10-01-2016, 07:54 PM | #1076 |
Banned
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10-02-2016, 05:42 AM | #1077 |
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At least it's Better.
Than. Suicide Squad. |
10-10-2016, 05:10 PM | #1078 |
Ducks gonna duck
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Damn it Kush if you hadn't banned yourself I'd rip you to fucking shreds
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11-05-2016, 09:15 AM | #1079 |
Foot, meet mouth.
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Doctor Strange is good but doesn't really come close to being great. Needed better action scenes, better villain, somewhat better plot. The visual effects are godlike, though - make sure you see it in 3D, Imax 3D if possible.
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11-05-2016, 10:39 AM | #1080 |
Ducks gonna duck
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Benedict Cumberbatch is fuckin garbage in it.
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11-05-2016, 04:43 PM | #1081 | |
Tommy used to work...
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Enjoyed Dr. Strange. I think with all the concepts they had to add made the plot become quite simple. I liked that the villains were on par with their power throughout and didnt suffer from jumps and drops in power as the movie went on
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11-06-2016, 10:42 AM | #1082 |
時の彼方へ
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I recently watched Spirited Away. My first time in over twelve years, and only my third overall. I'd been wanting to buy it on Disney Blu-Ray & DVD for a long time, and an unrelated Amazon purchase finally gave me the excuse to go ahead and get it.
The bad things I remembered about the movie, they are mostly still present but are much, much smaller in degree than I remember them being. The horror of a certain early scene, the narrative itself (plot points, plot progression), the "boringness" compared with the children's classics of the 1980s and 1990s West ... But the good things I remembered are even better than remembered. And there were a number of good things not remembered, or that my position changed on. The narrative is actually one such example. Narrative: While I would still hold that it is more confusing than, say, Disney's The Lion King or Pixar's Toy Story, I would no longer call it a "confusing story." Maybe that's just because I know the major plot points already. Maybe that's because I came at the film with twelve years of belief. Whatever the case may have been, I found Spirited Away to be one of Miyazaki's best / easiest to follow stories. There's a single fork halfway through the story but one of its prongs doesn't last too long and the story continues down the remaining prong. Animation: People make a big deal about this one with this movie, but in 2016 I can appreciate now that they are right to. It really is a pretty incredible feat of animation, this movie. There's such attention to detail in nearly every frame, and yet most of the artwork is only good for a small handful of frames -- it's not uncommon for an animated setting to last less than 5 seconds on screen -- and so it's almost like ... Spirited Away is like the Sistine Chapel of sand castles. The team has put so much work into making this exquisite Renaissance work of art ... that the ocean then carries away but five seconds later. Music: Good, but surprisingly not as strong a soundtrack as I had thought it would be! For years, I have loved two tracks from this movie and had them with me on portable music players -- "Itsumo Nando Demo", the ending credits theme song, and "Reprise", the song that plays at the climax of the film. It turns out, these are the film's musical legacy. The rest of the soundtrack, while not bad (and while doing its job well!), is unassuming and not particularly noteworthy. But that's okay. Because "Reprise" is the perfect song for that scene ... And "Itsumo Nando Demo" still moves me to tears on occasion, even now, all these years later ... Themes & Symbolism: This is something I tend to be pretty bad about appreciating or looking for. I'm more of a plot-and-characters kind of guy. For me, they constitute the cake, and things like themes and symbols tend to be the icing. But if 18-year old me was still too young or inexperienced to appreciate what Miyazaki had written with Spirited Away, 32-year old Talon can easily appreciate some of what's been stored. About growing up: Miyazaki famously provided an interview in which he explained the inspiration for Chihiro (a friend's daughter) and discussed how Spirited Away explores that time in every girl's life where she goes from being a child to being an adult. Knowing