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nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013





Sally posted:

Into the Spiderverse was real freaking good! fantastic casting, absokutely engaging story, and easily some of the best animation i've seen in a film since... the last Spiderverse. would absolutely recommend this to anyone.

caveat: would need to see first film for those not insanely into comic book lore... but this one does an admirable job of diving into things. much less accessible than the first though, which was the peefect intro to everything Spiderman that is not Peter Parker.

I wouldnt say it is a perfect film though. There are definitely some parts where the action starts to drag. I'm looking at you climactic final chase scene... it's kinda weird but maybe that is where i am for all things super hero. i dont really care about long dragem out action sequences in animation. i rather the drama with friends and family in these flicks. gimme more of Miles' mum and dad being Miles' mum and dad. gimme more of Gwen struggling with hiding her identity from her dad. loved all that. way more human and emotional. when ot comes to extensive choreography i love it in live action films (eg John Wick) but care far less when it is animated 3D or 2D. Like, I loved the wire fights in The Matrix but fell asleep whenever the action went full 3D (gently caress off hurly burly fight).

this may be obvious to loads of people but i kinda just had this epiphany watchibg this film. just full grin the whole time loving this movie but as that final set piece wore on i found my eyes glazing over.

biggest crime of the film was the cliffhanger though. i heard there was one but didnt expect it to be that egregious. that's some NEXT WEEK ON BATMAN level bullshit. i was expecting resolution to at least SOME of the story's plot here. not everything but poo poo... what a way to end.

as i type this i am tryibg to figure out i am so annoyed here but wasnt at all bothered with say Empire Strikes Back... i am not sure why. is it because with ESB the immediate plot issue of Luke needing to rescue his friends is solved? sure the Empire and Vader still exist and Han is frozen in a brick of carbonite, but there was the sense the hero's landed on their feet and were going to regroup... that scene with them all looking out the Mon Calamari cruisers viewport out into the stars... definitive yet promising future adventure.

here the heroes square off with the primary antagonist only halfway through the film before he essentially disappears entirely from thus narrative. Vader won his showdowm but at least it was in the climax of ESB... in Spiderverse 2 the film keeps going on and we get a NEW secondary antagonist for the climax of the film, do not reconnect with the first villain, then end on a stinger that reveals a third antagonist before cutting to credits. the heck.

there's kind of am ESB parallel where one hero is captured by the villain and the other heros band together with the promise to save the first hero but... i dunno.


was talking to crow about this film and he mentioned he really liked it but would have to wait for the conclusion to really rate how it landed and now i get why. unlike the first film, this Spiderverse doesnt feel like it stands well on its own and that's disappointing.

regardless of complaints overwhelmingly e joyed it 4 outta 5 Dashes.

I said this earlier elsewhere, but much like Fast X, I'm going to need to see the second part of Across the Spider-Verse to fully judge it, just because both films are functionally Act 1 of a two, or in Fast's case, three act story and they end insanely abruptly. I liked Spider-Verse MUCH more than Fast X though, holy poo poo.

I think the Mumbattan sequence is probably the funnest part of the movie. Pavtir and Hobie add such an incredible energy to Miles and Gwen's dynamic, and I did a full on spit take laugh at "This is where the traffic is. This is where the traffic is. This is also where the traffic is. And this is where the British stole all our stuff!"

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banned from Starbucks
Jul 18, 2004




I'm 1/3 if the way through Avatar:H2O and it def needs more Spider hissing at things. Solid start though.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

banned from Starbucks posted:

I'm 1/3 if the way through Avatar:H2O and it def needs more Spider hissing at things. Solid start though.

how'd it finish?

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

nine-gear crow posted:

I said this earlier elsewhere, but much like Fast X, I'm going to need to see the second part of Across the Spider-Verse to fully judge it, just because both films are functionally Act 1 of a two, or in Fast's case, three act story and they end insanely abruptly. I liked Spider-Verse MUCH more than Fast X though, holy poo poo.

