What are you watching?
- Thread starter KevinStriker
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Watched Endgame last Thursday. Was okay, loved specific parts of it, disliked others, found others unnecessarily convoluted and plot-holey. It's far from as good as Infinity War, which is a near-perfect movie. It seems the directors went for more emotional weight that "feels good" rather than emotional weight that makes sense. As a filmmaker myself I just couldn't watched through the whole thing without feeling annoyed.
3/5
3/5
I thought Endgame was much stronger than Infinity War. What exactly doesn't make sense?
Same here. I thought Endgame was mind-blowing and the perfect finale to the series (with the main cast, anyway), especially the end battle scene, that was truly epic. It was very LotR-esque.
Anyways, I just rewatched the unrated version of Dawn of the Dead (2004) the other day, and it still holds up fairly well to this day. The added story scenes and gore effects made an already pretty good zombie movie that much better. This movie proved that Zack Snyder can and has made good movies, though it still doesn't hold a candle to the original. Then again, nothing touches the original DotD except for maybe Night of the Living Dead, another Romero classic (R.I.P.).
It was an amazing finale, though there were some very unfortunate decisions I wasn't too fond of, but were overall minor. The time travel story was a great way of paying homage to past films and taking us back on that 11 year journey, and the focus on the original Avengers was just absolutely the best way to go. I think we got some pretty satisfying conclusions, except for one character which just really bothered me throughout the whole film.
But just wow. That whole movie. As a film, I get it can be confusing and won't really hold up on its own. But that's not really the point of this film. It's a once in a lifetime event and the culmination of 11 years of story telling on film, and having been along for the ride since the beginning, makes it all the more special.
It really was a satisfying end and I almost fear for the future of the MCU now. Not only do I think there isn't really a point to a shared Marvel universe anymore, but going forward, I can just see Disney getting their hands and agenda all over the MCU just like they did Star Wars.
I think Snyder is very underrated. The guy is an amazing director. People can hate on his DC films all they want, but those films have some very spectacular looking shots that nothing in the MCU can even compare to. Whether he's a good story teller or not is another thing, but horrible director he is not.
I absolutely loved Watchmen and it's still one of my favorite comic book films to date. I enjoyed Man of Steel despite some of its flaws, but it's still leagues better than some of the MCU's worst to average films. Batman v Superman is a mixed bag for me, but it's still an enjoyable watch despite its problems.
Given the position WB put Snyder in, like forcing the stand alone Dark Knight-esque Man of Steel film to be the start of some grander universe of comic book movies despite trying to establish a realistic and grounded world, then forcing a bunch of ideas they've had brewing for decades like the Death of Superman and Batman vs Superman into the next film, and of course, rushing into Justice League, another idea WB has been trying to get off the ground for a long time, I think Snyder could have done a lot worse.
And for what it's worth, the guy tried hard to make it all work and I think he really could have. His approach was to tell a story spanning 5 films, with a definitive conclusion and not just solo movie after solo movie until we get a team up movie, rinse and repeat. Think Lord of the Rings, but it's a Justice League story.
And given the characters he's working with, they really don't need any introduction, whereas Marvel needed to make their B list heroes appealing first before trying to sell us on Avengers. That's something I will never get about comic book fans. They can jump into a Justice League cartoon without the majority of the main cast being "introduced" or enjoy a story like Injustice without any previous build up of these characters, because we all know who they are and can just roll on with the story. Yet when it's done on film, it's got to be the Marvel way.
I think Snyder was very creative in how he worked with WB's demands, and it's a shame we'll never see just how epic his Justice League movies would have been. Whether they were good or not, at least we could have enjoyed the hell out of the eye candy that would have been the Justice League vs Darkseid and at least had a some sort of superhero epic with that lightning in a bottle casting for the DC Trinity.