that in advance, and thinking on it for over a decade, I came at this film fully ready to spot all of the little hints and signs that that was what was going on here. And there are lots of them. I think the most striking set/category of signs, and the one Miyazaki likely was focused on the most, was Chihiro's timidness/cowardice earlier in the film that gives way to bravery/courage later in the film. She goes from being a girl who is too scared to advance without being pushed or pulled to being a young woman who leads her own way and has others following her or being the ones who are scared.Play-on words: For about a decade now, I've been self-made aware of how Sen's name is a two-pronged pun: Chihiro, 千尋, is her real name. Sen, 千, is the name she is given by Yubaba. Western viewers will likely miss the easy wordplay here, but sen is the on'yomi of the character 千 while chi is its kun'yomi. When Yubaba lifts the characters of Chihiro's name off of the page, leaving behind only a 千, it directly communicates to the Japanese viewer what is going on here.But that's really been the only pun I've known, the only one I've remembered the basis for. In re-watching the movie, I have newly discovered several other puns. I was delighted to see these, and though I've forgotten some of them already, the most visually striking one I can now share below: I didn't know enough Japanese when first watching this movie to understand why she might be called "Yubaba". The name becomes obvious though once you know that the Japanese word for hot water, 湯, is yu. She is Yubaba, "the old hag of the bath house."Voice Acting: The last two times I watched this, it was in English. This was my first time watching it with the original Japanese audio. I ................ was not impressed by Chihiro's voice acting. ^^; Like, at all. Just shy of "bad", she's a pretty poor voice actor. I know, I know: she's a kid. But I've perhaps been spoiled by amazing child vocal performances in recent years in the anime scene. (Usagi Drop and Barakamon come to mind.) I would've thought that Studio Ghibli could've gotten someone like those shows' child voice actors. But that's okay. 'Cause if Chihiro was just shy of bad, eeeeeeeeeverybody else was solid. Exactly what you're used to hearing from Japanese animated works. While Disney seems to be awfully proud of their English dub, I can't imagine I will watch it again outside of curiosity. Subtitles: Uh, yeesh. Surprisingly bad at points I could pick up, and a lot of points I couldn't because holy crap for a kid's movie this script sure is a toughie for me to understand! :\ The official English translation of the end credits theme song is just garbage. (In trying to match the original's poetry, it completely rewrites the lyrics far, far too much. I get that a straight literal translation will lose the poetic sound of the original, but ffs, guys ...!) All of that stated, I was as reliant on the subtitles as most people here would be, and I found them to be okay / okay enough to watch the movie with. It's not the end of the world to watch this subtitled ... but if you can watch it raw, do. ======================= I enjoyed Spirited Away less than I had hoped to but much, much more than I did previously. I had hoped to enjoy it at like an 11/10 level of masterpieceness. I didn't quite get that. But I did get a movie that was much, much better than the 6 or 7 out of 10 that I remember feeling it was when I was a teenager. The story is decent plot-wise and rich themes-and-symbols-wise. The characters are mostly enjoyable. The music is fine at worst, exquisite at best. The animation is almost always exquisite, only marred by the occasional early-2000s computer-generated-graphics part where Miyazaki is trying out something new.
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11-06-2016, 12:24 PM | #1083 |
我が名は勇者王!
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An excellent write-up. It's good to hear from someone who isn't totally enchanted from Miyazaki's "whimsy" and can break down the film's nuts and bolts. Most Miyazaki critics tend to exaggerate his "old man yells at crowd" indignation toward otaku and that debases their entire argument.
I've know about Miyazaki's take on "growing up" in the film but I've always found it curious. It's almost as if Miyazaki is making a statement for all people watching the film...but if it wasn't evident enough, Chihiro is a special individual. So I can't say I was all that thrilled with such a theme that implies it's for everyone but actually isn't. You need to take an ordinary person i.e. Takeru in Muv-Luv Alternative to really make a universal statement about growing up stick with the viewer. These exceptionals can't be applied to self all the time.
