Movies are awesome

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Dominic
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Re: Movies are awesome

Post by Dominic »

Warcraft:

Much better better than it is credited for being. (It is probably my favourite movie of this year.) It is not as good as "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes", but it shares many of the same virtues and concepts (without being redundant). A good analogy is food. "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" is Indian food from a proper Indian place. "Warcraft" is like a pre-packaged, or fast-food, variety. Good enough, but not as good.

Grade: B/C
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andersonh1
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Re: Movies are awesome

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Batman v. Superman (extended version)

I didn't say a lot about this movie last time, so it's worth going back and giving a few more thoughts now that I've watched the longer version, which is definitely the more complete, smoother narrative.

The plot: After a prologue sequence that depicts the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents, the movie establishes that Bruce Wayne was in Metropolis during Zod's attack on the city, and during Superman's fight with Zod. One of his buildings was destroyed, and many of his employees were killed. Bruce sees Superman as dangerous, and as we learn later on in the movie, he believes he has the power to wipe out humanity if he chooses.

The main plot takes place 18 months after the events of "Man of Steel". Superman has been openly operating for that time and is known worldwide, and he is a figure of controversy to some. He's seen in various ways: a hero, an almost god-like figure, a threat, all depending on perspective. The story opens with Lois Lane going to Africa to interview a terrorist/rebel leader, and while she's there everything goes south due to the involvement of both the CIA, but also a third party whose presence will be explained later. Everyone is killed by a group of mercenaries, led by a Russian (going by his name, he's this continuity's version of the KGBeast, though he's never in costume), who burn the bodies and then leave. Superman arrives and rescues Lois, and then the whole incident becomes an excuse to discuss the propriety of Superman acting in the way he does without any sanction from any governmental authority. There are congressional hearings and cable news discussions.

Meanwhile, the movie takes time to establish that Batman has not only been active for 20 years at this point, he's grown more violent in recent months. One of the new scenes in the movie shows Clark interviewing some people in Gotham, and a man discusses how "mean" Batman has become, and how he's clearly hunting someone. Alfred puts the change down to the world having changed with the arrival of Superman, making Bruce feel like he's so small and insignificant, while Bruce thinks 20 years in Gotham have worn him down.

So we have a contrast here between a newly-active Superman, and a 20-year veteran Batman, who seriously works over the bad guys, and kills a number of people in violation of Batman's well-established no-killing code of conduct from all other media. I'm not sure if the idea was to show just how far down a dark and cynical road Batman has traveled, or whether the writers didn't quite get the memo that Batman doesn't go around murdering people, but it's definitely one of my gripes with what is otherwise an excellent movie.

Superman learns about Batman and tries to shut him down, while Batman is convinced that Superman is a threat to the world, and ultimately decides to "go to war" and kill him. What becomes apparent as the movie goes on (and is even more well-established in the extended version) is that Lex Luthor is behind the whole thing. Before the story even began, he had learned who Superman and Batman were, and has been manipulating both all through the movie. He is behind all the events that make Superman look bad, and he subtly goads Bruce Wayne to the point that he steals a chunk of Kryptonite recovered from the wreck of the World Engine, which Bruce weaponizes so that he will have a fighting chance against Superman. When Lex finally makes his move and reveals what he's been up to, it's no surprise, and everything falls into place very nicely. I'm not sure why people were griping about the plot being complicated. It's not complicated, it's deliberate. It builds things up one step at a time, establishes who the characters are and why they act in the way they do, and in the end it fully justifies the fight between Superman and Batman by not rushing to that point.

The fight itself is pretty much what it had to be. Batman has to use his limited supply of Kryptonite stolen from Luthor to level the playing field, and with Superman weakened, Batman's far superior hand to hand fighting skills allow him to prevail, and he nearly kills Superman. The thing that causes him to stop and which shocks him back to his senses (his mother and Superman's adopted mother have the same first name) seems to be something people like to make fun of, but I thought it was a good moment, given that Batman is so hung up on the death of his parents. When Superman protests that Batman is "letting them kill Martha", Batman is suddenly seeing himself in Joe Chill's place, about to murder a man, and it's the name "Martha" that brings it all home in a way that nothing else could have. Alfred couldn't talk sense into Batman earlier in the movie, and though Superman tries to talk rather than fight, Bruce isn't listening. I think the whole scene works well if people are willing to think about it rather than just mock it. Batman's change of heart does feel a bit sudden, but it's honestly a relief to see him switch from someone ready to kill to someone determined to save a life. He even apologizes to Alfred. The writers spent two hours turning Batman into someone who was willing to kill Superman, and the way they chose to make him finally realize that he'd gone too far works for me, even if it doesn't work for everyone.