MILD SPOILERS BELOW
As always, when you include time travel in movies, as a filmmaker you're undoubtedly setting yourself up for trouble. There are basically two ways to go when dealing with time travel in movies; 1: Try to be as logical as possible; 2: Try to be as emotional impactful as possible. If you go for very logical you'll have to sacrifice a lot of the emotional weight, and vice versa. The reason why time travel works so well in Back to the Future, for example, is because its essentially a comedy. Comedy films are generally not bound to logic, which is why they're the most common example of audiences forgiving the so-called "suspension of disbelief" also known as "movie magic". Of course its possible to find a fine line between logical and emotional, and some movies do it very well (for example the first two Terminator films, Harry Potter 3 and MIB3) but in the case of Endgame its painstakingly obvious that the filmmakers wanted to go for as much emotional weight as possible. By doing so, they sacrificed almost all of the logical aspects. The most confusing part is the fact that the consequences of bringing everyone back 5 years later are completely overlooked. The world is portrayed as being post-apocalyptic, but once the final battle is over everything just seems to return back to normal. In this world 5 years has passed, yet Peter Parker returns to high school - some of his former classmates that survived the snap (for example Flash) will now be 5 years older than him. Hawkeye's wife calls him immediately despite him having the same phone and number 5 years later is weird. The list goes on. They created a very interesting world-building but in the end everything is very confusing for the sake of emotional impact. If they were going for this anyway, why didn't they just have Tony's snap reverse everything back to 5 years ago? Oh well, because that would make so that Tony's daughter wasn't born yet... They wanted to eat the whole cake without sacrificing anything.
The biggest problem with the movie, however, is the lack of central threat prior to Thanos's re-appearance (which feels like a thing that randomly just happens). For most part, the movie's central plot is bringing everyone back. There is no threat, and that's why the movie drags. Compared to Infinity War which has a central threat throughout the whole movie, a race against Thanos, which gives it a great pacing and flow. The pacing in Endgame, however, is poorly constructed. It is also not as well interwoven as Infinity War, where all the characters's side stories and missions were brought together in a very satisfying way that worked BOTH logically and emotionally - for example Thor's mission to create Stormbreaker is perfectly interwoven with his arrival in Wakanda - there is no such interwoven connectivity in Endgame. The time travel is simply a mess that the writers obviously had no clue how to solve - so they went for something that is more fan service, and I can certainly understand the appeal in that.
The writers had written themselves into a corner at the end of Infinity War. With half of the life in the universe being dead, they had to face the impossible task: bring everyone back but also create a new threat since Thanos's mission is complete. The end result? A mess. There are certainly some really golden moments in Endgame that I enjoyed very much, but those moments cannot make up for the rest.
I just watched the new Ted Bundy movie on Netflix, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile a couple weeks ago, it's kinda a mixed bag. Zac Efron did a great job as usual, but it was kinda a waste of material. It barely touches on the crimes in question, only him getting caught AFTER the fact, and even then, they tried to portray him as being falsely accused until the very end. I get that they were trying to show the perspective of his girlfriend(s) and how manipulative he was, but it just seems counterproductive to make a movie about one of, if not THE most prolific serial killer of all time and not even show the murders while pushing the narrative that he may be innocent. That's like making a Jet Li movie where he doesn't beat people up, or a Martin Luther King movie that doesn't show his push towards desegregation while hinting that he was racist towards white people.
Hell, I didn't even know it WAS a Ted Bundy movie until they mentioned his name. The whole time, I thought it was an original movie about some random dude escaping police custody after being tied to several murders.
Hell, I didn't even know it WAS a Ted Bundy movie until they mentioned his name. The whole time, I thought it was an original movie about some random dude escaping police custody after being tied to several murders.
I wouldn't call Bundy the most prolific serial killer of all time. But anyway. This is sad to hear. I had some decently high hopes for this film even though I'm not a fan of Zac Efron. However, I wouldn't expect them to fill it with more because odds are anyone watching this is already familiar with Ted Bundy as it's something of a special interest film (I don't know many people who watch films like this without a prior interest in serial killers/true crime). So I don't know. I might still watch it.
Also, Ted Bundy, like many serial killers was very charismatic so it isn't really surprising to me that the whole thing was based around whether or not he actually did it. If memory serves, by the majority of accounts it was never even fathomable that he would've done those things.
I just watch John Wick 3 and Detective Pikachu this weekend. Both were very excellent films and I love them.
Also I would kill to live in the world established by Detective Pikachu. The Pokemon honestly didn't feel out of place in the "real" world at all. And even though I'm glad RE was my childhood, I wish I had also gotten into Pokemon at that age. I'm sure my joy and love for this film would have been a million times greater.
JW3 was just an awesome action movie in an awesome action series. The world building of the assassin underground network was expanded and I really love the idea and lore behind it. (Although I guess NYC is like 60% assassins
)
Also I would kill to live in the world established by Detective Pikachu. The Pokemon honestly didn't feel out of place in the "real" world at all. And even though I'm glad RE was my childhood, I wish I had also gotten into Pokemon at that age. I'm sure my joy and love for this film would have been a million times greater.
