I’m going to see Brave. I’m not expecting to be wowed, as I’ve heard decidedly mixed things. Which is really disappointing, because a) Pixar seems to just be on a bad swing lately when I’ve come to expect better and b) I’d really hoped that their first female lead would have a kickass movie comparable to Nemo or Ratatouille. We’ll see how it goes.

EDIT: I really liked it. I think I’ll go so far as to say I really liked it, and don’t understand why it’s getting a lackluster critical rap. It’s not an instant classic like some of the other Pixar movies, but I think Merida, the protagonist, was done very well. Not to mention her mom- Disney/Pixar finally had a movie with a mom in it who does stuff! (I guess Andy’s mom was around, but she was so marginal she doesn’t really count.) And the animation was gorgeous! The opening shots were photorealistic, and the nature was just wonderfully rendered.

There actually wasn’t anything big I’d change about the story at all. The villain was a bit underbaked, maybe, and it felt short, but those are my only criticisms. In short, I definitely recommend seeing Brave.

I liked Ridley's response to the question about the movie's opening, because the ambiguity brought me to the same conclusion.



I'm sort of mesmerized at how this movie has created such a stir of speculation, and it really comes down to analyzing the all details of the film itself--visual and otherwise. I've trawled a few Prometheus-centric forums and there isn't a splinter of the film that isn't being analyzed, and yet no definitive conclusions have been drawn in any way. There are more highly-detailed theories about specific aspects of the film than I have fingers and toes. Honestly, I found the sum of _Prometheus_ and its unanswered questions more tantalizing that that final shot in _Inception_.

I’ve gone back and forth on that one, and I have to say, I completely disagree. It’s reality. If it’s not, then the entire movie is moot, because his wife isn’t actually dead.

On the other hand, it doesn’t ultimately matter, as the thematic point is that he’s gotten over his wife’s death and doesn’t care whether he’s in a dream or not.

I saw Prometheus. I liked it, but I agree about the plot holes. I’m glad that some things might be clearer with the deleted scenes on the DVD. I thought that most of the acting was good too, but it bugged me that the characters did some things that were just stupid and that I didn’t buy that people in their positions would do. It was a much better movie than I was expecting, though.

@Nomad

@Brave
I haven’t seen it either, but from the previews, it doesn’t really look like a Pixar movie to me. It looks more Dreamworks for some reason.

On an unrelated note, I watched Salt last night. When I first watched it, I didn’t like it and left the movie 1/4 of the way through. Now that I’ve seen the whole movie, it’s not too bad, especially since I was watching with my brain switched off. Aside from the few inconsistencies in the movie (e.g. Salt somehow becomes miraculously clean in the car when before, she was covered with dust from the crypt explosion), it wasn’t too bad, and I liked the story of kid-raised-as-Russian-spy-turned-American-double-agent-spy. There was a couple of twists that I didn’t see coming, but the movie was mostly predictable.

It’s a nice movie if you want action, twists, trickery and spies set in two different worlds, with an interesting background that heavily influences the actions of all the characters, but I think the movie could’ve been better in some way.

What I really liked about Salt was that, to my memory, there was about zero exposition in the whole thing. It helped it keep a very good pace and intensity.

Full Metal Jacket

It was rather distressing and horrific, to be honest. Though I expected as much, considering the subject matter.

The novel really helps understand what’s going on. It’s been years since I read it, though. But the original script includes the cut narration that explains A LOT of things.

Oooh, thanks for the link!

What didn’t they answer?

Everything. There’s a lot of showing, but no telling at all. Like, what was the trippy coloured sequence? Why did he turn into a baby-thing? What exactly were the monoliths?

Re: 2001: I guess some of those things weren’t totally explained in the book either… the baby thing was him ascending to a higher plane of existence, triggered by the beings who created the monoliths, as I recall (did they leave in the hotel room bit?), and the monoliths… I guess those weren’t really explained. Except they can turn gas giants into mini-suns (but that’s like book 2 or 3).

Ahaha, I’ve got a story to tell you guys.

