Movies The Movie Thread! - Continuation - Part 1

[z.5]

I really hope so - GotS had some unbelievably bizarre director choices and, in general, was a pretty poor film


I've heard that Alita isn't bad.
However, the only person I've spoken to, about the film, isn't someone whose tastes in films are particularly similar to mine

 

[Eigengrau]

my fingers are crossed for "Alita: Battle Angel" this weekend. I've read some of the manga, but I was first introduced to the series via the original series from the early 90's. Trailer looks amazing and I'm hoping it's worlds better than Ghost in the Shell.

Eh, I was gambling on winning free tickets for Alita, but unfortunately that didn't happen, otherwise I would've gone and see it on IMAX. But as it stands, it's just not something I feel like watching, not for me I'm afraid, but I've read some good things about it so I think it should be a pleasant experience at the very least.

And personally I don't think it's that hard to make something that's way better than the Ghost in the Shell movie. I feel like GitS dealt with more complexed themes and whatnot, tried too hard (and badly) and crashed and burned.

 

[Wowzers]

I just saw Battle Angel Alita... or as the title is slightly rearranged Alita: Battle Angel.

I liked this movie! However I feel if I read the manga first I would have hated it.

Lots of good action and the CG was mostly seamless.... except for Alita's very distracting eyes.

Spoiler

Like seriously, each eye is bigger than her mouth. Uncanny valley strikes again.

The story development was not really detailed and only really had the bare minimum for an action movie level of story.
Once again, I feel the need to check out the manga (for the real story) after watching a movie.

I'd probably give it a 7/10. (at best)

 

[FetherMan]

I just saw Battle Angel Alita... or as the title is slightly rearranged Alita: Battle Angel.

I liked this movie! However I feel if I read the manga first I would have hated it.

Lots of good action and the CG was mostly seamless.... except for Alita's very distracting eyes.

Spoiler

Like seriously, each eye is bigger than her mouth. Uncanny valley strikes again.

The story development was not really detailed and only really had the bare minimum for an action movie level of story.
Once again, I feel the need to check out the manga (for the real story) after watching a movie.

I'd probably give it a 7/10. (at best)

I'm hearing a lot of the same thing regarding "Alita: Battle Angel" as far as the story telling goes. It is going to be difficult to sell this film being that the series itself isn't too familiar with today's audiences. I do trust Rodriguez and Cameron to deliver the best adaptation possible for general audiences to comprehend, however, I'm thinking, because of my past experience with Battle Angel, there are things in the film I'll immediately catch on to that others will not.

 

[Organizized]

Updated list of 2018 films and my ratings.

Spoiler: 2018 films I watched

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - 10/10
Shoplifters - 9/10
A Quiet Place - 8,5/10
The Favourite - 8,5/10
Zimna Wojna (Cold War) - 8,5/10
Roma - 8,5/10
Green Book - 8/10
Blackkklansman - 8/10
A Star is Born - 8/10
If Beale Street Could Talk - 8/10
Incredibles 2 - 8/10
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - 8/10
Mirai - 7,5/10
Black Panther - 7,5/10
The Wife - 7,5/10
Bohemian Rhapsody - 7,5/10 (an extra ,5 for Rami's performance)
Gräns (Border) - 7,5/10
Eighth Grade - 7,5/10
Game Night - 7,5/10
Isle of Dogs - 7,5/10
Vice - 7/10
Ralph Breaks the Internet - 7/10
First Man - 6,5/10

At Eternity’s Gate - 6,5/10 (Dafoe is great though)

You may call me too generous in my ratings, but I really thought this was a good year for film. Still have quite a few on my watchlist as well.

 

[Eigengrau]

@Organizized

How would you compare Roma and Cold War, aesthetic-wise? Do you think there's more to Cold War in terms of cinematography? People are saying it has a higher chance of winning than Roma, but I feel like they would give the award to Roma because Cuarón was the DoP and all that.

I should be getting free tickers for Border. I already have the 1080p file, but if I can go see the film for free, eh, why not? What's probably going to bother me is if people talk throughout the film once again... sigh.

~

Yesterday I saw Police, Adjective. It's a Romanian film from 2009.
I really struggled if I actually wanted to see it or not (in theaters), because I had read some bits that stated this film was super uneventful, which it is.
The main character is a cop, and he's working on a "case" that consists finding out whether a kid (who smokes drugs) is a dealer or not.

Most of the film is the main character following kid(s) around, and writing up reports that don't really say anything. In fact, most of the film is just walking. There are no chases, apprehensions, interrogations, guns... nothing like that.

They make it a point to make it all boring and nearly purposeless.

The main "conflict" of the film, is that Cristi, main character cop, doesn't want to conduct a sting operation/arrest the kid simply because he smokes joints outside, because in Romania (at the time at least) that would mean he would be sentenced to 7 years in jail (but do half the time).

He thinks that this is stupid, that the law is bound to change sooner or later, and he doesn't want to destroy the kid's life for something that he considers shouldn't have such a penalty.