JW3 was just an awesome action movie in an awesome action series. The world building of the assassin underground network was expanded and I really love the idea and lore behind it. (Although I guess NYC is like 60% assassins
)
I ended up seeing Detective Pikachu twice in one day. My buddy surprised me with tickets, and I'd already had tickets for me and my daughter later that night. So it's a DAMN good thing I fell in love with the movie lol. But yeah, I totally agree with your assessment. Somehow the Pokemon being there felt totally natural. I've watched Romantic Dramas that felt less real than seeing an illegal underground Pokemon fighting ring.I just watch John Wick 3 and Detective Pikachu this weekend. Both were very excellent films and I love them.
Also I would kill to live in the world established by Detective Pikachu. The Pokemon honestly didn't feel out of place in the "real" world at all. And even though I'm glad RE was my childhood, I wish I had also gotten into Pokemon at that age. I'm sure my joy and love for this film would have been a million times greater.
JW3 was just an awesome action movie in an awesome action series. The world building of the assassin underground network was expanded and I really love the idea and lore behind it. (Although I guess NYC is like 60% assassins
I saw It: Chapter 2, it (no pun intended) was pretty good. Not as good as the first one, but still solid nonetheless.
It definitely delivered on the scares and tension and the cast was solid all-around, though the pacing was kinda iffy in spots. There were some scenes that really didn't need to be in the film, including flashback scenes which it was overstuffed with them. If a sequel is dependent on you having seen the first movie in order to understand the plot in the first place (which most sequels are), then throwing in a ton of flashbacks is pointless. They were just thrown in there for the sake of padding the movie's runtime and giving us that "3 hour grand finale", which dragged it down a bit.
Still a pretty good movie, though.
It definitely delivered on the scares and tension and the cast was solid all-around, though the pacing was kinda iffy in spots. There were some scenes that really didn't need to be in the film, including flashback scenes which it was overstuffed with them. If a sequel is dependent on you having seen the first movie in order to understand the plot in the first place (which most sequels are), then throwing in a ton of flashbacks is pointless. They were just thrown in there for the sake of padding the movie's runtime and giving us that "3 hour grand finale", which dragged it down a bit.
Still a pretty good movie, though.
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They did the same thing in the adult portion of the 1990 miniseries. I read the book but that was decades ago so I can't remember if it was like that in the book.
I really enjoyed Chapter 2, I thought it was better than Chapter 1 but it didn't feel like it was taking itself too seriously and it felt like it was okay to laugh at certain parts which can be hard to do in such a brutal story, but it is also necessary on such an emotionally taxing journey.
It alternates back and forth between the '50s and the '80s for the entire book and as a result of the miniseries and the movies (mostly) putting all the material with them as kids in Part One and all the stuff in the present day as adults in Part Two, they made the story top heavy because let's face it: The stuff with them as kids is more interesting and the books staggers it better.
Just started Season 5 of Arrow. In my opinion, this has been the best super hero TV series I have ever watched. Every finale is HUGE and the tension grows and grows.
The only issue with the series is that they really adopted a lot of Batman story lines and just gave them to Oliver Queen. But hey, I am still loving it.
The only issue with the series is that they really adopted a lot of Batman story lines and just gave them to Oliver Queen. But hey, I am still loving it.
I'm currently watching Carole & Tuesday as it drops weekly, and it's so close to the end and I'm not prepared for that 
Watching John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum on Blu Ray right now. This is a good ass movie, they really upped the ante in terms of violence/action in this one compared to the other 2. Dem gunfights and sword/knife kills are something else. They really get creative with the motorcycle and horse gunfights.
It'll be interesting to see how they'll top this in JW4.
It'll be interesting to see how they'll top this in JW4.
Well, I have to wait almost a week for the next episode of Carole and Tuesday, so It's time to catch up on Jojo's Bizarre Adventure!
How far in are you now? I'd be interested in your opinion on Seasons 5 to 7 after we briefly talked about it a few weeks ago.
I started rewatching the original Charmed (1998) last week, and I'm surprised how much I'm still enjoying it. I remember having a complicated relationship with that show, loving it at first, but feeling it went downhill after the first couple of seasons with too much Phoebe/Cole drama and the demons and plotlines getting goofier rather than scarier. (Or perhaps it was just me getting used to the scariness, who knows.) But I finished the first season yesterday, and I have to say, despite the special effects not having aged well, it's still very entertaining, there were episodes I didn't even remember and even though the plot has some holes, at least the characters are pretty cool. I'm going to watch the reboot (2018) for the first time in November, see if it managed to retain this unique... charm (no pun intended) that the original Charmed had.