I believe I read this in the author’s prologue to Rendevous with Rama, or maybe a Clarke short story collection, or an anniversary edition of 2001.

The person writing the prologue knew Clarke well in private life, and went to dinner at his house once or twice. At one point, he says he asked him the ‘question everyone always wonders: what did the ending of 2001 (the Kubrick movie) mean?’ (paraphrase)

Arthur responded: I have no idea.

Pressed for further detail, he says that right toward the end of the shooting, there was a lot of tension on the set regarding various artistic decisions. He’d been brought on as a consultant, since it was his story, but he was starting to get sick of the constant fighting between the producer and Kubrick. They began a furious argument with Clarke present that went on so interminably that he just left and never came back, and the movie’s shooting wrapped without him. So even the author of the original book has no idea what it means.

I love telling that story. I forget where I read it, but I remember it quite well.

@Inkblot – that is a pretty great story. The two were written at the same time, but I never knew that the endings were done separately!

Magic Mike has a Metascore of 71.

What.

What.

What.

“Shirtless Channing Tatum” is the new “Shirtless Taylor Lautner”.

But Taylor Lautner didn’t get good reviews.

They've acclimated, which should be our cue for retaliation.

Maybe it’s self-aware and runs with the ridiculous-ness of the whole idea. I could see that happening.

Anyone see the new Spiderman movie?

I saw the Doctor Who movie. Meh, I say. Meh.

The one with the CGI snake and cool-looking TARDIS.

The Amazing Spider-Man.

It was… ok?

Please excuse me

no

Well, at least Gimli was always described as using an axe, while Thorin was described as using the sword Orcrist, so they had to at least have that much variety. And I believe they got bows from Beorn?

The flaming fir trees are pretty excellent, but I’ll be honest, my favorite part is Beorn. Because Beorn is just cool.

See, Beorn is kind of like a less pointless Tom Bombadil (I actually like Tom Bombadil, thankyouverymuch, but you have to admit, in the long run of things, his contribution to the story was relatively minor). He’s something that can’t really be explained by everything else you know about the world. He’s human, apparently, but why can he shapeshift? The Silmarillion offers no answers, and as far as I know, none of Tolkien’s other writings do either. He’s just sort of there, hinting that the world is even more complex than previously thought, even if he does only appear in the lighter, more random Hobbit instead of LotR. And that’s what I love about Tolkien’s world, because there’s no nice and neat pinned down explanation for how everything works. Most of it is a total mystery, even to beings as wise, old, and powerful as Gandalf or Saruman.

OK, I see what you meant now. It’s a good point. I like how distinct they made the dwarves anyway, so weapons would be an excellent addition to that.

OooOOooh, what a very nice gun you have there, sir.

...

That looks amazing.

_The Dark Knight Rises_

Spectacular on nearly every level. Go see it.

Anyone else here marveled at The Dark Knight Rises yet?

I was satisfied overall, but I found a few bits and pieces underwhelming.

Spoilers:

I just saw it tonight!

I agree with the Bane point as well, but overall I rather liked it.

I mean, I know nothing about Bane, being only familiar with movie!Batman (both the 80’s ones and the new ones, and none of the animated canon).

I kinda want to see it again, and I feel like I need to re-watch Batman Begins because it’s been a few years and I completely forgot about stuff.

Also that guy from Torchwood was in it. Weird.

Spoilers:

But I can say that I liked it. Quite a bit, actually.

Le Spoiler:

I have to say, what surprised me most of all is how Nolan has raised the stakes as high as he did. _Batman Begins_ started with a sturdy, action-punctuated character study and it built all the way to a full-blown battle in the third act of _The Dark Knight Rises_. And, to me, it doesn't feel forced or cheated.

By the way, I was practically shaking with adrenaline during the third act. That hasn't happened to me since the train battle at the end of _Batman Begins_.