I think the Mumbattan sequence is probably the funnest part of the movie. Pavtir and Hobie add such an incredible energy to Miles and Gwen's dynamic, and I did a full on spit take laugh at "This is where the traffic is. This is where the traffic is. This is also where the traffic is. And this is where the British stole all our stuff!"

"Chai IS tea!"

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Mandy (2018)

I've been meaning to watch this one since it came out, honestly. Kept putting it off because I'd either forget about it or couldn't find someone to watch it with. Tried getting my partner to watch it with me, but they gave me a hard "no". They aren't the biggest horror fan and hate Nicholas Cage. When I showed them the trailer their reaction was basically, "In what world do you ever think this would be something I want to watch?"

Not me. Trailer looked amazing. Been loving pumped for this.

That said, I've not been a huge Nicholas Cage fan before this. For the longest time I either didn't care for the guy or hated him. I wasn't big into Con Air. Though The Rock was okay. Absolutely hated what was done with The Wicker Man (I'm a big fan of the original Christopher Lee version). So yeah. Not sure what changed. I think I just didn't get or appreciate what Cage was all about. I've definitely come around to him though.

This movie was fantastic. I've not seen Panos Cosmatos' other film, so I went in just expecting a hallucinatory heavy metal gorefest. Was expecting a lot based on reactions to the film, but man, it even exceeded those. Just fantastic! From the opening shots flying over the forests of the Pacific Northwest to the tune of King Crimson to the grim discordant pan out at the very end where those same forests and mountains have been changed into something... else. Loved it all.

Slower film than I thought. Really done in two acts. First act sets up the relationship of Cage's character, Red, his wife, Mandy--played by Andrea Riseborough. And just as an aside, holy poo poo, I didn't even realize that was her. She disappears into this role. Anyways, yeah, the whole first half is a slow burn of rising dread. Lingering shots, weird angles, and a great accompanying soundtrack. We also get introduced to the weirdo death cult to wind up killing Mandy and setting off the whole film. What kind of surprised me, though, was that whole inciting event, which gets thrust first and foremost in the trailer, doesn't happen until halfway into the movie. Not a bad thing! It works. Cosmatos had a vision and from I can tell it's shown here very uncompromised.

When things get weird and hallucinatory, the film really shines. The visuals drenched in neon lights, especially reds, look gorgeous. So many stills could betaken from this film. Again, absolutely stunning to see. As the second half kicks off (we get the title card halfway through), it really goes into overdrive. Nic Cage does his thing and it really, really works here. He doesn't feel exaggerated at all because the world around him is so insane. At this point, the plot is pretty simple: Man whose wife is murdered goes on a revenge-fueled killing spree. There's a bunch of other weird stuff going on... like the maybe demonic biker BDSM biker gang, Bill Dukes showing up to be Bill Dukes, and the telepathic drug cooker... but ultimately it all comes down to tracking and killing the cultists. And it goes in strange and beautiful directions.

Heck, I enjoyed it so much that I watched it twice! Will only count it once for this project, though, haha.

Full Dash Rendars:

In conclusion, this was me while watching Mandy:

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

The Flash (2023)

First and foremost: Ezra Miller can gently caress off. I really hope those abused by them get justice and restitution, and that the families of those affected can heal. Considering this movie has become one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, it feels like this is some karmic justice, thought I feel bad for everyone else who worked on this movie. If we're lucky, this'll be the last time we see Ezra Miller in the role of the Flash. I say get Adam Brody. If he was good enough to be George Miller's preferred casting, then perhaps it's time he finally gets his shot.

Anyways, was out of town for the last month, which has made watching films a bit difficult for me. Luckily a buddy where I was staying is also into movies, so went to the theatre a couple of times. Watched the new Wes Anderson movie, which is also a sci-fi so I will review it next post, haha, but we also checked out Flash since it was either this or Indiana Jones and I really didn't want to watch the new Indiana Jones. Sorry, Ford.