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11-18-2016, 11:03 PM | #1084 |
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*writes another super-long superhero rant* help i am nerd now
Was recommended to watch Doctor Strange by someone, so I went with my friend today to see it. She's a huge fan of his character from the comics and it's her second time seeing it, whereas I went in with only the knowledge that:
Spoiler: show That said, here are some of my thoughts (rambly rant follows): Spoiler: show All that said, there were things I liked about it: Spoiler: show Phew. A lot to say about a movie I went into casually and completely clueless. ^^; I didn't really dislike it per se; I was entertained quite a fair bit. I guess I was just expecting more given the glowing reviews (at least outside of UPN, as I didn't pay attention to this thread before seeing the film). My friend mentioned there was an animated film, which I'm curious to check out now to see how it compares to this one, content and faithfulness-to-canon-wise. Apparently Strange has a "sister" in that one, and his relationship with her plays a much larger role, which sounds promising. Since I really would like to learn more about the character and what appeals to people about him. I can certainly see the potential, I just... don't think the film got it across very well.
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11-20-2016, 12:50 AM | #1085 |
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I saw Doctor Strange like a week ago. It was actually pretty good and I didn't expect it.
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11-20-2016, 11:31 AM | #1086 |
Foot, meet mouth.
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Not too impressed by Fantastic Beasts. While it did manage to capture some of the magic of the Potterverse, I had serious issues with its pacing/editing and a major plot hole. It looks lovely, particularly the beasts (and the characters too :3), but honestly that's not enough for me to really like a movie.
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11-20-2016, 01:39 PM | #1087 |
Ducks gonna duck
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Fuck Eddie Redmayne.
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11-21-2016, 09:18 AM | #1088 | |
我が名は勇者王!
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Quote:
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11-21-2016, 03:59 PM | #1089 | |
This
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But I'm curious, what major plot hole is this? Care to spoiler-tag it? I'd be interested in reading it xd; |
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11-22-2016, 10:49 AM | #1090 |
Foot, meet mouth.
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If you wanted to adapt the actual source material then yeah a magical documentary would be great. But also it'd be boring as hell and very few people would watch it xd
There were a few plot holes I found in the movie but the major one is...not so much a plot hole as Spoiler: show Some others that annoyed me are Spoiler: show Spoiler: show
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01-02-2017, 01:02 AM | #1093 |
The Path of Now & Forever
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Rogue One:
The movie is like... 100% fan service. Sorry, but if you knew absolutely nothing about Star Wars and this was somehow your first film in the series, it would make no sense whatsoever. There's also been a huge fan rage recently over Red Letter Media's review of the film. Which is odd enough because others have made the same criticisms of the film, but gave the movie a positive rating, whereas RLM are kind of leaving their Star Wars fanboyism at the door and giving an honest review based on the film itself rather than the franchise. Spoiler: show I felt the movie was a good action film, but it's definitely not solid film. And I'm a pretty big Star Wars fanboy, so know when I'm saying that, I'm trying to be as objective as possible. Full Spoiler Review: Spoiler: show |
01-02-2017, 01:43 AM | #1094 | |
時の彼方へ
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Quote:
It's the damnedest thing. I have no idea where it came from. Like I said, I only learned of it (from the first-hand experience of tripping upon the video above) in the last 72 hours. Didn't even know the anti-RLM movement was a thing before then. And I still don't get it. Everyone knows he forced it a little with his Attack of the Clones review and forced it even harder with Revenge of the Sith. Everyone knows that Revenge of the Sith, while still part of the "shitty Star Wars prequel" anthology, is the best of the bunch and is even, really, not all that bad a movie. (It has many hallmarks of a bad movie, don't get me wrong. But who among us would seriously consider Revenge of the Sith to be a 1/10 or a 2/10? Whereas Phantom Menace ... ) But RLM proved his cinema analysis chops with that first review he did of The Phantom Menace. People were saying, "Man, this needs to be shown in every cinema studies course in every university in America." And I agree. I agreed back then, I still agree now. And so I just don't get it. How did we go from "GIVE THIS MAN AN HONORARY DEGREE!" to "DOWN WITH RED LETTER MEDIA!"?
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01-02-2017, 02:14 AM | #1095 |
The Path of Now & Forever
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People have criticized their Half-in-the-Bag movie reviews, but the bulk of anti-RLM videos have been recently been about their review of Rogue One.
