The Movie Thread Reloaded

[Ratman_tf]

Avengers Endgame

A disappointing ending to a franchise that had outstayed it's welcome.

I came in late, but I'd been spoiled to most of the important bits of the movie. I knew they killed Thanos in the beginning. I came in when Ant-Man got out of the quantum realm and discovered that everyone was sad.

I think this is the first time travel movie where I couldn't understand the time travel aspect. All that jazz was confusing, and I was getting very bored with it all.

End battle was CGI nonsense.

Tony Stark dying was a cop out. We knew from the first Avengers movie that he was willing to sacrifice himself for the good. A much more interesting fate for his character would be to see if the womanizing playboy could settle down and have a successful family life. Wasted opportunity there, but I suppose RD Junior was done being Iron Man.

Thor, meh, whatever. Really most of the other characters were meh, whatever. All the comic book time travel meant I lost track of who was alive and who was dead and why I should even care.

I did like Captain America's ending.

Sequel bloat was inevitable, but it was sad to see the series, which I did very much like in the beginning, get augered into the ground for the finale.

[Aglondir]

I think this is the first time travel movie where I couldn't understand the time travel aspect. All that jazz was confusing, and I was getting very bored with it all.

Yeah, I couldn't follow it either.

And I still don't know what the soul stone does.

[jhkim]

I think this is the first time travel movie where I couldn't understand the time travel aspect. All that jazz was confusing, and I was getting very bored with it all.

Yeah, I couldn't follow it either.

And I still don't know what the soul stone does.

I thought the time travel in Endgame was interesting, mostly in that it doesn't follow the established standards, but is still mostly consistent. The two common standards are

1) Closed-loop like the first Terminator movie, or The Final Countdown. The past and future are fated, so if you go back and change the past, you're just fulfilling what happened. It's consistent, but the predestination can feel frustrating - like none of the character's choices matter. If you try to change the known past, you are fated to fail.

2) Open-loop like Back to the Future, where the timeline overwrites itself in a fuzzy sort of way. There can be paradoxes like killing your own grandfather, but they cause mysterious and illogical problems - like photograph images fading from the feet up. You *can* change the past, but it's generally considered bad according to semi-mystic laws. There is still a sense of Fate - that history is supposed to go a certain way - and the characters act to support it.


Endgame seems to follow a branching model, which appears in a number of books but almost no movies. You can't change your own past - that just creates new branches without changing your own timeline. But you can take items out of the past, and use them in your present. I liked it because it avoids the issue of Fate. Characters weren't trying to change the past, and they also weren't trying to fix the past. They were focused on their own unknown future.

[Ratman_tf]

Annihilation

I'd been wanting to see this for a while, but it never came up on a Netflix search. So I finally got the DVD.

What to say, without spoilers? I liked it. I think it delivered what I was expecting. The acting was rather flat. There's a scene

Spoiler

Where the main character, Leena, is talking to her co-worker about their affair, and they both sound like robots. None of the dialog matched what I'd expect humans to say. But I suspect that was the point of the whole movie. People alienated from their humanity. Was it intentional? I don't know. I fancy it was the changed Leena's memories of human events? But that could have been conveyed much more effectively.
I liked the ending. I dig strange experiences, and the movie certainly was that.

So. Watch it if you want to see a trippy flick about a strange and unsettling event.

[Pat]

Annihilation is worth watching for the imagery, but nothing else.

[Godfather Punk]

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is a very long and beautifully shot movie, with some very strong and well acted scenes, but these scenes jump out because it really feels like the story could have been told in 90 minutes too.
I'm not sorry I paid full ticket price, but I was expecting something more dynamic from Q T.
(I'd compare it to Death Proof, which was imo 90% blabla and 10% boomboom).
I am probably also 10 years too young to fully appreciate all the period references although I do remember watching F.B.I. and Mannix in the early 70's. And the music never gets old.

[Omega]

Saw the trailer for the new Catz movie. Its one long WTF. Who the hell thought this was a good idea? It looks like bad bodypaint. Combined with the usual insane over-reliance on CGI. The stage show looks a billion times better with good ol practical effects and prosthetics.

[Ratman_tf]

Terminator Dark Fate trailer

As much as I liked Terminator 2, that film opened the door to endless sequels, where they tell the same basic story over and over.

Not excited for this one.

[Spinachcat]

The Terminator, Predator and Aliens franchises all seem to suffer from the inability to improve upon their original movies.

[kosmos1214]

It would probably help if Hollywood wasn't pretty much a dumpster fire at this point.
And sadly its been a long time in comeing.

[Omega]

The Terminator, Predator and Aliens franchises all seem to suffer from the inability to improve upon their original movies.

All 3 had pretty good and fairly different sequels. Problems is... that is where they all should have ended as each one screwed up with its third and subsequent sequels. All three are the general exception to the overall rule that sequels tend to lose something, sometimes slowly, sometimes appallingly fast.

[Omega]

Terminator Dark Fate trailer

As much as I liked Terminator 2, that film opened the door to endless sequels, where they tell the same basic story over and over.

Not excited for this one.

Actually the ending of T2 seemes to be THE END. But Hollywood just would not leave it at that and so BOOM! "Hey that ending really means we can just keep time looping this movie till doomsday really comes! Horray!" much like with Star Trek now.

[Pat]

Not a movie, but I don't care.

Just finished watching Season 8 of the Walking Dead, the "all out war".

The only way it makes sense is if Rick, Maggie, and Ezekiel are name level characters with their own domains facing off against an even higher level enemy who rules multiple domains, Neegan. Most of the named supporting cast are high level as well, allowing them to face threats with ease that used to be deadly, and clearly and categorically outclassing everyone else around them. For all its flaws, and there are many, it's the D&D endgame, zombieapocalypse version.

[jhkim]

The Terminator, Predator and Aliens franchises all seem to suffer from the inability to improve upon their original movies.

All 3 had pretty good and fairly different sequels. Problems is... that is where they all should have ended as each one screwed up with its third and subsequent sequels. All three are the general exception to the overall rule that sequels tend to lose something, sometimes slowly, sometimes appallingly fast.

I concur. I found T2 and Aliens particularly to both be the exceptions of sequels that built excellently on the original movie. But after that, the sequels didn't just fail to improve, they quite imploded.

[crkrueger]

I concur. I found T2 and Aliens particularly to both be the exceptions of sequels that built excellently on the original movie. But after that, the sequels didn't just fail to improve, they quite imploded.

Predator II isn't quite in the same class as Aliens and Terminator II, but it still does a good job of building on what came before.

After that though, Jesus Christ, what the hell are these people thinking?

Trivia:  There are two actors I can think of who were in all three series of Alien, Predator and Terminator. Can you think of any?