This movie? It was alright. Uneven, but had some pretty good highs and, given it's a DC superhero movie, predictable lows. First off: The CGI was all over the place. It was certainly better than, say, the CB's The Flash or Green Arrow. However, it was not great here. The costumes looked silly, the Speed Force multiverse looked cheap, and the third act was ugly. I'd heard people complain that the third act looked kind of like an XBOX 360 game... and I get those complaints. It's a big flat low polygon desert with a bunch of CGI models blowing up. The slo-mo looked alright, though. The opening scene had The Flash save a bunch of babies from falling to their deaths as a hospital maternity ward collapsed. It was funny, it was appropriately comic book-y, and it was great setting the tone.

Speaking of tone: It was pretty good here, if I'm being honest. Full disclosure: I do not care for Zack Snyder as a director. I think he's got a couple of decent films, but overall don't care for his style. His whole DC Snyderverse is largely what has turned me off of DC films and in fact I think the only good DC film he did was Watchmen. I really liked Watchmen. Now I haven't seen the new It movies, but props to the director, Andy Muschietti, because I largely enjoyed this one. In fact, whenever the larger Snyderverse set in is when I enjoyed the movie the least. Miller on his own in the opening sequence? Fine. When Ben Affleck Batman and Gal Gadot Wonder Woman showed up? I became less and less into it. Whenever the greater Snyderverse crept in, I felt less engaged. The action just didn't do it for me. The best part of their whole brief Justice League team up was when all the fighting had ended and there was a comedy bit where the Wonder Woman had to rescue Batman and The Flash using her truth lasso and they revealed some embarrassing confessions. It worked. It's a stale gag, but it always works in the comic book and it worked here.

Still, the entire first act was kind of a bore. Once Barry realized he could time travel, that's when the film really picked up. In trying to save his mother, he gets attacked in the weird multiverse bubble and gets stuck in a universe where his mother survived and he was a powerless idiot. Thinking he was in his own universe, Barry gives his idiot self powers and in doing so loses his own. So now you've got powerless regular Flash and idiot Barry Flash. And just as they are trying to figure out how to get first Barry his powers back, General Zod invades--only there's no Justice League in this universe so Barry starts panicking and they have to track down the only superhero this universe seems to have: Batman.

And at this point? The film is really good! The goofy buddy comedy humour of Ezra Miller playing against himself was solid. The whole middle act of the film was pretty great and I just enjoyed myself immensely. Michael Keaton returning as Batman was great and he really stole the show from Miller, and convincing him to get back in the saddle to fight Zod was a great sequence. As was breaking into a Russian prison to break out Superman--who, if you've watched the trailers, actually turns out to be Superwoman. Sasha Calle was great as Kara Zor-El and if anything is going to survive the James Gunn DC reboot, I hope it's her. She played a brief role, but had a lot of potential.

The third act was kind of a mixed bag. I'll spoil at this point, because trailers didn't go this far: Turns out this Earth is one that is doomed to lose to General Zod. No matter what Barry and Idiot Barry do, Michael Keaton and Sasha Calle die and Zod wins. Having recently watched Across the Spider-verse, I guess this makes this a canon event for whatever Earth this is--though of course clearly the mutli-verse is working by different rules here. Whatever, haha. Barry 1 realizes the futility of mucking with the timeline and resigns himself to returning to his own world, his mother still dead. Idiot Barry refuses to give up and keeps rewinding time trying to win, but forever failing. As the two Barry's yell at each other in the weird Speed Force multiverse bubble, a THIRD Barry shows up: An elderly version of Idiot Barry who has been trying again and again to save his world and who is now so injured he is nearly unrecognizable. Elder Barry tries to kill Barry 1 because he's the only other variable he hasn't tried changing so far but Idiot Barry sacrifices himself, thus also killing Elder Barry and closing the time loop. Which is important because we briefly see that all this multiverse fuckery is damaging other DC iterations, like Christopher Reeves Superman, Nicholas Cage Superman, and Adam West Batman. The nostalgia and references is strong in this sequence and it's honestly pretty alright as an ending. HOWEVER, it kind of looks like poo poo was despite sounding cool and appropriately comic book-y on paper, it looks goofy as hell. It was like a condensed version of the final season of Game of Thrones: It all logically made sense, and when I tried to explain it to a friend of mine who hadn't seen the show, it seems reasonable enough and they didn't understand why I was annoyed with it--because how it actually unfolded was kind of stupid.