Inspector:

Not having been terribly familiar with Bane's backstory, I decided to dig up some details and found something really interesting between his comic book origins and Hardy's Bane. Apparently, in the comics, Bane eventually discovers his father is a character called King Snake, aka Sir Edmund Dorrance, an English mercenary. Methinks that was used as the basis for Hardy's not-so-Latino performance.

bq. Something that must be mentioned: Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman kicked an unholy amount of ass

It didn't bother me one bit, but after having gone through the source material Chris Nolan, Jonah Nolan, and David Goyer used for the previous films, I thought that was far too cool to be coincidental.

The Dark Knight Rises, first impressions:

First of all, that was a good movie. I concede The Dark Knight is probably better and that the Joker is the best villain of the trilogy, but it was still a seriously enjoyable movie.

Now for the spoiler stuff:

I wrote all of that without reading other comments (much), so now, having read them all, I would like to devote a second hidden section to Catwoman.

In short, I take back every single possible doubt I had about Anne Hathaway and Christopher Nolan pulling off Catwoman, because they succeeded beautifully.

@Rocky – ohhh, you know, I had totally forgotten about King Snake until you brought that up! I read those issues, but it’s been forever.

EDIT: Also @Rocky:

@Rocky

bq. I think I’ll stick to loving _Batman Begins_ and _The Dark Knight_.

That's probably why you were disappointed with TDRK, and that's not a bad thing. Those two films combined can unconsciously set sky-high expectations for anyone.

Meh. Did there need to be an earthquake? I think everyone just assumed there’d be one because of No Man’s Land.

I think I've gotten about as close to a full-blown geek out as I'll ever get. Prior to a one-time airing on AMC and its release on a 50th anniversary blu-ray collector's set, "the 4K digital restoration of _Lawrence of Arabia_ will be re-released in theaters for a limited time, starting 4 October":http://collider.com/lawrence-of-arabia-directors-cut-release/181806/.

bq. Meh. Did there need to be an earthquake? I think everyone just assumed there’d be one because of No Man’s Land.

Aw yeeeah, Mulan. She is super awesome and arguably the best Disney girl, because she’s both badass and not an idiot.

Mulan did spawn That Man Song, which remains a revered bro meme/rallying cry.

AS FURIOUS AS THE DARK SIDE

OF THE MOOOOOOOOOOOON

Just finished watching The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas.

sadface forever. ;_____;

Abe? That you?

!http://cdn.crushable.com/files/2012/08/daniel-day-lewis-lincoln-640x449.jpg!

Littlefinger from GoT

I think you mean Tommy Carcetti from The Wire.

Also Bunny Colvin from The Wire was there, as the first army guy during the takeover.

That scene in the football game where the guy is making a touchdown while the field collapses behind him was deliciously ludicrous.

That guy was Hines Ward. There were actually a bunch of Steelers players in that scene(and the field itself was Pittsburgh’s field). Hines Ward has never returned a kickoff in his life though, which damaged the verisimilitude of the scene a little.

JGL is a boss, if anyone else had that role it would’ve failed. Talia al Ghul was unsaveable, though I give Marion credit for trying.

Just got Wrath of the Titans on DVD. It wins my awards for most improved sequel and most underrated film of the year.

The more I think about her character, the more I wish they hadn’t used her at all. I would’ve preferred more Bane.

Yeah, that would have worked out better. Or they could have had Talia in the background through all three movies, which would have allowed her more development and made her reveal more meaningful than ‘hey, the chick Batman banged is a bad guy’.

Expendables was fun, I thought. Of course, I went in thinking “Okay, this is going to be really stupid, isn’t it?”

And then came out of it going “HOLY SHIT THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS EVERY CLICHE IN THE BOOK HOLY CRAP WHAT DID I JUST WATCH I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH TESTOSTERONE BEFORE HOLY FUCK THAT WAS AWESOME”

...yeah. Second one looks equally fun/ridiculous, so I’m good :D

Saw The Bourne Legacy. Hard to follow (I haven’t seen the previous three) and some of the actions scenes were spazzy/crowded, but I liked it.

Of course, it is now headcanon as Hawkeye’s origin. Until we get a Hawkeye movie, anyway.

Better yet, act out a Chuck Norris fact.

It's worse than that, actually. No Arnie, no Mars, no whit. Just all straight, no-nonsense, CGI-drenched action fare.