The movie wraps up with a fight between Doomsday (created by Luthor from Zod's body) vs. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (who has a small role in the overall film, but she's awesome every time she shows up). The fact that Doomsday was formed from Kryptonian biology makes it obvious that Kryptonite can kill him, and in the end the Kryptonite spear Batman had intended to use to kill Superman is instead used to kill Doomsday, though Superman dies as well. The movie borrows elements from both the Dark Knight Returns and the Death of Superman, while using them to tell an entirely different story. The movie finishes with Superman's funeral in Metropolis, Clark Kent's funeral in Smallville, and with Bruce and Diana determining that they need to track down the metahumans that Luthor had discovered (WW herself, Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg) in order to face a threat that Bruce thinks is coming. Luthor is arrested and he's clearly lost his mind, with the extended version showing that Batman has arranged to have him transferred to Arkham Asylum. The final scene shows Clark's coffin with just a hint of movement before the credits roll, so of course Superman will be back. He's hit with a nuke while fighting Doomsday and survives that, so being stabbed is clearly just a temporary drawback.

Overall: I've said before that I thought the first Iron Man movie was one of the best superhero films. I think Batman v. Superman is right up there with it. It's flawed, as all of these movies are, but it out-Marvels Marvel in trying to put these characters in the real world and imagine what the reaction to them might be, at least during the first two thirds of the movie. The final third goes into all out superhero mode with big threats and massive destruction. I think the writers did a good job of staying away from the formula and the tone we've seen from so many of the Marvel superhero films, and instead went in quite a different direction. I think the movie could have used more joy here and there to lighten up what is at times a very dark film, and hopefully the reaction to the movie has brought that idea home to the producers.
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andersonh1
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Re: Movies are awesome

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Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders
I'm a long time fan of Adam West's Batman (it's the first tv show I ever remember watching), and I was delighted to see the series finally make it to DVD last year. I've been watching it with my kids, and they enjoy it, so they were as happy as I was to see this animated version announced, with a sequel on the way. The movie even brings back Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar, and yeah, they sound like people in their 70s and 80s, but it's still recognizably them.

The first half hour feels like an episode of the tv series and follows the standard formula, complete with a deathtrap that Batman and Robin have to escape. Just like the 1960s movie, Joker, Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman have teamed up. They steal a duplicator ray that a scientist has invented. Gordon, O'Hara and the police are completely useless. Batman and Robin track the villains down to an abandoned tv dinner factory, where Catwoman tries to use a serum she's developed to turn Batman evil, because "he always beats us. We need him on our side." It appears not to work, and the pair are sent on a giant tv dinner into a giant oven to die. Awesome.

Of course they escape, but here's where things really start to get fun. The 60s Batman series was, among other things, a parody of the comics of the day. This animated movie starts to parody all the darker Batman stories and movies that have followed it, as Catwoman's serum slowly begins to change Batman. So we get to hear the Adam West version of Batman quoting Micheal Keaton ("Let's get nuts!"), or the Dark Knight Returns ("Riddler, this is an operating table and I'm the surgeon!"), or parodying the ending to the Dark Knight Rises (when Catwoman suggests she and Batman run away to Paris, Robin protests. "Holy unsatisfying ending, Batman!") And evil Batman uses the duplicator to duplicate himself many times over and take over Gotham City. Of course, he's back to being his usual self by the end of the movie.

This is a great little animated feature, and even if you don't particularly care for 60s Batman, you might well enjoy the parody and commentary at the other versions we've seen in the 50 years since that show was on the air. Good stuff, and a version of Batman I'd never have expected to see a few years ago is brought back on the small screen. Very nice.
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andersonh1
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Re: Movies are awesome

Post by andersonh1 »

I was wondering about this. Good news: we'll get one more Adam West outing as (animated) Batman.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/06/14 ... -two-face/
The recent passing of legendary Batman actor Adam West left a lot of fans reeling. Now that a few days have passed, some folks began to wonder about the state of his current projects. Last year he returned to the cowl that made him famous / he made famous by joining Julie Newmar and Burt Ward in the animated feature, Batman: The Return of the Caped Crusader. Plans for a second film moved quickly introducing on of the classic villains that never appeared in the Greenway Television production, Two-Face. And it got even better for Batman vs Two-Face when it was announced that Harvey Dent / Two-Face was going to be voiced by another iconic actor, William Shatner.