Ah well.

The end of the film ended with the tease that we might see more of George Clooney as Batman, so I can give The Flash that.

Ultimately, three Dash Rendars here. I enjoyed myself. I think this film is getting a lot of hate it doesn't necessarily deserve. Ezra Miller deserves the hate, sure, but the film itself is a solid piece of work. I'm just burnt out on comic book movies, I think, and though this one tries some stuff differently, it really doesn't rise above the rest. It's pretty good. I'm already forgetting about it. Could've been an hour shorter.



It's good, but not the greatest super hero movie of all time and I am absolutely sure someone else could play The Flash.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
gotta get watching movies... I am ten weeks behind, lol

josh04
Oct 19, 2008


"THE FLASH IS THE REASON
TO RACE TO THE THEATRES"

This title contains sponsored content.

Sally posted:

Full disclosure: I do not care for Zack Snyder as a director.

As soon as astral acknowledges my petition for implementing a forty-year probation, you will regret this error in judgement!!

josh04
Oct 19, 2008


"THE FLASH IS THE REASON
TO RACE TO THE THEATRES"

This title contains sponsored content.

I keep watching films that aren't really sci-fi - a terrible habit, I know. I did watch the Flash, which I also thought was better than it had any right to be but also still not ultimately all that great. I'd agree that the baby scene was the highlight and the stuff with the DCEU characters was loving miserable, though you can't really blame a many-years-exiled Zack Snyder for that - it was the particular obsession of the outgoing round of execs to have Wonder Woman do a succession of sex jokes with the lasso of truth for some reason. I wrote the film up for the kind folks at Blood Knife for anyone interested.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Asteroid City (2023)

Always a fan of Wes Anderson movies. Was happy this one has aliens in it because it counts as a sci-fi then, wooooo!

Going into it, my friend and I took bets on how Wes Anderson this movie would be. I predicted we'd have at least one Bowie song and at least one slo-motion walking scene set to a classic rock song. Glad I was wrong on both accounts! This is an extremely Wes Anderson movie, though. The man makes what he makes and he makes films in his very particular style.

This one has an interesting caveat in that it's a movie, called "Asteroid City", about the production and performance of a fictional play, called "Asteroid City". So every actor is playing a fictional actor who is performing their role in the play. It worked out really well. Wes Anderson movies can feel really Wes Anderson, but the meta-textuality of this one and its existential ruminations kept it feeling fresh. The acting was a stiff and "Wes Andersonian" as ever, but I really enjoyed.

Aaaaand, you know what? I don't know how to review a Wes Anderson movie now that I think of it. If you haven't seen a Wes Anderson movie, then you really should see one. If you HAVE seen a Wes Anderson movie, then you already know exactly what to expect. If you were to gauge your taste for Wes Anderson movies against mind, I'd probably toss Life Aquatic, Royal Tenenbaums, and Grand Budapest Hotel as my top three. Asteroid City was real good, but not enough to dislodge those three--though I think it could sit safely in a Top 5.

I suppose all I really want to do is talk about the actors and how their performances rated. So... I'm just going to dive into those whom I really liked. Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson were real good as the leads. Though I liked Schwartzman more as the actor who played the lead role in Asteroid City than the lead role of Asteroid City. Johansson was very much herself, but it worked well here. Brief nude scene was not unwelcome but felt somewhat out of place. Why? Just to see Scarlet Johansson naked? Tom Hanks was good in his role. As with any role in a Wes Anderson movie, everyone's performances feel very reserved and held in, but Hanks had a good few moments of genuine emotion. The seething disgust he has for Schwartzman's character was great. Swinton, Cranston, and Brody were all just kind of there. Fun to see them, but they didn't elevate the movie--were just in their roles in a Wes Anderson film. Edward Norton and Willem Dafoe had great brief roles in the meta-narrative of the play. Brief, but unlike Cranston, Swinton, and Brody, it felt like they did a lot more with what they were given. I was particularly chuffed to see Steve Park and Liev Schrieber. Both were great but none of my friends knew who they were, haha. Loved them both. The dynamic between both their father characters and their sons had a lot of the films comedic highlights, particularly Schreiber and his son, played by Aristou Meehan. There were a few other people I recognized. Matt Dillion was there and just kind of in the background. Margot Robbie felt underutilized too. Jeff Goldblum was promised and severely underdelivered.

The biggest gap in the film for me was the absence of any Bill Murray. I found out afterwards that he contract COVID during the shoot and his part was recast to Steve Carrell. Carrell did an admirable job in the role, but looking back, that role was SO written for Bill Murray specifically and he would've knocked it out of the park. As it is, Murray showed up to the set in the final stages of filming and Anderson gave him a fictional promoter role so they do this to advertise the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBYU7JMqp3o

It's... fine. I would have LOVED Bill Murray in the role played by Carrell, but so it goes.

Anywho, good film. Feels like there are a lot of elements of Kierkegaard and Camus running as undercurrents in the film but I haven't seen anyone talking about them. Lots of "what is the meaning of anything?" and "it's all absurd, shut up and just be". I'm being reductive, but those elements are there and I liked that about it. My friends were mostly focused on the themes of love lost, grief, and love found, which is all well an good, but I love me my continental existentialism.

Four Dashes out of Five. Very good film:

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

josh04 posted:

I keep watching films that aren't really sci-fi - a terrible habit, I know. I did watch the Flash, which I also thought was better than it had any right to be but also still not ultimately all that great. I'd agree that the baby scene was the highlight and the stuff with the DCEU characters was loving miserable, though you can't really blame a many-years-exiled Zack Snyder for that - it was the particular obsession of the outgoing round of execs to have Wonder Woman do a succession of sex jokes with the lasso of truth for some reason. I wrote the film up for the kind folks at Blood Knife for anyone interested.

I really dug this review! You've basically captured what I liked/didn't like about the film, haha. You're right that I shouldn't place too much blame on Snyder. I just have a hard time not associating anything from that period with him--but I've been pretty tuned out of that era of DC films.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Hardware (1990)

Man, this movie is a mood. This has been on my personal "to watch" list for ages. The core conceit alone intrigued me: A women gets trapped in her apartment with a killer robot after her boyfriend brings it to her as a gift and it comes to life and rebuilds itself. Just absolutely absurd. Trailer looked wicked (here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnVVyfyFChE) and I'd just kind of be reminded of it once in a while.

Trailer doesn't really do is justice now that I've watched it though. This thing is so dense and earnest. Lot of heart here. It's a schlocky sci-fi horror but drat it's got heart. Feels like a weird side-story in Judge Dredd's Mega City One. The world is either expansive wasteland or dense cyberpunk dystopia. There's punk rock aesthetic abound, music reminiscent of Motorhead glimpses of VHS-quality GWAR shows on TV screens, and Iggy Pop makes a cameo voiceover as a radio DJ. The background is full of disease and climate collapse and overpopulation and government sterilization programs and forever wars utilizing cyborgs and that's all before we really settle into the plot... which as I mentioned above, some guy brings his girlfriend some cool looking a scrap: A robot skull. It comes to life and she has to survive being locked in her apartment with it. That's about it! But it works super well. The glimpse of the world outside make this film feel so massive and yet we spend most of the film in this apartment.

