor a crew - but now I guess he is character added after my time. Interesting! When I stopped reading, Thor's only backup was his best buddy Balder (have to say I missed him in the film), and Sif was more a love interest to balance with Jane than anything else. That said, I thought Volstagg was a little bit too much like Gimli in the LotR films. I won't say he seemed "off" from his comic book self, because I haven't read those books, but I did think his overblown character didn't quite ring true.
Yes, I thought the town was very fake looking, especially in the one pullback that showed us the whole place.
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd (and NOW the 4th too!) TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion; and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
= Forum has no new posts. Forum needs no new posts.
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