13th Dimension reached out to Warner Bros and found out that West had completed his voice work on the second Batman ’66 animated feature. No release date has been set, but with the San Diego Comic Con coming up next month, we should be getting more information soon and perhaps a trailer.
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Re: Movies are awesome

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I have got to see those, even before West passed I wanted to but a buddy keeps saying he'll loan me his copy then flaking.

I caught Wonder Woman last week, it's not on my top list of superhero movies and honestly it's not a great Wondy movie, but it's not a bad movie I guess. The film feels very piecemeal though, so you end up with a few characters doing the heavy lifting in place of the titular Wonder Woman, and you have Wondy do stuff in the middle that doesn't tie to the end well, with powers and motivations that just appear at the big stupid CGI ending. It takes itself too seriously though, which is a shame since Wondy worked best on screen with Lynda Carter's fun version.
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andersonh1
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Re: Movies are awesome

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Batman vs. Two-Face
Adam West's final (vocal) performance as Batman is just as good as the previous animated movie, and I wish they could have produced a few more of these. Burt Ward plays Robin of course, and as the only other surviving cast member, I guess they had to fit Julie Newmar in somehow, though she's got a very small part in the overall story. She and Batman "date" when he comes to visit her at her prison window every week, while Robin waits in the Batmobile wondering how long Batman is going to take. This movie falls back on the old tv show gag of Batman and Catwoman never quite managing to get that kiss, usually due to Robin getting in the way.

Two-Face never appeared on the old tv series, and neither did Harley Quinn or Hugo Strange, but all three make their animated Batman 66 debut as Hugo Strange has invented an "evil extractor" to try and rehabilitate all of Gotham's worst criminals. Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Egghead and Mr. Freeze all get plugged into the machine at the same time, and the evil is extracted in the form of a green gas stored in a tank. Sadly, the villains are just too evil, and the machine overloads, the tank explodes, and pretty boy DA Harvey Dent is exposed to the gas, becoming Two Face. Roll credits, which show Batman and Robin chasing him, getting caught in various death traps and escaping, and finally capturing him. It's a whole episode packed into a minute's worth of credits.

Months later, Dent has plastic surgery to repair his scarred face and is allowed back into the DA's office, where he has to work his way back up and earn the trust of the department again. Gotham experiences crimes from King Tut and Egghead, and in foiling them, Batman picks up clues that indicate Two Face is still operating. That's quite impossible, as Dent's been cured and his facial scarring has been repaired. Bruce wants to believe in his friend Harvey Dent's innocence, but Robin's not so sure. He tracks Dent to a abandoned lab (labelled as such of course) where Strange went after being fired when his machine failed. Robin is exposed to the gas by Two-Face, and turned into a Two-Face himself, leaving Batman to cure him and work out just who Two-Face is, since Dent had plastic surgery.

All of this leads to Batman and Robin falling into a trap and being captured, where it's revealed that Harvey is still Two-Face, and the scarred side comes and goes as his split personality dominates. He unmasks Batman as Bruce Wayne, and then opens bids to all of Gotham's criminals for Batman's secret identity. Catwoman has escaped from jail and bids herself, ultimately siding with Batman against the other crooks, then once again escaping justice. Two-Face's final plan involves spraying Gotham with the gas, turning the entire city into Two-Faces, and after a chase, a fight and a confrontation that go beyond what the tv show would or could have done, Harvey asserts control and banishes his evil alter ego. Batman naturally has an anti-evil antidote that cures Gotham (the same one he used on Robin earlier) and the movie ends with an amnesiac Dent, cured for now, holding a bachelor charity auction where Catwoman bids on Batman.