It looks beautiful too. Very surreal. Lots of gorgeous shots and strange angles. The robot is pretty doofy looking for what it is and yet still manages to sell you on this creepy robot slasher aesthetic it has going on. This is helped by the extensive use of red lighting, flickering lights, and shadow. It feels very indulgent. There's a scene partway in the movie where the robot poses like some weird crucifix. Not just for shits and giggles, pretty sure that's intentional. Main character is named "Moses" (Mo for short) and he quotes scripture. The robot keeps dying and coming back for life, so maybe he's some kind of super future Jesus and the main characters just don't get his message?

The gore is very visceral. Hilariously grotesque. There is a creepy stalker character who gets disemboweled early on in a particularly gross scene, but my top pick for gnarliest death is the apartment security lead who gets cut in half by a malfunctioning security door. The blood and guts is surprisingly sparse and the kill count is low for a horror film, but when it appears, it's appropriately horrifying. Really dug it, haha.

Only actor besides Iggy Pop's voice I recognized was the lead, Dylan McDermott, who is Mo. He has a robot hand and a friend named Shades who always wears Shades. At least you think he's the lead, as the movie does that trick I like where the obvious protagonists get killed off throughout the movie leaving the true survivors. Kept me guessing. Didn't know where the movie was going to go. And when it ended, I was satisfied.

Found out afterwards the director was Richard Stanley, the guy who did Dust Devil and The Colour Out of Space and wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau (the film, obv). I hated Dust Devil and was very lukewarm on Dr. Moreau, but loved Colour Out of Space. The surreal nature of Hardware was more in line with that latter film. Of course, I was also reminded that Stanley was an abusive creep, so gently caress that guy. But further research led me to find out that Colour Out of Space's production company dropped Stanley and put all further proceeds of the film towards anti-domestic violence charities, so there's that!

Anyways, getting off topic. I bring it up because I also found out that Hardware was super rare for a while because it got into legal trouble. Apparently the plot of the film was just plagarized wholesale from a short comic in a Judge Dredd annual. It made my feeling like that was something out of Mega City One feel all the more spot-on. Also, learning that the writer and director was Richard Stanley made even more sense--the guy just kinda sucks. The 2000AD guys won the lawsuit and the original writers got their due in the end, so happy ending there.

And Hardware wound up being a real enjoyable ride.

Sir DonkeyPunch
Mar 23, 2007

I didn't hear no bell

Sally posted:

The biggest gap in the film for me was the absence of any Bill Murray. I found out afterwards that he contract COVID during the shoot and his part was recast to Steve Carrell. Carrell did an admirable job in the role, but looking back, that role was SO written for Bill Murray specifically and he would've knocked it out of the park. As it is, Murray showed up to the set in the final stages of filming and Anderson gave him a fictional promoter role so they do this to advertise the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBYU7JMqp3o

It's... fine. I would have LOVED Bill Murray in the role played by Carrell, but so it goes.

You know, I haven’t finished it yet, but I think I like Steve Carell in the role, a lot. He’s got an earnestness that I don’t think Murray could have done in the same way?

He’s just kind of a weird little guy? ”Sorry, burned down the cabin, here’s a tent. Buy some land for 10 bucks?” Personally I really dug the martini machine in concept

Again I am not done yet, but I think I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. Last Wes Anderson movie I watched was… Life Aquatic? Or maybe Royal Tenenbaums. (Either way I think those are the only two of his I have seen)

David D. Davidson
Nov 17, 2012

Orca lady?

Sally posted:

Found out afterwards the director was Richard Stanley, the guy who did Dust Devil and The Colour Out of Space and wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau (the film, obv). I hated Dust Devil and was very lukewarm on Dr. Moreau, but loved Colour Out of Space. The surreal nature of Hardware was more in line with that latter film. Of course, I was also reminded that Stanley was an abusive creep, so gently caress that guy. But further research led me to find out that Colour Out of Space's production company dropped Stanley and put all further proceeds of the film towards anti-domestic violence charities, so there's that!

