I'm going to wait until I've watched all of the X-Men movies to talk about them, but while I'm on a break at a conference that's running today, I figured I'd split what would've amounted to a mega post in two
Umm... nah I wouldn't really say that.
Interesting. Thanks for the context. In light of what you said about the book, I have to go back to my other claim that, if the weakness of the film was a matter of being
too faithful to the book, which is now what it sounds like, then I wish they would've changed things up and tailored the film better to the main story they wanted to tell. Books allow you more space to move and more time to unfold as many stories involving as many characters as you want. Ensemble TV also allows for this kind of storytelling. Movies, though, typically benefit from being more streamlined and I think there was a lot of excess fat that could've been trimmed off the film.
Above all it was boring, and finchers sleepy aesthetic just made it duller.
It started off cool with the clues and then it just solved everything an hour in. Then it carried on until nothing else happened.
Remind me: Where does
Vertigo fall in your Hitchcock rankings? It'd be interesting if it turned out that your disinterest in
Gone Girl matches that in
Vertigo, because like I was saying earlier, they're very similar in terms of plot construction (who am I kidding, I'd also find it interesting if it didn't match).
The shift happens much earlier in
Gone Girl (at the halfway point rather than 3/4 of the way in) but in much the same way, the mystery is solved "prematurely," but the suspense persists because it becomes less a matter of "what's going on?" and more a matter of "what are they going to do?" So I wouldn't say they solved
everything or that, after the shift,
nothing happens. Fincher just shifted what needed to be solved - from the mystery of
what Affleck did to his wife to simply
the mystery of his wife - and changed up the trajectory - from finding out what happened to finding out what they were going to do in light of what happened.
I'd say that makes for damn compelling viewing
thats just overall awesome
I know, but don't let yourself get sucked in. Every season always starts out amazing with a ton of potential and a million awesome characters and storylines (it's no coincidence that the scene I posted was from the first episode of that season) and it has literally never failed: Every season ultimately devolves into a massive clusterfuck of idiocy and garbage.
I think you will like Days of future past. I actually think it's probably my favorite of those films.
I LOVED Days of Future Past. My favorite comic adaptation not made by Chris Nolan.
High praise. I'm excited. Sneak preview for my thoughts on X-Men: They're unquestionably my favorite non-Batman comic-/superhero-based films, so the odds of me liking Days of Future Past are definitely in its favor.
Oh man can't wait to hear your thoughts on Spiderman 3 and The Amazing Spiderman 2. I have a lot to say bout both of them lol.
I used to love the first Spiderman with Tobey. Not only do I not remember the second one, I don't even remember whether or not I liked it, but I know going in that I at least had a one-time connection to at least one of the films :redface:
I actually think you'd be a huge fan of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It's more of a superhero Jason Bourne-esque espionage movie at times than any other comic movie I've seen.
I hated the first Captain America, but someone else recently recommeded the sequel to me. Was that you,
ufcfan? Regardless, two recommendations from people in here has gotten it on my list. I'll probably check it out after my X-Men and Spiderman kick.
I am much less likely to link the "worth" of a film (to me, there is no such thing) to its influences or what it's aping. Perhaps because in my experience, those similarities are almost always in form. To extrapolate worth from form makes it likely that I'll miss 1) the way it functions dramatically, or 2) what it has to say.
Meh, I'm not crazy about the form/content divide. If you're working at the highest level, your content is based in form and your form aids the content. You can't separate the form of
Citizen Kane from the content anymore than you can with (to just randomly start naming movies I love)
Raging Bull or
The Shining or
Heat or
Pulp Fiction.
But don't let me stop you from trying should you be so inclined. . .
Please note: I'm not saying I wouldn't analyse a film. I just don't spend much time deciding how "good" it is anymore.
All judgments are intrinsically and inescapably evaluative, so you
are deciding how "good" films are. You may be doing it differently from me inasmuch as you don't put as much of an emphasis on comparative analysis as I do, but what is establishing how well or how poorly a film manages to accomplish the tasks it set for itself if not deciding how good or how bad it is?
In A Lonely Place was really good.
You rarely post, yet whenever you do, you're invariably posting about a classic you just watched. What's the deal with the old school viewing lately?
Glad you liked
In a Lonely Place. Have you seen much from Nicholas Ray? I think you'd get a kick out of
Bigger than Life if you haven't already seen it. James Mason completely loses his marbles and it's a blast :icon_chee
I get this a lot for late Mann love.
With
Sigh praising
Blackhat and you always going on about Mann's latest, I should probably make some time for a Mann marathon. Maybe that'll be my superhero palate cleanser :wink:
