Ben X

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Posts posted by Ben X

  1. Posted

    I wasn't going to watch Black Panther at the cinema, but then Civil War hit Netflix so I spent the bank holiday weekend re-watching that and Winter Soldier so I could go watch BP in preparation for Infinity War.

     

    I thought Black Panther was pretty dreadful.

     

    Basically, my issues with it were:

     

    the story doesn't go anywhere, barely anything actually happens; the lead character is super-bland; the action sequences are really badly shot, all wobbly close-ups; the final battle sequence felt like an extended homage to The Phantom Menace - I almost expected Martin Freeman to say 'I'll try spinning, that's a good trick!'; as much as they kept referring to the villain as "a monster" he was in the right most of the time and achieved his plan by playing within Wakanda's ridiculously fragile rule-set.

  2. Posted

    I didn't mean cheap in a budgetary way, more 'shallow', I guess. Poor choice of word!

     

    I'm surprised you've been enjoying the lack of CG though because I've been annoyed by how much it's favoured over practical effects and how crappy it looks! (It was pointed out to me that having crappy CG echoes the movies having a lot of crappy compositing etc, though.)

  3. Posted

    I just watched Annihilation. There weren't any picture issues on Netflix that I could tell. The movie looks very strange, but purposefully so, I think. Indeed the movie looked gorgeous throughout. Lovely cinematography, tangibly creepy and very impressive production design and really solid effects. The score was great, too.

     

    The only issue I had really was story-based:

    mainly the climax/denouement. The film successfully builds up a load of tension and atmosphere, moving between tense and terrifying, but once it gets to the lighthouse it just kind of gives up and shows you a load of weird stuff plus some twists that don't really mean anything; the Benedict Wong framing device ends up being pointless and the other scientists never get past lightly-sketched fodder. To be fair, though, the 'weird stuff' at the lighthouse is a pretty amazing sequence.

     

    I'm glad I watched it, but I don't think I'll ever go back to it.

  5. Posted

    On 10/13/2016 at 5:39 PM, Mawd said:
    On 10/13/2016 at 5:53 AM, BusbyBerkeley said:

    Also caught that Evil Dead remake which I was avoiding on principle but it turns out it's really good! Lots of gnarly gore and a completely rad ending. A bunch of nods to the original but with fun/smart twists (Demonic possession as a metaphor for heroin withdrawal is a small touch that went a long way).

     

    Just mentioning that Ash vs Evil dead is pretty fun. But it's pretty dumb and the way it handles all the leads is even dumber. Ash is condescending and gross in a Chevy Chase/Pierce Hawthorne way, the mexican sidekick is dim and dependant for most of the time, of course the girl needs saving. But if you have a need for more evil dead stupidity then the show has you covered. I never finished the whole season but i think there is an undercurrent of tongue in cheek self awareness. It just might not be enough to satisfy many people.

     

    On 10/13/2016 at 7:24 PM, BigJKO said:

     

    It's loads of fun! I agree about all the characters, except I feel like the show has loads of self-awareness of it and makes sure Ash feels as stupid and old-guy as possible whenever his gross and insensitive jokes come up.

     

    Season 2 just started and it's great!

     

    I'm about halfway through season 1 of Ash Vs Evil Dead and I'm pretty disappointed so far. In making changes to become a tv show rather than Evil Dead 4, it's really lost a lot of the ED feel and turned into a cheap Supernatural knock-off. It still has moments of charm and fun, but I'm really hoping it finds a strong identity soon, even if it's not a carbon copy of the movies.

     

    Oh and, incidentally, the sidekick isn't Mexican. I probably wouldn't have realised if he hadn't said it in ep 3, though, and I definitely wouldn't have known he was Honduran if I hadn't Googled it.

  7. Posted

    Effortlessly riding the line between creepy and entertaining, as is his wont.

     

    I wonder how he feels about the fact that media outlets seem to have realised it's better to just show him a series of things and have him Goldblum about them than to ask him a bunch of promotion-specific questions. I guess it's more fun for him. Wish Aiofe had asked him about that Trespasser ending, though. 

  8. Posted

    After everything I've heard about your job, hearing this I was relieved and excited for you! Seems like you've got a bunch of transferable skills, a ton of experience and a cool resume (having NUCLEAR POWER PLANT on your CV will always turn heads). So take this opportunity to find a job that challenges and excites you and doesn't treat you like shit. They're out there, so aim your sights high, stride in there and take one!

     

    #YOLO

  10. Posted

    10 hours ago, clyde said:

    Ben X got it.

    I didn't want to ruin it for Cordeos, but here we are 😕

     

    Wait, really? I was kidding, I didn't imagine that could be true! I've gone back and spoiler tagged in case you're serious and Cordeos hasn't caught up on the thread yet.

  12. Posted

    Yeah, I'm 4 eps in and feeling the same. I think it gets away with being slow a little more than the other shows, perhaps because I already like the characters or perhaps because the PI set-up lets them move cases and characters in and out rather than introduce the villain up-front and then have them spin wheels for half the season (like Iron Fist with zombie dad and evil lawyer son). But even so, it's really suffering from not having a Kilgrave.

  15. Posted

    I mentioned Brooklyn Nine Nine in relation to 30 Rock here:

     

     

     

    and got a few responses. Apparently I might need to skip forward a bit in B99 to avoid my issues with it, but from what I saw, I agree TGP is far superior.

  20. Posted

    6 hours ago, Jake said:

    Jake's Endorsement: Improving your Google Image Search results by installing the extension View Image (Chrome, Firefox) and adding the text "-site:pinterest.com" to your search query

     

    Thank you. The pinterest thing hasn't been bothering me so much, though knowing that general trick will be useful when a particular site is hogging all the results, but the loss of View Image has been very annoying.

     

    @Chris - I don't know if this is a gateway to Marmite or an advanced enjoyment method, but I like having it with peanut butter on toast. You have to be very sparing with the Marmite, though, otherwise it overpowers the whole thing. Just a swirl on top.

  24. Posted

    I suspect the majority of people here don't like this show. However, from the first season to the eighteenth I have mostly loved it for its ability to reinvent itself, the unique production schedule and impressively high ratio of success in its humour and satire. I only agree with them about 70% of the time, though, and there have been some bumpy patches, as well as some truly heinous moments (it shocked me when, after what seemed to me a pretty sensitive and right-headed treatment of trans issues in S18, I re-watched the early seasons and saw that awful 'well maybe I identify as a dolphin, then' shit).

     

    It's finally started to lose its lustre for me, though. I've just caught up on season 20 and started 21. After the powerhouse of 18, I was hugely let down by 19 (mostly a rant against SJWs, and a confused and unfunny season plot which was heavily serialised) and 20 (mostly telling people to stop being so sensitive when Nazis are doxxing them, total serialisation which goes nowhere, and they somehow managed to fuck up Cartman as a character). The S21 premiere was muddled and not particularly funny, plus it seemed to have the message 'you ultra-racists make us far-right-wingers look bad, don't be so overt'.

     

    Episode 2 wasn't much stronger, but Tweak's despair at the president's reckless tweeting was great and kept me going until the amazing final song. If they can rescue Cartman and deliver a truly strong episode or two, I'll probably be back on board for a while. But it feels like the show may have finally fully flipped to two old men getting progressively right-wing, despairing at 'having an opinion gone mad', and spewing out post-break-up bitterness.