A large part of the reason Dr. Moreau is the way it is is because it had an infamously mess production. The short version is that Richard Stanley was originally set to direct but the studio dropped him after three days then he ran off into the jungle. They brought on a new director and started doing rewrites on while filming. Plus the clashing egos of Val Kilmer at the height of his career and Marlon Brando plus his insane demands. lead to an extended production that what absolutely insane. quite frankly it's more interesting than the movie is. they made a documentary about it called Lost Souls: The doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Isle of Dr. Moreau. Watch it sometime.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
yeah i should clarify that Carrell was really good in the role and really made it his. i also upon finding out it was originally written for Bill Murray immediately wished he couldve been in it.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

David D. Davidson posted:

quite frankly it's more interesting than the movie is. they made a documentary about it called Lost Souls: The doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Isle of Dr. Moreau. Watch it sometime.

i love docs like this. Lost in La Mancha was great for this sort of thing. definitely going to check this out! maybe once I am free of 52 Sci-fi movies? haha

josh04
Oct 19, 2008


"THE FLASH IS THE REASON
TO RACE TO THE THEATRES"

This title contains sponsored content.

Been years since I watched it but the Island of Dr Moreau doc is fantastic, yeah. Everyone involved is totally off their trolley.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Nimona (2023)

I think I was riding the high of Across The Spider-Verse and wanted more beautifully animated and critically acclaimed animation--which led me to this. Now I know Netflix catches a bunch of poo poo, but the animations they put out I am often pleasantly surprised with. Loved Castlevania and the Witcher movie. Thought the He-Man and She-ra movies/show were real solid. I mean, there's a LOT I haven't watched and it definitely looks like they are just shovelling out crap sometimes, but even mediocre shows like Blood of Zeus look nice.

Now this movie looked beautiful, was highly reviewed, AAAND produced by Annapurna Pictures, who often put out stuff I like. (Often, not always. Respect to Annapurna for putting out films like Spring Breakers, Foxcatcher, and Ballad of Buster Scruggs... may god forgive them for Terminator Genysis and Sausage Party). So I gave it a watch. Well, first I thought I'd try out Arcane because I'd heard really good things about it... but then found out it was a show and not a film, so I nixed it based on requirements of this project. Then I tried to watch the Netflix Cyberpunk animation... and again, TV show version film. Thus, Nimona was chosen as a third option, haha.

And it was alright.

Animation was solid. Looked as nice as was advertised. Pleasant to look at. There were a couple of scenes where the camera was whipping around a lot all frenetic like and it didn't carry that same sense of motion and action that I saw in Spider-verse so it just felt busy and distracting, but on the whole, was a very pleasant to look at film. The biggest issue I had with the film was that it was just kind of rote and boring.

Reviews said this was very refreshing and a breath of fresh air and all that, but I really don't see it. The medieval-futuristic setting is maybe new for people, but I've played decades of Final Fantasies and just got finished with the OG Phantasy Stars and Shining Forces--knights with laser swords fighting robots is old, old hat for me. The city doesn't even look particularly memorable. It's just a more brightly lit version of the city from Attack on Titan but filled with skyscrapers. And the story was a pretty bog standard, frankly. An outsider of the storied ranks of techno-future-knights has worked hard to earn his way into an official position and right as he's about to be officially knighted, he is framed for the assassination of the queen and has to spend the rest of the movie clearing his name. Nimona appears from the shadows to help the guy seeing a fellow "person who has been wronged" that she can be a villain with. Queue wacky hijinks that ends in the city being saved from destruction, the protagonist's name being cleared, and the city moving away from fear and xenophobia to acceptance of change and difference.

I mean, it's nice. But considering how much it's been hyped up, I expected more. As it was it was fine. I mean, I don't think I'm really the audience. But that's fine. I'd forgotten Nimona was a webcomic until looking it up for this post and recalled that I read it years ago and promptly forgot about it. Ah well.