This conflict sounds interesting enough in my opinion, but as I said there's nearly no "drama" aspect to this film. You follow the characters around, and that's it. There's a lot of downtime and scenes that go on and on without any dialogues, but there are no intense or suspensful moments at all.

It's made to be "boring" on purpose.

I was, however, quite surprised, because some of the dialogue and interactions were quite humorous (IMDb even lists it as a comedy as well), and I really liked that. It's too bad that the film didn't have more of those moments (instead we're repeatedly treated to scenes where the main cop is just watching a house for hours/days on end, following kids around and then picking their joint butts left on the ground as evidence, etc...).

Just to give you an idea, the "climax" of the film (last 10-20mins or so) is the captain of the precinct forcing the main guy to read aloud excerpts from a dictionary... yeah.

It was hilarious, but it's THAT kind of film... and I could tell that the audience felt blue-balled by the end, but that's just what this film set out to be.

All in all, it's nothing to write home about, but I was plesantly surprised and now I'm curious to see what his other films are like. It was worth checking it out in theaters but I know it's not a film that will be in my top 50-100 for the year.

 

[Organizized]

Man, I hope Cold War wins Cinematography but I think it’ll be part of Roma’s award sweep. They’re two very different kinds of films in terms of cinematography, despite both being gorgeous black and white. Roma is the much “cleaner” film, and the wide, panning shots definitely work in its favor considering every scene is choreographed the way they are, and makes the MC feel like just a bystander in a huge world. Cold War is more ‘grainy’, I suppose, and plays more with contrasts of black and white to emphasize the mood of the characters, I feel. The location shots are even more gorgeous and painting-like than Roma, and the 4:3 format suits this more intimate, personal story very well, getting closer to the characters both literally and figuratively.

Idk, I personally root for Cold War even though they’re both visually astounding films in their own right. The Cinematographers Awards crowned Cold War as the winner, but cinematographers are a small part of the academy so that win rarely correlates with the Oscar winners I think. Still, there may be a chance that people will vote Cold War in Foreign and Cinematography since Roma is likely winning the bigger prizes anyway.

 

[Eigengrau]

I kinda had some interest in it at first but when I saw the "musical" tag I was like hmmmm... is it really a musical in that sense, or what? I really have no idea, I've only seen some photos, didn't watch any of the trailers I think.

 

[Organizized]

No, it’s definitely not a musical. There are singing performances in it by the main female character and others, because she is a singer who the male lead - a music director - “discovers” and falls in love with. The music plays a central part in the film in that sense, which I love, but it’s not a “let me break into song and sing about my feelings” musical situation if that’s what you mean.

 

[Eigengrau]

I see, thanks for the clarification. It's just that y'know, in that case I wouldn't expect the movie to be tagged as a musical, but yeah

 

[Riku]

I saw Gräns / The Border today. I really liked it. The make-up nod ar the Oscars is definetly deserved. It's weird and made me anxious, but in a good way I guess? I'm still kinda processing what I saw. Great use of mythology, great performances by the lead roles.

The mood was really similar to Let the Right One In. Which was to be expected, since based on the same authors work.

 

[Organizized]

Yeah, I liked Gräns too... but I probably had too high expectations going in, since I liked the short story previously, and the film won like 5 "Guldbaggar" (Sweden's big film prize). It was talked up a lot here, and.. well, it's no Låt den rätte komma in. So the hype sort of lessened the impact it had on me, but I still quite liked it.

Oh, forgot to mention, I FINALLY saw Spider-verse for the first time today. As you can see in my list, it's the only 10/10 rating of the year, and actually in many years. Immediately after finishing it, all I wanted was to watch it again. Quite the opposite situation to Gräns - this was probably my most hyped movie in years, and it just blew that hype out of the water tenfold. Right now, I can't think of a single thing about it I didn't like.

 

[Wowzers]

Just a heads-up..

The 2nd movie of Fate/Stay Night Heavens Feel. [Lost Butterfly] comes out soon.

My local theatre gets it for a week starting March 14... so you should check when it comes out for you. It will probably be only out for a short time.

 

[Eigengrau]

Tropical Malady - 3rd film I've seen by Apichatpong Weerasethakul after Uncle Boonmee and Cemetery of Splendor.
If you know this director's work, you should already know that his films have a very slow, almost dream-like flow, so I kinda knew what I was getting into.

However, during the first half I remember thinking "ok, this film looks a lot more dynamic" in the sense that there was more stuff happening on screen, more sounds and interactions, but then mid-way through it switches to a "Blair-Witch-in-the-jungle" 2nd part that's still somewhat linked to the first half.

I'm not saying that it was bad because it wasn't, but it was ok. It's exactly the kind of work and storytelling that has made him famous, and it was worth it to check it out in theaters.

Ash Is Purest White - another film I got to see with free tickets ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). This is the first Zhangke Jia film that I've seen, also the most recent, and I enjoyed it, although some synopsis online painted a much different story of what was supposed to happen during the film.