There's a good deal of drama mixed in with the silliness this version of Batman is known for, and some musings on friendship (Dick concerned that Bruce's friendship with Dent is crowding him out), and of course lots of Batman/Catwoman flirting. Adam West and Julie Newmar both sound old, but who cares? William Shatner is great as Dent/Two-Face (with Dent drawn to look like Shatner did in the 60s when he was playing Kirk), using a light vocal tone for dent and a deeper growly voice for Two-Face. The jokes and references to the old show are plentiful, and it's always good to see the show-only villains like Tut and Bookworm. The tribute to Adam West at the end is touching and appropriate.
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Re: Movies are awesome

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Thor Ragnarok - this is a delight of a movie. It's being bandied as a comedy, but it's really more of a fun sci-fi comic book movie - there's lots of funny bits, but there's still character weight and dramatic tension earned by the script. It's also just giddily sci-fi for a good portion of it, and it earns this with great production design and lots of color without feeling like a Guardians of the Galaxy ripoff. It's the 2nd movie I've seen twice this year (after Spider-Man Homecoming) and likely to be the only one I'll see thrice in theaters.
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Re: Movies are awesome

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Justice League - Much better than Batman v Superman, and I may be one of the few that enjoyed that movie. I'll just throw out a list of things I liked about Justice League. Spoilers can be expected.
- Batman is much better here, far less bitter and jaded, and actively trying to make up for misjudging Superman so badly. He takes the lead in putting the team together, though he admits he's not the best leader.
- Wonder Woman is a delight all the way through the movie. I've never been a big fan of the character on the printed page, but this is a case where an actors performance makes a difference. She's both physically tough in fights as well as being open and caring when warranted. She gets a good character arc where she overcomes being so withdrawn and afraid to step out and inspire like Superman, and in the end is shown talking to a group of kids after stopping a crime, so she's "out of the shadows" and being a role model.
- Cyborg is another character who honestly doesn't belong in the Justice League. He's a b-lister and works with the Teen Titans, which he was created to be a part of. But again, for a character I have little time for on the printed page, I thought he worked very well in this movie.
- The theme of the movie: characters who worked better than I thought they would. Aquaman does not resemble his comic book counterpart very much at all, but the version we get in this movie is fun, he's tough, and he's useful in and out of water. The writers seem to have figured out how strong and durable he would have to be to survive under the ocean, and he's written accordingly. He and Diana both take on Steppenwolf a couple of times as the only two characters who can come close to matching him physically, though it's a major struggle.
- The Flash is, again, not much like comic book Barry Allen (or tv Barry Allen for that matter), and seems written to fit in with the versions of these characters created for this movie. I don't like his costume, which is very busy and overdesigned. That aside, the version of Barry Allen we get here works in the context of the film and bounces off the other character well. He gets a good scene with Batman where Batman does not push him or berate him, but gives him a simple job to do ("get in, save one person, get out." "Then what?" "You'll know what to do."). It's great to see Batman being a bit of a mentor instead of a jerk, and you can believe this Batman once trained younger sidekicks.
- Spoiler: Superman is brought back to life. The method used works, given what we saw in Batman v Superman. Batman figures out pretty quick that the team is outmatched against Steppenwolf and a million parademons, and is willing to take the gamble to recover Superman. He comes back a little wrong, but "Superman versus the League" isn't dragged out too long, thankfully. This sequence does contain one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Superman has Aquaman and Wonderwoman in each hand as they're trying to restrain him. The Flash runs around them at super-speed, and the movie depicts this from Barry's point of view by showing everyone frozen in place as he's running. He's completely freaked out as Superman turns his head and watches him run while everything else is frozen in place, because of course, Superman can be just as fast.
- Similarly, during the final confrontation when the five League members struggle hard against Steppenwolf and the parademons, once Superman turns up he just stomps Steppenwolf without breaking a sweat. Superman is much less brooding and more cheery in this movie, but then is so everyone else.
- Hal Jordan does not appear. There is a Green Lantern cameo in the flashback to the Amazons, the Atlanteans and humanity fighting Steppenwolf's previous attempt to conquer Earth in the distant past. Speaking of Steppenwolf, I thought he was a decent villain. He's physically powerful, and has a lot of early success in his plan to conquer the Earth. He's not deep or complex, but does he need to be? He does mention Darkseid at one point, so the idea that he's working for a bigger bad is there, though not given a lot of emphasis.
- post credits scene: Lex Luthor has escaped from prison, and meets with Deathstroke to discuss forming "a league of our own".
- Supporting characters who show up in the movie: Jim Gordon, Lois Lane, Mera and Ma Kent. The 6 Justice Leaguers all get a pretty good amount of screen time. It doesn't feel like any of them get shortchanged.
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andersonh1
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Re: Movies are awesome

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Aquaman - otherwise known as redneck Aquaman, this movie is steeped in the New 52 Aquaman versions of characters, which is fine with me. See my reviews of that material over in the retro comics thread for my thoughts, but with one or two exceptions (corrected in this movie), the New 52 was very good to Aquaman.