Prequel Praising kind of started a bit after Disney bought LucasFilms, you can probably guess how that started. RLM mentions this in their Plinkett Review of Star Wars The Force Awakens. |
01-02-2017, 08:21 AM | #1096 |
我が名は勇者王!
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How did that start? Disney hasn't really pimped the prequels at all. And, while the movies are bad, stuff like the Clone Wars cartoon iterations have coloured opinions of how good the movies were.
Tie Fighter got me really excited about A New Hope and it briefly became my favourite SW movie, but as an adult I see the dialogue as vague and riddled with silliness. I would expect CW fans to have gone through something similar.
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01-02-2017, 01:06 PM | #1097 |
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Disney sends out checks to bloggers to write why they think the prequels are good.
If you Google Star Wars Prequels, you eventually hit "Top 10 prequel things" or various articles about how great they were. And anything shy of lobotomizing myself, I can't fathom how I could say any of the prequels were actually good. So unless everyone suddenly has gone hipster and now thinks terrible films are great, I think Disney sent out some bags of cash. |
01-02-2017, 01:40 PM | #1098 | |
時の彼方へ
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I think what a lot of it is is, it's typical late teenage behavior. You have these teens, ages 15-19, and young adults adjacent to that, ages 20-?? (it cuts off for different people), who:
I don't think Walt Disney Corp. is sending out paychecks to bloggers to write glowing reviews of the prequels. I think the glowing reviews are being written willingly by passionate people who want to voice their opinions on the matter, particularly because they are so contrary to the commonly-held opinion that's voiced on the Internet. When you hold an unpopular opinion, IRL you keep quiet but online it's been the habit for the past 30 years that people speak up. It's why you have so many Internet atheists, for one example out of many. On the one hand, online or offline, humans are social creatures programmed to not want to rock the boat (i.e. to not want to do something which will get them ostracized). But on the other hand, offline or online, people when they feel like birds in a cage, they want nothing more in the world but to be free of the cage and sing to their heart's content. So when you give all these prequel fans the Internet, and now they're old enough to blog and be heard by others, then yeah -- they're going to do it. I just find it weird that RLM is getting so much hate. It's one thing to be a stereotypically "I'm so edgy " teenager who makes the rest of us embarrassed for you, but it's quite another to be like, "RLM is an idiot and an asshole and nothing he says is right." It's like ... like they take it very personally that he's given a voice to millions of people's thoughts about why the prequels sucked so bad. They feel like he's poisoned us against the films, that we might not hold the opinions we hold today if he'd never come along. It's very strange to me, and I really wish I could take these people back to 2007, 2008, a time shortly before RLM showed up ... And I could show them, "Look -- even now, no one likes the prequels. No one except for a few tasteless fools and a handful of fans in denial. The rest of us are all ready to admit, the prequels are nowhere near as good as even the very worst of the original trilogy," whether you hold that to be A New Hope or Return of the Jedi.
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01-02-2017, 03:42 PM | #1099 |
我が名は勇者王!
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I watched both the Plinkett Rogue One and "Half in a Bag" review of Rogue One.
The videos actually parallel one of the problems with Rogue One well: you need context to really get it. The original TPM dissection was seven parts and systematic, each like 30 minutes long; the R1 review is 7 minutes and just casually dumps on it by calling it an abject failure. You need familiarity with how RLM thinks to really find this acceptable. I mean, I found the editing scene with A New Hope effective visual presentation. But just like how an angry teen isn't one to listen to reason I don't think it would go over well after someone plants BIG RED X's over the qualities a good R1 film should have. The "Half in a Bag" review was a lot more palatable, but I can see why people would be upset with it. Three white guys insulting the R1-loving audience at every turn, with scalding ad hominems at that, along with natural discussion about the film's flaws in a fairly spoiler-free conversation.
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01-03-2017, 08:37 AM | #1100 | ||||
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In a discussion about green screen technologies, this conversation arose.
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
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