Nonetheless, at almost 2h20mins runtime, I knew it was going to be somewhat of a slow film, but yeah I still enjoyed myself quite a lot, and am definitely in checking out his other films. It's a real shame because I had intended on going to see "Still Life" today, but theater staff never answered me regarding ticket prices so I had to pass, unfortunately (I would've gone and see this one and then right after Still Walking, by Kore-eda, but this time around I didn't want to pay 14 euros for those two films... oh shit, I just realized they put Still Life and Still Walking one after the other... clever bastards).

Suspiria - finally saw the original Suspiria last night, in a very very special showing: not only was it the 4k remaster, this was an exclusive showing/screening in our country, and apparently today you can only see this version in 1 or 2 countries, I don't quite remember. This was a special event because the director of photography was in attendance! And afterwards he talked a bit about himself and there was a Q&A as well.

As for the film itself, eh, it's one of those "all-time classics" that I can now say that I've seen. It's pretty alright for what it is, and of course the Goblin OST was amazing, and even though it's not a fair comparison to make, the recent Suspiria is more along the lines of what I enjoy, but they're pretty much night and day. But I was glad to finally see this one, and I think I really fell in love with Jessica Harper, what a cutie

 

[Wowzers]

Captain Marvel was a good movie! I enjoyed it! It's not the best of the MCU movies but it was good!

The movie takes place back in the 90's so be prepared for that... and the Kree and Skrull attempting to use Windows 95

Oh, and the cat is so cute and so awesome!
Nicholas thinks so too!

I said it that way deliberately... you'll know why after watching it.

 

[FetherMan]

Alita: Battle Angel 8 / 10

I went into this film with most of my references from the original manga from the actual anime from the 90's. This current adaptation was a lot stronger than what was previous done with "Ghost in the Shell" in 2017, however, I think, my biggest problem with the story line being pushed was Alita's past being made into a factor. In my opinion, they should've just focused on her making a way for herself in Iron City, possibly starting a revolution against Zolem or "Nova" and maybe shifting towards her past more in potential sequels. Despite that, the movie was probably the best anime / manga adaptation done ever. Visually, the film is an amazing sight and both Cameron and Rodriguez definitely give this future world of human and machine merged in a way that's purely about survival to the fittest.

The Rollerball game sequences were done well and Alita's fight scenes were really cool. They did do a great job bringing the main characters to life, it's like the casting director pulled them off the manga and anime and slapped them onto film. Plus, I thought, the main villain was actually James Cameron for a moment. lol.

Overall, solid film and may not be for everyone, but I'm glad that anime / manga stories are finally improving somewhat. Here's hoping for that "Akira" adaptation that I imagine will happen sooner or later.

 

[Eigengrau]

Saw Border yesterday, finally.

I thought it was alright. Didn't see that "twist" coming, that's for sure. Although it felt like the film went by way too fast (1h50mins), maybe I'm just not used anymore to films that are under 2h.

But I liked it, yeah. My friend who saw it a month ago said that the first half was very enjoyable, but that after a while it became a bit too cliché and predictable, which I think I understand now what she meant but I didn't really see it that way.

Either way, it wasn't particularly mindblowing, but it was very interesting and enjoyable all the way through.

Here's hoping for that "Akira" adaptation that I imagine will happen sooner or later.

If you've never seen this, turn the sound way up and prepare yourself ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


It always give me the chills. While it's not live-action, it's still an astonishing work that was done by just two guys
All that's left now is for people that passionate to work on the live-action, if there's ever one.

 

[Organizized]

Border does sort of throw in what feels like an unnecessary story-line after the halfway-mark.. and it’s nothing mindblowing or new, but like Ust said it’s a nice use of Scandi mythology in modern setting nonetheless.

 

[Eigengrau]

I saw Triple Frontier today.
I remember seeing the trailer last year and thinking "uh, this could be alright for a Netflix film", and since the film was released today I just thought what the heck, and went ahead and watched it.

Well, if anything, I think this is one of those cases where the trailer kinda marketed it as something that doesn't truly reflect in the final product.

The first half of the film was alright, but everything that comes after is just... nonsensical to a certain degree, and there's no real pay-off in the end.

For what it's worth, going into the second half I thought that the story was about to go in a certain way, but then it did a full 180º and all my expectations were subverted.

So yeah, the film did bring a few surprises, and tension was done well, mostly in the beginning, but I honestly don't think I can recommend this film.

If you like the cast and have a couple of hours to kill, eh, but this was one big "meh" of a movie for me.

Netflix CGI is still as bad as ever, too, and I can't really figure out why that is when they supposedly have so much money.

And that's the thing with most of the Netflix movies that I've seen: you tend to have a great premise/concept, stellar cast, but then it's almost as if everything else is half-assed/rushed, especially the story, directing, execution, editing... I don't get it.

 

[gnut]

I watched it too...was like a bad episode of the A-Team