The plot: you'll find basic summaries all over the place. Arthur Curry is the son of Tom Curry, lighthouse keeper and Atlanna, queen of Atlantis, who ran away to the surface rather than submit to an arranged marriage she did not want. Forced to return to protect Tom and Arthur, Atlanna has another son with the King, before being executed by being thrown to the Trench, mutated and monstrous deep sea creatures. Arthur's brother Orm becomes king, and decides to unite the seven former kingdoms of Atlantis to attack the surface world for polluting and fouling the oceans, and he goes about doing all this by diplomacy at first, and then force. To try and stop him, Mera goes to find Arthur and convince him, as the eldest son, to take his place as king, something he wants nothing to do with.

The movie is the opposite of past DC movies like Dark Knight, which try to ground the character in the real world as much as possible. Aquaman takes the opposite direction and just goes all out when it comes to embracing the sheer comic book craziness of the Aquaman stories. Ocean Master and Black Manta look like they walked right off the comic book page. So does Mera. Near the end of the movie, Aquaman finally gets his orange and green costume (which in this movie is what King Atlan wears in flashbacks to his time) when he finally decides to claim the kingship. Atlantis is a high tech, neon and glass place, with so much detail that you'll never catch it all. There are tons of creatures, including the Karathen (?), a monstrous creature guarding King Atlan's final resting place and voiced by Julie Andrews!!

I don't know if there's anything comparable to this. I haven't seen every superhero movie out there, but most have at least some grounding in the real world. This one spends very little time there, and is mostly set under the ocean and in fantastic places.

So how is Jason Momoa as Aquaman? He's nothing like the comic book version, either in appearance or attitude, quite honestly. This is a distinct version of the character, and if you've seen Justice League, you have a good idea what to expect. That aside, what we get is a guy who undergoes a major character change over the course of the film, who is already known and established as a hero (he rescues some Russian sailors early in the movie, and they know he's "Aquaman" and are glad to see him), who absolutely does not want to be king. It takes Orm flooding coastlines all over the world to change his mind, and he agrees to help Mera simply to stop a war that will kill millions, so his motivation is to save lives. He's a brawler who jumps in without thinking at first, but he learns the limitations of that approach and that his actions have consequences, and in the end he learns to play to his strengths and use everything he has learned as he grew up. He's the crudest character in the film, interestingly, but his wisecracking is probably for the best if it keeps the audience smiling and going along with all the craziness on screen.

Overall, this is probably the most "comic-booky" comic book movie I've ever seen. It's fun, it's stuffed to the gills with Aquaman lore, and it's apparently making tons of money, so I'm not the only one who likes it. It's good to see DC having some success with characters other than Batman or Superman.
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Re: Movies are awesome

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Watched a bunch of Marvel movies lately.

Thor: Ragnarok: I agree with JT that this is a fun movie. The first Thor was fine, I haven't seen much of the second, but this one was clearly designed from the first scene to not take itself too seriously... which is odd for a movie about Ragnarok. Having said all that, it really is a movie with two parallel storylines that are entirely different tonally. The Ragnarok storyline is death and destruction, mixed with the colorful, over the top Thor/Hulk buddy comedy. It should not work, but it does. I really enjoyed this one.

Guardians of the Galaxy - again, I found this to be a surprisingly fun and entertaining movie with some heart to it as well. I didn't know what to expect going in, but Star Lord with his Walkman set the tone nicely for a run around the galaxy with some crazy villains. And it really does set up Infinity War more than I realized. I also note just how naturally the CGI characters, Rocket Racoon and Groot, just seamlessly fit right in as part of the cast.

Avengers: Infinity War: Easy to follow, despite loads of characters and references to films I haven't seen yet (I've probably only seen half the Marvel movies). Again, the CGI characters blend well with live action, the stakes are suitably grand for the assembly of heroes we get (half the universe will die), and interestingly, Thanos is almost the main character, even more than Iron Man or Captain America. I can never quite figure out how vulnerable or invulnerable Thor is meant to be though. In the first Avengers movie, a fall from the heli-carrier will probably kill him, but here he can survive floating in space and almost being roasted alive. Him calling Rocket Raccoon "rabbit" never gets old. There is a lot of good stuff all through this movie, and some fun character combinations. And the cliffhanger ending with Thanos winning is great.

I haven't gone to see any of these in the theater, but I may go see Endgame. If these three movies are any indication of quality, Endgame should be really good.
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