Chloe Grace Moritz was fine, but I don't really care for the character for Nimona, so the performance felt tepid for me. I was more stoked that Riz Ahmed is getting work because he's great and I've been a fan of his ever since I saw him in Four Lions.

But I digress. Film was fine, but not my cup of tea. 3 Dashes. Serviceable, and I enjoyed it while watching it but am probably going to promptly forget about it. Definitely a ymmv sort of movie. If you've read my thoughts on movies in this thread and agreed with my takes, maybe skip Nimona? If you think I'm a madman, then maybe check it out?

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
one thing that's been bugging me about Nimona since I watched it... i don't understand the logistics of the weird techno-medieval city. it's a massive metropolis nestled within a massive wall and based on dialogue it's implied that since the city was built, no one ever ventures outside of the walls. but like... how did they build the city then? like, where's the rural hinterland of the city? no suburbs outside? where are they getting all the materials to build? they just dig straight down into the earth? i literally do not understand. one of the big end moments of the movie is that the wall gets broken and then people are able to explore the outside world--but how did a city with flying cars and millions of people and the internet and skycrapers and all this excess spring up? loving magic?

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013





Sally posted:


Nimona (2023)

I think I was riding the high of Across The Spider-Verse and wanted more beautifully animated and critically acclaimed animation--which led me to this. Now I know Netflix catches a bunch of poo poo, but the animations they put out I am often pleasantly surprised with. Loved Castlevania and the Witcher movie. Thought the He-Man and She-ra movies/show were real solid. I mean, there's a LOT I haven't watched and it definitely looks like they are just shovelling out crap sometimes, but even mediocre shows like Blood of Zeus look nice.

The Carmen Sandiego reboot Netflix did was also really solid too. That said, you really can't credit Netflix for this one. It started its life at Blue Sky Studios who basically got it like 80% done, and then they were acquired by Disney along with the rest of 20th Century Fox, and Disney took one look at it and went "this is way too queer for The Disney Brand™" and drive a spike through it. Annapurna simply bought it and finished the remaining 20% of the work that needed to be done on it and then shopped it to Netflix, who published it.

It was also based on a graphic novel by ND Stevenson that might be worth checking out too.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
ha what the gently caress Disney. Boldheart and Goldenloin's relationship was easily the best part of the film.

also i read the comic years ago... i just entirely forgot about it until looking up some background for this film.

Raluek
Nov 3, 2006

WUT.
holy poo poo they made a nimona movie??

i loved the comic a decade ago or whatever. this i gotta track down

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
it's on Netflix!

Disproportionation
Feb 20, 2011

Oh god it's the Clone Saga all over again.

Sally posted:

Hardware (1990)

Feels like a weird side-story in Judge Dredd's Mega City One.

Funny you should mention this but it is! It's an (unauthorised) adaptation of the short story "Shok!" which was set in Mega-City One, with the character names changed. It got the filmmakers into legal trouble with 2000AD's publisher, which ended the potential of a sequel and tied up any chance of a home release for a while - though that's all cleared up now.

Raluek
Nov 3, 2006

WUT.

Sally posted:

it's on Netflix!

ended up watching it over the weekend. i liked it, but i agree with your criticism that the plot was kind of boring and rote. it was simplified way down from the comic, and the characters aren't really what they were in the comic, either. i still found it charming, just perhaps not what it could have been. maybe if they had pursued a show format instead, so they'd have the runtime to do more with the story, but due to the issues they had getting this made, probably it would never have been finished if that was the case.

so, i am glad it exists, but it didn't grab me as much as it could have with a better story.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
just posting a reminder for myself... i've watched the Venture Bros movie, A Boy and His Dog, and Buckaroo Banzai this last bit. have been busy and haven't gotten around to write ups yet

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banned from Starbucks
Jul 18, 2004




Excited for that boy and his dog review.

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